Cheesy Scrambled Eggs & Purple Hash

Let’s not kid ourselves — the best part of the omelet is the cheese. Assuming, that is, the cheese isn’t Velveeta or anything else that calls itself “a pasteurized process cheese food.” Yep, “cheese food,” not cheese. I don’t make this stuff up, folks. Just comes down to reading the labels…

But anyway, back to the good stuff. I opted to scramble an egg with some grated Kerrygold Dubliner white Cheddar, which is a lush and savory cheese made with milk from grass-fed cows. I am a huge fan of Kerrygold cheeses and butters, and as I had suspected, that Cheddar made an incredibly savory omelet. The purple potatoes were the perfect classic-with-a-twist accompaniment. Since they’re such small potatoes to begin with, it’s a snap to cut them into a few pieces and them simmer them briefly before frying them. You could use any kind of potatoes for your hash, of course — leftover, already-cooked potatoes are the quickest to use — but I’d say the purple variety has the most visual panache. The only thing cooler than “Green Eggs & Ham” would have been “Purple Eggs & Ham.”

Cheesy Scrambled Eggs & Purple Hash

Purple potatoes
Eggs, preferably from pastured hens
Grated sharp cheese (Cheddar, Parmesan, Gruyere, any of the aged French Basque cheeses), preferably from pastured animals

Get a pot of water boiling while you cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces. The little purple ones are so small that often all you have to do is cut them in half. Simmer potatoes for 10 minutes and drain well. Drizzle a little extra-virgin olive oil into a nonstick skillet and cook potatoes over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until they’re crispy and turning golden brown through their purpleness. Stir often to make sure they don’t stick to the pan.

While the potatoes are cooking, heat a drizzle of the oil over medium-low heat in another skillet. Add eggs and sprinkle cheese on top. Cook, stirring often, until eggs are softly scrambled and cheese is melted. That should only take about 3 minutes, particularly if you have fresh pastured eggs. If you want the potatoes and eggs to come out at precisely the same time, don’t start cooking the eggs until the potatoes are halfway done. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

DIY Tapas Plate

It’s Monday, it’s lunchtime, and you’re lunch-less and hungry. Odds are, you’re stuck going to the nearest faux-healthy restaurant. (Ever looked at the ingredients in a Panera sandwich? If you print out what’s in the Turkey Artichoke Panini, it’ll take up almost a full 8 1/2″ x 11″ page. But hey, I guess that’s better than Jimmy John’s — they refuse to disclose what’s in their sandwiches. If anyone ever does succeed in breaching their corporate “we won’t tell you what you’re eating” wall, I’d love to hear about it.)

While you might be up the prandial creek without a fork on Monday, take heart! The rest of the week can be much tastier and healthier. All you’ll need to do clean out your fridge, pantry, and fruit bowl by enjoying a midday assortment of odds and ends. If you were in Spain, you’d be calling the idea tapas; if you were in Greece, you’d be lunching on mezze. And your truly tasty and healthy meal will cost you under $10 (mine was $5).  So don’t be afraid to explore the corners of your fridge!

Suggestions for your Tapas Plate

Fruit
Cheese, preferably made from grass-fed milk
Nuts
Olives
Deli meats from pastured animals (such as Applegate Farms and Niman Ranch products)
Hard-boiled eggs
Pickles
Whole-grain bread
Any leftovers that need to be eaten

Remember, simplicity is your most delicious ingredient! Not throwing away money is probably the second most delicious one…which is what you’ll achieve by tossing some tasty leftovers into a bag and taking them to work with you rather than throwing them away and going out to eat.

For this plate, I went with what I had on hand:

Wedge of Prairie Fruits Moonglo raw goat cheese $2.10
Wedge of ricotta salata cheese made of sheep’s milk (I love cheeses made with sheep and goat milk) $1.00, garnished with sweet paprika
Satsuma mandarin orange $0.58
Half an organic Gala apple $0.30
Olives $1.36
For the heck of it, I threw in an anchovy-wrapped caper $0.20

Total: a very delicious $5.54 (Prairie Fruits cheeses are amazing!)

In other words, an adult version of Lunchables…except much more health- and cost-effective.

Enjoy exploring your fridge and cupboards!

Tortilla Pizzas

Here’s a truth that’s inconvenient for the dinner-in-a-sack industry but is great for the rest of us: fast food doesn’t have to be junk food. You’ve probably already got a lot of tasty quick meals loitering about in your kitchen, from canned beans that can be made into hearty salads to canned squash or pumpkin that can be fried into patties to an assortment of cheese, nuts, and fruits that can easily comprise a meal.

Or if you have some corn tortillas and some salsa and cheese, you can pop it all into the toaster oven to make savory Mexican-style pizzas. After I took this picture, I decided to make the pizzas into calzones by carefully turning one of the pizzas over and pressing it onto the other one. Crusty outsides, gooey insides…so much tastier than a $5 pizza that’s more like cardboard than food. And you’ll be enjoying your mini pizzas in a lot less time than it takes to drive up to the nearest dinner-in-a-sack outlet, too.

Tortilla Pizzas

Corn tortillas
Fresh salsa, either homemade or store-bought (I adore Garden Fresh salsas, although I added extra chopped cilantro to the one I used since I think you can pretty much never have too much cilantro)
Cheddar, Monterey Jack, or Colby cheese, preferably made with grass-fed milk (I opted for Farm Country White Cheddar), grated

If you’re using crisp tortillas, there’s no need to heat them first, but if you’re using frozen or not-so-crisp tortillas, you’ll need to dry-toast them in skillets over medium heat for 4 minutes — flipping halfway through — or until they start to turn golden-brown around the edges. I stash my Whole Life whole-grain corn tortillas in the freezer and heat them individually as needed.

Place the crisp tortillas on a foil- or parchment-lined baking sheet or toaster oven tray. Spoon some salsa onto each tortilla and sprinkle on some grated cheese. If you’re using a toaster oven, bake for about 10 minutes at 300F or until the cheese bubbles; if you’re using a conventional oven, go with 10 minutes at 350F. (The smaller interior of the toaster oven means it’ll heat much more quickly.)

Enjoy!

Feta Florentine Omelette with Potato Tortilla Cakes

Although popular conception would have you believe that the vaunted Mediterranean diet mostly consists of olive oil and vegetables, in reality, it also involves a lot of pastured eggs and dairy. What self-respecting Greek would be without her feta cheese? Or halloumi or kasseri? Then there’s the whole extra-thick, double-strained yogurt that has caught on like wildfire in the States. And what about egg-drop lemon soup? Yet another Greek classic.

Note that the key word here is “pastured.” If you’re living in the Greek countryside, you probably have access to sheep and/or goat milk and all the assorted delicious dairy products that go along with that lush milk. (And the sheep and goats most likely spend their days chomping away at grass and flowers and shrubs and whatever vegetation they can get their hooves on.) You probably also have eggs from hens clucking about and pecking for bugs while they avoid getting stepped on by a goat or a sheep.

Wild greens are another staple of Mediterranean diets and one that we tend to be sorely lacking. From dandelion greens to sorrel to arugula, if you can forage it, it’s going to end up on your plate. Many of our unwanted lawn weeds are actually tasty edible greens. (Young spring greens are tender and mild enough to eat outright; older, more bitter greens are best when lightly cooked.) A great way to save money and boost your health is to NOT spray your lawn: eat your weeds, don’t douse them with chemicals!

In homage to the Mediterranean way of eating, I came up with an easy dish that combines some of my favorite things I love most about Mediterranean food: eggs, cheese, and greens. The potato tortillas made for a nice side dish. In an Irish-Mexican kind of way.

Feta Florentine Omelette with Potato Tortilla Cakes
Assume 1 or 2 eggs and 1/4 pound potatoes per person. How much cheese and greens you use is completely up to you and your taste buds. I like a lot of both!

For the cakes:
Yukon Golds, redskins. or any other small, waxy potato, skins left on and potatoes chopped into bite-sized pieces
Sea salt
Masa harina (a corn flour used to make tortillas; Bob’s Red Mill sells a very tasty whole-grain masa harina)
Butter from pastured cows (Kerrygold and Organic Valley are great choices; Kerrygold is my favorite)

For the omelettes:
Eggs, preferably from pastured hens
Feta, preferably made of sheep or goat milk (which are more likely to come from pastured animals than domestic cow’s-milk Feta is)
Assorted greens (dandelion, arugula, baby spinach, sorrel, whatever you like)
Butter from pastured cows

To make the cakes, simmer potatoes in a pot half-filled with water for 10 minutes. Drain well. Mash potatoes with a pinch of salt until smooth, then add enough masa harina to make a dough that’s stiff enough to shape into cakes but not so dry that it crumbles and falls apart. Shape into balls (start with just enough dough to be able to close your fist around it) and then press into cakes about 4″ in diameter. Heat a dab of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until sizzling. Cook cakes in batches, flipping them over after about 3 minutes or when cake has turned a golden brown. Add more butter when the cakes start to stick to the pan.

To make the omelettes, whisk eggs in a bowl until well blended. Hand-crumble the Feta and stir that in. Stir in the greens. Heat another dab of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until butter is sizzling. Pour in egg mixture and cook, every minute or so gently stirring the eggs with a heatproof spatula to scramble them, for 4 minutes or until they’re cooked through (i.e., not runny) but are still soft.

Serve your Mediterranean omelette alongside your Irish-Mexican cakes. Enjoy!

Caprese with Two Kinds of Basil

The time has come again for that quintessential summer dish, the one I could relish eating every day, the reason I have scads of basil in my garden every year: Insalata Caprese, or salad made in the style of the isle of Capri (off Italy’s southwestern coast). I get even more excited about making this simple salad when I come across true mozzarella made with buffalo milk. It’s more expensive than the rubbery, non-creamy American versions, but when you’re only using three ingredients to make a salad — and two of those are (preferably) coming from your own garden — it’s worth splurging a bit on one of your show-stoppper stars.

Buffalo-milk mozzarella is very light and creamy and has a faint earthy flavor that plays off well against the acidity of the tomatoes and vinegar and the almost-overriding fragrant freshness of the basil. If you can’t find mozzarella di bufalo, though, go for cow’s-milk mozzarella balls in brine. Those will still be much creamier and fresher than the standard hard-block mozzarella that you’d normally grate onto pizza. (The really fresh stuff is so fresh and creamy that it would smush if you tried to grate it.) And if you have multiple varieties of basil in your garden or market, try including more than one in your Insalata Caprese — you’ll add color and a choice of flavors, plus you might stumble upon a new favorite! The same goes for tomatoes.

Insalata Caprese

Tomatoes (any kind works, so play around to see what you like best), sliced into thin rounds
Fresh basil (again, feel free to include various types of basil), sliced into ribbons
Fresh-milk brined mozzarella cheese (go for buffalo-milk mozzarella if you can get it), gently cut into rounds/bite-sized pieces
Balsamic vinegar, preferably the kind aged with grape must rather than the kind with caramel color added (check the ingredients list!)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper

The proportions of this easy-to-assemble salad are up to you: go with equal parts of tomatoes, basil, and cheese, or heap on the tomatoes if tomatoes are your favorite element. I am a HUGE basil fan, so as Emeril would say, I usually kick up the basil content many notches.

After you’ve assembled your salad — assembling works better than tossing since cut basil and fresh-milk mozzarella are both tender and prone to falling/ripping apart when tossed — drizzle it with equal portions of vinegar and oil. Start by drizzling just a bit; there’s no need to drown your salad in dressing, and you can always add more later. (Note: if you have dressing left on your plate after eating your salad, don’t waste it! Use it as a dip for bread, crackers, or veggies. Good-quality balsamic and olive oil tastes so good that I usually just drink the little bit remaining on the plate.) Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper and serve immediately before your vibrantly green basil can become a not-so vibrant oxidized black.

Enjoy!

Cheese & Chocolate "Danish"

This may look like a Danish pastry, but it isn’t a pastry and doesn’t taste anything like one.  I’d be willing to bet, in fact, that this concoction doesn’t taste like anything you’ve had before: the saltiness of the sharp cheese, the sweet smokiness of the roasted pepper, and the rich depth of the dark chocolate combine to create a singular and elegant flavor.  Talk about a surprisingly simple three-ingredient treat!

Roasted Pepper with Cheese & Chocolate

Roasted peppers, either homemade or store-bought (if they’re store-bought, choose peppers that are large enough to hold a filling)*
Grated sharp cheese such as Swiss Gruyére, Spanish Manchego, American/English Cheddar, or Dutch Gouda
Dark chocolate (at least 70%)

Place roasted pepper on a foil-lined baking tray. If you want a slightly smoky flavor in your cheese-and-chocolate treat, leave a little bit of skin on the pepper; if not, peel away entire skin. With the pepper flipped up so that it forms a loose cup, fill with cheese. Bake in a toaster oven or standard oven just long enough for the cheese to start turning golden brown. I used a toaster oven, and it only took about 10 minutes at 250 for the cheese to get bubbly, but a standard oven would probably require more like 15 minutes at 350. (The confined, small interior of a toaster oven is ideal if you want quick and concentrated heat using a minimum of energy.)

Pull pepper out of oven and place a small square (about 1/2″ x 1/2″) of chocolate in the center of the melted cheese. Return to oven just long enough for the chocolate to melt. That will probably only take a minute or two, so don’t walk away from the oven! Scorched chocolate tastes terrible and cannot be fixed.

Let cool for about 5 minutes before serving so that the bubbling-hot cheese and chocolate won’t burn your tongue.

Enjoy!

* To roast a pepper, place the entire pepper on the center rack and roast at 425F for about 20 minutes or until the pepper is blackened on all sides. Since the pepper might leak some juices as it cooks, it’s best to place a piece of aluminum foil on the rack directly below the pepper to make clean-up MUCH easier. (Especially for those of us without self-cleaning ovens…) When the pepper is blackened and blistered, immediately place it in a sturdy zip-loc bag, seal the bag, and let the pepper cool. Remove skin, stems, and seeds by slipping them off/out — the slightest tug will be sufficient — and cut the pepper in half. At this point, you can either use it or refrigerate it for up to a week.

Beemster Goat Gouda with Roasted Beets

Sure, Brie and and Roquefort are brilliant cheeses, but so are Gouda and Edam. Now, one could argue that the French make sublime wine to pair with their sublime cheeses, and that would be a fair point. The Dutch, though, have their fair share of classic specialties, ranging from hearty whole-grain breads to deeply savory legume-based stews to crunchy and satisfying slaws.  All of those are great companions for cheese… and their cheeses are nothing to sneeze at.

Holland has plenty of lush, rolling green hills that are perfect for grazing cows.  When I traveled from Germany to Amsterdam on the train, I honestly thought I had somehow detoured to Wisconsin…except that nobody in Wisconsin is as astonishingly tall as the Dutch are. I felt like I was Alice after she drank the bottle marked “Drink Me” and shrank to 1/20th of her normal size!

Dutch cheeses like Gouda and Edam are creamy, flavorful, and are hard enough to cut easily but are soft enough to grate easily.  (German Butterkäse is along the same lines.)  And because a good portion of the milk used to make traditional Dutch cheeses comes from grass-fed cows, the resulting product tastes absolutely luxurious all on its own.  Although I usually don’t call out one single manufacturer above others that are making a similar product, I have to say that the Beemster line of cheeses is fantastic.  Gouda is their specialty, and they make plenty of varieties of it: Classic (aged for 18 months), X-O- (aged for 26 months), Graskaas (from milk collected as the cows are grazing on lush spring pastures), and Goudas made with extras like mustard seed, garlic, and wasabi.

Their latest masterpiece is a goat’s-milk Gouda.  The Beemster Goat Gouda is my favorite one to date…and it isn’t terribly difficult to find.  In fact, most markets now carry at least one or two varieties of Beemster.  (Note that by “markets,” I mean produce markets, neighborhood markets, whole-food-oriented markets, health-food markets, natural-food markets, anything that isn’t a mainstream supermarket.  Those are anything but “super” — you won’t find much there except highly processed “edible food-like substances,” as Michael Pollan most poignantly calls them.)

Enjoy authentic Dutch Gouda on its own, or try making this simple side with it.  You can enjoy this dish paired with a meal or served on its own as an appetizer.  (It’s one of my favorite lunches!)

Goat Gouda with Roasted Beets & Raw Peppers

Roasted beets*, either freshly roasted or leftover
Raw bell pepper, chopped
Goat Gouda, cubed
Extra-virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Toss all ingredients in a bowl, proportioning the individual ingredients as you see fit/have on hand. For the dressing component (the oil and vinegar), I usually count on 2 tsp. oil and 1 tsp. vinegar per person. You’ll be amazed at how flavorful this simple salad is: the blend of crunchy/sharp (the pepper) with soft/sweet (the beets) and smooth/creamy (the cheese) really can’t be beat.

Enjoy!

* To roast beets, preheat oven to 350 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Peel fresh beets with a vegetable peeler. Cut off the very top and bottom and discard, then cut the beet into 1/2″-thick slices. Arrange on baking sheet, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt. Grind on some fresh peppercorns if desired. Use your fingers to spread the oil and salt evenly over each beet, flipping the slices to make sure they’re evenly coated. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the beets are shriveled and the edges are beginning to curl. (The thicker the slices, the longer they’ll take to roast.) Either use roasted beets promptly or store them in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Indian Curry with Paneer

Lately, paneer has started popping up in mainstream markets.  This is fantastic news for anyone who likes Indian food, cheeses of all kinds, or likes to try out new ingredients.  You can substitute a firm fresh cheese like queso fresco for paneer — or even tofu, if you’re so inclined — but paneer is tops at sucking up deep, earthy flavors like curry and adding a satisfying texture to dishes.  I know I was thrilled when I found in my local grocer’s cheese case!

Paneer can be made from any kind of milk (cow, sheep, goat, buffalo), but it’s characterized by its fresh unsaltiness.  It’s basically milk curdled with lemon juice and then drained and pressed.  The resulting hard/soft cheese won’t melt the way most cheeses do, which means you can add cubes of paneer to your curries and other hot dishes and be confident that the cubes will hold their shape.  The toothsome chewiness of paneer makes a nice contrast to crunchy vegetables and warm curry spices, plus it’s an economical way to extend a dish.  (Good-quality meat costs more than good-quality paneer.)

Curries are simple: you need vegetables, curry powder (make your own blend or buy a pre-made powder), coconut milk/yogurt if you’d like your curry to be thick and creamy, and paneer if you’d like to add a touch of cheesy oomph.  You may have come across saag paneer in an Indian restaurant — that’s a spinach-based curry with paneer.  (“Curry,” by the way, means “sauce,” so there is no specific curry recipe out there — the sauce is what you make it.  The same goes for “salsa,” which also means “sauce” and can be red or green or whatever your culinary creative side desires.)

Last-Minute Quick Curry

An assortment of vegetables: peas, cauliflower, spinach, onions, garlic, lentils, chickpeas, bell peppers, and potatoes are some favorites

Curry powder

Paneer, cut into cubes

Coconut milk or yogurt (optional)

Sautée the vegetables in coconut oil or ghee in order of longest-time-needed to shortest-time-needed, adding the veggies to the same pan as you go.  (Peppers and onions take longer than garlic, for example; cauliflower is best separately simmered for 5 minutes and then added to the mix at the end.  Lentils should also be cooked separately according to package directions and then stirred in at the end of the cooking time.)  Sprinkle in curry powder to taste.  A general rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon for every 2 cups of veggies, but you may prefer more or less curry in your curry depending on how accustomed you are to Indian seasonings.  Stir well and reduce heat to low.

Add paneer and cook for another minute to allow the paneer to soak up the spices.  If you’re using coconut milk, you can add it now and then let the curry simmer for another 5 minutes or so for the flavors to marry.  If you’re using yogurt, though, it’s best to remove the pan from the heat and then stir in the yogurt — it doesn’t take much heat to make yogurt separate.  Trust me, separated yogurt isn’t very appealing!

Serve hot, garnishing with a sprig of fresh cilantro or parsley if you like.

Enjoy!

Savory Rice Bake

Of all the grains in the world, rice might be my favorite: it makes great flour, freshly-cooked rice is welcome in everything from pilafs to grape leaves, leftover rice is perfect in savory casseroles as well as sweet puddings, and even in the U.S., there are dozens of varieties of rice on our grocery store shelves.  (I’m guessing there are dozens upon dozens of varieties in Asia.)  Rice certainly has earned its place as one of the world’s staple crops!  And considering how much the individual grains pouf when cooked, raw rice doesn’t require very much storage space.

In the spirit of versatility, feel free to substitute whatever veggies or cheeses you have on hand for this rice-based take on spoon bread.  (“Spoon” breads typically contain a high amount of milk and are therefore less firm than a bread made with a higher proportion of flour/grains … hence you sometimes have to eat them with a spoon.  In this version, however, the presence of the sturdy whole rice grains means you’ll be better off with a fork.)

You can use either freshly-cooked rice or leftover rice for this classy casserole dish, although if you use pre-cooked rice, be sure to include the cornstarch to make up for the lack of starch that would be coming from the freshly-cooked rice.

Savory Rice Bake

Makes a 9×11 pan.

1 small onion, minced
5 green onions, minced
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, depending on how hot you like it
2 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
1 red bell pepper, minced
2 heads broccoli, florets removed and simmered in softly-boiling water for 5 minutes, then drained and diced
2 cups whole milk, preferably from grass-fed cows
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 T. cornstarch IF rice is pre-cooked
6 oz. canned tuna or crab (optional), chunked with a fork
Sea salt & freshly-ground pepper
2 cups grated sharp cheese, such as Parmesan, Parrano, or Gruyere

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease glass 9×11 pan with butter or coconut oil and set aside.

Sautée onion and green onion with a pat of ghee or butter over medium heat for about 3 minutes or until onions are soft and fragrant. Stir in nutmeg and cayenne and remove pan from heat.  (Slightly heating the spices will help release their flavor, but cooking them too long over direct stovetop heat would burn them.)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, minced vegetables, and milk. Whisk in rice. If using leftover rice, add cornstarch and whisk again. Add tuna or crab chunks if desired.

Thoroughly combine egg mixture with salt, freshly-cracked pepper, and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese, reserving the final 1/2 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top. Pour egg mixture into pre-greased baking pan.

Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for about 30 minutes or until top is golden-brown and bubbly.

Enjoy!

Pickle Salad

Have you ever thought about the classic burger “periodic table”?  You know: your burger, your bun, your pickles, tomatoes, cheese, mustard, lettuce, and ketchup.  If you deconstruct the ingredients, you wind up with the Holy Burger Trinity of tomatoes, cheese, and pickles.  (Ketchup and tomatoes are redundant, especially if you have juicy, fresh tomatoes, and while mustard is a classic condiment in its own right, there’s generally mustard seed in the pickle brine.  Lettuce makes for a nice crunch, but again, pickles are crunchy…and have far more flavor.)

Aside from the burger itself, then — which can range from tasteless cardboard (a 99-cent special “value”) to lush, real patties  (i.e., made of 100% grass-fed beef) — what we really cherish are the tomatoes, cheese, and pickles.  Huh.  In that essential spirit, then, why not just make a Pickle Salad?  Sure, you could top a burger with it, but you could just as easily eat it all by its delicious lonesome.  And if you strongly believe that the Holy Trinity ought to be a Holy Quadruplet, feel free to dress your Pickle Salad with a hint of Dijon mustard.

Pickle Salad

Dice and toss juicy tomatoes with an equal amount of crunchy pickle spears.  Cut a wedge of flavorful, creamy cheese such as Gouda or Cheddar into small cubes and toss again.  (I used goat Gouda; it was the perfect balance of independent creaminess and supportive mellowness.)  The tomato juice and pickle brine will provide plenty of dressing, but as I said earlier, a hint of Dijon certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Serve salad alone or atop burgers, steaks, chicken, or anything else you’d like to flavor with a true all-American relish.

Enjoy!

An Assortment of Spanish Tapas

While many cultures have a “little bites” tradition — Middle Eastern mezze, Russian zakuski, Italian antipasto — it seems like the Spaniards are the most passionate about theirs.  Tapas bars are everywhere you look in Spain, and diners are just as likely to make a full meal of tapas as they are to sit down for a formal dinner.  Most people, in fact, visit several different bars in a single night and enjoy a variety of tapas wherever they go.  (Even outdoor markets offer tapas for the nibbling:  La Boquería in Barcelona features row upon row of freshly-prepared tapas, many of which are displayed in glass cases to make your selection even easier.  There’s nothing quite like snuggling up to the bar with a plate of pistou and a glass of Rioja amidst the hustle and bustle of one of Spain’s busiest markets.  And after you polish off your tapas, there are plenty of candymakers waiting to tempt you with truffles and turtles of the chocolate persuasion.  Not to mention the exotic-fruit vendors selling plastic cups filled with the best freshly-drawn coconut milk I’ve ever had. But that’s another post…)

While tapas may seem intimidating, they really aren’t — on the contrary, tapas are the essence of simplicity.  Any good-quality single ingredient that can stand on its own can be a tapa:  nuts, olives, cheeses, ham, fruit, etc.  All you have to do to make authentic tapas is choose ones that are Spanish in origin, like marcona almonds rather than standard almonds or Manchego cheese rather than Swiss cheese (or any other non-Spanish cheese).

For instance, this round of tapas included (clockwise from left to right):

• Grapes

• Jamón ibérico (Iberian ham; jamón serrano is another popular option)

• Sautéed Apple & Spinach Salad

• Hard-boiled eggs with canned tuna (bonito tuna canned in olive oil)

• Fabas asturianas (a type of large white bean — you could also use Great White Northern beans) tossed with extra-virgin olive oil, parsley, and a splash of sherry vinegar

• Roasted piquillo peppers (you could also use roasted red peppers) tossed with extra-virgin olive oil and sautéed garlic

• Manchego cheese

Other great offerings would be a simple bowl of plump green olives, a bowl of marcona almonds, or a loaf of crusty bread served with extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt.

Tapas can also be gloriously complex affairs, of course — and those can be fun to make, too! — but they don’t have to be.  Just get out your prettiest dishes, fill them with a variety of tasty morsels, and let the tapas night begin!

Insalata Caprese with Yellow Tomatoes

I’m sure you’ve had pizza a thousand times…and lasagne another thousand times…and you’ve probably sampled everything else on the menu at your favorite Italian restaurant…but have you ever had real mozzarella?

I finally did last week.  Turns out that real mozzarella goes far, far beyond a ball of fresh cheese in whey (the cloudy liquid part).  The honest-to-goodness deal is made of 100% buffalo milk.  There are a few other cheeses traditionally made from buffalo — Egyptian domiati, Bangladeshi chhena, and Filipino kesong puti, to name a few — but I’d never come across any of them before.  The flavor of buffalo-milk mozzarella is much, much richer and stronger than what I’d ever had before, and the texture is entirely different, too — it’s grainer and pouffier and almost cake-like in consistency.  In short, the real deal makes American mozzarella taste and feel like uninspired plastic.

I’m a convert!  It’s worth paying a bit more than $6 for a single large ball of Mozzarella di Bufala at Trader Joe’s for special occasions.  And if you use it in a simple dish like insalata caprese,* you’ll be able to savor all of its complexities.  Taste it!  You’ll be glad you did.

Now, if I could only find some camel-milk cheese to sample…

*sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt & freshly-cracked black pepper

Halloumi & Gooseberry Salad

Halloumi cheese makes one of tastiest salads you’ll ever find on your plate–it’s salty, tangy, and the perfect foil for fresh fruits and vegetables.  Like kasseri cheese–you may have come across that amidst leaping flames and a waiter shouting “Opa!”–halloumi is best consumed fried.  Made of goat and sheep cheese and occasionally seasoned with mint, it has a remarkably high melting point and stays so firm that it tends to squeak between your teeth.  It’s so unlike typical cheese, in fact, that you could probably trick a dinner guest into thinking it’s chicken.

To prepare halloumi, simply cut it in slices, then fry over medium-high heat.  Keep a close eye on it–although its firm texture will prevent it from oozing all over the pan, halloumi cooks in less than a minute.  Carefully flip the slices with a spatula and brown the other side as soon as you see a brown tinge appear along the edges of each slice.

This sweet-and-salty salad is a mix of fried halloumi, fresh mixed salad greens, and ripe gooseberries.  (You could also use grapes.) It’s rare to find purplish, ripe gooseberries–normally they’re picked green and sour and only used to make jam.  That’s a shame, really, because ripe gooseberries are similar to grapes in flavor, but with less of a  sugary taste.  I actually prefer them to grapes.  (Gooseberries also have thinner skins.)

The salad dressing is a simple splash of balsamic vinegar and another splash of extra-virgin olive oil.  If you’re good at eyeballing, you can drizzle them directly onto the salad; if you’d rather measure, use about 1 teaspoon of vinegar to about 2 teaspoons of oil.  Normally, I’d add sea salt to the dressing, but in this case, the halloumi is plenty salty enough to give the salad flavor.

Enjoy!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare whole-wheat pasta by following package directions. I like to use rotelle pasta–the spirals hold the sauce very nicely! This amount of sauce makes enough for about four servings of pasta (“servings” as defined by the stated serving portion on the package).

Start by making the roux:
1 T. whole-wheat flour
1 T. butter
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup milk (preferably organic; another option is to use rice milk)
Melt butter over low heat. Whisk in the flour, stirring constantly, and cook for about one minute or until the butter turns a deep gold. Gradually add the milk, continuing to whisk constantly, and maintain the low heat setting. The roux should thicken and bubble slightly as you’re whisking. If it isn’t velvety enough after 1/2 cup of milk, gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup until it is. The most important thing is to keep stirring to prevent the roux from burning.
Whisk in:
1 cup Feta, diced (a chunk of Feta in brine is far, far preferable to the dried-out, pre-crumbled kind)
1 tsp. thyme
Salt & pepper

Mix cooked and drained pasta into sauce. Layer into ovenproof dish with:
1 cup mozzarella, grated

Bake for ten minutes. Garnish with chives and serve while piping hot. You may wish to drizzle with balsamic vinegar–the addition of vinegar makes the sauce taste even creamier. A good complement to this dish would be a beet salad: toss beets in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and add salt & pepper to taste.

Enjoy!