I never thought it'd be possible to be this spoiled. Well through the summer and near the end of it in fact, I continue to get fresh fava beans, one of my favorite (and fleeting) spring treats. The wacky weather here in NYC and in much of the east coast has caused some springtime produce to linger while barely whetting our appetites for summer goodies. While green tomatoes and cucumbers made appearances two weeks ago and fully ripe red and yellow tomatoes finally arrived at the CSA last week, it's the presence of the fava beans and baby greens of springtime that are keeping me on my toes. As much as I love fava beans, I haven't really made that much with them in the past since their season is traditionally (and notoriously) short. If I've gotten one batch a year I've been lucky, but the truth is I've mostly had to rely on seasonal restaurant dishes in previous years to get me my fresh fava fix.
So when I trotted home with yet another bag of beans I wondered what was left to do. I'd done all I could with leaving them whole, and I was still loving them too much to mask their funky flavor, so I decided to go for a nice, smooth fava cream. Despite the name there's not actually much dairy in this recipe, just a few tablespoons of whole milk, which could be left out altogether and replaced with more extra virgin olive oil or even a dollop of low-fat yogurt if that makes you feel better (don't even bother with reduced fat milk--it's too watery). The recipe in general is pretty fluid to suit your needs. I like mine with a generous squeeze of lemon juice to lend a nice citrusy pop to the seafood I tend to serve it with, but it'd be just as good with a hint of dill or tarragon under a bed of lobster or jumbo shrimp, or even with some duck breast (it would cut the fattiness really well).
I happened to make my fava cream with a gorgeous fillet of black cod, which in my house typically gets the miso glaze treatment. This time I decided to let my delicious CSA ingredients shine (wilted swiss chard with garlic and lots of black pepper), so I simply pan-roasted it, with a quick finish in the oven. I made a beautiful green puddle of the fava cream, put down a bed of swiss chard in the center, and topped it with a black cod fillet. I drizzled the whole thing with a warm lemon-honey-mustard vinaigrette before finishing the dish with a scatter of whole favas for a little toothy bite. This dinner comes together really quickly, is really gorgeous, and is sure to impress if you're cooking for a crowd. The fava cream can be made ahead of time (even a day or two), and the swiss chard can also be prepped (washed, roughly chopped, stems removed) a few hours or even a day before cooking. If you have guests (or a hungry family), all that's left to do is pan roast the fish (only 2 minutes a side) and saute the swiss chard while the fish finishes in the oven, a mere 5-7 minutes more. Even if you did do it with no work ahead prep, I guarantee you'd be in and out of the kitchen in less than 45 minutes. I haven't bothered to give you the swiss chard recipe since it's just washed, chopped and sauteed quickly in olive oil and garlic, but give the fava cream a try, it's a great light spring meal. And if you're dying to try the fish, just let me know--I'd be happy to put that recipe up as well.
Fava Bean Cream
1 lb fava beans, shelled
juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 small garlic clove (or half a large one)
1/3 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp whole milk
salt
1. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Add shelled fava beans and cook 2-3 minutes. Remove beans to an ice bath to cool (and maintain color). Once they've cooled to the touch, remove outer skin to reveal the bright green beans inside.
2. Add fava beans, lemon juice, zest, garlic, milk and half of the broth to a blender. Puree until combined, slowly streaming in olive oil. Add more broth as necessary to achieve desired thickness or to thin-out. If your blender leaves chunky bits, run the cream through a sieve.
3. Season with salt and serve with your favorite protein (or toss with angel hair or linguine--yum!).
-Laura
I had a plan. I was going to combine my leftovers and make a delicious dinner of bacalaitos. Delicious little cod fritters seemed to be in my future. But then it happened. I got home and was suddenly no longer in the mood for fritters despite having spent the day searching countless websites and cookbooks for the perfect recipe. I'm not sure why this happens from time to time, why I psych myself out of a carefully choreographed meal that I've often been craving for days. Regardless of why (although it's possible that I was missing baking powder), I got home and immediately started craving another delicious cod dish--croquetas. I've made bacon, chicken and ham ones before, but I haven't had fish croquetas since I was a kid (they're the same as croquettes, for the Francophiles reading). Fortunately for me, they're all made the same way and with the same bechamel sauce.
When I was a kid (and this may come as a shock to my mom) every time someone made bechamel sauce within 10 feet of me, I managed to sneak several spoonfuls for myself. Nothing seems to have changed with age or time, as I managed to eat about half of the bechamel before I could fork in any of the fish. I suppose I could have waited to make the bechamel until the fish was done, but I figured every cook needs a little snack now and again while cooking, right? I didn't actually have all that much time to snack since the cooking portion of the meal happens so fast. All I had to do was create a quick roux with butter, flour and milk to make the bechamel sauce, while the cod poached in milk and water. The poaching only took about 10 minutes, and the sauce came together in about the same time. I decided to add some Parmesan cheese for saltiness and a little depth of flavor, and although traditionally cheese is not a part of any croqueta recipe, I was super happy with the results.
They had a thin, super crispy crust on the outside and a creamy, gooey inside. It didn't taste the least bit fishy (probably because I used fresh cod instead of the traditional salt cod), and I physically had to restrain myself to keep from eating 15 of them for dinner. Here's my recipe:
Cod and Parmesan Croquetas
1/4 lb fresh cod, poached
3 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil (not extra virgin)
2 Tbsp flour
1 to 2 cups milk
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt
2 cups breadcrumbs (I like seasoned, but plain are fine too)
2 eggs, beaten
vegetable oil for frying
1. Melt butter in a skillet on medium heat until it starts to bubble. Whisk in flour and cook on medium low heat whisking occasionally until fragrant and nutty (you just want to cook out the floury flavor).
2. Slowly stream in milk until mixture resembles the texture of yogurt. Flake in the cod and add the Parmesan. Stir to combine, taste for seasoning and transfer mixture to a shallow plate. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
3. With wet fingers or two spoons, roll mixture into egg shapes, 1 tablespoon at a time. Roll each croqueta in breadcrumbs, then in egg, then coat completely in breadcrumbs, shaking off any excess.
4. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pot on medium-high heat and fry croquetas in batches until golden brown. Enjoy!
-Laura
Although I've found some excellent food resources in my new neck of the woods here in Hell's Kitchen, I must say that there are a few things that I miss about my old neighborhood. I'm no longer down the street from Kalustyan's, home to about every foreign food product, and most notably, I'm no longer walking distance from the Union Square greenmarket. This is the first time in eight years that I haven't been able to get up on a Saturday and head on over to the market in 20 minutes or less.This past Saturday was the first time since moving that I woke up determined to make it to the market--I'd installed every last piece of lighting, put up every shelf, and hung up every frame, so there were no more 'new home' errands to distract me.
The time had come to finally get back to my normal weekend cooking routine, which until recently meant stocking up on new ingredients to experiment with. So, armed with my environmentally friendly canvas tote bag and a 15% off coupon for Barnes and Noble (to be used on a cookbook, of course) I headed out into the 74 degree weather towards the greenmarket. This unseasonably warm weather of course meant that there were considerably more people there than in the last few months. Regardless, I managed to make my way around them and buy a few goodies to play with, including some heirloom new potatoes. A beautiful mix of red, yellow and purple new potatoes, they were super affordable and are just coming into season. I bought a few more things, then headed along on my merry way to buy a brand new cookbook. After perusing a few titles I settled on Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters, queen of the slow food movement (how appropriate for Earth Day).
It turns out that the book had exciting recipes and ideas for everything I'd bought at the market, so I figured I'd start with the potatoes. I decided to use Waters' method for simultaneous roasting and steaming in the oven, but my own recipe for the ingredients. I took a little inspiration from Scarborough Fair and used parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme to create the seasoning for the potatoes. Since I'd be eating a whole plateful of potatoes I figured I should pair them with something simple like a lovely, fresh (and huge) piece of cod that I picked up from the fishmonger after work. I roasted it in the oven with some of the same spice mixture that I used on the potatoes, along with a few extra turns of the pepper mill. A drizzle of olive oil over the fish and 10 minutes in the oven later and dinner was done. Here's how to make it:
Cod with Roasted New Potatoes
1 large cod fillet
2 cups new potatoes (larger ones cut in half)
3 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp each ground rosemary, thyme, sage and parsley
1/4 cup water
salt
pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F degrees. In a large bowl, toss potatoes with olive oil, spice mixture (reserving 1/2 tsp for the cod), water, salt and pepper. Place potato mixture on a non-stick baking sheet and cover with foil. Cook in the oven for 40 minutes or until potatoes are tender and cooked through.
2. Meanwhile, season cod with salt, pepper and 1/2 tsp of the spice mixture. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until flaky and cooked through. Top potatoes with cod. Enjoy!
-Laura
The weird weather here in New York is completely throwing off my food regimen. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I bought some lovely cod at a nearby fishmonger over the weekend. My original plan was to roast the fish over some fresh early spring veggies, but the misty and balmy weather made it completely undesirable to keep my oven on for more than ten minutes. I don't have an air conditioner in my new place yet, so as the weather turns warmer, my desire to stand in front of a hot stove goes right out my open windows.
So what's a sweaty, tired gal to do? Why, take a page from the far east of course! China and it's surrounding nations mastered cooking long before anyone else, so I knew I'd find my answer in Asian cuisine. Many nations (and not just in the orient) serve up fragrant and citrus infused seafood soups on hot days to cool themselves down. That may sound counter intuitive, but as I've mentioned in previous posts, the hottest nations in the world take advantage of our natural cooling system by eating hot and spicy food as a cool down trigger. I wasn't about to make a complicated stew or slave over the stove, but I figured it couldn't hurt to whip up an easy dashi broth (i.e toss everything in a pot and let it boil) or roast a few mushrooms along with the cod (i.e. toss it all on a greased sheet and shove it in the oven) while I surfed the web for light fixtures and air conditioners.
It did all end up being quite refreshing. Having the oven on did add a bit of heat to the situation, but once I'd turned off the oven, put the meal together, and sat down to eat it, I found the dish quite refreshing indeed. I made the broth citrus heavy with a few teaspoons of lime juice and a healthy squeeze of half a lemon. I cooked the whole thing with some ginger and scallions and added a little bit of chicken broth to the dashi broth just to diffuse it's fishy taste a bit. I happen to really like the sharpness of this kind of broth with citrus, but if you don't like fishy soups, by all means, make this dish with chicken or veggie broth. The ideal mushroom to use for this would be shiitake, but I only had a wild mix in my fridge, so that's what I used. The fish and mushrooms were just brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. The oven did the rest of the work, roasting both the fish and mushrooms in under 10 minutes, on the same tray. The sharp, sour mote of broth kept the cod nice and moist, while the slight caramelization on the mushrooms brought a nice hint of sweetness to the mix. This isn't so much a recipe as it is a method. The next time you need an easy meal on a hot day, try a quick roasted piece of fish with citrus infused broth. I promise it'll cool you down, and be well worth the 10 minutes spent to make it (and the very few calories in the dish). Here's a rough idea of how to go about it:
Roast Cod with Citrus Dashi Broth
2 cups dashi broth (or your favorite broth) mixed with 1/2 cup chicken or veggie broth
1 1-inch nub of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
4 tsp lime juice
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 cod fillets
2 cups mushrooms (not button mushrooms)
olive oil
salt
pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 450 F degrees and brush a non stick baking sheet with oil (I line mine with aluminum foil for easier cleanup). Set aside.
2. Combine broth, scallions and ginger in a pot and bring to a boil. Cook about 8 minutes, then strain and return broth to pot. Add lemon and lime juice and remove from the heat.
3. While broth cooks, season cod on both sides with salt and pepper. Place fish on one end of the baking sheet and the mushrooms on the other. Toss mushrooms with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat. Drizzle cod with olive oil.
4. Bake cod and mushrooms in the oven until fish is opaque, then place each piece of fish in the center of a bowl. Pour soup around fish and sprinkle with mushrooms. Top with thinly sliced scallion and serve with extra lemon wedges. Enjoy!
-Laura
