Brown Butter and Sage Ravioli

Brown butter is a handy tool to have at your disposal.  Within just a few minutes, a simple, yet versatile, sauce is born.   You can use brown butter to coat everything from vegetables to veal, and it adds unexpected notes of flavor to baked goods such as brownies and cookies.  Infusing a nutty brown butter with broken leaves of sage and a bit of nutmeg makes a lovely meal when tossed with some cheese ravioli.

Ingredients
½ cup unsalted butter
12 sage leaves, torn
pinch nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
lemon juice from half a lemon
¾ cup parmesan
9 ounces fresh cheese ravioli

Instructions
Cook ravioli according to package directions.  Meanwhile, in large sauté pan, melt butter over medium-low heat.  Add sage leaves and let the butter brown, about two minutes.  You will see brown specks that have formed on the bottom of the pan.  Be careful to not burn the butter, otherwise the taste will be altered.  Add ground pepper, salt and nutmeg.  Take off heat and add lemon juice.  Once ravioli is cooked, add pasta to the brown butter mixture and toss with cheese.

Day 166! Somalia Maraq Bilaash (Cherry Tomato Sauce) and Muufo Baraawe (Somali Bread) - Up Next, Spain

Tonight's meal comes from a Somali cookbook, Somali Cuisine.  All of the recipes in the book are authentic and have been passed orally through generations of women. Some of the cooking methods have been modified for today's modern kitchens, but the dishes remain representative of traditional Somali cuisine. And, while it seems a little ironic to be cooking in my well stocked kitchen given that Somalia is currently experiencing a drought and cholera epidemic so extreme that 4 million people, roughly 1/2 the population, are starving or sick, this simple meal reflects the country's diverse warm culture, culinary influences and customs.

Officially the Somali Republic, Somalia lies in the eastern most part of Africa. Bordered by Djibouti, Kenya, the Gulf of Alden, Yemen, the Indian Ocean and Ethiopia. With the longest coast-line on the continent, the country's terrain is primarily one of plateaus, plains and highlands. The climate is hot all year long except for a distinctive monsoon season. Once the center of commerce, powerful Somali empires dominated trade. In the 19th century, British and Italians took over control of parts of Somalia's coast, while other parts of the country were controlled by various powers. In 1991, Somalia's government collapsed, and civil war erupted.  In 2006, an insurgency led by the Al Ahabaad Islamist group took control of the southern part of the country, while the Transitional Federal Government maintained control of parts of the capital and some territories. It is hoped that the elections in 2012 will restore peace and stability to the country.

Somalia's culinary influences vary greatly by region, blending indigenous, Ethiopian, Yemini, Persian, Turkish, Indian and Italian traditions. Rice, beef, chicken, fish, beans, bananas, okra, tomatoes, pasta and bread are all commonly eaten, with cumin, garlic, hot peppers and cardamom flavoring many dishes. Canjeero, a spongy bread, is a staple and accompanies many dishes. During Ramadan, dinner is generally eaten late after Tarawith prayers have been said.

Local cherry tomatoes...the last of the season. And, one very hot jalapeno!

Frozen okra - I couldn't find fresh in the grocery store today

Onions and garlic for the sauce

Cherry tomatoes and okra make the sauce sweet, and jalapeno gives it heat

Semolina flour for the Muufo bread

Salt, sugar, yeast and minced onion flavor the bread

Maraq Bilassh (Cherry Tomato Sauce) - Recipe Courtesy of somalitreats.com

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium size onion, chopped
4 cups cherry tomatoes, whole
1 jalapeno, cut into medium size
3-4 small okra, cut or whole
Salt to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. lemon juice
5 basil leaves

Heat the oil; add the onions and saute. Add the cherry tomatoes (whole), jalapeno and okra, and cook over medium heat. When the tomatoes being to wrinkle, stir delicately and cook 10-20 minutes more. When the tomato skins start to crack, add the salt, garlic and lemon juice, then mash the contents with a wood spoon. Add the basil leaves and cover for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve with bread, muufo, anjeero, crackers or bagels.

Muufo Baraawe (Somali Bread) - Recipe Courtesy of somalitreats.com

2 cups of white semolina or farina flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar (optional)
1 tsp. onion powder
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
1-1/4 cup lukewarm water
Salt to taste

Combine all the ingredients (except water) together and mix them well in a bowl. Add the water and knead to make to dough. Cover the bowl tightly, put in a warm place (such as the kitchen) for several hours or until the dough doubles in bulk; then work the dough gently with your hands. Cover and let it rise again. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. When the dough has risen a second time, pick about half a handful with wet fingers and drop them on an oiled baking pan,, spacing them 2-3 inches apart. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and put it in the lower rack of the oven for about 15 minutes or until the bottom side of the muufo is golden color. When done, the top of the muufo will stay white. If you want the top side to be golden, flip the muffo over and bake for 3-4 minutes more. Serve with Maraq Bilaash.

Final Assessment: Delicious! I love a simple tomato sauce, and the addition of okra and jalapeno gave the sauce such great texture and zip. We dipped the chewy muufo bread in the sauce and lapped it up. This is a lovely vegetarian meal!

© 2010-2011, What's Cooking in Your World? Sarah Commerford/All Rights Reserved

Curried Chicken Salad

Nobody could blame you if you thought of chicken salad as boring.  Quite frankly, it often is.  But bring in a bit of Eastern influence, and chicken salad can become something else, something very not-boring.  Something fresh, something exciting, something that activates your taste buds.  This curried chicken salad brings together a variety of flavors and textures – crunchy and sweet apples, spicy red onions, buttery chunks of melt-in-your mouth chicken, and a cacophony of peppery, earthy, fiery, savory, sweet seasonings.

Ingredients
2 pounds boneless chicken breast
turmeric
cayenne pepper
garlic powder
paprika
cumin
butter
2 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 granny smith apple, diced
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 scallions
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon spice mix, recipe below

Spice Mix:
1 ½  teaspoons coriander, crushed
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon cayenne
1/8 teaspoon ancho chile powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon mustard powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions
Mix all the spices together in a bowl.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.   Cover each piece of chicken with a pat of butter and sprinkle a bit of turmeric, cayenne, garlic powder, paprika, and cumin on each.  Bake for about 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.  Turn the pieces over about half way through baking so both sides can get browned.  When cooked, let the chicken cool then shred or cut into chunks.  In a large bowl, mix together the chicken, apple pieces, red onion, and scallions.  In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, lemon juice, and spice mix.  Add the mayonnaise mixture to the ingredients in the large bowl and mix together.  Refrigerate.

I Love Thai Cooking

Sometimes the recipes I try from food blogs work, other times they don't. On rare occasions they are so good they become "keepers" that I know I will cook again and again. The other night I made the Stir Fried Shanghai Noodles with Beef recipe from I Love Thai Cooking/Pranee's Thai Kitchen. It was very quick, easy and inexpensive to make and absolutely delicious! If you are looking for the way to make one steak serve two people, this is it.

The recipe uses some staple ingredients you probably already have on hand like soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. I found fresh Shanghai noodles in a two pound bag at a local Asian grocery store. I used a flat iron steak instead of flank steak and Mirin in place of the rice wine or sake so I didn't add the sugar. I also added one slivered green onion at the end of cooking. I followed the instructions pretty closely so I am not going to reprint the recipe but suggest you head to Pranee's blog to find it.

Pranee's blog has mostly Thai recipes, ingredient guides and travel posts. Learn about exotic fruit like durian and vegetables like bitter melon, find recipes for unusual dishes such as Sunflower Sprout Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette. It's definitely worthy of a bookmark.

Interview with Nigel Slater

Nigel Slater is a cook and food writer from England who has written extensively for magazines and newspapers and is author of nine cookbooks. The film based on his autobiography Toast is being released in theaters in the US this month. It features a very strong cast which includes Helena Bonham Carter as his stepmother.

In anticipation of the film, I got a chance to speak with him about his autobiography, the film, his passion for gardening (the subject of his most recent book Tender) and the food writers who influenced him the most when he was growing up.

Your autobiography Toast was intimately revealing. What inspired you to write it?
I wrote the book because I wanted to record the food of the 60's and 70's, the food I ate at home, not "cheffy" food. It turned out each food had a story, it was a collection of diary entries. As a child I knew there was exciting cooking out there, but I wasn't having it. Because academically I didn't do very well, it seemed to work well to go into cooking college and it was there I discovered the pleasures of cooking and eating, that food is a good and happy thing. Sadly that discovery wasn't until I was in my dark teens. It's the germ of a love story. Young Nigel became a different person.

I was and still am a very private person, I'd never talked much about my private life. I do not know why I let it get so intimate. I stopped writing at one point and thought no one would be interested. But it was an extraordinary thing to do and it turns out a lot people do relate to it. I've protected myself by stopping the book at age 18.

Would you ever consider writing a sequel?
I don't think I would do a sequel because it would include people who are alive.

How were you involved in the making of the movie?
I wasn't going to be involved at all, but when I met the director, I realized I was going to be drawn in whether I liked it or not. I didn't get involved in the screenplay but I did go up on set and seemed to show up on the most emotional scenes. When you hear it through headphones it's so loud it really hit home. The mother dying scene was very emotional.

Which affected you more, the book or the film?
I shed tears over both the film and the book, I'm very much a book person, it's difficult to say which is more cathartic, and I realize there were things I never did. The book was most cathartic but the film was the icing on the cake.

Under the covers at night you read cookbooks by flashlight. Which cookbook authors and food writers influenced you most?
Early on I was influenced by Margaret Costa. It was sort of bistro cooking which represented something very rich. A lot of people don't know her. I certainly read, but didn't warm to Elizabeth David. I read Jane Grigson too, though some of her recipes seem a little dated today. I also enjoyed Constance Spry, she started the Cordon Bleu, her writing has an elegance to it. The first TV cook I saw was Graham Kerr who changed everything in England.

Lemon meringue pie features prominently in the book and the movie. Can you tell me more about it?
The best lemon meringue pie I ever had was my stepmother's and I never got her recipe. It's the elusive recipe that I value above all others. I've never been able to duplicate it.

In the film the food was highlighted, the colors were almost washed out and then the food was colored so it sang out. It made the food to be the star of the film. That made me very happy.

In the book you form a friendship with the gardener, did that inspire your love of gardening and the book Tender?
There was something about growing things, with the gardener, but in later years I also gardened with my father. I grew carrots and I got this gardening bug. You never forget the first time a seed you plant grows. I knew one day I wanted a garden. When I bought my house in London I turned down buying several places because there was no patch for a garden. Gardening is connected to happy and carefree moments for me. When I'm in the garden I'm disconnected, I don't even take my mobile (cell phone).

Will there be a sequel to Tender?
Yes, it will be a book on fruit.

SPOILER ALERT! Skip this if you have not read the book or don't want to know how the movie ends...






At the end of the movie you leave your stepmother and never see her again. Is that the way it really happened?
I lived with my stepmother for a few weeks and I knew she wasn't going to stay in the house. I'd escaped from the Midlands and that's where she wanted to return, it's where her family was. The idea of London was exciting. I'm amazed that I had the strength to leave. I realized that there was no hope for that relationship. In retrospect I would have loved to put things right with her.

For more on the film visit the Toast Facebook page or follow on Twitter @Toastfilm

Sweet Potato Oven Fries with Citrus Herb Dip

These crispy, seasoned oven fries are served with a tangy and aromatic citrus herb dip.  The dip is heavy on the cilantro for a super-flavorful south of the border punch. Cutting the sweet potatoes into wedges gives them a good shape for dipping. Not only are these healthier, but to me, they taste better than any deep fried french fries I’ve had.

Ingredients
Oven Fries:
3 sweet potatoes, cut into wedges
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup canola oil
¼ teaspoon cayenne

Citrus Herb Dip:
½ cup cilantro
1 scallion
1 teaspoon lime zest
juice from 1 lime
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons canola oil

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425.  Mix the sweet potatoes in a bowl with the canola oil, salt, and peppers.  Bake for about 40 minutes, being sure to toss the pieces so all the sides brown.

In food processor, simply puree all dip ingredients.  Serve in a bowl for dipping!

Why do YOU cook, Monica Bhide?

I'm not sure there is a harder working food writer than Monica Bhide. She teaches, writes magazine articles, has a syndicated newspaper column called Seasonings, and has written several cookbooks including her most recent, Modern Spice. What I like about her writing is the personal stories and her enthusiasm for using different ingredients. She's also about as big a twitteraholic as I am. Not only do I learn something new when I read her stories, articles and tweets, but I enjoy the journey.

As a child, I always felt that I had trouble relating with the world. I always felt that I did not fit in the crowd and that I could not really "connect" with people. Then one day, I discovered what I did relate to: the kitchen. I would spend hours watching my parents and my grandparents and uncles and aunts cooking but never attempted to try it myself. I think I was about 8 or 9 when I began to cook. It was an experience unlike any other. I never felt awkward or out of place in the kitchen. I never thought of cooking as hard (unlike school work!). The kitchen made me feel at peace with myself. It was around the same time that I started writing... but all the writing was private. I never shared it with anyone.

But back to cooking: As a child, there were so many things I could not do. I did not know how to swim or ride a bike or be one with the in crowd. But I knew how to bring out the best in eggplant, i knew how to sizzle cumin just right to release it's flavor and aroma, i knew how to stuff an okra with a pungent spice mix, I knew how to simmer a deep and intensely flavored lamb curry. I would go to the farmers market and pick fruits and vegetables with my dad and learned how to tell good fish from bad. And then the magic happened: when I served the food to people, they liked it. It became the source of connection with friends and family and those who came to my table. I felt like I finally had made a connection. Years later, as I cook to care and nurture my family, my writing grew up. I heard from more and more people that they connected with my words and that made them want to cook my food.

I cook because it is who I am. Cooking, for me, is a away of nurturing those around me and sharing a part of me with them. My world of writing and food makes me feel like I belong in this world and that I have a purpose and that I matter and can make a difference.



Monica Bhide is the twentieth person profiled in this series. Read more profiles.