A Very Important Digression
Fellow foodies: I’m diverging from my usual recipe content to talk to you about an incredible documentary film being produced by a very dear friend of mine, Josh Penn. We all understand the need for meaningful, independent films to have a voice and a presence, and this one looks especially evocative with its culinary, cultural, historical, and political landscapes. The filmmakers are asking (very nicely!) for donations to help match a grant they’ve received to get the project underway. They only have 30 days to reach their monetary goal, or the film won’t be funded.
A brief introduction to the film:
Roots and Webs tells the story of an unlikely group of heroes: a community of mushroom hunters who converge in the Southern Oregon woods each September to live in the frontier world of the Mushroom Camps. Hundreds of Cambodian and Laotian refugees, American Vietnam Veterans, and other off-the-grid pioneers descend on the Southeast Oregon woods in search of the elusive and lucrative matsutake mushroom—a rare fungus prized in Japanese cuisine. Amid the make-shift Mushroom Camps, histories collide, adventures ensue, and unforeseen connections are discovered spanning decades, wars, and continents.
Mushroom lovers, history buffs, and cinema fans alike, please take a moment to watch this video and consider making a donation to help fund this project. Don’t forget to check out the prizes for your donations—some of them are just plain delightful. Many thanks for your attention! You can donate to the film via Kickstarter here.
Mini Frittatas w. Spinach & Cheddar
I’m a breakfast person. Fluffy pancakes, hearty omelets, and crisp bacon are among my very favorite foods. Yet, much to my dismay, I’m not a morning person. I snooze until the last possible second, and I never manage to get out the door a second before I have to—so my weekday breakfasts are hardly satisfying. A hastily-buttered piece of toast and a banana is what I usually rely on. I wish I could get up earlier, allowing myself the time to make some breakfast in my own kitchen, and savor it slowly while reading the news. But that’s just not me. Making a real breakfast at home is just out of the question, and even allowing enough time to stop en route to the office is sometimes questionable. Unfortunately, this is really hard to reconcile with my appetite for breakfast food (I’m literally salivating over imaginary raspberry pancakes right now). Sound familiar? If you suffer from the same dilemma, you’ll appreciate the beauty of these bite-sized, make-ahead frittatas. I got the idea from a recipe for Crustless Mini Quiches from the ever-sensible website, The Kitchn, but I like the dense consistency of a frittata better than a quiche (which is often less eggs, and more milk). I make them on Sunday afternoons (usually while waiting on a load of laundry), and pop them in the fridge so I have a satisfying breakfast right at my finger tips during the busy work week. Just warm them up in a microwave or toaster oven—it takes as much time as buttering that sad little piece of toast, and it’s so much better.
Mini Frittatas with Spinach, Cheddar, and Scallions (Makes 12)
4 large eggs
2 handfuls baby spinach, chopped
2 scallions, thinly sliced
3 tbsp. sharp cheddar, grated
2 tbsp. whole milk
salt & pepper
- Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees, and grease a mini-muffin tin.
- In a medium bowl, beat 4 eggs. Add milk, and whisk until combined.
- Add spinach, scallions, and half of the cheddar. Season with salt & pepper (I used about 12 turns of the mill, each), and stir together.
- Add a small pinch of cheddar into the bottom of each muffin compartment (this makes a nice little crust). Spoon about a tbsp. of the egg mixture into each, and sprinkle the tops with the remaining grated cheddar.
- Bake in the oven for about 13 minutes, until eggs are firm and tops are turning golden. Enjoy straight out of the oven, or wrap in tin foil and save them for busy mornings. This recipe makes a dozen (which lasted me for 3 days), and you could easily double the recipe to make enough for the entire week.
Baked Cod with Fennel & Tomatoes
It’s so easy to get stuck in the rut of your familiar, standby recipes. For example, when I have a craving for fish, I usually just pick up a few salmon fillets and bake them in the oven with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Occasionally, I’ll sprinkle some breadcrumbs on top, or brush them with a little Dijon mustard—but that’s about as far as I normally stray. Not terribly inspired. In my quest for new and interesting ways to make fish, I happened upon a Giada de Laurentiis recipe that I’d flagged and had been meaning to try—except it was for pork chops (simmered in a sauce of tomatoes, fennel, capers, parsley and lemon zest). One protein swap later, I found myself with a refreshingly different plate of fish. Hearty, meaty cod stands up well to the bold flavors in the sauce, and the zippy flavor from the capers and lemon zest really brightened the dish. I’m sure I’ll go back to my faithful salmon soon enough, but it was, indeed, a welcome change.
Baked Cod with Fennel & Tomatoes (Serves 2)
1 lb. cod fillets
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices
2 tbsp. olive oil, divided
2 tbsp. freshly chopped parsley, divided
1/2 lemon, zested
1 tbsp. capers, drained
salt & pepper, to taste
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On the stovetop, heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a saute pan over high heat. Season the cod with salt and pepper, and cook until it’s starting to brown (about 3 minutes per side). Remove cod from the pan, and set aside.
- Lower heat to medium-high. Add the remaining tbsp. of olive oil, followed by the fennel, shallots, and 1 tbsp. chopped parsley. Cook until starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and lemon zest, and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, and cook a few minutes more.
- Transfer tomato and fennel mixture into a baking dish. Nestle the cod fillets in the sauce, making sure to leave the tops uncovered so they can continue to brown in the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fillets), until cod is cooked through. Sprinkle with remaining parsley, and serve.
Mustard-and-Tamari Glazed Chicken
Here’s another weeknight stand-in for a beloved dish: the shortcut version of a whole roast chicken. Roast chicken is, without a doubt, a winner. It’s comforting, it’s fragrant, it’s elegant—it’s delicious. And the roasted root vegetables (let’s be honest, it’s pretty much a package deal) that soak up the flavors from the chicken are arguably the best part. But prepping a whole bird and allowing it the time to roast in the oven for two hours isn’t your standard weeknight affair. So here’s the shortcut—it mimics the general idea of a whole roasted chicken (with the veggies, of course), but using chicken breasts drastically cuts down on the time. Using bone-in, skin-on cuts retains the moisture—but using boneless, skinless versions shaves off even more time. It’s just a matter of preference. I use the exact same recipe that I’d use if I were roasting a whole chicken, but just in smaller portions. The recipe is actually a riff on something I’ve been eating my whole life: my best friend’s mother’s “Chicken in a Red Pot.” It’s a roast chicken (which she actually roasts in her red Dutch oven), but made extra tasty with a mustard-and-tamari glaze. The recipe has been lovingly passed down through her, to my best friend, to me, and now my own mother makes it. The best part? After the simple prep work, you can just sit back with a glass of wine while the oven does the bulk of the work for you.
Mustard-and-Tamari Glazed Chicken (Serves 2)
2 chicken breasts (either boneless & skinless or 1 bone-in breast, split in half)
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium red onion, cut into small wedges
1 small fennel bulb, thinly slice (outer layer removed)
10 (roughly) baby new potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. tamari
1 tsp. whole grain mustard
1 tsp. dijon mustard
salt & pepper
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, tamari, and both kinds of mustard (if you only have one kind, that’s fine. I just like the combination of the two flavors and textures).
- Spread chopped potatoes, fennel, carrots, and onion in the bottom of a baking dish. Drizzle with just a touch of extra virgin olive oil, only enough to moisten the vegetables. Pour 3/4 of the tamari and mustard mixture over the vegetables, season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine.
- Spoon a small amount of the remaining mixture onto the bottom of each chicken breast (only if using the boneless, skinless kind), and place them on top of the vegetables. Spoon the remaining mixture over the tops of each chicken breast, spreading it evenly with the back of your spoon. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Place baking dish in the oven and roast for 30-40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables have softened and started to caramelize. Note: there will be some extra veggies, but they make great leftovers.
A Bolognese Masquerade
A traditional bolognese sauce is painstakingly made with cream, wine, pancetta, and your usual mirepoix (the culinary trifecta of carrots, celery, and onion—and yes, I learned that term from watching Top Chef). It’s also often made with a combination of ground pork, beef, and veal. It’s delicious—but a recipe like this poses several problems for a home cook like myself (aside from the fact that I don’t eat veal). First, who has time for all that? Especially if what you’re really craving is just a good, old-fashioned meat sauce. But second, it’s not exactly the heart-healthy staple to add to your weekly rotation. Sure, it’s perfectly fine for a special dinner party, but it’s not necessarily something you want to serve up every Thursday night. So I came up with a shortcut version: no cream, no wine, no pancetta, no aromatics other than onion, and lean turkey steps in for the red meat. It might not be a traditional bolognese (and perhaps I shouldn’t even really call it that), but the effect is largely the same. The sauce has plenty of flavor, and at the end of the day, all we really need is a plate of hearty pasta, right? If you want to take the health factor a step further, use whole-wheat or whole-grain pasta—you won’t even notice the difference.
Turkey “Bolognese” (or really, just a healthy, hearty meat sauce) (Serves 2)
3/4 lb. ground turkey
1/2 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/2 lb. short pasta (e.g. fusilli or penne)
a few pinches of dried basil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once water has reached a boil, add pasta and cook according to package directions.
- Meanwhile, heat 3 tbsp. olive oil in another large pot over low heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant and just turning golden, about 1-2 minutes—being careful not to let it burn.
- Add tomatoes, and stir to combine. Raise heat to bring tomatoes to a steady simmer, then season with salt, pepper, and dried basil (Note: I often have trouble measuring the right amount of salt & pepper for recipes, since I use mills for both. I’d estimate that I use about 8 turns of the salt mill, and 8 turns of the pepper mill). Allow sauce to simmer uncovered (to thicken) for at least 20 minutes before tossing with mt or whole-grain pasta—you won’t even notice the difference.
