pizza with pancetta, shallot and mascarpone

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

First things first, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Now the first time I ever had cream in lieu of cheese on pizza was at Pizzeria Delfina. Let me tell you, it is a revelation. Replace mozzarella cheese with cream, creme fraiche or mascarpone and you will be transported to a magical land of pizza possibilities you never knew existed. If you are like me, you probably won’t want to come back.

We decided to make a pizza with pancetta, shallot, mascarpone and thyme. It is easy and it is perfection. If you needed something delicious to make for your sweetie tonight, this is most definitely it!

Pizza with Pancetta, Shallot and Mascarpone 
1 small ball of pizza dough
4 – 6 thin slices of pancetta
1/2 shallot, sliced thinly
1/2 cup mascarpone, creme fraiche or 1/4 cup heavy cream
1 sprig of thyme

Heat your oven (preferably with a pizza stone at the bottom) to 450 degrees. Lightly flour your counter and stretch the dough to your preferred thickness. We like our pizzas with thin crust. Spread an even layer of mascarpone, and sprinkle with shallots. Top with pancetta slices and a sprinkle of thyme. Brush the crust border with olive oil. Slide your pizza onto a pizza peel or baking sheet and bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until the pancetta is crisped and the crust is browned. Slice and enjoy!

-Emily

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the past few weeks

Posted on February 8, 2012 by

My lack of blogging is making me sad. We’ve been so busy (Jordan started school again and I’ve been promoted) and I haven’t found the time to sit down and write up the recipes are lingering in my drafts. There’s baklava, pizza, braised short ribs and salted chocolate cookies and they’re all waiting patiently for me to get my act together. I’ve complied my favorite photos of the past two weeks—mostly to prove we’re alive and happy, but also to buy myself a few more days.

Oh San Francisco, we love you and your foggy mornings.

I mean, I just melt. They are beyond sweet.

Heavy bags groceries on public transit made better by California sunshine and bright pink pants.
I went to the Alameda Antique Fair last Sunday with some friends. It was an incredibly successful outing from an acquiring amazing old stuff for cheap perspective and was so fun.

Case in point—this absolutely gorgeous original Eames chair that I found for just $100. She needs some love and polish, but there’s tremendous potential.

Puppy paws on a Saturday morning.

We’ll be back soon with real recipes. I’m hoping I remember what it’s like to write those.

Love,
Emily

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daikon soup?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

Jordan wanted to pickle daikon radishes, which is a great and delicious idea, and so he procured some lovely young little daikons. They sat happily in our fridge awaiting their future pickling—until I accidentally turned them into soup.  Daikons are not parsnips, as it turns out. In fact, they are much more watery, much more radishy and very little like parsnips at all, except for their looks.

I was in the middle of making my potato and ‘parsnip’ soup when Jordan came home from work. The soup had just entered into a mysteriously watery state when he walked through the door asking what was for dinner. Potato and parsnip soup was my cheery reply. Where did you get the parsnips, he wondered out loud. The fridge was my matter-of-fact answer. And that is when the ‘a daikon is not a parsnip’ bomb dropped and the reason behind my very watery soup became clear.

Well, when your soup is the consistency of broth because of an ingredient snafu and you still need to somehow turn that mess into a dinner, add half a pound of dry pasta and it will soak the excess water right up. Your potato soup will become a sort of pasta sauce and you’ll now be able to enjoy a carbtastic meal. I won’t torture you will the recipe, but keep the pasta trick in mind.

-Emily

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tabbouleh salad with chicken shish kebab

Posted on January 25, 2012 by

Jordan and I both love tabbouleh. The first time we had tabbouleh it was purchased from a tiny on-campus grocery store while I was studying at Georgetown. It was delicious. I made meals of it. Case in point: When I was an editor at The Georgetown Voice,  I would fuel the long nights we spent putting together that fine newsmagazine with a container of tabbouleh, a stack of pita bread and a pack of Haribo gummy bears. A balanced diet if there ever was one.

Now that I am older and wiser (and can no longer consume the quantity of candy I could during my Voice days), I decided to pair the tabbouleh with rice and chicken shish kebab. For those of you that might be skeptical, you don’t miss the gummy bears at all.

Chicken Shish Kebab
1/2 lb chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 t paprika
1/2 t cayenne
salt and pepper

In a medium bowl, mix the yogurt, lemon juice, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning  — it should be well seasoned since this is the only seasoning you’ll put on the chicken. After your satisfied with the taste of your marinade, add the chicken and let sit for at least one hour or overnight. Meanwhile, make the tabbouleh.

Tabbouleh Salad
1 cup fine-grain bulgur wheat
2 bunches parsley, chopped
1 bunch mint, chopped
1/2 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 lemon, juiced
salt and pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Bring two cups of well-seasoned water to a boil. Add the bulgur, cover and set aside for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the salad. Chop the herbs—some stems are totally ok— chop the onion and garlic. Mix the herbs and vegetables together in a large bowl. If tomatoes are in season, feel free to chop a few of those and add them in as well.  Add the lemon juice. Drain the excess water out of your bulgur and add that to the herb mixture. Toss well and season with salt and pepper. It should be quite herby and lemony. Add a hearty drizzle of olive oil to help mellow the flavors out and set aside. This salad only improves as the flavors meld.

Put the chicken cubes onto skewers. You’ll lose some of the yogurt marinade while skewering, but the flavors should have had time to permeate the chicken. Heat a grill or grill pan over high heat. Cook the skewers for several minutes per side, until the chicken is cooked through. Serve over rice alongside the tabbouleh salad.

-Emily

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rainy sunday

Posted on January 22, 2012 by

We’re having our first real rain of the season here in San Francisco. It’s very tempting just to stay in bed.

But, Jordan has to get off to work and I have a baked mac and cheese to make. It’s game day after all! Go Niners!

We’ll be back soon … with at least one recipe for baked mac and cheese.

Happy Sunday!

-Emily

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chocolate pudding

Posted on January 18, 2012 by

Jordan loves chocolate pudding and so I decided to make some for him for our anniversary last weekend. (Six years!) When we first moved to the city, we feel in love with the chocolate pudding at Tartine Bakery. The texture is amazingly creamy, the flavor intensely chocolatey and it’s topped with unsweetened whipped cream. Perfect—like just about everything else at Tartine!  Turns out, this pudding is quite easy to make and doesn’t take much more effort than the stove top Jello stuff. Try it, and you probably won’t go back.

Chocolate Pudding, from Tartine by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson
1 3/4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup plus 2 T heavy cream
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
3 T cocoa powder
3 eggs
1/4 t salt
2 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate

Place a fine mesh sieve over a large heat-proof bowl. Combine milk and cream in a saucepan and heat to just under a boil. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk together cornstarch, sugar and cocoa powder. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and salt. Add to the sugar mixture and whisk to combine.

Slowly add half of the hot milk mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat stirring constantly. It is really important to watch the mixture closely because it can go from delicious to burnt in a matter of seconds. After 5 or so minutes, once the custard has visibly thickened, pour it through the mesh sieve. Add the chocolate and let it melt. After the chocolate has melted, blend with an immersion blender for a full five minutes. This is what makes the pudding’s texture sublime. Portion the pudding and let it cool. Serve at room temperature (trust me, it is better at room temperature) with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream.

-Emily

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to cook a crab

Posted on January 15, 2012 by

 

For the first time since he started working at Amoeba last July, Jordan had a Saturday off. Happiness! A shared day off work most definitely meant that an adventure was in order. We decided to explore Point Reyes and Tomales Bay to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather. Luckily for us, our good friends Matt and Alexa were also game and prepared an agenda full of amazing food and beautiful scenery.

We hit up the classic Pine Cone Diner (lovingly called The Cone by locals, aka Matt) explored the tiny town of Point Reyes Station and then went on a hike through Point Reyes National Seashore. After some leisurely hiking,  it was on to the main event … oysters! Hog Island Oyster Co was the destination of choice. A few picnic tables in the sun and the freshest oysters you’ll ever eat, all right next to the pristine Tomales Bay—heaven on Earth.

Still feeling that oyster buzz, we decided to grab a big ole dungeness crab and a few more oysters from their retail shop on the way out. Matt and Alexa also bought two crabs and those lively guys were trying to escape their icy cooler all the way home. Amazingly fresh seafood, round two!

To Cook A Crab

I’d never cooked a crab before. My only prior experience with cooking the larger members of the crustacean family was Lobster Day over a year ago. To be honest, Jordan did all of the real work in both of these experiments, but I did take good notes.

There are several different ways to cook a crab, but we decided to keep it simple and take the steaming route. Boil a few inches of water in a large stock pot with the steamer insert. Put the crab in the pot and steam for 8 minutes per pound with the lid cocked.

Remove the crab from the pot and rinse with cold water.  Flip the crab over and pull off the apron (the oval/triangular belly of the crab). At this point the crab guts will ooze out all over your counter. You’ll need to sop these up with some paper towels and carry on. Some folks like to eat the guts, but we didn’t this time due to unanticipated oozing. With the guts removed,  you have access to the gills and mandible, which you should also remove. Now you’re left with a delicious crab body and delicious crab legs. Take some scissors to the table and enjoy! We dunked ours in melted butter. Something magical happens when crab meets butter, that’s a fact.

And if you’re curious about shucking oysters at home, here’s how.

-Emily

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