A Refreshing Summer Delight
There is nothing better then having some chilled juice or a refreshing milkshake on a hot spring day. Last weekend I discovered an even better and healthier alternative; Mango Lassi. An Indian drink that combines fruit (often mango) with yogurt and milk. Easy to make and delicious!
Lassi is a popular and traditional yogurt-based drink of the Indian subcontinent. It is made by blending yogurt with water and Indian spices. Traditional lassi (salted lassi) is a savory drink sometimes flavored with ground roasted cumin while sweet lassi on the other hand is blended with sugar or fruits instead of spices.
Ingredients:
9 fluid ounces plain yogurt
4 1/2 fluid ounces milk
4 1/2 fluid ounces canned mango pulp or 7 ounces from 3 fresh mango, stoned and sliced
4 teaspoons sugar, for taste, or cardamom seeds
Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend for 2 minutes, then pour into individual glasses, and serve. Adding salt and sprinkling some cardamom seeds adds great flavor. The lassi can be kept refrigerated for up to 24 hours.
Alternatives to this Mango Lassi recipe are Ginger Mango Lassi or Mango, Chile and Lime Lassi. Enjoy!
-RVDB
Barcelona Chorizo
The season is approaching when New Yorkers who prayed for summer all winter remember its much too hot in the summer and flee. Barcelona– no, not the city in Spain– is a great destination a short train ride away from the city. Barcelona Restaurant has expanded to several locations in Connecticut, but the original tapas bar is in South Norwalk, CT. The SoNo downtown neighborhood is right off the Metro-North New Haven line stop, and its brick buildings have been restored to house cool restaurants and bars right on the Norwalk Harbor. Or you can make this little dish at home.
CHORIZO WITH SWEET AND SOUR FIGS
Serves 4-6
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 pounds smoked Spanish chorizo, cut on the diagonal into slices about 1/4 inch thick
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups dried white Turkish figs, stemmed and quartered
1 1/4 cups sherry vinegar
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cloves
1. In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat for about 1 minute. Working in batches, sear the chorizo and garlic for 2-3 minutes, turning the sausage once during cooking. Set sausage aside.
2. Put the figs in a medium saucepan with the vinegars, brown sugar, water, cinnamon cloves. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for about 10 minutes, adjusting the heat up or down to maintain the simmer.
3. Divide the chorizo among 6 bowls. Pour the figs and the pan sauce over the chorizo and serve piping hot.
The Barcelona Cookbook. Sasa Mahr-Batuz and Andy Pforzheimer with Mary Goodbody. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel publishing, LLC. 2009. pg. 86.
Barcelona SoNo
63.65 N. Main St.
S. Norwalk, CT 06854
Tel: 203.899.0088
-EM
Fat Tuesday- Steamed Mussels
Am I allowed to write a blog post about Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking if my name isn’t Julie? Oh well, here goes. A classic from a classic.
Moules à la Marinière
For 6-8 people
Here is the simplest version of this most typical of French methods for cooking mussels. They are steamed open in a big pot with wine and flavorings, and it only takes only about 5 minutes. Then the mussels, shells and all, are dipped out into soup plates, and the cooking liquor is poured over them. Each guest removes the mussels one by one from their shells with fingers or a fork and discards the shells into a side dish. In addition to shell dish and fork, provide your guests with a soup spoon for drinking up the mussel juices, a big napkin, and a finger bowl. long with the mussels serve French bread, butter, and a chilled, light, dry white wine such as a Muscadet, dry Graves, or one of the Pouillys.
2 cups of light, dry white wine or 1 cup dry white vermouth
An 8- to 10-quart enameled kettle with cover
1/2 cup minced shallots, or green onions, or very finely minced onions
8 parsley sprigs
1/2 bay leaf
1/4 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp pepper
6 TB butter
Bring the wine to a boil in the kettle with the rest of the ingredients listed. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes to evaporate its alcohol and the reduce its volume slightly.
6 quarts scrubbed, soaked mussels
After scrubbing each mussel clean with a brush, set the mussels in a basin of fresh water for an hour or two so they will disgorge their sand and also lose a bit of their saltiness. Drain and rinse mussels, then add them to the kettle. Cover tightly and boil quickly over high heat. Frequently grasp the kettle with both hands, your thumbs clamped to the cover, and toss the mussels in the kettle with an up and down slightly jerky motion so the mussels with change levels and cook evenly. In about 5 minutes the shells will swing open and the mussels are done.
1/2 cup roughly chopped parsley
With a big skimmer, dip the mussels into wide soup plates. Allow the cooking liquid to settle for a moment so any sand will sink to the bottom. Then ladle the liquid over the mussels, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.
Julia Child. Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
-EM
Fat Tuesday- Spring in the Joy of Cooking
Lots of living things come creeping out of the ground when spring arrives: wiggling worms, sweet crocuses and buds of forsythia. And fresh young vegetables and fruit to put on your table. Tender asparagus is one of my favorite foods to appear, so I flipped open my trusty Joy of Cooking in search of a simple recipe to get ready. I’m looking forward to Saturday lunch, making a soup while April rain falls. After a creamy, savory, but fresh soup a slice of sweet, tart and crumbly pie would be the perfect finish. Strawberries and rhubarb also emerge in the spring, all in all a perfect rainy spring lunch.
Cream of Asparagus Soup
About 6 cups
Wash and remove the tips from:
1 pound fresh green asparagus
Simmer the tips, covered, until they are tender, in a small amount of:
Milk or water
Cut the stalks into pieces and place them in a large saucepan. Add:
6 cups poultry stock
¼ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped celery
Simmer these ingredients, covered, about ½ hour. Strain them through a sieve. Melt in the top of a double boiler:
3 tablespoons butter
Stir until blended:
3 tablespoons flour
Stir in slowly:
½ cup cream
Add the asparagus stock. Heat the soup, adding the asparagus tips. Season immediately before serving with:
Salt, paprika and white pepper
Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
A 9-inch, double crust pie
BASIC PIE DOUGH
For a double-crust 9-inch, or a single-crust pie with a generous lattice, use the following amounts:
Sift together:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Measure and combine:
2/3 cup chilled leaf lard or shortening
2 tablespoons chilled butter
Cut half of the shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry blender, or work it in lightly with the tips of your fingers until it has the grain or cornmeal. Cut the remaining half coarsely into the dough until it is pea size.
Sprinkle the dough with:
4 tablespoons water
Blend the water lightly into the dough. You may lift the ingredients with a fork, allowing the moisture to spread. If needed to hold the ingredients together, add:
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon water
When you can gather the dough up into a tidy ball, stop handling it. Roll out dough and cut into circle to fit to pie dish.
PIE
Line a pie pan with:
Basic pie dough
Prepare by picking over and hulling:
2 cups fresh strawberries
and dice:
2 cups unpeeled, young rhubarb stalks
Combine:
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 ¼ – 2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon butter
(1 teaspoon grated orange rind)
Sprinkle these ingredients over the berries and stir gently until well blended. Let stand for 15 minutes
Preheat oven to 450°
Turn the fruit into the pie shell. Dot with:
1 – 2 tablespoons butter
Cover the pie with a well-pricked top or with a lattice. Bake the pie in a 450° over 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350° and bake 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.
The Joy of Cooking. Irma von Starkloff Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker. Bobbs-Merrill (1975).
-EM
Fat Tuesday- Barbecued Shrimp
Each Tuesday, the Dizon Inc. team will dedicate themselves to thinking about food, bringing a favorite restaurant or recipe to our blog.
Today, a dish from beloved chef Paul Prudhomme. The food in Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen cookbook is authentically Cajun, and necessitates a love of spicy heat, seafood, and butter. The Barbecued Shrimp doesn’t require a barbecue, just a stove top, so it is perfect for rainy spring days in a tiny New York kitchen, dreaming about summer. I love spice, so can stand to double the seasoning measurements, and also make the adjustment of serving the shrimp over a bowl of pappardelle instead of rice. The dish is super rich, and ear-steaming hot: surviving it makes you feel invincible.
Barbecued Shrimp
Makes 2 Servings
2 dozen large shrimp with heads and shells (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup Shrimp Stock (instructions below main recipe)
Seasoning Mix:
1 teaspoon ground red pepper (preferably cayenne)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 pound (1 stick) plus 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, in all
1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup beer at room temperature
Rinse the shrimp in cold water and drain well. Then pinch off and discard the portion of the head from the eyes forward (including the eyes, but not the protruding long spine above the eyes). Leave as much as possible of the orange shrimp fat from the head attached to the body. Set aside.
In a small bowl combine the seasoning mix ingredients. Combine 1 stick of the butter, the garlic, Worcestershire and seasoning mix in a large skillet over high heat. When the butter is melted, add the shrimp. Cook for 2 minutes, shaking the pan (versus stirring) in a back-and-forth motion. Add the remaining 5 tablespoons of butter and the stock; cook and shake the pain for 2 minutes. Add the beer and cook and shake the pain 1 minute longer. Remove from heat.
Serve immediately in bowls with lots of French bread on the side, or on a platter with cooked rice mounded in the middle and the shrimp and sauce surrounding it.
Basic Shrimp Stock
About 2 quarts cold water
1 medium onion, unpeeled and quartered
1 large clove garlic, unpeeled and quartered
1 rib celery
1 1/2-2 pounds rinsed shrimp heads and/or shells, or crawfish heads/shells, or crab shells, or rinsed fish carcasses (heads and gills removed), or any combination of these. (You can also substitute oyster liquor of all or part of seafood stock called for in a recipe.)
Place all ingredients in a stock pot or a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then gently simmer at least 4 hours, preferably 8, replenishing water as needed to keep a quart of liquid in the pan. The pot may be uncovered or set a lid on it askew. Strain, cool, and refrigerate until ready to use.
from Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen, New York: William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1984
-EM
