Here's another one for all y'all who were stockpiling kale for the crisis. Long Meadow Ranch in Napa Valley used to serve this salad, and I liked it so much that I reverse-engineered it. The result has been delightful, and I've made it several times. It makes an excellent first course or side dish for roast meat, fish, or even pasta.

This deceptively simple salad nevertheless has a lot of flavor. Like other recipes with only a handful of ingredients, though, you don't want to substitute anything. This is part of my "good first recipe" series for anyone trapped at home and learning emergency cooking skills, so I've made the instructions very explicit.

The recipe requires a technique that might be new to a bunch of you, which is making "parmesan cheese crispies". If you can buy parmesan cheese crisps, which you increasingly can in the "keto" sections of upscale markets, you can skip that step, and this becomes a super-easy recipe. This video kind of shows the technique, except that he doesn't let his cook long enough.

Most of the effort is prepping and washing the kale, which you have to buy whole so that you can remove the stems.

kale and cheese crispy salad

• 2-3 oz parmigiano cheese, grated fine (or substitute 2 oz store-bought parmesan cheese crisps)
• 1-2 bunches Tuscan kale, 3/4 to 1lbs
• High quality olive oil, up to 4 tsp
• 2 tbs juice from 1 lemon (fresh)
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground hot pepper (pequin)
• pinch of salt
• equipment: salad spinner, large salad bowl, large, good condition, nonstick pan

First, remove the stems from the kale leaves completely. This will be fairly tedious; see if you can get a family member to do it. Rip it into roughly 2" squares, then wash it and dry it completely, first in a spinner and then finishign with a towel. It needs to be really dry.

If you couldn't buy crispies, make one. Get the large nonstick pan and sprinkle the shredded cheese over the bottom, forming an even, thin sheet. Place the pan on the burner and heat it over low-medium. In 3-7 minutes, the cheese will start to bubble and melt. If there's hot spots, move it around on the burner. After another 3-5 minutes, the cheese will turn a darker brown and seem to "dry out"; at this point, it's done and you should take the pan off the heat.

Allow it to cool for 5 minute or so, and peel up the crispy. If you have difficulty getting it to peel up, wait for it to cool more. Place it on a plate or rack to cool.

Put the pan back on the heat and turn it up to medium-high. The pan should be oily with the oil from the cheese; if it's not, then add 1tsp of olive oil. Now "stir fry" the kale in the pan, constantly flipping and stirring it, for about 1 minute, just until it starts to darken slightly and some of the edges get seared. You do not want the kale to wilt. If your pan is on the smaller side, you'll need to do two batches.

Dump the kale in the salad bowl. Drizzle with another 2-3 tsp of olive oil, the lemon juice, hot pepper, and a pinch of salt (two or three pinches if your cheese isn't very salty). Break up the cheese crispy into 2" pieces and put it in. Toss the salad vigorously until all leaves are coated. Serve. Do not allow this salad to sit for more than about 20 minutes, or it will wilt and not be nearly as nice.

Ingredient Notes:

Cheese: you need Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, or a really good American aged parmesan for this. Also, pre-grated or shredded won't work because of the starch they put in it to keep it from sticking. Dry jack might work, but pecorino romano and asiago won't.

Kale: this is also known as lacinato kale, Tuscan cabbage, dino kale, or cavalo nero. Do not substitute other kinds of kale.)

Hot Pepper: dried pequin peppers you crush yourself are the ideal flavoring for this. Substitute ground cayenne, since most people don't have those. If you're very sensitive to spicy food, use fresh-ground black pepper instead.

With all of us practicing self-isolation, many of you will suddenly be cooking for yourselves a lot more often than you're used to. And, if you don't have a large personal recipe repertoire, you're going to get really tired of burgers and spaghetti marinara after a while.

As such, I'm going to publish a lot more recipes for "easy" dishes over the next couple weeks under the "new cooks" tag. But to kick it off, I thought it might be helpful to just do a round-up of recipes from my blog and elsewhere that I think are suitable for inexperienced cooks.

As a general group, stir-fries, vegetable/pasta dishes, stews, tacos, and egg dishes tend to be easy & forgiving, so look to these if you don't find anything to please you below.

General Dishes

• Weeknight Za'atar bread
• Korean vegetable pancakes
• Take my Japanese Winter Curry but just use the premade curry blocks instead of making it from scratch
• Moroccan Carrot-Date Curry
• For you folks in Portland who stockpiled all that kale: Gnocchi Alla Bruce Banner
• It really is the easiest bread to make, and hardest to mess up, except for in looks: Quick Challah, and the Original Recipe that shows you all the steps.

Breakfasty Stuff

Breakfast & brunch dishes are among the easiest things to make, lacking complex steps and having short cooking times. And you don't have to only eat them for breakfast!

• Cal-Bennie
• Boxty (also appropriate for St. Paddy's Day)
• Fried Apples and Onions
• Matzoh Brei

Other Blogs

Here's a few recipes from food blogs I like that are good for new cooks:

• 3-ingredient mac & cheese is super-easy, but also super-rich, so maybe small portions with a salad
• Tortilla Skillet Pizza, plus the deluxe and stuffed versions
• Broccoli Rubble Salad, plus the even easier Cheese Broccoli Toasts
• Caprese salad based on fridge ingredients
• Skillet Ravioli, but use a nonstick skillet to make it easier on yourself
• Persian Rice the easy way, doesn't even require measuring cups
• Turkish Eggs, but only do the chili sauce
• Burnt Basque Cheesecake

Making Do

Here's a few recipe sets that are about making the best out of canned goods:

• Spanish canned chickpea recipes
• French canned chickpea recipes
• Canned tuna recipes
• Instant ramen hacks

Video Series

Here's some video channels that tend towards easier recipes:

• Chef John has multiple "basic" recipes and is generally pretty easy to follow
• Spain on a Fork focuses on meat-free Spanish food that you can make in "30 minutes or less". Check out the 3-ingredient empanda recipes.
• America's Test Kitchen and Milk Street are both hosting free content for the month. While neither is what I'd call "easy cooking", they do cover many important cooking techniques in exhaustive detail.

I hope that all helps you get cooking. Look for more to come on this blog.

I like Japanese curry. I mean, who doesn't? Even Portland has its own Japanese curry house. But preparing Japanese curry (kare) at home usually means using these sort of instant curry blocks:

Those are fine, and I've used them lots of times, but I generally don't like to think a lot about what's actually in them. I wanted to make a from-scratch curry, so I checked out Pailin's recipe, which looked great except it depended heavily on browned beef and beef stock. So I checked out Daniel Gritzer's recipe, but his was a bit complicated.

So I set about synthesizing and simplifying both recipes into a vegetarian Japanese curry that would work for me. This was easier than I thought, and worked well the first time, so I share the recipe below. This curry is definitely doable on a weeknight, but it's a little high-cleanup, involving at least a pot, a pan, and a rice cooker. It makes good leftovers.

One thing you'll need to pick out on your own is the "crispy thing" to go on top of the curry. We did breaded (frozen) shrimp, but a croquette of some kind would also work, as would panko-breaded fried tofu, tonkatsu or boneless fried chicken. It's optional, of course, but having the contrast to something crispy and chewy definitely improves the curry a lot.

Japanese "winter curry"

Rice:

2 cups Japanese Rice
Water

Instant Dashi Stock:

1 small bullion cube or other instant stock
2 large squares konbu, maybe 4"x4" each

Vegetables:

2-3 Tbs vegetable oil
1 onion, diced small
2-3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 winter squash, about 1 1/2 lbs, peeled, seeded and diced
2-3 waxy potatoes, diced
1 apple, peeled and grated (like on a box grater)
8 oz small mushrooms, such as shimeji, nameko, or oyster, OR 1 cup frozen peas

Curry Paste:

5 Tbs butter
5 Tbs flour
1 clove minced garlic
1-2" piece ginger, peeled and minced fine, about 2 Tbs
2 Tbs mild yellow curry powder

Wash and drain the rice, reserving the rice washing water full of starch. Put this water in a small pot or microwavable bowl, and add additional water to make 1 quart. Heat to boiling. Add the konbu and instant stock; cover and let sit while you prepare other things like dicing all those vegetables.

Do whatever prep you need to do for the Crispy Thing, such as heating the oven.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion and fry until translucent. Add the squash and fry until it sweats. Add the carrots and potatoes, and fry until they sweat. Add the grated apple, and the stock, taking the konbu out. Bring to a low simmer, then cover and let cook for another 12 to 16 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.

Start cooking your rice concurrently with the other cookery, hopefully in a rice cooker. It's likely to be done before the other food is, which is fine, just fluff it, and set aside, covered, to keep warm.

While the veggies are simmering, make the curry paste, which starts with a dark brown roux. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. When the foaming starts to subside, add the flour and begin stirring. You'll keep stirring it for what feels like forever but is really only about 7 minutes, at which point it'll start darkening. After that, it should take only another 3-4 minutes to darken to a milk chocolate or peanut butter color. At that point, turn off the heat, then quickly stir in the curry powder, garlic and ginger, which will foam a lot, and you will need to keep stirring until the paste cools, or they will burn.

If the simmering veggies are done, then stir in the mushrooms or peas, and the curry paste. Let simmer & thicken a little more, then take off heat and cover, letting it sit for at least 5 minutes.

While the curry is sitting, you can finish preparing your Crispy thing.

Serve in wide flat bowls, with rice on one side, curry on the other, and the Crispy Thing on top. Goes well with a yeasty lager or green tea.

Notes:

This recipe could easily be made vegan by swapping the butter for vegetable oil. Just toast the roux a little darker and nobody will be able to tell the difference.

For curry powder, you want a mild powder. I used Penzey's "sweet curry", which I'd recommend, but the traditional powder is S&B Oriental Curry Powder. Or you can make your own curry powder from spices and adjust it to your liking, as described in Gritzner's recipe.

This is a "winter" curry because it includes all vegetables that are available in winter. In the spring or summer, you'd use a different assortment of vegetables appropriate to the season.

Yes, I post a lot of brunch recipes. It's easy to be creative at brunch, when you can ignore pesky things like nutritional value and the need for a balanced meal. Besides, it's really my favorite meal: eggs were the first thing I learned to cook. Anyway, this is for you Levantine food fans reading.

za'atar potato cakes

1 cup cold leftover mashed potatoes
1/2 cup grated parmesan or similar [1]
1/2 small onion, grated
1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper or harissa [2]
1/2 cup za'atar [3]
2 to 3 Tbs olive oil
quantities per person; makes two cakes. also, see notes below

Mash together the potatoes, cheese, onion, and pepper/harissa until completely blended. With damp hands, form two flat, round patties about 1/2" thick. Using a bowl just larger than each patty, coat them with za'atar, turning them over carefully a few times until completely coated.

Heat the olive oil in a nonstick pan or griddle to medium-high heat (325F). Carefully slide the cakes into the pan, and then let fry for 3-5 minutes without touching them. Once they've formed a nice brown crust on the bottom, flip them with two spatulas, and fry for another 3-4 minutes on the other side.

Once they have a crust on both sides, slide them onto plates and let cool for 10 minutes to firm them up. Serve with poached eggs or crispy fried eggs on top. Give your guests sharp knives, since the cakes are delicate and will tend to mash instead of cut.

notes:

1. Any dry but still melty cheese, such as parmigiano, pecorino romano, dry jack, or aged gouda. Dry non-melting cheeses like myzithra, will make for cakes which are too delicate. Semisoft cheese will result in cakes that melt and are gushy, like in the photo below (still tasty, but hard to eat). Conceivably, one could make vegan potato cakes using vegan "cheese" but I haven't tried this.

2. You can adjust the pepper content according to your palate. At the low end of the scale, use 1/2 tsp smoked paprika. If you're me, you use, 1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper and 1 tsp harissa.

3. You'll need to get real za'atar, or this recipe will suck. Sadly, a lot of spice companies, including Penzey's, are currently selling something they call "zatar" which contains none of the actual herb za'atar (a close relative of oregano) at all; do not use these. If the za'atar you have isn't dark green in color, it's the bad kind. If you have no Arab market in your area, then here's a recipe for fake za'atar which doesn't suck:

1/4 cup dried oregano (pref. Turkish or Greek)
2 Tbs dried thyme
1 Tbs marjoram
1 Tbs sumac
1 Tbs sesame seeds

Put the oregano, thyme, marjoram, and sumac in a spice grinder. Pulse several times until reduced to a coarse powder. Add the sesame seeds. Store sealed, or in the fridge.

This breakfast dish ... a sort of "spring green benedict", is a good way to enjoy a little asparagus this weekend. I enjoy making up eggs-benedict-type dishes; pretty much anything with a stack of stuff topped by a poached egg kinda works, and some flavor combinations work really well. I think this one does.

The cheese I actually used was a mold-ripened goat/cow cheese blend which we got from some cheesery or another at Goatapalooza at the Ferry Building. It was delightful in this, but a decent brie, camabert, tallegio or similar "gooey, tangy" cheese will work as well.

spring breakfast stack

per person:

2 crumpets
10-20 spears asparagus, thin to medium stalks
1 oz gooey cheese (see above)
2 eggs
fresh-ground pepper, and salt

Trim the asparagus down to 4" to 5". Put a pan of water on to simmer for the asparagus and eggs.

Toast the crumpets, and spread them with the cheese while still warm.

Poach the asparagus in the simmering water using a larger strainer or vegetable steamer, for 2 to 5 minutes depending on how thick it is. You want it to be still firm, but cooked and easily cut. Drain and dry.

Poach the eggs. While the eggs are poaching, arrange the asparagus on top of the crumpets. Top with the poached eggs, salt and pepper.

Serve with breakfast potatoes.

"You do realize," said my sweetie as we both sat down at the dining room table, "this meal is vegan."

I hadn't until she mentioned it. The inspiration for the meal had been from two sources: first, borrowing Quick & Easy Korean Cooking from the library; and second, it being 4/20 meant that we didn't want to go near the market which limited us to ingredients on hand. Korean green onion pancakes only require nine ingredients, of which six are pantry staples for me, so that recipe suited nicely (and is below).

One doesn't think of Korean food as particularly vegan-friendly — quite the opposite, really — but that's because Americans are most familiar with Korean barbecue, rather than the rest of their cuisine. Cecilia Hae Jin Lee does an excellent job presenting the kind of recipes which a regular working Korean would cook at home, on a weeknight. This includes a lot of vegetable dishes.

And, from my perspective, this is the essence of good vegan — or vegetarian, or whatever — cooking: don't substitute. Don't use wierd foods which don't go together. Instead cook things which are tasty but just happen to be vegan; there are plenty of them out there.

And, at least, it wasn't gluten-free.

Korean green onion pancakes

based on a recipe from Quick & Easy Korean Cooking

1 1/2 cups all-purpose wheat flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh-ground black pepper
2 cups cold water, maybe more
8 green onions
1 small-medium zucchini
1 large carrot
vegetable oil, at least 8 tsp.

Slice the green onions on the bias into 1-inch pieces, both white and green parts. Grate the zucchini. Peel and grate the carrot.

Mix the flours, salt and pepper. Add the cold water and stir. Add more water until you can get it the consistency of thin pancake batter or cream (and like pancake batter, don't over-stir it). Mix in the vegetables.

Turn on the oven to low heat (200F) or heat up a warming drawer if you have one.

Heat a 9" nonstick skillet over medium-high heat with about 2 tsp vegetable oil. Spoon out enough batter to cover the bottom thinly, about 1/4 of the batter. Fry until the bottom of the pancake sets and bubbles start to come through, about 4-5 minutes.

Flip the pancake using whatever method works for you; I suggest an extra-large plastic spatula. Fry on the other side until browned and beginning to scorch, about 4 minutes.

Flip back over and finish browning the other side. Flip the pancake onto a baking sheet and put it in the oven to keep warm.

Make 3 more pancakes. Serve them with seasoned soy sauce, gochujang (Korean hot sauce), and kim chee. Serves four as a main course (these are filling), with inari (which the Koreans like also) and salad.

Of course, one can't have Passover without the one dish which expresses the true meaning of the holiday: matzoh ball soup!

Mind you, Kris would like it if I made matzoh ball soup more often, but it's quite a time-consuming dish (and requires 3 pots), so she only gets it on Passover. And, of course, I prefer not to have the traditional chicken stock, so I make my own veggie stock. That's why this recipe is "parve", which means neither dairy nor meat. Yes, this is a vegetarian matzoh ball soup, although it is not vegan.

Stock

Skins/ends from all the other onions in the recipe (see below)
½ bunch parsley, plus any leftover stems from rest of recipe
1 large onion, cut into 8 pieces
3 carrots, cut in to 1-inch pieces
5 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, smashed but not peeled
4 small-medium white or red potatoes, quartered
2 bay leaves
1 shallot, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp whole peppercorns
2 tsp salt
Large stockpot, strainer

This is my "no chicken stock", which takes advantage of the fact that home-made veggie stock tastes better than canned chicken stock any day. I've had people refuse to believe that no barn fowl died for this stock. The onion skins are added for color.

Put all the ingredients in the 8-qt pot and cover with water. Heat to boiling, then simmer gently for one hour, then strain. This stock can be made ahead.

Matzoh Balls

1 ½ cups matzoh meal
½ cup finely minced curly parsley
½ large onion, grated or pureed
2 cloves garlic, pressed or pureed
4 whole eggs (no fake eggs, you need the yolks), beaten
3 tbs vegetable oil
½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ to ½ cup seltzer water
2 qt. canned stock (optional)
Large bowl, large pot, cookie scoop (optional)

Make the matzoh ball dough: combine all ingredients, adding the seltzer water last after everything else is incorporated. It should have the texture of thick porridge; if not, add more seltzer. Set aside somewhere cool for at least ½ hour.

Make the matzoh balls: Boil lightly salted water and/or or canned stock, in the wide pot (unless the pot is at least 13" in diameter, it's better to do two batches). Roll the dough between both hands into balls about 1 ½ inch in diameter (should be 18-24 balls); use a cookie scoop to make them uniform size if you have one.

Drop the balls gently into the boiling water. They should sink to the bottom, then come back up in two to five minutes.

Simmer, covered, until the balls have about doubled in size and are getting soft, about 45 minutes. Do not check them more often than once every ten minutes or so; if they don't stay covered, they won't puff up well. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon or strainer, and set aside.

Soup

1 large onion, cut into wedges or eighths
3 carrots, peeled & cut into 2-inch lengths
4 white or red potatoes, cut into wedges or eighths
3 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch lengths
12 small sprigs parsley
Large pot, ladle

Add the soup vegetables to the pot, except for the parsley. Simmer for ½ hour, or until the carrots & potatoes are tender. Add the parsley and matzoh balls, and cook for another 5 minutes. Turn off and let cool for 10 minutes. Serve, making sure each diner has a couple matzoh balls, some soup, and vegetables.

For leftovers, it's better to refrigerate the matzoh balls and the soup separately, otherwise the balls are liable to become waterlogged and fall apart. The balls will shrink in the fridge; this is normal (ask any guy). Then, put the balls in the soup and reheat them gently. Can also be frozen.

Options for a more "gourmet" soup: replace the onions or celery in the soup with sliced fennel root. Or: garnish the soup with aioli or pistou. Or: add hot paprika and oregano to the matzoh balls, and make the soup with a light tomato broth. Or: add white fish or salt cod to the soup. If you're really cutting corners, you can replace the veggie stock with a mixture of 1qt stock-in-a-box and 6 cups of the water you cooked the matzoh balls in.

It's Passover time! The best Jewish holiday, as far as I'm concerned, because it's all about food. Yes, a lot of that food consists of matzoh, but The Tribe gets pretty inventive with it. Such as, for example, the classic Pesach bruch food: matzoh brei.

Usually, matzoh brei is sort of Jewish migas, but the version below is more of a matzoh frittata. I based the recipe on Golda Meir's Matzoh Brie from the Betty's Diner Pancake Handbook (you need this book), but wanted to make it more complex and savory. I also have some variations on it below.

cheddar and green onion matzoh brei

• 5 sheets plain unsalted matzoh (or whole wheat matzoh)
• 2 cups boiling water
• 5 eggs, beaten (or 2 whole eggs and 6 egg whites)
• 1 bunch green onions or spring onions
• 1/2 tsp salt
• black pepper
• 2-3 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1-2 tbs vegetable oil or butter
• Two bowls, strainer, large oven-proof nonstick pan, silicone spatula, large platter.

Heat the oven to 375F. Put the kettle on to boil the water. Break up the matzoh in a large bowl; you want pieces which are 1" to 2" square.

Beat the eggs with the salt and set aside. Slice the onions; for this recipe we want just the green and tender green parts, not the white parts which you can reserve for other dishes. You want about one cup of thinly-sliced green onion tops.

When the water boils, pour it over the matzoh and swirl it around a bit, for around 15 seconds. Then use the strainer to pour out the water, shaking it to get most of the drips out. Mix the onions, cheese, eggs, and some fresh-ground pepper into this.

Heat the vegetable oil in the pan over high heat, until it's hot enough that an onion piece dropped in sizzles instantly. Dump in the matzoh mixture, let it cook for 30 seconds or so, then stir it, turning bits over using the spatula. Then press it into a firm cake, and turn the heat down to medium. Cook on the stovetop for 5-7 minutes, or until the edges start to brown slightly.

Put the pan in the oven. Cook for another 10-15 minutes, or until the center is firm and shows no sign of raw egg. Loosen the brei with the spatula, then put the platter over the top of the pan and flip it out. Cut into wedges and serve.

Serves three people as a main course, or five with several other brunch items.

feta and organo matzoh brei

Make the cheddar and onion matzoh brei, as above, only swap out the cheddar cheese for 4oz crumbled feta, and the green onions for 1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano leaves.

Tuscan brei

Replace the cheddar cheese with grated dry mozzarella, plus 2 tbs grated parmigiano. Replace the green onions with 1/2 cup shredded fresh basil. Use olive oil instead of vegetable oil. When the brei is done and turned out onto the platter, paint the top of it with around 1 Tbs of balsamic vinegar.

matzoh migas

As the recipe above. Add one additional egg. Take the cheddar out of the recipe and replace with Mexican cheese, such as asadero, "queso quesadilla", or monterrey jack. Reduce sliced green onions to 1/2 cup. Add 1 cup diced hot peppers, depending on how hot you like things:

• medium: 1 poblano pepper and 1 anaheim pepper
• hot: 1 poblano pepper, 1 jalapeño and 1 serrano peppers
• chipotle: 3-4 chipotle peppers in adobo (or rehydrated), minced.

Also add: 2 seeded and diced roma tomatoes, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, and 1 tsp dried oregano.

(this is an old post from four years ago, reprinted by request. I know this is the wrong time of year for this recipe, but I'm about to go to the Sourthern Hemisphere)

A few years ago there was an excellent Italian restaurant in Jacksonville, Oregon called "Caterina's". Unfortunately, it was a little too gourmet for the Rogue Valley and Caterina soon found she could be more successful, with less work, doing catering and Italy tours. However, she did give me a recipe for one of her signature dishes, Lasagna per L'Estate ("Summer Lasagna"). Her original recipe was a little too "restaurant" for home use (some ingredients needed to be chilled overnight, and it was cooked in single-serve portions) so I modified and adapted it, and (as I usually do) added more vegetables to make it into a one-casserole meal.

I present it here as a lighter-feeling lasagna for August when summer vegetables are at their peak (oh, and before you ask ... "Fabio" was my nickname in Italian class).

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs fresh pasta sheets, rolled medium-thin (#5 on KitchenAid)

The Vegetables

• 1 large eggplant, about 1 1/2 lbs, peeled and sliced about ½ inch thick
• About 1 ½ lbs zucchini or summer squash, sliced ½ inch thick
• 2 red bell peppers, cored and halved
• 2 lbs of ripe tomatoes, sliced medium
• 1 large bunch fresh basil, half of it chiffonade (shredded)
• 3/4 cup garlic-flavored olive oil
• salt

The Bechamel

• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ white or yellow onion, minced
• 8oz fresh spinach, chopped
• 4 tbs butter
• 4 tbs flour
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 3 cups milk (nonfat ok), room temperature
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground pepper
• 4 oz parmigiano, grated
• 2 beaten eggs

Plus:

• 8 oz fresh mozzarella balls, sliced ¼” thick
• salt and pepper

Equipment: 2 cookie sheets, parchment,
brush, large wide lasagna pan (I use a glass pan 15" x 10" x
2.5"), foil or lid, large nonstick pot, non-scratch whisk,
rubber spatula, plus pasta-making equipment if you want to make your own.

Instructions:

First off, do you have at least 2 hours to make this? If not, make something else.

Before you start preparing the vegetables, place two racks in the oven with enough space to use both, and heat the oven to 400F.

Slice the vegetables. Line the two cookie sheets with parchment. Place the sliced eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers on them, and brush them with some of the garlic olive oil, and sprinkle them lightly with salt. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the eggplant and zucchini starts getting soft and browned on the edges.

In the meantime, make the bechamel.

Melt the butter in the large non-stick pot. When it foams, add the garlic and onion; saute until the onion is translucent. Add the flour and stir until it clumps up. Add the spinach and thyme and stir until wilted. Add the milk and wisk until blended, then turn heat down to medium-low. Whisking frequently, add the nutmeg, pepper and half the basil, and continue to whisk until the bechamel thickens, about 10 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in the parmigiano, until blended. Set aside to cool.

By now the vegetables should be done.
Set them aside to cool, too. Roll out the pasta dough at this time, if you're making your own. If you're not, then go make yourself a drink and get a magazine; everything will take at least 20 minutes to cool off. Leave the oven on, though. Slice the peppers in to strips.

Okay, now you're ready to build the lasagna. This has lots of layers. Start by brushing the inside of the pan with the remaining garlic olive oil. Then, build in this order from the bottom to the top:

Half the tomato slices (with a little salt & pepper)

first layer of noodles

coat the first layer of noodles completely with ¼ of the bechamel

zucchini slices, surrounded by half the pepper strips and lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper

second layer of noodles

coat the second layer of noodles completely with ¼ of the bechamel

eggplant slices, surrounded by the rest
of the pepper strips and lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper

third layer of noodles

coat the third layer of noodles completely with the rest of the bechamel

the rest of the tomato slices (plus salt & pepper)

Then, cover it loosely with greased foil (or a greased lid) and bake for 25 minutes. Take the lasagna out, uncover, and poke down any bubbles. Scatter the mozzarella slices and the whole basil leaves over the top of the lasagna and put it back in the over for another 15 minutes, or until the mozzarella browns in spots.

While it's baking, make heirloom tomato crostini for your guests who are dying of hunger while smelling the cooking lasagna.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving. Serves 6-8 as a main course.

Notes: I find it helps to make your lasagna in a broader, shallower pan like the 15” by 10” mentioned above, rather than a deeper, narrower pan. The lasagna cooks faster and doesn't end up soupy. Also, fresh pasta is really the way to go for making lasagna; it's less of a pain than pre-cooked pasta, but cooks better than dry pasta, even the “instant” lasagna noodles. Also, it's much easer to lay out in the pan and trim to fit than dry pasta. However, supermarket fresh pasta sheets may be a little thick – you really want noodles which are between 1mm and 2mm thick.

One of the biggest reasons to eat Georgian food is khachipuri, known as "the pizza of Eastern Europe". Like pizza, khachipuri is more of a whole category than a specific recipe; I think there are as many recipes are there are Georgian surnames. This year's khachipuri was based on an Ossetian recipe, incorporating beet greens since I had a lovely bunch of them from the beets I used for the pkhali. This was excellent; while somewhat less cheesy than other ones I've made, it was flavorful and did well as leftovers.

Speaking of cheese: the traditional cheeses for khachipuri are Imeretian or Sulguni. You can't get these in the USA, except maybe in New York, so substitute a 50/50 mix of block feta and dry mozzarella, and add a couple tablespoons of Greek yogurt. I've also seen American meunster cheese recommended as a substitution.

As always, I used a number of references for this year's holiday meal. In addition to georgianrecipes.net, I also used The Georgian Feast, The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, and Flatbreads and Flavors.

If khachipuri and pkhali are two of the food groups of Georgia, surely lobio is the other. The word "lobio" refers to beans, whether dried red beans or green beans. So we had to have lobio, and this turned out to be the runaway success of the evening. Our guests raved about these, and they were probably the easiest thing in the whole meal. The recipe below is loosely based on a recipe from Flatbreads and Flavors.

Georgian Herbed Green Beans

2 lbs fresh green beans
Salt, large pot, large bowl

Dressing:
1/2 cup walnut oil
1 Tbs olive oil, plus more
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp salt, plus more
1/3 cup minced fresh mint
1/3 cup finely chopped dill
1/3 cup minced parsley or cilantro
1-2 cloves garlic, mashed
1 tsp sugar, plus more

Mix all ingredients for the dressing. Taste; it will probably be somewhat sharp. Add small amounts of salt, sugar, and olive oil until the flavor is balanced.

Heat a large pot of salted water, large enough for all the green beans, until simmering. Trim the grean beans and snap into 1-2" pieces. Fill the large bowl with cold water and a few ice cubes. Blanch the beans for 5 minutes. Immediately strain them out and shock them in the bowl of cold water, until completely cool. Drain and dry the beans.

Just before serving, toss the beans with the dressing. Serve at room temperature. Do not allow them to sit for long before serving, as the beans may turn an unattractive putty color.

Note: if you can get them, Romano beans are better than regular green beans for lobio.

"When life hands you plums, make tkemali."

A year and a half ago friends in Southern Oregon had a preposterous bounty of plums, so many they were breaking branches on the trees. So many, in fact, that my relatives still have frozen quarts of plum juice and pulp. So when it came time to make Christmas eve dinner for those same friends, I thought of Georgian sour plum sauce, or tkemali. I could serve it with salmon for me, and chicken for the folks who don't eat fish. This lead to a whole Georgian-style holiday meal.

I encountered Georgian food three years ago when I went to Moscow for a technical conference. Georgia is regarded as sort of the France of Eastern Europe: the country with deep cuisine history where all the good cooks come from. Even during war between Georgia and Russia, the Georgian restaurants in Moscow did not close down. The food is that good.

The meal started out with pkhali, a paste made with beets, walnuts and garlic (pictured above). Pkhali is a kind of "Georgian hummus", and is actually made with a variety of vegetables, depending; beets are common, but so are leeks, spinach, or eggplants. What's constant is the walnuts, garlic and vinegar.

Since it's served cold, we had this out as an appetizer course, together with Butte Creek Mill's beer batter bread. Originally, I'd put the pkhali in little jello molds with the idea of unmolding them as amusing shapes, but for some reason it didn't stiffen up in the fridge this time, and wouldn't come out of the molds. A quick save with the cookie scoop, and you have the little pyramids you see here.

It's traditional to top pkhali with onions and pomegranate seeds, and also made a terrific Christmas color combination.

Beet Pkhali

2 lbs large beets
1 1/2 cups walnut halves
1 small-medium head garlic (or 1/2 large head)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt, plus more
2 Tbs red wine vinegar, plus more
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley and/or cilantro

Cook the beets: wash and trim them, leaving a little bit of stem. Wrap them up in heavy foil in bunches of 3-4, stem sides down. Cook at 300F for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, depeding on the size of the individual beets. Allow to cool until just warm enough to handle, and rub off the peels and trim. Dice large.

Roast the garlic with the beets: when the beets are 40 minutes from being done, trim the end off the head of garlic exposing the tips of the cloves, and wrap it in foil, cut side up. Cook it alongside the beets and take it out of the oven at the same time.

Put the walnuts, parsley and salt into a food processor or food grinder. Pulse until finely minced. Add the beet dice, coriander, and red wine vinegar. Squeeze the roasted cloves out of the head of garlic into the mix. Pulse until reduced to a rough puree. Taste; add additional salt and vinegar if necessary; the phkali should be slightly acid.

Serve with marinated red onions and pomegranate seeds on top.

Marinated Red Onion

1 large red onion
1 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

Trim and peel the whole onion. Slice it into thin rings, about 1/8" inch thick (3-4mm). Separate the layers.

Toss the onion rings with the vinegar and salt. Put in a nonreactive container, cover and seal, and refrigerate overnight or up to 1 week. Drain and blot dry before using.

(this is a reprint of a recipe post from 2 years ago)

For Christmas Eve dinner this year I decided on a "Russian Jewish" theme.  Partly this was out of a desire to have all of he food ready and waiting well before our guests were due, as some of them were coming from Christmas Eve services and wouldn't arrive until nearly 9pm.   I settled on a menu of borsht, cabbage salad, and perogi with carmelized onions, and Kris did trifle for dessert (which I failed to get a picture of, dammit).  Originally, I thought I would make some dark rye bread, but then it occurred to me ... it's Friday night!  We should have challah!

After all, the little guy was Jewish, wasn't he?

So that morning, at 9am, I started on a triple-batch of challah.  Click more for full recipe and instructions.

Challah Berkus

• 1 cup warm water
• 2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast (or one packet)
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 generous tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt (1 if using salted butter)
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 2 large eggs + 1 yolk, beaten
• Oil sprayer
• 1 egg beaten with 2 tbs water or milk for an egg wash
• Large bowl, dough rising bowl or bucket, dough scraper, bread board, cookie sheet, baking parchment, pastry brush.

Proof the yeast in the warm water for 5-10 minutes.

In the large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients.  Dump in the warm water, the melted butter, and then the beaten eggs.  Mix until it forms a cohesive and slightly sticky mass; knead for 5-10 minutes until silky but still tacky. 

Spray the dough bucket or rising bowl lightly with oil, drop in the dough ball, seal the lid, and leave in a warm place until more than doubled in size (1½ to 3 hours depending on temperature and yeast).  Can rise in the fridge overnight.  Punch down if necessary, and dump on the bread board.

The Dough Which Ate Cleveland Heights: a triple-batch of challah rises.  

Split the dough into 3 to 6 pieces, depending on how you want to braid it. You have three options with this quantity of dough:

• 1 ginormous 3-strand challah
• 2 smaller 3-strand challot
• 1 ginormous 6-strand challah

Because I needed to make a triple batch, I opted for making 3 giant three-strand loaves.  The 6-strand challah is very impressive but a 6-strand braid is hard to get right.  I recommend practicing with string.

Roll the pieces into long ropes (about 18 inches long). 

Cover the cookie sheet with parchment, and braid the ropes into a loaf on it.  For the above loaf, I rolled the strands extra-long and evenly.  You can also make a more traditional shape by rolling somewhat shorter strands which taper towards the ends, as shown below.

Spray a sheet of plastic wrap with oil, and cover the loaf loosely.  Preheat the oven to 375F.

Make the egg wash.  After 20-30 minutes, the loaf should have grown significantly in size.  Remove plastic, brush it with the egg wash all over the top, and put it in the oven.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating halfway through.  At the end of baking, the loaf should be very brown except in the crevices, and should sound hollow when thumped in the middle.   Remove from oven, put on a rack, and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy your challah!  And Merry Christmas!

This may be a little late, but if you're looking for more interesting side dishes/condiments for TY Day tommorrow: this is definitely not Betty Crocker's cranberry sauce. It's spicy, savory and tart. I'm making it to go with the Moroccan theme for our Thanksgiving meal.

Cranberry Harissa

• 3-4 whole dried guajillo or New Mexico peppers
• 1 large red bell pepper, sliced, about 1 1/2 cups
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 4-6 cloves peeled garlic
• 2 tsp whole caraway seeds
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
• salt
• olive oil

Slice each dried pepper into 4-6 pieces and discard the stem and most of the seeds. Soak in about 1 cup of hot water for 15-20 minutes. When the peppers are done soaking, you'll drain them but save the soaking water.

In a small saucepan, toast the cumin and caraway seeds until fragrant, around 3-4 minutes on medium heat. Set aside. You can skip the toasting if you're in a hurry.

Stem, seed and roughly chop the bell pepper.

Put garlic, seeds, both kinds of peppers, cranberries, and 1 tsp salt into a food grinder, Vitamix or food processor. Add 1/2 cup of the pepper soaking liquid. Puree, adding more soaking water if necessary to get the harissa to grind up.

Pour the puree into the saucepan. Taste and add salt if required. Cook over low heat until brick-red and reduced by 1/3 to 1/2, 30 to 40 minutes.

Cool. Put in jars for keeping, or bowls for serving, covered with a thin layer of olive oil. Makes 1.5 to 2 cups.

Ready for the ultimate autumn brunch food, courtesy of Little House on the Prairie? It's fried apples & onions. One thing Laura Ingalls Wilder could do is cook the American comfort food of the nineteenth century, and this is it. Besides, it's early November and if your grocer is anything like mine they've got huge stacks of 11 varieties of apples.

Speaking of which: when you fry apples, like you do in this recipe, you do not want soft, sweet apples like Red Delicious or Fuji; they will turn to mush. You want crisp, tart apples like Granny Smith, McIntosh or Braeburn.

Anyway, the recipe:

• 2 to 3 large onions, halved, peeled and sliced, 3-4 cups.
• 3 to 4 apples, peeled and sliced, 2-3 cups
• 3 Tbs butter and/or vegetable oil
• Salt & pepper

Heat a large, deep pan such as a 12" cast iron pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil/butter and saute the onions, stirring infrequently, until limp and starting to brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the apple slices and fry for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the apples are limp and starting to caramelize. Season with salt and pepper sufficient to make this a savory dish. Serve.

For an extra-special brunch, top with poached or fried eggs.

• 1 bunch Tuscan cabbage (lacinato kale), about 1lbs (400g)
• 4-6 cloves garlic (depending on size), peeled whole
• 1/4 cup good olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp or so salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• pepper grinder
• 3 to 6oz parmigiano, pecorino romano, or similar Italian grating cheese
• 1lbs (400g) potato gnocchi (store bought or home-made)
• two large pots, skewer, cheese grater, blender/food processor, cup measure

Fill both pots with warm water and put them on the stove to heat. One is for the gnocchi; salt the water as you normally would. The other is for the kale; salt it substantially, with at least 1 tsp salt.

Trim, chop and wash the kale. While the kale is soaking, but the garlic cloves on the skewer and poach them in the kale cooking pot for about 4 minutes. This will tame their flavor; otherwise you will end up with "gnocchi al Hulk".

When the garlic is poached, put the kale in the water and cook it for 1 to two minutes. If you are looking to preserve the brightest color scoop it out and dunk it in cold water. Otherwise, just drain the pot, reserving 1 cup of the salty kale water.

Put the blanched kale, garlic, olive oil, 1 squeeze of lemon (around 1 tsp), nutmeg, and several grinds of pepper (around 1/4 tsp) in the blender or food processor. Puree until reduced to a sauce consistency; if it's too thick, add the reserved kale water a little at a time until it's fairly smooth. Adjust seasonings for balance, using salt, pepper, and additional squeezes of lemon juice if required.

Cook the gnocchi in the other pot. Drain and toss the gnocchi with the pesto. Serve, and top with generous gratings of the cheese, or better: hand your guests the cheese and a hand-grater to serve themselves.

Variations:

• Spring version: replace the garlic cloves with 3-4 stalks blanched green garlic.
• Creamy version: add 1 cup ricotta cheese to the pesto when pureeing.
• Nutty version: add 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts or almonds to the pesto while pureeing.