These last few weeks have slipped through my fingers but I promise the kids are still cooking. Herewith is a round up of our recipes to bring everyone up to speed. Happy feasting!

Curried Butternut Squash Soup with Apple Grilled Cheese.

This is one of my favorite soups made many times before in slightly different forms. I wasn’t too thrilled with the one we made in class and I blame it on using vegetable stock over chicken stock. It was still delicious but didn’t have as deep a flavor I think chicken stock imparts. For this one we were exploring curry. Many of the kids knew they’d had it before but couldn’t necessarily place it. Finally on Thursday a student mentioned it smelled like Tikka Masala. Thank you scent memory!

The apple grilled cheese was of course a favorite. I used brioche bread and purchased a yellow cheddar and a Gruyere cheese, allowing the students to taste both cheeses and pick the one they wanted to use. Surprisingly most went for the Gruyere saying how much they preferred “white cheddar” over yellow. A few students weren’t too sure about apples on their grilled cheese– “trust me, this is a favorite combination for almost everyone.” (Especially if you throw in a glass a wine.) In the end, one of my students proclaimed these sandwiches were “definitely better than the grilled cheeses at school.” I replied that it’s probably because we’re using real cheese. Another said they had never tasted bread so delicious. (Which might be true because I had adults raiding my refrigerator all week and was provided a key to lock my fridge after that week.)

All recipes found at the bottom of entry.

Cranberry-Apple Crumble.

When the year started I thought it would be great to have my students make something for Thanksgiving they could all share with their families. I originally wanted to make apple pies and even had fall-shaped cookie cutters for decorating the top crust. In the end, I went with a graham-cracker crusted crumble. A little more rustic looking and a little easier time-wise since we only have one hour and if we were to make a pie I wanted homemade crust. Also, do you know how many supplies you need to make 70 pies!?

I bought apple peelers for this and the kids had a blast peeling all the apples with ease. Highly recommended. I also bought apple cutters that cut wedges. These were a little difficult for young ones to maneuver with apples sometimes flying from beneath them. In the future I might add the apple cutting attachment on the apple peeler, getting it all done in one shot.

Otherwise, they loved the crumbles. Most were shocked at how tart cranberries are raw, but how they pop into something so sweet and juicy once baked. The students got really creative here. Whereas I said, just add a bunch of handfuls of filling and fill the spaces with cranberries (in the interest of time), a lot of students took great care to layer the apples, dotting the pie symmetrically with cranberries. None could believe how high we had to stack the apples, some literally putting 4 slices of apples in their crust (making smiley faces) and saying they were done. “Keep going! We need a mountain,” I kept saying.

So the kids happily brought their crumbles home and I had a baked crumble for each class to enjoy and taste what their finished product may be. This past week some of the students even told me they were bringing their crumble on the plane to their Thanksgiving feasts outside the city! I love it.

Cranberry-Caesar Salad with Turkey.

Last week was a shortened week for the holiday but I wanted to keep it holiday themed. Since we did our crumbles the week before (every student had a crumble to take home), this week was our “Thanksgiving leftovers.” Caesar salad was always one of my favorite salads growing up (and still is). When I was young, no anchovies please, not realizing they were hidden inside the dressing. Now of course, extra anchovies, please! So I thought this would be a fun salad to explore.

I’ve made a grapefruit caesar before so I knew I wanted to replace the tart lemon with some tart cranberry sauce. Turkey was the obvious Thanksgiving leftover protein here and we made croutons with stale bread. Equally delicious, or perhaps more delicious, would have been frying up some stuffing patties as the croutons (next time).

At the beginning of class I had a few girls come up to me: “Oh, I’m really sick.”
“No you’re not or you wouldn’t have been in school today.”
“No, I have that H1N1, you just can’t tell.”
“Nice try.”
“No, I mean I’m allergic to salad.”
“No you’re not, I have a list of everything everyone is allergic to.”
“Okay, I don’t eat salad.”
“Rule #1 is we all eat everything.”
“Fine, but I’m not going to like it.”
“Great, that’s rule #2.”

In the end these same girls were in awe of the pink hue this dressing took on, “It looks like a strawberry smoothie!” And it did. The cranberry turned out to be a great addition and then, “Where did all those wormy fish go?”
“They’re in the dressing.”
“I can’t even taste them!”

Curried Butternut Squash Soup
8 servings

1 large butternut squash, reserve seeds
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 tart apple, plus (recommended: Granny Smith), peeled, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon curry
4 cups (1 quart) chicken or vegetable stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Special Equipment: Immersion Blender

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, deseed, reserving seeds. Place facedown on a baking sheet and bake 40 minutes. Rinse seeds and lay out on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake about 10 minutes, until golden and just beginning to pop.

Warm the olive oil in a saucepot on medium high heat. Saute onion and apple, 10 minutes. Add curry and stir to incorporate. Scoop squash flesh from the skin. Add flesh to saucepot. Add stock, bring to a boil, then simmer 10 minutes.

Puree the soup with an immersion blender (or carefully with a stand blender). Serve, sprinkled with seeds or chopped apple.

Apple Grilled Cheese
8 servings

16 slices thick cut potato bread, challah or brioche
Gruyere cheese (or cheddar), sliced
2 tart apples (recommended: Granny Smith), cored, sliced into 16 to 18 segments
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

NOTE: Other delicious additions include roasted garlic, caramelized onions, thick-cut bacon, and/ or sautéed mushroom

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lay 8 slices of bread on a baking sheet. Top the bread with a few thick slices of cheese. Layer with apples then top with another single slice of cheese. Top with the second slice of bread, brush with melted butter and bake, 15 minutes, flipping sandwiches and brushing with more butter halfway through baking.

Cranberry-Apple Crumble
1 9-inch crumble

Filling:
4-5 tart apples (recommended: Granny Smith, McIntosh, Cortland), peeled, cored and sliced into wedges
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup fresh cranberries
2 tablespoons flour
1 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Crust:
1-1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Topping:
1/2 cup crushed graham crackers
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

Make Filling:  Toss filling ingredients until evenly combined, set aside, allowing flavors to mingle.
Make Crust: Mix crushed graham crackers, melted butter, lemon zest and nutmeg. Push into a 9-inch pie tin, coating into an even crust on bottom and sides, approximately 1/8-inch thick.
Make Topping: Mix filling ingredients with a fork until large crumbs form.
Assemble Pie: Add filling over crust. Sprinkle topping over apple filling. Bake or freeze.

A few hours before serving, preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Remove crumble from freezer, remove any coverings and bake on middle rack 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 degrees F, bake 30-35 minutes, until bubbly, fragrant and apples are tender. Cool on a rack at least 1 hour before serving.

(Optional) Reheat a slice in the microwave and top with a scoop of vanilla, caramel or cinnamon ice cream.

Cranberry-Caesar Salad with Turkey
12 servings

Croutons:
Stale bread
Olive oil
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Dressing:
4 anchovies, patted dry
3 large cloves garlic (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
1 egg
3 tablespoons cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons tarragon or apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
fresh-ground black pepper

Make Croutons: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Assemble bread on a sheet pan. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bake 10-15 minutes, until golden.
Make Dressing: Place all ingredients in a blender and blitz until combined. Taste and adjust seasonings if desired. Note: If you trust the source of your eggs and know they are fresh (bought direct from a farm or Greenmarket) you may eat them raw. If not, boil egg for 1 minute before using.
Assemble Salad: Toss dressing with leftover salad greens, about 1 cup of shredded turkey and croutons.

An important garden lesson: you cannot stop a cucumber plant from going crazy– Actually, you cannot stop any vining plant from clinging and climbing wherever it sees fit. But let’s talk cucumbers.

I planted an heirloom variety known as lemon cucumber. Lemon because the resulting fruit is fairly lemon shaped and ripen from light green to a bright lemon yellow. When I checked on the plant two Fridays ago there were a number of flowers waiting to burst with fruit. I left for a week to visit D in upstate New York terrified I would miss out on a massive cucumber harvest. (Seriously, I had three different dreams about lost or unattended garden bounty.)

While upstate, I purchased a beautiful 3-gallon ceramic crock pot from a lovely antique dealer– really a gift for all those cucumbers ready to spring to life. When D and I returned Sunday we headed to the garden for our first massive harvest: corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and ever more basil.

We’re overflowing with cucumbers now and decided to take action. Garden cucumbers head to the crock for brining and CSA cucumbers get crock treatment or turned into the great little snack you see pictured above. I’ll provide a picture of the brined cucumbers once the pickles are (hopefully) tasty and ready for the camera.

Until then, satisfy your cucumber (and tomato) bounty with this fresh and easy snack. I used a hearty cranberry-walnut bread as the base. Any other good bread will do, or go without bread, using the cucumber as a base. Top with any fresh herb and voila, a tasty garden treat.

Cucumber Bites
Serving Size= 5 piece. Prep time= 5 minutes.
5 small slices, or 2 larger slices cut small of cranberry-walnut bread
1 cucumber, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 vine ripe tomato, sliced 1/2-inch thick
salt/ pepper to taste
5 slices, 1/4-inch thick, feta
fresh thyme for garnish (parsley, chives, parsley or cilantro will work too)
lemon spritz (optional)

Method: Toast bread until golden. Layer bread with cucumber and tomato. Season with salt and pepper then top with feta and a sprinkle of herbs. Add a spritz of lemon over top for some added zip.

Just Braise disappeared for a bit, but I assure you we kept eating. My energy has been focused on a food literacy project in NYC public schools and re-writing dairy pages for a non-profit. Once published, I’ll share my extensive knowledge of the dairy world with everyone. Until then, I have self-dubbed myself the NYC Milkmaid.

I assure you readers have not missed much. In the past few weeks dishes were sometimes brisk, consisting of leftovers, frozen soups and toasted bagels (we all have our days). While delicious, let us just say it was nothing to write home about. Can you blame us? As T.S. Eliot said, April is the cruellest month. What is a foodie to do when those root vegetables no longer look as crisp and inviting as they once did? What happens when dreams of spring greens appear so close yet feel so far?

We turn to the sea.

As I may have overly noted again and again, I live deliciously close to a handful of fish markets. I implore any of you who live remotely near to these dying markets (butchers, fish mongers and assorted now “specialty” markets) to shop these stores. The quality is often far superior than any supermarket and the workers (often the owners or extended family) know what they are selling and take their products seriously. When were these fish caught? Answered. How was this beef raised? Answered. Where was this pasta produced? Answered. It brings us back to the small stores so quickly falling through the cracks that are truly needed to connect us to a sense of community.

When D and I walked by one of these markets and saw the large handwritten sign, “Soft Shell Crabs are IN,” we knew we needed them. I stopped by a few hours later to pick some up and joked with the husband-wife team who own the place about prepping these babies:

Me: “What do you think is the best way to do these up?”
Husband: “Fry them! These babies are fresh! You know how I know? I made them last night, deeeelicious.”
Wife: “You didn’t make anything! You never make anything. You kidding me?”
Husband: “Well I ate them!”
Wife: “Yeah, you sure ate them, it’s about all you know how to do!”
Husband: “I know how to clean ‘em. I clean ‘em real good. I’ll clean them for you honey, you’ll see.”

Okay, so it was less of me joking and more listening in on an awkward domestic dispute about household chores.

But I had my soft shell crabs (with a free lemon I was told I would “definitely need”), I had my recipe, care of my bickering suppliers, and I had some homemade mayonnaise eagerly awaiting the chance to be turned into tartar sauce. (The mayonnaise is another story of love and loathing.)

In fact, the crabs were so fresh-tasting of the ocean, that after D and I finished off one each for dinner and then leftovers for lunch the following day, I bought four more to make crab tacos the next day! When they are back again I promise to pick more up and saute them in butter and lemon. (Soft shell crabs are blue crabs that have grown, shedding their shells. The waters have to be warm enough for them to grow. Soft shell crabs are now available from Florida to North Carolina. By the end of June we will have more local North East crabs. It’s a long and delicious season!)

My favorite application of the soft shell crab was in the above sandwich. I love the way the crab looks like it is ready to walk out and pinch you. As our spring greens have yet to grace our tables, we bulked up these sandwiches with some creamy avocado slices, a great balance to the crispness of the bread and zesty sauce.

You can ask your fish provider to clean the crabs for you. To clean yourself, simply cut off the eyes at front, remove the lungs from the sides, and the little bit of slime out the rear. Go here to see how The Minimalist does it.

Fried Soft Shell Crab Sandwich
Active time= about 15 minutes. Serving Size= 4 people
For the Crabs:
4 soft shell crabs
1 egg
2-3 dashes Tabasco sauce
2 cups whole wheat flour (or mixture flour and cornmeal)
1 teaspoon Old Bay
vegetable oil to fill 1 inch up the side of the pan

1) Begin warming the oil on medium-high heat.
2) Place the egg and Tabasco in a bowl wide enough to fit a crab, scramble until combined. In another bowl, mix the flour and Old Bay until combined.
3) Once the oil is hot enough (test by placing the end of a chopstick in, if it bubbles, it is ready) dredge each crab in the egg, then transfer to the flour and toss until well coated. Transfer the crabs one at a time to the hot pan. Do not crowd the pan. Fry 2-3 minutes each side until lightly browned, set aside on a paper towel to dry and sprinkle with another dash of Old Bay.

For the Tartar Sauce:
1 cup mayonnaise
juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons horseradish sauce
2-3 dashes Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoons dill relish (or chopped pickles)

1) Mix all ingredients to combine.

To Assemble the Sandwich:
Toast your preferred bread until golden (I used sourdough). Smear each slice with a hefty dosage of tartar sauce, splay sliced avocado along the sauce and top with a crab and the second slice of bread. For easy handling, cut the sandwich in half.

Happy New Year!Please take notice (some of you already have) that things have changed around Just Braise. I’ve implemented a new, cleaner design. I believe the new look not only displays my dishes more deliciously, but has a soothing feel that aids in digestion (much more so than the old blue/ orange harshness of last year)!

With every New Year we are asked to make Resolutions. I am sort of sick of the usual “lose weight,” ones that really just prep a person for the beach and allow the weight roller coaster to start up again in the fall. Really, do people still make these sorts resolutions or is it the media onslaught of fat trimming pills to pop come the New Year (has anyone else noticed these all over TV?!) that make us think everyone is making them. While I do think overall lifestyle changes are healthy, they should not be a New Year makeover.

Here are my “Resolutions”: Eat more food that is better for the environment, as well as the people that bring my food to my table (farmers and workers alike). To become better educated on where my food comes from, what is inside (packaging labels as well as gene splice) and the global impact my food choices have on us all. On a broader scale, I hope that more people have access to better food choices, more reasonably priced pesticide-free foods, hear less lies about GMOs, and increase worker rights on farms and in factories. Maybe these are not all resolutions, but simple hopes for the New Year.

As for the picture in this post…

D and I ate a lot of kale back in ‘07. I had never really considered the leafy green before. Like most people, I stuck with what was easy. Simply, more often than not, with what I knew. Sure I ventured out and bought new things here and there (much to D’s initial horror) because finding new delicious foods is always a positive.

But my local groceries don’t really carry much kale, which is unusual– it’s a New York food staple. It is so easy to grow, and more importantly, it is so healthy. Seriously, there is so much good information about kale it’s almost like the new chicken soup (see here, here, and here)! There are even whole blogs waxing poetic on kale (see here and here).

As a member of my local CSA I received a lot of kale. I’m talking every week. Initially, I chopped raw kale super fine and tossed it into salads. Mixed in with all the other vegetables it just became another complex, earthly flavor in those salads. Growing tired of that, I threw every bunch into omelettes. Sure, not very exciting, but now I was cooking the kale– One giant kale omelette after another. As the season tapered on and I realized I grew tired of my kale omelettes, I experimented with other methods.

While some folks in the CSA juiced their kale (adding in peaches, apple juice and more), some made kale pesto, others threw it into soups. I thought these methods, more often than not, covered up that great subtle bitterness I had come to love in the vegetable. So I thought, hey, it looks sort of like lettuce, and voila, the kale sandwich.

This method was so good D and I started making it nightly. We grabbed for extra kale at distribution (no joke) and when we ran out of kale, used other bitter greens (cabbage, broccoli rabe, collards). Still, our favorite green was kale. I added a creamy goat cheese to play with the earthy qualities of kale and come Thanksgiving, I made this sandwich for D’s sisters who ate it up– “that was kale?!” (Note that D’s sisters were subjected to kale salad earlier in the season and were not so into it, though the kale omelette did win hearts).

D and I eat these sandwiches open-faced and find them quite filling. You can cut these sandwiches into bite sized appetizer noshes and serve them at a party. If you have no bread, use crackers. If you don’t like goat cheese, use swiss, a smoky gouda, or whatever you find works best for you.

As for the celeriac chips. Need I remind folks that fried things are delicious? Celeriac, or celery root, is a variety of celery grown as a root vegetable. It sort of looks like a crushed brain when you buy it, but smells and tastes slightly, of celery. Just peel the skin and use it as you like. It’s great raw, as a soup, folded into mashed potatoes, or in this application, fried! Simply slice it thin, fry it 3-4 minutes in hot oil, drain on a towel and sprinkle with salt.

Kale Salami Sandwich
Active time= 10 minutes.
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 bunch kale
2 slices good bread (I like to use sourdough)
2 tablespoons goat cheese
salami

1) Warm the butter or olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Roll kale like cigars and slice into thin strips. Add kale into the skillet, coat with butter and cover.
2) Toast bread. Spread each with goat cheese.
3) Stir kale, when it has turned a deep green, add on top of cheese. Add a few slices of salami.

It’s more like falafel is making me crazy! But how can you resist the freshness of flavors in Middle Eastern cuisine?

I came to love and loathe Middle Eastern foods in high school when I took a three week tour of Israel with my youth group. There were many days eating on Kibbutz with comments like, “are you kidding?! Cucumber, tomatoes and hummus again?!” But despite all the hummus consumed on that trip, I still cannot forget the hummus I had at the main marketplace in Jerusalem. Sweet, nutty and full of paprika, to this day I search to perfect my own recipe to match this memory.

I found falafel as an undergrad. It was fast food that didn’t seem so unhealthy and best of all, it was cheap. I could often be found between classes grabbing a falafel, standing just outside the small storefront nibbling away with tahini coating my lips and dripping on the sidewalk down below. I took friends visiting from out of town to the little shop and I even took D on our first date for a late night snack. But I have never tried making it myself.

Walking through the grocery I often spot and am tempted to pick up a box of falafel mix. As much as I love falafel, I cannot get myself to purchase the boxed mix. Yes, there are chickpeas in there, but get down the list and sure enough those hard-to-pronounce unknowns appear. I can’t make myself believe that off in the Middle East, or even my Lebanese or Egyptian friends here in the U.S., folks are whipping up boxed falafel. Where do these boxes come from?

To my surprise and horror, my own cookbooks I checked for reference suggested using boxed falafel mix. Wait, really? A cookbook calls for a box?! Truth be told, I don’t own a Middle Eastern cookbook (since I usually just reference friends and their parents for recipes). I took to the internet and researched away. Recipes I found seemed fairly close to hummus recipes before frying. I had some hummus a few days old in the fridge so I figured this would make good falafel– dry enough to form balls and fry. I also thought that my desire to use hummus, no longer desirable for snacking, would make sense historically. (Instead of throwing away old hummus, why not deep fry it?)

So I chopped some parsley, folded it into the hummus, formed golf ball sized nuggets and D threw them into a pan of hot oil. They fell apart. When I say fall apart I don’t mean the little balls broke apart and were still okay to eat. I mean the balls fell apart, totally crumbling into nothingness. D had to fish them out with a sieve the added comment, “Wow, we haven’t failed like this in a while.”

And when he says that he really means a long time. I cannot recall a time we made something so horribly inedible we had to throw it away. Sure, maybe it didn’t look (or fully taste) great, but one of us (me) usually not wanting to waste food, would suffer through eating it. What we had here was fried powder that was impossible to eat and had to enter the garbage.

We both took to the internet to find recipes and compare our separate results. The one major difference in falafel to hummus is that no liquids are added. When D and I make hummus we often add olive oil and yogurt to create a creamy result (that keeps smooth for days). The more falafel recipes we found, the greater the number that excluded these ingredients, as well as tahini. This kept the batter as dry as possible. (Which is why I thought our 3 day old hummus (with no yogurt), nice and dry, would work perfectly.)

We combined our favorite recipes and went in for Round Two. We stuck one in to test. Same result. The pictures on the internet lied. These little nuggets also fell apart as well. No golden balls of falafel came to our plates.

Back on the internet D began typing in “Falafel falls apart.” To his surprise, he didn’t even get to the first “l” of “falls” when Google auto-filled his results and he found multiple comments from ornery eaters attempting to make falafel.

Who knew these little buggers could be so difficult?

We did find the most common suggestions for falafel that falls apart is 1) Refrigerate for a few hours (we were hungry now) or 2) Add flour.

Back to our falafel balls, minus one brave comrade, I threw them back into the bowl and added almost 1/4 cup flour. Mixed it up, formed balls, flattened slightly (so oil would cover them completely) and coated the discs lightly with a more flour. I quickly told D it was not too late. We could just eat this dry hummus-like batter on our Barbari bread and it would be just fine. We threw a tester in again. Finally!

We topped stuffed the falafel into our Barbari bread (a flat bread originally from Iran that is an arms length long. Once a portion is torn off, it can easily be stuffed), added a yogurt and herb dressing, fresh tomatoes and topped it with some lip smacking sticky tahini. The best part of this falafel is that they remain crispy on the outside, but are soft and creamy inside.

Falafel
Prep time (getting it right the first time)= 12 minutes. Cook time= 4 minutes.
1- 15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), washed and drained
1/4 cup loosely chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons red onion
1/4 cup flour (set aside 2 tablespoons in a small bowl for coating finished falafel balls)
salt/ pepper to taste
vegetable oil

1) Begin heating vegetable oil on high heat in a deep sauce pan (oil should come about 1 inch up the side of the pan).
2) Place remaining ingredients (minus 2 tablespoons of flour) into a food processor or blender. Process until fairly even consistency is reached, leaving some larger chickpea chunks, if desired.
3) Form golf ball sized balls of batter and flatten slightly. Coat lightly in remaining flour.
4) Add falafel discs to oil when hot and fry about 4 minutes, until golden on all sides. Serve warm served wrapped in pita or other flat bread.

And the yogurt-herb sauce we topped it with (along with tahini and tomatoes):
3 tablespoons yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 a lemon
pinch of salt
Mix until combined.

As summer pushes into full force, we all know how important it is to stay out of the kitchen. That, or simply keeping the stove off as long as possible is key. With these beautiful days (finally it’s not deathly humid) nobody wants to spend more time than is needed wrapped in an apron, laboring over dishes. With that in mind, in the coming weeks Just Braise will highlight easy, quick cooking recipes.

These past weeks have offered up an abundance of zucchini from my CSA. It is so much that I am almost running out of unique ideas. So much zucchini, let me count the ways I used them: there was grilled zucchini, broiled zucchini, zucchini bread, zucchini in salad, zucchini and eggs, pickled zucchini, visions of zucchini soup, and the above, zucchini “burgers.”

I have made similar zucchini pancakes before. It was a great way to get D to eat this vegetable he claims to not like (so far though, the bread, full of nuts and chocolate chips, was the best trick). This time, I bulked the zucchini pancakes up to make them more burger style. Topped with a basic raita (yogurt based sauce) this burger proved refreshing served warm or cold.

What I love most about this recipe is that it can be used in a variety of ways. A frittata was easy with most of the work done– just break apart the burgers over a pan, add eggs, cook and done. Ditto with veggie tacos (on a shell with salsa), a side (or base) for hummus, or a topping in salad.

Veggie Patties
Prep time= 15 minutes. Cook time= 8 minutes.
1- 15oz can black beans (or chickpeas)
2-3 zucchini, 7-9 inches long
1 carrot (also 7-9 inches long)
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons tahini
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 tablespoon olive oil

1) Wash and drain the black beans and place in a medium sized bowl. Using a potato masher, crush the beans until they form a paste.
2) Lay out 2 paper towels. Shred zucchini and carrot and place on paper towels. Cover with 2 more paper towels, pressing down to drain off water from veggies. If you find there is still a lot of moisture to them, repeat process. When they no longer release moisture, add to bowl with black beans, along with garlic, tahini, bread crumbs and egg.
3) Use a hand to incorporate all ingredients evenly, squeezing the batter to check stickiness. Add another egg if you find it is too dry, more breadcrumbs if too wet.
4) Warm a saute pan on medium high heat with olive oil in the pan. Once warm, create patties with hands of the vegetable mixture and place on pan. Cook about 5 minutes, until brown, flip, then about 5 minutes more, until brown on other side. Serve warm on burger buns, bread, cold, or as suggested above.
NOTE: The above photo is bread with olive paste, avocado slices, a veggie burger, arugula and topped with a homemade raita. This raita was a 1 cup plain yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup diced cucumber (chopped parsley or mint optional).

Just look at it. Isn’t it lovely? Okay, so it could use a real slice of tomato, but who cares? It’s grilling season! Alright, so it’s been grilling season for a while, but it’s only recently D and I picked up our very own $10 hibachi.

It’s a great little thing that has done us well. Friend’s gas grill line needs cleaning? No problem, we’ll carry over the hibachi. That’s right, it’s got legs that swing up to latch the top in place to make it a portable little bugger. We can grill in the front of the house or the side of the house. (We quickly realized our neighbors don’t think we’re burning the place down if grilling is done in the front.)

Nothing looks appealing in the fridge? Whatever, just throw it on the grill– everything tastes better grilled!

So D and I whipped up these little guys.

Right, everyone is doing burgers now and most know how to whip one together. So I’ll give no recipe, but ask you to try something new…

These are beef burgers with my own added secret seasonings (they’re secret because they change according to my mood). Many people will say that meat is best left untouched (D is one of them). Salt, pepper, heat, done. But seasonings can give meat a personality. It is no longer a burger, but something unique that requires its own flavor combinations.

Trust me. I once made my “secret seasoning” burgers stuffed with goat cheese at a party and people ate 3, 4, 5 burgers.  They told me to sell them and I could be bigger than McDonalds. Okay, they didn’t go that far, but they did say if I opened a restaurant with them they would be there to support and tell everyone about it… Was it just the drink in them? I like to think not.

I think Doug over at Hot Doug’s in Chicago exemplifies this perfectly with the hot dog– not that there is anything wrong with the traditional Chicago-style dog, but why not jazz it up with say… chorizo and manchego?

I do the same with my burgers, often stuffing them with cheese, fresh herbs and mixed spices. Not only did this one get an interesting array of spices, it was topped with a slightly more grown up condiment selection: olive paste; Dijon mustard; cucumbers; scallion spears and tomatoes.

The ingredients should be mixed according to mood, so there is no recipe to go by here. Some good additions, beyond salt and pepper, include:

garlic powder (also fresh)
onion powder (also fresh)
olive paste
fresh herbs (I like basil or rosemary best) (dried work too)
hot pepper flakes
celery salt
cumin
nutmeg (just a pinch)
paprika
cinnamon
Worcester Sauce
Tabasco Sauce
Soy Sauce
Fish Sauce
anchovies
1 egg, for binding
red wine
goat cheese (really any cheese works but I prefer the softer goat or mozzarella because of how they melt inside)

Of course, all of these at once would overwhelm. But next time you whip up some burgers, pick 3-4 from this list you think might go together. Experiment, experiment…

Sweet, gooey, warm and crisp, there are few things that totally satisfy our child desires of yesteryear like a perfect butter-laced grilled cheese.

I think the French understand this desire best—the croque monsieur and croque madame are practically the national foodstuffs. [And believe you me, any time I find myself in this tasty country (which is definitely not enough) I am always sure to pick up this café treat.] When I first came across the croque pair in my elementary French textbook I thought it was surely a mistake—that or the authors were pandering to the young masses that were learning the placement of all those accent egus. Why were we learning how to order a grilled cheese sandwich, a seemingly typical American food?!

How wrong we were, not just in the fact that we all thought the grilled cheese as typical American, but our base preparation methods (on a dare might you use Swiss cheese over a cheddar or [gasp] American cheese!).

So while it is hard to believe our fresh picked apple supply is barely beginning to dwindle (I won’t even go into how many batches of apple chips, have been produced), a gooey cheese sandwich seemed like a perfect pairing with some crisp juicy apples on a fall morning, mais non? And for the dear reader, yet another recipe to put those fall apples to good use.

GRUYERE APPLE GRILLED CHEESE
Serving Size= 2 sandwiches. Active time= about 15 minutes (less if bacon and mushrooms are already prepared).
* 2-4 slices thick cut bacon (have your butcher custom cut thickness to any size you like)
* small handful mushrooms like baby bella or button, sliced into quarters
* 1 tablespoon sliced onions
* gruyere (or like) cheese, sliced; enough to cover 1 slice of bread
* 1 small Rome, Empire or Granny Smith apple, sliced into 16 wedges
* roasted garlic paste (optional; if available)*
* 4 slices good white bread
* 1 tablespoons unsalted butter

1) In a hot frying pan, cook the bacon until desired crispness is reached. While bacon is frying, keep an eye on it and slice the mushrooms, onions and apples.
2) Once bacon is complete, transfer to paper towels, drain fat from pan, return the pan to the stovetop and on medium-high heat, sauté mushrooms and onions. While mushrooms and onions cook, prepare the bread.
3) On 2 slices of bread, spread an ample amount of roasted garlic paste (optional). Cover bread with a layer of gruyere, a layer of sliced apples and 1-2 slices of bacon. Set aside.
4) Once mushrooms are browned and onions are translucent (about 8 minutes) transfer to a bowl and carefully wipe pan dry.
5) Turn heat to medium, melt ½ tablespoon of butter in the pan. Transfer prepared bread halves (with cheese, apples and bacon) onto the pan, top with mushroom-onion mixture, place second slice of bread over top and allow bread to brown and cheese to melt; about 4 minutes. Flip carefully, add ½ tablespoon butter to pan and move sandwiches around to pick up butter (allowing the butter to brown, not the bread to burn). Let sit about 3 minutes, remove from pan and eat hot and delicious.

* roasted garlic paste is a cinch make (and cost effective if you’ll be roasting something else in the oven). Simply take a whole head of garlic and slice the top off clean (to barely give you access to the cloves). Wrap in tin foil and place in the oven (around 350F) for 30-45 minutes. Remove and let cool. Once cool, pop the garlic cloves from their shells and transfer to a small dish. Add about 3 tablespoons olive oil and stir to breakdown garlic and incorporate olive oil into a uniform paste. Great on sandwiches, over meat, in potatoes or mixed into a salad dressing.

Check out other Fall Feast-ival items over at WellFed’s FitFare!

Tags: grilled cheese, apple, gruyere, fall food, apple picking, sandwiches.

As previously mentioned the garden has produced crisp, slightly bitter and tremendously juicy White Hailstone radishes, smelling faintly of blossoms and soil. Pulled from the ground (rather, bucket) and washed clean, Kitty even had a taste of the thick green stalks (see picture from June 24).

Desiring more than a salad and noting the meager contents of my pantry I went to the inspiration of cookbooks. Cracking each one, I went straight to the index only to find many a radish laden salad. D grew hungry and impatient, Kitty kept at the stalks and I finally found what I vaguely remembered I had: the Best of Gourmet Paris. The cover image, burned in my memory, showcased two mouth-watering baguettes: one brimming over with a thick schmear of goat cheese covered with raspberries, the other a candy cane assortment of radishes over a blue speckled blanket of cheese.

Using the recipe as inspiration, I headed to the grocery for the best Roquefort I know: Société (with a nod to a certain Frenchman currently displaced in Nottingham, England whose mother used to work at the dairy). Then to the bakery for a (Greek) baguette. In no time, this amazingly simple summer sandwich was produced.

Though D thoroughly rejected my notion that peach would be a sweet and colorful addition to the sandwich, I won in the end and crowned my prized radishes. One bite and I am hooked on the summery nature of this sandwich. The bread, an airy bed for the slightly pungent and salty creaminess of the Roquefort. The garden radishes crisp, with each bite sprinkling dew upon my nose. The peach, pure icing on the cake—the perfect representation of summer that left warm juice dribbling down my chin.

Each ingredient complimented each other to perfection. With a few slices of radish leftover, I placed them on the side, gave them a sprinkling of Lots Wyfe Hawaiian sea salt, creating radish “chips” and popped them in my mouth as a palate cleanser. Hunger problems solved and more refreshing radish sandwiches in the future warming months.

RADISH & PEACH SANDWICH
Serving size= 2 persons. Active time= 8 minutes.
*4 medium-sized White Hailstone Radish (preferred)
* 1 ripe peach
* 4 Tbl Roquefort cheese (Société preferred)
* 1 loaf crispy bread (baguette)

1) Cut the baguette in 2 and slice open (this is an open-faced sandwich)
2) Smear Roquefort over the insides of the 4 bread pieces.
3) Chop radish into 1/4-inch thick discs and layer over Roquefort
4) Slice peach into half. Remove pit and slice each half into 8 wedges. Place over radish.

Check out some Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies over at WellFed’s Paper Palate.

Head on over to Sweetnick’s for more ARF friendly items!

The BLT [Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato if you dare not know], might just be the most underrated sandwich there is. It shares its lowly status with the sardine sandwich, liver sandwich, and tongue. There might even be an equation—or possibly just a graphable body of data– that while young, it is the holy grail of grilled cheese that rates as favorite. As we age we teeter off for the more classic sliced meats, and as old age creeps in, we can return to the classics: sardine, liver and tongue.

But where is the BLT in the equation. And more importantly, am I old too young because I appreciate a good sardine sandwich on rye? A schmear of liver? A slab of tongue? Actually, scratch the tongue—I could never get over the bumpy texture.

Who orders a BLT? It is a perfect meat-to-vegetable-to-crisp-lettuce ratio in every bite and yet, it is too often overlooked for something “more hearty”. I am known to pass by it on a menu, even when that sweet-salty bacon is all I crave, unable to spend $5 for what I consider a $3 sandwich. To spruce the classic up, I have seen restaurants create the BALT (adding avocado), a BBLT (with brie), and even [gasp] TBLT (turkey bacon)! But nobody seems to understand it is no longer its simple and perfect self when this happens.

I awoke Sunday morning craving breakfast, but also a BLT. How to make a breakfast version without destroying the BLT’s simplicity? I headed over to the butcher while I considered my options. I had him slice up fresh bacon, ¼ inch thick (thick bacon being the key to a BLT). As I passed the bakery to grab my bread I saw the solution: Sureki. Sureki is the Greek’s Challah– a sweet braided egg bread. I picked up the loaf envisioning my goal: The FBS.

Still at a loss?

FBS, or French Toast-Bacon-Strawberry, is the perfect Sunday morning breakfast sandwich. Offering the best parts of the BLT: crisp bacon and fluffy bread, with a sweeter breakfast flare. Instead of your daily vegetable you receive your daily fruit. For an extra zing, lime and orange zest are used, fresh orange juice and basil as your greens (instead of lettuce).

OPEN-FACED FBS
Makes 2 servings. Active Time= 15 minutes.
* 4 thick-slices egg-based bread (challah works well)
* 4 eggs
* ½ orange, zested and juiced
* 1 tsp lime zest (about ½ a lime)
* 2 Tbl milk (preferred percentage)
* 4-¼ inch thick slices of bacon (ask your butcher to slice it thick)
* 10 strawberries
* 4-5 leaves fresh basil, chopped
* 1 Tbl butter
* cinnamon/ sugar

1) Place one skillet (for bacon) on medium-high heat. Place one skillet on medium heat (for the French toast) with butter.
2) In a wide-brimmed bowl, crack eggs, add milk, juice from ¼ of the orange and orange zest. Beat until well mixed. Drench bread slices in egg mixture until well-drenched. Once egg mixture is done, the two skillets should be warmed.
3) Place bacon on skillet to cook. Place bread on second skillet. Cook 3-4 minutes one side, flip, 3-4 minutes opposite side. Cook until golden brown. Depending on preferred doneness, bacon should receive 4-5 minutes each side. If bacon finishes before bread, place bread in oven to stay warm, set at 250F.
4) Keeping an eye on the bread, make the strawberry topping: Combine strawberries, lime zest, juice from ¼ orange and basil in a small bowl. Using a fork, mash the strawberries into a thick pulp. Serve at room temperature, set aside until ready to serve.
5) Once bread is done, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (*do not put this on while on the skillet as it will just burn. Putting this on after it is done cooking will allow the mixture to melt right into the bread).
6) Remove bacon when ready.
7) Sandwich can be open-faced or closed. Layer the sandwich: French Toast, Bacon, Strawberry mixture.

Head on over to Sweetnick’s for today’s ARF roundup!

Head on over to Kalyn’s Kitchen for the WHB roundup!