Rainbow Chard Dip

This week's theme: summer entertaining. I'll be presenting a collection of dishes perfect for a summer dinner party. These dishes use seasonal ingredients and, importantly, can be made ahead of time so that once your guests arrive, you're not slaving away in the kitchen instead of enjoying the appetizer and cocktails with them.


This simple dip that makes a nice starter to serve with cocktails or wine before a meal. I served it with cut up pitas, but it could go with other things: carrot sticks, celery sticks, pretzels, potato chips, etc. The recipe I based it on called for sour cream. I intended to use nonfat plain Greek yogurt but ditched that plan when I discovered I accidentally bought blueberry Greek yogurt. Oops. So I used some milk and lemon juice instead, and it turned out just great.

Rainbow Chard Dip
Inspired by Swiss Chard Dip, Northeast Flavor

6-8 rainbow chard leaves, stems removed, leaves roughly chopped
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. smoked paprika
Salt to taste
Pitas, cut vegetables or other dipping vessels

1. In a saucepan fitted with a steamer insert and filled below the steamer with water, steam chard covered over medium heat until it has wilted, about 5-10 minutes. Squeeze out moisture and set aside.

2. Combine chard, cream cheese, milk, lemon juice, paprika and salt in a food processor. Blend until combined. Chill in the refrigerator to firm up.

Ricotta Tartine with Chicken, Arugula and Asparagus Salad, Honey-Cinnamon Almonds and Garlic-Sautéed Squash Blossoms

This dish has an awful lot going on, owing to the fact that I had the rather mad idea to combine two dishes into one. I guess that makes this a "mash up."

It came about because as I started making dinner one night, I discovered that I'd completely forgotten about the squash blossoms I'd picked up at the market. I'd planned to use them in a tartine with homemade herbed ricotta. So rather than let it go to waste, I decided to incorporate it into another dish I'd planned to make using the ricotta: an arugula-asparagus salad with chicken and honey-cinnamon almonds.

Homemade ricotta mixed with herbs and thinned out with a little milk

Miraculously, the combination it worked pretty well. The ricotta-slathered toast served as the anchor of the dish, upon which I built the salad topped with the sautéed squash blossoms and a sprinkle of the almonds.

Squash blossoms

This was my first time using squash blossoms. A lot of the recipes I read called for stuffing them with cheese and deep frying them. They are so delicate though; I could see trying to stuff them without breaking them being a real hassle. Maybe I can try that later, but for now it worked great to just sauté them with some garlic. To prep them, carefully open the blossoms, remove the stamen--the pollen-covered nub in the middle (and try to not think about how that's basically plant castration), remove any pointy dark leaves at the base of the blossom, and gently rinse.

Ricotta Tartine with Chicken, Arugula and Asparagus Salad, Honey-Cinnamon Almonds and Garlic-Sautéed Squash Blossoms

Serves 2

2 tbsp. olive oil
3/4 lb. chicken breast cutlets
Seasoned salt and fresh-ground black pepper
1/4 cup slivered almonds
Ground cinnamon (a generous sprinkle; probably about 1/8-1/4 tsp.)
1 tsp. honey
1 lb. asparagus, stalks trimmed
Olive oil spray
2 thick slices of Italian bread
Sea salt
1/2 cup homemade ricotta (see recipe here, may substitute store-bought fresh ricotta, see note)
Fresh-ground black pepper
2 tbsp. chopped Italian parsley
1 tbsp. milk (optional)
2 cups arugula
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced
8-10 squash blossoms, stamen and pointy leaves removed


Note: The homemade ricotta I made was rather thick. To make it more spreadable, I added a couple tablespoons of milk and mixed it in with the herbs.


1. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Sauté chicken breasts until cooked through, about 10 minutes, flipping halfway and seasoned with salt and fresh-ground black pepper. Set aside until cooled and then slice.


2. Heat a small frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the slivered almonds and cook until browned, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Add cinnamon and honey and stir to coat evenly. Set aside to cool.


3. Turn on the oven broiler. Spray asparagus with olive oil spray and season with sea salt. Broil for 7 minutes until tender. Cut the stalks in half or smaller.


4. Spray both sides of two pieces of crusty Italian bread with olive oil and broil until lightly browned.


5. In a small bowl, use a fork to mix the ricotta, pepper and chopped parsley, adding a little milk if needed to smooth out the mixture. 


6. Put the arugula in a salad bowl. Whisk together the extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar. Toss with the arugula.


7. In a medium pan, heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté by itself briefly until fragrant. Add cleaned squash blossoms and sauté gently for a few minutes until the base of the blossom is tender.


8. To assemble the dish, put the toast on a plate, spread half the ricotta mixture on top, a handful of dressed arugula, half the asparagus, half the chicken, half the squash blossoms and then sprinkle with candied nuts. 

Make Your Own Cheese (No Joke!)

 The other day at work, I was talking with a coworker about ricotta cheese (yes, I really do have conversations like that), and she told me that she made her own and it was really easy.

Really.

I thought it sounded interesting, so I did some research and found that what she said was true. All it takes is milk, salt and some type of acid, maybe some cream for richness.


For my first batch, I turned to Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything cookbook app, which had a simple recipe consisting of 1/2 gallon of milk, 1 pint of buttermilk and an (optional) pinch of salt. His recipe calls for bringing the milk to just a boil, adding the buttermilk to to boiling milk, and stirring constantly as the acid in the buttermilk works on the milk to separate its curds and whey (you're probably getting a Little Miss Muffet flashback about now). From there, you strain the mixture with cheesecloth.

This ricotta had a mild, fresh flavor. It's also pretty thick, so thick in fact that it that I could slice it. Perhaps I drained it too long, although I drained it less time than the recipe called for (about 20 minutes; the recipe calls for 30 to 60). Because it had more body, I used this ricotta for salad and melted into pasta sauce. But for making lasagna, I wanted something smoother and richer.

I turned to the Smitten Kitchen blog, whose recipe for Rich Homemade Ricotta is a little different from Mark Bittman's. She uses lemon juice instead of buttermilk for the acid, doesn't boil the milk but heats it to 190 F (a more precise heating instruction), and stirs the milk/lemon juice mixture off heat very briefly and gently rather than doing so vigorously while it's still cooking.

This ricotta, once drained, had a tangier flavor owing to the lemon juice and a much smoother and creamier texture. It was perfect for the lasagna I made, which I will share with you soon.

Either recipe takes about 90 minutes, most of which is inactive as the cheese drains, and makes about 2 cups of ricotta. If you want fresh ricotta, it's certainly more affordable than buying it. At Whole Foods, they sell tubs with about half the quantity these recipes make for about $5-$6. A gallon of whole milk and a lemon is not going to set you back that much. And making your own ricotta produces results vastly superior to the tubs of regular ricotta in the dairy case.

This is the chunkier ricotta from the Mark Bittman recipe. Pictured at top is the smoother Smitten Kitchen recipe.

Chunky Ricotta
Adapted from Fresh Ricotta, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

1/2 gallon whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 pint buttermilk
Pinch of salt

1. Add milk and cream to a large (4-quart) saucepan and heat over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes until the milk starts to bubble around the edges (i.e. just boiling). Add buttermilk to the boiling mixture and cook, stirring continuously, for a minute as the mixture separates. Stir in the salt.

2. Set a large mesh strainer above a large bowl and line in with three layers of cheesecloth. Pour the mixture into the strainer and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes as the whey drains. Scoop the ricotta into a container and store in the refrigerator. Use within a few days.

Smooth Ricotta
Adapted from Rich Homemade Ricotta, Smitten Kitchen

7 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1. Add milk, cream and salt to a large (4-quart) saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until the mixture reaches a temperature of 190 F. Move saucepan off the heat, add the lemon juice and gently stir the mixture once or twice. Let sit for 5 minutes.

2. Set a large mesh strainer above a large bowl and line in with three layers of cheesecloth. Pour the mixture into the strainer and let it sit for about an hour as the whey drains. Scoop the ricotta into a container and store in the refrigerator. Use within a few days.

Food (Section) Fight!: Week 26

Food (Section) Fight! is my weekly look at The Washington Post's Food section and The New York Times' Dining section with my verdict on which section had the better content for the week.


Washington Post

1) "Lumped together, we get picky about crab," article by Tim Carman. Maryland crab cakes are a big deal around D.C., but as Carman writes today, the crab in them is increasingly sourced from outside the Free State. Judging from the taste test he arranged with other Food section staff and local chefs, this is a not good thing, as the Maryland crab scored much higher than its competitors from Venezuela, Indonesia and China.

2) "Blessed are the cheesemakers," feature by Martha Miller. Nuns who make cheese may sound like the start of a bad joke, but it's serious business to the sisters of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Crozet, Va. For over 20 years now, they have supported themselves financially with a small but successful foray into Gouda making. Having just made cheese myself for the first time (fresh Ricotta, you can read about it tomorrow), it was interesting to read about their far more complicated but still very hands-on process.


3) "Angels and Demons," cocktail recipe by Bonnie S. Benwick. Spirits columnist Jason Wilson is apparently away for the summer, but in his absence, Benwick has lined up a series of cocktails by local bartenders. This first one, a tequila drink with St. Germain, cilantro and habanero pepper, sounds quite tasty.

4) "Something Stuffed food truck," Good to Go column by Becky Krystal. Upstart food truck Something Stuffed offers empanadas that sound original and delicious. I'll keep my eyes peeled for them downtown.


5) "The best way to ship wine from Maryland is to drive to D.C.," Wine column by Dave McIntyre. Oh Maryland. So progressive in many ways, yet so backward in how it handles wine sales (for those who don't know, they won't even it sell it in grocery stores, which is so odd). I think the headline says it all.

New York Times

1) "When 'Local Sourcing' Means Aisle 12," feature by Jeff Gordinier. Has the locavore backlash begun? Seems like I've been reading more such articles lately. In this piece, Jeff Gordinier talks to chefs about their love of brand-name industrial food products--things like Cheetos, Oreos and Skippy peanut butter. Many of these chefs serve locally raised food in their restaurants, but acknowledge that large-scale products can have their place too. Case in point is ketchup, which several chefs (including recent James Beard award-winner and author Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune) prefer to be Heinz than a house-made version (many of which try to approximate Heinz' flavor anyway).

2) "Your Burger Will Thank You," recipe feature by Melissa Clark. Clark tackles D.I.Y. condiments, including Grainy Mustard, Bread-and-Butter Pickles and a Tomato Ketchup she claims are better and fresher than their supermarket counterparts. Say what?! Didn't Gordinier just tell me that no fewer than three accomplished chefs said they haven't come across a house-made ketchup superior to Heinz? And now Clark is saying that an amateur cook like me could make better ketchup? There's an editorial disconnect here, something I see from time to time in the Dining section (but, by comparison, not in the Washington Post Food section--interesting). Nonetheless, I am interested in giving homemade ketchup a try, just for the experience of it.

3) "Culinary School's Dining Room to Get Fresh Air," article by Glenn Collins. The Culinary Institute of America's formal French restaurant Escoffier, is being remade into a new restaurant, Bocuse, serving global cuisine with French accents. The story nicely dissects how the move is indicative of a general shift in the upper echelons of American cooking.

4) "An Homage to Texas, by the Pound," restaurant review by Pete Wells. Wells' look at the original Manhattan outpost of Hill Country (there is also one in D.C.), makes me want to stop there soon. He praises the brisket and notes that, even if the barbecue isn't authentically Texan, it's still really great roasted meat. Yum.

5) "Chivito Steak Sandwich," recipe by David Tanis. This sandwich, which is loaded with calories, fat and cholesterol (steak, bacon, cheese, mayonnaise and eggs), may not be for the health-conscious, but hey, it looks appetizing and a few bites couldn't hurt.

Verdict

New York Times. Ketchup snafu aside, I thought the Times had an overall great mix of stories this week. But the Post did too actually, so I consider this a close one.

The Score

The New York Times: 13
The Washington Post: 12

Dallas Drinks: The Rebecca

Dallas Drinks is a co-creation with Dallas Decoder, honoring the characters of the new TNT drama Dallas, which continues the Ewing family saga. See all of the Dallas Drinks here.

When we first met Rebecca, she was the vivacious and sweet bride-to-be for Bobby Ewing's son Christopher. The girl next door with a playful streak. But we quickly learned there was more to her than meets the eye.

What is she up to with her brother? Is she in it for the con, or is she really in love with Christopher? Did she really break up Christopher and Elena? Something tells me the answers to these questions will not be simple ones.

The Rebecca plays up the character's mystery with Bénédictine liqueur, an herbal liqueur from France whose recipe is so secret supposedly only three people know it. Grapefruit juice gives the drink a refreshing but slightly bitter lift.

Recipe of the Month: June 2012

2012 is halfway over, and Cook In / Dine Out will turn 6 months old this weekend. My how time flies!

The most popular new recipe last month was the Pasta with Roasted Garlic Scape Pesto, Tomatoes and Pea Shoots, a seasonal offering perfect for trying out some of the more unusual items available at the farmers market.

Runners up are another pasta dish, Pasta with Salt Pork, Kale, Green Garlic and Caramelized Onion, and an old favorite in our house, Turkey and Black Bean Chili.

The most popular post of the month, for the fourth month in a row, is the Happy Endings Whore's Bath cocktail, which I've repurposed for one of our Dallas Drinks cocktails for Dallas Decoder (and don't read anything into the name; the drink itself is a great cocktail, and its blend of flavors fits the character I've chosen for it perfectly).

Navy Bean Soup with Kielbasa and Homemade Vegetable Stock

Whenever I make soup, I always buy a couple of those boxes of chicken or vegetable broth from the grocery store. They're a cut above the sodium-laden canned stuff, but lots of cooks swear by making their own. I just never took the time to do it, until now.


I also tend to use canned beans. It's just easier. But lots of cooks swear by the dried kind for delivering better texture and flavor. As a kid, I used to make black bean soup with dried beans, which meant thinking ahead to make sure they soaked overnight. This recipe doesn't require overnight soaking, although you do need 15 minutes of cooking time, plus an hour soak. So while it's still not a quick fix, it doesn't mean dinner is off if you didn't remember to soak the beans before you went to bed.

There's no one right way to make vegetable stock. After all, it's just liquid flavored by vegetables, herbs and seasoning. The possibilities are endless. For mine, I chose fennel as the centerpiece flavor, using both the bulb and the stalks. Potato helps give the stock some body from leaching some of its starch. A hearty blend of herbs adds some refinement and green notes.

Feel free to use less salt if that's something you're concerned about. After I'd added the tablespoon, I was concerned it was too much, but then I did the math and figured out it was only slightly more than the "reduced sodium" brands of broth and way way less than the amount in those dried chicken stock cubes.

When making the soup, I didn't add any herbs, since so many herbs were used to make the stock. You certainly could finish the soup with a sprinkle of chopped Italian parsley or fennel fronds, for example.

Navy Bean Soup with Kielbasa and Homemade Vegetable Stock
Inspired by Navy Bean Soup, Food Network

1 lb. dried navy beans, rinsed and picked over
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 fennel bulb, chopped
3 garlic cloves, smashed (i.e. hit with the flat side of a chef's knife)
2 small or 1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 kielbasa sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
6 cups of vegetable stock, see recipe below (plus extra stock or water to cover vegetables if needed)

1. Place beans in a large (4-quart) saucepan covered with 2 inches of water. Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for an hour. Drain before adding to soup pot.

2. In dutch over or other large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add fennel, garlic and onions and sauté until softened and starting to take on some color. Add the tomatoes and kielbasa, and continue cooking a couple minutes. Add the cooked, drained beans, smoked paprika and the vegetable stock, adding extra stock or water if needed to cover the ingredients. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer gently for about 60 to 90 minutes until the beans are tender.

3. If desired, stick an immersion blender in the soup and pulse a few times to thicken it. Taste and adjust seasoning before serving.

Vegetable Stock
(makes 6 cups)

10 cups of water
1 whole fennel, bulb cored and chopped, stalks chopped (use fronds too if desired)
1 large sweet onion, chopped (include onion greens if you have them)
2 carrots, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 russet potato, peeled and cubed
Mix of hearty herbs (rosemary, Italian parsley, lemon thyme), added whole or coarsely chopped
1 tbsp. salt
Pepper to taste

1. Add all ingredients to a large pot. Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. Strain the liquid and refrigerate until ready to use.