One Hot Date

Beautiful, delicious, and incredibly easy:
Another amazing faux gourmet trick

Taste & See: My obsession with dates met a rather lovely match the other evening in Xunta, a Spanish tapas bar. Somewhere between the flamenco show (Thursdays @ 8:30, Saturdays @ 9:30) and the sangria (Small Pitcher, $21) I chanced upon a new delight, grilled bacon wrapped dates (Tapa $5.50).

I'm not a huge bacon fan but the salty crunch was a perfect counterpoint to the sweet, caramelly softness of the dates. I immediately made some for a dinner party & they were a hit with my hungry guests, who enjoyed nibbling on them as I scurried to finish up the rest of the meal. The appetizer literally took minutes to make and minutes to cook. Not to mention- they were delicious.

Do it Yourself: Why wait for a dinner party to make some for yourself? Treat yourself by throwing some in the oven; they'll be done before you even have a chance to decide on a take-out order.

Notes on Ingredients:

I substituted prosciutto for bacon; I find it easier to work with and like the taste better. Plus, for health reasons you can easily pick off the side fat without sacrificing any taste, a questionable exercise with bacon.

I also added cheese. Soft white goat cheese--chevre--is one common addition, as seen in this photo from Self Magazine below:


I, however, tried small slabs of a rich brown cheese from Norway, also made from goat's milk.

Domestically the cheese is known as Gjetost, but in Norway itself it is called Brutost. The cheese is thick, fudgy, and a little creamy, like cold peanut butter. It is utterly difficult to describe because it is utterly unlike any cheese I've ever had; the flavor is distinct, a bit sweet with notes of caramel and apricot. It is best in small doses, eaten slowly to take in the rich flavors little by little.

Gjetost seems to have a cult following, albeit a love it or hate it kind. One guy has even provided a helpful recipe for making it yourself, boiling whey down like a syrup to concentrate the salts, sugars & proteins left when whey is separated from the curds. I don't feel like I miss out by buying a slab at my local deli.


I may no longer be a date virgin, but I'm still pretty inexperienced so I don't have any real thoughts on the kinds of dates to buy. One date vendor claims Medjool dates are the best:
"Grown exclusively for royalty in ancient times . . . Medjool Dates will delight even the most discriminating connoisseur."

All I know for sure is pitted dates remove about half the prep time, so my Faux Gourmet self is a major fan. I have only ever had dried dates so I'm not sure how the same would work if you could get your hands on fresh ones.

What you need:

Dates, approx 4 per person
Prosciutto
Gjetost, brown Norwegian goat cheese
Skewer sticks

What you need to do:

Turn on oven to 350 F
Wrap dates with strip of prosciutto and sliver of cheese
Spear with skewer


Set skewers on pan and place in oven for about 5 minutes on each side, or until prosciutto is nicely crispy and brown



That's it! Now all you have to do is sit back and take the compliments from your dinner guests or engage in your own sighs of satisfaction.

Dig a Little Deeper: If you want to get creative with your Gjetost or dates, check out the ideas (and tasty photos) on these other food blogs:

Spoonful of Sugar has a lovely little ode to Gjetost & some suggested ways to eat it, including a recipe for reindeer stew
Ooh you tasty little things offers a creative use of Gjetost in the form of little apple tarts
Mango Power Girl shares her momma's recipe for Winter Dates & some lovely photos

My New Love Affair

"Those photos look like porn."

Taste & See: Have you ever seen a candid portrait of someone caught in a moment of pure, artless beauty? Not beauty because the subject objectively is beautiful, but because the eye capturing the image views his subject generously, indeed, uncovers beauty in something that is, perhaps, quite ordinary to an untrained eye. The adoration is channeled into the resulting photograph; you see this image, and immediately perceive the photographer truly loves his subject.

This was my gut reaction to my own photographs of the Persian & pan-Mediterranean food below. When I first showed a friend a full-screen photo of the jumbo shrimp, below, she promptly responded: "Those photos look like porn." The roasted vegetables and grilled prawns are luscious, even lusty. Soft candlelight bathes the food, giving mere glimpses and shadowing the rest in a kind of hidden intimacy, to be known only with senses beyond sight. The food is, how do I say it . . . sexy, objects of my unabashed adoration all.

It began with a goodbye dinner for a Persian colleague this past summer in Bangkok. Or was it a birthday meal at the lovely Zatinya in DC last February snug around a fireplace as flurries of snow built up outside? Or . . . well, maybe this particular affair crept up surreptitiously. All I know is now I see my own photographs and know immediately I am in love.

This is still a rather recent obsession, so please pardon the lack of tried & true recipes as I get to know a new range and combination of flavors: cinnamon, cumin saffron, raisins, almonds, dates, lemon juice, garlic, parsley. For now, please feel free to lust after the food in the photographs. I'm not a jealous girl; I'm happy to share this particular affair with all who wish to partake.

Zatinya: I have seriously considered hopping aboard the Chinatown bus for the mere pleasure of a meal at Zatinya, conveniently located in DC's own Chinatown. I have no doubt the food fantasies would pass the hours there, and the sighs of contentment the hours home. In the mean time I content myself with a visit every time I'm in town. Zatinya serves mezze, small platters meant to be shared with the whole table. Their website kindly informs that:

"Mezze, also known as meze, maza and mezethes, are the small plates of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East . . . the extensive menu reflects the rich, regional diversity of classical and contemporary Greek, Turkish and Lebanese cuisine. It wouldn’t be accurate to describe mezze as an appetizer. These small bites are not typically served preceding a meal. Mezze are better described as party food, a meal meant for socializing. The perfect thing to serve at gathering of friends and family. A drink, a little conversation and mezze shared by everyone at the table."

I am perfectly happy to oblige with the drink and conversation, though with such lovely dishes even the best of us may find ourselves hoping a sudden bout of illness among our dining partners forces us to enjoy all the food ourselves.

During my last visit we began with Sarikopite ($7), a butternut squash puree in phyllo over yogurt topped with arugula and a honey vinaigrette.


Lately I've been loving the crispy-outside creamy-inside contrast, present here. Mildly bitter arugula provided a second lovely contrast to the lightly sweet dressing and squash puree filling.


I have high hopes of recreating the dish below. The flavors involved-- jumbo shrimp, butter, parsley, garlic, olive oil-- have so much potential they hardly need a skillful chef to delight.


What they do require is a deft hand, patience & trust; one must cook only just to the precise moment the beautiful shrimp are done, but not rubbery. As with tuna, it is all too easy to make lovely raw ingredients utterly unappealing by mishandling. Avoiding this is a skill that only comes through practice . . . which means I'll just have to keep practicing this dish at home. How I suffer for my art.


Seared Sea Scallops with Yogurt-Dill Sauce ($8.50), like seared-tuna, take patience, precision and faith. You simply cannot overcook them or all the time gone into prep will be wasted, the meaty sweetness giving way to flavorless rubber. These, however, were gorgeous, just a bit of a caramelized crust seared on top.


The absolute highlight of the meal came while I was absentmindedly sampling the waiter-recommended Seasonal Mushrooms ($10). I had ordered them with great hesitation; how good could plain mushrooms be? Turns out, very good.


A light dose of high quality olive oil & slivered almonds bring out a rich, woodsy flavor in the mushrooms. But the true jewel came in an unexpected soft caramelly jolt that momentarily brought conversation to a standstill. I gazed heavenwards and shut my eyes to absorb the incredible flavor-- and my partner thought I was choking. No, just admiring a piece of luscious roasted date.


I kid you not, when a friend asked about my weekend, all I could think to report was, "I had an amazing date." It took me a minute to realize this statement was open to misinterpretation.

We finished with meat, clawing to the bone two Lamb Chops with Hommus Bil Toum ($11).


The grilled lamb chops were served with roasted garlic atop a chickpea puree. I feel there is no need to elaborate on the pleasure of eating this particular dish; lamb chops speak for themself.

I accompanied my meat with a Mavrodaphne/Merlot, Antonopoulos, Achaia, Greece ‘05 ($12) which was a bit heavy on the tannins at first sip, but smoothed out as it had some time to breathe. (For those unfamiliar with wine terminology, 'breathe' just means the wine has some exposure to air in the glass and mellows out a bit.

Ravagh: When I planned a recent outing for a group I was charged with finding something charming, approaching fancy, and cheap as possible. I did a favor to my reputation for good eats by choosing Persian food from Ravagh, on recommendation from D, a Persian friend who, along with half of Yelp, claims it is the best Persian food in the city.


D helped me concoct a set menu scanning a variety of delights, including some surefire hits destined to please the least-adventurous eaters, and a few entirely new dishes. But with suggestions like Pomegranate & Walnut Chicken over Crispy Rice how can one go wrong? Best of all, our spread of multiple appetizers & entrees from several different families of food was a mere $10 pp. My only complaint-- I was forced to share all these delights with a huge group of equally infatuated eaters, none of whom wanted to hold off until everything had been properly photographed. I suppose is it my culinary duty to return for more involved research.

Our menu included, among other things, Mast & Moosir, homemade yogurt with shallots ($3.50); Torshi, a plate of homemade pickled vegetables ($4.00); Kashk Bademjan, eggplant with tomato sauce, seasonings & yogurt sauce ($5.00); Ash Reshteh, a Persian soup with vegetables, chick peas & kidney beans ($4.00); various Kabobs, each of which come with rice, grilled vegetables and a side salad; and several stews, such as Khoresh Fesenjan, the aforementioned pomegranate walnut chicken ($12.00).

To start with, piles of warm Flatbread:


And Crudites for munching:


Those lusty Grilled Vegetables:




Meat Kabobs & heaping sides of Rice, no threat to anyone unsure of their readiness to venture too far out, but thanks to succulent flavors and tender meat, far from boring:


To my dismay, no one ended up being unadventurous and I had to share the more intriguing, richly flavored dishes with everyone else. Alas. The important thing was everyone got to try a little something new and wonderful. And that the food was so sexy, it made us feel like dancing . . . When was the last time you left dinner saying that?

What's in the Fridge?

What do you get when you cross a fridge full of leftover ingredients and a good imagination? Read on.

Taste and See: Today's entry has no restaurants, no street stalls, not even a finished product to photograph. Instead, inspired by an upcoming dinner I'm hosting, today I take on the challenge of whipping up something tasty from the contents of my fridge. No grocery trip, no asking the neighbors for a cup of sugar. Just me, my imagination, and a fridge full of half-used, unrelated food.

I specialize in what I like to call faux gourmet: making something you could get somewhere fancy in even the tiniest NY kitchen when the budget and time constraints of . . . well, we know who we are. I have never been one to follow directions [images immediately flash to mind: dad screeching 'cut with the knife away from you!', smoke filling the kitchen I set on fire when I left the rice cooking too long, etc.]. I prefer to cook creatively, which gives me plenty of room to discover shortcuts. Which I need, not merely because of aforementioned constraints, but also because I don't really do ramen and frozen peas. Maybe I have a refined palette, or maybe I'm a food snob, but I'm a food snob who pulls herself up by her apron straps and, alla Project Runway, makes it happen.

Tonight presents a special challenge. I'm not content to spread my faux gourmet gospel if it means writing up a massive shopping list and tromping out in the cold at the last minute. It's not [only] that this girl is a bit keeks, [my personal shortcut for Thai word keykeyet, meaning, a little too lazy to be bothered right now], but I must confess I take an inordinate pleasure in using things up, and making something beautiful while so doing. And my tiny fridge didn't have room for any more food anyway.

So, what are the raw ingredients? In no particular order, I had [small portions of, and edging towards expiration] the following:

-approx 1/2 cup cream cheese
-2 eggs
-approx 1 cup brown rice
-1/2 can tomato puree
-4 slices provolone & 4 oz chevre cheeses
-6 green onions
-8 button mushrooms
-a hunk of ginger
-lemon juice
-1 orange pepper
-3 chicken breasts
-an onion
-vegetable broth base
-1/2 can pumpkin puree
-1/2 jar applesauce
-1.5 cups 2% milk
-approx 1 cup sour cream
-butter
-about 12 big sage leaves
-garlic*

*I didn't chop all the garlic in the recipes below. Trader Joes sells pre-chopped garlic in jars. You'll never again have to question whether time spent chopping up garlic is worth it; throw it in!

Now, I'll confess upfront I didn't limit myself strictly to the fridge; any self-respecting faux-gourmet needs to have on hand basics like olive oil and Spanish paprika. You don't have Spanish paprika? What are you doing reading a food blog? OK, that was a joke. But seriously, shell out a little for some good spices and olive oil next time you go shopping, and when you finding yourself stuck with spaghetti and tomato sauce, you'll be shocked at what a dash of some Spanish paprika can do.

So, back to the task at hand: Cooking dinner. What would you make? I came up with

Curried Pumpkin Soup
Moroccan Style Chicken Breasts
Brown Rice Tart with Cheese Tomato Filling

***

do it yourself:

Now that you've had some time to think about I'll share my recipes, and Tuesday when we dig in I'll let you know if they're any good. :)

1. Curried Pumpkin Soup
[thanks to Seth Ryan Winery from Columbia Valley, Washington, for the original]

Melt about 2 tbsp butter and some chopped garlic in a big saucepan
Saute some 1 chopped onion til your house smells real good
Season with 2 tsp curry powder
Stir in a about 2 cups vegetable broth, 1/2 large can pumpkin puree, 1/2 cup applesauce, pinch salt, pepper & nutmeg, & 1/2 cup Gewürztraminer wine [Yes, I did have it on hand . . . no cheating here! You can use any white, but G-miner is nice because it is a bit spicy . . . dangerous, if you will. Goes well with curry.]
Cook about 10 minutes
Add 1 cup milk and cook 5 minutes more.
Adjust amounts of liquid & cooking time to make thicker/thinner. Blend in food processor, optional. Serve with sour cream.

Checklist: pumpkin, onion, veg broth, garlic, applesauce, sour cream

2. Moroccan-Style Chicken Breasts
[thanks to Cooking Light, October 2000 for the original]

Part 1: Chicken
Mix 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp cardamom, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp red pepper, 1/4 tsp black pepper
Rub chicken chunks with spice mixtures and store in ziplock bag for quick cooking day of dinner

Part 2: Sauce
Saute garlic, chopped up ginger & olive oil with chopped up pepper
Add chopped up button mushrooms when pepper is soft
Stir in about 1 cup tomato sauce & 1 tbsp lemon juice + a dash of all spices used above; stir till mushrooms are soft

Part 3: Day of
Cook chicken in a dash of olive oil
Reheat sauce over stove, adding 1/2 cup vegetable broth
Serve together

NB: I substantially revised this dish from the CL version; theirs called for making the sauce in the same pan as the chicken was cooking and serving it as a single dish. I have vegetarians coming so I separated the two. I also completely obliterated the contents of the [chickpea & zucchini based] sauce CL described, so if it doesn't taste good you can always hunt out the original recipe.

Checklist: orange pepper, mushrooms, chicken breasts, tomato sauce, veg broth, lemon juice, garlic, ginger

3. Brown Rice Tart with Cheesy Tomato Filling
[Even though I altered this recipe more than the CL one, I will still credit "The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook" for giving me a method of getting rid of old brown rice in a tasty fashion.]

Part 1: Crust
Mix 1 cup brown rice, 2 eggs, and 2 chopped up slices of provolone cheese
Stuff into bottom of small pan [I used springform cheesecake pan, all I have]
Cook at about 400 for 15 minutes

Part 2: Filling
Mix 1 can diced tomatoes, 4 oz chevre cheese, a dash olive oil & lemon juice, 1 tsp chopped up garlic, 6 chopped up green onions, and 12 chopped up sage leaves
Spread over rice crust
Pour over filling 1/2 cup cream cheese + 1/2 cup milk, blended with a dash . . . Spanish Paprika
Bake 1 hour at 350.

Checklist: Rice, eggs, provolone cheese, chevre sage, garlic, lemon juice, green onions, cream cheese, milk

Voila!