Cooking the Candle 79 Cookbook

Watercress, Jicama, and Corn Salad with Jalapeno Dressing

Sadly, this is the only picture you get to see of the delicious salad we made last Friday. We were 5 women and V. for dinner. Everyone was starving and I rushed to get the food on the table, and before I could think "blog" it was all gone. I did take a picture of my girls with the empty salad bowl, but when I went to download it today, there was a problem with the memory card and nothing remains. Oh well, you can take my word for it...it looked so colorful and tasted deeeelicious.
I substituted chopped apples for the corn, because I hate frozen corn unless it's in a curry or a soup.
Look at the vibrant color of the jalapeno dressing! It's great on steamed veggies too!
The recipe says it serves 6, but everyone wanted seconds, so we didn't have enough. Better than when people aren't touching the food, I suppose. We filled up on lasagna afterwards. And the other 5 had chocolate cupcakes.
I've decided to swear off sugar for January, because the candy consumption over the holidays was out of control. It's a hard thing for a pastry chef. But I'm determined to prove to myself that I can do it, and I'm still eating fruit in moderation, so it's not like I'm really depriving myself. It's amazing though, how much of my usual diet contains some form of sugar, maple syrup or agave, and breakfast has been the hardest thing to keep interesting. I bought some raw cacao and I'm mostly making shakes with banana, water and almond butter. If anyone has any other inspirations, please leave a comment!!
The salad is on page 43.

Lacinato Kale Salad

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind. We cooked, we ate, and none of us took any pictures. But we had a fantastic time with family and friends, and then we collapsed n the couch and I made V. watch Star Wars with me.
Last night, our friends invited us for Thanksgiving 2.0 (the upgrade) at their house, and we did it all over again (minus the Star Wars). I had offered to bring a kale dish, but the one thing I realized on Thursday was that it really makes the cook scramble if people show up at the last minute with several dishes to be warmed. So I opted to bring a kale salad.
We first had something like this at Il Buco a few years ago, and I've been making this version of it ever since. Even the kale skeptics (I know....it's hard to believe they exist) tend to enjoy this one, because it's covered in lots of parmesan cheese.
Lacinato kale is also known as tuscan kale, or dinosaur kale. Maybe because it looks like dinosaur skin:

Lacinato Kale Salad


De-stem, wash and cut the kale into small pieces or strips. Drizzle with olive oil and massage the oil into the leaves. Make sure you have enough oil to coat all the kale, without making it overly greasy. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the top and massage that in as well. Taste it. you want the lemon flavor to come out without making it too acidic. Add a generous amount of salt and fresh black pepper. Taste again. Grate parmesan or grana cheese and fold it evenly into the salad. You will determine how much is the perfect amount for you. Let the kale be the star, but add enough cheese to really flavor it. Serve soon after making.

Shades of Green Salad

This is the season when all good New Yorkers pick apples!

Like little red beacons, they beckon for us to leave our stone towers, the traffic noise, and the congestion behind and spend a day scrambling around an upstate farm, fantasizing about the pleasures of rural living. We buy apple cider, have lunch at a quaint little cafe named something like "Suzy's Kitchen," and maybe taste some too-sweet local wine. Then we pull out our iphones and obsess about the quickest route back to the city, where we admire our apples, google some recipes and go out to dinner somewhere fancy and "urban."

Then, over the next week or so, we bake some pie or cake, bring the neighbors some fresh picked apples and wonder about what else to do with our bottomless bag of shiny little fruits.

Which is my way of saying that there will be a few apple recipes coming your way in the next few days!

Today I made salad, where the apples were supporting characters, rather than the stars of the recipe. But they were essential nonetheless, adding sweetness and crunch. I always forget how much I love watercress, but the big bunches at the co-op this week reminded me. Use any lettuce, or combination of lettuces you like though.

Shades of Green Salad

romaine lettuce, washed, dried and chopped

watercress, trimmed and washed

avocado (i use 1/2 per person if it's a meal salad, less if it's an appetizer)

apple

sliced almonds, toasted

Sherry Vinaigrette

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup sherry vinegar

2 tblsp. dry sherry

3 tblsp. maple syrup

1/2 clove garlic, chopped

salt

pepper

Whisk together the ingredients for the vinaigrette. Pour into a sealed container and leave in the fridge overnight. Remove the garlic the next day.

Toss the lettuces with the apples with as much dressing as desired. Garnish with avocado and almonds and serve immediately.

White Bean and Kale Stew

Another chilly day, another soup!

This one is another favourite of Jamie's and mine - not so much with the kids, but that just means more for us:-) I think the apple cider vinegar REALLY makes all the difference, yum!

4 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
5 cups (packed) thinly sliced kale (about 1 large bunch)
1 Tbl apple cider vinegar
2 cups soup stock
1 tsp dried basil (1 Tbl fresh)
1 tsp dried thyme (2 tsp fresh)
1 pound white beans (cannellini or white navy - I use one can)
1 pound finely diced tomatoes (I use one large can in the winter)

salt and pepper to taste

optional garnish: olive oil and grated Romano cheese

In a large heavy pot, heat olive oil and garlic over medium heat for one minute. Add kale, vinegar and broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat; add basil and thyme. Cover and simmer until kale wilts, about seven minutes. Add beans and tomatoes with juice. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This recipe is from a well-worn issue of Natural Home magazine (May/June 2009)

Butternut Squash Soup

Winter is hanging on, and with a recent round of long illnesses in our house, we've been eating soup non-stop. I absolutely love soup as a staple to my diet during the colder months, but find the challenge to be finding a recipe that all five members of the family will enjoy. This soup happens to fit that bill, so I thought I'd share the recipe in the hopes that your family will enjoy it too!!!!! I'm sure at one point I scribbled the exact measurements down from a magazine, but now I've made it so often that I just wing it each time.

Butternut Apple Soup

1 Tbl oil, or melted butter
1 small purple onion
1 medium butternut squash
4 Macintosh apples
1-2 tsp cumin
large pinch ground ginger
2 cups soup stock

Peel and chop the squash into small squares, set aside. Peel and chop the apples, and set aside. Heat oil or butter in pot, and cook onions on medium heat until they are soft. Add the squash and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the cumin and ginger and stir well. Add apples and cook for a minute, then add soup stock and enough water to cover. Partially cover the pot with a lid, and cook under medium heat until everything is soft. Blend soup together, and add salt and pepper as needed.

Enjoy! One daughter loves this soup with cheese melted on a baked potato, another with a tea biscuit on the side.

Easy Lunch?

Is it just me or do salads seem like a lot of effort to make from scratch, for lunch? This is likely the New Yorker in me that says "why chop vegetables when all I have to do is pick up the phone and call for a $5 falafel sandwich?" But sometimes (granted, not that often) you don't feel like falafel. So the other day V and I went out to everyone's favorite Belgian organic chain restaurant, got 2 salads, a latte and a lemonade, and paid $50. And that seems comparable to all the other salad options that are close by. Not part of the daily budget!!

SO....I stocked up on beautiful veggies at the farmer's market and made this yummy salad in no time at all. Really...quinoa cooks in 15 minutes and you can make enough for the week. Fresh green lettuce, baby heirloom tomatoes and yellow string beans. Add a can of red kidney beans for extra protein. Done!

What a little meal planning can do! :)

Topped it with red pepper dressing, because I'm still grooving on that one (and there was half a jar of red peppers in the fridge, screaming to be used).

PS: There's that gosh darn yellow plate again :) ...goes a little better with salad than it does with plum tart though.