Congratulations to Ann and Sandy who won the “Win a Free Cookbook” raffle and each received a new copy of Beautiful Breads and Fabulous Fillings! One hundred and thirty-five people participated and at 12:01AM on March 24th I put all the email addresses in a hat and drew out the two winners. I hope they enjoy their books and perhaps send me a few photographs of what they bake. (hint, hint.) Being a graduate student I can’t run contests like this all the time, but fate seems to think one more is in order since I recently earned enough points at e-rewards.com to get a two-year subscription to Saveur magazine. What does this have to do with another raffle? Simply this: I’m already subscribed to Saveur so I’ve decided to give one of you a chance to enjoy my prize instead. If you haven’t read Saveur I recommend picking up a copy the next time you’re at your local bookstore. I love its engaging combination of recipes, culture, culinary history and beautiful photography. Learn more about the raffle here.

Split-Pea Burgers with Jalapeño Home Fries

The recipes featured in this post are the result of two things: my husband’s and my busy schedule and our love of good food. During the week we usually don’t get home until about 7pm and by that time neither of us wants to be working in the kitchen for a lengthy amount of time. To get around this problem we’ve developed a system by which we write a menu for the week every Friday, and do the majority of the “labor intensive” cooking over the weekend. We prepare everything up until the final stage of cooking, which means that all we have to do when we get home is finish things up and enjoy a delicious meal. Total time: on average, about 30 minutes. (No Rachel Ray reference intended.)

Caramelized Plantains, aka Maduros. Sprinkled with fleur de sel (fine sea salt).

Actually, with practice two of the dishes in this post can probably be prepared in under 15 minutes. Really. The homemade split-pea veggie burgers are one of my favorite “simple night” (which is what we call our cooking-light evenings) dishes. Although I can tolerate some of the freezer section veggie burgers I’ve never been satisfied with their taste or consistency. These burgers solve that problem with their slightly crunchy breaded crusts and rich flavor. Made with a combination of brown rice, split-peas and mushrooms, which are then spiced with cumin and coriander, these guys are about as healthy as you can get without sacrificing taste. To make this dish a “simple night” option simply prepare the mixture on a Sunday night and refrigerate. Then, when you get home, shape portions into patties, roll them in bread crumbs, and fry them in a bit of olive oil. That’s it!

As far as side dishes are concerned sometimes we go with plain old tater tots from the frozen food section - but when you factor in the time it takes for the oven to pre-heat, and for the tots to cook, it’s actually faster to make jalapeño home fries. These take about 35 minutes to make from start to finish, even less time if you steam the potatoes a day ahead or microwave them. Diced jalapeño, sauteed onions, red potatoes and pure ancho chile powder give them a fantastic flavor. Sometimes we whip these up and enjoy them by themselves, no main dish required. Another side dish option is maduros, which are popular in Nicaragua, Ecuador, Panama and Puerto Rico, to name a few places. The name simply means “caramelized plantains,” and when garnished with fleur de sel I have to tell you: they’re so delectable. When preparing maduros I prefer to use fleur de sel instead of regular table salt because its aroma and intense flavor adds a lot to a dish. “Fleur de sel” literally means “flower of salt,” and according to Harold McGee it is “the finest and most delicate… product of the sea-salt beds of west-central France.” Fleur de sel is harvested by hand and consists of the salt crystals that accumulate on the surface of salt pans when the humidity is just right. (Ordinary salt is collected at the bottom of the pans and has sediment particles in it as a result.) Fleur de sel is expensive, but since it’s used more as a condiment than a cooking salt a modest amount of it lasts for a while. Maduros are made by simply slicing and frying up a couple plantains in peanut oil. They’re not in the oil for long so the resulting dish isn’t greasy - and talk about an excellent burger accompaniment. :yum:

That’s it for now. Today marked the beginning of a week and a half off from school so you know what that means: lots of cooking and blog posting! (And yes, getting ahead on school work too, but we’re not going to talk about that.)

See you soon!

Homemade Split-Pea Burgers
The recipe for these burgers can be found here. We usually skip the bell peppers and add a little more onion instead. Also, in the future we may add diced jalapeño or chipotle chile powder. See what works best for you - experimentation truly is the spice of life!

Jalapeño Home Fries
Adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Collection Breakfast Book.
Ingredients: Makes 4 Servings

• 5 red potatoes, about 1 1/4lb total weight, scrubbed and patted dry
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 jalapeño
• 1 large yellow onion, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon ancho chili powder (see notes) *
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• Fine sea salt

Pour water to a depth of 1 inch into a large pot and bring to a boil. Put the whole potatoes into a collapsible steamer basket and set over the boiling water. (The water should not touch the potatoes.) Cover and steam until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a small knife. 15-20 minutes, depending on their size. Transfer the potatoes to a bowl. When cool enough to handle, cut into 1-inch cubes.

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter with the oil. When the butter has foamed and the foam begins to subside, add the jalapeño and the onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are glossy, about 5 minutes.

Add the potatoes and cook, without disturbing them, until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes. With a spatula, turn the potatoes over in several large portions (don’t mix too much) and cook, turning (not stirring) only twice during the cooking time, to achieve the optimum crust and browning, about 15 minutes longer. Sprinkle with the chile powder, paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for 1 minute longer. Stir together to blend in the spices, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve at once.

A note about chile/chili powder: Pure chile powder is not the same as chili powder, which is a commercial spice blend that usually combines dried chiles, cumin, oregano, garlic, cloves and coriander. For the best chile flavor, seek out pure ancho chile powder, which has a good level of heat and excellent flavor. Chile powder varies in strength, and will lose its flavor over time, so purchase it in small quantities from a store with a good turnover and replace it after six months.

Caramelized Plantains, Aka Maduros
Reproduced with permission from “The Cook’s Book” by Jill Norman.
Ingredients:

• 2 very ripe plantains. Their skins should be extremely dark, almost black.
• Canola or peanut oil. Enough to fill a large skillet to a 1/4 inch depth

Peel the plantains, then slice each one on the bias (at an angle) into eight to ten ovals each, about 1/2-inch thick. Pour 1/4 inch depth of canola or peanut oil into a large skillet and set over high heat to heat the oil.

Add the plantain slices to the hot oil, several at a time, leaving yourself room to flip them, and cook until they are golden with black edges, 1 - 1 1/2 minutes per side. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot.

I’m leaving for Israel on Wednesday morning so this will likely be my last post until I return in mid January. I’ve added a little countdown script to the sidebar so that my husband, family (and you, if you’re interested) can see how much longer I’ll be off gallivanting around the middle east. I’m both excited about this trip and more than a little hesitant. Perhaps this will sound sentimental to you, but my husband and I haven’t been apart for more than a few days in over five years… and while I know three weeks isn’t so long, I’m going to miss him profoundly. (I know, I’m a sap!)

I’m taking a camera with me so if you have photo requests please feel free to leave them in the comments. I’m not making any promises, but if I get a chance to check my email and happen to be near a photo spot you’ve requested, I’ll do my best to capture an image for you. I will be spending most of my time in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.

That said, on to the topics of this post: olive oil, pasta and cigars!

Red Wine Pasta with Almond Slivers and Raisins

As I mentioned in the previous post, last week Jeff was kind enough to hook me up with a free case of artisan olive oil from Alejandro & Martin. Since then we’ve had the opportunity to use their oil in two of my favorite recipes: Red Wine Pasta with Almond Slivers and Raisins and Moroccan phyllo cigars with Sephardic spinach filling. (I also used the oil to make a less glamorous meal of scrambled eggs. :D) In each case I was quite pleased with the results, so if you are in the market for a fine sampling of gourmet oil I recommend Alejandro & Martin. I’d even go so far as to say that a case would make a great holiday gift for your favorite foodie.

Incidentally, I was looking through their company profile and think it’s pretty cool how two regular people got together and started an olive oil company. If my foodie dreams were to come true I’d be the owner of a combination book shop, coffee shop and bakery. (The real world manifestation of this blog I guess!) I’d tinker with coffee recipes and bake fabulous things, then attach it to a laid-back, neighborhood friendly book shop with old-world charm. Atmosphere is everything and I’d spend time choosing the colors of the walls, hand picking the wood used in the book shelves, and carefully selecting which comfy chairs would be placed next to which antique styled tables. And yes, I realize that bakers have to get up at the crack of dawn, but I do that already, without the bakery incentive. What about you: if you could make a vocational dream come true, what would it be?

Back to olive oil. I don’t think anyone will be surprised to hear that we’ve been eating olives for hundreds of years, but what about some 10,000 years? It’s true. Archaeological evidence suggests that olives have been a part of the human diet since the 8th millennium BCE. Eventually olives, and especially olive oil, became such an important trade commodity in the ancient world that Homer called olive oil “liquid gold.” The Minoans used it in their religious ceremonies, and then there is the curious fact that the Spartans were the first to begin anointing themselves with olive oil before exercise. This practice was later adopted by much of Greek and Roman culture, and was intended to highlight the beauty of the male body. Olive oil has been medicinal, magical, and an endless source of great wealth and power. The branches of the olive tree were used to make crowns that were ritually offered to the gods. Indeed, such crowns were even discovered in Tutankhamen’s tomb.

In this post I’ve featured two dishes, Red Wine Pasta with Almond Slivers and Raisins and Moroccan phyllo cigars. I’ve also included two filling recipes for the cigars: a Sephardic cheese filling and a Sephardic spinach filling, both of which feature cheeses such as Gouda, Gruyere, Feta and Muenster. Each of these dishes are easy to make and incredibly delicious, but unfortunately the culinary delights of the phyllo cigars prevented me from getting a photo of them. You see, while I was taking a picture of the pasta, everyone ate the cigars. Doh!

And now it’s back to packing for me. Until I we meet again, may you have warm words on a cool evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door.

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