Turkey Sliders with Kale and Roasted Broccoli Spread

I'm generally okay with getting older.  Some people desire the ability to time travel back to high school, longing to be 16 again and rejoining cheerleading squads and all that jazz.  I'm not one of those sorts.  I have the "older is wiser" philosophy of life. However, while I don't wish to relive the past, I do wish I possessed the ability to stop myself from doing certain things.  But I digress.

One of the things I'm not okay with is my waning lack of enthusiasm for thrill rides.  And more specifically, roller coasters.  There was a time when I absolutely could not wait to be tall enough to go on a roller coaster, and as soon as I became tall enough, gleefully and joyfully rode those roller coasters.  I considered my love of roller coasters as an integral part of my identity, akin to being a reader or a person with brunette hair.

But now?  My love has has been frittered away.  I find them painful.  Painful.  Both physically, and now emotionally, as being tossed around in a tiny car appears to not be a kind thing to do to this almost 30 year-old body.  And emotionally, as this thing that I would look forward to doing each summer, this thing that I was always proud of doing, is no longer mine to claim.

One thing that will not wane, or I absolutely refuse to let it - is an enthusiasm for miniature foods.  I have fond memories of mini hamburgers (i don't remember calling them sliders at the time) being served by my mom. And absolutely loving their adorable size, a trait that never ceases to thrill me to this day.  Here we made little turkey burgers, and punched up their umami flavor with some tomato paste, Parmesan cheese, ground dried porcini mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce.  The patties were moist (we may have had a casualty) but it is worth the trade off.  Topping them with a slice of Parmesan and a roasted broccoli spread punches up the flavor, while raw kale adds a bit of crunch. A food for the ages.

And if you are obsessed with the idea of miniature burgers and need more recipe ideas, Cooking Light has you covered! This slideshow here features all sorts of these mini sandwiches - from Bacon and Cheddar to Beet and Brown Rice! Endless possibilities!

Ingredients
For the turkey patties:
20 ounces ground turkey
1 teaspoon ground dried porcini mushrooms (run the dried mushrooms through a spice grinder)
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Greek yogurt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
pinch kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

For the roasted broccoli spread:
3-4 cups broccoli florets
4 garlic cloves
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
drizzle of lemon juice
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon of mango flesh
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground pasilla
2 tablespoons chives
1 scallion
cayenne, to taste
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the burgers:
12-14 miniature burger (slider) buns
slices of Parmesan cheese (I like using my y-shaped vegetable peeler for this)
kale leaves (tough stems removed)
cooked turkey patties
roasted broccoli spread

Instructions
To make the turkey patties: In a large bowl, mix together the turkey, ground mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, Greek yogurt, garlic powder, Parmesan, salt, and pepper.  Form the mixture into small patties.  I get 12-14 patties from it.

To make the roasted broccoli spread:  Heat oven to 425.  Spread the florets and garlic on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.  Roast for 20-30 minutes, until browned.

Remove the broccoli/garlic from pan and place in bowl.  Add the Greek yogurt, olive oil, mango, lemon juice, pasilla, chives, and scallion.  Blend with an immersion blender (or put everything in a food processor to make the spread).  Adjust cayenne, salt, and pepper to taste.

To make the burgers:  Heat canola oil over high heat in a cast iron skillet.  Add the patties.  Brown one side (about 3 minutes or so).  Flip the burgers over and add a Parmesan cheese slice to each.  Keep the heat on high to brown the bottoms.  Cover skillet with a baking sheet or lid and turn the heat to low to finish cooking the turkey and to melt the cheese.  Once the burgers are fully cooked and the cheese has melted, remove from pan.

To assemble the sliders:  Place a piece of kale and a cooked burger patty on each bun.  Spread the roasted broccoli sauce on each before closing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Free Italian Cooking Classes & Dinner in San Francisco

Next week there are a number of spaces still open at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco for free pasta classes with the "pasta sommelier" of Delverde pasta. Check the schedule, choose a class and register. The dishes being served are: 

- pasta salad with eggplant, rocket, crispy bread and Pecorino cheese

- vegetarian pasta with egg

- mushrooms and leeks pasta stirred with a Ricotta cheese and thyme sauce

- salad pasta with pesto, zucchini and crispy ham

- sausage pasta with sun dried tomatoes, black olives, capers and onions

- cheese and pepper pasta sauce with a mint aroma

Tickets are FREE! 

On Wednesday September 11th I'll be one of the judges along with my friend and colleague Viola Buitoni of Italy’s famed Buitoni pasta making family, at the IMAF Chef's Cup. It's the grand finale of a competition between Michelin starred Italian chefs Rosanna Marziale and Stefano Cerveni of Le due Colombe a Corte Franca. The two chefs will present dishes they created inspired by films. 

Chef Rosanna Marziale will present Spaghetti Gragnano, served with San Marzano tomatoes dripped in Mozzarella di Bufala.  The dish was inspired by the famous Italian film, “Poverty and Nobility.”   Chef Stefano Cerveni will showcase his Bread Soup with diced, crispy free-range Chicken and Black Truffles inspired by the Academy Award-winning movie "Babette's Feast". Tickets are $100 / person for the wine paired dinner and include gratuity.  Reservations online or with Il Fornaio by calling (415) 986-0100.

I am also giving away a pair of tickets to the grand finale! Simply leave a comment with your favorite Italian dish and be sure to include your email in the proper field (only I will see it). Please only enter if you are available to attend this coming Wednesday September 11th at Il Fornaio in San Francisco from 6:30-9:30 pm. Winner will be chosen the morning of September 10th. 

Buon Appetito!

Strawberry Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Muffins

There are many experiences in life to which I have absolutely no inclination to become a participant.  Like running a marathon.  Or bungee jumping. Or learning computer programming. Or Living in a snowy/icy location.  I just have no interest in these.

And I'm thinking that eating muffins without chocolate chips has to be added to that list.  Non-chocolate-chip muffins can sound so wonderful and so delicious.  And I'm taken in by their charms, their warmth, their smell (I'm looking at you apple muffins). And I will bake some.  And after I eat one, and the remaining 11 or so muffins are waiting to be eaten, my mind starts to regret this muffin path that I have chosen, and I fervently wish that a chocolate chip muffin, of some kind, of any kind, was in front of me instead.

I now put chocolate chips in banana muffins, zucchini muffins, muffins without fruit - ALL the muffins. Including these ones. I imagine that someone will assume that all the muffins taste the same. But that is just complete and utter nonsense.

Do I want that sweet banana taste with my chocolate chips or do I want some sweet berries? What kind of texture should the muffin have today? These are important questions. And lead to very (okay maybe not very) but still, they are all different muffins. All very different vehicles for delivering chocolate chips into my mouth.

Instead of leaving things well enough alone, I took out the lemon from this recipe and added vanilla extract and a bit of almond extract and some cinnamon and nutmeg for some fragrance. And, most importantly, chocolate chips were added to the mix. It is a muffin path with no regrets.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups chopped strawberries + 2 tablespoons flour
2 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Instructions 
Heat oven to 350. In a small bowl, gently coat the strawberries with the 2 tablespoons flour together and set aside. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk 2 ½ cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. In a large bowl, mix together extracts, sugar, egg, buttermilk, and oil. Mix the dry ingredients into wet, stirring until just combined. Gently mix in the strawberries that have been tossed with flour, as well as the chocolate chips. Line a muffin pan with liners then divide batter among the prepared cups. Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. 

Baked Fish Sticks with Avocado Lemon Ginger Dip

I must confess to one of my "quirks."  I do not wear jeans.  I am not trying to cultivate an eccentricity.  I just absolutely do not find them comfortable.  That stiff denim fabric.  That waist band that rubs against the skin. I hate it with the entirety of my heart.  They have been phased out of my life completely.

My aversion to jeans started at an early age.  I'm pretty sure my mom capitalized on this fact, and would make me wear jeans as punishment when I was little.  I say "pretty sure" because I sometimes lose track of what is reality and what are the personal myths and lies we tell ourselves (luckily, this beloved parent of mine is coming for a visit, so I can find out for sure - I'm extremely excited about this). But I do remember that the thought of wearing jeans was an effective deterrent against wrongdoing.

Eventually, I gave in to lure of conformity, wearing denim like all the normal people.  But I never loved them, and relished the thought of returning to a state of pajamahood at the end of each and every day.

One day, it occurred to me that I did not need to continue my denim distress.  Alternatives exist.  And thus I left behind my jail of jeans.

So instead of being fashionable, I choose comfort. Which generally leaves me with two choices.  Dresses, with or without leggings. And yoga/sweat pants and tees.  Which, depending on my mood, leaves me under or over dressed for just about every occasion.  And I am okay with this.

Sometimes, however, comfortable clothes just don't give the proper amount of comfort.  And that is where food comes in.  A few days ago, my friend Jess informed that you can cut fish into stick shapes.  And then turn those into fish sticks. This was the most genius of all the ideas.  How did I not think of that before?  So I went ahead and made one of those most basics of comfort foods - fish sticks.  And a wonderfully zesty avocado lemon ginger dip to go along with it.  Comfort food that goes supremely well with anything you choose to wear.

Ingredients
For the fish sticks:
3/4 pound white fish (I used rockfish), cut into strips or nuggets (whatever shape strikes your fancy!)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup flour
1 cup panko
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 teaspoons dried dill weed

For the avocado lemon ginger dip:
1 tablespoon grated ginger (use a microplane)
flesh from 1 small avocado
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 chopped scallions
1 tablespoon chives
pinch Saigon cinnamon

Instructions
To make the fish sticks:  Heat oven to 375.

Place egg in a shallow bowl.  In another shallow bowl, mix together flour, panko, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and dill.

Take each strip or nugget and dredge in the beaten egg and then the panko mixture.  Place on baking sheet.  Repeat until all the fish has been dredged in both the egg and the panko mixture.  Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown on the outside and cooked through.

To make the dip:  Place ginger, avocado, Greek yogurt, and lemon zest/juice in bowl.  Use a fork to mash together.  Add scallions, chives, and pinch of cinnamon and continue to blend together.  Serve with fish sticks.

My Berlin Kitchen Review & Giveaway

If you are a fan of The Wednesday Chef blog, there's no question, you will enjoy My Berlin Kitchen: Adventures in Love and Life by Luisa Weiss now out in paperback. The book is a memoir with recipes and Weiss traces her journey through her memories of food in vivid detail. The style of writing, like Weiss herself is a bit of a mishmash. Her parents are Italian and American but she was born and partially raised in Germany. She is very precise when it comes to recipe writing yet there are splashes of sensuality and emotion in her prose as well.

Weiss is a good writer and a master of detail. Her experiences and recollections of her time in Germany, the US, France and Italy are often snapshots of times and places and really have the ability to transport you. The book follows a romantic storyline, with some funny bits interspersed with plenty of angst, and it's generally pleasurable to read, although she's clearly not a happy-go-lucky live-for-the-day type. 

Memoirs require a certain level of introspection and self involvement and as a result the subject can come across as self-absorbed at times, especially when written by someone who is fairly young. Ultimately I didn't find Weiss as endearing as I would have hoped. Frankly I had the same issues with the Julie/Julia Project. I also found some gaps and unanswered questions perplexing--why did she live with her father in the US instead of her mother?  Why did she accept the job in San Francisco when nothing about living in San Francisco appealed to her? Once she moved to Berlin did her career end in favor of writing her memoir and nothing more? That said, I enjoyed the book, particularly the German comfort food recipes (Gooseberry cream cake, Alsatian flatbread with bacon and creme fraiche, spiced plum butter and spiced cookies) and I do recommend it. 

Viking is giving away one copy of this book to a Cooking with Amy reader, US resident only. Leave a comment telling me about your favorite recipe from The Wednesday Chef blog or the German recipe you'd most like to learn to cook. I'll choose a winner at random on September 5th. You must include your email address in the appropriate field so I can contact you. It will only be visible to me.

Disclaimer: I received this book as a review copy. I was not paid to write this or any other post on Cooking with Amy. 

LUCKYRICE comes to San Francisco

I don't write about events very often, especially ones I haven't been to before, but I'm excited to tell you about LUCKYRICE, an Asian food and drink festival coming to San Francisco. 

LUCKYRICE was created by Danielle Chang a Bay Area native and has seen success in NY, LA, Miami and Las Vegas. I'm not sure what took so long for the festival to come to San Francisco, home of so many fantastic Asian cultures and cuisines! 

Chefs participating include some of my favorites like James Syhabout of Hawker Fare, Azalina Eusope of Azalina's, Alexander Ong most recently at Betelnut, Frances Ang, pastry chef at Fifth Floor, Greg Dunsmore of Nojo and Preeti Mistry of Juhu Beach Club. 

Other chefs include Masaharu Morimoto, Sharon Nahm of E&O Asian Kitchen, Kyle Itani  of Hopscotch Restaurant and Bar, Kathy Fang of House of Nanking and Fang, as well as chefs from Izakaya Yuzuki, Ichi Sushi, M.Y. China, Pabu, Roka Akor,  The Slanted Door, Spice Kit, Tacolicious and more. 

This event will create a one night only night market style event. Some of the top bartenders in town will be participating including some of my personal favorites, Kevin Diedrich of Jasper's Corner Tap, Martin Cate of Smuggler's Cove, and H of Elixir. 

I can't wait to try some of the slated dishes like beef tart ate, Mendocino uni with chiccharones and lime, beef tendon and squid salad and Taiwanese corn soup with poached quail egg. I hope you'll join me! 

The details:

LUCKYRICE

Friday, September 6 from 7-10 pm

Ferry Building

Tickets are $88 (a lucky number)

VIP tickets are already sold out so don't delay! 

Cherry Tomato Pizza Recipe

It's hard to say no to cheese. Since I never tasted Parrano cheese I was more than happy to accept a sample to try.  Apparently it has been around since the 1970's but I can't recall ever seeing it at the market. It's a semi-firm cheese created by a Dutch cheese maker who went to Italy and was inspired to create a Gouda that would be reminiscent of Northern Italian style cheese.  It's aged for at least 5 months and often described as tasting like a cross between Gouda and Parmesan. I'm not sure I agree with that assessment, but I can tell you it's buttery and has a caramel like flavor that complements tomatoes beautifully. 

I've been inundated with cherry tomatoes recently and decided I would use them on a pizza with Parrano cheese. I also happened to have some grilled marinated artichokes and that combination is really something. I added chives for a little color and oniony flavor, but really, just a plain cherry tomato pizza would be delicious too. The good thing about using cherry tomatoes instead of tomato slices and Parrano cheese instead of mozzarella is that neither will make your pizza soggy. That said, biting into a cherry tomato half can be a deliciously juicy experience. 

I love artichokes, but mostly the marinated ones available in jars are not very good. Recently I found Cucina & Amore  grilled marinated whole artichoke hearts in a local grocery store and decided to given them a try. They are now a staple in my pantry!  They are all natural and I think the grilling is what really makes them so outstanding. If you can find them, give them a try. 

Cherry Tomato Pizza 

Two 10 inch pizzas

Ingredients

1 lb pizza dough, at room temperature

Olive oil

2 cups parrano cheese

2 cusp cherry tomato halves

2/3 cup drained marinated artichoke hearts, preferably roasted (optional)

1 Tablespoon chopped chives

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Divide the pizza dough in half. Lightly oil pizza pans and push the pizza dough into the pans, until it reaches the edge, if if shrinks, gently stretch it back into shape. Top each pizza with 1 cup of cheese and 1 cup of cherry tomato halves. Tuck 1/3 cup artichoke hearts between the tomatoes. Bake until the crust begins to turn brown around the edges and is crisp, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle chives on the pizza before serving.

Enjoy!