Food, Photography and Bon Mots

Month: November 2019

One More Thing: Cranberry Upside-Down Cake
November 27, 2019

One More Thing: Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

Here is one more delicious dish you might want to add to your table during his holiday season: Alice Waters’ Cranberry Upside-Down Cake.” The cake, with whipped egg whites folded in, is light. The cranberries, baked with a sweet caramel glaze, are sweet and tart…

Cakes, Desserts, Fruit, Fruits, Uncategorized, Vegetarian
Spicy Kuri Squash With Harissa and Lemon
November 25, 2019

Spicy Kuri Squash With Harissa and Lemon

Cooks have long understood the impact of color on eating habits. The ancient Egyptians and Romans used herbs to color their foods and wines in an effort to enhance their appeal. Instinctively, I think, most of us understand that color suggests flavor, ripeness, and sweetness.…

Side Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Not Your Momma’s (Or Dorcas’) Holiday Green Beans: Green Beans With Dried-Cherry Vinaigrette
November 22, 2019

Not Your Momma’s (Or Dorcas’) Holiday Green Beans: Green Beans With Dried-Cherry Vinaigrette

According to Smithsonian Magazine somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000,000 people will be eating green bean casserole this Thanksgiving, many of them following some version of the recipe Dorcas Reilly (pictured below) created in 1955. Dorcas was a food expert working for Campbell’s Soup Company at the time.

 

 

 

If you want to give it a go, here is her original recipe. The recipe card is now housed in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Interest in the recipe has exploded over the years, so much so that Campbell’s Soup now estimates that 40% of the cream of mushroom soup they sell goes into green bean casseroles.

 

 

 

 

If, however, you are weary of Dorcas’ ubiquitous casserole and thinking of going rogue with your holiday menu this year, here is a wonderful option: Green Beans With Walnuts and Dried-Cherry Vinaigrette.

There is no can of cream of mushroom soup in this green bean recipe. No canned fried onions, either. I promise. Cross my heart.

Instead, this holiday green bean dish combines cherries, roasted walnuts and a drop-dead good vinaigrette dressing with fresh tender-crisp French green beans. Sweet. Sour, Crunchy. Beautiful. Fresh. (Good words, all.)

Be sure, though, that you buy fresh French green beans or French green beans that have been quick frozen immediately after being  harvested. It would be a shame to diminish the flavor of this dish by using less-than quality beans. Green beans, after all, are one of the most fragile vegetables out there. Their tissue is very active. A lonely bag of fresh green beans left in the refrigerator too long consumes its own sugars and loses sweetness. How sad is that!

Green Beans With Toasted Walnuts and Cherry Vinaigrette

November 22, 2019
: 8
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Ingredients
  • 1/3 C. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 C. minced shallots
  • 3 T. plus 2 t. sherry wine vinegar
  • 2 T. chopped fresh mint
  • 1 1/2 t. kosher salt (coarse)
  • 1 t. sugar
  • 1/2 t. black pepper (plus extra for serving)
  • 1/3 C. dried tart cherries
  • 1 1/2 pounds slender French green beans (haricots verts)with ends removed
  • 1/2 C. walnuts (toasted and chopped)
Directions
  • Step 1 Roast and chop walnuts. Set aside.
  • Step 2 Slowly whisk olive oil into sherry vinegar. When the mixture is emulsified, add shallots mint, salt, sugar and pepper. Stir in dried cherries. Set vinaigrette aside. Re-whisk before using and use at room temperature.
  • Step 3 Put ice in a large bowl with some water. Set aside.
  • Step 4 Using a large pan like a soup pot, bring water to a roiling boil. Add a lot of salt to the water. You want the water to taste very salty like the ocean. The very salty boiling water will season your green beans and will help make the beans more tender. Add the green beans all at once and boil for three to four minutes until the beans are crisp tender.
  • Step 5 Using a kitchen spider, remove the beans from the boiling water, drain and transfer the beans to the bowl of ice water to stop the beans from cooking further. After two to three minutes, remove the beans from the ice water. If you leave then in the ice water for too long, they will begin to get soggy. Drain and dry the beans on paper towels.
  • Step 6 When you are ready to serve, toss the dried green beans (at room temperature) with the roasted walnuts and the dried cherry vinaigrette.

This Green Beans With Walnuts and Dried-Cherry Vinaigrette recipe is adapted from one that was taught in a great “Thanksgiving Sides” class taught by the very talented Chef Brian at the Costa Mesa  (California) Sur La Table. That recipe was originally published in Bon Appetit Magazine here.

Beans, Salads, Side Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian
It’s A Beauty: Ricotta Cake With Raspberries
November 18, 2019

It’s A Beauty: Ricotta Cake With Raspberries

It’s all about the texture. A generous dollop of ricotta cheese gives this delightful (and simple-to-make) vanilla cake an elegant fine crumb. Throw in some beautiful raspberries and this delicate cake becomes fragrant and even more delicious. Serve it with whipped cream or a scoop…

Cakes, Desserts, Fruit, Fruits, Vegetarian
Cheesy Potato Heaven! Gratin of Asparagus and Potatoes
November 11, 2019

Cheesy Potato Heaven! Gratin of Asparagus and Potatoes

When an Irish girl tells you that a potato dish soars, you should listen. This potato dish soars! Potatoes should definitely be on your Thanksgiving table anyway. The potato carbohydrates will give you the energy you need to keep things on a mellow Norman Rockwell-esque…

Main Dishes, Potatoes, Side Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian
No Worries Here: Greek Fasolada (White Bean Soup)
November 6, 2019

No Worries Here: Greek Fasolada (White Bean Soup)

I’m imagining myself enjoying a bowl of this wonderful Fasolada soup on a lazy afternoon in a boisterous Greek taverna. Outside, the turquoise waters of the Aegean Sea lap gently against faded fishing boats beached on the sand . Bottles of Fix beer and a carafe (or two) of retsina are lined up on my table. The sublime music of Mikis Theodorakis fills the space. (There is a handsome Greek guy too, but that is another story.)

Fasolada is a traditional Greek dish. In fact, some call it the Greek National Dish. I guess Moussaka and Fasolada will have to fight it out for that title. They’re both Olympian contenders to be sure.

As the story goes, the King of Athens, traveling to Crete to kill the Minotaur, needed a sacrifice to honor the god Apollo. When the time came, the cupboards were pretty bare and bean soup (fasolada) was presented as the offering. Greeks have been celebrating and enjoying the soup ever since.

In addition to being thrifty, this soup is healthy. It is rich in protein, iron and fiber. It also incorporates a good stir of heart-healthy olive oil at the end of cooking to give it its wonderful creamy texture.

Hope you enjoy this soup.

Bon Appetit or, as the Greeks say, Καλή όρεξη!

Greek Fasolada (White Bean Soup)

November 6, 2019
: 6
Print This
Ingredients
  • 6 T. extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
  • 1 large red onion (chopped)
  • 3 medium celery stalks (chopped)
  • 3 medium carrots (peeled and chopped, divided)
  • Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper
  • 4 medium garlic cloves (minced)
  • 1/2 t. red pepper flakes
  • 3 T. tomato paste
  • 1 pound dried cannellini beans (soaked overnight and drained)
  • 2 1/2 quarts vegetable broth
  • 4 t. red wine vinegar
  • 1/2 C. finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1/2 C. pitted Kalamata olives (chopped)
  • 1/2 C. feta cheese (crumbled)
Directions
  • Step 1 Heat 3 T. olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onions, celery, half the carrots and 1/2 t. salt and saute vegetables until they begin to brown.Stir the vegetable mixture as you saute. Once the vegetables have started to brown, add garlic and red pepper flakes and saute for about 30 seconds. Stir tomato paste into the mixture and cook for a few minutes until it begins to brown. Add the soaked and drained beans and the vegetable broth to the mixture. Stir. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat. Simmer partially covered until the beans are tender. This will take about an hour to an hour and a half. Stir the soup occasionally as you cook it to be sure the beans are not sticking to the bottom of the pot.
  • Step 2 Remove about one cup of the cooked beans (no broth) from the soup pot and mash. Return the mashed bean paste to the simmering soup and stir to mix. Add the remaining chopped carrots to the soup and continue cooking the soup until the carrots are tender. This will take about ten minutes.
  • Step 3 Remove the soup from the heat. Stir in vinegar to taste. (I used the entire 4 teaspoons in my soup.) Whisk the remaining 3 T. olive oil into the soup (Whisk vigorously to thicken your soup!). The olive oil will thicken the soup and give it a creamy mouthfeel. Season soup with salt and pepper. Serve garnished with chopped Kalamata olives, crumbled feta cheese, and chopped parsley. Cook’s Note: You can used a 15 1/2 ounce can of white beans in this soup. If you do use canned beans, reduce the broth to 1 1/2 quarts and add all of the carrots, onions and celery to the broth at one time.  Add the whole and mashed beans at the same time. Simmer the broth, beans and vegetables until the carrots are tender. Otherwise, follow the directions above.

This recipe is adapted from one that appears in The Milk Street Cookbook. You can buy the book here.

Beans, Soups, Vegetables, Vegetarian

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