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curried butternut squash over farro

I don’t believe in diets. I think diets ruin food for you and for everyone you eat with. Instead I prefer to live by Julia Child’s philosophy—everything in moderation, including moderation. Life is just too short, and you only get one of ’em. But, I do believe that your body will tell you what it needs if you take the time to listen. After an epic weekend of eating with Jordan’s family (pizza at Pizzeria Delfina, followed up by cocktails at Hard Water, followed up by House of Prime Rib, topped off with brunch at Nopa), my body was screaming for some vegetables.

I love vegetables, and though it might be blasphemous to say so seeing as some folks around here consider bacon a food group, vegetables are probably the only food I could tolerate eating weeks on end. We have salad (or slaw or sautéed greens) with dinner every night, but salad as a meal just doesn’t cut it when you bike upwards of 20 miles a day like Jordan does. Plus, when you write a blog called The Answer is Always Pork, you can’t get away with hawking sissy vegetarian food. This dish is my compromise between the need to detox and the need to fuel my handsome nerdlover’s brain and body.

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So here we have a salad that does not mess around. Curry powder takes butternut squash to a wonderful warm and spicy place. Farro is one of the best grains out there—it blows quinoa out of the water; nutty and chewy, you don’t miss meat. Top it all with a lemony-yogurt sauce that adds just the right amount of brightness and you’ve got yourself a wining dinner.

It’s also all kinds of flexible. Instead of butternut, you could use whatever squash you’ve got lying around. Or heck, roast up some carrots or parsnips or celeriac. You can serve it hot, serve it at room temperature, serve it cold. Anything goes. This salad is your oyster. Now doesn’t my detox sound like fun?

Curried Butternut Squash & Farro with Lemon-Yogurt Sauce

For the squash
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 teaspoon – 1 tablespoon Indian curry powder (depending on how hot and fresh your curry is)
1 tablespoon olive oilFor the yogurt sauce
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/2 lemon juiced
salt and pepper

1 cup farro (I like Trader Joe’s Quick Cook Farro – it cooks in 10 minutes and has great texture)
cilantro, for serving

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Preheat your oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Peel and cut your butternut squash into cubes. Toss with some olive oil, salt and curry powder and spread evenly on a baking sheet. I’d taste your curry powder—mine was very mild and I needed to use quite a bit to actually taste it when it was put up against the flavor of the squash. You can taste a piece of squash part of the way through cooking and if it is too mild, sprinkle on some more curry. You want this squash to pack a punch. Bake 30 – 40 minutes, until the squash is tender.

Meanwhile, mix the yogurt with lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.  While the squash is baking, bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook the farro according to the package directions, drain and toss with a little olive oil.

To serve, mound some farro up on a plate. Scoop on a healthy helping of squash and top with the lemon yogurt. Or throw it all in a tupperware and eat it like a heathen with your hands in the park because you forgot a fork. Either way, enjoy!

-Emily

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Recipes

on pear galettes and worrying

Last weekend, Jordan and I cooked a special dinner together. It was our standard birthday/anniversary/Valentine’s day meal—a beautiful steak, buttery potatoes, a good bottle of wine. We have it just a few time a year and it’s wonderful every time.

I remember the steak dinner that started this tradition, I think it was our third anniversary.  Jordan cooked at his parents’ house. I was on break from college. He made steak au poivre, roasted fingerling potatoes, beet salad and a dark chocolate souffle. I still have the menu he typed up for the occasion. (Can we just pause for a second an appreciate that he typed a menu for the occasion, adorable.) The meal has been a constant of our relationship ever since.

Now that a few years have passed, we’ve worked out all the kinks. Jordan handles the steak, usually simply grilled and finished with butter. I make the sides and dessert. Dessert is the only part of the menu that changes and this weekend I decided to make a pear galette.

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So it was Saturday afternoon and I was standing in my kitchen making the galette. Now, those of of you who know me well, know that the type of experience I’m about to tell you about doesn’t really happen to me. I’m pretty solidly grounded, and frankly, if this happened to you and you told me about it, I’d probably think it was a little new-agey and nuts. Now putting all that aside, as I stood there slicing the pears for my galette, I was transported. For just a few minutes, I felt like the person I’m meant to become. She was calm and confident and capable. I folded the dough up around the pears and I knew in this very concrete way that everything is going to be alright.

It’s been an especially anxious year, full of lots of worrying on my part about big things and small (but mostly big, if we’re honest).  And so it was such a relief to just know that everything is going to be ok, that I’m going to be ok. Knowing that this happier, calmer version of myself is out there and that I’ll get there some day—even if it isn’t today or tomorrow or this year—put me at peace in a way nothing else has. I’ve tried to reason myself into feeling this way for months, but it took this unexpected, out of body experience to actually get the message across. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, I have a pear galette to thank for that.

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As for the pear galette, it was divine. Comice pears are perfect for pie—the texture can stand up to baking and they don’t get too sweet. The galette has just enough spice to accent the flavor of the pear, but doesn’t overpower it. I’d recommend you hurry and make your own before comice pears are done for the season.

Comice Pear Galette, with inspiration from Lindsay Shere, a longtime pastry chef of Chez Panisse
For the crust (makes two)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
about 5 tablespoons ice water

For the galette
3 comice pears, peeled and sliced thin
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
sugar for dusting

In a food processor, combine flour and salt. Remove the butter from the fridge and cut into 1 inch cubes. Add them to the flour mixture. Process until the butter chunks are about the size of peas. Add the water and pulse a few times to combine. Divide into two equal balls, flatten into 1″ thick discs, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight.

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Preheat your oven to 400° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Peel the pears and slice them into thin slices. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar and spices. Dust a surface with flour and roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick. In the center of the dough, sprinkle the flour mixture. Arrange the pear slices in a mound on top of the flour mixture. Fold the dough up around the filling. Brush the dough with water and sprinkle with a heavy dusting of sugar.

Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and back for 40 minutes to 1 hour, until browned and bubbly in the center. You can also form the galette, cover in plastic wrap and return it to the fridge until you want to bake it.

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I like to serve mine warm with ice cream and usually put it into the oven as we’re sitting down to dinner. It’s also really good for breakfast. Just say you need to take a good photo for your blog. Enjoy!

-Emily

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Recipes

louisiana style beans and rice

My mom used to make red beans and rice for us as kids. It was the only holdover from the time she and my dad spent living in New Orleans while he was in medical school. And we were obsessed. It’s probably still my favorite dish that she makes. Now, whenever the kids are coming home, she’ll throw a batch in the crockpot and we’ll feast when we arrive. That drive from San Francisco to Sacramento, whew, you can really work up an appetite.

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I wasn’t planning to to make my mom’s red beans and rice this time around. I’d actually found a recipe in David Tanis’ beautiful book The Heart of the Artichoke for an Italian-ish black eyed pea stew and that was more or less what I was working towards. But one taste of those beans after they’d been simmering with a pork neck bone for a few hours and I knew a New Orleans infusion was in order.

It was a good call, it’s probably always a good call. Maybe beans just shouldn’t exist outside of red beans and rice … or cassoulet … or burritos … or baked beans … hummm. Anyway, if you want a taste of my childhood, here it is.

Calypso Beans and Rice, in the style of my mom’s red beans and rice
1 lb dried beans, I used Calypso beans because they were cute, but kidney beans are the traditional choice
1 onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 slices of bacon, cut into lardon
1 smoked ham hock or smoked pork neck bones
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or more if you like it hot
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt, pepper
2 teaspoons hot sauce (we like Crystal, but Tabasco was my dad’s hot sauce of choice growing up)
White rice, andouille sausage (if you’d like, we didn’t have any), and more hot sauce for serving

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Soak the beans in a large bowl of water for 8 hours or overnight.

In a large, heavy bottomed pan or dutch oven over medium-low heat, sauté the bacon pieces until they render their fat and begin to brown. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside. If your bacon is fatty, you should have enough oil to sauté the onion in, but it it isn’t add a bit of olive oil or duck fat (when you live in this house you have a jar of duck fat in the fridge so why not make good use of it?) to the pan.

Add  the onion to the pan. Sauté for 5 – 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Likely they’ll pick up some of the more browned bacony bits left behind in the pot. That’s good news. Add the garlic and sauté another minute more.

Add the beans, bay leaf and 6 cups of water. Be sure to throw in your ham hock at this point also. We had some delicious smoked pork neck bones from a pig my mom bought over the summer from a customer of hers, and so I threw those in instead. You could skip the smokey meat bit, but I wouldn’t recommend it—it adds a tremendous depth of flavor to what’s an otherwise pretty bland food.

Turn the heat to low and let your beans simmer away, until they are tender. Mine took about 2 – 2.5 hours. After your beans are sufficiently tender, add the worcestershire sauce, cayenne, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Add the hot sauce to taste.

About half of my beans were falling apart into a beany puree as I stirred. Depending on the texture of your beans, you might want to puree about a third of the mixture and add it back in if they don’t seem to be falling apart into mush on their own. It’s best to have some beans that are more whole and some that become more of a bean sauce.

If you’re using a ham hock, you’ll probably want to pull that out and pick off the meat and throw the meat back in. This might happen on it’s own, but discovering a little hammy nublet when you’re thinking it’s just beans, that’s good stuff.

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Serve on a bed of rice with more hot sauce on the side. My mom will usually sauté up a few andouille sausages, slice them and top the beans and rice with them. You could do so too if you felt inclined. Bon appetit!

PS. I’ve never been to New Orleans so I can’t honestly say how authentic my mom’s red beans and rice are, but I can guarantee that they are delicious. Her recipe is probably some California-Louisiana fusion that real purists couldn’t possibly endorse, but for me it will always taste like home.

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Recipes

buckwheat crêpe gâteau

Sometimes, when you’re feeling particularly overwhelmed by the challenges the universe has decided to throw your way, there’s really not much you can do but bake a cake. I won’t elaborate on the details because these types of details aren’t fun for anyone, but I trust you’ve all been to a similar place. A place where there is nothing you can do but put one foot in front of the other, and bake a cake.

Fortunately, I’ve got a slew of cakes for the baking. There’s Jordan’s favorite chocolate cake, there’s a perfectly citrusy loaf cake, there’s my Nonnie’s carrot cake, and now there is this cake. A cake made of crepes. Mostly it just looks pretty, but let’s not discount how a pretty thing can lift the spirit.

It can.

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Buckwheat Crêpe Gâteau
For the crepes
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk together the flours, eggs, milk, salt, sugar and vanilla. Let the batter sit in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight. Once the batter has rested, heat a nonstick sauté pan over medium-low heat. When the pan is hot, pour in about 1/4 cup of batter. Swirl the batter around the pan by tilting the pan, first to the right, then towards the back, then to the left, then to the front. Let the crepe just hang out there for a few minutes, don’t poke at it, don’t try and peak—both of these will result in a sad, probably ripped, subpar crepe. Be strong, resist the temptation.

When the batter has formed thin skin and there are bubbles throughout, use a spatula to coax up the edges. Then, using your fingers or a spatula, flip the crepe. Let it cook another 30 seconds or so and repeat with the rest of the batter. Cool the crepes before assembling the cake.

For the cream filling 
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
a pinch of salt
maple syrup for drizzling

In a large bowl or the bowl of a mixer, combine the cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla. Whisk until a fluffy cream forms.

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To assemble the cake, put a crepe on a large plate. Spread a thin layer of cream and top with another crepe. Repeat until you’ve used all of the filling and all of the crepes.

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To serve, cut into slices and drizzle with maple syrup. It’s good for dessert. It’s even better for breakfast the next day. Dessert for breakfast isn’t to be discounted either.

-Emily

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Recipes

cheese pupusas with pickled slaw

We were in the car on our way to go surfing last weekend when Jordan turned to me and said, “Let’s make pupusas”. “Sure, let’s do it,” I replied without blinking an eye. It was decided, pupusas for dinner. What about the winding drive up Highway 1 made him think of pupusas, I have no idea. What I do know is that when you’ve been cooking and writing about it long enough, you tend to dive headfirst into this type of thing. We stopped questioning each other’s food whims long ago. Semi-obscure regional dish, why not. Grind our own meat for a three pound loaf of country pate, seems reasonable. Wedding cake in one hundred square feet of kitchen, it’ll be fun. Unlike most other areas of my life, the kitchen seems to be the place where I have the guts to just go for it. No questions, no fear, no regrets. Behold, PUPUSAS!

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Now isn’t that pretty. Maybe I should get ‘no fear, no regrets’ and a sexy papusa tattooed on my arm as a reminder to be more adventurous in the rest of my life …

Pupusas are traditional dish from El Salvador. They’re basically a corn dough that is filled with a mixture of cheese, beans or braised meat, flattened into a half inch thick disc and then pan fried or cooked on a grill.  Although I do indeed have an adorable Salvadoran grandma, I haven’t yet had the chance to learn how to make pupusas autenticas. It’s on my list, but in the meantime, I’m working off of this recipe. It’s a fusion of a several recipes found on the internet, and despite it’s lack of pedigree it turned out pretty dang delicious. It’s hard to go wrong with cheesy corn bread topped with tangy spicy slaw, wouldn’t you agree?

Pupusas de Queso con Curtido 
For the pupusas
2 cups masa harina (Maseca is a common brand, Bob’s Red Mill also makes one)
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup grated mozzarella, monterey jack or quesillo cheese
butter or oil for cooking them

First, grate the cheese. Then make the masa. In a large bowl, combine the masa harina, salt and warm water. Using your hands, mix the dough until a soft and just slightly sticky dough forms. You’ll just need to knead it for a minute or two. If it is too crumbly, add some more water. If it is too wet, add a few tablespoons of masa harina. Let the dough sit for 10 – 15 minutes to let the masa harina fully hydrate.

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Shape the dough into eight 2″ balls. Press your thumb into the center of the ball and pinch it into a bowl shape using your thumb and fingers. Fill the hole with about a tablespoon of cheese (or other filling like refried beans or braised pork). Pinch the edges of the bowl closed to cover the cheese. Then flatten the ball into a disc using your hands. Flatten a until the disc is about 1/3″ thick. Repeat with the rest of the balls of masa. Refrigerate until you’re ready to fry up the pupusas.

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We made this little video of how to shape the pupusas if my explanation above confuses more than it helps. Cinematography is not a strength here at the Answer is Always Pork, but this will get the job done.

For the curtido
1/2 head of cabbage, sliced thinly
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, sliced thinly
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes

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In a large bowl, combine the sliced cabbage, carrot and onion. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, water, salt, sugar, oregano and chili flake. Whisk to dissolve the sugar and salt. Pour over the cabbage mixture. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

In a sauté pan over medium heat, melt some butter or heat some oil. Cook the pupusas, about 5 minutes per side, until golden brown all over and deep brown in spots. You’ll see the cheese start to ooze out of them. Serve topped with the curtido, plus some guacamole, crema and salsa if you’re a Californian and bastardizing traditional foodstuffs is right up your alley. Buen provecho!

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-Emily

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Recipes

julia child’s beef bourguignon

For my 22nd birthday, my Nonnie gave me a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Sitting at her kitchen table, as I unwrapped the tome that changed home cooking so monumentally, she gave me some advice. “Make the beef bourguignon first. And do not skip the bacon.”

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Like she is on most things culinary and otherwise, my Nonnie was right. Julia Child’s beef bourguignon is perfection, worth every bit of effort, and the bacon is absolutely essential. It is easily the best braised beef I’ve ever made and I’m sure those who’ve had the pleasure of eating it with us in years since I was first gifted the book would also agree.

And what is winter for if it isn’t to embrace braising? Dedicate an afternoon to Julia’s beef bourguignon, and don’t even think about skipping the bacon.

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Beef Bourguignon, adapted very slightly from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child
6 oz bacon, cut into 1/2″ pieces
3 lbs lean stewing beef, cut into 2″ chunks (we used chuck roast)
1 carrot, sliced
1 onion, sliced
salt, pepper, olive oil
3 cups red wine
2 – 3 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, mashed
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf, crumbled
20 small white onions, brown-braised
1 lb fresh mushrooms, cut into halves or quarters, sautéed in butter

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Preheat your oven to 450° F.  If you know your bacon is quite smoky, you may want to boil the bacon in some water for a few minutes to take out some of the smoke flavor before you sauté it. This is what Julia recommends, but I usually skip this step and skip right ahead to sautéing. In a cast iron pot, sauté the bacon over medium heat. After the bacon has browned lightly, remove it with a slotted spoon and set it aside. Take the pot with the bacon fat off the heat.

Cut the beef into 2 inch cubes and then pat them dry with paper towels. Heat the pot with the bacon fat over medium high heat until the fat is nearly smoking. If your bacon didn’t render off much fat, I would add a tablespoon of oil to the pot. Add a few cubes of the beef. Sear them, letting them sit without disturbing them for a few minutes per side, until they are a deep brown. Be sure to not crowd the pan or the beef will steam instead of browning. For about 2.5 pounds of meat, I did mine in four batches.

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While the beef is browning, cut the onion and carrot into chunks. After browning the last of the meat, add the vegetables. Brown them slightly and then remove them and set them aside.

Put the beef and bacon back into the pot. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and some fresh black pepper. Toss the beef to coat. Add 2 tablespoons of flour and toss to coat again. Set the pot in the middle of your 450° oven and cook for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and cook for another 4 minutes in the oven. Reduce the heat of the oven to 325°. Return the pot to the stove top and add the vegetables, wine, broth, tomato paste, garlic, and herbs. The meat should be just barely covered by liquid. Bring to a simmer on the stove top and then place in the oven. Cook in the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the pearl onions. For the pearl onions, peel them if using fresh. If using frozen, defrost in water. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add the onions and brown them on each side. Once browned, add 1/2 cup beef stock, a pinch of thyme and a bay leaf and reduce the heat to low. Let simmer covered for 20 minutes, until the onions are cooked through.

 

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If you’re making this in advance, you can prepare the beef and onions up until this point and then refrigerate them. You can then rewarm the beef by simmering it on the stove over low heat for 15 – 20 minutes before serving. I like to saute my mushrooms the day of serving because they are pretty easy to do while you’re cooking the potatoes.

In the last 45 minutes of cooking for the beef or 45 minutes before you want to eat, peel a few potatoes and cut them into quarters. Put them in a sauce pan and cover them with water. Season the water until it taste like sea water. Bring the potatoes to a boil and cook until tender, about 20 – 25 minutes. Drain the potatoes and mash them, adding a bit of butter, milk, salt and pepper to taste. I usually do this in my kitchen aid mixer.

For the mushrooms, clean 1 pound of mushrooms and then cut them into halves or quarters depending on their size. Sauté over medium heat in 2 tablespoons of butter, until browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

When the meat is tender, remove it from the oven and place on the stovetop. Skim off any fat that may be floating on the surface of the meat. In my experience, there is very little beef fat to skim off, but I generally cook with leaner grass-fed beef.  You skim off any fat to prevent a greasy gravy because greasy gravy is gross. Taste the sauce for seasoning; it may need a little salt or pepper. Before serving, add in the braised onions and sautéed mushrooms to pot along with the beef and vegetables. Serve over mashed potatoes with a gravy boat of extra sauce on the side.

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-Emily

 

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Recipes

lentil salad with poached eggs

Before heading off for our Christmas festivities, Jordan and I spent a Saturday poking around Berkeley. My idea was to grab lunch at Cheeseboard, find a few outstanding gifts and then check out Berkeley Bowl, an independent supermarket of epic proportions (40,000 square feet!). The line for Cheeseboard was around the block, so we grabbed some pastrami at Saul’s Deli instead. (Not a bad call. The waffles are also delicious). Gift shopping was mostly unsuccessful, but if we’re honest, this outing was planned around the food.

Once at Berkeley Bowl, we dutifully explored each aisle with special attention paid to the vast beer selection and exotic produce. It’s a fun place to kill a few hours if you like food. We were on our way out with an assortment of tasty treats when we realized we’d spent two hours in a grocery store and still hadn’t planned anything for dinner. After a lunch of pastrami, something vegetarian for dinner seemed reasonable. I recalled some sort of lentil salad and out of grocery store fatigue we decided to run with it. At Berkeley Bowl, they have at least six types of lentils for anyone who might be counting. I chose the prettiest ones, black beluga lentils.

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This dish is simple and beautiful. The egg yolk when combined with the vinegar dressing from the lentils makes the most delicious sauce. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the perfection that is a runny egg yolk. It would be a tremendous effort to make a sauce as lovely from anything else, but with eggs it is simple—just don’t overcook them.

The salad also keeps quite well. Eat it cold from the fridge the next day for lunch, or snag a few bites before you run out the door in the morning. I can also imagine swapping the egg for poached or pan-fried fish. If you’re not an egg person but want to keep it vegetarian, you could add some crumbled goat cheese or feta.

Lentil Salad with Poached Eggs, adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
1 cup lentils (we used black Beluga lentils because they hold their shape when cooked, plus they are quite pretty)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons finely diced shallot
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 – 2 eggs per person, depending on how hungry you are

Pick out any grit from the lentils and rinse them with cold water. Put them in a medium saucepan and over with water by 3 inches. Season the water with salt until it tastes like salt water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes, until the lentils are tender. Drain the lentils and pour into a large bowl.

Toss the lentils with the vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Let sit for 5 minutes. Taste again and add more salt or vinegar if needed. Add the olive oil, shallot and parsley and toss to combine. Set aside.

To poach the eggs, rinse the saucepan you cooked the lentils in and fill it with 4 – 5 inches of water. Bring to just under a simmer and add 1 teaspoon white vinegar. Crack an egg into a small cup or mug. Stir the water gently in a circle to form a whirlpool. As the whirlpool spinning begins to slow, gently pour the egg into the water. If you get the cup as close to the surface of the water as possible before pouring it in, it is easier to keep the white from going all over the place. Fresh eggs also make this easier (but I’m sure you all already know that!). Use a spoon to snuggle the white around the yolk. Let cook for 3 – 4 minutes and then remove with a slotted spoon.  I can usually cook about 3 or 4 eggs at a time in a 3 1/2 quart saucepan. If you’re making any more than that, I’d do them in batches. You can also trim off the little egg white tails that furl off the egg to make your poached eggs look even more perfect, but I’m not that fussy. (Our friend Roche also shared this video in the comments, which is for a technique he finds flawless.)

To serve, mound the lentils on a plate and top with a poached egg and some fresh pepper. Enjoy!

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-Emily

Ps. Today marks Jordan and I’s eighth anniversary. (!!!) I wouldn’t have found a smarter, funnier or handsomer fella if I tried. I couldn’t be more happy or more grateful. I love you Jordan!

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Randomness Recipes Thoughts on Life

goodbye 2013

I was more than ready to say goodbye to 2013, I think I’ve been ready since July. 2013 was a bit brutal and I’m glad to be rid of her, to be quite honest about it. But, seeing as I’m sick in bed with a head cold and my consumption of TLC trash tv is getting embarrassing, I decided to give the year a closer look.

Though the lows of this past year were by far some of the lowest, and the trials some of my toughest, there is also so so much goodness in our lives. For our loving families, for our wonderful friends who feel like family, and for the silly hounds that fill my heart with joy, I am tremendously grateful. I’m also pretty dang proud that this little family of mine, Jordan, Willow and I, weathered this storm of a year. So, feeling sappy and full of snot, here are some of my favorite moments from 2013.

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Onwards and upwards. 2014 we’re ready for you.

-Emily