From Fresh Ricotta to Stinky Kale and Fake Chicken Nuggets

This week has been all over the map.

Sunday, my dear beloved Food Groupies friends gathered again for the first time in about 4 years.  We are a small group of friends who used to meet once a month to explore fun food projects, and wow, did we ever have a delicious blast!  When we were meeting regularly, we made many fine foods and drinks, like limoncello, fresh salsa, tortillas, pupusas, sauerkraut, biscotti & more.  Not really sure why we stopped... life just got in the way.  But on Sunday we picked right up where we left off and made fresh ricotta.  And now that we're back at it, we're all so delighted and inspired to keep it going!

As I wrote previously, I didn't have many resolutions this year, but among the few that I did, making more delicious things from scratch was high on the list.  I'm happy to say that I can already check a few items off the list.  Recently I made homemade dijon mustard, and last weekend, in the company of my fellow Food Groupies, I learned how to make the most creamy, dreamy ricotta that ever was.   We followed this recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen, a damn fine blog, filled with tasty recipes and witty writing.  I can't even express how much we loved this recipe, and how exquisite the results were.  We made a huge spread with Acme bread and Semifreddi's Garlic Croutons on which to spread the ricotta, and we had all kinds of treats to add, like caramelized onions, tomato & parsley relish with garlic, fire roasted jalapeños, blackberry jam, olive oil from Spain, and roasted garlic.  Oh MAN, it was heavenly!  Added bonuses:  Sabine made a big pot of this soup, and we drank a special bottle of wine that a friend from Italy recently bestowed upon me and the little mister.  And since little mister is more of a beer lover than a wine lover, I had no choice but to share it with the Food Groupies!

And then, then there is the matter of the marinated kale.  Lately I eat kale salad for lunch about a good 4 days out of 7.  I'm crazy.  Crazy for kale.  I never get sick of it.  It all began with this recipe, which is practically one of my all time favorites.   I'm wild for it.  And frequently, I vary it.  I add fennel or some cooked grains, substitute a chopped hard boiled egg for the cheese, or just use whatever I have in the house.  Lately I've been adding quinoa and diced roasted kabocha squash.  Sometimes lentils, sometimes not.  Anyway I love this salad but I do find it a bit of a pain to strip the kale from its stems, wash, dry and chop it.  And I'd recently read an article that says you can make the salad & marinate it well in advance...like, days in advance.  And so I did that.  Got 3 big bunches of kale on Sunday, cleaned it and prepped it all at once, and tossed it all into a big container with olive oil & lemon juice.  Had some of it on  Monday and it was fab.  Skipped Tuesday, but pulled the big container out of the work fridge  on Wednesday.  The moment I pulled the lid off, I, and the poor, poor souls around me were hit with the most rank smell, OMG.  Like stinky pickled stinky stuff. Like cabbage that's been sitting in the sink for days.  I was immediately apologetic to my poor coworkers who could smell this stink from 3 suites away!  ESPECIALLY cause I am that uptight person in the office who always gets all irritated when people pull out stinky things for their lunches!  Payback time!  But strangely, it tasted fine.  It WAS fine.  It wasn't off.  I don't really know what kind of chemical reaction happened to make it stink so bad.  But I know I definitely WON'T be marinating my kale salads more than a day in advance in the future!  And lest you might think it's a good idea, trust me.  It's not so good.

And then, then there was tonight's bachelor dinner.  Lest anyone should ever accuse me of being too much of a food snob, I will have you know that tonight's dinner was frozen fake chicken nuggets with mayo and Sriracha, with a pretzel stick chaser.  Not a vegetable in sight.  Sometimes that's about the best you can do.  I'd like to say it was comfort food but it wasn't exactly comforting.  More like a little greasy and bloat-inspiring.  But it sure did round out the week!

Almost time for Limoncello

I don't know if I've mentioned Food Groupies in any previous posts, and that is a major oversight! We're a small group of friends who are obsessed with food. We meet once a month, each time at a different person's house, and that person leads the whole group in making something delicious and completely from scratch.

One time, John and Scott and I showed the group what we know about wild fermentation, and we made our own sauerkraut and pickles, and I swear the stuff we made is some of the best I've ever tasted!

Other sessions have found us making biscotti (of course!), Brazillian cheese biscuits and Brazillian fish stew, and last month, Kathleen taught us all how to make meyer lemon and orange marmalade, and Limoncello - a truly intoxicating Italian liqueur.

First, you peel the citrus very carefully, making sure not to include any of the white pith, which would make the final product bitter. We made one batch with oranges, and one batch with lemons.

Then, you soak the peels in grain alcohol for 13 days, shaking the jar every day. Later you remove the peels and add simple syrup to the alcohol, and set it aside for another 2 weeks or so, again, shaking it every day.




Next, you bottle it and put it in the freezer, where its color transforms into a very creamy, but still very bright orange or yellow. And then, it's ready to drink!

You serve it in very small, chilled glasses. And believe me, you want the glasses to be small because this stuff packs a punch! And it's easy to drink too much because it goes down soooooooooo smooth.

Our Limoncello won't be ready for another week or so.... not QUITE in time for my birthday! But since I plan to enjoy a week-long celebration (at the very least!), I will certainly get to make a few birthday toasts with it.

And speaking of birthdays, the celebration begins today. I'm headed back to Gualala to enjoy a bit of gluttony in the company of a few friends and a few dogs. Of course I've packed the essentials - cookbooks, knives, tortilla press, ice cream maker, and ... tequila. No doubt I'll have many fine food pics to post next week! So stay tuned...

La La Lemon Love!

It's the time of year when lemon trees go wild.  I've found myself making lemon vinaigrette every week, dropping a slice of lemon into every glass of water, bringing large bags to work and when visiting friends,  and still, the lemon tree runneth over.  I made 2 jars of preserved lemons.  Still, not a dent was made.  So last weekend, I was delighted to meet up with my Food Groupies pals again to work on changing that.

Sabine brought this recipe to the group for lemon confit.  It doesn't sound like much.  Just take some lemon peels and blanch them a couple of times in boiling water in order to remove any bitterness, and then simmer them slowly in a combination of oil and lemon juice, seasoned with garlic.  It didn't seem like the sort of thing that would knock my socks off, but it's knocked them off the charts!  When we finished making this, we dabbed a little bit onto a baguette that we'd also dabbed with arugula pesto.  Then topped it with some sauteed greens.  Heavenly!  We all agreed that the combination of pesto & this lemon confit would make a perfect sauce for pasta.  And now that I have a little jar of it, and a seemingly endless supply of lemons, I'm excited that I'll get to make this a staple in my refrigerator as long as the lemons last!  A little bit goes a long way and adds such sparkle.  The other day for lunch, I diced a hard boiled egg and chopped some kalamata olives, and stirred a bit of this sparkly stuf into the combo, and used it to top a green salad for lunch...with lemon vinaigrette, of course! I think it would also be great stirred into soup, or spread on fish or chicken.

Next up, we made this recipe for Tartine Bakery's lemon cream:  lemon curd's creamier, dreamier cousin. I have recently become a very big fan of the Food52 web site's Genius recipes, and this one is no exception.  It is described as "...your new tart filling, scone spread, and trifle layer -- and the best lemon pudding you'll ever taste.", and that pretty much sums it up!

We adapted the lemon confit recipe ever so slightly, so here it is below with our adaptations.  As for the lemon cream, I wouldn't change a thing!

I am very happy to have discovered both of these recipes, and grateful for the little extra bit of brightness they bring about in the winter.

Lemon Confit

Slightly adapted from Epicurious, by Sondra Bernstein

4 lemons

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup canola oil *(you may also use grapeseed oil or a combo of grapeseed and canola, as we did.)

1 garlic clove

Pinch of salt

Using vegetable peeler, remove peel (yellow part only) from lemons in long strips.  Cut the strips into thinner strips, approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch wide, kind of like confetti!  *The original recipe didn't call for this, but we found the large strips to be awkward & bulky, and figured the smaller pieces would work better for spreading the final result, and we were all quite happy with that call.

Squeeze 6 tablespoons juice from lemons.

Blanch the peels in small saucepan of boiling water 10 seconds; drain. Repeat twice.

Bring the 6 tablespoons lemon juice, olive oil, canola oil, garlic, and pinch of salt to simmer in small saucepan. Add lemon peels and simmer over low heat until peels are soft, about 1 hour. Cool.

 DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 month ahead. Keep chilled and completely covered in oil. Always use clean fork to remove lemon.