Food and Crafts for All Occasions

The King of Pancakes: Dutch Baby

Dutch baby is an amazingly versatile, super delicious and astonishingly easy to make oven-baked hybrid of pancake and popover. It can be made sweet or savory and topped before or after baking with all sorts of tasty things. It’s good for breakfast, br/lunch or dinner and is suitable for both everyday meal or special occasions.

More Roasted Poultry: Goose for Thanksgiving

The other day we've been chatting with Sen, an owner of the best coffee shop in north Seattle 'Seattle Sunshine Coffee' (killer macchiatos, guys!) and the conversation gradually led to discussing favorite Thanksgiving treats. Well, with Thanksgiving being only a month away it's high time we started talking about holiday food here as well.

In our family, no one is big on roasted turkey. We’re just not fans of “white meat” overall, and turkey with its huge breast is mostly white meat. So, whenever we celebrate Thanksgiving at home, we prefer to roast some other kind of poultry: Cornish game hens, duck or, best of all, goose. When it comes to dark meat, nothing can beat goose!

Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Double Rub

When it comes to roasted chicken, for me nothing beats Cornish game hens. These little meaty and succulent birdies have much better flavor and texture than a regular chicken. And because of their smaller size, they cook much faster as well which make them suitable for a weeknight dinner. Especially, if you make some preparations in advance.

One Potato, Two Potato: Smashed Potatoes 2 Ways

One:

And two:

My husband is a huge – huuuuuge - fan of potatoes. Loves ’em spuds. All types. All ways of cooking. Well, some more than others, but ultimately – any. Fried, sautéed, boiled, roasted. Mashed and smashed. Grated in latkes. Grilled on skewers. As a side dish as well as in soups and salads. The more the better.

So, I cook potatoes quite often. And if you’re crazy about them too, I have some good recipes for you. Today it is smashed potatoes. Two ways. A traditional one, where you roughly mash skin-on boiled potatoes. And a relatively recent one, where you boil whole small potatoes, smash them by pressing each one flat and then roast of fry them till the crispy exterior.

Sautéed Chard with Kalamata Olives, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Basil

Sautéed chard makes a flavorful side dish to serve along with roasted or grilled fish or poultry. It’s also perfect as a stuffing for pies and quiches, as a pizza topping or as a sauce for pasta. The earthiness of chard plays wonderfully with sweetness of sun dried tomatoes, saltiness and tartness of Kalamata olives, sharpness of garlic and strong, fresh scent of basil.

Dinner: Pan Seared Duck Breast with Balsamic Pearl Onions, Sauteed Fennel and Pureed Cannellini Beans

As a rule, I serve our dinners family style so that everyone can help themselves to what they like and in the amounts they like. This way, nobody is compelled to eat what they don’t want to; food doesn’t get wasted and guests don’t have to feel embarrassed if they didn’t finish something on their plates or took 2

But once in a while, when there’s just two of us, we like to play restaurant and have our meals thoughtfully matched and plated. Like the other night, when I served pureed cannellini beans and sautéed fennel with a pan-seared duck breast with pearl onions in balsamic sauce and crispy fried sage.

Tomato Bisque with Cinnamon and Fresh Dill

Despite being a huge fan of soups in general, I've always felt indifferent toward cream soups. Mostly because of their quite monotonous, smoothie-like texture with nothing to chew on.

Ruby Red Rosemary

Recently, I tried a quite interesting cocktail in "Eureka!" where we stopped for a quick lunch after shopping at the University Village. The drink featured a mixture of gin, ruby red grapefruit juice and rosemary simple syrup spiced with bitters and served on ice. The waiter was very kind to share the recipe, which I couldn’t help tweaking a bit here and there to bring it to a perfection. Unlike in the restaurant, I serve it straight up so it it's not getting diluted by melting ice while you sip it.

Tomato Season: Two Favorite Salads

Tomatoes are my most favorite veggies and the only edible plant (besides cooking herbs) that we grow in our yard. We don’t have much of a planting space around the house, but whatever little we have Ilya turned into very tall raised beds. Which is perfect for tomatoes because, as those of you who grow tomatoes know, the deeper you plant tomatoes, the larger the root system, and the larger the root system, the larger the tops of the plants. And the larger the tops, the more tomatoes you’re going to harvest.

We usually plant cherry and grape tomatoes simply because Seattle summer is quite short and other kinds may not have enough time to mature and ripen to perfection. Our cherry tomatoes always turn out great and taste like little sugar bombs, as our neighbor and friend calls them.

Pizza, Part III: the Toppings

Besides a good dough, the success of pizza depends on its toppings. A tasty topping means a tasty pizza, right?  And to make a tasty topping is quite easy – all we need is quality components and a balanced combination of them.

Beans in Tomato Sauce wit Cinnamon and Fresh Dill

These beans seemed to be quite popular at our last Society lunch. I myself happen to be a big fan of this Greek inspired dish. I make it using either cannellini or garbanzo beans, though the Greeks, I believe, would take large white beans called Gigandes, which are, unfortunately, are not available in our stores yet.

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

 

When wild mushrooms are not in season, my next favorite mushrooms to cook are Portobello with their slightly sweet and slightly earthy flavor and dense, meaty texture. They work particularly great for stuffing.

Rau Ram Pesto

By pesto many mean only basil pesto, a paste-like sauce made of basil, pine nuts and parmesan cheese. But, in fact, any edible herb can be turned into a pesto. Like, for instance, my favorite Asian herb rau ram. So far, it can be found only in Asian supermarkets like HT Market and Ranch 99. Though, there is a hope that it will appear in regular supermarkets in the nearest future as the interest towards Asian and other world cuisines in Seattle keeps on growing.

In the late spring, you can buy a rau ram seedling in Swansons Nursery and grow your own plant.

Grilled Sardines

Ilya and I love sardines and buy them whenever we come across them in stores. Usually at Uwajimaya and occasionally at Whole Foods. If you haven’t tried them yet, I encourage you to. They have a distinct pleasant flavor and delicate oily consistency, which resemble those of mackerel and herring.

Feta Baked with Olives, Cherry Tomatoes, Olive Oil and Herbs

In cooking, I enjoy the process itself as much as the results, and because of that I often tend to choose elaborate dishes like homemade pasta or sausages, smoked ribs, stuffed vegetables and such. However, in a lack of time I have no problem whatsoever with cooking – and eating – simple dishes.