Recipe, interrupted

Recipe: Cauliflower And Almonds with Parsley-Anchovy Dressing

This is a bagna cauda-inspired salad. It has the anchovies and garlic of the classic Italian warm dipping sauce for veggies. But the dressing is served at room temperature and is brightened up by a whole lot of parsley, borrowing a little from another Italian favorite: pesto. 

I love it on raw cauliflower, but you could also use blanched and chilled cauliflower if you prefer it cooked. 

Serves 4-6

Preparation time: 15 minutes

 

For the dressing:

1 large clove garlic, roughly chopped

¼ cup packed flat-leaf parsley

3 anchovy fillets

1 teaspoon lemon juice

¼ teaspoon Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

For the salad:

1 small to medium head cauliflower, cut into small florets or sliced thinly with a mandoline 

2 tablespoon chopped oil-cured black olives

¼ cup roughly chopped toasted almonds

 

1. With an immersion blender, food processor, or blender, combine garlic, parsley, anchovies, lemon juice, salt, pepper and vinegar until well-blended and finely chopped. With the motor running, gradually drizzle in olive oil and blend until the dressing is smooth and emulsified.
   
   
   
   
2. Pile cauliflower onto a serving dish. Drizzle dressing over cauliflower. Garnish with a sprinkling of olives and almonds and serve.

 

Recipe: Walnut Cake

I’ve made this cake often – it's a simple cake, perfect for an afternoon tea. And it dresses up nicely with whipped cream and a fruit sauce or preserves. The recipe is adapted from an old William-Sonoma cookbook called “The Best of Taste.” One especially nice thing about this cake is that it stays moist for days. In fact, it seems to even improve on the second day.

This past weekend, I thought, how nice would a quiet family afternoon tea be. The cake was already made; I had put it in the freezer a couple weeks ago when a friend was going to come over and then had to cancel. And I still had some of the raspberry sauce from our Labor Day berry picking trip so the preparation would be easy.

In the end, it was a lovely tea. But initially, my kids grumbled loudly when they heard there were walnuts in the cake. Kids have a way of maintaining a perfect mental inventory of anything sweet in the house. Mine knew there was one piece of my mother’s apple pie left in the fridge and they started fighting over would get to eat that instead the sure-to-be awful cake. Losing hope for my picture-perfect afternoon, I barked at them to sit down and try the cake, if they didn’t like it, they could split the pie. Thankfully, they liked the cake and things quieted down. After the cake was gone, my younger daughter licked the sauce off her plate – I wish I had gotten a photo of that.  And, still, they somehow managed to broker their way to the pie. In my gratitude for the momentary peace, I let my guard down. For them, it was a day when they had their cake and ate pie, too.

Serves 8 to 10

Preparation time: 1 hour
 

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

6 large eggs, separated

½ cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

few gratings of whole nutmeg

½ pound (about 2 ¼ cups) walnuts halves and pieces, finely ground with 1 tablespoon sugar

Pinch salt

2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

¾ cup heavy cream, whipped and lightly sweetened with 1 teaspoon sugar and flavored with ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup fruit preserves (such as apricot) or sauce, such as the raspberry sauce

 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 10-inch springform pan and line the bottom of it with a circle of baking parchment.
    
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until lightened. Beat in egg yolks one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure the mixture is blended evenly.
    
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, spices, and walnut mixture. Fold into egg mixture.
    
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites and salt into stiff peaks. Gently stir ¼ of the whites into the batter, then fold in the rest.
    
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until the top of the cake is lightly browned, the edges of the cake are just beginning to separate from the pan and the cake springs back when touched in the middle, about 25-30 minutes. Let cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then unmold onto a wire rack to cool further.
    
6. Sift confectioners sugar over cake.
    
7. Serve warm or at room temperature, with a dollop of whipped cream over each slice and preserves or sauce served around it. This cake can be prepared a day in advance, cooled completely, and wrapped in plastic and refrigerated. Or you can freeze for several weeks. Allow the cake to return to room temperature before serving. This cake stays moist for several days.
   

Spaghetti Ice Cream

When I made the raspberry sauce from our family’s recent berry-picking expedition, I immediately thought of a childhood favorite: spaghetti ice. This was (and probably still is) a popular kind of sundae that I had eaten in Germany. Vanilla ice cream is passed through a press with little holes in it so that it comes out as soft-serve ‘spaghetti.’ Then it’s topped with raspberry sauce and grated white chocolate for the parmesan.

I tried to replicate this at home using a well-chilled potato ricer to shape the ice cream. It didn’t look quite as convincing as the ones from the ice cream parlors of my childhood but the skeptical looks on my kids’ faces vanished as soon as the spoons hit their lips.     

 

Recipe: Raspberry Sauce

We went raspberry picking over Labor Day weekend at Thompson-Finch Farm in the Hudson Valley. It had taken a little bit of searching to find a u-pick place that doesn’t spray their berries. But when we found it, we showed up bright and early so that we could get some good picking in before we had to wrap up our vacation and head back home to Brooklyn.

As I reached out for that first berry I was feeling especially thankful that it was free of pesticides and said to my 5-year-old, “I think fresh raspberries straight from the bush are my favorite food.”

In response, she sweetly asked, “Why are fresh raspberries straight from the bush your favorite food?” (Have I been pushing the idea of speaking in complete sentences too hard?)

“Because they are so sweet and delicate and still warm from the sun. And they are fun to pick and pop in my mouth,” I answered with a raspberry-tinged grin.

They were fun to pick. We kept picking and picking, and by the time we got back home, after several hours in the car, popping berries in our mouths like they were popcorn, we still managed to bring a small bucketful up to our kitchen. By this point, I could hardly look at them. I considered the possibility that it was my full belly pleading, ‘no more!’ But I had to admit, they really did look a little worse for the wear. During the drive, with the bucket being passed around, accidently kicked, and jostled over bumpy roads, these very ripe raspberries had gotten a little bruised. They were still quite plump, but the deeply red juice was starting to seep out and stain the bottom of the bucket.

Something had to be done with them soon. They were going to go downhill fast. And so was I. I was tired from the long day and was not interested in doing anything complicated. The raspberries went straight into the saucepan (I don’t like to wash raspberries, another reason for picking organic) with some sugar and simmered gently for about 15 minutes. After straining the thick liquid, I had a deeply crimson sauce that was rich with the flavor of the sun-soaked berries.

In the days that followed, I poured the sauce over ice-cream, pancakes, and cake. I also sneaked a spoonful of it every now and then, just to hold on to that feeling of soaking up the summer sun.
 

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Makes about 1 cup
 

1 pound fresh raspberries (or, if you are longing for that summer flavor in the middle of winter, frozen raspberries work nicely, too)

½ cup sugar (or more if you prefer a sweeter, less tangy sauce)
 

1. Bring raspberries and sugar to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and continue to simmer until raspberries have broken down into a thick sauce, about 15 minutes.
   
   
   
   
   Using a fine mesh strainer or chinois placed over a bowl, strain the seeds out of the sauce. Encourage the liquid to pass through with a plunging motion of a pestle, wooden spoon, or small ladle. Try to squeeze as much liquid out of the pulpy mess; the final pressings will add thickness to the sauce.
   
   
   
2. Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature over ice cream, cake, pancakes or waffles. It also can be drizzled into mixed drinks and smoothies.