Poor Man's Truffle Salt

When my sister came to visit a few weeks ago, I took her to my favorite spice shop which is conveniently located right in my neighborhood. After sampling an array of specialty salts, she forked over a handful of cash for an amazing black truffle salt. Cheap? No. Delicious? Yes! For the rest of her visit, I tried to sneak as much of her pricey truffle salt as possible into my meals (as seen here). I probably owe her about ten dollars for the amount that I generously sprinkled over my morning eggs alone.

Since my sister and her fancy salt have left me, I have been trying to justify spending such a large amount solely on a condiment. Thankfully, as I was considering making my own version, I stumbled upon a recipe for spiced porcini mushroom salt on the Gilt Taste site. I tinkered around with their recipe and decided to keep things simple (and cheap) by using dried shiitake mushrooms and sea salt. This is the poor man’s version of truffle salt. Use it to season meat, fish, eggs, pasta, popcorn, and more. The best part is, the longer it sits, the better it gets! I wonder if my sister would accept a small bottle of my so-called “truffle” salt in exchange for the ten bucks I owe her…


Ingredients

¼ cup dried shiitake mushrooms, ground
¾ cup coarse sea salt
Black truffle oil, if desired

Method

Grind dried mushrooms in a food processor, spice/coffee grinder, or in a mortar and pestle until the mushrooms resemble the size of sea salt granules. Mix in salt. If desired, add a few drops of truffle oil and mix. Keep in an air tight container in a cool dry place. The longer that the salt sits, the more the mushrooms will infuse it.

Notes

Any other dried mushrooms can be used in this recipe. Shiitakes provide a subtle taste, whereas morels or actual truffles offer more pungency. I added a bit of truffle oil to my salt to boost the flavor. Next time, I think that I will try to make genuine truffle salt with summer truffles from Umbria, Italy as soon as they arrive in a few weeks. Cheap? No. Worth it? Yes!



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Chocolate Stout Covered Pretzels

Over Memorial Day weekend, I went camping for the first time in I can’t even tell you how long. I had my reservations, of course. Are there bears? What do I wear? Should I bring my Ambien? And most importantly, what are we going to eat? Thankfully, my experienced camping companions helped me along the way and kindly eased me into life in the great outdoors. I quickly realized that I didn’t need to worry about our food situation since my friend had a full bag of tricks for making amazing campfire meals, including her ingenious idea to make falafel and all of its traditional toppings.

While sitting around the fire one evening and enjoying my favorite combination ever - beer and pretzels - I snuck off to steal a bite of chocolate intended for late-night S’mores construction. There, huddled under a pine tree, my idea for chocolate stout covered pretzels was born. It’s no secret that I love pretzels, as seen here, so this recipe is a great way to bring together two classic and complimentary ingredients. Now, how do we take these pretzels and incorporate them into the S’mores recipe? I’ll save that for my next camping trip.


Chocolate Stout Covered Pretzels

Ingredients

6 oz. chocolate chips
¼ cup Stout (I used an Imperial Chocolate Stout)
Pretzels

Method

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave or over a double boiler. Whisk in beer. Dip pretzels in chocolate stout mixture and set to dry on parchment paper. Place in the refrigerator to speed up the setting time.


Enjoy these pretzels on their own or garnish a chocolate stout beer float with them like I did!


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Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Charred Corn and Crab

Over the weekend, we traveled to my home state of Maryland for a friend’s wedding. I made it my solemn vow to eat crab for every single meal while in the great state. I even went to the market to buy a container of lump crab meat, which I shrewdly stashed in our sad little hotel room fridge, so that I could munch on it for breakfast and snacks. Thankfully, I lucked out at the wedding, where they served filet mignon and fantastic crab cakes. My crab meat aspiration successfully concluded at the airport over a delicious cup of Maryland crab soup.

I returned home still wanting more, however. Perhaps the wedding and all of that vow talk motivated me to prolong my own vow. I started to play with ingredients that traditionally accompany crabs, and decided on a roasted red pepper soup with charred corn and crab. This soup is honestly one of the best soups that I have ever made, and it is sure to become a summertime dinner staple, whether I’m in Maryland or not.



Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Charred Corn and Crab

Ingredients

3 red peppers
Olive oil
¼ cup diced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
Splash white wine
2 cups chicken stock
½ teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 ear corn
Fresh crab meat


Method

Preheat broiler. Lightly coat whole peppers in olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Allow the skin to blister and blacken on each side under the broiler, rotating the peppers and roasting for approximately 10 minutes per side.

Place peppers in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for 20 minutes. After peppers have cooled, peel and discard the skin, stems, and seeds. Roughly chop into pieces.

In a pot, sauté diced onion in olive oil over medium heat until translucent. Add garlic and deglaze with a splash of white wine. Add chicken stock, peppers, thyme, and crushed red pepper and simmer for 30 minutes.

While simmering, heat olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Roll around a cleaned ear of corn until charred. The same can be done with frozen corn, if desired.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pepper mixture to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Add more stock if necessary to thin out the soup. Pour into a bowl, top with charred corn and cleaned crab meat. Serve hot or cold and enjoy!

How do you like to eat crabs?

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Halibut with Mixed Vegetables en Papillote

We had a very special guest who came to visit last week – my sister. Not only did her visit motivate me to make our guest room resemble an actual bedroom rather than an office/college dorm, but it also prompted me to start planning out our meals together. My sister, a talented sommelier, really knows her wines and she has great taste in food, so needless to say, I was really feeling the pressure. I planned to take her to all of my favorite restaurants in the area, and then to make her a nice dinner at home on her last night in town. I ran a list of potential recipes through my mind for days prior to her arrival, but I just couldn’t settle on one. I don’t know why I was so worried since my sister is the most laid back person I know. I guess I just wanted everything to go smoothly. To put an end to my useless worrying, I decided to just go with the flow, take her to the market with me, and see what looked good that day.

We came back from the market with wild-caught Alaskan halibut and an amazing assortment of organic vegetables including fava beans, asparagus, snow peas, brussels sprouts, carrots, and fiddlehead ferns. We decided that cooking the fish and veggies en papillote, or wrapped in parchment paper, would not only be super easy but also incredibly healthy – a nice break from all of our restaurant meals, wine tastings, and brewery tours. We also made a delicious puree from sunchokes and sweet potatoes that complimented the halibut perfectly. California Sauvignon Blanc paired well with this dish as its crisp and light notes did not overpower it. All in all, my sister had a great visit, and now that I look back, I wish I had spent more time redecorating our office/college dorm than worrying about cooking.



Halibut with Mixed Vegetables en Papillote

Ingredients

Alaskan halibut, 4 ounce filet per person
Olive oil
Fava beans, shelled
Asparagus, cut into 2 inch pieces
Snow peas
Brussels sprouts, halved
Carrots, cut into straws
Fiddlehead ferns
Splash Sauvignon Blanc
Lemon slices
Pinch of thyme
Truffle salt
Parchment paper, 12 inch long sheet per person





Method

Feel free to be flexible with this recipe, as you can basically use any vegetables that you like.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a pot of boiling water, quickly blanch the fava beans, asparagus, snow peas, carrots, and fiddlehead ferns for one minute. Set aside for later use. Sauté brussels sprouts in a pan with olive oil to caramelize them a bit over moderately high heat. Set aside with the other vegetables.

Brush parchment paper with olive oil, pile vegetables on half of the sheet, and place halibut filet on top. Add a splash of Sauvignon Blanc, pinch of thyme, lemon slices, and salt and pepper to taste. (We used truffle salt that my sister had just bought at the spice shop across the street. It was pricey, but incredibly tasty.) Fold over the other side of the parchment paper and start to fold the ends together so that they are tight and no steam can escape. I’ve found that folding the paper into a half-moon shape works the best.

Bake the parchment packets on a baking sheet for 15 minutes. Cut open the packets carefully because they are full of steam and enjoy.




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Fig and Maple Mascarpone Linzer Cookies

All celebrity chefs have their trademark catch phrases and endearing traits. Ina Garten optimistically poses, “How easy is that?” Emeril enthusiastically shouts, “Bam!” or gluttonously moans, “Oh yeah, babe.” Gordon Ramsay swears more than an angry drunken sailor, while Nigella Lawson waxes poetic with her eloquent and witty culinary comparisons. Although I occasionally watch Giada de Laurentiis’ show, I have to admit that some of her vernacular drives me absolutely nuts. Her way of overly accentuating Italian words during her show is pretty humorous, but don’t even get me started on her relentless use of “Aaaaaand” or “Just like that.”

While my kitchen-phobic brother watches Giada’s show to marvel at her cleavage, I tune in to learn how she innovatively combines unlikely flavors. I also appreciate her propensity to add mascarpone (or mas-car-pone-nay, as Italians say) to pretty much everything. Giada served as inspiration for my fig and maple mascarpone Linzer cookies. As I continue to watch more and more Giada episodes, I can feel myself adopting not only her penchant for mascarpone, but also her way of speaking. Have a cup of tea with these scrumptious cookies aaaaaand they will disappear, just like that!





Fig and Maple Mascarpone Linzer Cookies

Makes 12 cookies

Cookie Ingredients

1 stick butter, room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons blanched ground almonds
Pinch of salt
Fig jam

Glaze Ingredients

4 tablespoons mascarpone, room temperature
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

With an electric mixer, beat together butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg until creamy. On low speed, add flour, almonds, and salt, and continue to mix until dough starts to form. Using your hands, shape the dough into a disk and then wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut out cookies using a cookie cutter. For half of the cookies, use a smaller cutter to cut out the center. Place cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on a cooling rack.

For the glaze: Whisk together room temperature mascarpone, maple syrup, and powdered sugar until smooth. Add a bit of water to thin out mixture, if necessary.

To assemble the cookies: Drizzle glaze over cookies with cutouts. Spread fig jam in a thin layer on the flat side of whole cookies. Sandwich flat sides of the whole cookies with the cutout cookies, allowing the jam to show through the center.

Golden Beet Chip-Encrusted Goat Cheese Salad

I didn’t start my love affair with beets until I got married. Thomas, being part Russian, once requested that I make borscht. Borscht? What’s borscht? After a lot of Googling, long consultation with my mother-in-law, and a trip to St. Petersburg (for fun, not necessarily for borscht research), I learned that borscht is a hearty, Eastern European, beet-based soup. I also learned that the process of making an authentic borscht is not only incredibly labor intensive, but it also turns everything in my kitchen red, bright red – including me.


Ever since my first batch of borscht, I have been making multiple variations of it by the gallon, and I have been roasting beets by the bushel. I just can’t eat enough of these colorful root veggies! My all-time favorite beet dish, arugula salad with roasted beets and goat cheese, was recently upstaged by my new favorite, baked beet chips. In an attempt to marry my old to new favorite, I made a beet chip-encrusted goat cheese salad, using golden beets instead of red ones. This delicious dish puts a modern spin on an old classic. Although it is much simpler to prepare than borscht, it still managed to turn everything in my kitchen yellow, bright yellow – including me.



Baked Golden Beet Chips

Ingredients

3 golden beets
Cooking spray
Salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Wash and peel the beets. Very thinly slice beets using a sharp knife or a mandolin. Try to make the slices uniform so that they cook evenly.

Spray a sheet pan with cooking spray. Arrange beet slices in an even single layer, spray the tops with cooking spray, and season with salt.

Bake for 15 minutes, turn, and bake for another 15 minutes or so. Check on the beets occasionally as the thickness of the slices will require a slightly different cooking time. Once browned and crisp (some may brown quicker than others), remove the slices and allow to cool and drain on a paper towel.


Golden Beet Chip-Encrusted Goat Cheese Salad

Ingredients

Arugula
Pistachios
Beet chips, crushed
Goat cheese, log
Vinaigrette

Method

Cut goat cheese into 1 inch slices and pat down to keep compact and circular. Press slices into crushed beet chip pieces to cover. Place over dressed arugula and pistachios.

I served mine with a blood orange vinaigrette, but any basic vinaigrette will work. For my dressing, I whisked together blood orange juice, white wine vinegar, chopped shallot, grain mustard, and olive oil.


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White Cheddar Polenta with Caramelized Onions, Apples, and Prosciutto

I’ve had my fair share of amazing pizzas. From Brooklyn’s famed Grimaldi’s, to Naples’ legendary Pizzeria da Michele, and everything in between, I have found that my go-to guilty pleasure is, and forever will be, a perfectly mastered pizza. What intrigues me the most about pizza is how it can easily be adapted into a range of other food forms, such as salads, pastas, or sandwiches, while maintaining its wholesome integrity. It is so simple to take the toppings from a favorite pizza and transform them into a new and innovative dish. Liberty Tavern in the DC area, for example, serves a fantastic pizza called The Vermont loaded with white cheddar, caramelized onions, roasted apples, prosciutto, and sage. After my first bite of this pizza, visions of how I could recreate it in the form of a gourmet grilled cheese or risotto danced in my head.



The last time I went to Liberty Tavern, I had my leftover Vermont wrapped in a doggy bag so that I could enjoy it for lunch the following day. My plan changed, however, as I witnessed a homeless man standing outside the restaurant with his hand extended for offerings. I debated whether I should fork over a few dollars or my cherished leftovers. I decided on the latter, and as I handed him the pizza, I told him that he was surely in for a treat. He looked at me with a blank stare, grabbed the pizza box, and hastily threw it on the curb next him without a sign of gratitude. I couldn’t believe it. Knowing just how delicious it was, I argued with myself whether it would be acceptable to reclaim my beloved pizza from the ungrateful man. Begrudgingly, I turned my back and walked away.

It is my hope that the man outside Liberty Tavern was able to enjoy a decent meal that night; however, I think about the fate of my unappreciated pizza quite often. In order to seek some closure, I decided to recreate The Vermont in the form of a creamy polenta. The pizza’s caramelized onions, apples, and prosciutto make the perfect topping to serve over white cheddar polenta. With The Vermont blissfully reincarnated in this dish, I can once again appreciate its complex toppings and flavor combinations – this time, however, there will be no leftovers!



White Cheddar Polenta with Caramelized Onions, Apples, and Prosciutto

Ingredients

½ cup medium grind cornmeal
2 cups chicken stock
¼ cup grated white cheddar cheese
2 slices prosciutto, diced
Olive oil
1 small yellow onion, sliced
1 Granny Smith apple, chopped
Dash sugar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup white wine
Salt and pepper
Garnish with sage or parsley

Method

Bring stock to a boil, pour in cornmeal, and whisk constantly for 4 minutes to prevent lumps. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to whisk. Partially cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for about 40 minutes. Whisk every 10 minutes to make sure that the polenta is not sticking. Add more stock if necessary. Once polenta is thick and creamy, remove from heat and stir in the white cheddar cheese. Season with salt and pepper according to your liking.

While the polenta is cooking, sauté diced prosciutto in a pan coated with olive oil over medium heat. Once crispy, remove the prosciutto and drain on a paper towel.

Add more olive oil to the same pan. Over medium heat, sauté the onions and apples for about 10 minutes. Season with salt and a dash of sugar to help with the caramelization. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Add more oil if necessary. Once the onions and apples have fully caramelized, stir in Dijon mustard, and raise the heat to high. Deglaze the pan with white wine, scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and cook until the liquid evaporates.

To assemble, pour polenta on a plate and top with caramelized onions and apples. Sprinkle crisped prosciutto over the top and enjoy!