Preserved Lemons, If You Can Believe That.

I can't imagine how I got fixated on preserved lemons....oh, wait, yes I can. I can blame it on Bryn. She and Doug were showing off some of their flea market finds for the kitchen, including an impressive collection of vintage decorative serving plates that they use daily for fresh fruits and vegetables, cheese and crackers, and just about anything that could benefit from a burst of color and style. As it turns out, Doug has developed quite an eye for unusual mid-century items and as a result their dinner table has become quite the visual feast, the perfect setting to showcase Bryn's prowess in the kitchen.

While surveying their kitchen shelves, my eye landed on a colorful Moroccan tagine, a cooking vessel I've never owned or used. But its graceful lines and indisputable practicality have always intrigued me.

This is a typical North African tagine with a domed lid. I like Bryn and Doug's better

because their tagine has a lid that is shaped like the Eiffel Tower.

The tagine was another of their second-hand store scores, but Bryn confessed she'd never tried using it. In a burst of enthusiasm, I suggested she and I find a recipe we could throw into the tagine for a fun dinner that night. After scouring the Internet, Bryn announced that we'd need preserved lemons in order to keep any recipe authentic, and that preserving lemons took 3-4 weeks, time we didn't have. In the back of my mind, I vowed that when I got back to California, I'd take advantage of my back yard lemon tree to try a batch of preserved lemons.

Preserved lemons, or citrons confits, are a staple of Moroccan cooking and Arab dishes to enhance anything cooked in a tagine: lamb, salmon, chicken, and all kinds of cooked vegetables. The experts highly recommend using Meyer lemons for their milder flavor and fragrant skins, which is lucky for me because my Meyer lemon tree produces more fruit than I could ever use.

I adapted this recipe to accommodate two 1-quart jars that I wanted to fill. Lemons vary is size but you can figure on needing at least 4 Meyer lemons plus the juice from 3 additional lemons for each quart-sized jar. I also opted to add some spices to the mixture.

Preserved Lemons

Wash and scald two clear 1-quart Mason jars. Also sterilize the lids and bands. Set aside to dry.

14 Meyer lemons, 8 will go into the jars, plus 6 more for squeezing. Use only unsprayed lemons!
Salt. Sea salt or Kosher salt is best.
2 Cinnamon sticks, 1 for each jar.
6-8 Whole cloves, 3-4 for each jar.
12 Coriander seeds, 6 for each jar.
8 Black peppercorns, 4 for each jar.
2 Bay leaves, 1 for each jar.

Scrub the lemons lightly with a vegetable brush and set aside to dry. Trim off the pointed ends, and cut lengthwise down through each of 8 lemons, stopping about a half-inch from the bottom. Turn the lemons and make a similar cut so that each lemon is almost cut into quarters but not into 4 pieces. Opening the lemon like a flower, pack each lemon with about 1 tablespoon of salt so the exposed flesh is thoroughly coated with salt.

Put 1-2 tablespoons of salt in the bottom of each quart jar. Start adding the cut and salted lemons into the jars, jamming each lemon down hard to extract the juices. With each added lemon, press down hard to release as much juice as you can. Add the spices to each jar. If you need more juice, squeeze the additional unsalted lemons to bring the juice level up to about 1/2-inch from the top of the jar. Do not use commercial lemon juice; it isn't the same as fresh lemon juice.

Seal each jar and set aside for about a month. Every day, turn the jars to re-distribute the juice and spices. After 4 weeks, the lemons should be soft and ready to use. These can be stored in the refrigerator for at least 6 months. Before using, remove the lemon from the jar with a sterile utensil (not your hands) and rinse to remove the excess salt. Scrape off the pulp and slice the peels into thin strips or dice.

Makes 2 quarts, which should be enough for numerous recipes. I'm told that diced preserved lemons are wonderful stirred into cooked green beans or carrots, spread over roasted squash, or mashed and mixed into softened butter and fresh herbs to flavor grilled fish. Personally, I'm dreaming about salmon or lamb braised with preserved lemon strips.

This batch will be ready for use when Bryn and Doug get here for the holidays. I think a chicken braised in a tagine with preserved lemons would be the perfect family dinner. I hope she's up for it because I'm all set to be her sous chef. Now that I've gotten the key ingredient down pat, all that needs followup reporting is the dinner itself. Stay tuned.

Cold Cucumber-Yogurt Soup

When I was in Boston last week, my favorite Bostonians and I made our way to a sidewalk cafe for a late afternoon cocktail. Feeling a bit peckish after a day on the water, we ordered an assortment of dishes to accompany our drinks and in the end, as it always happens, we had noshed enough to call it dinner. Each of us ordered something different so we could taste everything on the table: Creole fries with a garlic aioli, Thai shrimp tacos, focaccia with a white bean dip and a fresh peach cake for dessert.

I was intrigued by a cold soup on the menu that combined garden cucumbers and yogurt garnished with heirloom tomatoes and chives. It did not disappoint. Back in California, I vowed to recreate it without a recipe, and the result was pretty much on the money. There are many variations on this recipe; adding garlic, mint or dill would change it a bit, so experiment with abandon.

Cold Cumber-Yogurt Soup

2 English cucumbers, each about 12 inches long
2 Cups plain yogurt
1 Tablespoon honey, softened
1-2 Teaspoons salt, or to taste
2-3 Heirloom cherry tomatoes
Chives or scallions, chopped fine
Basil-flavored olive oil

Peel and seed the cukes, and chop into one-inch chunks. You should end up with about 2-1/2 cups of chopped cukes. Place in the food processor and combine with the yogurt, the honey and the salt. Process by pulsing to preserve some of the crunchy texture of the cucumbers; don't over-process into a puree. You should end up with about 3 cups of soup. Chill until ready to serve.

Just before serving, slice the tomatoes in half if they are quite small, otherwise quarter larger tomatoes into wedges. season them lightly with salt and freshly ground pepper. Chop the chives very finely for garnish and set aside.

Ladle into soup bowls and place the tomatoes in a decorative pattern on top of the soup. Garnish with the chives. Using a small spoon, drizzle the basil oil over all.

If you are a home gardener with more cucumbers than you know what to do with, this is one recipe that will come to your rescue. Try serving the cold soup in martini glasses garnished with a very small wedge of tomato for an elegant appetizer, or in soup bowls for a refreshing first course.

Serves 4.

Home-Brewed, Cold Pressed Iced Coffee

When I first arrived in Maine where I lived for a few years, one of the cultural oddities that caught my immediate attention was the affection Mainers have for coffee. Not that the rest of the country isn't just as fanatic about scoring a caffeine boost during the day, but this was different. Mainers are nuts about Dunkin' Donuts coffee. I swear there's a Dunkin' Donuts on every corner. The line at the drive-through window every morning was huge, and everyone showed up at their workplace toting a large cup of hot Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

In the summer the pattern shifted ever so slightly. The line at the drive-through window was just as long, but -- starting in May -- the beverage of choice was iced coffee. I mean huge containers of brain-freeze cold coffee enriched with lots of cream and sugar. For a girl used to one small steaming cup of joe in the morning, this hardly seemed civilized. Don't get me wrong. I adore iced coffee in the summer, but it's strictly reserved for an afternoon pick-me-up or as dessert after lunch, never first thing in the morning.

So now I'm living in California and the nearest Dunkin' Donuts to me is in Iowa. I could toss my hat in the ring and apply to be a new franchisee in Arizona which is a little closer, or I could look for a pound of DD coffee in the nearest Safeway. Mainers will call it heresy, but I prefer to start from scratch with a better quality coffee.

Recently, I perfected a way to have my sweet summer coffee and eliminate the caffeine that can ruin a perfectly good night's sleep.  Cold pressed coffee is much lower in acid than hot-brewed coffee, so it tastes smoother. I purchased a cold press coffee maker, experimented with a few trial runs and I think I've got this just right.

The first step is to buy a pound of good quality, coarse-ground decaf coffee (it has to be coarse), fill the coffee maker with cold water and stir the grounds into the water. It will look very sludgy. Don't despair; the best is yet to come.

Cover the mixture and refrigerate over night. The next day, using the plunger, gently press the grounds to the bottom of the container, then strain the brew through a paper coffee filter into a pitcher. Tuck the coffee filter into a wire strainer. You'll be surprised how much fine residue is removed from the blend by this extra step.

The clarified coffee is ready to use. Cover the pitcher with plastic wrap and keep the unused portion refrigerated for up to 5 days. Pour the coffee over ice cubes in a tall glass. I sweeten the coffee with simple syrup that I make ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator (it lasts for weeks), plus some half-n-half. Pure nectar on a hot summer afternoon.

My Bodum coffee press holds 6 cups of water and I use 1 1/3 cups of coffee which makes a medium-strong blend. If you are using a different sized container, this is a 4.5 to 1 ratio of water to coffee.

That's the Rub

I'm always on the prowl for ways to use the ground sumac spice I wrote about not long ago. It's not a staple in most American kitchens; it's used rampantly in Middle Eastern cooking and so it wasn't surprising that when I discovered a recipe for lamb kebobs, ground sumac was a key ingredient.

This is a very versatile rub and works nicely on beef or chicken kebobs, although there's nothing better than ground lamb balls and vegetables on a skewer grilled on the barbecue.

1/4 Cup chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 Tablespoons fresh oregano leaves
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon ground sumac
1/2 Teaspoon kosher salt or fleur de sel

1/2-3/4 pounds ground lamb
1/2 pound baby zucchini, patty pan, or yellow squash
1 Red pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Make the rub by combining all the dry ingredients and mix together. Blend half of the rub with the ground lamb and shape into 9-10 balls. Cut vegetables roughly the same size as the meatballs, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle remaining rub on the vegetables. Thread the meatballs and the vegetables onto skewers. Grill over medium heat about 8 minutes, turning carefully to brown all sides. Serve with rice or triangles of pita bread that have been warmed on the grill.

Patio Dining: Grilled Chicken and Spinach Salad

My friend Judy talked me into it. She had been planning an excursion to Costco to load up on victuals for the holidays. We both live alone, so bulk buying really doesn’t make sense for either of us, but we each had our families coming for an extended visit and the larders were bare. I don’t have a Costco membership and it had been easily 15 years since I’d set foot into a big box with food, so I went as her “guest.” After carefully strategizing the exact day and hour that seemed the optimal time for tackling the crowds, off we went on the 20-mile trek to Consumer Mecca to discover what we couldn’t live without.

I was fascinated with how the products were displayed, the variety of goods and the surprising high-end selection of many of the items. There were a number of organic and healthy choices. I examined lots of ethnic foods, prepared platters that only need to have the wrapping removed before serving, and tons of fresh fruits and vegetables. No doubt about it, times had changed from the Costco I knew years ago.

One of the items I picked up was a jar of smoked paprika. But like so many of Costco’s products, it was an outrageously large quantity. At 8½ ounces, it was easily three times as large as any container of spice I usually buy. I looked at that jar and figured I would never live long enough to use it up before its natural shelf life expired. So we agreed to split it after we got it home.

That buying spree took place six months ago, and I am still in possession of way too much smoked paprika.  I’ve sprinkled it on grilled chicken and substituted it for plain paprika in several recipes, but I don’t think I’ve made a dent in the quantity that’s still left. So I was delighted to find a recipe in the new issue of Sunset magazine that called for more than a dusting of the stuff.

I wanted to share the recipe with Judy, my co-conspirator on the Costco excursion, but she was out of town, so I asked my neighbor Jo Ann to join me for a grilled salad on the patio. Because so much of the preparation can be done ahead of time, and assuming you can grill and chat at the same time, this recipe gives the cook plenty of time to visit with guests. That was important to me because I don’t see Jo Ann often enough and she’s great company.

 Grilled Chicken and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing

½ Cup extra-virgin olive oil

¼ Cup sherry vinegar

1 Shallot, minced

4 Teaspoons smoked paprika

1 Teaspoon kosher salt

1 Teaspoon dried oregano leaves

½ Teaspoon fresh pepper

2 Chicken breast halves, boneless and skinless

1 Ear of corn, husks and silks removed and left on the cob

2 Portabella mushrooms, stems removed

5 Ounces of lightly packed baby spinach (or a generous handful of spinach leaves per person)

2 Scallions cut into 2-inch slivers

Whisk the oil, vinegar, shallot, paprika, oregano, and salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Set aside ½ cup of the dressing and put in the refrigerator to chill. Add chicken to the remaining dressing, turn to coat and chill, covered, for at least 1½ hours or overnight. Let chicken and reserved dressing come to room temperature before serving, about 30 minutes.

Heat the grill to medium-high. Remove the chicken from the marinade and transfer to a plate. Add corn and mushrooms to the marinade and brush to coat. Grill the corn, mushrooms and chicken until the vegetables are just browned and the chicken is no longer pink in the center (about 12-18 minutes for the chicken, 3-4 minutes longer for the corn.) Transfer to a cutting board as they are done.

Cut the warm corn kernels off the cobs into a large bowl. Cut the chicken and mushrooms into strips, and then add to the bowl along with the spinach, scallions and reserved dressing. Toss to coat. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

California Citrus Martinis

There are times in life when nothing else will do but a really good martini. A celebratory dinner. Girls’ night out. A promising date. A reunion with a much-loved friend. The latter was the impetus for a recent exploration of martinis made with local ingredients, so just before my pal Karen came to visit from Maine, I made a batch of simple syrup, picked an armload of blood oranges from the tree in the garden, and put a bottle of vodka in the freezer.

Depending on what’s available, you can make martinis with any kind of citrus that is in season. I figure I’m in good shape because I can select from blood oranges, Valencia oranges, tangerines or Meyer lemons -- all of which are abundant where I live from early spring to summer. All I have to do is pick what's ripe.

Karen was enchanted with blood oranges so that’s what we used for our martinis, and after five or six nights of experimenting, we agreed that we’d perfected the recipe. After exchanging congratulatory toasts, down the hatch they went. We wanted to test our recipe on another discriminating palate, so we asked Sonia to join us one evening. While I squeezed, mixed and shook, Karen and Sonia arranged a platter of cheese and crackers. We raised our glasses, toasted our good fortune and Sonia declared the recipe a winner. Now we'd like to share it with you.

California Citrus Martini

¾ - 1 Cup of fresh squeezed citrus juice

2 Jiggers vodka (I prefer Grey Goose Citron)

1-2 Tablespoons simple syrup, depending on the sweetness or tartness of the citrus

Fill a martini shaker about half full with ice cubes. Pour the juice, the vodka and the simple syrup over the ice cubes. With the cap securely fitted on the shaker, shake a few times to blend the liquids (but not longer than about 30 seconds), and decant into chilled martini glasses. This recipe serves two, but my martini glasses are on the small side, so I usually have a little bit left over for topping off each glass after the first few sips.

If you decide to make a Lemon Drop Martini, remember that lemon juice can be too tart to drink unless you start with Meyer lemons which are milder. I like to add a half-ounce of triple sec along with the lemon juice and the syrup to the shaker, then rub the rim of the martini glass with a strip of lemon rind to moisten it and dip the glass in superfine sugar. It takes the sting out of a too-sour lemon.

All martini recipes can be fairly flexible, so experiment a bit to see what is the best combination for you. This gives you an excuse to whip up a batch of martinis night after night until you get it just right. That’s what Karen and I did.

Cheers!

Chives: A Tonic for the Sagging Spirit and Most Recipes

Rounding the bend in the garden the other day, I cheered out loud when I discovered a chive plant thriving in a neglected corner. How it survived this winter's vigorous pruning activity that brought in a horde of tree trimmers who trampled every inch of the garden, I'll ever know. But there it was, no worse for the wear, its cheery purple heads bobbing in the warm spring air.

The smallest of the edible onion family, allium schoenoprasum is a cousin to the garlic, leek and shallot. They are grown mainly for their leaves that have a mild onion-y, garlicky flavor, but the flowers are edible too, either chopped up or served whole as a dramatic garnish.

Traditional Chinese medicine holds that chives restore the energy balance in a body worn down by winter. I'm sure it's true: There's nothing more revitalizing to the spirit than discovering a bunch of chives in the spring garden.

Chives are an easy-to-grow perennial in pots, or in the herb garden either as individual plants or in large clumps. You can keep the season going right up to the first frost by cutting the leaves down to about 2 inches above the ground which encourages new growth. It's best to harvest chives when the leaves are young, as they start to get chewy and fibrous as they age. And don't wash the leaves until you're ready to use them because prolonged moisture will cause decay.

In the kitchen, I love chopped chives on a baked potato, a plate of scrambled eggs, or mixed in with risotto. It's mild enough to serve with fish without overwhelming the fish. I like to mix chives into egg salad, tuna salad or chicken salad for a little extra flavor. I make an herb butter that is terrific slathered over corn on the cob, or simply smeared on French bread. Another favorite: a summer fruit and lettuce salad dressed with a light vinaigrette and minced chives.

Here's a really simple recipe for a dip that is divine with grilled lamb chops or lamb burgers.

Green Goddess Dip with Chives

3/4 Cup sour cream
3/4 Cup mayonnaise
2 Cloves garlic, mashed
1/4 Cup fresh parsley leaves
2 Teaspoons fresh tarragon, chopped
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 Anchovy fillets
1/4 Cup fresh chives, minced
Salt and ground pepper to taste

Toss the first seven ingredients into a blender (save the chives and salt & pepper for adding later). Transfer to a bowl and gently stir in the minced chives. Season with salt and pepper. Chill in the refrigerator at least an hour before serving to marry the flavors.

While we're at it, here's a wonderful dip that's great with raw veggies, crackers or pita chips.

Feta Dip with Chives

3/4 Cup Greek yogurt
1/2 Cup crumbled feta cheese
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 Cloves garlic, depending on the size of the cloves
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 Tablespoons each: chopped fresh parsley, chopped fresh dill, chopped fresh chives and chopped fresh mint
1 Teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Put the first five ingredients in the food processor or blender (save the herbs and pepper for adding after). Blend until smooth. Now add the herbs and ground pepper and pulse gently until they are combined. Transfer to a serving bowl and chill overnight. The flavors will fully develop and the dip will thicken to a nice consistency.