Favorite Kitchen Utensils: Rotary Cheese Grater

We love parmesan cheese, but we do not love scraping our knuckles as we try to get every fragment off the rind. But Parmigiano-Reggiano is expensive, even at Costco, and we don't like to waste any of it. 


Although microplanes work well on larger pieces of cheese, they can wreak havoc on your hands when you get down to the rind—one slip of the wrist, and you're running for the Band-Aid box.  


Fortunately, we invested years ago in a rotary cheese grinder, which with a few turns produces mounds of snowy grated cheese. Even though it's made of plastic, it's endured heavy use for at least a decade now and withstood many trips through the dishwasher.


(For some reason, we can't delete the Amazon link to the left, but it does provide a good view of this marvelous invention.) 


Now we can scrape every parmesan rind down to the very bottom before we toss it into the freezer for future batches of soup. 

Too Much Zucchini? Try This Brownie Recipe!

Zucchini growers are always looking for new recipes, for obvious reasons (see photo). Most of you probably have a reliable recipe for zucchini bread, but did you know that you can make zucchini brownies? Ro Ann Redlin once more comes to the rescue of Eat Well, Eat Cheap readers, with a delicious suggestion for using up extra squash.

Ro Ann notes, "I feel guilty about this not being healthier! But if your readers need something to do with all those zucchinis pouring in from their gardens, here is a perfect baking recipe. (Another way to use up the squash and make your spaghetti healthier: grate two cups of unpeeled zucchini into your favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. It cooks down right away and adds no taste other than as a complement to the tomato.)"

Zucchini Brownies

1/2 c. margarine or butter
1/2 c. oil
1 3/4 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. sour cream
1/4 c. cocoa
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 c. grated zucchini
1/2 c. chocolate chips

1. Cream margarine/butter, oil, and sugar. 

2. Add eggs, vanilla, sour cream, cocoa, flour, baking power, baking soda, and salt. Stir in zucchini.

3.  Pour into a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. 

4. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool before cutting. 

If anybody else has good suggestions for using up zucchini—particularly those club-size vegetables that too often end up in the compost bin—please send them along!

A Veggie Stir-fry That Will Please Meat Eaters

Today we welcome guest blogger Amy Friedman, who combines a love of cooking, a flair for frugality, and a talent for writing. She offers this yummy-sounding stir-fry recipe designed to satisfy both meat eaters and vegetarians:


My husband and I are both meat eaters, but we do enjoy vegetarian dishes. For my husband, veggie dishes have two requirements: hearty and tasty. By “tasty,” he generally means “spicy,” so my many jars of peppers and pepper sauces get quite the workout!

I also like hearty and tasty (although not quite as spicy as my husband), and am also a biiiiiiiig fan of “clean the refrigerator” dishes. You know . . . the last few little cherry tomatoes that are about to die, the half bulb of fennel forgotten in the veggie crisper, etc. 


Here’s a lovely tofu stir-fry I invented one evening that fits several bills: It’s hearty and tasty, vegan, cleans the fridge, and makes my hubby the carnivore happy. He generally asks for it every week to ten days, and always takes seconds (and sometimes thirds). 

The recipe looks complicated, but it really isn’t. You can be a purist and mince your own ginger and garlic, but I generally use the preminced stuff. Also, once you’ve made it a few times and are comfortable with the proportions, you can throw it together right in the frying pan, if you’re so inclined. Saves on cleanup!

Hearty and Tasty Tofu Stir-Fry


1 14-ounce package extra-firm tofu, drained and cubed
 4 or 5 dried tree ear mushrooms, soaked in a bowl of water
1 green pepper
4 ounces fresh mushrooms 
1 large or 2 medium onions
Optional: half a zucchini or yellow squash, diced; thinly sliced fennel or celery; sliced or diced broccoli stem (not florets!) 
1 T. olive oil
1 c. fresh spinach leaves
About 15 grape tomatoes, or an equal amount of Roma tomatoes, sliced
3 or 4 scallions, sliced


Marinade:
¼ c. soy sauce (shoyu or tamari OK)
About 1 T.  mirin 
1 to 2 t. pureed ginger (or 1 t. minced fresh ginger)
1 to 2 t. minced garlic (2 garlic cloves, mince, or about 1½ t. garlic powder)
1 to 2 T. peanut butter (I like the crunchy stuff, but also sometimes just use peanut sauce)
1 dollop honey (optional)
1 to 2 T. sriracha sauce, or ½ t. black pepper, ½ t. red pepper, ¼ t. white pepper (you may want it less spicy—experiment with smaller proportions, but don’t substitute Tabasco!)

1. Mix marinade and pour over tofu. Let it sit while prepping the rest of the meal.

2. Dice green pepper (or halves of two colors – looks pretty!), mushrooms 
(you can also use presliced for a chunkier dish), onion, and the optional veggies, if you're using them. 

3. Heat olive oil in a 12-inch frying pan. 


4. Pour marinated tofu plus all the marinade into the  pan and spread in a single layer.
Let cook about 5 minutes.

5. While the tofu is cooking, slice up the tree ear mushrooms, then add to the pan, along with the green pepper, mushrooms, onions and optional veggies. Stir-fry for about five minutes,  then let simmer for another five minutes.

6. Add the spinach to the pan and stir until it wilts. 


7. Stir the tomatoes and scallions into the mix. Cover, and let simmer for about five minutes.

Serve spooned over hot white sushi rice or brown rice. 

NOTE: if you don’t have the rice already made, start the rice BEFORE you start this dish!


Note: the Tofuzilla photo is from a poster for the Los Angeles Tofu Festival. We wish we could have attended! 

The Future of Cookbooks?

Given that just about everybody has a video camera, access to a blog on the Internet, and a creative itch, why wouldn't cookbooks and recipes go beyond the half-hour TV cooking show to something more sensual and inviting?

Eat Well, Eat Cheap posted John Ross's wonderful little self-shot video of himself baking eggplant, complete with recipe instructions and illuminating video. We forgot about another, equally sensual recipe video that we'd seen earlier on National Public Radio's website. This one by William Hereford is a complete meal featuring duck breast, fingerling potatoes and a butter lettuce salad. If you want to read the accompanying story that NPR did on the video, titled "Is This The Future of Cookbooks," click here. If you merely want to watch the video, go straight to the screen below.

Both of these recipe videos are accompanied by splendid music. Even if you hate eggplant or never eat duck breast, these two videos are worth watching, just for the pleasure they convey about how much fun it is to cook a great plate of food at home.


Cooking Dinner Vol. I from William Hereford on Vimeo.

Easy Baked Eggplant Video

Our friend John Ross has made a smashing video of how to bake an eggplant with five other ingredients for 30 minutes to make an fairly healthy, and certainly enticing, vegetable side.
In addition to giving you everything you need to know to make and bake the dish, he's made a food video that has no voiceover, is easy to follow, and is just a joy to watch.


Roasted Eggplant from John Craig Ross on Vimeo.

Bargain Wine of the Week: Sonoma Acres

Remember when you bent the rules just a bit, because you knew it wouldn't really hurt anybody? And, besides, it probably came as an opportunity that would not present itself again — and it was too good to pass up.

Rules are made to be bent, if not broken, right? We're going to bend our rules one time to tell you about an amazing winery that is getting amazing ratings from Jonathan Newman, one of America's premier wine raters.

The broken rule? The two wines (from the same winery) that we're about to tell you about cost more than $10, and that's our rule here: All wines are good to great and they're all under $10. So, just listen, and see if it's not worth a moving the fences a little. Just this once.

We recently purchased, on Jonathan Newman's recommendation, two 2008 Sonoma Acres wines. The first was a Sauvignon Blanc that Newman rated a 90+. It cost us $10.99. The wine is made from grapes grown all over Sonoma County. The cooler vineyards add a little lemongrass and gooseberry to the nose; the warmer vineyards add tropical nuances.

Here's what Newman said about this wine:

This is an outstanding value 08 Sauvignon Blanc with a nice QPR. Grapefruit, honeysuckle and hints of exotic fruit on the nose. A good core of intensity with key lime, honeydew and candied pineapple. Balanced with nice round tropical fruit creaminess with a pleasant, refreshing finish.

The he really popped our cork when he gave the 2008 Sonoma Acres Pinot Noir a 92/93 rating. The wine was a bit more expensive — $13.99 — but we splurged and bought four. What a bargain for a pinot, especially a Russian River Pinot Noir. Because of the popularity of this varietal — the scourge of "Sideways"— it is very difficult to find a great pinot for less than $30. Here is Newman's review of this wine.

Good bright red ruby color. Inspiring aromas of strawberries, bing cherry,and red plum. Well structured, bright, pleasant acidity and medium bodied. A silky lush mouth feel with raspberries, pomegranates, cherries and touchesof cinnamon and plum. Aged in french oak for ten months which is nicely integrated with a very pleasant and clean finish. This is a small production100% Pinot Noir that is all grown in Sonoma's Russian River Valley and has a great quality/price ratio. Enjoy now or over the next several years and pair with roast duckling in a bing cherry sauce, bouillabaisse or seared salmon.

We've posted the two labels here, so if you see them in a wine store, please do yourself a favor and pick up a bottle of each.

Fried Parmesan Crisps—Great Garnish, Great Appetizer

Known in the foodie world as frico, these delicate cheese crisps dress up salads and pasta dishes and make excellent quick appetizers. And they could not be easier to make. All you need are a chunk of parmesan, a grater, and a nonstick pan.

Once you've grated your cheese, turn the heat under your pan up fairly high, then sprinkle the cheese in thin circles on the nonstick surface. Be careful not to pile up the cheese, or the crisps won't be very crispy—a light, lacy pattern is best. Admittedly, the cheese in this photo doesn't follow any particular pattern; if we were showing off for guests, we would make more of an effort to keep the crisps round:

Within a couple of minutes, the cheese will be melted and starting to brown. Turn down the heat to medium and let the cheese cook for just a few minutes more, until it is golden throughout. Then set the pan aside to cool; don't try lifting the cheese off it when it's still hot, or it will smoosh.

After a few minutes, your parmesan crisps will be ready. If you want to use them in a salad or as a garnish, you may want to set them where nobody can find them; they have a tendency to be scarfed up as soon as they're done.

Tapenade: A Love Letter

We love black-olive tapenade, especially in the summer, when produce is abundant and as often as not we eat dinner off the grill. Originally hailing from Provence, this pungent olive paste dresses up pasta, grilled vegetables, bruschetta—anything that can benefit from a wallop of Mediterranean flavor.

Not so long ago, we never would have considered making our own tapenade, for the same reason we don't make cherry pies—the prospect of laboriously pitting a couple of cups of stony fruit is overwhelming. (We bought a cherry pitter a few years ago and managed, after great effort, to successfully pit about three cherries; the pitter went into our Worthless Gadget drawer, where it now lives with the garlic peeler and the egg poacher while awaiting its final trip to Goodwill.)

Fortunately, companies like Trader Joe's and others now sell reasonably priced pitted calamata olives, so it's easy to make our own tapenade. Last year Guest Blogger Paul Spring provided this excellent recipe for homemade tapenade, and it's worth repeating, given the ripe tomatoes on the market right now.

Last night we mixed a couple of tablespoons of tapenade with a quarter-cup of olive oil, a tablespoon of sherry vinegar, salt, and pepper. Drizzled over sliced tomatoes and basil, it made an excellent light dinner.

Another Quick Summer Treat: Strawberry-Rhubarb Pops

On the same day that we were posting the easy ice cream recipe, NPR ran a story about two guys in Washington, DC, who started a popsicle company called Pleasant Pops (because Popsicle is a trade name). Their pops are decidedly different, with fruit and herbs mixed to bring about great taste. Imagine Watermelon-Black Pepper or Peach-Ginger.

They revealed one of their easy recipes: Strawberry-Rhubarb pops that can be made in the freezer. No machines needed.

How to Make Ice Cream Without a Machine

No, you don't need one of those old-fashioned crank things, either. According to this article in today's Washington Post (hold your nose and submit to the registration process; it's worth it), all you need are a couple of plastic bags and some ice. Even though we have a machine, we hardly use it, and the simplicity of this process appeals to us. We'll try it soon and report back  . . .

The Frugal Pantry: Walnut Oil

Like most people, we tend to reach for the olive oil out of habit. Indeed, it's the perfect all-purpose oil, good for cooking, salads, marinades, and just about anything short of Asian dishes. But because we use olive oil so often, we tend to take its flavor for granted.

To keep this from happening—and to keep surprising our taste buds—we deploy our can of walnut oil. Combined with a little lemon juice or rice-wine vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper, walnut oil makes the best simple dressing we know: rich, deep, and fancy-tasting. Because it's expensive, we only use it for salads.

For walnut oil lovers, price is one problem—an eight-ounce can or bottle can easily run to double digits. Another problem is perishability: several times we've bought rancid oil from expensive stores.

Fortunately, we've discovered an economical solution: discount stores like TJ Maxx, Ross, and Marshalls. These stores not only sell walnut oil at a deep discount—a 17-ounce can of our favorite brand, La Tourangelle, costs $6.99—but they pride themselves on selling fresh oil, so they're safe places to shop. Your can of walnut oil may be slightly dented, but that won't stop it from giving you dozens of wonderful salads.

Cool Off with Cucumber Mint Soup

Temperatures are rising again after a fairly cool weekend, and we're looking for recipes that will help us beat the heat. Snooping around online this morning, we stumbled across this great-sounding recipe for Cucumber Mint Soup, which makes use of two items that many of us currently have in abundance. (We are always looking for mint recipes.)

This would make a perfect dinner on a day that's so hot you can't bear the thought of using the stove or even the grill. Add some bread and wine—and maybe some cheese and a green salad, if you're feeling ambitious—and those miserable temperatures might suddenly be a lot more tolerable.

Don't Toss That Old Take-out Rice! Make Fried Rice Instead

Anybody who gets Chinese, Thai, or Indian takeout ends up with containers of leftover rice that tend to dry up, forgotten and neglected, on a back refrigerator shelf until they are one day unceremoniusly purged, tossed into the trash or the compost bin. But there's a way to avoid the waste.

Fried rice may be one of the best leftover saviors ever invented (as well as being one of the best comfort foods if you're feeling down, poor, or just a little agoraphobic). Provided you start with cold rice, you can toss anything in; with a dash or two of soy sauce and a few minutes' stirring at high heat, you have a nice, easy meal.

Even though fried rice is one of those dishes so simple that they say any moron can make it, we are not your average morons: we struggled with a lot of failed, sticky versions before we figured it out. The key is using cold rice. This is why leftovers are great. If you make your rice from scratch, be sure to chill it first; otherwise you will end up with a gummy mess.

Also, if you're making rice from scratch, bear in mind that brown rice has a crunchier texture than white, so it works particularly well in this dish.

Looking at the photo above, you're probably wondering what those black squares are. They are fake bacon, which tastes best—most bacony—when it is fried just to the verge of burning.

This recipe is an adaptation of the one in the legendary Henry Chung's Hunan Style Chinese Cookbook.

Fried Rice with Scrambled Eggs and Bacon

4 T. peanut oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c. chopped bacon or ham*
1/4 c. scallions, chopped
1/2 c. red pepper, sliced and cut into one-inch pieces
1/2 c. peas
3 c. cooked cold rice
2 T. soy sauce (you may want more or less, depending on taste; if in question, start with a tablespoon and add if needed)
1 T. sesame oil

1. Heat wok over highest heat. Add one tablespoon of oil, then lightly scramble eggs; remove to separate plate.

2. Add two tablespoons of oil, then stir-fry the bacon or ham until it's crispy. Remove to the plate with the eggs.

3. Add remaining tablespoon of oil, then stir-fry the scallions, red pepper, and peas until just  done—it should only take a minute or two.

4. Add the rice, eggs, and bacon or ham; stir for a couple of minutes until heated and starting to brown.

5. Add soy sauce; remove to a platter and garnish with sesame oil.

* Any leftover meat would work well in this, but bacon and ham add a nice salty bite to the dish.

Chuck's Surprising Salsa

Our friends Chuck and Sandy have a plot in a community garden that is producing loads of tomatoes. (This is in stark contrast to our own three tomato containers, which thanks to the Evil Stalker Groundhog now bear only a few green fruit.) This means lots of gazpacho, tomato sauce, and salsa—and luckily, it means enough salsa to share. Chuck has made the most of his garden bounty by incorporating surprising ingredients like tarragon and oregano, with delicious results.

The lesson: Don't be afraid to play around with flavors. Experiment with what you have on hand, and chances are, you'll come up with a winning combination.

Salsa

8 medium-size tomatoes
2 small onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 medium cucumber
2 small hot peppers, with seeds
1 generous t. thyme
1 generous t. parsley
1/2 t.  oregano
1/2 t. tarragon
2 small hot peppers, with seeds
Hot sauce, salt, and pepper to taste. 


 Chop vegetables and place in blender with herbs, hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Blend, then strain to desired consistency—if you like it wet, leave the juices in. If you like it thicker, the strained juice makes a good, spicy Bloody Mary mix!

Sage-and-Walnut Pesto—Great in the Summertime

As we've noted, although sage flourishes in the summer, it tends to be used in autumn and winter recipes, and often in its dried state. But it's a shame to limit this velvety, pungent herb to the cold weather months.

You can use this sage-and-walnut pesto to coat pork and chicken before grilling. You can also add it to hot pasta for an easy vegetarian dinner, or mix it with cubed potatoes before roasting them, for an interesting side dish. Play with the balance of ingredients until you find a mix you like. These are the proportions that work well for us:

Sage and Walnut Pesto

2 cloves garlic
1 cup sage leaves
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender.

Thrifty, Light, and Wonderful: Pavlova

Because we make a lot of Caesar salads, we end up with a lot of leftover egg whites. We can't stand to waste them, so we put them in a bag in the freezer, and when we have four or more saved up, we make one of our favorite desserts: Pavlova.

This fruit-topped meringue is easy, cheap, and great in the summertime, because it's light as air. We don't know anybody who doesn't love it.

There are many good recipes for Pavlova, including Fine Cooking's fine recipe for a six-egg-white version, but we tend to use a variation of Nigella Lawson's simply because it's so easy:

Pavlova with Fresh Fruit

4 egg whites at room temperature
1/4 t. cream of tartar
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 t. cornstarch
1 t. white vinegar (you can also use cider vinegar)
1 t. vanilla
whipped cream
fresh fruit*

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. Using a mixer, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until satiny peaks form. Beat in the sugar, a third at a time, until the meringue is shiny and stiff.

4. Sprinkle the cornstarch, vinegar, and vanilla over the meringue, and briefly mix to combine.

5. Mound the meringue on the baking sheet, forming a rough circle, and flatten to about an inch and a half in height. Place in the oven, and immediately reduce the heat to 300 degrees. Bake for one hour.

6. When the hour is up, turn off the oven, but leave the Pavlova in until the oven has cooled.

7. Place the cooked Pavlova on a big plate, top with whipped cream—this is a matter of taste, but we find that just a light layer works best—and pureed or sliced fruit.

* Any fruit works: strawberries, raspberries, mango, kiwi, passion fruit. We often thaw a bag of frozen raspberries and use that. For the photo above, we didn't have whipping cream, so we mixed fresh strawberries with half-and-half and a little sugar, and that also was good.

Tomato Vinaigrette with Blue Cheese

Ro Ann Redlin has come through again for Eat Well, Eat Cheap with this recipe for tomatoes topped with vinaigrette and blue cheese. It makes delicious-sounding use of fresh tomatoes, which are coming into season for some of us. RoAnn notes that this is one of her most-requested recipes; we can't wait to try it, as we're starting to get a few tomatoes.  (We'd have more of them, but our arch-enemy the giant groundhog apparently followed us to Virginia; we caught him snacking the other day. Talk about Groundhog Day . . .)

Tomato Vinaigrette

4 large sliced tomatoes
1 package crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup parsley
1 T. tarragon, fresh or dried
1 clove garlic
1 egg, room temperature
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Using a food processor, pulse parsley, tarragon, and garlic until blended. Add the olive oil, vinegar, and egg, then pulse again until blended. Pour over the sliced tomatoes, and crumble the blue cheese on top.

Bargain Wine of the Week: WinesTillSoldOut.com

For some reason most people we know are hesitant to buy wines on the Internet. Some states won't let Internet dealers — or any direct sellers, for that matter — sell in their states. Chalk one up for the powerful liquor wholesale lobby.

And now there's a move in the U.S. Congress to ban direct sales of alcohol. So much for free enterprise.

But many people who really like wine, and who buy everything from socks to computers online, are not inclined to have wine shipped to them. Maybe they don't trust their judgment without seeing the bottle in front of them or having the store clerk's recommendation.

Every Night at Midnight a New Bargain is Announced

If this is you, you're missing out on some astonishing bargains. And the great thing is you are often given every wine rating the bottle has achieved. Our rule is generally: Less than $10, but a rating higher than 87 (and often higher than 90).

We've purchased wine from lots of Internet merchants, but our latest favorite is Wines Till Sold Out, http://www.tillsoldout.com, which posts a new bargain every night at midnight. It runs until it's sold out or until midnight the next night, whichever comes first. If the wine sells out, then it posts a new wine bargain. But always a new offering at midnight.

The typical price cut is somewhere between 40 percent and 60 percent.

There are only two minor catches: only one wine is offered at a time; and they don't have a customer service department. Part of the bargain price is low overhead.

On the plus side is that in addition to the bargain price, shipping is free on any purchase of four or more bottles.

The typical price cut is somewhere between 40 percent and 60 percent. So, we often buy $20 bottles for $10 — and pay no shipping. And four bottles at a time is a great way to try lots of different wines. The bottles arrive about two or three days later via FedEx or UPS in a well-packed box.

Today, for example WTSO offered a $22 Chianti Classico that was rated 91 by Wine Spectator magazine for $15, a 32 percent price break. It also offered up a Chateau La Tour Carnet Grand Cru Classe Haut-Medoc Bordeaux Blend 2006 for $15, a 44 percent drop in price. The wine was rated 91 by famous wine-rater Robert Parker.

Signing Up is Easy; Buying is a Two-Click Experience

Sunday's are a busy day (everybody is on the Internet), so WTSO also offered a $28 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon for $14 and a 90-rated Spanish Tempranillo for $19.

All you have to do to qualify is to sign up for the daily emails that notify you of the bargains and give them a credit card number and your address (the first time you buy). When you buy, it's a two click experience that takes seconds. Two days later you're enjoying an incredible wine bargain.

We've never had a bit of a problem with WTSO's service. And our wine rack is the better for it. We're tasting and enjoying wines that we'd never have purchased or even found in our local wine store.

Sunflower Seeds Part II

Last winter guest blogger Jim Randall posted a recipe for Sunflower Snappers. They sounded delicious, but we only got around to trying them recently, and they were just as good as he promised. They not only make an easy and healthy snack, they would also make a good substitute for overpriced pine nuts.

Thanks again, Jim!

An Inexpensive Substitute for Pine Nuts

For decades we thoughtlessly tossed handfuls of fried pine nuts into salads and pestos, without giving a thought to price. True, a one-pound bag cost about $12 at Costco, but that bag lasted a long time.

That carefree attitude evaporated this year, when pine nuts disappeared from Costco's shelves for months, then reappeared with a shocking $30-a-bag price tag. Apparently, the usual suspects—supply and demand—are to blame. Crummy harvests combined with high summer demand sent prices skyrocketing.

Though we swallowed hard and bought a bag of Costco's $30 pine nuts, we now dole them out more carefully. We'll still use them in basil-based pestos, but the days of devil-may-care salad garnishing are over for the foreseeable future.

Thankfully, there's a cheap substitute: roasted, salted sunflower seeds. The seeds work well in salads, just as crunchy and savory as their hideously expensive pine-based brethren. And a one-pound bag costs less than $3 at Trader Joe's.

Got Roasted Peppers? Here's an Easy Summer Spread

For years, it seems, we've been reading about muhammara, a Middle Eastern dip made from roasted red peppers, walnuts, breadcrumbs, and pomegranate molasses. Though intrigued, we couldn't get our minds around how those flavors would add up, and in any case, we never seemed to have them all on hand at the same time.

But a few weeks ago we had a few leftover roasted peppers, as well as a rarely deployed bottle of pomegranate glaze from Trader Joe's, so we decided to try making the spread, using a recipe from Saveur.

It was easy and fast—requiring only a food processor—but we ignored Saveur's advice to let it sit overnight before we tried it, and we found the immediate results disappointing: the dip just tasted like mealy mushed peppers.

We should have listened to Saveur. When we tried the muhammara the next evening, we could no longer pick out peppers or nuts or pomegranate; the flavors had melded into something special. We spread it thickly on toasted pita bread and ate it for dinner with a green salad.

Lesson: No matter how much of a hurry you're in to taste something, sometimes you just have to wait for the magic to happen.

Chimichurri: Fun to Say, Even More Fun to Taste

For us, grilling season never ends. We fire up the grill in snowstorms, thunderstorms, and even pitch blackness, armed with our trusty snake light. As far as we're concerned, almost everything tastes good on the grill, from pizza to freshly shucked corn. But sometimes grilled fish and meat get a little monotonous. That's where chimichurri sauce comes in.

This Argentinean green sauce peps up fish, chicken, pork, beef, and, yes, tofu. Here's Ro Ann Redlin's recipe, which she says she may copyright, it's so good.

Chimichurri Sauce:

1 bunch parsley
1 small white onion
2 T. capers
2 cloves garlic
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 T. lemon juice
1 T smoked Spanish paprika
1 t. dried oregano


Combine all ingredients in food processor, and process. Store overnight. 

Ro Ann's Chicken Enchiladas

Given our unavoidable vegetarian bias, we realize that Eat Well, Eat Cheap has been more than a bit scanty on meat recipes. We've tried to rectify this by reaching out to the good cooks we know and asking them to contribute.


The first person we reached out to was Ro Ann Redlin. Originally from the Midwest, now living in the Deep South, Ro Ann is an excellent cook with a knack for making simple ingredients taste fancy. Maybe one day we'll post her recipe for chicken liver paté, which we've been making for upward of 25 years. We'll work to get her permission on that. In the meantime, here's her recipe for chicken enchiladas. 


Chicken Enchiladas


3 cups of cooked, roasted chicken, shredded 
1/2 cup sour cream
1 small can green chilis
1/2 cup salsa (regular strength)
shredded cheddar cheese
1 can enchilada sauce (mild, medium, or hot)
1 package of flour tortillas, small or large


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine first four ingredients.
3.  Place 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture in the middle of a tortilla, and top with shredded cheese. Roll up and place side by side in baking dish. 
4. Cover with enchilada sauce. Bake for one hour til bubbling. 
5. Before serving, top with fresh chopped tomato, lettuce, and onion.


Tomorrow we'll post Ro Ann's recipe for chimichurri sauce.

Guilty Pleasures

Sorry for the scanty postings, but we've been out of town for the past week. We'll be up and running again tomorrow. In the meantime, check out this slideshow of celebrity chefs' guilty pleasures.

Five Ways to Use Up Mint

Like everybody else on the East Coast, we're wilting in a vicious heat wave, and we're a little worried about our plants. Will the delicate lettuce seedlings make it? What about our basil? One thing we don't have to worry about is the mint we inherited with our herb bed—it is impervious to drought, rain, bad soil, pests, and it runs over everything else if we don't yank it regularly.

Even though the mint frustrates us, we can't bring ourselves to toss it out. Not only do we hate waste, mint is just so good in the summertime.

 If you have a surplus of this bossy offender, here are five things you can do to use it up:

1. Mint Tea: Let the leaves dry out for a few days, then cover them with boiling water—say, a half cup of dried leaves to a couple of quarts of water. If you like, you can toss in a bag or two of black tea. You can drink it after a few minutes, or you can refrigerate it for a cooling drink on scorching days.

2. Tabbouli. This Middle Eastern salad tastes great in hot weather, and you can toss handfuls of mint leaves in with the parsley.

3. Mint Chutney. But don't just use it with Indian food. It's also a great relish for grilled meat and roasted potatoes.

4. Cucumbers with Yogurt-Mint Dressing. Cukes are coming into season, too, so this uses up two vigorous garden plants.

5. Mojitos. It is summer, after all.

Fried Sage Leaves Make a Delicious Garnish

Amazingly, our potted sage plant survived last winter's low temperatures and six feet of snow. After the thaw, we moved the plant to our herb bed, where it's happily taken off, holding its own against an advancing army of mint.

Sage tends to be used in fall and winter recipes, as it pairs well with turkey, squash, and roasted potatoes. In the summer there's not a whole lot of call for it, unless we use it as a garnish.

Fried in a little olive oil, then sprinkled with sea salt, whole sage leaves make an excellent garnish. Last night we used them to dress up a plain pasta dish; they're also good on risotto. We've even been known to serve them with cocktails.

The only thing you need to remember when frying the leaves is to let them go a while, until they've turned crispy and a dark, kelp-y green. Resist the temptation to turn off the heat when the leaves are a beautiful emerald green—they will be too chewy and resinous.

You can find sage leaves in most supermarkets' produce sections year-round, but it's easy to grow. Some plants overwinter, others don't—there seems to be no rhyme or reason for this. But they all thrive on little water, which makes them excellent candidates for container gardening.

Fancy Food Show: Not Completely Stupid

The 2010 Fancy Food Show has wrapped up in New York City, and while some of the offerings fall into the head-scratching or just plain "Eww" category—haggis potato chips, anybody?—we have to admit that some of them make sense. Check out the pesto company that's designed packaging to keep the contents from spoiling. Our favorite, though, is hot chocolate on a stick, which comes in several flavors, including salted caramel.

Eggplant Pasta Sauce

Over the weekend Salon ran an interesting recipe for eggplant-based pasta sauce, written by a former eggplant hater. Admittedly, eggplant is a tricky vegetable. Properly prepared, it has a wonderful smoky silkiness. Badly prepared, it's bitter, spongy, and mushy. And, let's face it, no matter how well you cook it, the color is not terribly appetizing. How a vegetable that is so beautiful on the outside can end up such a hideous gray-brown in the pot is one of the mysteries of cooking.

This recipe, however, sounds delicious, and we can't wait to try it.

Hot Weather Got You Down? Make a Watermelon Salad

June in Virginia is jaw-droppingly hot, and yesterday the temperature topped 100 degrees. By dinnertime we could not bring ourselves to use the stove or the grill—that would be redundant, given that stepping outside was like sliding into a pizza oven. Clearly, the weather called for salad. A nice, soothing watermelon salad. For us, there's nothing better to eat, or easier to prepare, after a scorching day. Paired with some cool Chardonnay, this composed salad makes an excellent light dinner. It also makes a good first course for a summer dinner party.

Soothing Watermelon Salad for Two

A few large handfuls of lettuce—any kind will do, from crunchy Romaine to mesclun mix
3 to 4 cups cubed watermelon
2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese (you may want more or less, depending on how much you love it)
3 T. chopped mint
Juice of one juicy lime
Sea salt and fresh-ground pepper

1. Spread lettuce on two good-size plates.

2. Divide watermelon, feta, and mint, and arrange them atop the plates.

3. Sprinkle with lime juice. Half a lime per plate is probably plenty, depending on how juicy it  is. Try a cube of melon midway through the sprinkling to make sure you aren't making the salad too sour.

4. Season with salt and pepper, but be careful not to oversalt, given the feta.

That's it! Insanely easy, deliciously cool, and perfect for hot summer nights.

Perfect Poached Eggs: Simple, but Not Always Easy

Being cholesterol-minded people, we aren't big egg eaters, but every once in a while, we indulge—with a holiday soufflé, or when we want to turn a vegetable side dish into an easy main course. When we saw Susie Middleton's recipe for Brown-Butter Asparagus with Pine Nuts, we knew that it would make a fine light dinner if we topped it with a poached egg.


Poaching eggs is a simple process, but a lot of people have trouble with it. So they buy expensive, fussy egg-poaching devices, which end up steaming the eggs instead of poaching them. Also, as anyone who's ever struggled with overcooked egg proteins knows, they are a pain to clean up. 


In fact, you don't need a special device. You just need a shallow pan of boiling water, a slotted spoon, some paper towels, a gentle hand, and a sharp eye.


Two Perfect Poached Eggs


1. Bring a skillet of water to a boil, then turn it down to simmer.


2. Crack your eggs and slip them into the simmering water, taking care not to break the yolks. (Some people crack their eggs onto plates and slip them into the water, but we've never needed to do this; we do, however, avoid cracking eggs on the side of the pan, as that can break the yolk.) Quickly add the second egg, so the two finish cooking at the same time.


3. Lay out some thick paper towels, grab hold of a slotted spoon, and keep an eye on your eggs. After about 90 seconds (no more than two minutes), start to examine them. Be gentle! The key to good poached eggs is not to boil them too hard or handle them too roughly. You want to make sure that the whites are completely cooked; after that, it's a matter of taste. If you like runny yolks, the eggs are ready when the whites are cooked; if you like them harder, let them go another minute or two.


4. Carefully slide the slotted spoon under the first egg and remove it to the paper towels so it can drain. Working quickly, take the other egg out of the water and let it drain too. Be careful not to break the yolks as you remove the eggs from the water. 


5. Once the eggs have drained, they're ready to be transferred to your plate. Again, gentleness is critical: depending on how you are serving the eggs, it may be easier to tip them off the paper towel than to use a spoon again.


This may seem like a fussy and anxiety-provoking exercise, but after you do it a few times, you get a sense of how long to let the eggs poach and how to handle them. And if you make a few mistakes, chances are it will be no big deal—there are worse tragedies in life than a broken or overcooked yolk. 

Favorite Cookbooks: Fast, Fresh & Green

We've been excitedly waiting for Susie Middleton's vegetable cookbook, Fast, Fresh & Green, ever since we heard that she was writing it. Susie, a former chief editor of Fine Cooking magazine, is a great cook not only because of her formidable grasp of technique but because of the sheer excitement she feels for cooking and the pleasure she takes from it. She appreciates simple ingredients and unfussy preparations. And she's a really good writer.

Whenever we see a Susie-Middleton-bylined article in Fine Cooking, we dive in, knowing we'll read something good.

Our copy of Fast, Fresh & Green arrived just after we'd bought a big bag of asparagus at Costco. Normally, when we have an asparagus windfall, we roast it for an easy side dish or stir-fry it as part of an Asian main course. But this time we were interested in what Susie would do.

So we split our big batch of asparagus between two of her recipes: Brown-Butter Asparagus with Pine Nuts and Speedy Stir-Fried Asparagus with Toasted Garlic. Each recipe featured just a few ingredients beyond its vegetable star—a little butter or oil, a little lemon juice or garlic—and took just a few minutes to make. The result: amazing flavor. We still don't understand the alchemy, but we'll keep making these for a long time.

A couple of days later, we tried Susie's Sweet Potato "Mini-Fries" with Limey Dipping Sauce. Once again, she used just a few ingredients—oven-baked sweet potatoes that tasted for all the world like their fried cousins, and mayonnaise spiked with lime zest and juice—and came up with something extraordinary. (Tim used the rest of the lime mayo on his fish, with fine results.)

Some people might hear "vegetable cookbook" and think "Huh? I already know how to cook vegetables." But Susie's recipes take basic produce to a much higher level.

You won't be sorry if you buy this book.

How to Tackle a Spaghetti Squash

We should be happy with our improved food choices in Virginia—not just a wider range of groceries but an excellent selection of farmers' markets. Still, we miss the weekly box of produce we used to get in the summer from Fort Hill Farm in New Milford, Connecticut. Fortunately, we saved a lot of the recipes that came with the box and can draw on them when we need to. The food-loving farmers at Fort Hill put a lot of thought into getting the most flavor out of their produce.


Spaghetti squash, for example. Every supermarket has a pile of these big pale yellow vegetables, but people tend to walk right past them. Maybe they don't know how to fix them; maybe they've tried them and found the results to be kind of boring. After all, unadorned cooked squash can be pretty blah.


The trick to spaghetti squash is using it for its texture rather than for its flavor. Its stringy flesh resembles crunchy pasta and makes an excellent vehicle for any kind of sauce, including basic tomato.


In this recipe from Fort Hill Farm, simple ingredients turn a shrugworthy vegetable into something delicious.


Spaghetti Squash à la Farmer Paul


1 spaghetti squash
4 or 5 cloves garlic, minced
Freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


2. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Place both squash halves cut side down on a lightly oiled baking dish, and add about one inch of water. Cover and bake for 20 or 30 minutes, depending on the size of the squash. When you can stick a fork through the skin without much effort, it's done.


3. Remove the squash from the oven and set it on a dish to cook. When it's cool enough to handle, scrape the squash flesh from the skin using a fork. As you do this, the squash will turn to spaghetti-like strings. Set aside.


4. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the garlic, and sauté for one minute or until the garlic is just fragrant. Add the squash and toss well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with lots of fresh-grated Parmesan or Romano cheese. Enjoy!