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Fried Bread Scramble

Something delicious often comes forward when you believe, at first, that you have nothing.

The core inspiration behind this breakfast is mimicking chilaquiles, which is an ingenious way to dispose of stale tortillas, but I just used the same idea and applied it to what I had lying around that day, which happened to be bread. Lots and lots of bread.

We can’t consume as much of Nate’s bread as we’d like to, and unfortunately some of it does seem to “go to waste,” but I’m crafty and have found ways to still turn it into something delicious (here’s another good recipe for this quandary). One morning I was feeling especially lazy and didn’t feel like going to the store to get ingredients. On the counter was some stale bread cubes that Nate had prepped to turn into breadcrumbs when the time came, but I decided to take a risk because, guys, I was, like, really, really hungry. I made a quick salsa in my blender using ingredients that I had on hand, and then I fried the bread before adding the salsa to it. I added an egg for protein, then I just threw some cheese and green onion on top because that’s all we had at the time.

The result took me by surprise. I expected it to be fine and get me through the morning, but it was far more than that. It was a collection of complex and satisfying textures; the bread had sopped up some of the salsa but had remained soft and fluffy while the parts that had been fried were delightfully crispy. The salsa was also surprisingly good for something that I had just thrown together, and the leftovers of it found it’s way into many other meals throughout the week. It was so satisfying that I insisted on making it for Nate one weekend. He was dubious at first, but it too surprised him with its deliciousness. It’s such a good and easy breakfast for us that it’s made its way into our normal weekend rotation.

Quick Chipotle Salsa

1 14.5-oz can of tomatoes (fire-roasted if you can get them, but if not it’ll still be awesome)
3 cloves of garlic, skins removed and very roughly chopped
¼ of a small onion, very roughly chopped
3 chipotles in adobo sauce + a little bit of adobo added in
⅓ cup of white vinegar
¼ cup of a neutral tasting oil (canola or vegetable will do just fine)
Salt to taste

Make the salsa by adding the tomatoes, garlic, onion, chipotles with adobo sauce, vinegar, and oil into a blender and pulse until it becomes smooth. Add salt to taste, then set aside.

Fried Bread Scramble

2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
150g of stale bread cut into bite sized pieces (about 3 or 4 slices of bread)
Note: I would encourage you to use a sturdier bread for this like a peasant loaf or a rock hard baguette (phrasing). Store-bought sandwich bread will just dissolve into the salsa and not be tasty at all.
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup of chipotle salsa (from above)
2 oz of cheese (use a good melter for this like cheddar or mozzarella)
1 green onion, thinly sliced
Salt to taste

Preheat a nonstick skillet on medium heat, then add the oil. The oil should shimmer in the pan before adding the bread. If you’re uncertain if your pan is hot enough, add one of the bread cubes to it and see if it sizzles. If it doesn’t sizzle immediately, it isn’t hot enough. Remove the cube and wait for it to get hotter. If your oil isn’t hot enough, your bread will soak it all up and your scramble will be heavy and soggy. Nobody wants a soggy scramble. Nobody.

When your pan is hot enough, add the bread and let it crisp up in the oil, flipping them over to other sides when they get golden brown. I’d recommend using tongs to flip your cubes. I like to make sure that my cubes have at least two or three sides that are crisp and golden before moving forward.

Move your cubes to one side of the pan, leaving half of your cooking space exposed. Add the beaten eggs to the pan and move them around cooking them quickly. When they are scrambled (a little underdone is preferred), incorporate them among your bread cubes, then add the salsa. Remove pan from heat immediately and keep stirring to coat the bread with salsa.

While your scramble is cooling and thickening up, add the cheese and a big pinch of salt. Then stir it together, making sure the cheese is incorporated and melting. Serve immediately with the thinly sliced green onion garnished on top.

Serves 2.

February 18, 2018

Pasta in Fresh Tomato and Butter Sauce

If you’ve got your shit together, this pasta sauce is ready in 10 minutes.

The bones of this sauce are based on Marcella Hazan’s amazing tomato sauce, but just because it’s me, I’m impatient and seem to have an affinity for tossing all my problems into a blender until they’re nice and smooth and unrecognizable. This recipe doesn’t take an hour and requires minimal cleanup. Plus, if you omit the pasta and, like, salt, effectively there are three ingredients in this recipe. Three.

You have no excuse not to make this.

Pasta in Fresh Tomato and Butter Sauce

9–10 oz ripe fresh tomatoes

Note: We recommend using little guys like cherry or grape tomatoes. You don’t have to cut anything, they’re easier to weigh, and they tend to have a better flavor than their bigger counterparts if you’re shopping at a regular grocery store. You’ll miss out on the beautiful tart flavor if you don’t use good tomatoes for this. That being said, if you choose to make this during summer and you want to use some glorious heirloom tomatoes that you just bought at the farmers market as opposed to the little ‘uns that we we recommend here, then you do yourself a goddamn favor and make it with those.

2 large garlic cloves, skins removed, very roughly chopped
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
salt & pepper to taste
Roughly 4 oz. of uncooked dry pasta or 220 grams of fresh pasta

Note: We always use fresh pasta for this sauce, and the recipe we use for fresh pasta is our own. It tastes incredible, plus it makes better pasta water. You can find the recipe here.

¼ cup pasta water (or more if needed), reserved

Bring water in a pot to boil for your pasta while you preheat a skillet over medium high heat.

In a blender, add the fresh tomatoes and chopped garlic and blend until completely smooth. Pour the sauce into your hot skillet and let it reduce by about half. Stir occasionally and keep an eye on your color.

When the sauce has reduced and turned a lovely shade of darker red, add the butter to the pan and let it melt. Stir the melted butter into your sauce, then lower the heat on your pan to medium low and let the butter and tomato sauce simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste as the ingredients in the sauce bond.

This is a good time to cook the dry pasta in your boiling water. The noodles should be cooked until a little under al dente since they’ll cook a little more after they’re tossed in the hot sauce. If you’re using fresh pasta, I’d wait until the sauce has simmered a little more since fresh pasta can be cooked in a minute or two. Be sure to take some of the pasta water out of your pot and reserve it before draining your noodles. Add 1/4 cup of the water and stir it in (or more if you think it needs it, it all depends on how much the sauce has reduced).

Remove your pan from the heat and add the noodles, then toss them in the sauce. As the noodles cool while they’re being stirred, they should thicken the sauce on their own, so be patient while the starches in the noodles work their magic. Once the noodles are evenly coated and the sauce has thickened, serve immediately. Garnish with freshly grated parmesan and red chili flakes, maybe some chopped parsley or basil if you’re feeling it.

Serves 2, or one if you happen to be Nate after leg day.

February 4, 2018

Brown Sugar Coffee Ice Cream

#newyearnewme!

Barf.

Make some damn ice cream. This one ought to wake you up from any pipe dreams you might have that you’ll be able to subsist on kale, quinoa, and good vibes for the next 12 months.

Happy New Year, kids.

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup (1 oz/28 grams) freshly ground good coffee (medium roast preferred)
⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
A pinch of xanthan gum
A pinch of salt
1 tablespoon bourbon

In a saucepan, heat the cream, milk, and brown sugar until it simmers and all the sugar has completely dissolved, then remove from the heat.

In a French press, add the freshly ground coffee, then pour the hot cream and sugar mixture over it. Let sit with the sieve on top (to keep the heat in) for about half an hour to let the coffee brew directly into the cream base. Push the sieve down, straining the grounds away from the cream base, then pour the base into a large bowl. Discard the grounds. Whisk in the cinnamon, xantham gum, salt, and bourbon until thoroughly incorporated. Chill overnight or until completely cool.

Churn the chilled coffee base in an ice cream maker in accordance to the machine’s instructions. When the mixture resembles soft serve, remove it from the ice cream maker (quickly!) and place it into an airtight container with a layer of plastic wrap to keep even more air out, as well as to prevent ice crystals from forming on the top of your ice cream. Chill in the freezer overnight, or until the mixture sets.

Yields almost 4 cups of ice cream. You decide how many servings that is.

January 25, 2018

Butter Bean and Kale Soup with White Miso

It’s getting cold, kids. Real cold.

Portland has been plunging pretty regularly into the low thirties recently, and how have Nate and I been dealing with it? We’ve been baking bread (duh), playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (new DLC, baby), and making a lot of soup, including this nifty riff on white bean and kale soup that I threw together recently. It ended up being so good that we made it three times in a week.

White bean and kale soup is something I hear about a lot of people making this time of year, and while I certainly think it’s delicious, it hasn’t always been something I turn to. Whenever I’ve made it, I’ve always been tempted to load the soup with some kind of chorizo or fatty flavor boost, but this time I wanted to take a different approach: I focused on the bean, or beans…

My first alteration? I changed the beans in the recipe to butter beans. Why? Because I love butter beans and I don’t need to justify anything to you people.

My second alteration? I use a secret-flavor-weapon I came up with at the very last second while futzing with this recipe: miso. Miso provides anything you add it to with a little umami boost, and that’s exactly what I wanted for this soup. It doesn’t sidetrack your palate away from the beans like bacon or chorizo might, and it keeps the soup light even though it tastes really rich. Also, if you were to make this soup with veggie broth, it’d be vegan, which is a nice plus. Throw in some protein of choice at the end then serve with some rice or a piece of good crusty bread and you’ve got a complete meal ready in about 45 minutes.

P.S. This soup makes amazing lunches; its flavor deepens substantially the following day.

Butter Bean and Kale Soup with White Miso

¼ cup of olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 14-oz. cans of butter beans, washed
2 bay leaves
4 cups of chicken or veggie stock
1 bunch of lacinato kale, stems removed and very roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 heaping tablespoon of white miso
Salt to taste

Bring a soup pot to medium heat, then add olive oil and onions. Cook the onions until translucent, then add half of the washed butter beans, stirring occasionally to avoid any sticking to the bottom of the pan. While the onions and beans are cooking, put the other half of the washed butter beans into a blender with some water (not more than one cup of water, unless you want to wait a long time for your soup to reduce) and blend until smooth.

Add the puréed beans to your soup pot along with the bay leaves and the broth. Bring the soup to simmer and let it do its thing without a lid for about half an hour, allowing it to reduce.

Once the soup has achieved your desired thickness, remove it from the heat and add the kale and garlic, then stir. Place the miso in a small cup or ladle and incorporate it into a small amount of the soup broth so that you avoid lumps, then add it to the rest of the soup. Add salt to taste and serve in bowls (like you have a choice).

I recommend garnishing the soup with some chopped parsley, as well as some freshly cracked black pepper, smoked paprika, or chili flakes (or all of them, if you’re a total garnish floozie).

Serves 4.

December 17, 2017

Skordalia

I have a fascination with recipes that utilize ingredients that seem to have lost their value: vegetable tops and bottoms, stalks and skins, bones and bits, crusts and scraps. I don’t like wasting food, so when I discover something that allows me to use these delicious rejects in a creative way, I get a little thrill out of it. And do you wanna know what’s laying around our home that’s sometimes challenging to use before it becomes hard as a rock and “useless?”

Bread. Lots and lots of effing bread.

My partner bakes some of the best damn bread around and posts saliva inducing photographs of it on our Instagram, but alas, we can only eat so much of it at once, and sometimes we don’t consume all of it before it goes stale. Toward the beginning of his bread kick, we actually started to give the bread away to our friends, but even that didn’t keep us out of the clear, and I was starting to hear creaky protests coming from our food processor that seemed to say, “Please, God, not one more batch of breadcrumbs. PLEASE, NO MORE.” Luckily for our food processor, and for us, I discovered a type of recipe that changed the way I cooked with bread.

Bread sauces.

There are several, actually. The Brits have one (it’s just called “bread sauce,” because of course it is). Romesco sauce is also technically a bread sauce, utilizing stale bread to bind all its parts together. There’s even a Peruvian stale bread and cheese sauce that’s intended to be served with potatoes. I cycled through a few of different variations of this style of disposing of Nate’s hearty loaves, but it didn’t take long for me to stumble upon what became far and away my favorite one of the bunch: skordalia. Skordalia is easy to make, versatile in its use, keeps for a long time, and it focuses on two of my all time favorite flavors: garlic and lemon.

Side note: using a good stale French loaf would be great for this, but in our house, we like sourdough. It really latches onto the lemon flavor, which is the backbone of the sauce. Also, you don’t even need to use stale bread for this recipe, just know that you can. I mean, you’re dousing it in oil and lemon juice and water then blending it into oblivion, so don’t get too hung up on that.

Skordalia:

One 1” slice of stale bread from a large, hearty loaf of bread (we like sourdough)
6–8 cloves of garlic (or, like, more if you’re into that)
A heaping ½ cup of slivered almonds
½ cup olive oil, divided
Juice of one whole juicy lemon
¾ cup of water
Salt to taste

In a skillet on medium heat, warm ¼ cup of the olive oil until it begins to shimmer. While the pan is coming up to heat, cut your stale bread into 1-inch cubes. Think of it like you’re making some big-ass croutons, because, well, you kind of are. When the oil is ready, add the bread to the pan. It should begin to fry immediately, making a satisfying “deep frying” noise (you know what I’m talking about). If it doesn’t, remove the bread and wait until it gets hotter and try again.

Fry the bread cubes on all sides, moving them around the pan from time to time. You have a couple options here: fry the bread until it’s golden brown OR until it’s just a little more than that. This will determine the flavor character of your skordalia. Golden brown bread will be a nuttier, milder, and buttery skordalia whereas slightly charred bread will be a more sour, punchy, and smoky skordalia; they both have their place. If you’re using your skordalia as a dip, meant to be eaten more on its own, I’d opt for golden bread since it’ll be milder. If you’re using your skordalia to accompany a meal as a hearty bread sauce component, then I’d do charred bread since it’ll stick out a little bit more. The sourness of the charred flavor bonds with the lemon really nicely, and the smokiness responds really well to meat or roasted vegetables.

Once your bread is fried to your desired shade of sexiness, remove it from the pan and add it to a food processor or blender along with all the remaining oil in the pan, the garlic, and slivered almonds. Pulse the ingredients to break them down, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently, then give it a good long blend to get them as fine as you can. While the ingredients are whirring away, consolidate the remaining ¼ cup of olive oil, water, and lemon juice into a vessel with a lip so you can slowly pour it out in a steady stream without making a mess. Through the opening at the top of the food processor or blender, slowly add all of the liquid, allowing your skordalia to loosen up and emulsify. You’ll probably need to let it blend on its own for a minute or two afterwards to break down the last few chunks. When finished, your skordalia should be smooth and resemble hummus. Salt your skordalia to taste and pulse to incorporate. Serve immediately or store in your fridge for up to two weeks.

Side note: if you’re taking your skordalia out of the fridge to use for later, we’d recommend having it come up to room temperature on its own as opposed to microwaving it, since the application of heat really alters the fresh lemon juice flavor. That being said, don’t let that stop you from adding a dollop of this goodness to a lunch on-the-go that you’ll heat up at work or wherever you go later. It’ll still be delicious, just know that it’ll be a little different. The garlic flavor will come out more and the lemon will play less of a role.

Yield: about 2 cups

September 10, 2017

Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce

There’s not a lot to say about this recipe other than that whenever we have gnocchi in the freezer, this is usually the sauce we pair it with. From start to finish, this sauce is ready in about 10 minutes. We’ve made it countless times for ourselves, and several times for company. One time, we even had someone inform us that they could drink the sauce straight; so if you want a little insight into how good this recipe is, think about that. But, please, just think about it.

If you’re cooking this for more than just yourself, resist the temptation to make more than one batch of this recipe at a time. Once you’ve got your water boiling and your pan hot enough, you’ll be able to knock out all the servings super quick, I promise. Plus, who wants to count gnocchi individually for a large group of people and extract them from a pan filled with sauce? That’s just annoying. And portioning a sauce this good by eyeballing? Forget it. That just leads to animosity and possible passive aggressive behavior if someone gets less sauce than someone else. It’s a great way to lose friends.

Don’t do it.

Side note: if you’re serving your gnocchi with some kind of protein (like seared chicken breast, for instance) we highly recommend that you begin the cooking process by deglazing with the leftover drippings in the pan. The sauce is already pretty deep in flavor, but this little step just pushes it over the edge. You’re also welcome to add a little bit of chicken broth, or even the leftover water from boiling the gnocchi, to the sauce to lengthen it out if it starts to get too thick. If you’re purposefully making this vegetarian and you wanna use a stock, I’d swap out chicken stock for a hearty mushroom stock if you have it; go full-on umami bomb, you know you want to.

Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce:

¼ cup dry cooking sherry
¼ cup whipping cream
1 oz. gorgonzola, creamy preferred, but pre-crumbled works just fine
Leftover gnocchi water or broth of choice, as needed
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
200 g of fresh or frozen Everyday Gnocchi

Bring water to a boil in a pot large enough to hold all your gnocchi. Heat a medium sized skillet to medium heat and keep them on standby until all your ingredients are ready to be used rapidly in succession. The water should be a rolling boil (especially if you’re using frozen gnocchi) and the pan should be able to sizzle away a little bit of water instantly. If you’ve seared off protein for this meal in advance in your skillet, please please please do not clean it before making the sauce. Use all that goodness for your gnocchi.

When you’re good to go, throw your gnocchi into the boiling water. If you’re using freshly made gnocchi, they should be done cooking in a couple of minutes. If you’re using frozen, they’ll take a bit longer, maybe five or so. Just keep an eye on your gnocchs; a tell-tale sign that they’re done is when they float to the surface of the water. Don’t freak out if they’re done before it’s time to transfer them to your skillet. Gnocchi are pretty forgiving, so you can let them hang out in the water for a bit longer until you’re ready for them. At the same moment when you start boiling your gnocchs, add the sherry to your pre-heated skillet. The sherry should reduce by half-ish in 10-15 seconds, and if you’re deglazing, be sure to scrape off all the tasty bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the cream and gorgonzola to the skillet and move them around to push the sherry and cream together, as well as encourage the cheese to melt.

The sauce will reduce a little and darken slightly, and once the cheese is melted, give it a little taste to check for salt. It shouldn’t need much, if at all, since the cheese is salty on it’s own, but it’s good to check. Your gnocchi should be ready around this time. Fish them out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon and add them to your sauce. Depending on how much your sauce has reduced, you might want to add a little bit of gnocchi water or broth to lengthen out your sauce because the addition of all this starch is going to make your sauce seize up. Toss the gnocchi in the sauce and weigh in to see what it needs for your own desired texture. We like our sauce to cling to the gnocchi, but we also like to have some leftover sauce in the pan since it thickens as it cools. Plus, it’s nice to have a little extra sauce in your bowl to mop up while you’re eating. Once you’ve got your sauce where you want it, remove the skillet from the heat and grind some black pepper over your gnocchi. We are, ah, liberal with our pepper; we like the floral quality it adds to the dish, but you ought to make that call for yourself. Serve in a bowl with protein or just on it’s own; you’re done!

Serves one. Maybe.

September 4, 2017

Everyday Gnocchi

Gnocchi is one of those recipes that mystifies me when I find out that someone thinks that it’s difficult to make, because not only is it really easy (and cheap) to produce, it’s also easy to produce a lot of it; and that’s exactly what we do. It’s common for me to whip out about four batches at a time of this recipe (a standard mixer should be able to hold two at once) then freeze the lot on a sheet tray and store these little guys in a large plastic bag. It’s such a satisfying meal for us, and the knowledge that we can put in minimal effort for it makes it all the more alluring after a long day of work where you just want something delicious and quick. Just pick your sauce, pop these kids out of the freezer and boil ’em in water till they float, and you’re set.

Side note: yes, the gnocchi in this recipe are pressed onto a gnocchi board. Do you need to do that? No, no you don’t. Do grooves hold more sauce? Yeah, they do. Will your dinner be any less delicious if your gnocchs are just little grooveless potato lumps that you cut off from your giant slab of dough? Nope, it’ll be awesome.

Did we press these onto a groove board just for this post so our gnocchi will look awesome even though we almost never do it in real life?

You bet your ass we did.

Everyday Gnocchi:

1 cup of cooked skinless russet potato flesh, thoroughly mashed with as few clumps as possible.
- Side note: When I do big batches of gnocchi, I will often add my cooked potato to a food processor and blend it until it’s very smooth, along with the olive oil. This changes the texture of the potato dramatically, making it much smoother (almost like a potato cake batter, and makes a much stickier dough after you add the flour to it. I’d recommend doing this, but if you’re tired and just wanna mash the potatoes by hand, your gnocchi won’t be any less delicious.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large egg
a big three-finger pinch of good salt
2 cups flour

Mix the mashed potato, egg, olive oil, and salt until thoroughly combined. Add the flour all at once and mix (your hands are the best tool for this if you don’t have a mixer) until all the flour is integrated. Continue to knead the dough until it becomes firmer and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough should be smooth, not unlike bread dough but much less springy. If you’re using a mixer, you’ll need to use the paddle at first to blend the flour into the wet ingredients, then switch to the dough hook once the it all begins to come together. Knead it for a minute or two until it becomes a tight dough. Let the dough rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes in a bowl with a cloth over it before proceeding to shaping.

Transfer the rested dough to a lightly floured table or counter and begin to roll it into a long snake-like shape; it should be a little less than an inch in circumference when you’re finished. The dough will be quite tough and glutinous, so I’ve found that letting gravity stretch it a bit by pulling it and letting it hang in the air (as well as giving a few good thwacks on the table) works quite well to elongate it. Once you’ve got it rolled, take a knife or dough cutter and cut the dough into little nubs. The ideal size of a single gnocch for us is about the size of your thumb pad, so when you’re done, your table might look like it’s covered in a bunch of little floury thumbs (not to be grotesque, but hey, it’s an image you won’t forget).

Your gnocchi are ready. They’re good to boil in the moment, or just place them on a sheet tray lined with baking parchment and freeze them for later. They keep for…well, we don’t actually know how long they really keep for; we’ve never let them sit around for too long. Oh, well…

Optional: After cutting the dough, you’re welcome to press your little gnocs onto a gnocchi board to get their groove on. Simply take a gnocch and press it with your thumb onto a floured board, almost like a thumb print cookie, then remove it and fold it into itself so it returns it’s round shape once again with the grooves facing outward (duh). I’ll admit, it’s a bit of a tedious process, but they do look lovely when they’re finished and they really do hold more sauce. I’d recommend this method if you’re tossing them in a tomato sauce.

Yields about 65-70 gnocchi, roughly 4 servings.

September 2, 2017

Tom Kha Teacups

Autumn is just around the corner, and you know what that means?

Soup weather.

We are gonna be making many different kinds of broths as much as we can to create some luscious soups and braises as the impeding doom and gloom settles just outside our window, and to start, we decided to give you guys one of our go-to’s we’ve had for years.

Everyone has that drinkable “cure all” in the back of their mind that they subconsciously reach to whenever they can feel the grip of sickness beginning to take hold. It’s always some kind of elixir that warms you up and rejuvenates you, making you more aware of your senses and rousing you from your slump. While we certainly don’t wait to be ill to make this recipe, it’s the first thing we reach for when we start to feel under the weather. This light and complex broth is crammed with Southeast Asian aromatics and Thai chiles that blast away any feelings of sluggishness or apathy, leaving your mind—and sinuses—a little clearer than they were a moment before. We can’t help but grin with every time we take a sip.

This recipe isn’t new, but the presentation and ratios might be. Tom kha gai is a soup that most people know about, but whenever we crave it we don’t necessarily want all the toppings and noodles it sometimes comes with; we just want that broth. We meditated on that preference, and the more we thought about it the more we realized that the preparation was less like other soups where you need to cook what you’re adding into it. Since you discard most of your flavorings at the end, it’s really just an infusion. It’s more like, well, tea.

This broth is magical, and we encourage you to take a step back and enjoy the delicious simplicity of it on its own. Your body will thank you.

Tom Kha Teacups:

Makes scant 5 cups broth.

4 cups good chicken broth (preferably homemade)
2 stalks lemongrass, very roughly chopped, white and tender green parts only
2 inches galangal, very roughly chopped
- Note: If you can’t find galangal, you can use ginger to substitute for this. It won’t taste the same, but it will still be delicious.
1 ounce shrimp shells (optional, but highly recommended)
½ cup coconut milk
¼ cup fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar simple syrup
8 kaffir lime leaves
¼ cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped and packed
2 thai chiles, roughly chopped, stems removed

In a saucepan on high heat, add the chicken broth, lemongrass, galangal, shrimp shells (if you’re using them), fish sauce, and palm sugar simple syrup. Bring to a boil, then bring the heat down to low and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the lid and turn the heat off. Add the coconut milk, lime leaves, cilantro, and Thai chiles, then put the cover back on. Let stand for 4 minutes. Strain the broth and discard all the aromatics. Serve in teacups, bowls, or just leave it in the sauce pan and use a bendy straw.

Serves 4-ish.

September 14, 2016

Fish Tacos with Late Summer Salsa

“What grows together goes together.”

It’s a well known saying that we couldn’t agree with more, and it was the first thing that popped into our heads on our most recent trip to Sauvie Island. We had gone to pick peaches, but due to the erratic weather in one of the most uncharacteristic summers we’ve had in recent memory, we unfortunately missed them this year. However, that didn’t stop us from just taking a look around to see what else was in season.

We always knew that the farm we frequented grew a large variety of vegetables, but they always seemed to take a back seat to the fruit that we usually make the trip out for. We ended up finding some gorgeous looking poblano chiles, which was something I never expected find there, and I was practically giddy upon the discovery. Later down the row we reached the corn fields, and the subject of this post simply materialized afterwards. Both of these ingredients being in season was too good to pass up.

Charred corn salsas pop up frequently because, well, they’re really delicious. Most salsas tend to be smoky or tart, but this one is decidedly sweet, which is a nice change. While we tend to not want to veer on things being very sweet, adding some charred poblanos is not only an informed seasonal choice, but their natural and beautiful bitterness fits seamlessly into the salsa like a missing puzzle piece. A little bit of a rarer fresh herb called epazote also gives the salsa a refreshing grassy flavor, speaking directly to corns natural sweetness. Pair this salsa with the simplicity of fish tacos, and you have a light, sweet, and herbaceous ahead of you: a perfect quick dinner for the hot nights of late August and early September.

Late Summer Salsa:

1 ear of sweet corn
1 large poblano chile
1 jalapeño, minced
½ sweet onion, diced
1 tablespoon finely chopped epazote leaves
- Note: Look for epazote at your local Mexican market. If you can’t find epazote (it’s not the easiest herb to find), use cilantro instead. It’ll still be super tasty.
Juice of one very juicy lime
Salt to taste

Char the poblano chile skin with a blow torch, or if you have a gas stove simply put it on the grate with the flame on high. Once all the sides of the chile are black, place the chile in a plastic bag and let it sweat for about 15 minutes.

While the poblano is sweating, char the corn kernels with the blow torch or on the stove. The ear shouldn’t be completely black; you only want the tops to be charred. Allow the ear to cool a little bit before cutting all the kernels away from the ear, then discard the cob. Place the kernels in a bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients for the salsa and set aside.

Remove the chile from the bag and run your fingers over the skin to remove it. Once all the char is rubbed off, remove and discard the stem and the seeds of the chile. Dice the poblano flesh and add it to the bowl with the corn kernels.

Add the jalapeño, diced onion, epazote (or cilantro), and lime juice, then stir until completely incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Fish Tacos with Late Summer Salsa:

1 pound of white fish fillets, such as cod or rockfish, deboned
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
2 teaspoons of salt
Oil for sautéing
1 batch of Late Summer Salsa

Mix the cumin, paprika, and salt together in a small bowl and rub it over the fish filets liberally. Set aside on a plate.

Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat with some oil until it shimmers, then place the spiced fish filets in the pan. Fry until the fish is cooked through and can be easily flaked, about three minutes a side. Let the fish rest for around 5 minutes, then serve with warmed corn tortillas, salsa, some queso fresco, and chopped cilantro. Add some refried black beans and rice to the spread if you like.

Serves 3–4.

August 22, 2016

Smoked Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream

Have you ever had an idea that you thought could be good, then when you finally manifested it, it turned out to be shockingly better than you ever thought? Have you ever been so taken off guard by the deliciousness of something you prepared that all you can do is keep tasting it, wondering how you hadn’t found or heard of it before, as if it should’ve been something you knew you loved all along? When was the last time you cleaned your ice cream equipment with your face instead of your dishwasher (but please, never your freezer bowl!)?

As you ponder these questions, we suggest that you prepare your ice cream maker and go out and get yourself some liquid smoke, because this recipe is too easy and too delicious to sit on your screen and be stared at. This bold, savory, satisfying ice cream demands to be made, to be devoured.

The inspiration for this came from a simple fact: smoke bonds to fat. While that usually is expressed through savory fats, there’s almost always that little wiggle room for a crossover, and that wiggle room is where we live; it’s our neighborhood. Peanuts are roasted anyway, so the rationalization of enhancing the smoke flavor didn’t seem too far-fetched. But then showcasing that in ice cream? Well, we’re just crazy enough to try a stunt like that, and boy, did it pay off.

Play in your kitchen. Trust your instincts. You won’t win every time, but when you do—oh, when you do—you get something like this.

Smoked Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream:

1 cup salted natural creamy peanut butter (look for one that tastes less sweet, like Trader Joe’s)
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
½ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
⅛ teaspoon of liquid smoke
½ cup jam
- Note: the type of the jam is up to you on this one; just imagine what kind of flavor you’d love to have on your peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and that’s probably the flavor you should go with. We used a homemade raspberry jam and it was a religious experience, so…

In a bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients except the jam, add the peanut butter, sugar, and salt, then whisk together until completely incorporated. Add the milk and whisk together until the sugar has completely dissolved; you shouldn’t hear any scratching noises coming from the bottom of the bowl. Proceed to add the cream and the liquid smoke, then mix together until just incorporated. You don’t want to mix the cream anymore than you need to.

Pour the mixture into your ice cream churner that has been prepared according to your models instructions and churn. If you’re using a frozen bowl, like ours, you’ll want to churn it for around 25 minutes, checking frequently after the 22 minute mark to make sure that it’s not over-churning. (Beware over-churning because you don’t want to make frozen butter!)

When the ice cream resembles thick soft serve, turn off the ice cream maker and dump it into a large container for freezing. Ladle in spoon-fulls of the homemade ice cream into the container while ribboning your jam of choice over the top of it in layers. Be sure to do this process as quickly as you can so that your just churned ice cream doesn’t melt. Spread the jam out in a fashion that it would create a balance scoop as consistently as possible; not too much and not too little anywhere, and be sure to put a little bit of jam on top to make a good first scoop when it’s finally ready! After it’s all in the container, cover the ice cream in a layer of plastic wrap, followed by the lid, then pop it in the freezer for at least 4 hours, although overnight seems to work best when we make ice cream.

Yields about 1.5 quarts.

August 18, 2016