Spring, Sandwiched

I've had this sandwich bookmarked for a few weeks now.  But a few weeks ago the only asparagus I could find was pencil thin, limp and priced way too high.  These are not the qualities I look for when shopping.  Instead I just stared longingly at it on my computer screen, imagining its fresh flavor, its perfect representation of spring.   I needed this sandwich in my life.

Something familiar was speaking to me, but it took me a while to connect the dots.  You see, this is practically the spring vegetable version of the tuna nicoise sandwich I made way back when.  Almost.  This one is more elemental, simple.  You char some asparagus in a skillet, just enough to get a bit of color and caramelization on the outside, but keep some of that lovely crunch.  In the pan with that asparagus goes some crushed garlic cloves that first flavor the oil, then once they soften and sweeten a bit, get smeared on the bread.  The eggs, with their deep golden yolks (straight from some happy chickens on a friend's farm), lend some creaminess to the otherwise bright flavors.  Some mustard, my favorite pickled red onions, a squeeze of lemon and a good helping of dill round out the ingredients.  It sounds like more work than it actually is.

Asparagus is now flooding the markets and I've already begun to think of new ways to redo this sandwich.  Keep the asparagus as is, top it with a bit of sauce gribiche a handful of baby lettuces, thinly sliced cucumber and a few chopped kalamata olives.  Or toss lightly steamed asparagus in a mustard and caper vinaigrette and lay it over wild arugula.  Then pile on the hard boiled eggs, pickled red onion and fresh tarragon.  Each a new springtime collaboration.

Pair any of these with a colorful fruit salad and a chilled bottle of rosé and have yourself a perfect picnic.

Spring Asparagus Sandwiches
Adapted from TheKitchn

Measurements are hardly important here, but be sure to use the best quality and freshest ingredients. They're fantastic still slightly warm right after assembling, but if you don't mind sacrificing some crunch from the bread, wrap it all up and let it sit together in the fridge for a while before serving.  Perfect for a spring picnic.

Serves 2

about 12 medium spears of asparagus
2 pieces of baguettes, about 6"-7" inches long
2 hard boiled eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, smashed
1/4 cup pickled red onions
2 tablespoons French mustard
lemon juice to taste
fresh dill
salt and pepper


Trim the asparagus by cutting or breaking off the woody ends, then cut the spears in half length–wise as best you can.  Slice your hard boiled eggs.

In a large skillet over high heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and the 2 cloves of smashed garlic. Sear the asparagus spears, about 3 minutes on each side, then remove from pan. You want a little bit of char, so don't move the asparagus very often. Split the baguette pieces in half.  Add remaining tablespoon of olive oil and toast the baguettes, cut side down in the same skillet just until it turns a bit golden.  Scrape/smear the garlic cloves that were cooked with the asparagus on one side of the toasted baguette, on the other side smear the mustard. 

Place half the asparagus on each sandwich, topped with sliced egg, dill, pickled onion and squeeze a little lemon over everything. Season with salt and pepper.

I {heart} YO

 

I don't talk a lot about nutrition on here. Funny, because aside from (or rather, in addition to) cooking, it's my thing.  I'm all about health and wellness and nourishing our bodies - I care about what I put into mine, and I care what others put into theirs.  What I'm not into, is lecturing.  Finger-wagging and long drawn out tirades rarely have gotten people to change their eating habits or stop and think about making some serious changes to their diet.

Eating should be a thoughtful process.  Think about your meal.  Where did it come from?  How has it been transformed?  How is it transforming you?  Enjoy each bite and be able to feel good about it.  The more you know about the food on your plate the better.  Don't continuously deny yourself or eliminate broad sections of food, they each play such an important role.  Eat colorfully, be adventurous. 

This, I think, I why I'm so utterly in love with Yotam Ottolenghi's regular column for The Guardian, The New Vegetarian.  Though the recipes obviously lack meat, they're not trying to compensate for that absence.  The food is playful, vibrant and really a celebration of each ingredient that it uses.  Why shouldn't we enjoy our veggies just as much as our animal protein?  Here, with his cauliflower cake, he takes this much maligned vegetable, envelops it in an eggy, custardy cake spiked with fresh herbs and sharp cheese that really turns the idea of cauliflower being a soggy blah side dish to a real star.  Cauliflower cynics, you've met your match.

It's hard for me to say for certain since I'm not a meat and potatoes kind of a girl, but I think Mr. Ottolenghi has the power to sway that crowd, make them branch out while never letting them get bored in the process.  Now is a good a time as ever to at least try, right?

Cauliflower Cake
Adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi

If the man wants to call it a cake, I'll take it, even if it is more like a bulked up crustless quiche.  I cut out some olive oil not seeing the need for nearly 1/2 cup and replaced the Parmesan with stronger, saltier Romano and reduced the measure to 1 cup from 2, because, let's face it, I'm not made of money and good cheese is expensive.  Also as a heads up those red onions you decorated the top with will turn an odd shade of blue/green in the morning if you have any leftovers and so will any pieces that come in contact with the springform.  Not that it affects the taste, though your brain will be firing off weirded out signals about the color, I'm sure.
 
8 servings

1 medium cauliflower (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 large red onion, peeled

1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
8 large eggs
Handful (3/4 ounce) fresh basil, chopped

Scant 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 cup of grated Romano cheese

Salt and black pepper

Butter, for greasing pan

2 tablespoons black sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Break cauliflower into medium florets, really just use your hands and snap off pieces. Place florets in a pot fitted with a steamer basket and steam, covered for 15 to 20 minutes, until quite soft. Remove steamer basket from pot and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the batter. Halve your red onion and cut a few thin rings off the end of one side; set them aside. Coarsely chop the remainder of your onion. Heat all of your olive oil in a saucepan and saute the chopped red onion and rosemary together until soft, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Whisk eggs and olive oil and onion mixture together. Stir in basil. Whisk flour, baking powder, turmeric, cheese, 1 teaspoon salt and many, many grinds of black pepper together in a separate bowl and add to egg mixture, whisking to remove lumps. Stir in cauliflower gently, so as not to break up too many pieces.

Line the bottom of a 9-inch round springform pan with parchment paper. Butter the sides generously. Put the sesame seeds in the pan and toss them around so that they stick to the sides. Pour in the cauliflower batter, arrange the reserved onion rings on top and bake cake in the center of the oven for 45-55 minutes, until golden brown and set (This took closer to an hour for me, so go by consistency and look rather than time, no one wants a jiggly uncooked egg center.)

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Far from Fancy

I've been in a comfort food mood lately.  Cozy food, the kind you enjoy while curled up in blankets with a good book or lingering over the table with music in the background.  Nothing flashy, nothing fancy, but the kind of food that makes sigh contentedly as you eat it.  Something to unwind you from a crazy day and to be reminded that simple is sometimes better.

To me, frittatas fit that bill.  Fill them with the scraps you have lingering in your fridge, the bits you have in just small amounts laying around; add some leftover pasta for bulk and eggs for protein and dinner (or breakfast or brunch if you're so inclined) is served.  This frittata is a nod to a simple, no-sauce Martha Stewart pasta recipe, filled with zucchini, onion, briny black olives and some Italian herbs.  The veggies cook down to sweet wilted versions of their former crisp selves while the olives add pops of salt all over and the eggs and milk form a creamy custard held together with the pasta.  The greatest thing about frittatas is that they're a blank canvas.  Not into the pasta?  Add some cooked and sliced potato instead.  Whatever veggies and herbs float your boat.  Use some sausage or chorizo.  It just a matter of picking then chopping and stirring and the whole thing comes together in under 30 minutes.

Go ahead.  Get inspired and make one - this one - tonight!


Spaghetti Frittata

4 servings

1/4 pound dried spaghetti noodles, cooked and cooled
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
6 eggs
splash of milk or cream
1/3 cup grated parmesan or crumbled feta (optional)
handful pitted kalamata olives

Preheat broiler.

In a small to medium sized oven proof skillet heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add onions, zucchini and garlic and saute until just turning soft and bits are browning on the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile beat together the 6 eggs with a splash of milk, add cheese if using and beat once more.  When the onions and zucchini are soft, season with oregano and a pinch of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper then toss in olives and noodles.  Stir until combined.

Pour the eggs over the mixture making sure that the pasta is mostly covered.  Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, pulling the mixture away from the sides and tilting the pan slightly to let the uncooked egg to the outside edges.  When the eggs look like they're set, slide the pan directly under the broiler for 2 minutes to brown and crisp up the top.  Slice and serve.

Bits and Pieces

Okay, can we take a moment here and talk about poached eggs?  Those just set whites and creamy thick and runny yolks?  Oh!  They are my favorite sort of egg preparation.  Over a piece of toast, on a salad, cooked in a spicy tomato sauce.  I suppose if you're a perfectionist and looking for that nicely shaped poached egg with no ragged edges, they can be a bit a tricky, otherwise, there really isn't anything to them.  Bring some water to a gentle simmer, crack an egg into a cup or ramekin and slip it into it's warm warm bath, then after 3-4 minutes remove it with a slotted spoon.  I'm not running a restaurant around here so I'll take the slightly tattered look, it's not as if they taste any different when plopped on top of a dish.

Now the days get longer and warmer and the desire to be in the kitchen wanes; traded for al fresco dining and simple dinners.  And while this recipe requires you to crank up the oven to "broil" and poach an egg or two, the total time spent in the kitchen near the heat is 10 minutes, tops.  This is a use up the odds and ends kind of a dinner.  There was the leftover feta from the gorditas, a few kalamata olives from a barley salad - that was sadly not the prettiest thing to photograph - and a chunk of a baguette that I froze not wanting the whole thing to go stale and hard as a rock.  The eggs and herbs and olive oil are just your average kitchen staples.  Maybe it's the satisfaction that I didn't have to waste any ingredients or because I didn't have the highest expectations already set, but it always surprises me that cobbled together dinners such as this, are usually some of best.  Throw together a quick salad with a lemon-dijon vinaigrette and voila! you have a very satisfying meal in no time.  When the feta is broiled it gets creamy yet crispy on the edges, punctuated by briny olives and earthy sage.  The poached egg on top helps subdue all the salty elements and cover the bowl in silky yolk.  Gah! - I'm hungry all over again!


Poached Eggs with Baked Feta and Olives
Adapted from Food and Wine, May 2008

Surprisingly I didn't deviate from the original recipe other than the bread (baguette instead of focaccia), and I managed to use up a few leftover ingredients from other recipes in the process.  If you don't have sage around I'm sure you could easily replace it with thyme, rosemary or even basil, but don't leave it out.  The herbs go a long way to deepen the dish and add a nice earthy flavor.  Cooking for more than just two?  This recipe easily lends itself to being doubled or tripled.  In fact, the original recipe makes 6.

2 servings

5 oz of feta cheese, cut into two slabs
2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
Aleppo pepper or ancho chile powder for sprinkling
2 large eggs
6 kalamata olives
1 teaspoon chopped sage leaves
4 baguette slices, cut on a deep angle

Preheat the broiler and position a rack 6 inches from the heat. Bring a large deep skillet of water to a simmer. Brush the baguette slices with olive oil and broil until lightly toasted. Put a slab of feta into each of 2 individual gratin dishes. Drizzle each slab with 1 teaspoon of the oil. Sprinkle lightly with Aleppo pepper and broil for 2 to 3 minutes, until lightly browned and sizzling.

Meanwhile, crack the eggs one at a time into a small bowl, then slide them into the simmering water. Poach until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the eggs to the gratin dishes.  Sprinkle with Aleppo pepper, the olives and sage. Serve with the bread.