Here in California, you could easily assemble a meal from prepacked components almost every night of the week. There are pre-formed hamburger patties, sure to please our six-year-old; par-baked loaves of artisanal bread, even packages of coleslaw with squeezable pouches of dressing to toss together. While we haven’t used too many of these shortcuts, knowing they’re out there is reassuring. Sure it’s cheaper to buy a bunch of green beans and top and tail them yourself, but sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day and you can throw together some pretty impressive meals in a short time using pre-prepared ingredients.

Case in point: this salad. Trader Joe’s sells steamed beets and pre-cut butternut squash right next to its bags of salad mix. A little farther down the aisle are the cheeses, I grabbed smoked mozzarella because the kids love it. Nab some bread (oh, and maybe some of the chocolate-covered almonds, them’s healthy fats) and head home to your new favorite salad.

Print recipe

Arugula salad with roasted squash and beets

adapted from Five and Spice

 

If you are using pre-cooked beets, you only need to roast them for 5-10 minutes at the end of the squash’s cooking time.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings

• 3 medium beets
• 1 medium (1-2 lb.) butternut squash, or one package of pre-cut squash
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 4 ounces (115 grams) smoked mozzarella cheese, diced
• 6 ounces (170 grams) arugula, three or four big handfuls
• salt and pepper

For the dressing:

• 1 Tbs + 1 tsp good-quality olive oil
• 1 Tbs + 1 tsp whole-grain Dijon mustard
• ½ clove garlic, crushed
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
• salt to taste

Method

• Prepare a pot with a steamer insert. Remove the tops and scrub the beets so they’re nice and clean, then chop them into about ½-inch cubes, and steam for 10-12 minutes or until they are just beginning to get tender (stick a fork one in to check).
• Preheat the oven to 400° F (200° C) and lightly coat/spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil. While the beets are cooking, prepare your squash: if you have a whole squash, cut off the “neck”, peel it and dice it into ½-inch cubes. (You can also peel and cut up the bulbous part and clean out the seeds, but I usually save that for another time.) If you’re using pre-cut squash, just make sure the pieces are all about the same size as the beets. Toss with the teaspoon of olive oil to coat, and spread on the prepared baking sheet.
• When the beets have steamed, put them on the baking sheet with the squash. They’ll color the squash where they touch, but I consider that a feature, not a bug. Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper, and slide into the oven to bake for about 20 minutes, tossing once halfway through.
• While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the dressing: whisk together the mustard and oil, and stir in the garlic. Add the maple syrup, and then the vinegar, tasting to see that the proportions are as you like. Add salt as needed.
• Rinse and dry the arugula.
• When the vegetables are tender and starting to brown, take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes.
• In the biggest bowl you have, toss the vegetables, arugula, and mozzarella with the dressing and serve.

So, a few months ago it was pancakes. Apparently now it’s eggplant sauce/spreads. But this recipe is actually one of my go-to dinners, even when eggplant and tomatoes aren’t busting out all over the farmers’ markets. When something is good, it’s good! And I’m one of those people who find it comforting to return to the same meal, rather than boring. When I was in graduate school in NYC, living on my own and not really much of a cook, I ate one of two things for dinner about 5 days a week: either broccoli and rice, or tomato soup with couscous. Seriously. It may not come as a surprise that my dad has eaten the same breakfast for 45 years or so. How about you? Do you go back to certain recipes again and again, or are you a change-it-up chef? With young kids, you may not have much choice, although my children will declare a particular food their favorite, eat it non-stop, then just as abruptly decide they don’t want it any more, ever.  Shades of Bread and Jam for Frances.

I first found this recipe in a Jamie Oliver magazine. You probably know him from “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” series, but he’s got a Martha Stewart-like empire in the UK. He still seems pretty down-to-earth and he has a bunch of kids with silly names, so he should appreciate the pitfalls of child-friendly cuisine. Even my eggplant-phobic Mr. B (6) eats this sauce happily, albeit without knowing what’s in it. Less said, better fed!

I’ve made this sauce many times, and about half the time I realize I only have a sliver of Parmesan left, or no fresh basil or something. I wonder, is it the hallmark of a good recipe that if you leave out one of the (few) ingredients it’s still good, or is that a bad sign? Well, either way this one is a keeper in our house, and I bet you’ll be going back to it over and over too.

Print recipe

Eggplant tomato pasta sauce
Adapted from Jamie Oliver Magazine

This recipe makes a lot of sauce, enough to coat one package of pasta and fill all four of us up and still leave enough for another pound of pasta somewhere down the line. Any pasta shape will do; the original recipe calls for linguine but I like tubular pastas just as much with it. Don’t forget to reserve some of the pasta water to thin out the sauce – any saucy leftovers also make a great spread with crackers.

Ingredients

Makes enough sauce for about 2 pounds (1 kg!) of pasta.

• 1 medium eggplant
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small (14 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• a handful of basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving (about 3 oz)
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Peel the eggplant and if it’s very seedy, take out the fluffy seedy parts as best you can. Cut into half-inch cubes.
• In a large skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat and add eggplant. Cook until it’s starting to get some nice brown color, then add the garlic.
• Put the pasta water on to boil at this point.
• Add the can of tomatoes and the basil to the eggplant; swish a little water around the tomato can and splash it in as well. Then add the balsamic vinegar and let everything simmer for 5 minutes or so.
• In a food processor or with an immersion blender, puree the sauce until it’s just short of smooth. Stir in the grated Parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• To serve, reserve some of the cooking water from the pasta to thin out the sauce to your preferred consistency, and grate some more cheese over the top to make it extra fancy.

 

I sure am sorry I didn’t think to post this recipe for International Talk Like a Pirate Day – I just missed it, on September 19. Ajvar is pronounced aye-var, and it’s awfully fun to say it with a little nautical sneer and swagger. Arrrr!

This is still an apt time of year to talk about this recipe, when the last of the eggplants and tomatoes are ripening. Somewhere between a spread and a condiment, ajvar is a Balkan staple and was at least partly responsible for my substantial weight gain in the years we were living in the former Yugoslavia. You can buy ajvar at almost any grocery store there, and we discovered that the uglier the packaging, the better the product. My personal favorites generally came from Macedonia, but homemade is really the gold standard. It’s not hard to make, I discovered, but messy. The smell of peppers roasting (often just cooked directly on the stove burners) is for me one of the characteristic aromas of the Balkans, just a whiff and you’re there.

As for the eating, my personal favorite is to use it rather like ketchup, on sandwiches. When Valerian and I were first living together, we bought a little sandwich press, and I proceeded to toast up many, many grilled cheese sandwiches with ajvar, to the point where it was getting hard to button my pants. Oof. I recommend a little more moderation, but ajvar really does perk up a sandwich, makes a great topping for crackers, and could easily work as a pasta sauce rather like pesto if you’re so inclined. The sweet peppers contrast with the very slight bitterness of the eggplant, all playing against a smoky backdrop – it’s a savory trip to Southeastern Europe, right there.

Print recipe

Ajvar

The usual red bell peppers in the US are not quite the same as the peppers you’ll get in Europe, but they work fine in this recipe; if you can find a more typical European pepper, like Pritamin or the others mentioned in Valerian’s pepper guide, use those. Ajvar is often made with hot peppers, too, if you like things a little spicy.

Ingredients

Makes about 2 cups of ajvar

• 4 large red peppers
• 2 medium eggplants
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt & pepper

Method

• Preheat the oven to 450° F (230° C) and line a large baking sheet with foil.
• Pierce the eggplants’ skins a few times with a fork or tip of a knife. Place them and the peppers on the baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes or until the skins are blackened in spots and starting to shrivel. Be bold and let them get well cooked, the smokey flavor will be your payoff.
• Put the peppers in a large bowl and cover with a plate, then set them aside.
• Allow the eggplants to cool, then peel back the skins and scoop out the flesh into a medium bowl or the bowl of a food processor. Try to leave out the seeds, although this is very messy and difficult.
• When the peppers have cooled, peel off the skins and discard. Also toss out the seeds, core and stem. Roughly chop the peppers and add them to the bowl with the eggplant.
• Grate or finely mince the garlic, and add about half to start – since it’s raw, go easy at first and taste to see how you like it.
• Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree the mixture to a thick, still somewhat chunky consistency. Season to taste with more garlic and the salt and pepper, and stir it all together.
• Keeps in the fridge for at least a week; this is best a day or two after it’s made.

 

Some of you have been concerned that recent recipes have been too healthy and light. Well, fret no more, friends. This one suffers from no such delusions: it’s rich and oh my, it’s good.

Both kids are back in school as of this week, and we’re still working out the schedule in its various daily permutations. (Is there some school rule that says that no day can be like another?) One thing that has made things dramatically easier is getting lunches together the night before, especially by cooking a little extra at dinner to tuck into the lunchbox for the next day.

This recipe is so good, though, we were lucky to have any leftovers at all – you’ll catch yourself swiping bites that were meant to get packed away. And while it’s true that this dish, which is essentially macaroni and cheese with a kick, isn’t going to get on anyone’s low-calorie list, it will surprise you how rich and creamy it tastes with a pretty small application of cheese.  Bet your kids will gobble it up, and you will too!

Print recipe

Daddy’s special mac & cheese

You can serve this pasta dish two ways – just noodles and sauce, à la Kraft, or give it an extra sprinkle of cheese and slip it under the broiler to get a crunchy top. Equally good, just take your pick!

Ingredients

Makes enough for two kids’ dinners with enough for their lunches the next day

• 5 oz (140 g) pasta, any shape
• 2 strips bacon or turkey bacon
• 2 oz (55 g) firm cheese such as cheddar, grated, plus more for topping

Method

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions (time depends on the shape of your pasta).
• Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a large skillet until crisp; if you use especially fatty bacon, you may want to pour off some of the grease.
• When the pasta has finished cooking, drain it, reserving one cup of the cooking water. Dump the pasta into the pan with the bacon; add the cheese and toss to coat.
• Add the pasta water, a little at a time, until you get the saucy consistency that looks right to you. We used the whole cup.
• You can serve it as is, or, if you prefer a crispy crust, slide the pasta into an ovenproof dish, top with more cheese and broil until the top is toasted and bubbly. Yum!

 

Being totally honest, I’ve never liked raw tomatoes all that much. I put them in salads and sandwiches but I often eat them without much enjoyment, more a sense of duty. Duty? To a fruit? Anyway. I always supposed that California is a perfect tomato-growing climate, but particularly after these past two cool summers, that’s clearly not the case. And it’s not just our shady backyard (where we have yet to get a flower on our little stunted tomato plants this year), all the local tomatoes leave something to be desired. I remember eating a tomato in Sarajevo in the summer of 1996; it was hardly the most auspicious place for fresh produce, what with the war just ended and all, but that tomato was a revelation, so sweet and juicy. And while we had hard times with the tomatoes in Slovakia, so many of which split and cracked and fell prey to Colorado beetles, I miss being able to gather a nice bowlful for supper on a hot summer evening.

On the other hand, the firm, bland little cherry tomatoes we’ve been getting at the store are perfect for pickling. It seems a shame to fuss about with a lovely ripe tomato (or peach, or plum), but when they’re this unremarkable, a shot of vinegar does wonders.

My mother taught me how to make these when I was a teenager, and I had forgotten about them for years before this summer. Now I can’t get enough – as soon as we eat through one batch, I am nicking the skins for the next round. It is a little tedious to peel cherry tomatoes, and in fact you can just as well just slice up a large tomato and let it soak in the oil and vinegar; the pulpy insides may spill out, but that’s only an aesthetic issue. I find it relaxing to slip the little ones from their skins, it’s the perfect thing to do while listening to the radio on a sultry afternoon.

Print recipe

“Pickled” tomatoes

The quotation marks in the title here are because these aren’t true pickles (you need to follow proper canning procedures for those). I just keep them in the fridge, where they last about a week in the unlikely event they’re not gobbled up. I sometimes toss in halved artichoke hearts, which take up the vinegar nicely themselves.

Ingredients

• 1 pound (about ½ kilo) cherry tomatoes
• ¼ cup Sherry vinegar
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 scallions, sliced

Method

• First, blanch the tomatoes to make them easier to peel. Bring a large pot half-full of water to a boil. In the meantime, make a small nick or x at the stem end of the tomatoes. Prepare a large bowl of ice water and a slotted spoon. When the pot of water boils, carefully add the tomatoes and let them cook for about one minute; if the skins start to split or peel, take them out with the slotted spoon, and drop them in the ice water. Drain them off and then peel each tomato, discarding the skins.
• Whisk together the vinegar, oil, and oregano in a small measuring cup.
• Put the tomatoes, scallions, and garlic in a sealable container, the smallest they’ll fit into. Pour the vinegar mixture over the top, and gently tip the container to mix.
• Tightly seal and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

This is another grain salad, one called “farrotto” in the original recipe, but that’s entirely misleading. Farro is a kind of wheat, an ancient and therefore apparently expensive one, but we have successfully subbed in other grains and things for this salad and it’s still delicious; you do want something a bit toothsome, so I’d go with brown rice or bulgur over quinoa or couscous.

before and after: farro on a bodybuilding regimen

Yeah, there are a lot of steps here, yet another reason I didn’t get around to posting this earlier. It is slightly streamlined, in fact! And it doesn’t seem that complicated when you actually do it, I swear. You make the dressing ahead of time so the cumin gets a chance to really infuse the yogurt, and if you use the prepackaged cubes of butternut squash, the rest of the prep is a total breeze.

Print recipe

Farro salad with yogurt-cumin dressing
Adapted from Bon Appetit

This salad (nothing like a risotto, original name notwithstanding) is light yet filling meal; I think of butternut squash as an autumn feature, but since they’re available year-round now, this makes a great potluck dish in the summertime too. I have no compunction about tossing the dressing in with the salad rather than drizzling it over the top and then packing it up to go.
Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 Tbs ground cumin
• 1 small tub (5.3 oz) plain Greek yogurt (fat-free is fine)
• juice of one lemon
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• one medium butternut squash, cut into ½-inch dice (about 4 cups)
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• 2 cups uncooked farro
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
• 1 medium red onion, quartered and sliced thin
• 1 can chickpeas, drained
• ½ cup fresh cilantro

Method

• In a small pan over medium heat, toast the ground cumin until fragrant. Set aside to cool, them stir into the yogurt with one of the minced garlic cloves. Squeeze half a lemon into the sauce and then refrigerate the sauce, reserving the other lemon half for serving.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the farro, lower temperature to keep the pot at a vigorous simmer and cook until the farro is tender, 18-20 minutes. Drain and set aside.
• Meanwhile, preheat the over to 400°F. In a large bowl, toss the squash cubes with 1 tablespoon oil and the red pepper flakes, then spread on a baking sheet in a single layer. Roast until tender, about 20 minutes.
• In a large pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and saute all but a small handful of the onion and two cloves minced garlic over medium heat. Add the chickpeas and cook for 5 minutes. Add the cooked farro and squash and toss together, cooking for another minute or two.
• To serve, tip the farro-squash mixture into a bowl or platter. Squeeze the remaining half a lemon over the salad, then spoon the yogurt sauce artistically across the top. Finally, scatter the remaining onion and cilantro over everthing.

 

So, I have become kind of obsessed with this corn “relish” recipe from the most recent Everyday Food. It’s about as simple as it gets, there’s no cooking involved. None! As we were chowing down tonight, Valerian asked “why do we even cook corn?” because it is so so tasty hacked right off the cob. And I’m not talking about any pampered organic superstar corn from the farmers market; I think it’s way too early for that anyway, especially since California apparently took a holiday in Oregon this spring and we’ve had weeks of unseasonal rain. No, this corn came from the grocery store, 33 cents an ear, and delicious as all get-out.

Although I’ve managed to make a meal of the relish several times (leaving guests whimpering as I greedily cleaned out the serving bowl), I wanted to bulk it up a little to make a more substantial dinner. I tossed in some black beans and for the omnivores among us, topped it off with some chicken cooked on the panini press my mother handed off to us when we moved. For myself, a little feta added some salty goodness but that’s optional, I’d say.

This was such a satisfying meal and so simple, it’s a good one to throw together for these weeknights when the sun stays up so long it’s easy to forget how late it is. Gluten free, too! It’s a delicious taste of the summer to come, just look at these gorgeous tomatoes:

Print recipe

Fresh corn salad with grilled chicken
Adapted from Everyday Food

To keep the salad snappy and fresh, dress it last; I’d recommend cooking the chicken first, then assembling the salad; the chicken could easily be made in advance and kept in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.

Ingredients

for the chicken

• 1 lb. boneless chicken breasts or thighs
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 3 ears fresh corn
  • 8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2 scallions, sliced thin
  • 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, about 1½ cups, drained
  • juice of one lime
  • 12 ounces baby spinach
  • feta for serving (optional)
  • About an hour and a half before you want to eat, trim any excess fat from the chicken, season it with salt and pepper and place it in a sealable container or bag. Stir together the buttermilk and cumin in a cup, then pour the mixture over the chicken. Cover/seal and refrigerate for an hour.
  • To cook the chicken, preheat a panini press or grill to medium heat. Place the chicken parts on the grill (discard any remaining marinade) and cook for about 10 minutes, until there are nice grill marks on the pieces and the juices run clear.
  • While the chicken is cooking, cut the kernels off the ears of corn.
  • Toss the corn, tomatoes, scallions and beans in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the lime juice over and toss again.
  • Serve on a bed of baby spinach, with the chicken or feta on top.

  Serves three to four as a light meal.

First he developed an idea for an elaborate dessert featuring cupcakes and ice-cream cones (we have yet to give that one a try). His next project was a litle more straightforward, and we feature it here: popcorn with seaweed.

Print recipe

Popcorn with seaweed

Our kids are not the kind that gobble up veggies without significant prompting, so it was a surprise to me that seaweed is one of the most popular snacks at the kindergarten. Well, if you taste the “roasted seaweed snack” from Trader Joe’s, you’ll see why, though; it’s salty and crispy and a lot like a green potato chip. If you don’t have a TJ’s near you, many stores carry a similar product, or if you can find nori sheets, toast them briefly in the oven to make them more brittle and shattery.

Ingredients

Makes about 5 cups of popcorn

• ⅓ C popcorn kernels or one package of unflavored microwave popcorn
• 5 pieces of “seaweed snack”, or one sheet of nori
• olive or vegetable oil (optional), if you have the kind in a spray can, that’s ideal
• salt to taste

Method

• Pop the popcorn.
• Place the popped corn in a large bowl. If desired, spray or drizzle the popcorn lightly with oil–this is only really necessary if you are using plain nori, the snack seaweed is already quite oily.
• Crumble the seaweed snack over the top, then toss with your hands.
• Salt to taste.
• Enjoy!

Here’s a weeknight special from the menu plan. Paraj (“pa-rye”) is a Hungarian comfort food classic. It’s something you can get from one of the fast-food főzelék places around Budapest, or even pick up in the frozen food aisle at the grocery store. But it’s ridiculously quick and easy to make yourself, and you can make it lighter or creamier to suit your taste (or suit your suits, if you’re dieting). The addition of an egg on top makes it a filling and nutritious meal, but you might also toss in chunks of potato, croutons or cheese. With its vivid green color and soothing flavor, this is a favorite bright spot for a grim chilly day.

Print recipe

Paraj – creamy spinach soup

We always use frozen spinach because we inevitably have some in the freezer, but there’s no reason an equal weight of fresh spinach wouldn’t work just as well. Don’t overcook it; you want to just soften the leaves enough to make a smooth puree. We use whatever milk we have on hand, usually 1 or 2%, but for a creamier soup, use whole milk.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1 pound frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
• 1 Tbs good-quality olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups milk
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 4 eggs (for serving)

Method

• Warm your olive oil gently in the bottom of a medium stock pot and add the garlic. Cook the garlic for about a minute, watching carefully that it doesn’t brown.
• Add the spinach and saute for 3-4 minutes over medium-low heat, until most of the liquid has cooked off. Add the milk and salt and bring to a simmer.
• Using an immersion blender, blend the mixture until you have a fine, bright green puree. Taste for seasoning and then simmer over low heat for another 5 or so minutes.
• Meanwhile, cook the eggs to your liking (fried, poached, or hard-boiled are all delicious and worth a try).
• Ladle the soup into bowls, topping each a cooked egg.

This recipe was born when we invited my in-laws for a Hungarian picnic. Traditionally, the protein part of the meal would be cold cuts: thinly sliced Hungarian paprika sausage or the famous Pick/Hertz winter salami.  You can’t get those here, though,  and substituting sugar-soaked ham was not an option for me. The other popular Hungarian custom for picnics is to take their big kettle and cook goulash, fish soup, bean stew or paprikash. I would be all for this, but I do not think it will make the California firefighters happy.  The grass is so dry that you can light it up just by looking at it. I also had doubts that the picnic grounds would be happy to see some crazy Hungarian making a huge pot of goulash while burning their turf, and I definitely didn’t want to risk expulsion from the Marin Cheese Factory. Where would I get my healthy dose of Camembert?  So under pressure, I threw together this recipe, with a very Hungarian result. It’s maybe best served warm, but kept cool in the picnic basket, it makes a great sandwich filling.

Print recipe

Hungarian Vegetable Chicken

This is a rustic dish and it can be altered as you wish. If you are crazy, you can skip the bacon and go for vegetable oil. It will still be good.

Ingredients

Feeds 4 people.

• 2 pounds boneless chicken (preferably dark meat)
• 3 wax peppers (Anaheim)
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 strip smoked bacon
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 tsp paprika
• 1 cup red wine
• pepper to taste

Method

• Cut the chicken into 1 inch strips or cubes. Dice the bacon and the onions. Mince the garlic, slice the pepper and the tomatoes into circles.
• Start frying the bacon on medium high heat to render some fat, then add the onions.
• When onions are translucent or even caramelized (burned) on the edges add the chicken cook on all sides (5-6min) and then add the peppers and the pepper and paprika.
• When peppers start to shrivel (7-15 min), add the garlic and tomatoes. Toss together and cook for 7 more minutes (do not burn the garlic).
• Add the wine and lower the heat. Simmer until the liquid evaporates and the mixture thickens.

All I want to say is that körözött is a staple food of Hungary. They are lucky, because they can go to the local Tesco Hypermarket, pick up a tub of the classic spread, or even try “impure” körözött and buy it together with a hearty dose of additives and preservatives. You, the unlucky ones have to make it yourself. The good news is, that it can be kept in the fridge for quite a time even without the pesky additives and preservatives.  Well, enjoy your Hungarian experience!

Print recipe

Hungarian Spicy Cheese Spread – Körözött

This is the basic, the elemental soul of körözött. People tend to over-complicate this simple spread. Silly, when it is best enjoyed simply with bread or vegetables; tomatoes and peppers make a perfect companion. You might want to reduce the amount of onions, but remember that after chilling the spread will be milder. If you want to go fat free, go for it and use reduced fat or fat free cottage cheese and cream cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 small tub (8 oz) large curd cottage cheese
• 1 smaller or ½ a large onion
• small package (3 oz) cottage cheese
• 1 onion
• 3 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• ½ tsp caraway powder
• 1 cup red wine

Method

• Put all the ingredients except the onion into a big bowl.
• Grate the onions into the mixture. You can go either chunky or fine.
• Stir the mixture well and then process it with a stick/immersion blender or in a food processor.
• Put it back into the cottage cheese tub and chill it for few hours, best overnight. There will be a little bit leftover which will not fit into the tub. You go ahead and eat it.
• Enjoy with a great rustic bread.

Főzelék is a special category in Hungarian cuisine. It’s not  quite a soup, but neither is it a stew. They are made in many ways and provide a cheap source of nutrition and yuminess. There is a potato főzelék, green bean főzelék, bean főzelék, spinach főzelék, pea főzelék, lettuce főzelék, squash főzelék and many, many more. Usually they are served with topping like a sausage, hot-dog, meatballs, or boiled or fried eggs. In my family we used to serve them with pörkölt (thick meat stew).
This is the ultimate Hungarian fast food. If you will be traveling in Hungary, try one of these cafeteria-style places and have a főzelék with topping. You might spend around 600 Ft (forints – something like $3) and have a great, satisfying meal.

My favorite főzelék is lencse, which is translated as buttered or stewed lentils. The process of making it can be very complicated or very simple. The complicated version requires you to cook smoked meat the night before and to keep the smoky water. Also you must soak the lentils for at least 12 hours. My family goes for the simple version. We do not cook smoked meat a day before and we do not soak lentils. Anyway, modern processed smoke meat is full of junk, and if you cook it you get rid of some of the junk. And then that junky water you use to cook the lentils. No thank you. So my mum skips the “smoked” part all the way. I found that liquid smoke works pretty well (I recently read that liquid smoke isn’t anything too awful, which was nice to know).
If you buy fresh and good quality lentils you can skip the pre-soaking too. Unfortunately the organic lentils I bought from the bulk bin at WholeFoods (sometimes known as Whole Paycheck for a reason) were apparently a mixture of fresh and old lentils, and  some of them overcooked while others were still crunchy. You need a place where there’s good turnover for these kinds of bulk foods; I am still learning about where to shop in California.

Print recipe

Buttered Lentils – Lencse-fozelek

For this ultimate Hungarian recipe use ordinary brown lentils and common sense with the amount of water.

Ingredients

Serves 6 humans.

• 2 cups lentils
• 10 cups water
• 1 tsp and a pinch of salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 lemon
• 8 oz sour cream (small tub)
• 4 oz milk
• 4 tbs all purpose flour
• 1tsp liquid smoke
• 4 oz milk

Method

• Wash the lentils, put them in a large pot with water, garlic, salt and bay leaves.
• Prepare a mixture of sour cream, milk (half of the sour cream container) and pinch of salt. Let it sit and bring it to room temperature while the lentils are cooking.
• Cook the lentils on medium-low heat until the lentils are tender. If necessary add water. Keep the water level approximately half an inch above the lentils.
• When lentils are fully cooked, stir the  flour into the sour cream and milk mixture. Blend it well and add it to the lentils. Add the sugar and the liquid smoke, bring it to boil and cook it for another 5-10 minutes. The lentils and the sour cream mixture should make a thick stew-like consistency. Then turn off the heat.
• After it cooled a little bit (5-10 minutes) add a juice of a lemon (you can substitute it with 1-2tbsp of white vinegar).
• Serve it with sausage or meat balls or hot dogs or cooked eggs. Do not forget a good bread.

I had a great day in Sonoma tasting some wine. I specifically went to try out the Cline cellars, since I was very excited about trying their wine; I had it for the first time on the way to California on the BA flight. I love the idea of grapes grown on 100 year-old vines. The yield is low but very mature and sophisticated. I am a big fan of Cline and their Ancient Wines line. With a little luck you can get these wines from under $10, which is my comfortable price limit for a bottle of wine. After the tasting at their cellars, I could not come home empty handed, and I decided to share this gem with my family. Since good wine must be accompanied by good food, I decided to make a Czech classic: roasted duck with red cabbage and Czech dumplings.

This Czech meal consist of three separate segments. You have to roast the duck, make the cabbage and the dumplings. It is a bit more labor intensive, but again remember that a good wine must be accompanied by a good meal.  I’ll post them as separate segments because the cabbage and the dumplings are often used with other meals and later I might refer to these recipes.

Print recipe

Roasted Duck

For this recipe I used duck legs. For bigger parties or hungry individuals, you can count on 2 legs per person, for a lighter meal go with 1 duck leg per person. You can use other parts of the duck if you wish. The amount of apples and pears depends on the amount of duck you are going to roast. I use fruit in order to achieve light fruity tones and preventing the meat from drying out.

Ingredients

• firm apples, such as Braeburns
• pears, any variety
• red wine
• salt
• water
• duck legs
• caraway seeds

Method

• Slice the apple and pear and lay them directly on the roasting pan. Add few cups of red wine or water. The liquid should barely cover the fruit.
• Salt the duck legs on both side, place the legs on the fruit bed and sprinkle them generously with caraway seeds.
• Preheat the oven to 340F, cover the roasting pan with foil and bake until the meat is soft (2 -2.5 hours).
• When the meat can be easily pierced with a fork, remove the foil and broil until the skin is nice and crispy.

Red Cabbage

While the duck roasts you can do the red cabbage. This is a special cabbage used with few Czech recipes and you can use the leftovers in many good ways, as a side dish, in sandwiches.

Ingredients

• 1 medium red cabbage (1.5-2pounds)
• 1 big onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 3tbs vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 orange
• 3 cups of red wine
• 1tsp caraway seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method

• Slice the cabbage into thin ribbons, removing the hard bits and nibbling on them while you salt the cabbage and let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Chop the onions.
• Heat the oil in large pot and add the onions together with the bay leaf. When onions become translucent, add the sugar and caramelize it.
• Add the caraway seeds and 10 seconds later add the red wine and the juice of one orange.
• Bring the mixture to boil and add the cabbage. Cook the cabbage on medium temperature until soft.
• When cabbage is soft add the vinegar and season with extra salt (1/2tsp maybe).

Steamed dumplings – knedliky

The Czech knedliky or “steamed bread” is a real Czech classic. It is served with variety of foods, especially with sauce. This is a simple knedliky recipe; unfortunatelly they are great only on the first day. After that they lose their freshness rapidly, so try to use them right away. You will need a steamer to make these (obviously), one with a flat bottom is the best.

Ingredients

• 1tsp sugar
• 1tsp yeast
• 3½ cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup of milk
• ½ cup lukewarm water

Method

• Make a sponge: mix the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast and leave until bubbly, about ten minutes.
• Mix the flour with salt, add the sponge, eggs, and 2/3 cup of milk (if necessary keep adding more milk).
• Let it raise for 30 min, then punch it down.
• Let it raise again until doubled.
• Prepare the steamer: put a few inches of water in a large pot, and lightly oil the steamer basket. Bring the water to a boil.
• Shape little oval loafs and put them in the steamer basket. Steam them for 10-12 minutes until they are resilient and have a firm outer skin.
• Let them cool and cut them into slices just before you serve them.

My mum used to make these amazing Slovak potato pancakes. She would come home during her lunch break and make lunch for us, so it would be waiting for us when we came home from school. She made sure there was some soup and a main course. By the time we would get home, Mum was back at work, but she always left a note about what she cooked and how much we can have — with three hungry boys she left nothing to chance. I still remember that we could have 5 pancakes each.

Print recipe

Potato Pancakes – Zemiakove placky

This traditional Slovak recipe is delicious as a snack or as a main course after a substantial soup.

Ingredients

Makes enough for 3-4 people

• 2 pounds/1 kg whole potatoes
• 1 egg
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp majoram – optional
• 1 cup/240 ml milk
• 6 tbs flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
  • Boil the potatoes in a large pot of salted water until you can just pierce them with a fork. Drain and let them cool for a minute or two.
  • Peel the potatoes and grate them on a fine grater.
  • Add egg, smashed garlic, pepper, salt, majoran, milk and the flour. Batter should be a thick liquid.
  • Preheat a crepe pan or a nonstick pan to medium low heat. Grease it and add about a ladle’s worth of batter. Fry 4 minutes on each side.
  • Enjoy

Method

My mum used to make this pretty often when I was growing up, mostly because cauliflower is widely available here and it is cheap. The best way to eat cauliflower is to deep fry it and eat it with tartar sauce and fries.  But fake brains is second best thing. It is less caloric and in many ways it’s even good for you. It is also very easy to prepare. I would recommend this recipe to all beginner chefs.

I don’t know why is it called “fake brains”. My only guess would be that it resembles cooked pigs’ brain, which used to be considered a delicacy here.  I remember that during socialism in Czechoslovakia we used to have plenty of “fake” meals, which were supposed to imitate the real stuff that was not available. To calm down the vegetarians among us, this meal does not resemble the flavor or texture of cooked brains (at least as I remember them from my childhood).

Print recipe

Fake brains

Try to avoid winter cauliflower, because it tends to be bitter. This recipe makes fake brains for 2 greedy or 4 normal people.

Ingredients

Makes 2 portions.

• 3 tbs oil
• 3 big onion
• 1 cauliflower head
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten

Method

• Cut off the cauliflower florets and cook them in salty water (big pinch of salt) until tender. It takes 10-15min.
• Chop the onions and steam over low heat with 3tbs of oil. Add the salt and the pepper. You want the onions translucent, not fried. If they are getting too brown, carefully add a little bit of water.
• Strain the cauliflower and let it “steam dry”. Once they’ve dried (in about 3 min), smash them with a fork into small chunks. Watch the onions!
• When the onions get translucent, add the cauliflower, stir and cook together for another 10 minutes.
• After 10 min, add the eggs and stir again to scramble them. Once the eggs are done to your liking, your meal is ready. Taste it and season it if necessary. Do not burn your tongue (as I do all the time ).
• Serve with good rustic bread.