Ruth Reichl's Blog, page 40

Things I Love

I make fresh orange juice for my family every morning. It just tastes so much better when it's freshly squeezed.
I could do it with an electric juicer - I have a very effective Breville. Or I could do it with the classic hand juicer that I also own. But I choose to use this little antique, which I bought at a garage sale for $1 about fifteen years ago, because it starts my morning with a laugh.
Although it sits on my counter looking like a lovely little elephant, this Press-Or Midget Juicer (which was first sold at Hammacher Schlemmer in 1924), is an extremely effective tool. It presses out the juice without the bitter oils. It's fast. It's silent. And it's easy to clean.  It's a reminder that sometimes the simplest tools turn out to be the best.


A press-or midget turned up last week on EBay, and I almost bought it.  But then I looked down at the one I have, and it reminded me that I really don't need another. This one's well over fifty years old, and I'm sure it'll last another fifty. 

What to do with Purslane

A few random ideas....

Wash well and throw into salad.  They add a crisp, juicy, slightly lemony touch.

Use the leaves instead of lettuce to make sandwiches more interesting.

Make a Moroccan salad 

 Chop and steam the purslane for about 20 minutes until it's wilted and tender.  (If you throw a whole clove of garlic in for each cup of purslane, it will steam as well.) 

Drain the purslane, mash the garlic into the (much reduced) vegetable, and season it with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Stir in a bit of olive oil and serve with olives. If you have some preserved lemons, a bit of the chopped skin is a nice addition.

 

Make a Turkish Salad

Wash the purslane and pick off the leaves.

Mix enough yogurt to cover the leaves with a clove or two of minced garlic, some salt and maybe some urfa or maras pepper flakes. 

 

Make verdolagas with salsa verde tacos.

Begin by putting 4 tomatillos into a blender with 1 small green chile, half a small onion and a clove of garlic.  Whirl them into a thin liquid. 

Take a big heap of purslane, wash it well, chop it into 2 or 3 inch pieces and boil it for about 10 minutes. Drain.

Slick a skillet with oil and add the salsa verde. Bring it to a boil, turn the heat down and add the purslane. Salt and pepper to taste. (Diana Kennedy adds cumin as well.) Cook it down until it’s thickened. 

Add some queso fresco if you have it.

Serve wrapped into warm tortillas.  

Or try this even easier version: Steam the purslane, drain it, then put it in an oil-slicked pan with minced garlic, a chopped onion, a chopped tomato and a chile pepper.  Stir in some crumbled queso fresco.  Now stir in a couple of beaten eggs and scramble them very loosely.  Fold into tortillas and eat. 

 

Useful Tools

As I experiment with new foods, I find myself using different tools. Lately I've become so dependent upon my spice grinder that I no longer put it away, but leave it sitting on the kitchen counter.

This is what I love about this grinder: it makes short work of grinding achiote for Mexican spice pastes, reducing the hard little grains to powder in mere seconds. It's great with the Sichuan peppercorns I use for Ma Po Tofu (and the handy plastic cover makes storing the excess easy). You can add liquids and whole cloves of garlic when making marinades. When it comes to grinding nuts for tortes, it manages the job in a flash. And then, of course, there are curries, for which it is absolutely essential.

Easy to clean (the cup goes right into the dishwasher), and easy to store (it comes apart so it fits into a drawer), I recommend this little grinder to anyone who's enamored of spices. 

 

 

Conquering the Blues

The blueberries this year are so spectacular that I keep buying them. And well... they're getting ahead of me. Last night I realized that I had to either use the berries fast, or freeze them. So I threw together  slightly different tart.

Unlike the free-form tart I made a couple of weeks ago, this one has a cookie crust. I've never met a tart I didn't like, but I think  that when it comes to blueberries I prefer the crisp, grainy sweetness of this crust to a more conventional pie dough.  

Blueberry Tart in a Cookie Crust

Mix 6 tablespoons softened unsalted butter with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and a small egg. Add 1 1/4 cups flour and a pinch of salt and mix just until it comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for half an hour.

Roll out, between two sheets of plastic wrap, and put in a 9 inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Don’t worry if it breaks; this isn’t pie dough, it’s basically a cookie, and you can just patch it. Put into the freezer while you preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Toss 4 cups of blueberries with a quarter cup of sugar, 3 -4 tablespoons of flour, the zest of one lemon, a pinch of salt and a little squeeze of lemon juice. Pile into the tart shell and bake for about 50 minutes, until the crust is golden. 

 

 

Things I Love

I love to watch people pick up one of these baskets, surprised by its weight.  They look so much like the green paper containers you find at farmers' markets that their cool heft always comes as a shock.

Made of porcelain, these berry baskets are more than merely pretty; berries seem to last longer in them. And I've found they make wonderful gifts: fill one up with fresh-picked produce (apricots, garlic, fingerling potatoes) and suddenly you're the most welcome guest.

 

 

Useful, Meet Pretty

Here's the problem with graters: they're ungainly objects that take up way too much space in a drawer. And those sharp edges have a tendency to bite: reach blindly for one and it's likely to draw blood. 

This grater, however, is handsome enough to leave sitting out on the counter, there whenever you need a little flurry of cheese or an accent of onion. It has other attributes as well: it's made of recycled stainless steel and sustainably grown bamboo. On top of that, it's pretty cheap; when was the last time you found something this useful, pretty and durable for under fifteen bucks?

 

Things I Love

When some food new crosses my path that I've never seen before, I can't help myself: I buy it. Sometimes it turns out well, sometimes it doesn't. 

When I saw these Harvest Song preserved fresh walnuts - shells and all! - they seemed so strange I couldn't resist. They looked like huge black olives in thick syrup, and I tried to imagine what I might do with them.  Put them over ice cream? Serve them with cheese? Pair them with pate?

Yes, to all of the above.  They turn out to taste exactly the way you'd expect infant walnuts to taste - fresh, nutty, full of promise. They're particulalry good with powerful blue cheeses - Stilton comes to mind, but they're also great with gorgonzola.  They make a very interesting topping for vanilla or coffee ice cream (and I imagine they'd be terrific swirled into home-made ice cream). They're wonderful with chunky pate.  And I'm thinking come fall, I'll dice them into an intriguing topping for thick butternut squash soup. 

 

Peaches and Cream

Fresh Peach Cobbler with Buttermilk Crust

This is summer, served warm on a plate. Just peeling the peaches, uncovering that color right beneath the skin, makes me happy. As does the scent of this simple cobbler as it bakes, filling the house with its golden aroma. It’s a bit like a biscuit, with warm, ready-made jam. 

Peel 4 large peaches, and slice them directly into a glass or ceramic pie plate, being sure to capture the juice. Squeeze half a lemon over the fruit and toss in a quarter to a half cup of sugar (depending on your sweet tooth). Stir in a tablespoon of cornstarch.

Mix a cup of flour with a teaspoon of baking powder, a quarter teaspoon of baking soda and a half teaspoon of salt. Cut in half a stick of butter and very gently mix in a third cup of buttermilk. Plop the dough onto the fruit and bake in a 400 degree oven for about half an hour.

Serve warm, with a pitcher of cream.

The peaches, ready for the crust.

 

Ready for the oven.

 

Just out of the oven. 

Things I Love

Why didn't I know about this earlier?

This artisanal syrup from Morris Kitchens is a leap forward for lemon.  It's not merely fresh and bright, but also complex, with a sneaky, slightly salty undertone and a mysterious flavor that turns out to be the prickly voice of pink peppercorns mingled with the soothing tones of cardamom.


Add a splash of iced fizzy water and you've got a cool refreshing drink. With hot water it turns into excellent tea. And I find it's very nice in marinades, in salad dressings - and it adds an interesting quality to Asian dips.  (Try it with soy sauce and ginger for summer rolls.)


Summer just got easier.  

Things I Love

When some Roman friends gave me this little jar of truffle salt I stuck it in my suitcase and forgot all about it. It seemed like one of those stupid gimmicks for people who have too much money. But one day I was curious enough to open the jar. The warm, truffly aroma that came spilling out was so seductive that I simply had to try it. And then.... well I was hooked.

Unlike most flavored salts I’ve tried, this one is undeniably useful. The earthy undertone gives softly scrambled eggs a gorgeous richness.  It’s perfect as a finish for fresh pasta. Shower it onto a tenderloin of beef as it goes in the oven, and watch it coax out flavors you didn’t know were there. And a few sprinkles turns popcorn - which is never less than wonderful - into a serious celebration.

The version my friends found in the Veneto is difficult to find here. But I’ve found another brand at Dean & Deluca, and it’s an entirely suitable substitute.