Recipes for Snacks and Beginnings
January 7, 2019
It’s an R month. Which to me, at least, means lots of oysters.
Ordered a hundred over Christmas (they live a good ten days in the refrigerator, covered with a damp towel). At the end, when we’d had our fill of oysters on the half shell, I fried the last of them.
So good!
Fried Oysters
Shopping list: 1 pint oysters, 1 pint buttermilk, 2 cups cornmeal
Staples: flour, salt, oil.
Carefully drain the oysters, and put them in 2 cups of buttermilk for about 10 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with waxed paper or a silpat pad. Mix 2 cups of cornmeal with 2 cups of flour and a teaspoon of salt. Pick up each oyster, shake it a bit, allowing the buttermilk to drip off before plunking it into the cornmeal mixture; toss it about so it’s coated on all sides and place it on the lined baking sheet. Do it with the next oyster, and the next….
In a deep pot heat at least 2 inches of oil until it registers 375 on a thermometer. Pick up an oyster, shake it to remove excess breading and plunk it into the oil. Fry for about a minute and a half until just golden, then remove with a slotted spoon and set on paper towels to drain. You should be able to fry 6 to 8 oysters at a time. Bring oil back to 375 before adding a new batch.
Sprinkle with salt and serve with plenty of fresh lemons. Some people like tartar sauce or remoulade with their oysters, but I think that masks the delicate flavor.
December 17, 2018
You know how sad clementines can be when you bring them home? You’re looking for something juicy, bright, fresh – but they’re just kind of hard and miserable?
Contemplating an entire bag of the things, it hit me that I should try roasting them. All fruits and vegetables get better when they’re blasted with heat. So I peeled the clementines, separated them into sections and took off as much of the white strings as I could. I slicked a cast iron pan with olive oil, cranked up the heat and roasted the sections for a couple minutes a side until they were slightly charred.
But then what? It wasn’t quite enough. So I heated a bit of olive oil, tossed in some red pepper flakes and a few sprigs of the rosemary plant that lives in my kitchen. I added a couple drops of cider syrup (anything sweet would do), and a splash of vinegar, and let that sit on the stove for a few minutes. Then I poured it over the tangerine slices and let them marinate all day.
I served them, sprinkled with salt and a few grindings of kampot pepper, on crackers spread with ricotta. They’re also great with sliced prosciutto. But I can think of lots of other ways to use these little bites of citrus. Think of them kind of like marmalade in the rough- and let your imagination run wild.
September 12, 2018
I made James Beard’s “onion rings” the other night for the first time in a while. Now’s the perfect moment for them – farmers’ markets are filled with sweet onions just pulled from the earth, and this is the best way I know to showcase that compelling flavor. On top of that, this is the moment when all the parsley in the garden is proud and full.
Start with a loaf of sturdy white bread. Or traditional Pepperidge Farm sandwich white. Using a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, cut circles out of the bread. Slather them with good commercial mayonnaise and sprinkle them with salt.
Slice your onions very thinly.
Chop a good amount of parsley as finely as you like.
Put a slice of onion on a circle of bread and sandwich it with another circle of bread.
Spread mayonnaise on the edge of each sandwich and roll it in chopped parsley.
These keep surprisingly well; I just ate the last of the two-day old sandwiches. It made a perfect 10 a.m. snack.
August 20, 2018
At the Great Barrington farmers market the other day, I stopped to talk to the people from Mayflower Farm. Then I noticed they had lamb riblets for sale, and I was intrigued. I’ve been seeing them on menus quite a lot lately (probably because they’re an inexpensive cut), so I thought I’d take a chance.
But what to do with them? I decided, for a first outing, to try an Asian-inspired recipe. The results were so delicious I wished I’d made twice as many; we devoured them in a matter of seconds.
Asian Lamb Riblets
Mix 2 tablespoons of coconut or brown sugar with 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and a tablespoon of neutral vegetable oil. Stir in a tablespoon of Gochujang or Sriracha (any kind of hot Chile sauce will do). Add the juice of half a lime, some freshly grated ginger, and a couple of teaspoons of ground coriander seed. Mince a clove of garlic and a couple of small shallots, and add those as well.
Pour the marinade into a large ziplock bag and add a pound of lamb riblets. Massage the bag so the lamb is well covered with the marinade. Allow them to soak up all this flavor, in the refrigerator, for at least 8 hours. (24 would be better.)
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil. Put the ribs, well separated, onto the baking sheet and roast them for an hour and a half, until most of the fat has cooked away. Baste with leftover marinade every half hour or so.
Remove from the oven, crank the heat up to broil and broil the ribs, 6 inches from the heat, for a minute on each side, until they’re lightly charred.
Serve with this dipping sauce.
Mix a tablespoon each of fish sauce, lime juice and rice vinegar with 2 teaspoons of sugar. Add a couple teaspoons of soy sauce, and a small clove of minced garlic. Add a tablespoon or so of chopped cilantro.
This makes an irresistible appetizer for four people.
I suspect that lamb riblets – so inexpensive at the moment – will catch on and the price will soar. So get them now while you can still afford them.
March 19, 2018
Winter just won’t give up! Woke to seven degrees this morning – and the piles of snow which feel like they’ll be here, swaddling the house, forever. Will spring really come? Are we ever going to look outside and see some green? Even the birds have deserted us – which may have something to do with the fact that I just can’t face digging through these many feet of snow to fill the feeder. Tomorrow, I think, tomorrow I’ll get out the shovel.
But today, I’m making this wonderful snack. Nothing tastes better at the end of the day with a good glass of wine.
Layered Anchovy Bread
¾ cup warm water, 90 – 100 degrees
2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 cup pastry flour
1 cup semolina flour
3 teaspoon sea salt, divided
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
6 anchovies, minced
1. Combine the warm water, yeast, and sugar in a bowl and wait for it to foam, about 5 minutes. If it does not foam, discard and start with over with fresh yeast. Either the yeast is too old, or the water may be too hot. It should be tepid at 90-100 degrees. Stir in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Whisk together the pastry flour, the semolina flour, and 1 teaspoon of salt.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture. Stir the flour into the liquid until it comes together in a ball. Knead for up to 5 minutes on a floured surface, and then place in a well-oiled bowl.
4. Cover with a moist towel and set in a warm place to rise until it is doubled in size, about an hour. Tip: If you want to hurry things up, place the bowl inside another bowl filled with very warm water and cover it up.
5. Meanwhile, mix 1/3 cup of olive oil, the paprika, oregano, anchovies, and one teaspoon of salt and set aside until the dough has risen.
6. Roll the dough out into a 15 inch round, and spread all but 1 teaspoon of the anchovy mixture all over, leaving a one inch border.
7. Beginning with the side closest to you, roll the dough into a thin jelly roll, and pinch the edges closed. Starting at one end, curl the roll into a spiral (the sides can touch), and set onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
8. Brush the top with the remaining oil and sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the bread to rise for one hour.
Bake for 35 minutes until crusty and golden. Remove to a rack and allow to cool completely. Cut into thin slices.
