Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Braised Tofu

Recipe Source: Song, Young Jin.  The Korean Kitchen.  Anness Publishing, London, 2010 p. 138

Here's another recipe for which pictures are completely lacking.  Again, I remember taking them.  I think they must be on someone's phone.  I guess that's okay.  The important thing is that I still have the notes from this recipe.  I write my notes down on these little pieces of paper which works fine when I'm in the kitchen - as long as I can transcribe them or write up the recipe very quickly.  If I cannot write up the recipe for, say, a month, the piece of paper either gets lost or gets eaten by the dog (no joke) or ceases to make sense.  After all, what does "1 bx ps" really mean?

Anyway.  Vegetarian dining doesn't have to be a penance and tofu doesn't have to taste like whale snot.  Done correctly, and by "correctly" I mean "in a way where it is not pretending to be some sort of animal product" tofu can be an excellent source of protein.  Unfortunately almost all tasty vegetarian and vegan food seems to come from points east of Italy, starting with Greece and really picking up momentum in India.  Tofu, of course, comes to us from East Asia where they have many dishes that in no way, shape or form involve "chicken" or "beef" or "cheese" or any other "food."  It's tofu, it is what it is and it's good.

I made a few changes to the original recipe.  I used light tofu here because I am very anxious to lose weight and I will take whatever help I can get at this point.  I used vegetable broth in place of seafood stock to keep the dish vegan.  I also omitted the honey.  I added a habanero because I intended to serve this just to my husband, although that's not what actually happened.  Finally, I added peas.  An entire 1 pound bag of peas had been thawed for my daughter, but no 2-year-old needs to just eat a 1-pound bag of peas for dinner.  I took the leftovers and added them to the pot so they wouldn't go to waste, and I think that while that's not necessarily the most authentic way to present the dish it was still delicious.  I'd like to point out that our dried kelp actually came from Maine, which makes it much more local than some of the imported dried kelp I've seen on the market.

Braised Tofu (serves 4; approx. $1.16/serving)

1 block firm light tofu, diced

1 cup vegetable stock

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 sheet dried kelp, chopped

8 garlic cloves, crushed

1 onion, finely chopped

1 serrano chili, sliced

1 red chili, sliced

1 habanero, sliced

1 tablespoon chili powder

8 ounces frozen peas, thawed (approx.)

Equipment:

• Large saucepan

1. Combine the tofu with the stock, 1 cup water, the soy sauce and the kep.
2. Add the garlic and bring to a boil.  Cover and boil 5 minutes.
3. Add the onion, chiles and chili powder.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes further.
4. Serve.

 

Recipe: Creole Lamb Shanks

Recipe Source: Fitzmorris, Tom.  Tom Fitzmorris' New Orleans Food.  Stewart Tabori & Chang, New York, 2010 pp. 190 - 1.

The first time I went to New York City I dined with my now-husband at a restaurant called Molyvos.  It's probably still there - it's been ages since I've been for anything but Thanksgiving dinner.  Anyway, I had a dish called youvetsi, which involved slow-cooked marinated lamb shanks.  I fell in love with it.  I still get cravings for it.  That's not important right now.  The only reason I'm mentioning it right now is because that was the first time I'd ever encountered lamb shanks.  To this day they are my favorite cut of lamb.  Yes, yes, I like lamb roasted, and grilled.  I like lamb chops.  I like ground lamb.  I like leg of lamb, I like lamb steaks.  I like all sorts of lamb.  But there is no cut of lamb that I like better than or even as much as lamb shanks.  As lamb goes, they're some of the more affordable cuts.  This may be because lamb shanks are mostly connective tissue and require long, slow cooking in order to reach their full potential.  Whatever, I don't care, I love them and I'm always happy to find a new and different use for them.

This is one of those new and different uses.  It's a low-and-slow recipe like youvetsi, but it is flavored very differently from my Greek favorite.  According to the source it's a popular daily special in New Orleans restaurants.  I've never been to New Orleans and the chances that I'll ever make it down there are minimal so maybe someone with more direct experience can confirm that statement.  I can't find my notes from this cook, which dates to the day the Patriots made it into the Super Bowl.  I think I can remember most of the changes I made though.  I reduced the olive oil on general principles.  I omitted the salt because my guests that day were very sensitive to salt.  I replaced it with chili powder because, well, just because.  I substituted parsnips for carrots because carrots are the Devil's food and not in a good chocolate way.  I increased the celery mostly to use it up and get it out of my fridge.  I increased the garlic because garlic is good for you.  I increased the marjoram, which I used fresh, and I increased the rosemary as well.  The orange was a blood orange.  The wine was not Gewurztraminer, but it was white.

This recipe was very well-received by my guests, my husband and by me.  I could have wished that it was less well-received by the guests.  Then I could have sneaked into the kitchen late at night and finished off the leftovers when no one could see me.  (I'm not in the habit of doing that, the recipe was just that good.)  It also made the kitchen very inviting on a cold, dreary, soggy day.

Creole Lamb Shanks (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available.)

4 lamb shanks

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 onions, chunked

2 massive parsnips, cut into thick coins

8 celery stalks, cut into pieces

15 cloves garlic, crushed

2 bay leaves

4 sprigs fresh marjoram, leaves only, finely chopped

3 sprigs fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 blood orange, cut into eighths

1 1/2 cups white wine, plus more for the cook if desired

Equipment:

• Large oven safe skillet or roasting pan
• Large, deep skillet

1. Preheat your oven to 350°.
2. Heat the oil in the skillet.
3. Season the lamb shanks and brown on all sides.  Remove the pan from heat and reserve.
4. Transfer the shanks to the roasting pan.  Add all the other ingredients except for the wine.
5. Add the wine to the skillet in which you browned the shanks.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Whisk constantly to dissolve the pan bits - these have a fancy culinary term and are very important.
6. Boil 2 minutes, then pour over the lamb shanks.
7. Add water, if necessary, to bring the liquid about 1/3 of the way up the sides of the shanks.  Cover and roast 90 minutes.
8. Turn the shanks every 30 minutes.
9. After 90 minutes remove the cover.  Turn the shanks and roast, uncovered, another 30 minutes.
10. Continue to cook uncovered until the meat is falling off the bone when lightly touched with a fork.
11. Serve and enjoy.

Recipe: Duck with Olives

Recipe Source: Clements, Carole & Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen.  French.  Anness Publishing, 2006 p. 141

So I've been trying for some time to lose weight and that has meant restricting certain parts of my diet.  I've been trying to reduce the amount of meat in my life, for one thing.  When I do eat meat I try to make sure that it's a lean protein - fish or turkey or something along those lines.  Even red meat, such as beef or lamb, can be lean if you play your cards right.  Of course, I've had absolutely no success whatsoever, and this is frustrating to me.  Every once in a while, I admit it, I lose patience, let my frustration boil over and eat something that is firmly on the no list.  I don't do this very often because frankly my system can't handle it all that often, but sometimes you just have to let go and indulge a little.  It makes it easier to be good the rest of the time.  One food that is very firmly on the "no" list is duck.

Duck just isn't healthy.  I've never found a duck that hasn't been just full of fat.  In fact, that's been an ongoing problem in our attempts to cook duck.  Still, if I'm going to indulge I might as well go all the way, right?  I decided a few weeks ago that we were going to enjoy some duck and that was all there was to it.  I found a recipe that worked for me and I went with it.  This one looked simple enough, but it needed a few additions.  I added two small zucchini because I had them left over from some other adventure and I didn't want them to go to waste.  Besides, adding vegetables to a dish is always good, right?  I added some garlic.  Rather, I added quite a lot of garlic.  My bouquet garni was sage, rosemary and thyme.  I'm very much aware that that is not a traditional bouquet garni but that's what I had on hand.  I had it on hand because that's what I like.  I also used vegetable broth because that's what I had on hand.  Finally, I only used one duck.  There are only three of us, and duck is plenty rich without overindulging.

The end result was a pretty tasty dish if I do say so myself.  I certainly enjoyed it.  My husband ate quite a bit of it and the daughter declined to share it with the dog, which is about as much as you can ask of a kid that age.

Duck with Olives (serves 6; approx. $6.02/serving)

1 very large duck, cut into pieces

1/2 pound pearl onions

14 garlic cloves, whole

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups red wine, plus extra for the cook if so desired

2 cups vegetable broth

2 small zucchini, sliced

about a handful of a combination of sage, rosemary and thyme, tied together with kitchen twine

1 cup green olives with pits

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large Dutch oven

1. Put the duck pieces, skin side down, in the saute pan.  Cook over medium heat until well browned, turning frequently.  Work in batches if you need to - I did.
2. Pour the fat off the pan and reserve.
3. Return 1 tablespoon of the duck fat to the pan and reserve the rest for another use.  (You'll see what I did with it tomorrow.)
4. Add the onions and garlic.  Cook over medium-low heat until browned.  You should cook this in a covered pan but still stir frequently to prevent burning.  I know it sounds fussy and it probably is but it is definitely worth it in the end.
5. Sprinkle with the flour and cook uncovered another 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
6. Add the wine.  Bring to a boil.  (Be careful here!)
7. Add the duck pieces, broth and your little bundle of herbs to the pot.  Return to a boil.
8. Reduce heat, cover and simmer VERY gently about 40 minutes.  Stir from time to time.
9. Add the olives and zucchini to the pot.  Continue cooking another 20 minutes.  The duck should be very tender.
10. Transfer the duck pieces, olives, garlic, onions and zucchini to a plate.
11. Discard the bouquet garni, strain the cooking liquid and skim off as much fat as possible.
12. Return the liquid to the pan.  Bring to a boil and reduce by 1/3.
13. Return the duck and accompaniments to the pot and heat through.
14. Serve.

Recipe: Salmon in Mango Sauce

As is pretty typical of most American women, I've got an awful lot going on.  I've got this website.  I've got some other things I'm trying to start up.  I've recently become the chief administrator for a local non-profit.  I've got the house.  I've got a daughter who is turning two right about now.  I've got the dog.  I've got appointments here, and deadlines there, and so on and so forth.  I almost never get a chance to write up recipes the same day that I create them.  I'm aware of this, so I've got quite a lot of scrap paper in the kitchen.  I write notes on the scrap paper and set it aside until I get to actually write them up.  The problem with this, of course, is that paper gets lost.  It gets blown off tables in a toddler-inspired breeze.  It gets coffee spilled on it.  It gets burned.  The longer I have to put off recipe-writing the more likely it is that my notes will disappear.  In this case the dog ate it.  The dog actually ate my notes.  I am not making this up.  He ate my notes.  I screamed and yelled and despaired.  Then my husband, wonderful man that he is, found some clear tape and re-assembled the notes.

This dish was inspired by a chance discovery in my freezer.  At the beginning of baseball season... in 2010... I pureed a large quantity of mangoes to be used for daiquiris if my team were being blown out.  (This is a silly tradition of ours.  Read more about it here, if you really want to.)  I found one three-cup container of mango puree in the freezer.  It was not freezer-burned in any way.  I thought, hey, this sounds like fun.  So I defrosted it, and a couple of salmon fillets along with it.  It is a very simple dish to make, and a very flavorful dish.  I would have to insist on using pureed mango, preferably mango that you pureed yourself, and not mango nectar, mango juice, mango slushee, mango sorbet, or any other kind of commercially available mango product.  Those will all contain added sugar if not additional preservatives.  These are calories that few people living in the West need, and makes the dish far too sweet anyway.  I mean, it's up to you, they're your taste buds and you know what will please them, but for me just the mango is sweet enough.

Salmon in Mango Sauce

2 salmon fillets, cut into pieces

3 cups mango puree

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons ginger paste

2 tablespoons garlic paste

4 green chiles - I like serranos but you know your family's tolerance better than I do - diced

Equipment:

• Large wok

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the ginger paste and garlic paste.  Saute about 2 minutes.
3. Add the chiles.  Saute about 2 minutes.
4. Add the mango.  Bring to a boil and reduce for about a minute.
5. Add the salmon.  Cook until the fish is cooked through.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Parsi-Style Fish Curry

Recipe Source: Panjabi, Camellia.  50 Great Curries of India.  Kyle Cathie Limited, 2007 p. 132

Everyone makes New Year resolutions, right?  No matter who we are or what we do, as the year changes there is a real urge to try to Do Better as we change to a new year.  Whether it is the calendar year, the agricultural year, the school year, the religious calendar - however well we did the previous year we want to improve going forward.  I'm not much different.  Every year it seems like I make the same resolutions.  I'm going to lose weight.  (This may or may not even be possible in my case, but I resolve to do it every year.  It's almost like a reflex.)  I'm going to save money.  I'm going to feed my family healthier meals.  All three of these mean eating less frequently in restaurants.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  Sometimes we get busy and really have little choice but to grab something while we're on the run.  Sometimes I'm just too exhausted, mentally or physically, to even look at the kitchen.  Sometimes when I'm entertaining I just don't want to eat at home the night before, to avoid dirtying the kitchen.  One way to avoid those pitfalls is to have meals ready to eat during the week, so that all I have to do is heat and eat.  Curries are a great style of recipe for that plan.  They tend to reheat very well, and it's easy to make curries in a healthy manner.

This curry is one such dish.  I made it before the New Year, actually, during the hectic holiday season.  It cooks up very quickly, it's very flavorful, it's not terribly fatty and it reheats very nicely.  I made some changes as well you may expect.  The fish I used was tilapia.  You can get tilapia loins very cheaply at Costco, individually flash-frozen and wrapped.  I increased the green chiles since it was just going to be the two of us and we prefer very spicy food.  I used garlic paste, increased the net amount of garlic and added some ginger to boot.  I omitted the mint to accommodate my husband's food allergy and I omitted the cashews in case my daughter wanted to try some - she is not yet allowed to eat tree nuts lest she break out in allergies.  I reduced the oil and omitted the sugar because they weren't necessary, and since I was out of cumin seeds I used ground cumin.  The end result was a very tasty weeknight meal that satisfied both of us.

Parsi-style Fish Curry (serves 2; approx. $4.44/serving)

2 tablespoons lime hiice

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

Kosher salt to taste

2 tilapia loins

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1/2 cup grated coconut

10 green chiles, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons garlic paste

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

1/4 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

2 bunches cilantro, leaves and stalks please, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Equipment:

• Food processor
• Mini-prep miniature food processor
• Large wok or saute pan
• Non-reactive dish or shallow bowl

1. Mix half the lime juice with the turmeric, a pinch of kosher salt and maybe a little water if it needs it.  Spread over the fish in the non-reactive dish and set aside 20 minutes.
2. Combine the coconut, chiles, onion, garlic, ginger, poppy seeds, cardamom, mace and fennel in the mini-prep.  Grind to a paste, adding a little water if need be.
3. Use the full-size processor to puree the cilantro leaves.
4. Mix the coriander powder with a little bit of water to make a paste.
5. Heat the oil with the cumin in the wok.
6. Add the coriander powder paste.  Cook 10 seconds.
7. Add the coconut paste and saute 7 minutes.
8. Add the remaining lime juice, cilantro puree and 1 1/2 cups water.  Bring to a boil.
9. Add the fish and cook until the fish is cooked through, 7 - 10 minutes over low-medium heat.
10. Serve.

Recipe: Fish Fillets with Harissa Sauce

Recipe Source: Husain, Shehzad and Rafi Fernandez.  Indian.  Anness Publishing, London, 2003 p. 132

I've been trying to make a move away from meat and poultry and toward fish.  It's not that I think that eating meat is morally different from eating fish.  Fish offers nutrients that most land-based meat does not offer.  I make this promise to myself every once in a while - that we're going to eat more fish and become a healthier couple.  The problem is that fish can be very, very expensive.  If you're not careful you can blow half your paycheck on fish.  This often stops my well-intentioned changes in their tracks and after I look at the grocery bill we go right back to meat or vegetarian.  Well, I've found a solution.  Costco sells large sacks of individually flash-frozen fish fillets.  To some extent it does limit creativity - you're kind of stuck with cod, tilapia or salmon.  They do offer other types of fish but they aren't individually wrapped so you have to use them all in one go, which eliminates the advantage of buying in bulk.  On the other hand there are plenty of dishes that can be made with those three types of fish, so you can eat healthier and not break the bank.

This recipe has been altered to include cod fillets, which I had on hand and didn't cost a lot, instead of flounder.  I also eliminated the marinading step just for my own sanity and because I was in a bit of a rush.  Instead I roasted the fish in the oven and went with the sauce.  The sauce itself was also changed.  I increased the ginger paste a little because I like it.  I increased the amount of tomato paste because I didn't want the remainder to sit in my fridge and get gross.  I omitted the sugar because I was always taught that sugar Just Doesn't Go With Tomatoes.  I wasn't sure what kind of "chilli sauce" the original might want.  I decided to go with some harissa that had been in my refrigerator for a while instead.  I had no malt vinegar so I used cider vinegar.  So I guess that my final product bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original.  I'm okay with that, because we both really liked this dish.

Fish Fillets with Chili Sauce (serves 4; approx. $1.40/serving)

3 cod fillets

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1 can tomato paste

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon harissa

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 1/4 cups water

Equipment:

• Roasting pan
• Saucepan

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Sprinkle the fish fillets with the turmeric.
3. Roast until cooked, 10 minutes or so.
4. Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients in the saucepan.
5. Bring to a simmer and let cook until thickened, stirring occasionally.
6. Plate the fish on the serving platter.
7. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

Recipe: Cranberry and Red Onion Relish

Recipe Source: Atkinson, Catherine with Christine France and Maggie Mayhew.  400 Sauces.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 394.

So I have a confession to make.  This one is downright shocking and may get me investigated for un-American activities or at least un-American tastes.  I like cranberries just fine.  They taste good.  I like them in stuffing, I like them in muffins, I like them juiced.  There is one format in which I do not care for cranberries.  That is the traditional cranberry sauce that is served every Thanksgiving.  I hate it.  I have always hated it.  I always will hate it.  I don't even know why I hate it so much.  Growing up it was always the canned variety that "graced" our table and I'm not entirely sure why, but I loathed it.  I've since tried other people's cranberry sauces - home-made and with ingredients that are recognizable - but it was always with the same result.  I hate cranberry sauce.

The thing is, cranberry sauce is traditional.  Rather, it's Traditional.  You can't have a Thanksgiving table without cranberry sauce.  It just isn't done.  When I go to other people's homes for Thanksgiving I can usually get away with just putting a little on my plate and then hiding it under the napkin when I'm finished.  I can't do that in my own home.  This year my husband and I hosted Thanksgiving.  I had to serve something.  I also just couldn't get away with buying a can of cranberry sauce and calling it done.  Besides, isn't it my job to operate out of my comfort zone?  I looked for a vaguely palatable cranberry sauce recipe.  This one seemed the most straightforward and so it's the one I went with.

I made a few changes.  I reduced the sugar involved and I substituted honey for brown sugar.  I just prefer honey.  I didn't have red wine vinegar - I don't know how that's possible but that's where we are - so I used champagne vinegar.  I had to omit the mustard seeds due to one of my guests' health.  Instead I substituted prepared mustard.  It is not the same thing.  It did, however, give the finished product a certain kick (I used horseradish mustard) and so I'm okay with it.

This was palatable.  It was a little unusual, a little more fun, and did not show the ridging from the can that the cranberry sauce of my youth did.  I still didn't like it.  It was still cranberry sauce.  My guests, on the other hand, seemed to be perfectly okay with it.  Some of them were pretty eager to take it home with them and that's usually a good sign.

Cranberry and Red Onion Relish (serves 8; approx. $1.09/serving)

1 pound red onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 cup honey

1 pound fresh cranberries

1/2 cup champagne vinegar

1/2 cup red wine (plus a little for the cook if you're so inclined)

2 tablespoons horseradish mustard

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons port

Equipment:

• Skillet
• Large saucepan with lid

1. Heat the oil in the skillet.
2. Add the onions.  Cook gently for 15 minutes or until softened.  Stir frequently to prevent burning.
3. Add 2 tablespoons honey.  Cook another 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, put the cranberries in the saucepan with the remaining honey, vinegar, wine, mustard and ginger.  Heat gently until the honey has dissolved.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover.
6. Simmer 15 minutes or until the berries have burst.
7. Stir in the onions.
8. Increase the heat a little and cook, uncovered another 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.
9. Stir in the port.
10. Serve at room temperature.

Recipe: Turkey Meatballs in Quince-Rosewater Syrup

Recipe Source (partial): Mallos, Tess.  The Food of Morocco.  Murdoch Books, Millers Point, 2008 p. 104

So none of my recent recipes have satisfied my meatball craving.  I don't know why that should be, but whatever.  I'll just have to keep playing until I find what I'm looking for, or possibly just enjoy eating more meatballs.  I wanted a meatball dish that I could enjoy during the week.  I also wanted something with quinces.  You may recall that not too long ago I posted a recipe for quinces in a rosewater syrup.  That was in preparation for this recipe.  I figured I might as well combine the two and see what I came up with, and I'm very glad that I did.  You see, the turkey meatballs matched beautifully with the quince sauce, just beautifully.  Neither my husband nor I could get enough.  This dish was great.  It also reheated easily and well with the addition of about half a cup of water.

Turkey Meatballs in Quince-Rosewater Syrup (serves 4; approx. $1.36/serving)

1 pound ground turkey

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 cup water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 serving (aout 1/2 cup?) Quinces in Rosewater Syrup.  Make sure you get some of that syrup!

Equipment:

• Mixing bowl
• Mini-prep mini food processor
• Large saute pan

1. Combine the turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, cardamom, salt and pepper in the mixing bowl.  Knead well to mix thoroughly.  Form into meatballs the approximate size of walnuts and set aside.
2. Combine the quinces with the onion and lemon juice in the mini-prep.  Puree.
3. Heat the oil in the saute pan.
4. Add the meatballs and brown on all sides.
5. Add the quince puree and the water.  Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer until the meatballs are thoroughly cooked.
7. Eat.  Complain that there are not more.

Recipe: Quinces in Rosewater Syrup

Recipe Source: Mallos, Tess.  The Food of Morocco.  Murdoch Books, Millers Point, 2008 p. 232

It's that time of year again.  I have managed to acquire another bushel of quinces at a very reasonable cost so it is now time to re-boot The Great Quince Project.  This year I've had some specific requests for things so that should take care of some of my bounty, but that's not the point of The Great Quince Project.  The point is to explore all sorts of tasty treats that I can only make at this one time of year, so that's what I'm doing.  The first recipe for the season comes from Morocco.  It's not the recipe I initially intended to be the first recipe of the season.  The recipe I originally intended is a savory(ish) recipe, not a dessert.  It did, however, require one to make this recipe first.  Now, I could have written this up as part of that recipe, but I decided not to.  You see, I decided to make a super-sized batch of this ingredient.  A few of the quinces in my bushel were partially bad - no great surprise considering how many there were and the recent weather - so I decided I would use p all the ones that I had to cut up.

So I was already making this recipe.  The day before I decided to cook we'd hosted one of those big medieval history events I've mentioned.  I did not cook for this event, being the event organizer.  I did however find myself with a lot of the leftovers.  One of the dishes of which there were leftovers was rice pudding.  Now, as rice pudding goes it was a wonderful rice pudding - almondy and creamy.  The thing is, I'm not usually the biggest rice pudding fan in the world.  I was however having guests over for dinner that night, and one of those guests is a rice pudding fiend.  I hadn't any other dessert ideas and was frankly exhausted.  Why not add some quinces in rosewater to the rice pudding?

I made a few small changes to the original recipe, other than increasing the quantity as mentioned above.  I decided to use honey instead of superfine sugar.  I had this jar of really tasty, high-quality honey that I'd bought over the summer.  It was still good but it was threatening to crystalize on me.  Rather than waste it, I decided to use it here.  Besides, I love the flavor of honey.  If I have to have sweet, I want it to taste like honey.  I think the proportion of rosewater I used was higher than called for in the original recipe too; the original said "to taste," and "to taste" with regards to rosewater is quite a lot in my book.  I left the lemon zest in the syrup rather than removing it for storage and service, which I thought worked quite well.

I don't mind telling you that this worked out better than I could have possibly imagined.  Both of my guests had been present at the history event the night before and had partaken of the original rice pudding.  They loved the rice pudding then, but they hardly recognized it when the quince and rosewater syrup was added.  They enjoyed the way it meshed with the almond.  And how much did I like it?  I'd originally intended to send home any uneaten rice pudding with my friends, but I kept a little bit back just for me.

Quinces in Rosewater Syrup (serves 12 when used as described; approx. $0.32/serving)

6 - 8 qunces, washed and quartered

18 fluid ounces honey

Zest of two lemons

4 tablespoons rosewater

Water to cover

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Large, fine-mesh strainer
• Bowl
• Covered storage bowl

1. Put the quinces - still with their peels and cores - into the saucepan and add water to cover.
2. Bring to a boil, then cover.  Reduce heat and simmer 40 minutes.
3. Drain through the strainer into a bowl.  Return the liquid to the saucepan.  Reserve the solids.
4. Add the honey and lemon zest to the pan.  Stir until the honey no longer resists the spoon.
5. Return the mixture to a simmer.
6. Pull the skin from the quince pieces, then core and halve each piece.
7. Return the quinces to the saucepan with the rosewater.  Continue to simmer another 30 minutes, this time uncovered.
8. Transfer to the covered storage bowl and chill.
9. Serve over rice pudding.  Yogurt or ice cream would make good choices too.

Recipe: Meatballs in Avgolemono Sauce

Meatballs were a major component of my childhood.  They were always the same.  They were always pure beef - never a mix of meats - and always cooked in my grandmother's miraculous red sauce.  That sauce, whose recipe is a closely guarded secret, flavored the meatballs and was in turn flavored by them.  They were a special treat on Sunday afternoons - and sometimes, if I were especially good or had had an especially difficult week, I might find one on a plate while dinner was still being prepared, just for me.

These are not those meatballs.  I can't make those meatballs.  My grandmother's sauce recipe was a closely guarded secret.  I do have the recipe, but I can't make it anymore.  It was very heavy on pork products, which I am no longer able to consume.  I could make meatballs the same way and cook them in a different sauce, and I've done so but it just isn't the same.  It is far better to make other meatballs, meatballs that are unrelated to my grandmother's masterpieces.  That way I don't get angry at innocent lumps of meat.

And there are other meatball recipes out there.  You see them all over the Mediterranean from Greece all the way around to Morocco going by variants on the name kefte. Sometimes they're beef.  Sometimes they're lamb, or chicken, or even fish.  Sometimes they're even tofu, although I cannot recommend that course of action as a matter of principle.  (My old roommate did make a tasty dish involving tofu "meatballs" once, but it's still tofu masquerading as meat and I cannot recommend it.)  There are the Swedish meatballs (Viking meatballs according to some) that show up at cocktail parties.  There are some other Northern European type meatballs that seem to involve pork in some way; I avoid them and can't talk about them with any intelligence.  But there are lots of meatball recipes out there.

I decided on one recent Sunday that I wanted meatballs.  I threw them together.  Rather, I pulled together some ingredients and told my friend what to do with them, which worked out admirably.  Then I made the sauce.  I decided on an egg and lemon sauce - the Greek avgolemono - for a very simple reason: I'd zested two lemons for pie crusts and I needed to do something with them.  I'm actually quite fond of avgolemono, but I don't make it often because of the fat content.  It really isn't that bad, but the eggs turn some people (like my husband) off.  (Now that I think of it, I wonder how it would work over toast for breakfast....)

Anyway, these were delicious.  I only got 3.  I'd planned to go back for more, but do you know what my pesky husband did?  He cleared them from the table after everyone had taken some, then he put the leftovers in a container and hid it in the back of the fridge!  He ate them the next day.  It's a good thing he makes a good Martini or I'd be quite irate.

Meatballs in Avgolemono Sauce (serves 8; approx. $1.02/serving)

1 pound ground beef - I use a very lean beef, but follow your own tastes.  You're the one who has to eat it.

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon ground paprika

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup vegetable broth

1 1/2 cups water

Juice of 2 lemons

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Equipment:

• Mixing bowl
• Large saute pan
• Bowl
• Medium saucepan
• Whisk

1. Combine the beef, egg, breadcrumbs, paprika and seasoning in the mixing bowl.  Use your hands (clean, obviously) to thoroughly mix the ingredients.
2. Form the mixture into balls about the size of walnuts.
3. Heat the oil in the saute pan.
4. Add the meatballs.  Fry on all sides until browned and thoroughly cooked.  Transfer to the serving vessel.
5. Heat the broth in the saucepan.
6. Combine the eggs and the lemon juice in a bowl.
7. Whisk in the cornstarch.
8. Whisk about a ladle full of the hot broth into the egg mixture, then slowly pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan.
9. Heat over gentle heat 1 - 2 minutes.
10. Pour over the meatballs and serve.