Homemade Harissa

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Homemade Harissa

1 to 2 TBSP ancho chili powder
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TBSP tomato paste
1 TSP sea-salt
2 TSP toasted ground coriander
1 TSP toasted ground caraway
1 TSP cayenne pepper, or more to taste
fresh lemon juice

Preparation

Grind all ingredients except lemon juice in a mortar and pestle or food processor. Add lemon juice to taste. Store in a  glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Will keep in the refrigerator for at least a month.

Recipe from Joyce Goldstein’s Mediterranean Fresh cookbook

Kale Salad with Roasted Vegetables & Feta

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Kale Salad with Roasted Vegetables & Feta

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; more for drizzling
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1 bunch Tuscan kale, center ribs and stems removed, leaves cut into 1-inch squares
1/4 cup minced shallots
3 medium golden beets (about 1 bunch), trimmed
1 1/4 cups pearl barley
4 ounces feta, crumbled
2 tablespoons (or more) unseasoned rice vinegar

Preparation

Whisk 1/4 cup oil, white wine vinegar, sugar, and orange zest in a large bowl to blend; season with salt and pepper. Add kale and shallots; mix until completely coated. Cover and chill until kale is tender, at least 3 hours.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375°. Arrange beets in a small baking dish and drizzle with a little oil. Season with salt and turn beets to coat. Cover with foil. Bake beets until tender when pierced with a thin knife, about 45 minutes. Let cool completely. Peel beets. Cut into 1/4-inch pieces (you should have about 2 cups).
Cook barley in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 45 minutes. Drain barley and spread out on a rimmed baking sheet, cool.
Add beets, barley, and feta to kale. Drizzle salad with remaining 2 tablespoons oil and 2 tablespoons rice vinegar; fold gently to combine. Season to taste with pepper and more rice vinegar, if desired. DO AHEAD Salad can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill.

Recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine

Salt-Box

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I love my new salt-box. This bad boy holds 6 different salts and is as cute as can be on my counter-top. It comes empty, so you can fill the box with whatever salts you have on hand. My personal 6 are as follows:

  • Maldon sea salt
  • Hawaiian red salt
  • Fleur de sel
  • Trapani sea salt
  • Eurasian black salt
  • Celtic grey salt
Salt Box
Salt-Box
As an aside, this is the salt-box the staff at Per Se bring to the table when you order the foie gras. Clearly it has many uses as the folks at the French restaurant on our Celebrity cruise ship utilized the same fun box for petit fours. 

Wednesday Night Fish Feast

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I sent my dear husband off to Frank’s Seafood Market with instructions to purchase “whatever Mr. Fishmonger would choose to take home for dinner tonight.” He returned with a slab of sushi-grade tuna so gorgeous it begged to be licked and then devoured raw. I couldn’t wait to crack open my bottle of Sicilian olive oil I had been saving to drizzle over supremely fresh fish.

Perfect tuna

Perfect tuna

Although the tuna could have easily been enjoyed as is, I did decide to give it a nice crust with a quick sear in a hot cast iron skillet. I then thinly sliced the tuna, placed it on a bed of wilted spinach and topped it with one of my favorite seafood sauces from Steven Raichlen’s Planet Barbecue. A riff on his recipe for Livornese sauce and photo follows.

Livornese sauce

Livornese sauce

Livornese Sauce:
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil. (Use your good stuff for this recipe as it shines)
Handful of pitted kalamata olives — feel free to chop them if you wish
2 to 3 cloves of garlic, sliced paper-thin
Handful of drained capers
Several chopped fresh tomatoes or good quality canned tomatoes in the winter months
Several tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley or other herbs
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over high heat. Quickly saute the garlic, capers, olives and parsley until garlic turns golden brown and crisp. Add tomatoes and a few squeezes of lemon juice and boil until reduced just a bit — 2 to 3 minutes should be plenty. Season with salt and pepper and spoon over fish. Drizzle additional olive oil over fish if needed.

Viola, that is all! Light, healthy and satisfying. All you really need is fresh fish and high quality olive oil to turn this into a fabulous dinner. Enjoy!


Seared ahi with Livornese sauce and roasted butternut squash

Seared ahi with Livornese sauce and roasted butternut squash

Vacation Dining Highs & Lows

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Dining High: Munching charcoal-grilled pork chops with mounds of fresh Greek salad on a sailboat in the Caribbean Sea. Really, who cares what we are eating? Could have been Beef a Roni out of a can given the spectacular views.

The WheelDD boatDDtoes

Dining Low: Said pork chop. It was still raw and gelatinous and jiggly inside. Ah well. Once again — the view. Who wants a belly full of pork anyway when a bikini and a dive into the warm blue waters are on the afternoon agenda?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Dining High: Enjoying a rich, tender, if-I-were-at-home-I-would-pick-up-and-gnaw-the-bone-braised lamb shank. I am not usually even a lamb girl, but I most definitely want to try this at home. And soon. So expect a braised lamb shank on my menu shortly.

Dining Low: Gluey hunks of fried plantain. Greasy, limp, fried plantain chips. Heavy (and fried yet again) patties of mashed plantains that tasted (and felt) like kindergarten paste going down.

Dining High: Milk-fed veal chop. I actually did pick up the chop and go to town on this one. Couldn’t help myself.

Dining Low: Overhearing 4 pesky women interrogate an extremely patient waiter about WHY, WHY, WHY their turkey Parmesan (as listed on the menu) indeed had Parmesan cheese on it.  Actually, this should really be a highlight — pure comedy.

Dining High: The cheese cart at a French restaurant on-board the ship. Oh the cheese!