Quattro Stagioni

As we round the corner on spring, I'm certainly in high spirits about the spectacular color show that is undoubtedly ahead of us. Don't you just love the changing of the seasons? There's something to look forward to at every turn -- veggies and perennials to plant in spring, beach trips and blooming roses in the summer, Thanksgiving gatherings with dear friends in the fall, and mugs of mulled cider in front of the fireplace in winter. As I was pondering the changing of the seasons, I decided to make a Pizza Quattro stagioni for dinner. Roughly translated from the Italian, this just means Four Seasons Pizza. I did have one of these in Florence during a recent trip to Italy, and it was molto delicioso. From what I understand, it is simply a pizza with four quadrants, representing the four seasons. It makes for a very nice meal due to the variety in the toppings.

I'm not sure if each of the "seasons" is supposed to contain a particular ingredient, but I'm guessing that this is not the case, since I've seen many, many variations on this pizza. I simply used whatever was available in my fridge – zucchini, shiitake mushrooms, mixed olives, and red bell peppers -- to throw together this easy weeknight dinner. I guess this post is really more to inspire rather than to serve as a strict recipe. So, pump up the Vivaldi, pour yourself a glass of chianti, and get creative. Buon appetito!

Guide for Pizza Quattro Stagioni

Pizza base (make your own or buy them premade. I use a whole wheat Pita from the refrigerated section at New Seasons Market, and these serve as the perfect base for individual pies)

Sauce (I used Prego Garden Vegetable; I've used a homemade pesto before, and this is also delicious)

Toppings: I used sliced red bell peppers; kalamata and green olives; shiitake mushrooms; and thinly sliced zucchini. But of course, the possibilities are endless. I topped all pizzas with fresh basil, which added a very nice flavor. Rosemary or oregano would also be great as a spice.

Cheese: Since I was using fresh basil, I opted for the classic pairing of basil with fresh mozzarella, but any cheese that melts would work well. If I had some feta in the fridge, I would certainly have used this as well.

To prepare: Sauce your pizza base, top with "toppings", sprinkle cheese and spices on top, and bake in a 350 deg F oven till bases are browned, toppings are tender, and cheese is melted (about 15 minutes for my pizzas).

Great for a weekday dinner!

Sunny Saffron

Winter has been unusually mild here in Portland. Yes, we have had our fair share of rain and gloom, but at the end of January, I'm already hearing birds chirping and seeing buds blooming in the garden. Just this past week, I have been stopped in my tracks by the appearance of our very first crocus, awakening sleepily from its winter's rest.


So I thought it fitting that this first recipe of the New Year have something to do with saffron. Saffron, of course, is the highly aromatic spice that is derived from the stigmas of the Saffron crocus (Crocus sativa). Wikipedia has an excellent entry about Saffron, with the sections on the history of its trade and its chemical properties being particularly interesting. Therefore, instead of boring you with a regurgitation of the facts, I will simply direct you to : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron

Since saffron is the world's most expensive spice, worth much more than its weight in gold, it's a good thing that a little bit of it goes a long way. Spanish saffron is often considered to be some of the world's best. However, saffron cultivars grown in the Kashmir region of India, as well as Italian varieties that I have admittedly never tasted, are apparently a lot more potent and sought after for their strong aromas. Saffron can be purchased in specialty grocery stores or Indian grocery stores. Once you get over the sticker shock and actually bring some home, I guarantee that you will be rewarded with a flavor and aroma that will sweetly scent your home and mesmerize your senses.

Now that I've rambled on about how expensive this sweet spice is, I will make you all jealous by telling you that one of my friends recently gave me a whole load of top-quality saffron from her spice cabinet. (This was after I had already cooked my way through a large gift of Spanish saffron from another friend.) What can I say – I guess I'm fortunate to have friends worth way more that their weights in gold!

So, armed with this new reserve of the precious dark maroon filaments, I set out to create a saffron cookie to share with my colleagues at a work meeting this week. I'm glad to say that they turned out just as I had hoped: slightly soft, a pleasant yellow in color, and bursting with saffron flavor. Many of my colleagues had never (knowingly) eaten anything cooked with saffron before, and the cookies were a big hit. I would definitely make these again, especially if having friends over for tea or a fancy brunch. While these cookies are delicious, they are also extremely satisfying, thanks to the incomparable flavor of the saffron. If, like me, you have a bit of a sweet tooth, this satiating quality is definitely desirable in a cookie.

So, without further ado, here's my recipe for Saffron Cashew Cookies. Do leave a comment if you decide to give these a try; I'd love to hear how they turned out for you. Bon appétit!

Saffron Cashew Cookies

To make about 18 cookies, you will need:

1 stick (1/2 C) unsalted butter, slightly softened

1 egg

2 scant cups of unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ C granulated sugar

¼ C packed brown sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

3 pods of cardamom*

A (generous) pinch of saffron, crushed and steeped in 3 T of warm milk for a few minutes**

1 C (or more of roasted cashew halves or pieces)

* A note about cardamom: this is another spice highly favored in Indian cuisine and makes a wonderful accompaniment to saffron. I think it helps to really enhance the flavor of saffron, and if you can plan ahead, I highly recommend that you not omit this from the recipe. You can purchase ground cardamom and use 1 tsp in this recipe, but the best flavor will be obtained from actually buying green cardamom pods, and using a mortar and pestle to pound these into a fine powder. After you pound the pods a few times, they should open up. At this point, remove the skins, and continue to powder just the black inner seeds. This sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't, and the reward will be more than worth the effort!

Beat the sugars and butter together until creamy.

Add the egg and vanilla, along with the 'saffronated' (saffronized?) milk; beat to mix well

Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and powdered cardamom in a separate bowl

Add flour mixture to egg/butter mixture and mix gently with a rubber spatula until well combined

(**Check to make sure your dough is a pleasant yellow color. If it isn't, you may not have added enough saffron. You can steep a little more in no more than 1 T warm milk at this time, and add it to your cookie dough, if you want).

Add cashews, reserving about 18 for garnish, and mix well to combine

Refrigerate the cookie dough for about an hour

Preheat oven to 350 deg F

Place the dough in mounded tablespoon-fulls on a greased cookie sheet

Flatten slightly with the tines of a fork

Press a cashew half on top as a garnish, if desired

Bake for 12-14 minutes till cookies are an even brown on the bottom

Resist the temptation to pounce on these as soon as they come out of the oven! They will be a lot better (and safer) once they cool slightly.

These cookies store well at room temperature in an air-tight container for upto 5 days. They are great on their own or paired with a hot cuppa chai.

Cutesy Citrus

Check out these cute little clementines called Calamondins that I found at New Season's Market this week. They are the smallest ones in the pictures below. I also found some Kishu clementines that were oh so sweet, and super cute, as well. Go get some if you are in Portland!



Bottom left image, from L to R: Calamondins, Kishu Clementines, and a good ol' Mandarin orange

Happy New Year!

As a rule, I try not to make New Year's Resolutions (NYRs). Partly because they involve much too much introspection that can put a damper on all the year-end festivities…but also because of the guilt that follows when well-meaning resolutions are inevitably broken. However, try as I may to avoid resolving to do anything in particular in the upcoming year, holiday parties are ripe with people who use the NYRs topic as fillers for more meaningful conversations. I found myself in one such conversation way back in December, where I blurted out something about being more regular with my blog posts – I guess this had been weighing on my mind for a while. But now having mentioned this to a group of people, I feel that my mission is doomed, since, NYRs are inevitably broken. (I know I already mentioned that, but I think it's worth repeating.)

Anyhow, I have now been racked with guilt for 20 days for not having followed through on my "resolution", thanks to endless deadlines at work and grey, gloomy Portland days keeping me out of the kitchen and firmly planted on my red couch. But yesterday, on a rare crisp, sunny January day here, I saw my tulips starting to peek out of the soaking wet soil in my backyard. Then, on my way to work, I heard sparrows chirping a little tune. Could it be that spring really is around the corner? Are we really not that far away from birds and butterflies; hood berries and hummingbirds; flowers and warmth; (and yes, allergies)? Inexplicably, these little reminders of winter's impending departure have inspired me to follow through on my impromptu 'NYR'. I rushed to my computer eager to start posting up a storm, but sadly, I realize that I don't have any recent culinary creations to share with you. (Did I mention I've been marinating on the couch during my free time this month?) But anyhow, in the spirit of starting off on the right foot in this New Year, I want to sign off on this first post with some pictures of a few treats that sprang from my oven during the holiday season. I know, I know, Christmas has come and gone, and I have been lazy, but I promise that this weekend, I will drag myself to the kitchen and get the creative juices flowing again.

In the meantime, enjoy the pictures. And speaking of resolutions, dear reader, perhaps yours should be to leave me a comment on Clean Platter from time to time?

Spiced Pears

I love this time of the year. Store windows are starting to decorate for the holidays, lights are strung up in trees and homes, party invites are sent and received by the dozen, and daylight savings time comes to an end, extending at least one weekend of merry making by an hour. Another lovely thing about this time of the year is that pears are in season. I simply love pears – all kinds of them. Although my favorites still are the crunchy, juicy Asian Pears, Oregon seems to have several varieties that are new to me and just as delicious.

While I’ve been enjoying pears for a long time, I’ve never actually cooked them. So this year, I thought I’d make my first cooked pear dessert and taste-test it on friends who were over for dinner. I had half a bottle of port wine staring at me from my pantry, and I found these cute little pears called Seckel pears at the local market. So, with these two main ingredients in hand, I got cooking. I thoroughly washed the pears and arranged them in a baking dish, with a little bit cut off the bottoms to make them stand upright. I then doused them in about a cup of port wine (for 8 pears); sprinkled some sugar on them till they looked like they'd received just a dusting of snow; added some cloves, cinnamon, and star anise to the baking pan; and set them into a 425 degree oven for 45 minutes. Every 20 minutes or so, I spooned the wine mixture back onto the pears and gave them another sprinkling of sugar. For good measure, I added some fresh cranberries to the pan, and man, am I glad I did. As the sugar and wine cooked down, it turned the tart cranberries into a gooey sweet-tart compote, which was my favorite part of the whole dessert.

As you can see, this dessert was super easy to make and was very pretty to look at. I served it with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, and it received good reviews from the dinner crowd. So, if you’d like a really easy and pretty dessert tonight, give these Spiced Pears a try; the heady smell of the spices and sugar as the pears are baking is guaranteed to put you in the holiday mood, even if it is only the beginning of November.

Buon Appetito!

No! I refuse to be another one of the countless blogs begun with good intentions and then abandoned after a few enthusiastic posts! I remember being utterly frustrated while searching for a good blog name at the dozens of derelict sites littering the blogosphere.

So, in the spirit of getting things cooking again, I present some pictures of the tantalizing tastes of Italy that I encountered on a very recent trip to the Lazio, Toscana, and Veneto regions of this vibrant and welcoming country. Enjoy, while I head off to the kitchen to prepare for my next post. Buon appetito!

Italian broccoli, anyone?

Juicy Clementines

Puntarella and radicchio, commonly used in salads.















"Roma" tomatoes!

Zucchini and zucchini blossoms: so pretty. I was disappointed to not have seen the blossoms on the menu anywhere we ate, however.

Berries...

...and beans (cranberry beans?)...

...and brain food.





Aubergines: The Italians did not disappoint with eggplant!

Spice cones...

...peppers on a string...


...and a myriad balsalmics!

Plus...let me not omit "Il Dolce." Store windows everywhere were lined with countless tasty temptations. The French term for window-shopping is leche-vitrines, which translates literally to "window-licking". No doubt they were staring at pastries such as these when the term was coined?

Castagne confettate, better known as Marrons glacees: technically, French, but delicious in Italy

Pretty marzipan fruits.

Halloween treats -- for the tourists?

I admit, some of these treats found their way out of the windows and into our hands, and ultimately, our tummies.

These lemon jujupes were molto delicioso....making us realize, you're never too old for jujupes!

Okay, I think that's all the patience I have for blogger right now. As I upload these, I realize that I did not get a single picture of the two things that my husband and I consumed in copious amounts: caffe macchiati and gelati! Perhaps this is a reflection of our urgency to actually consume these items that were better in Italy than anywhere else I have had them so far. Oh well, I guess that's as good a reason as any to return some other day!

Arrivederci!

Paper Chef 39: Tangy Eggplant Rolls with Blackberry-Mango-Chickpea Salad

Spring has arrived in all her glory, here in Portland, Oregon. This is my first spring in the Pacific Northwest, and I have to say, it has caught me unawares. The stunning pink and white camellias, the cheery daffodils and those little purple flowers all over my neighbors’ lawn; not to mention the meticulously planted 'sakura' (cherry blossom) trees that are now in full bloom are all absolutely delightful – and I thought this place was only famous for its roses! Naturally, I wanted to incorporate the rich colors of this gorgeous spring palette into my entry for this month's Paper Chef. So without further ado, here's my take on cooking up blackberries, bulgur, artichokes and eggplant (for a vegetarian take) into an edible, delectable, colorful concoction.

Notes: all oil used in recipe is extra-virgin olive oil
Ingredients are provided as they come up in the recipe rather than up front, because a) I find this method to be more intuitive and b) I’m too lazy to type out all my ingredients twice.
Please excuse my pictures this once; my light was fading fast as I was trying to photograph my creations.

If you like what you see, and hopefully make, please go to paperchef.blogspot.com and vote for my entry :-)

Tangy Eggplant Rolls with Blackberry-Mango-Chickpea Salad

Grilled Eggplant
Take one large eggplant
Slice it lengthwise, brush with oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and grill until cooked and tender
Set aside until ready to plate


Bulgur Pilaf
Sautee ½ a diced red onion with 2 cloves minced garlic until translucent in 2T olive oil
Add ¾ C bulgur and toast for 2 minutes
Add 2 C water to bulgur and cook until evaporated and bulgur is cooked but al dente
Season with salt and pepper to taste

Artichoke tapenade
1 scant cup of water-marinated artichoke hearts
4 large cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Blend together all tapenade ingredients to a spreadable but chunky consistency.
Mix in 1 T extra-virgin olive oil and keep refrigerated.
Ok, now for the blackberries. I initially wanted to make a blackberry vinaigrette and brush it onto the eggplant before grilling, but I just couldn’t get myself to crush those beautiful jewel-like berries. So, I decided to toss them into a sweet-tangy salad instead along with diced mangoes. I added chickpeas to the salad since chickpeas and bulgur have complementary amino acids and also taste yummy together. To make the

Blackberry-Mango-Chickpea Salad

½ C dry chickpeas, soak overnight and cook till soft and tender
¼ red onion, finely diced
1 medium ripe mango, diced
2 T finely minced cilantro
2 T lemon juice
Mix all the above ingredients and toss lightly with salt to taste

Now, to assemble your chef d’oevre:

-- Lay out a slice of grilled eggplant.
-- Spread 1 tsp. (or more) of artichoke tapenade on eggplant
-- Place 2 heaping T. bulgur pilaf about 1 inch from one end of eggplant slice
-- Roll up the eggplant; repeat with remaining eggplant slices and stack side-by-side in oven- proof dish.
-- For the final flourish, top each eggplant roll with a thin slice of Halloumi cheese. This is a very salty and flavorful Middle-Eastern cheese that holds up well to high heat. Place dish into
pre-heated oven and broil until cheese is melted and browned (this happens very fast – be careful).

Serve Tangy Eggplant Rolls with Blackberry-Mango-Chickpea Salad on the side. Enjoy with a chilled glass of Gerwutztraminer -- preferably on an unseasonably warm spring afternoon, under the gentle shade of a cherry-blossom tree.