Amazing!

Panzanella is an Italian bread salad that makes wonderful use of the bounty of summer – fresh, ripe, juicy tomatoes. Fragrant basil. Crisp cucumbers.

I always heard that it was a creative Italian way to use up stale bread. I’ve always loved panzanella, but was never really satisfied with different variations that I tried over the years. Until I picked up the September 2006 issue of Fine Cooking, one of my favorite cooking magazines. On the back cover I found a panzanella recipe that I decided to try, and have made about four times in the last month – it’s delicious. Below is my adaptation, where I omit only the three tablespoons of chopped fresh mint (there are enough flavors in this salad, and I believe it doesn’t need the mint).

Other recommendations – use good artisanal bread, if you have access to it. This is not the time to cut corners; this salad benefits from good olive oil, vinegar, fleur de sel, and freshly ground pepper.

One final note – it’s best to add the bread to the salad just before serving so that it does not get soggy. You can mix the rest of the salad in advance (let it sit at room temperature – refrigeration affects the taste and texture of tomatoes), but add the bread at the last minute.

Panzanella

Adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine, September 2006

Makes about 6 cups, and serves 4 to 6.

(4) 1/2-inch-thick slices from the center of a round sourdough loaf
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt or fleur de sel
freshly ground black pepper
1 small shallot, sliced into thin rings
3-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar (I like things vinegary, so I use 4)
1 small clove garlic, chopped coarsely
3-4 cups (about 1 1/2 pounds) tomatoes, chopped in a quarter-inch dice
1-1/2 cups small English cucumber, chopped in a quarter-inch dice
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained

Heat a grill pan (I just use a cast iron skillet). Using 1/4-cup of olive oil, brush both sides of the bread slices, and season with salt and pepper. Grill both sides of the bread, checking often, until lightly browned. When cool, slice the bread into 1/2-inch cubes and set aside.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, soak the shallot rings in the vinegar for approximately ten minutes. Using a slotted spoon, move the shallots to a large mixing bowl, and reserve the vinegar.

Sprinkle the chopped garlic with 1/4-teaspoon of salt. Using the side of a chef’s knife, mash the garlic into a paste. Add garlic, 1/4-teaspoon salt, and 1/8-teaspoon pepper to the reserved vinegar. Whisk in 1/4-cup of olive oil to the vinegar mixture.

Gently toss the dressing, vegetables, basil, and bread together. Add more salt and pepper to taste, if needed.

Enjoy!

Note: Creampuffs in Venice offers her treasured family recipe for Panzanella, here.

• Dana, at Phat Duck, has a very informative post on perfecting food purees.
• Food and Wine is running a food photo contest (h/t Chez Pim). If you are interested in a great cookbook, Food and Wine’s annual cookbook is hard to beat.
• The Amateur Gourmet’s July 31 entry sings the praises of Gourmet’s July 2006 issue, which provides instructions on how to make the perfect pie crust. Says The Amateur Gourmet: “Bad pie makers, have I got a tip for you. Buy this month’s Gourmet magazine and follow their technique for making the perfect pie crust. I am a terrible pie maker and I worked up the courage to follow their recipe after too many bad experiences and guess what? This crust was killer.” Who can resist a recommendation like that? **Update: Kit at Kitchen Notes says it’s the August 2006 issue of Gourmet.**
• Rowena has mouth watering posts on the cuisine in Friuli, Italy. Oh, yum.
• Kathy has a review of Waiola Shave Ice in Honolulu. What I like to order there is lilikoi (passion fruit) syrup, with crack seed, li hing mui powder, all topped with sweetened condensed milk. I used to be a purist until my sister-in-law introduced me to all the fixins’.
• David Lebovitz has handy instructions regarding cell phones so that you can stay connected on your next trip to Paris.

Inspired by Cream Puffs in Venice’s recent creations from Once Upon a Tart, I pulled out my copy of the cookbook.

I admired the clean cover. Happily, I trotted upstairs and settled down in anticipation of turning the crisp pages, when I saw THAT A CORNER HAD BEEN CHEWED!!!!

Oh, the horror! Who ate my cookbook? Was this the culprit?

Or was it this dastardly fellow?

I think I have at least 500 cookbooks. Seriously. I had collected quite a few on my own, but a couple years ago my mother passed away, and I inherited her vast collection. I have given away literally hundreds of cookbooks in the past year, as I try to pare down my horde to a manageable size.

Of course, one of my favorite hobbies is collecting . . . cookbooks. And what did I just do with my birthday money? I ordered this:

I eagerly await its appearance.

I seem to be trying a lot of Ina Garten’s recipes lately. Probably because they are usually quite good, always seem to work, and adapt well to my constant tweaking!

I tried this recipe without changing a thing, a rare and noteworthy event. I still ended up adapting it a bit!

Ina Garten’s Frozen Key Lime Pie

adapted from Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family

For the crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 crackers)
1/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:
6 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature (if you have only large eggs, just use an extra yolk)
1/4 cup sugar 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons grated lime zest
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (4 to 5 regular limes, about 20 key limes)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Crust: combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a bowl. Press into a 9-inch pie pan, making sure the sides and the bottom are an even thickness. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Filling: beat the egg yolks and sugar on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for 5 minutes, until thick. With the mixer on medium speed, add the condensed milk, lime zest, and lime juice. Pour into the baked pie shell and freeze.

Freeze for several hours or overnight (it really needs at least 8 hours in the freezer).

Thoughts: this is a good recipe – lots of flavor, and great texture. Very refreshing on a hot summer day. That being said, the next time I make this, I will NOT use the lime zest if I use key limes – it’s just way too much lime (and I’m a citrus lover). If you use regular limes, I would recommend that you include the zest – regular limes are not as tart or intense as key limes.

Rambutan (left) and Lychee

I love to cook and bake, but sometimes I just get . . . tired. Burned out. What usually follows these episodes are weeks of furious experimenation. Once again, I find that I love to shop for food, and will venture to our local Asian markets and farm stands to look for interesting things, instead of just our standard fare.

This week, I was happy to discover fresh lychee and rambutan. You may have seen the lychee in cans, but the one in the picture above is a fresh one. Both fruits are similar in taste – sweet and mild (lychee is a bit sweeter), and you eat their white fruit by cracking the outer shell. Yum. You can find more info and pictures here.

I’ve updated it with photos.

Of course, I will be studying Heidi’s Food Photography Tips!

Over at Farmgirl Fare. So cute!

Meatloaf – before baking

Master Chow loves meat loaf.

A few years ago, I started experimenting with meat loaf recipes. My father despised the dish, so it was not something that my mother cooked, and I was not sure what made a good one or a bad one. Twenty years of vegetarianism didn’t enlighten me (I now occasionally eat fish, and will take a bite of the charred bits on Master Chow’s chicken or beef).

I finally settled on a “recipe” that is very forgiving, and according to Master Chow, moist and flavorful. By “forgiving,” I mean that the recipe is adaptable to what you may have on hand. No parsley? Not a problem. Green onions in the fridge, but no Spanish onions? Throw ’em in. I have even made an all-turkey meat loaf, and flavored it with Sambal Olek, a hot chili paste. The turkey meat loaf turned out to be the dryest, so now I try to add some ground pork or beef to the turkey.

So here is the “recipe” – which means it is an estimate of amounts. Use your own judgment and taste, and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Meat Loaf

3 pounds of ground meat – I have made up mixtures that included beef, pork, veal, turkey, or buffalo
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 baseball-sized onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 handful fresh parsley
8 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs – I use Progresso brand
2 eggs
Kosher salt – as always, be careful with this. The ketchup, breadcrumbs, and Worcestershire Sauce all have salt, and you should take that into account.
pepper, freshly ground

Sauce

3/4 -1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar (does not have to be firmly packed)
1-2 Tablespoons dried mustard powder
5 dashes of Worcestershire Sauce
Pull out ingredients about 30 minutes before you plan to use them so that the meat warms up a bit (it will cook more evenly if you do so).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Throw the carrot into a food processor and pulse until finely minced. Add the celery, onion, and garlic, and pulse until finely minced. Don’t be tempted to throw everything in at the same time, or you will end up with large chunks of carrot or onion.

Add the parsley, Worchestershire sauce, ketchup, breadcrumbs, egg, and pepper. Pulse until you have a well blend mixture.

Add the veggie mixture to the meat, and lightly blend until well mixed. Don’t overdo the mixing – it’s a great way to get tough, dry meatloaf!

I place a flat baking rack, covered with foil, in the bottom of a roasting pan. I then shape the meat mixture into a “loaf” on top of the rack. Why? So that the grease drains off the loaf. Other people put stale bread on the bottom of the pan to soak up the grease.

Mix all the sauce ingredients together, and spread generously over the meatloaf.

Bake at 325 for about an hour. Raise the temperature to 350, and continue baking until an oven thermometer inserted in the center of the meatloaf reads about 145-150. Depending on your oven and the meat mixture that you used, this additional time could vary considerably: from as little as 20 minutes, to as long as 60 minutes. Once you pull the meatloaf out of the oven, residual heat will continue the cooking process until it reaches a food-safe 160-165 degrees for ground meats. This is what I do, but use your own judgment. The USDA guidelines are here and here.

As with all such dishes, it’s better the next day!

Meatloaf – after