1/2 cup mayonnaisePlace mayonnaise, sour cream, lime juice, and chipotles in jar of a blender. Puree until smooth and chipotles are completely chopped. Pour into an airtight container, cover, and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
2 cups flour
¾ cup Crisco
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar if a sweet pie
¼ cup ice water.
In a skillet over medium high heat, add a few good lugs of olive oil. Add the mushrooms and season with salt. Sauté the mushrooms until tender and caramelized. This could take a while, so don’t rush the process! Once the mushrooms are caramelized, you might have some sticky bits at the bottom of the pan. Deglaze with a bit of water.
Transfer the cooked mushrooms to a mixing bowl and add the scallion, crushed red pepper flake, Parmesan, ricotta cheese, egg, and salt and pepper to taste.
To assemble, use a bit of water to dampen the edges of each wonton wrapper, and add a teaspoon of filling to the middle.
Fold in half diagonally so you get a triangle. Make sure there aren’t any air bubbles in the middle, and that the edges are tightly sealed.
Bring the two farthest corners of the triangle together to make a pseudo “tortellini” shape. Continue assembling until you’ve run out of filling.
Bring a pot of water to a boil for the tortellini. In a skillet over medium heat, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Add the panko and stir constantly until golden. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add a couple tablespoons more oil to the skillet and add the garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Add the milk and cream, and bring to a simmer. Cook for 2 minutes and add the soy sauces. Season with pepper.
By now, the water for the ravioli should be boiling. Cook the ravioli in the boiling water for 20 seconds. With a slotted spoon, transfer the ravioli to the sauce and simmer for another 60-90 seconds.
Serve immediately, garnished with your panko pangrittata and more scallions.
Feel free to use othe
r greens besides kale, whatever you have on-hand.
a chefs life series
For the Filling
2 cups diced and drained fresh tomatoes
2 cups diced and roasted tomatoes
1 cup caramelized onions
1/2 cup picked basil
salt
pepper
sugar
For the Topping
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1/3 cup grated Fontina
1/2 cup mayo
1 pie crust
For the diced and drained tomatoes
Seed and dice about 3 cups fresh, high-quality tomatoes. Toss them with a little kosher salt and sugar. Set over a colander while you prepare the remaining ingredients if possible. If not, drain for a minimum of an hour. You should be left with about 2 cups of tomato.
For the roasted tomatoes
Seed and dice 4 cups fresh, high quality tomatoes. Toss them with olive oil (at C&F we use garlic oil), plenty of kosher salt, and several sprigs of thyme. Spread this mix out on a baking sheet and roast at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. You want the tomatoes to be dry and slightly caramelized, but not burned around the edges.
For the Onions
Peel and slice (with the grain) 4 medium yellow onions. In a large sauté pan, heat 1/4 cup butter. Add the onions and season them with salt. Let the onions simmer and become juicy. Once the situation becomes a bit drier and much of the onion liquid has cooked out, turn down the heat, to its lowest setting and settle in for a long, slow caramelize. To get these onions where they need to be, it could take about 2 hours. You are looking for a medium brown, sweet caramelization.
To Assemble the Filling
Combine the onions, fresh tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Keep in mind, tomatoes take a lot of seasoning to really make them shine in applications like this.
To Bake and Serve
Spread the filling over the bottom of a blind-baked crust. Flatten the topping between wax paper or use your good ol’ hands to create a 1/3 inch thick round of delicious, cheesy topping that spreads nearly to the edges of the pie. Bake at 375 degrees until the top is nicely browned…20-25 minutes. Serve at just over room temperature.
Tips/Techniques
At Chef Vivian Howard’s restaurant, the Chef & the Farmer, they make a tight aioli to fold into the cheeses, but you can substitute your favorite brand of mayo to great effect. As for the crust… Chef Howard will add the crust recipe when she gather it from Kim, their pastry chef. For now, use your favorite crust recipe or even a frozen crust…and blind bake it!
For the Crust
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 1-inch pieces, slightly softened plus extra for greasing pan
For Lemon-Ricotta Filling
8 oz (1 cup) fresh whole milk Ricotta, drained
4 large eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2/3 cup lemon juice from 3 to 4 large lemons, strained
1/4 teaspoon salt
To make the crust: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Using a pastry brush, lightly butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish and line with one sheet parchment paper. Butter paper, then lay second sheet crosswise over it. Pulse flour, confectioner’s sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and salt in food processor. Add butter and process to blend; then pulse until mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle mixture into lined pan and, press firmly with fingers into even layer over entire pan bottom and about 1/2-inch up sides. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, and then bake until light golden brown, about 20 minutes. To make the filling: Whisk ricotta, eggs, sugar, and flour in medium bowl, then stir in lemon zest, juice, and salt to blend well. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Stir filling mixture before pouring into warm crust. Bake until filling feels firm when touched lightly, about 30 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack; cool to room temperature, at least 2 hours. Transfer to cutting board, fold paper down, and cut into bars, wiping knife or pizza cutter clean between cuts. Dust with confectioner’s sugar.
Makes 18, 2-inches squares
Phở is a soup you stick your face in before you eat. You can’t help but smell it: mellow onion, all those spices, zesty lime, and hits from just-relaxed herbs all steaming up together. It simultaneo usly nestles you underneath your blankets and ships you to the street markets of Hanoi.
Having so many flavors at work in one soup means you have a lot to tinker with. First, there’s the broth: Classically, it’s beef- or chicken-based, but you can get an equally robust (and vegan) broth by taking some traditional broth ingredients, which you likely already have in your pantry, to the oven or stove beforehand. Plus, by using your nose, you can adjust the spice components of your broth before it gets to simmering, so you know you’ll like the final flavor. And we hope you really like it, because this broth is something to have on hand for the week, to carry whatever miscellaneous vegetables need using up.
In addition to the wide array of vegetables that fit into this soup, there are noodles, proteins, and umpteen garnishes to dabble in. Stir in as many or as few as you want, or let each person choose their own (a phở bar!). A few slurps, with all the textures of the mix-ins and that anchor of abroth, and you’ll feel good, fortified. Here’s how to do it:
1. Scorch. Cut an onion and 2 pieces of ginger in half; the peel can stay on. Using tongs, place the pieces of onion and ginger directly over the flame of your gas stove, one by one. Hold them there for 3 to 4 minutes, turning every so often so all the sides get black. It might look as if you’re making onion s’mores (which sound horrible) — but there’s a good reason you’re going there: Charring the aromatics gives them a smokiness and a nice, mellow sweetness.
If this indoor campfire sounds treacherous, you could also broil the onion and ginger in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. You could also skip the charring step entirely and proceed to step two using chopped raw onion and ginger, though the broth won’t end up quite as sweet and soothing.
2. Make the broth. Put the onion and ginger in a soup pot with 6 or so cups of water. Next come the spices. Measure a cupped palmful (or a tablespoon) each of fennel seeds, coriander seeds, and peppercorns, and add them to a little bowl. Throw in a few cardamom pods, star anise, cloves, and cinnamon sticks. Smell the mixture: Do you like how it smells? Do you want to eat a soup that tastes like that? Into the soup pot they go. Are you not getting enough fennel, or do you want more of another spice? Add a bit more, smell to make sure it smells like what you want, then add the spices to the pot. Throw in a pinch of salt.
3. Simmer. Bring the mixture to a boil, and let it simmer, covered, for an hour.
4. While you wait, prep your mix-ins. They may be a combination of:
As you bide the time while your soup cooks, entertain yourself with some phonomenal puns: Pho is a phobulous, unphogettable Vietnamese soup — pho real, it should be a phonomenon. Pho pho the win. Pho phoever. It’s pho sho what’s pho dinner. (Except really it’s pronounced “fah,” not “fo,” so you can phoget about this phonny business.)
5. Get ready to slurp. Your broth will be ready when you taste it and you like it. If the flavor isn’t intense enough, let it simmer for a little longer. If the spices are overwhelming, add a bit more water. Then, strain the broth and discard the solids. Ladle into and add as many or as few of your mix-ins as you’d like. Let the raw ones (everything but the noodles) soften a bit from the heat of the broth. Take a whiff. It’s good, right?
Crumbs
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 lg or 2 sm garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup fresh or stale coarse plain breadcrumbs panko worked great here
Salt and red pepper flakes, to taste
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
Few fine gratings fresh lemon zest
Crispy Egg
1 glug of olive oil per egg
3 eggs
Salt and pepper
Pasta and Assembly
8 ounces dried spaghetti
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons small capers, drained (rinsed if salted), chopped
Handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese (optional)
Make crispy crumbs (pangrattato): Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add garlic and let sizzle for barely a minute, just until it begins to turn a pale golden color. Add breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, rosemary and lemon zest and reduce heat to low, cooking mixture slowly until all of the crumbs are an even golden color, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Cook pasta: Bring a large pot of well salted water to a generous boil and cook pasta until al dente about 1 to 2 minutes shy of package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water before draining pasta.
Meanwhile, make crispy eggs: Wipe out breadcrumbs skillet. Return to stove over high heat and add a generous glug of olive oil per egg. Once hot enough that the oil begins to smoke, add egg(s). They’re going to hiss and splatter so step back as soon as you do. Spoon some of the cooking oil over the eggs, carefully. Season with salt and pepper. In 1 to 2 minutes, the egg(s) will be brown and very crisp underneath and around the edges. Shimmy a thin spatula underneath the egg(s) (a flexible fish spatula works great here), being careful not to break the yolk. If you’re cooking for someone who shouldn’t be eating runny yolks (ahem), you can flip the egg over and cook it for another 30 seconds or so before removing it. Transfer cooked egg(s) to paper towels to drain.
Assemble dish: Once pasta is drained, return it to the empty pot or a large skillet with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a splash or two (or all, if needed to loosen pasta) of reserved cooking water. Over high heat, toss with capers and parsley for 1 minute. Divide among bowls or plates. Sprinkle with Pecorino, if using, then 1/3 of breadcrumb (pangrattato) mixture. Place an egg over each dish, and break up with a fork. Eat immediately. Serves 2, in generous heaps, or 3, petitely
Dough
1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm milk
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut up
4 3/4 cups (20 ounces) Mellow Pastry Blend OR 4 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
Filling
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Icing
one 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups glazing or confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Manual/Mixer Method: Combine all of the dough ingredients in a large mixing bowl, stirring till the mixture becomes cohesive. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface, and knead it for 5 to 8 minutes, till it’s smooth. Or knead it in an electric mixer, using the dough hook, for 4 to 7 minutes at medium speed. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn to grease all sides, cover the bowl with a proof cover or plastic wrap, and let it rise for 60 minutes, till it’s nearly doubled in bulk.
Assembly: Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and roll it into a 16 x 21-inch rectangle. Spread the dough with the 1/3 cup butter. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle it evenly over the dough.
Starting with a short end, roll the dough into a log, and cut it into 12 slices. Place the buns in a lightly greased 9 x 13-inch pan. Cover the pan with a proof cover or plastic wrap, and let the buns rise until they’re nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.
Bake the buns in a preheated 400°F oven until they’re golden brown, about 15 minutes. While the buns are baking, make the icing.
Icing: In a small bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla. Spread the icing on the buns while they’re warm. Yield: 12 big buns.
200g thick salmon fillets, bones removed but skin left on2. Wash the salmon with the rum and leave to marinate for 30 minutes
3. Massage in the secret rub and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours
4. Remove the salmon from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature
5. Prepare a kettle barbecue for indirect cooking, building a small coal fire on both sides of the grill and allowing it to burn quite low until almost out
6. Add 2 handfuls of pre-soaked woodchips to both sides and allow them to start smoking well, with the lid on (temperature should be around 80-100°C)
7. Place the salmon on the grill, away from the heat source. Replace the lid and smoke for 40 minutes. Do NOT lift the lid because if you’re looking, you’re not cooking
8. Check the fish after 40 minutes, when it should be just cooked, and remove from the barbeque and allow it to rest before serving