Fennel Gets its Due

One vegetable that all to often gets the proverbial diss is fennel.

People are always asking me what they can possibly do with it and how they can mask the strong taste.

If you're unfamiliar with fennel, it is a type of plant with an edible bulb, which resembles pale celery—only shorter and fatter. The taste is similar to a very mild black licorice. Rich in fiber and antioxidants, fennel is a versatile addition to cooking often found in soups and salads.

As a fan of fennel, I prefer to make it the star of a dish, rather than try to cover it up with other flavors. With just a handful of ingrendients, most of which I have onhand at any given time, I threw together some quick pan-fried fennel a la Martha Stewart. I had saved a recipe for Green Garlic Dip a while ago and have been trying to figure out how I could include it in or with a dish.

The two went together great and made a perfect summer appetizer. Everyone tried some and I didn't get one complaint (and my group doesn't mince words). The fennel had a nice crunch that paired nicely with the bread crumb coating and the fresh, subtle flavor of the green garlic.

Pan-Fried Fennel
from Martha Stewart

2 medium fennel bulbs
1 cup all-purpose flour, for dredging
1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs, for dredging
2 teaspoons coarse salt, plus more for seasoning
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, plus more for seasoning
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil, just enough to yield about 1/4 inch in the pan
2 lemons, cut into wedges One recipe Green Garlic Dip

Remove tops and fronds from fennel bulbs. Slice each bulb in half widthwise. Cut each half into slices about 1/8 inch thick.

Pour flour into a medium bowl and bread crumbs into another. Season with the salt and pepper. Crack eggs into a third bowl; whisk until frothy. Season with salt and pepper. Dredge fennel lightly in flour, then in egg, and then in bread crumbs, shaking off excess after each step.

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Check to make sure the oil is hot enough by tossing a pinch of flour into the pan. If the flour sizzles, the oil is ready.

Fry fennel slices until golden brown on each side, about 30 seconds per side, working in batches so as not to crowd pan. Drain on paper towels; season with salt. Serve hot with Green Garlic Dip (recipe follows).

Green Garlic Dip
from Daniel Patterson, chef and owner of Coi in San Francisco

¾ cup minced green garlic, white and light green parts only
1 egg
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon red-wine vinegar
6 tablespoons fruity extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup pure olive oil
Salt

In a blender, purée the egg, vinegars and cooled green garlic on medium-high. With the blender running, add the oils in a slow, steady stream to emulsify. Season with salt.

If They Only Knew

Every cook has at least a few go-to recipes in her repertoire. You know the recipes. They're the dishes that you know you can put together with little fanfare. All the while, your guests ooh and ahh, wondering how you do it all.

With extra time at a minimum these days, I appreciate those recipes that are easy and flavorful. Usually, this entails using many ingredients and following lengthy directions. Not the case with this great asparagus Gruyere tart recipe I found recently. With just five ingredients, most of which you might have onhand at any given time, and about 30 minutes, you have an elegant appetizer or filling side dish. A leafless member of the lily family, asparagus takes three years to produce the spears that we eat. It may take long to grow, but it takes very little time to throw together this lovely little asparagus tart.

The Gruyere adds a very distinctive sharpness without being overpowering. The asparagus is cooked just long enough to border on being tender and crisp. Each bite is offset by the neutrality of the buttery, flaky crust. Try adding this recipe to your tried-and-true rotation. No one will know it's that easy. And, I won't tell ...

Asparagus Gruyere Tart
from Martha Stewart

Flour, for work surface
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
5 1/2 ounces (2 cups) Gruyere cheese, shredded
1 1/2 pounds medium or thick asparagus
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry into a 16-by-10-inch rectangle. Trim uneven edges. Place pastry on a baking sheet. With a sharp knife, lightly score pastry dough 1 inch in from the edges to mark a rectangle. Using a fork, pierce dough inside the markings at 1/2-inch intervals. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.
Remove pastry shell from oven, and sprinkle with Gruyere. Trim the bottoms of the asparagus spears to fit crosswise inside the tart shell; arrange in a single layer over Gruyere, alternating ends and tips. Brush with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Bake until spears are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

Cut into eight squares.

Weight Watchers = 7 points

I Blame the Beer

I feel duped.

All these years, American culture has led me to believe that corned beef and cabbage are traditional Irish fare.

I recently discovered that, in fact, corned beef gained popularity in colonial America as an economic way to preserve meat. It has since become an American tradition to eat corned beef every year on March 17 and isn't really Irish at all. Not that I'm surprised, really, since it seems the majority of those I know who suck down green beer and sport kitschy pins with sayings like, "Kiss me, I'm Irish" aren't even Irish in the slightest. What's that saying? Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day.

While I have eaten many a plate of corned beef and boiled veggies in my time (and even had the occasional glass of green beer), I've never actually made the meal from scratch. I've always just had those heat-and-serve jobbies that show up in your local meat department each spring. In fact, up until a few weeks ago, I never gave much thought to how corned beef came about. When my March Bon Appetit arrived in my mailbox recently, I found a great article about and recipe for making your own corned beef at home. I was hooked. And the kicker? You brine the brisket for eight days in lager and then cook it in Guinness. The instructions are easy. I would say the hardest part about brining your own corned beef is finding roomin the fridge to keep it for eight days. Otherwise, anyone can do this. If you can pour a beer, you can make corned beef. The only modification I made was not using the Insta Cure. Without it, the meat turned a little gray. But, the recipe mentioned that would be the case if you don't use it, and personally I didn't see the need to consume nitrates unnecessarily.

Not wanting to be a total Irish poser, I paired the corned beef with Colcannon, a truly authentic Irish dish dominated by potatoes and cabbage.

Now, where did I put my "Kiss me, I'm Irish" pin ...

Just under the wire and actually a little late, this is my submission to Emiline's St. Patty's Day Pub Crawl.

Homemade Irish Corned Beef and Vegetables
from Bon Appetit

Brine:
6 cups water
2 cups lager beer
1 1/2 cups coarse kosher salt
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Insta Cure no. 1* (optional)
1/4 cup pickling spices
1 6- to 8-pound flat-cut beef brisket, trimmed, with some fat remaining

Corned beef and vegetables:
1 12-ounce bottle Guinness stout or other stout or porter
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 whole allspice
1 dried chile de árbol,** broken in half
Cheesecloth
12 baby turnips, trimmed, or 3 medium turnips or rutabagas, peeled, quartered
8 unpeeled medium white-skinned or red-skinned potatoes (about 3 pounds)
6 medium carrots, peeled
4 medium onions, peeled, halved through root ends
2 medium parsnips, peeled, cut into 2-inch lengths
1 2-pound head of cabbage, quartered

For brine:
Pour 6 cups water and beer into large deep roasting pan. Add coarse salt; stir until dissolved. Add sugar; stir until dissolved. If desired, stir in Insta Cure No. 1. Mix in pickling spices. Pierce brisket all over with tip of small sharp knife. Submerge brisket in liquid, then top with heavy platter to weigh down. Cover and refrigerate 4 days.

Remove brisket from brine. Stir liquid to blend. Return brisket to brine; top with heavy platter. Cover; refrigerate 4 days. Remove brisket from brine. Rinse with cold running water. do ahead Can be made 2 days ahead. Wrap corned beef in plastic, cover with foil, and refrigerate.

For corned beef and vegetables:
Place corned beef in very large wide pot. Add stout and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Wrap cheesecloth around bay leaves, coriander seeds, allspice, and chile, enclosing completely, and tie with kitchen string to secure. Add spice bag to pot with beef; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until beef is tender, about 2 1/4 hours. Transfer beef to large baking sheet.

Add turnips and all remaining vegetables to liquid in pot; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil gently until all vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to baking sheet with beef. Return beef to pot and rewarm 5 minutes. Discard spice bag.

Cut beef against grain into 1/4-inch thick slices. Arrange beef and vegetables on platter. Serve with Horseradish Cream and Guinness Mustard.

*Insta Cure No. 1 is a mixture of sodium nitrate and salt that is used in cured and smoked sausages to prevent botulism. In this brine, its only purpose is to prevent the meat from turning gray, so you can certainly leave it out. You'll find Insta Cure No. 1 at sausagemaker.com.

**A thin, red, very hot three-inch-long chile; sold at some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores and Latin markets.

Colcannon
from Martha Stewart

Serves 4

1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
1 savoy cabbage, trimmed, pale-green leaves finely shredded (4 cups)
1 leek, pale-green and white parts only, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Coarse salt

1. Preheat broiler. Peel and quarter potatoes, and place in a medium saucepan; add enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until tender when pierced with a fork, about 15 minutes. Drain potatoes and return to saucepan. Mash with a potato masher or pass through a ricer; cover pan to keep warm.


2. Meanwhile, in another saucepan, combine cabbage, leek, milk, 2 tablespoons butter, and nutmeg; season with salt. Cover, and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until cabbage and leek is soft but not browned, about 15 minutes. Stir into potatoes.


3. Spread mixture in an 8-inch square baking dish. Make a small well in the center, and place under the broiler until lightly browned on top, about 5 minutes.


4. Remove from broiler. Place remaining 2 tablespoons butter in well. Serve immediately, spooning melted butter from well onto each serving, if desired.

Weeknight Dinner with No Drama

Recently, I asked for dinner suggestions from some fellow cyber foodies. BMK suggested a great Martha Stewart recipe for Chicken with Tomatoes and Mushrooms. She said it was one of her new favorites. Glancing at the list of ingredients, which is short, I admit I didn't anticipate this one to knock my socks off. But, I'm pulling the crow out of my mouth as I type this because this dish was actually extremely flavorful. I did add a little bit of Italian seasoning (but I think it would have also been find without that addition) and sprinkled some freshly grated Parmesan (I love me some cheese). It's a solid meal that I definitely could see making again for a quick weeknight dinner. If you need to get a little more mileage out of the meal, I think it would also go well on a bed of pasta.

I encourage you to head on over to BMK's blog, Reservations Not Required, for the recipe.

What's for Dinner?

It's an age-old question that we have all asked of someone else at one point in our lives. Sometimes its hard to find inspiration and easier to just take the path of least resistance by serving up one of my go-to dishes.

But, that's boring. And one of the reasons why I blog about cooking is to challenge myself to get creative in the kitchen.

I pour over my many foodie magazines and scour the internet looking for that one recipe that speaks to me. Tonight I decided to not work so hard at it and randomly picked an ingredient as a theme for dinner. Ginger. Once I decided, it actually didn't take me long to choose these two recipes. Prep time was brief and the number of ingredients was very manageable, with most items already in our pantry and fridge. While my pictures turned out a bit yellow (I'm currently using a point-and-shoot number and quickly finding that I need to reconsider my equipment), the food was bright and elegantly understated. No muss, no fuss. Just robust flavor.

Chicken with Ginger
from Martha Stewart




1 three-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch-thick matchsticks (1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup sliced scallions

1. Soak ginger in cold water 10 minutes; drain.
   
2. Heat oil in a skillet over high heat; brown chicken in two batches, 6 to 8 minutes. Set aside.
   
3. In same skillet over medium heat, cook ginger, onion, and garlic, stirring until browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar; cook over high heat until thick, 3 to 4 minutes. Add chicken; stir to warm. Remove from heat; stir in scallions.

Ginger-Sesame Bok Choy
from Martha Stewart

1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
5 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
4 to 5 heads baby bok choy, (1 pound), each halved lengthwise (I ended up using one large head of regular bok choy, since the baby heads in my store looked a little wilty)

1. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Set aside.


2. In a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid, bring 1 cup water and ginger to a boil. Add the bok choy; reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook until leaves are vibrant green and stems are fork-tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain well; discard ginger.


3. Transfer bok choy to a serving platter; drizzle with the vinegar-soy mixture, and serve immediately.

Nuts for Pistachios

My favorite thing about pistachios (besides being tasty) is their visual appeal. I hand-shelled this bowl as I prepared to make some pistachio shortbread. It caught my eye because the color of the nuts just popped against the white of the bowl and the counter, the chartreuse green complemented by strokes of light-purple contrast. Offering a delicate and subtle flavor, pistachios are one of those rare foods that are appropriate for sweet and savory dishes alike.

Chocolate-Dipped Pistachio Shortbread

Adapted from this Martha Stewart recipe.

1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1/4 cup baker's sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate morsels

1. In the bowl of a food processor, grind pistachios by pressing the pulse button a handful of times until you have very small pieces. It's important to not overdo it as you will end up with a powder. Add half the pistachios to baker's sugar and and half to the flour.
   
   
2. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium speed (using the paddle attachment) until fluffy. Add vanilla and salt, and beat for 1 minute. Add yolks one at a time, and beat until evenly combined. Add flour and pistachio mixture, and mix until just combined. Remove dough, form into a rectangle; wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour.
   
   
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a 1/8-inch thickness. Brush dough with the egg white to moisten. Cover evenly with pistachio-sugar mixture. Lightly press mixture into dough with the rolling pin. Using a small circular cookie cutter, cut cookies as close as possible to avoid waste. Place on prepared baking sheets.
   
   
4. Bake until edges are just lightly golden, about 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.
   
   
5. When cooled, melt chocolate chips and dip one half of each cookie.

The original recipe indicated cooking time should be 18 minutes. This is what I ended up with after cooking for that long—burnt little discs that masked the nutty pistachio taste and simply weren't good. I reduced cooking time to 12 minutes and had much better results. Since oven temps can vary, cooking time should be adjusted accordingly.

The Most Tender Meatloaf Ever

Meatloaf is one of those dishes I usually avoid. Reason being is that no matter what recipe I try, I usually end up with what can only be described as an overcooked, dry and flavorless giant hamburger patty. I came across this recipe on marthastewart.com that promised to deliver rich flavor and smooth texture. Not only was this dish very tasty, but it was extremely easy to make. Prep time took less than 15 minutes and I liked the fact that it contains pureed veggies, which helps us add more vitamins and nutrients to our diet. My perception on meatloaf has changed; I will definitely be adding this recipe to my list of favorites.

Meatloaf 101 with Mrs. Kostyra
Serves 8

Ingredients

4 slices white bread, torn into pieces
2 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into eighths
2 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 large egg
1 cup ketchup
3 teaspoons dry mustard
1 tablespoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place bread in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade; pulse until fine crumbs form. Transfer to a medium bowl, and add ground beef.
   


2. Place onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and parsley in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade; pulse until fine. Add to meat mixture, using hands to mix well. Add egg, 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 teaspoons dry mustard, salt, and pepper; use hands to combine thoroughly. Place in an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch loaf pan.
   


3. Combine remaining 1/2 cup ketchup, remaining teaspoon dry mustard, and brown sugar in a bowl; stir until smooth.
   


4. Brush mixture over meatloaf; place in the oven with a baking pan set on the rack below to catch drippings. Cook until a meat thermometer inserted in the center reads 160 degrees, about 90 minutes. If top gets too dark, cover with foil, and continue baking.

My Rating:
Excellent

Modifications:
I used a combination of ground beef and ground pork, about 2 1/4 pounds and 1 pound respectively. This yielded a little more mixture than anticipated so I ended up using two loaf pans. So as not to dry out the meat, I reduced cooking time to 60 minutes. This was the perfect amount of time; I suggest reducing the cooking time as indicated if you make two smaller loaves.

Tip:
Take the leftovers and make a meatloaf sandwich. Slice the meatloaf a little thinner than normal, top with some shredded mozzarella, and pop in the microwave for about 90 seconds. Put it all between two slices of your favorite bread and you have a tasty lunch!

Updated 3/2/2008
Weight Watchers = 7 points