Summer Panzanella

This is going to sound horrible, but it took me until this morning to finally make it to the summer farmer's market in my neighborhood.  The past few Saturdays, I've been too quick to cook up an excuse: too many errands to do, gotta clean the house, going to visit Grandma, too hot, too rainy, yadda yadda, etc. etc.  I deserve to be arrested by the summer police.

Anyway, I finally made it!  I was so overwhelmed by the mid-summer bounty that I dove right in like a hungry pelican and came out with a beak-full of peak-season veggies.  Given the randomness of my selection, I decided a salad would serve this hodge-podge well and, with the addition of a fresh loaf of sourdough from Hot Bread Kitchen, I was ready for some panzanella.  Here's what you do:

Tear a 1 pound loaf of crusty bread (like sourdough) into bite-size pieces, spread out on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and toast in a 400 degree oven for 7 minutes, until slightly crispy (you're not going for croutons).  Dump into a large salad bowl and set aside.  Take your smattering of market vegetables - tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, scallion, corn, whatever - and chop into desired bite-size shapes.  Add to your bowl of toasted bread.  Wash and tear a handful of basil leaves and throw those in as well.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup good olive oil, more salt and pepper, and pour over the bread and veggies.  Toss well and serve immediately, preferably on a terrace in the sun...

The Quickest Quiche

Yesterday, I had a revelation: I could make quiche crust out of Saltines!  A quick internet search revealed that I wasn't, in fact, the pioneer I had thought myself to be.  But no matter, I'm still claiming this as an invention of my own culinary mind, cooked up in isolation on this beautiful Spring weekend that I've shared exclusively with Dan, who is currently recovering from surgery he had this past week. (He's feeling better every day and recovering splendidly, by the way!)

Lily brought me a bag of beautiful fiddlehead ferns from the Union Square Greenmarket, but you could swap them out for any green vegetable - spinach, asparagus, kale, fresh herbs, broccoli - on and on.  Just make it green, because it's the middle of May and we're surrounded by it!

Easy Fiddlehead Quiche with Saltines Crust
makes 8 servings

35 Saltine crackers, crumbled
4 tablespoons butter, melted

2 oz. Pecorino Romano, shaved
1 cup fiddleheads, blanched
6 eggs, well beaten
salt and pepper

Grease a 9-inch pie pan and preheat the oven to 350 deg. F.  Combine the Saltine crumbs and melted butter and press evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.  Pre-bake the crust for 5 minutes.

Remove the crust from the oven and start building the rest of the quiche: arrange a layer of Pecorino shavings, then the fiddleheads, then pour in the eggs, seasoned with salt (not much - the cheese is salty) and pepper.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the egg is set.  Remove and let cool.  Serve warm or at room temp.

Spring is Here!

Green garlic from the farmer's market heralds the spring

Sunshine-flavored Ice Cream

Haven't done an ice cream posting yet this summer, so here we go, inaugural 2011 ice cream batch!

As always, I've turned to David Lebovitz's fabulously well-researched, well-written ice cream bible, The Perfect Scoop, to guide me through my surplus of fresh apricots from Red Jacket Orchards.  The cream is from Ronnybrook Dairy.  And the main ingredient is sunshine! (My only contribution to the recipe is the white port, which is optional but delicious.)

Fresh Apricot Ice Cream (adapted from David Lebovitz's recipe)
Makes about 1 quart

1 pound ripe fresh apricots (10 to 16, depending on size)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
3 drops almond extract
A few drops freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon white port (optional)

Slice open the apricots and remove the pits, then quarter each half.  Cook the apricot pieces with the water in a covered medium, nonreactive saucepan over medium heat until tender, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and stir in the sugar until dissolved.  Let cool to room temperature.

Once cool, puree the apricots with all the liquid in a blender or food processor until totally smooth.  Blend in the cream, almond extract, lemon juice, and port (if using).

Chill the mixture completely in the refrigerator, then churn in your ice cream maker according to the instructions.  Serve topped with whipped cream and chopped pistachios.

Bonjour summer!

I'm incredibly excited about the onset of summer.  Sure, summer means there is no cooking without sweating - and, if you're me, there's no cooking with pants - but it also portends that a sumptuous bounty of amazing produce will explode into NYC from all the surrounding farmlands.  And that's sweeeeet.

For the past couple of months, I've been working as one of the managers at the 79th Street farmers market on the Upper West Side, and it's become more and more clear to me that supermarket produce just is not real.  I'm sorry, but have you ever placed a tiny, candy-red, freshly-picked strawberry next to a gigantic, bleached-out, water-logged supermarket strawberry?  In this particular case, bigger is not better, and the producers of these monstrosities should be ashamed!

But let's not blame it on the agro-giants, evil as they may be.  Let's take matters into our own hands, buy local produce, and vote with our dollar.  Hell yeah!

Ok, that's all for the rant.  Here's what I had for lunch:

Mediterranean Orzo & Chickpea Salad (printable version)
(serves 3-4)

1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup cook whole wheat orzo
1 green cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
2 scallions, trimmed and sliced thin
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
feta cheese (optional)

In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, orzo, cucumber, tomatoes, scallion, and mint.  Using a microplane or fine grater, zest the skin off of the lemon (clean it well first, and be careful not to zest the white pith - it can be bitter), then juice the lemon into the bowl.  Add the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss well. Crumble cheese on top, if using.  Let chill at least 30 minutes before serving, so the flavors can marinate.

* Note: Oil-cured black olives would make a nice addition here.  And canned tuna also works in place of the chickpeas, for a non-vegetarian version.