It’s not uncommon for cooks and chefs to be obsessed with condiments. One of my cook friends who lives alone keeps nothing at all in her fridge except for a myriad of condiments, milk for coffee, and a bottle of wine. When I was working in NYC as a private chef and lived alone, that is what my fridge looked like, too. Now that I have a family, I actually do much more cooking at home than I ever did when I was single, so the contents of my fridge has become a bit more…rubenesque, if you will. There’s Lily’s personal cheese drawer as well as a continually rotating stock of proteins that we keep on hand for quick weeknight meals. There is a sourdough starter that takes up way too much room for its own good, but from where I stand is worth its weight in gold.  And of course we’re never without milk, juice, wine, or beer. But it’s our condiment collection that is…well, let’s just say it’s getting expansive. My husband and I have dueling mustard shelves. We have at least 7 different hot sauces at all times and so many pickled things, it’s not even funny. The thing is, though, you just never know when you’re going to need any particular one of them and, well, they’re part of the family. And now I’ve gone and done it — I’ve fallen in love with yet one more condiment that I know I will have trouble living without going forward. I have made the acquaintance of lemon confit.

This is all due to my recent attempt to use up all the Meyer lemons from the garden. I had already made a big batch of Moroccan-style preserved lemons, (one of my favorite things to throw into a dish of chicken braised with green olives!) and I really wanted to try something new and different with the remaining lemons.  They looked so pretty sitting on my kitchen counter, but I knew I should preserve their beautiful flavor so that we could enjoy them for days to come.

Though the concept of  lemon confit seemed quite similar to the preserved lemons, the small taste I had recently enjoyed on a sandwich at a restaurant had resonated with me in a unique way; I just couldn’t get them out of my mind.

And so I made my first batch of lemon confit, based on an amalgamation of a few different recipes I’d saved over the years. It’s so simple to prepare, you really don’t even need a recipe. It’s nothing more than thinly sliced lemons (rind and all) layered with salt, sugar, minced shallots, and garlic. You let it marinate in the fridge for a few days (in its own juices, which is where the “confit” part comes in), and then you strain off the juices, place the now very pliable lemon slices in nonreactive containers, and top them off with olive oil. That’s it! I am told it should keep in the fridge for about 1 1/2 months, but I doubt mine will last that long. I had two nice size jars a week ago and one is nearly already gone. I have put the slices on sandwiches with roast chicken breast, roasted red bell peppers, avocado and shaved red onion and, oh my. It was one of the quietest lunches my husband and I ever shared together. I also finely chopped a couple of the slices and used that as the basis of a lemon vinaigrette; it was delicious over simple salad greens with roasted beets and crumbled feta. I doubt I’ll have any trouble figuring out what to do with the remaining confit. The taste is so fresh, so subtle, and yet so in-your-face at the same time, it’s hard to describe. The texture is firm and yet velvety. If you love the bright flavor of lemons and the briny quality of olives and capers, I suspect you might like to try lemon confit, too.

In hindsight, I think slicing the lemons on a mandolin or an electric slicer, if available, would give you the best results. Slicing whole lemons by hand using a regular knife produces somewhat irregular slices, even though they are forgiving and still worked just fine.

Kale is by far one of the best super foods, its dark leafy greens are packed with antioxidants and an excellent source of vitamins such as A, K and C. It is full of chlorophyll and packed with fiber. It is absolutely one of my favorite greens. I was never really fond of cabbage, it has taken me a long time to acquire a taste for it. But I knew that it was on the top of the list of super foods and that at some point I would need to learn to love it. On the other hand, I have always loved collard greens and when I discovered lacinata kale it was love at first bite. I crave it. I have to have it at least once a week. I feel the same love for broccoli and beets.

I started growing kale about two years ago and it has become the shining star of my small garden. I have both lacinata kale and red Russian kale growing in raised beds. It grows so well I can hardly eat it fast enough. This year we had kale at Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas day and New Year’s day and I have used it here in the test kitchen several times and yet I still have more in the garden. It is thriving!

The great thing about kale is that it is so versatile. It can be eaten raw in salads and slaws, it can be used in soups and stews, (I always add it to my gumbo). I often just quickly saute it with garlic and onions. I also add it to my morning smoothies and juices.

I am a big fan of Martha Stewart’s Whole Living magazine and website and there are quite a few “green smoothies” which use kale. The  key is to blend, blend, blend. If you have children this may be a great way to sneak in some veggies. Combined with blueberries and bananas you cannot even taste the kale and your kids will never know. Personally, I love knowing that I can pack in the greens.

This is a recipe for one of my favorite morning smoothies.

Blue Green Breakfast Smoothie

1 cup coconut water or distilled water

1 banana, frozen and chopped

1 cup chopped kale, washed and stems removed

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup frozen blackberries or raspberries

2 teaspoons agave syrup or honey

2 teaspoons flax seed meal (optional)

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add a little water to thin if necessary.

Yield: 2 smoothies

You also might enjoy

Kale and Chickpea Stew 

Quinoa Mix with Sauteed Kale

Green Machine Smoothie

Sesame-Kale Crisps 

When it comes to little girls, or at least little girls like mine, you can never have anything too pink, too tiny, or too precious. Anything falling into one of those categories seems to elicit a smile. So when the December issue of Bon Appetit came out a few weeks back and I got a quick glimpse of the cover, I just knew that I had to make their Candy-Striped Peppermint Meringues for my daughter’s 7th birthday party. They’re pink, they’re tiny, and they’re oh, so precious. As a matter of fact, they are so precious that even this very full grown little girl (me) couldn’t resist them herself…

As a food professional who is responsible for coming up with new and fresh ideas daily, it’s not all that often that something jumps out at me with such gusto. Sure, we often find inspiration within the pages of magazines and on the menus of our favorite new haunts, but it’s rare that I see a recipe that I feel compelled to duplicate exactly as written, but such was the case with this one. And so, when preparing the food for Lily’s party, I pulled out my Bon Appetit and tried my hand at these little meringue cookies.

Of course the beauty of meringue is its pure simplicity. Sugar and egg whites. Period. The only things added to this basic formula for these are a pinch of salt, a smidgeon of peppermint extract, and a few drops of red food coloring. The instructions were foolproof, (I’m really not a baker at heart), and after just a few minutes of bonding with my mixer, this is what my baking sheet looked like going into the oven:

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I pulled these out a couple of hours later. It’s completely passive cooktime (put in oven, set timer, and forget about them. Really!) and even my husband, who is very much a guy’s guy and very much not into pink, was impressed. As a matter of fact he started rattling off a list of names of friends who he thought would enjoy some of these little gems for Christmas!

And speaking of Christmas, we’ve even made a batch of these for our Homebase Christmas party today…so the whole office will get to try them.

 Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays!

Only in New Orleans or France!

Reveillon comes from the French word reveiller which means to wake up.  Here in New Orleans it roughly translates to a holiday celebration. Reveillon dinners are held on Christmas Eve after midnight mass or New Years Eve and have been a tradition in New Orleans since the French first came and settled here. In true New Orleans style reveillon dinners are held during the entire month of December. Whether it be in people’s homes or at a restaurant the dinners tend to be lavish. Usually several courses of rich, luxurious dishes followed by several courses of dessert and a bouche de noel. It was said that back in New Orleans’ heyday these dinners would last into the wee hours of the morning and sometimes until dawn.

The reveillon tradition had waned somewhat. That is when The French Quarter Festivals Inc organization decided to bring the tradition back. They are hoping to lure locals and tourists alike to the French Quarter to celebrate the holidays. There are over a dozen restaurants participating this year, including Emeril’s and Emeril’s Delmonico. I have included the menu for both restaurants.

I will be attending a reveillon dinner this Friday evening. I am celebrating not only the holidays but also a birthday.

Emeril’s

FIRST COURSE

Turtle Soup “en Croute”

SECOND COURSE

Fricassee of Crawfish with Veal Sweetbreads, Artichokes, and Truffle

THIRD COURSE

Foie Gras-stuffed Mississippi Quail with Warm Lobster Salad and Kumquat Vinaigrette

FOURTH COURSE

Apple Butter Calas with Walnut and Eggnog Anglaise

Emeril’s Delmonico

FIRST COURSE (Choice of)

Creole Charcuterie: Beef Daube Glacé with Andouille Sausage, Housemade Mustard, and Pickled Okra

Or

Winter Green Salad with Savory Rice Calas, Fennel, and Satsuma Vinaigrette

SECOND COURSE (Choice of)

Crab and Mirliton Bisque

Or

Sautéed Frog Legs with Almonds, Capers, and Lemon

THIRD COURSE (Choice of)

Rabbit Fricassee with Caramelized Root Vegetables, Leeks, and Sherry Reduction

Or

Pan Roasted Quail with Oyster Dressing and Mushroom Gravy

FOURTH COURSE

Café Brulot - Crème Brûlée with Chocolate Praline

Check out Martha’s blog post today!

I have always wanted to visit Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and hope to go for the day this September when I am in NYC. Stone Barns seems like heaven on earth, seriously I would just love to move right in.  It is a working farm that focuses on sustainable agriculture, raising heirloom vegetables and fruits, heritage varieties of pigs, chicken and sheep, as well as bees. There is so much happening there I could not possibly convey it all in a short blog. I have included a link to Martha’s blog as well as links to Stone Barns and Dan Barber’s site.

Enjoy!

http://www.themarthablog.com/2011/08/a-recent-visit-to-stone-barns-center-for-food-agriculture.html

http://www.stonebarnscenter.org/

http://www.bluehillfarm.com/food/overview/team/dan-barber

Chef Chris Wilson has been crazy about these little green peppers for quite a while now and I thought would share them with you. Padron peppers originate in Padron, Spain in the Northwest region of the country. They are mild in flavor, for the most part. It seems to me a little like pepper roulette, you can eat a dozen of them without ever getting one that is hot and then you get zapped with a really hot one. They are grown from June to September and there is a festival devoted to them. It reminds me of Hatch chilies which also have a cult following. The Padron’s deserve their cult like status. I like peppers but would never snack on a jalapeno or munch on a bell pepper as if it were an apple but I can eat at least a dozen of these little babies. I was craving them today.

They are simply prepared by blistering them in a hot pan with a little bit of good Spanish olive oil and some sea salt.

We had some Padron seeds which I planted in our kitchen garden several months ago and they are starting to look great. Unfortunately, we lost quite a few plants due to inclement weather. The plants that are left are thriving and we even have a couple of peppers on them.

Chef Chris Wilson and Daphne Derven teamed up together and found an urban farmer to grow the plants for him so that he could use the peppers in some of Emeril’s restaurants here in New Orleans. Pam Broom has a small urban farm in Central City and she grows vegetables and herbs to sell to local restaurants. She has done a fabulous job with the peppers and brought us 3 pounds of peppers last week. We cooked them immediately. They are a little spicy but have a delicate flavor, every once in a while you get a really hot one. If you see these on a menu or if you happen to come across them in your local gourmet market, pick them up. They require very little preparation and make a great snack or could be part of tapas menu. I would love to experiment with them a bit more, maybe stuffing them and then roasting them or making a green chile stew. So many possibilities.

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I’m a huge football fan. Whether it’s a small family gathering at the house, or one of those big parking lot grill-outs before the game – it’s all about having fun!

Check out my collection of recipes – these are some of my favorite party snacks and tailgating classics like burgers, wings and dips. They’re perfect for game-time!

• EJ’s Simple Oven BBQ Ribs
• Totally Sloppy Joes
• Spicy Sausage, Bean and Cheese Nachos
• Chili-Rubbed Shrimp Wraps
• Grilled Fish Tacos with a Roasted Chile and Avocado Sauce
• Southwestern Turkey Sliders
• Grilled Vietnamese-style Chicken Wings
• Emeril’s Con Queso
• Kicked Up Spinach and Artichoke Dip
• French Bread Crostini

 

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Picture 1 from 5:

You’ve heard all of the hype of cooking with seasonal and local ingredients. And there are reasons for it: it’s healthier, eco-friendly and it reconnects people with, not only their food and planet, but each other. I like to cook; otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing what I do. And I only want to offer myself and others the best – needless to say, I’m a believer. Read more »

 

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Picture 1 from 9: Made in Florida, but certainly loved by this beach town.

While on a weekend trip away from the Big Apple, I shot some photos of some beachy snacks, signs and even seaweed!

This simple salad made of blanched farmer’s market green beans, sliced radishes and imported sardines, dressed with a little red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil was delicious!  I ordered it at a small Italian restaurant in my neighborhood that serves mostly small plates.

And while I love going out to eat (almost 5 nights a week!), I might skip the visit to the restaurant next time I want this and just making it at home because it would be so easy to make myself.  I think I might even throw in some chopped Kalamata olives to my version!