Our wonderful friend Stuart popped in this afternoon with a bag of fresh-from-the-earth ramps he’d picked up at the local ramp festival near his weekend house in Milford, Pennsylvania.  Dinner plans were thrown out the door and ramps went right on the menu – made a great pasta dish featuring the entire plant.  Here’s what I did.

Sauteed about ½ cup of diced pancetta in extra virgin olive oil.  When it started to brown, I added the sliced white bulb of the ramps.  Sautéed until just soft, then I added the sliced ramp greens and a couple of handfuls of fresh garden peas.  Tossed the mix into thin spaghetti which I moistened with just a touch of heavy cream.  When blended, I added about ½ cup of grated parmesan cheese and a good dose of pepper.  Dusted each serving with some toasted bread crumbs and served extra cheese on the side.  Spring had arrived!

For some time I have been hearing rumblings about a “charming little restaurant” in Bloomville, New York so on our way back to New York City from Cooperstown we made a slight detour to give it a try.  My best pal, Lynn, followed us in her car to join us for a quick breakfast – if the café was open.  And, it was.  The café was charming, the cook/hostess loverly, and the food very tasty.  We had two of the dishes we had read about – egg in a nest and egg in a glass.  The latter was simply that – farm fresh soft boiled eggs with olive oil, herbs, and spices in a little canning jar and the former was a biscuity mix of biscuit, egg, bacon, and cheese baked all together in, I would guess, a large muffin cup or ramekin.  The day was freezing, but the food and warmth of the spot made the detour worthwhile.  We want to make a trip back for their weekend pizza nights.

A week or so ago, our son, Mickey, came into the city for a Diana Krall concert and although we had planned to go out to dinner, much to my delight he decided to cook.  What a joy!  Off we went to the market and when we got back laden with shopping bags, Steve got the camera and I got my knife to be his sous chef.  After dinner, when Mick and Steve went off to the concert, I did the dishes and thought how lucky can any one mother be.

Here’s what he made – this is Mickey’s idea of an easy Friday night dinner celebrating spring.

Seared Scallops on Pea Puree with Spring Vegetables:  Fresh peas steamed and pureed with a little broth and salt and pepper.  Fresh fava beans, snap peas, and garden peas lightly sautéed in a bit of chicken broth and butter.  Scallops seared for a couple of minutes to caramelize nicely and still be almost raw in the center.  The puree was spooned into the center of each of our plates, the sautéed veggies scattered about and 3 scallops nestled in the center.  It was light and delicious.

Roasted Chicken Breast with Mushroom Sauce, grilled purple asparagus, and basmati rice:  Whole chicken breasts were roasted with the skin on until just barely cooked; then, deboned and skinned.  A lovely sauce of mushrooms, marsala wine, herbs, and stock was made and the chicken breast halves added for just a couple of minutes to warm and season.  The asparagus was grilled.  The rice cooked and dinner was served.  I felt as though I had eaten in a starred restaurant with none of the associated hype.

Whichever you choose, that is exactly what I produced the other evening.  The urge for something sweet came upon me as I was making dinner, so I quickly made a batch of brownies.  I thought I had some walnuts in the freezer, but when I looked I had every type of nut but… so I sprinkled the top with a few leftover chocolate chips I found in the fridge and some shredded coconut hidden in the freezer (I still prefer nuts, though).  Into the oven went the pan while I served dinner.  We were having such great conversation that I forgot all about my brownies until my nose picked up a strange scent —— oooh, burnt chocolate.  I made a quick retrieval and sent them upside-down to a rack to cool.  The edges were pretty crispy, but I sawed them off and savored the slightly smoky taste of the remainder.  Here’s the recipe; should you make it, please don’t let it burn.

1 cup sifted flour
½ cup sifted cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s new Special Dark Cocoa Powder)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¾ cup toasted walnuts – if you have them
    Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Lightly coat the interior of an 8-inch square baking pan with Baker’s Joy or other nonstick vegetable spray.  Set aside.
Combine the sifted flour, cocoa powder, and salt.  Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle.  When light and fluffy, beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients, a bit at a time, beating to blend.  Fold in the walnuts (or whatever you like to add to your brownies).
Scrape into the prepared pan and transfer to the preheated oven.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool for about 15 minutes.  Cut into squares while still warm, but leave in the pan until cool.  Unless you have burned them – in this case, upend them quickly to stop any further cooking.

The good thing about making stew-like dishes is once you have the flavor-profile in your head, you can proceed without a recipe in hand.  Or at least I think you can.  The other day I was making lunch for my best buddies at Loupe Digital – Michael wanted tofu, but the rest of the crew was in no mood for it and wanted something a little meatier.  Everyone wanted spicy, though.  I decided to make a stew-like base that I could add the different proteins to so I could satisfy all of my friend’s appetites.
The base was vegetable stock, Thai yellow curry paste, tomato puree, lots of coconut milk, tamarind paste, onion, garlic, chiles, cilantro, shredded coconut…..I think that was it but I might have forgotten an ingredient or two as I was tasting and adding as I went.  Once the base was simmering I threw in some diced red bell pepper and eggplant.  When it had all cooked together to a nice stewy mix, I stir-fried some cubes of tofu for Michael and thin slices of pork tenderloin for the rest of the crew.  Divided the base and mixed some with the tofu and the rest with the pork.  Made a big batch of orange-flavored rice to soak up the gravy for everyone.  It seemed to do the trick as gratitude filled my email box.  It’s such fun to cook for friends!

A couple of weeks ago I rediscovered the Chelsea Market – a spot called by its founders “an urban food court.”  Oh, I knew it was there, but just too out-of-the-way for everyday food shopping.  Located on 9^th Avenue about 16^th Street in the old National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) factory, many of the artifacts of its previous life remain which makes a visit there a little bit other-worldly.  Running along the center courtyard-like hall are wonderful food shops offering prime and sometimes unique products.  Since everything is so inviting, it is yet another place that tends to make me spend more than I have in my pocket.

Manhattan Fruit Exchange is one of my favorite shops in the Market.  They have been around forever supplying restaurants, but are most welcoming to everyday shoppers.  You can always find an array of exotic fruits and vegetables, the first products of the every season, and a wide variety of fresh and dried mushrooms and herbs.  It was the mushrooms that caught my eye the other day – especially a beautiful stack of floral oyster mushrooms.  I couldn’t resist buying a big lump of fresh-looking “petals.”  Along with the mushrooms I got some of the best spring asparagus and a few spring onions and I knew exactly what I’d do when I got home.

Here’s my plan:  I trimmed the asparagus, split the onions in half, lengthwise, and laid them out on a baking pan along with my bouquet of mushrooms.  I seasoned with sea salt and pepper, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, and added some fresh orange and lemon juice to the pan.  Roasted them all together in a hot oven to serve as an appetizer (with a spritzing of aged balsamic) for a little quiet welcome spring dinner.  Yum, yum, yum!

As you can tell, lately I’ve been on a Mexican food kick – burritos one night, mole the next, and then for breakfast a big plate of beans and eggs in the form of huevos rancheros.  As much as I love pico de gallo (the ubiquitous dip served with chips in every authentic or wanna-be Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant), it is impossible to make at this time of the year ‘cause the tomatoes are so anemic and tasteless, so I try to make my own “authentic” Mexican cooked sauces to keep on hand when I need a south of the border fix.

To make the huevos, griddle up some corn tortillas (one for each serving and a couple for dipping and cleaning the plate).  Top with refried beans, then with 2 fried eggs, sunny-side-up, drizzle with tomato sauce, and serve as is or with a side of yellow rice.  On this morning, I grilled some of those sweet little peppers that come, pre-bagged, in a colorful mix that I found languishing in the back of the fridge to accent the plate as we were having friends join us.

Here’s my sauce:

1 pound ripe (ha!) tomatoes

Couple of chiles – jalapeño, Serrano or whatever is available, cut in half, lengthwise

3 cloves garlic

Cilantro or epazote to taste

Salt to taste

            Place the tomatoes, chiles, and garlic in a stovetop grill pan over medium heat.  Grill, turning occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until nicely charred and soft to the touch.  You might have to step away from the stove from time to time as the fumes from the cooking chiles can be powerful.

Remove from the grill and set aside until cool enough to handle.  When cool enough to handle, core the tomatoes, stem the chiles, and push the skin from the garlic.

Combine the tomatoes, chiles, and garlic in a food processor fitted with the metal blade.  Add the cilantro or epazote and season with salt.  Process, using quick on and off turns, to make a chunky sauce.

Scrape the sauce into a clean saucepan and place over medium heat.  Cook for about 5 minutes just to allow flavors to blend.  Taste and, if necessary, add more cilantro and salt.

Serve or transfer to a container and store, covered and refrigerated, for up to a week or so.

And here’s my refried beans: 

2-3 tablespoons bacon fat or lard (if you want to be good use canola oil, but why?)

Any amount of cooked beans you like – either pinto or black (with cooking liquid separately reserved if you have it) – I usually make about 4 cups

3 cloves garlic, minced or more if you like

3 sprigs epazote or cilantro or more if you like, finely chopped

1 jalapeño serrano chile, stemmed, seeded, and chopped

Salt to taste

Heat the fat in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Add the drained beans along with the garlic, herbs, and chile.  Cook, pushing down on the beans with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon, until all of the beans have been mashed into the fat.  Lower the heat and season with salt.  Continue to cook, stirring frequently and adding reserved bean cooking liquid to keep the mixture moist, but not runny, for about 20 minutes or until the flavors are well blended and the mix is very flavorful.  Serve immediately or store, covered and refrigerated, for up to 1 week.

The other morning Steve and I got to chatting about Mexican food with our waiter, Ivan, at our favorite local diner, Café 82 on Broadway and 82^nd Street.  Ivan is from Moreles and when I began asking him something about tacos and tortas, he whipped out his cell phone and starting showing me photos as he explained how his mother (who, he said “sold food for 20 years”) made his favorite dishes.  Then, it turned out that Ivan had been in the restaurant business in his home state before making his way to New York City so we had plenty to talk about.  Fortunately for us it was a slow morning so he could talk for a bit.

As Ivan talked, my egg white omelet gelled on the plate as I yearned for some of the deliciousness that he described.  When he got to cemitas, a typical Mexican sandwich made with “Milanesa” (you got it, just as it sounds a chicken cutlet breaded and fried as for the Italian veal cutlet Milanese) Ivan gave us the filling – Milanesa, sliced avocado, jalapeños, red onion, queso, tomato or pico de gallo, and papalo piled on a cemita sesame roll.  I got everything except the papalo.  I had never heard of it.

That was all Ivan needed to hear.  “Tomorrow I will bring you papalo and pipicha (showing each in photos on his cell phone) from my supermarket in Queens” (a borough of New York City).  Now he really had me – pipicha, what was that?  “Very strong herb” said Ivan, as he assured me that I would like it once I tried it.

True to his word, the next morning Ivan handed me a shopping bag that was emitting an aroma that was a mix of the laundromat, wet towels, cilantro, lemon rind, a weeded garden in the rain….it was, in fact, indescribable.  It was papalo and pipicha.  Papalo was very pretty; it looked a bit like soft green watercress.  Pipicha looked tall and weedy – just like something a gardener would like to get rid of.  My bill for my bag of herbs was $2.75 – certainly could tell we weren’t shopping in Manhattan.

We were having friends in for dinner so I made a pureed bean soup as a first course, seasoning it with just a few sprigs of the pipicha and then I garnished the bowls with papalo.  Let me tell you, the pipicha gave the soup a really indefinable flavor that caught everyone’s attention as they tried to guess what I had put in the soup.  The papalo leaves created a great conversation point.

The next day we used the papalo to give “authentic” flavor to some burritos that I cobbled together for dinner.  Haven’t quite figured out how to use the bundle of pipicha yet – it is pretty strong. But the best thing that came from our conversation with Ivan was the promise that his wife would spend a day in the kitchen with me.  I can’t wait!

We had a little business lunch for our publisher and editor on a chilly day.  I didn’t know what I could make that would be inviting, but wouldn’t keep me in the kitchen.  Aha!  Thought I, why not fancy grilled cheese sandwiches and a bowl of soup.  And that is exactly what I served – with a glass of rosé of course.  The soup was a hearty mushroom-barley and the sandwiches were made on a terrific peasant bread with Comté cheese and pepper relish (you’ll find it somewhere on the blog) or my homemade ginger-fig jam pressed down to runny deliciousness on the stove top.  I’m not much for kitchen gadgets, but if you have a panini press this is a perfect sandwich to make in it.

The one thing I didn’t tell you about my friend Linda is that she is a fountain of information on cooking methods, ethnic ingredients, and exotic kitchenware as well as a resource for all types of “PC” products.  When she came to play the other day, she brought me a bag of Stone-Buhr flour which I had never heard of – leave it to Linda to make a discovery that none of us had heard of.  I visited their website and fell in love.  I suggest you visit and order, too. www.stone-buhr.com