Starter

The newest member of my household arrived in a jar last Saturday, and the first thing I did was starve it for a week. Quite the warm welcome, I know, but luckily everything seems to be fine.

My friend Jordan gave me some of his sourdough starter, and I have a lot to learn. It’s no ordinary cooking ingredient—this thing needs to eat. Sometimes it likes to be in the fridge, and other times it prefers the counter. And I could very well be responsible for killing it.

My favorite source for the science of cooking is Shirley O. Corriher’s Cookwise. I pulled it out yesterday and read up on starters. Apparently, sourdough starter is a symbiotic relationship between yeast and bacteria. So I guess there are two new members of my household.

I really like the idea of a starter—a little boost from a friend to help you towards your goal. I wish there were starters for other household projects. I could have used a laundry starter this weekend. And a starter to clean my barbeque, which is overflowing with ashes. And there are many weeknights when a simple dinner starter would come in handy.

I fed the starter a few times this weekend to get it good and bubbly, and made a nice little loaf of bread today. It's pretty good, and quite lovely to look at, but there are a few things I'll change next time. Maybe I’ll advance to pancakes and muffins, but for now I am working on bread. And on not killing the starter.

Hen Party

I thought it was time for a Hen Party—get the girls together, good wine, good food, and good conversation. And being a fan of the double entendre, I thought it would be a nice idea to serve hens.

I love Mario Batali’s Italian Grill cookbook, and it has a recipe for guinea hen breasts with rosemary and pesto. Perfect, I thought. Turns out, guinea hen breasts are not that easy to find in Seattle, so after trying three grocery stores, I settled on whole guinea hens from University Seafood and Poultry.

Guinea hens are a little bit smaller than most of the chickens we eat, and they have a richer flavor. I bought two to serve the six of us, and they took up the whole grill. This meant that I didn’t have enough room to cook them both over indirect heat. (Usually you push all the coals to one side of the barbeque and grill poultry over the over side so it doesn’t burn.) So, one of the hens burned very quickly. The other lived up to its reputation and was rich and flavorful.

With an amazing group of women over to keep things merry, and a tasty meal of artichokes and tarragon vinaigrette, fresh green salad from the farmer’s market, leeks in white wine, crusty bread, and ginger cookies with vanilla ice cream, the burned hen didn’t end up being much of a problem. Though next time I’ll be sure to stick to conventional wisdom and keep my hens away from the coals.

Vernal Verts

I think it’s finally safe to say it out loud—Spring is officially here in the northwest. Of course yesterday was the Vernal Equinox, but that’s the least of it. Hastas are growing an inch a day. Cherry blossoms everywhere you look. My Easter cactus has little hot pink buds on it. And wearing flats without socks doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

Best of all, the Farmer’s Market is filling up with young, spring goodies. Leeks, Jerusalem artichokes, bok choy, cabbage. I even saw some scraggly looking baby carrots today. And the greens. Yes, the greens! Chickweed, miner’s lettuce, baby arugula, radish greens. Thank god you’re back.

What to do with all these fresh, local, tender greens? Here are a few ways I have been enjoying them this week.

Some Spring Salads:
Chickweed, chopped small.

Toasted walnuts

Olive oil, salt and pepper, and just the tiniest drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Miner’s lettuce

Champagne vinaigrette (champagne vinegar, olive oil, mustard, salt & pepper)

Grana Padano
A fried egg on top. Oh yeah.

Baby arugula
Beets
Rogue River Blue
Olive oil, salt & pepper

I really missed these shoes.

Eat Dirt

I bought a bag of beets last weekend at the farmers market, and they looked at me all week. I’d open the fridge and they’d give me those sad eyes that said—you don’t appreciate me.

They were right. I was zipping through the week on lunches out, and dinners of raw carrots, chunks of cheese, crackers left over from a party I had a few weeks ago, and toast. I was not appreciating the beets’ yummy soil-flavored goodness, or their luscious hot pink insides. I think that even if I didn’t love the sweet, dirty taste of beets, I would still cook them just so I could be around their color. Beet is my favorite color.

Eat dirt—they said to me. And I deserved it.

Luckily beets are hearty, and they last quite a while in the fridge. So I pulled them out yesterday to try to make amends. I cooked them, made them a sauce, and ate them for lunch. I ate them again for breakfast today. And I’ll probably eat them for lunch tomorrow.

Beets with Horseradish Crème
6-8 beets
1 cup crème fraiche 
½ cup grated fresh horseradish root (way less if you’re using prepared horseradish)
1-2 T chopped fresh chives
1 t lemon zest
1 t lemon juice
Salt and pepper

• Boil the beets whole until they’re tender. Peel them when they’re cool enough to handle, and slice them into wedges.  
• Mix crème fraiche, horseradish, chives, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and chill for at least an hour to let the flavors meld.
• Serve the beets with a dollop of crème. 

Simple as That

Why does everything have to be so complicated? I’ve been asking myself that a lot this week. Well, the truth is, it doesn’t. Let’s take my new favorite cocktail as an example.

Last week, my friend Heidi and I were finishing up dinner at Oddfellows, and asked the bartender about her after dinner drinks. From a long list, we picked Carpano Antica--a sweet Itaian vermouth.  “It’s what the girls behind the bar are into these days."  Why not? Out it came, in a glass with ice and a hefty slice of lemon peel.

Let me tell you, it’s a gift from the heavens. Smooth and tangy, with a deep chocolatey richness. But not too sweet. And a little bitter bite from the lemon. We fell in love.

Now, dinner with Heidi is really good, no matter what we eat. And sometimes its glow can impair our judgment a little—like when a Cliff Bar actually tastes good after a long hike. So I tried it out on a few more people, including my mom. At this point, and I am still actively testing, 9 out of 10 people agree that Carpano Antica is damn good, and well worth the $40 it costs at the liquor store.

You have to try it. Simple as that.

Nettles! It Must Be Spring

With nettles popping up on everyone’s menu these last few weeks, I decided I had to try them myself. Or rather, try them again. When I was in middle school, I learned how to pick nettles without stinging myself (and without gloves) and set out to make nettle tea. But I forgot the cleaning step, and my tea tasted like mud. My tea was mud.

So last week, with my fearless friends, I headed out to hunt for nettles. They were young and about six inches high, which is great for eating because they are tender and you can still eat the stalks, but made them a bit hard to find. Once we got the hang of it though, we were nettle harvesting machines. Though no particular step was difficult, there were many steps.

We found them and clipped them.

This time, we decided to wash them.

Then we blanched them and squeezed out all the water.

 

Chopped and sautéed them, and put them on pizza. We made a few kinds. My favorite was a thinly veiled version of the nettle pizza at Delancey last week: nettles, caramelized onions, and ricotta.

Pizza Dough
This is my trusty pizza dough recipe from Martha Stewart, many years back. Never fails to deliver flavorful, crispy, thin crust. Works well on the grill or in the oven.

2 cups warm water

½ t sugar
2 packets active dry yeast
3T olive oil
6 cups flour
1T Kosher salt

• Mix water, sugar, and yeast in a bowl until the yeast has dissolved. Let stand for 5 minutes.
• Mix flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the yeast water. Knead for 5 minutes.  (You can do this by hand if you don't have a mixer.)
• Turn the dough onto a floured counter, make it into a ball, and put it in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 40-60 minutes, until doubled.
• Punch it down, fold it over a few times, make it into a ball again, put it back in the bowl, cover and let it rise for another 40-60 minutes.
• Turn the dough onto the floured counter and cut it into 6 chunks. Knead each chunk into a ball and cover 5 of them with plastic. Flatten the remaining ball into a little disc and let it sit for 5 minutes. When the 5 minutes are up, remove another ball and flatten it. Then roll the rested disc into a pizza crust (8-10 inches in diameter). Repeat with all the dough balls.
• You can store the uncooked crusts, layered with parchment and wrapped with plastic, for a few days. When you’re ready to cook, oil them generously, top them sparingly, and cook as hot as you can for 5-10 minutes. My oven goes to 550 degrees, and the bbq gets hotter.

Broccoli Love

Nothing says “I love you” like broccoli. Candies are nice. Stuffed animals are cuddly. But true love comes in the form of a fresh, green head of broccoli. For starters, it makes a lovely bouquet.

And it’s very good for you. Chock-full of vitamin C, vitamin A, folic acid, calcium, potassium, anti-oxidants and fiber, broccoli has been credited with detoxifying, curing stomach problems, improving skin, reducing cholesterol, improving bone health, preventing cancer, and more.

And if that’s not enough, broccoli is incredibly tasty as well.

So this Valentine's Day, instead of burdening your sweetie with landfill junk or processed sugar, give them some broccoli. Straight from the heart.

Here is one of my favorite ways to prepare broccoli. It's great with steak and scalloped potatoes. The recipe comes from my friend Tom. He’s one of those guys who always has really good ideas. He’s overflowing with them. So all you need to do is hang with him and you’re bound to pick up a few yourself. Thanks, Tom!

Tom’s Broccoli
Broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets, stalk sliced thin
Olive oil
Salt
Red pepper flakes
Garlic
Lemon juice
Parmesan cheese

• Toss the broccoli with olive oil, salt, whole garlic cloves, and red pepper flakes.
• Roast in a single layer at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. The edges should be crispy and brown.
• Remove from the oven and toss with lemon juice and parmesan.