At first mention, the idea of a sauceless, cheeseless pizza doesn’t seem too enticing, so if it makes you feel better, you can call these flatbreads or something else. I’m happy thinking of them as pizzas where the focus is all dough and toppings. (In case you’re new here, I LOVE dough.)

These are both Smitten Kitchen recipes I made last weekend with my friend Allie. The zucchini pizza I first made last summer, but this time used ricotta instead of goat cheese. And a recent LA Times article reminded me I had never tried the potato pizza I saw on Smitten Kitchen two summers ago.

We were in a rush, so the squash was just thrown on, not nearly as aesthetically as it should have been.

Both are great summer pizzas, in my mind. Light and fresh tasting. (I know, carbs on carbs, how is potato pizza light? But the potatoes are sliced thinly and there’s not sauce and cheese to weigh it down further.) The two pizzas with a side salad make a perfect evening-on-the-porch meal.

I won’t post the full recipes since I didn’t make any significant changes (and Deb surely needs the traffic). I salted the squash and let the excess water drain. And as mentioned, this time I used ricotta instead of goat cheese. For the potato pizza don’t be shy with the sea salt and cracked pepper. For both, I used Trader Joe’s dough, then cooked the pizzas individually in a 500-degree oven on a preheated pizza stone until the toppings were cooked and the crust turned golden brown.

Rosemary, Olive Oil, Potato Pizza

Lemony Zucchini Ricotta Pizza

Los Angeles, great city that it is, has a gourmet grilled cheese truck that announces its location on Twitter each day. My coworker Aaron had been keeping tabs on it, so when it came near the office he drove me and our other coworker Allie to the parking lot where the truck had set up shop. We had to wait in line for 25 minutes, but we weren’t disappointed. Aaron got a sandwich filled with mac-and-cheese, Allie had brie and pears on cranberry-walnut bread, and I had the Harvest Melt: Gruyère, roasted butternut squash, leeks and balsamic-agave syrup. Brilliant.

Yesterday Allie came over and I tried to recreate the Harvest Melt in all its glory. I’m happy to say it was a success.

The grilled cheese was so good, so satisfying, that I didn’t even think about other food until dinner. A rare occurence for me. But the squash, the onions, the balsamic… the cheese… the perfectly grilled toast… Pause for a few moments of reverie.

Even better, I don’t need to use Twitter or get in a car to have one.

Harvest Melt Grilled Cheese with Gruyère, Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onions, and Balsamic Syrup

Adapted from The Grilled Cheese Truck. I turned to We Can Cook That for help making the balsamic syrup since they seemed to recreate the Harvest Melt with success. Also, the grocery store didn’t have leeks, so I used onions, which were really good, but I might have prefered the brightness of leeks. Makes 2 very filling sandwiches.

• 1-pound butternut squash, peeled and sliced as thinly as you can, ideally use a mandoline set to 1mm
• Olive oil
• Sage (I seasoned the squash with a little ground sage because I like the flavor combination, but we didn’t have fresh
• 1 small onion, cut in half, then sliced thinly
• little less than 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (I used 1/2 cup and ended up with too much)
• 1/2 teaspoon agave syrup (I used an agave-maple blend from Trader Joe’s.)
• 4 oz. Gruyère, sliced or grated (I sliced it thinly so I had some to put on both sides of the bread)
• 4 slices of sandwich bread, I like whole grain or oat nut
• 4 tablespoons butter (1 tablespoon for balsamic reduction, 3 for melting and brushing on bread)

Set oven to 400. Arrange squash slices in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and season with kosher salt, ground pepper and sage. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

In a small pan over medium heat, cook onion slices with some olive oil and kosher salt. When they start to soften, turn down heat to prevent burning. Allow to caramelize slowly as the squash cooks.

In a small saucepan, add balsamic vinegar and agave syrup, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, stir in 1 tablespoon of butter and cook until mixture has reduced by half.

Place a cast-iron griddle over medium-low heat and allow to warm as you put together the sandwiches.

Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Evenly brush the outer side of each slice of bread with the butter. Put half the cheese on two slices of bread. Add sliced squash and onions. Brush with balsamic syrup. Add remaining cheese. Top with buttered bread.

Cook sandwiches on the griddle until cheese is melted and bread is golden brown.

The sandwich is really rich and a little sweet so I liked it paired with unsweetened iced tea. A beer probably tastes great too.

But let me tell you about my own.

My favorite quesadilla starts with a hot cast iron pan. With a little olive oil, I cook sweet bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and diced jalapeno. Salt and pepper. I push that to the side and lay down a tortillla…ideally it is a Trader Joe’s Truly Handmade tortilla. I add shredded Monterey Jack (not a ton) and put the vegetables on top to melt the cheese faster. When the cheese is gooey and the tortilla slightly crisp, I slide it on a plate, squeeze fresh lime juice all over and fill the quesadilla with cilantro before folding it in half. Depending on the day, I might also smother the whole thing with sour cream.

So, no, you don’t need a recipe for a quesadilla. But if you were looking for some inspiration, just gaze at that photo a little longer.

This recipe was adapted from several in Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen. This gumbo is a family favorite.  It isn’t too spicy, has a delicious toasty, nutty complexity from the roux, and the okra keeps it from being too thin (the darker you make a roux, the less thickening power it has). It is, however, a definite time commitment. This is a recipe where you should have everything completely prepped and lain out before you start heating the oil for the roux.

Gumbo previously: Gumbo with Chicken, Andouille and Shrimp

Okra Gumbo with Sausage and Fish

Adapted from Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen

For the gumbo:

• 1 1/2 lbs okra, stems removed and roughly chopped or sliced into rounds
• 2 cups finely chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped green bell peppers
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 3/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced or passed through a garlic press
• one 28-oz can whole tomatoes, cored and crushed or roughly chopped
• 6-8 cups seafood stock
• 1 pound andouille sausage, cut into ½ inch pieces
• 1 pound peeled medium shrimp
• 1 pound firm, white fleshed fish

Grind all of the spices, including the bay leaves, into a fine powder.  A spice grinder would work great, but I used a mortar and pestle, which worked fine.

Add the oil to a large Dutch oven or heavy stock pot. Heat it over high until wisps of smoke are just beginning to rise from the pan. Sprinkle the flour on the oil, with the heat still on high, and begin whisking furiously. Be careful not to splash any roux on yourself; it sticks to skin and leaves nasty burns. Whisk constantly, being sure to get into all corners of the pan, until the roux is very dark brown, about five minutes. If you think the roux is starting to burn, pull it off the heat and keep whisking until it cools a bit. Chef Paul recommends a black roux for gumbo; I’ve never been comfortable getting it that dark, but I try to get it as dark as possible without burning. If you notice black specks in the roux, you’ve burned it and need to start over. This is by far the most difficult part of making the gumbo.  It can be done over medium heat if you are worried about burning it, but this can take about 30 minutes with constant whisking.

Once the roux has reached the desired color, add about half of the okra and stir, still over high heat. After a minute of two, add the other half, stir for a minute or two, add half the vegetables (celery, onion, and peppers), and after another few minutes add the other half. The vegetables are added in stages to make sure the roux stays hot.

A few minutes after adding the last of the vegetables, once the okra no longer leaves ropy strings when you stir, add the spices and garlic and cook for about a minute. At this stage, you can reduce the heat to medium. Add the tomatoes with their canning liquid, and stir in the hot stock a few cups at a time. Once the gumbo reaches a simmer add the andouille and cook for a few minutes. Add the fish and shrimp, and simmer until they are just cooked. Remove from the heat. Serve in a bowl over a scoop of the rice, along with some crusty bread.

For the rice:

• 2 cups long grain rice
• 2 1/2 cups seafood stock
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced celery
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced green bell pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pinch of garlic powder, white pepper, cayenne, and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350.  Combine the ingredients in a loaf pan, cover tightly with foil, and bake for 70 minutes.  The rice will stay warm for at least 30 minutes after its been removed from the oven.

For the stock:

You could certainly use purchased seafood stock to save time, but I usually make it from scratch

• The shells and tails from about 4 lbs of shrimp (the heads too if you have them) OR the fresh carcass of a fish, or a combination of the two
• 1 large onion, root end removed, and quartered
• leaves and a few ribs from a bunch of celery
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 1/2 quarts water

Combine all the ingredients, and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for half an hour to 45 minutes, and strain through a colander lined with cheesecloth.

It was my first attempt at all-from-scratch pancakes, and I have to say I was happy with them. Real butter and buttermilk are the foundation for great homemade pancakes. These are enhanced by warm spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger — and apple chunks that still pop when you bite in. They’ll make a pancakes person out of anyone.

Spiced Apple Pancakes

You know, I actually turned to Kids Cook!, a cookbook I used to use when I wanted to make breakfast in bed for my parents on special occasions. I used the measurements for the blueberry pancakes recipe, then added spices and chopped apples. Makes about 12 small pancakes

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (I didn’t measure the spices, so those are safe guesses)
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/2 ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 large green apple, cut in half-inch chunks or smaller

Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add butter, egg and buttermilk. Then stir in apples.

Get a griddle hot, melt a little butter and place a few spoonfuls of batter on the surface. When the tops start to bubble, flip and cook until done through.

Serve with maple syrup and more cinnamon if you want. They are pretty good plain, too.

My friend Mike is back with another great recipe. Here he spatchcocks the chicken so it roasts faster and more evenly, keeping the white meat just as juicy as the dark. See Mike’s other posts here.

This is a relatively simple and wonderfully delicious way to roast chicken.  The juices from the chicken baste the vegetables while they roast together, while the mustard and herbs de Provence pair very well. And it’s much quicker than many other roast chicken recipes!  The recipe was inspired by Jacques Pepin’s “Fast Food My Way” TV series.

Dijon Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

• 1 whole chicken
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 4 cloves garlic, minced or passed through a garlic press
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2-3 teaspoons herbs de Provence
• 2 tablespoons dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil

An assortment of any vegetables you would like to roast. I used:

• 3 ribs celery, cut into inch and a half pieces
• 4 medium carrots cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 1/2 lbs new potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch chunks

For the vegetables:
Begin by preheating the oven to 375. Prepare the vegetables, toss with the teaspoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a few grinds of pepper.  Spread them on the bottom of a roasting pan large enough to hold the chicken, and put the in the oven. You’ll want to cook the veggies for 15-20 minutes before you add the chicken.  If the are browning too much or sticking to the bottom of the pan, add a splash of stock, white wine, or water.

For the chicken:
Cut along either side of the chicken’s backbone using a knife or a pair of kitchen shears.  Save the backbone for stock.  Break the breastbone so the chicken can lie flat. Trim the bird of any large chunks of fat or skin. Make a cut into the joint where the leg meets the thigh and where the wing meets the breast.  This helps these parts cook more quickly, so by the time they are done the breast will still be very moist.  Loosen the skin over the breast, legs, and thighs.

Combine mustard, garlic, pepper, salt, herbs de Provence, white wine, and oil.  Whisk until emulsified.  Rub this mixture under the chicken skin, on the inside of the breast, and on the skin.

Once the vegetables have cooked for 15-20 minutes, remove them from the oven.  Set a rack in the roasting pan on top of the veggies and place the chicken on top, with the skin facing up.

Bake until a thermometer inserted between the breast and thigh registers 160.  This took about 35 minutes in my oven. Remove the pan from the oven, cover it in foil, and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes.

While resting the internal temperature of the chicken will rise at least another 5 degrees to the recommended 165.

Cut the chicken into pieces and serve with the vegetables and juices from the pan.  Using a clean pair of kitchen shears to cut up the chicken in the pan makes this a lot less messy.

My friends, knowing I love to cook, often ask if I want to take cooking classes with them. I’ve taken casual cooking classes before, and they’re fun and you make nice dishes, but they’re expensive. And at this point I’m comfortable trying new things in the kitchen. I’d rather just pay for ingredients and try a recipe on my own.

So when my friend Annabelle asked if I wanted to go an eclair-making class, I said no. I invited her over to make them at my house instead. I’d made choux pastry, custard and ganache before for different desserts anyway. In the spirit of cooking class, I turned to a recipe from the Culinary Institute of America.

Annabelle and I made tasty eclairs without any disasters, but I won’t be using the CIA recipe again. I didn’t like the texture of the pastry filling with all that cornstarch, and I had some issues with the choux, which baked way too thin on the bottom. (Though, maybe if I had parchment paper it wouldn’t have stuck as much.)

Anyway, I can buy ingredients to attempt eclairs a few more times before spending as much as a class would have been. And we did eat them all. When the custard ran out and we still had pastries left, I filled them with whipped cream, and I liked that even more.

I won’t post the recipe because, as I said, I wasn’t completely pleased with it. (You can find it here.) I’ll revisit the recipes I riffed off of when I made Chocolate Dulce De Leche Puffs. Or if you have a favorite eclairs recipe, pass it on.

How could you not want something described as a “gyro-pizza-taco”?

When I read the LA Times piece about the baco last year, I made a mental note and a digital bookmark to come back to it. Since then, the chef who invented the baco, Josef Centeno,  has opened another restaurant in LA, and the baco is back in the press. Though I haven’t made it yet to the Lazy Ox Canteen for an official baco, I baked up some of Centeno’s signature flatbread and created some sandwiches of my own. (For something fun to do, read the Lazy Ox menu.)

From what I’ve read, there are two things that make a baco a baco. First is the bread. Like my naan recipe, this flatbread calls for plain yogurt. What’s different is the addition of lime juice, ginger, garlic and dried lavender. Second is the mix of sauces and international influences:

• In addition to the original baco, now made with pork belly and red wine-braised paleron (pot roast), Centeno makes four variations. The vegetarian baco centers on crisp Japanese eggplant; lamb sausage baco has croquettes made from potato and morcilla (a Spanish blood sausage) and caraway-pepper sauce; the el pollo baco features chicken escabeche (marinated chicken) radicchio and zhoug, a spicy chile sauce from Yemen; and the pesco baco is a tasty composition of panko-crusted albacore, pickled onion, and four (count them) different sauces. (From the LA Times)

After I made the bread, we did a Mexican-spiced chicken with fresh tomato-avocado salsa, the ginger-lime-lavender yogurt mixture, and a smoky homemade chili sauce. Another afternoon I filled one with a mixture of chicken, pork and sausage in a sweet Vietnamese sauce, along with lettuce, cucumber and tomato in a Persian yogurt-based dressing, and the spicy chili sauce — basically whatever leftovers I found in the fridge.

So now that you have the flatbread recipe, what will you put in your baco?

Baco Flatbread

By Josef Centeno via the Los Angeles Times. Note, this makes more of the yogurt mixture than you’ll need for the dough, but it’s a great sauce to put on any baco, so  you’ll be happy to have it. Makes 10 flatbreads.

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried culinary lavender (I had lavender salt, so I used some of that and didn’t add the kosher salt)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
• kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups flour

In a nonreactive bowl, mix the yogurt, lime juice, lavender, garlic and ginger. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the yeast with 1 cup warm water and the sugar. Cover and allow to sit for 10 minutes, or until frothy. Separately, mix the olive oil with 3 tablespoons of the yogurt mixture.

Stir half of the flour into the yeast mixture, then add the yogurt mixture. Stir in the rest of the flour and the 1 teaspoon salt, and knead for 10 minutes, or until the dough is elastic. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, loosely cover and allow to rise in a warm area until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down the dough and knead for another 10 minutes. Divide the dough into 10 equal portions; roll out each into an oval a little over 8 inches long and 4 inches wide. If the dough contracts while rolling, let it rest while you roll out another piece, then come back to it (it will relax and roll more easily).

Heat a seasoned cast-iron griddle or frying pan over medium-high heat. Oil the surface lightly with canola oil and grill the dough, one or two pieces at a time, until each is puffed and golden-brown on the bottom, 30 seconds. Flip the bread over and grill the second side for 30 seconds, until golden-brown. The bread will be soft, not crispy. Keep warm until ready to serve. (You also can rewarm the bread in a 400-degree oven for 1 to 2 minutes.)

Top with meat, vegetables and a mix of sauces. Fold and eat like a gyro-pizza-taco. Have a fork and several napkins ready.

(Since we were only feeding 3 people the first night, we made 3 breads, then par-cooked the rest of them just so they started to turn golden. When they cooled, we put them in a large Ziploc and they kept nicely for another two days. All we had to do was put them on a hot cast-iron for a bit before serving.)

I get a little dizzy thinking back to how good these simple little toasts were. I mean, they’re just cheese on cheese on sauce on toast, but they are much, much more. They’re heavenly. I first had these at the Chef’s Academy cooking demo . I liked them so much, I had to recreate a version of my own.

Chefs Leo Goodloe and Suzanne Winn made a killer sauce from scratch, and I went with some from a jar, but it didn’t matter. The goat cheese and taleggio really make this. I mean, seriously, how amazing is cheese?

These toasts are a great appetizer for a party or a delicious snack for yourself.

Tomato Crostini with Goat Cheese and Taleggio
Adapted from Suzanne Winn

• baguette cut into 1/4-inch slices
• tomato sauce (use your favorite one, or see Suzanne’s recipe here)
• goat cheese
• olive oil
• sliced taleggio or fontina cheese

Heat oven to 375. Place baguette slices on a baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, 8 to 10 minutes.

In a bowl, combine goat cheese and olive oil. Top each crostini slice with a dollop of tomato sauce and goat cheese.

Finish with a slice of taleggio or fontina. Place under broiler until cheese melts. (Or use a kitchen torch if you’re fancy.)

I love Indian food, but sometimes those curries can be heavy. This dish, on the other hand, is more brothy than saucy, and still has that flavor I love. It has tomatoes, spinach and chicken breast, but it would be good with garbanzo beans instead, if you wanted to make it vegetarian.

I saw this in Sunset Magazine, which has been full of good recipes lately (See: Ginger Pear Crisp). My mom and I loved how light it felt while still filling us up.

Of course we changed it up a bit. Instead of serving with plain yogurt on top and cucumber salad on the side, I combined the two in a raita. I liked the cool crunch of cucumbers mixed in with the cooked vegetables. It’s all about layering flavors, textures and temperatures.

North Indian Style Spinach Chicken
Adapted from Sunset Magazine

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds (or pre-ground)
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds (or pre-ground)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or more to taste
• kosher salt, to taste
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 8 ounces cremini or button mushrooms, quartered (we didn’t have mushrooms so we left them out)
• 2-in. piece fresh ginger
• 4 large garlic cloves
• 1 1/2 pounds boned, skinned chicken thighs, cut into 1-in. chunks (or use garbanzo beans for a vegetarian meal)
• 1 cup diced canned tomatoes
• 1 pound baby spinach
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• basmati rice for serving

In a small saute pan (or the large stock pot you’ll be using next) toast fenugreek, cumin and coriander seeds over medium heat, swirling around so they don’t burn. After a minute or two, when the seeds start to pop or become fragrant, transfer to a mortar or spice grinder. Grind spices, then stir in turmeric, and cayenne.

In a large stock pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions, spice mixture, and some salt. As onion start to sweat, add mushrooms. Cook, stirring often, until lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Meanwhile, mince ginger and garlic.

Add ginger and garlic. Sizzle a few seconds. Add chicken and a little more salt, at your discretion. Cook, stirring often, 3 minutes, or until no longer pink on the outside. Add tomatoes and simmer, covered, about 8 minutes.

Stir in spinach and simmer, covered, until wilted, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, chop half a bunch or a large handful of cilantro. Stir into pot, along with lemon juice.

Serve with cooked rice and cucumber raita.

Cucumber Raita

I’ve made this raita before with grated cucumbers, but here I wanted them in larger pieces for crunch.

• 1 large English cucumber (Peel if using a big waxy one. Seeding is a good idea too, but not necessary, especially if you eat it right away)
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger, grated
• small handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
• juice from half a lemon
• salt and white pepper to taste

Cut cucumber in chunks. Add to a bowl along with all other ingredients. Keep chilled, then serve on top or to the side of Indian dishes, like the chicken one above.

For whatever reason, my brother has been bringing home absurd amounts of fruit from his school cafeteria. One day we found ourselves with way more pears than we could eat before they went bad. Conveniently, an issue of Sunset Magazine came with a recipe for a unique pear crisp courtesy of Campanile chef Mark Peel. Ginger, raisins, marsala? I was intrigued.

Of course when I went to make it, I ended up with several substitutions (you’ll see my many parenthetical notes in the recipe below). But I was happy with the crisp. Maybe a little sweet, but that could have been the fault of my changes and inexact measurements. Anyway, it was nothing a small scoop of tart yogurt couldn’t fix.

Pear Ginger Crisp
Recipe adapted from Mark Peel and Martha Rose Shulman in Sunset Magazine

Streusel

• 2/3 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small chunks (I used salted butter and just didn’t add salt)

Pears

• 2 1/2 pounds firm-ripe Bartlett pears
• Juice of 1 lemon (We didn’t have a lemon, so I used lime and pineapple juice. That equals lemon, right?)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup sweet marsala (I used white wine because that’s what we had open)
• 1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger (I grated some fresh ginger into the cooked sugar mixture)
• 1/3 cup golden raisins (I used dark raisins)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (I used salted butter and just didn’t add salt)

To make the streusel, preheat oven to 350. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment.

In a bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add butter; mix on low speed until crumbly. Spread across the pan. Bake until golden at the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir. Bake 3 to 5 minutes longer, until golden all over.

Let streusel cool. Increase oven to 375.

Peel and core pears. Cut into 1-inch chunks and mix gently in a large bowl with lemon juice. Butter a shallow 2-quart baking dish and set aside. (I used a casserole bowl.)

Put a 3- to 4-quart pan on the stove over medium-high heat. Add sugar and 2 tablespoons of water. Stir and cook until sugar begins to brown, 4 to 7 minutes. Swirling pan occasionally, boil until sugar is golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes longer.

Remove from heat, let cool about 30 seconds, then gently stir in pears. Return pan to heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar melts again, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add wine, ginger, raisins, vanilla and salt. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until pears are just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pears to buttered dish.

Stir in butter and cook until melted. Spoon mixture over pears.

Scatter streusel over pears, then bake until fruit is bubbling, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream, tart frozen yogurt, creme fraîche, Greek yogurt or crema.

Make ahead, then reheat in a 350° oven until warm, about 20 minutes.

A “He Cooks” post from my friend Mike, who goes a little more traditional after sharing his Fried Beer-Battered Pickles and Five Spice Squash Soup recipes.

This is one of my absolute favorite winter meals. The hot chicken and root-vegetable filling is hearty and warming on a snowy day. There are two ways to make this pot pie:  from scratch, or with store bought stock, pie crust, and a rotisserie chicken. The latter is certainly faster and easier, but the former tastes better, and leaves you with a few quarts of homemade chicken stock for the freezer.

I made this one from scratch, and it has been a hit every time I’ve served it.  Everyone is always amazed that there aren’t any herbs or spices besides the salt and pepper. I think that’s the homemade stock, chicken fat, and rich root vegetables coming through.

If you want to make this from scratch I would recommend either starting early in the day or preparing the filling a day or two ahead and keeping it in the fridge until ready to bake.

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

For the roast chicken

• 1 Whole chicken, cut into parts, back, neck, and wing tips reserved
• Olive oil
• Salt

Preheat oven to 375.  Cut the breast in half, then into quarters.  Separate the legs from the thighs. Pat the chicken pieces dry, rub with about two teaspoons of olive oil, and sprinkle with salt.

Place on a roasting pan, along with any large pieces of fat from the chicken.  Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes or until the chicken registers 165 on an instant-read thermometer.  Remove chicken from the pan onto a plate to cool.  Drain, strain, and reserve the fat from the pan.

Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin, pull the meat from the bones, and cut the meat into ¾ inch pieces.  Place the chicken meat in the freezer.  The skin can be returned to the hot oven for 10-15 minutes to make chicken cracklins, a nice snack for the cook (cooking is hungry work).

For the stock

• Back, neck, and wing tips of the chicken
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly smashed
• 2 fresh or 3 dried bay leaves
• 10 whole peppercorns
• 1 onion, cut in half
• 1 carrot, cut in half
• The top 2 inches and leaves from one bunch of celery
• Bones and cartilage from a roast chicken

About 3 hours before the stock is needed, place all the ingredients except for the bones into a large stock pot, along with a gallon of cold water. Bring to a boil, skim the foam, and reduce to a simmer.

After the chicken is done roasting, add the bones and cartilage to the simmering stock, along with more water if a lot has boiled off.  After about three hours of simmering, strain the stock through a colander lined with cheese cloth.

For the filling

• 4 tablespoons reserved chicken fat
• 1 teaspoon salt, or more, to taste
• 3 leeks, cut into 1/4 inch dice and rinsed very well
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 4-6 cups chicken stock
• 3/4 lb waxy potatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3/4 lb carrots, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3/4 lb parsnips, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup heavy cream

Any of the root vegetables can be substituted for whatever you prefer.  Celery root or turnips would be nice in place of the potatoes. I always try to include parsnips for their intense, earthy sweetness, and carrots, for their color, but this is up to you.

Add the chicken fat to a large dutch oven.  When hot, add the leeks, salt, and pepper to taste.  Sauté until soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the garlic and flour until and stir until the garlic is fragrant and flour smooth and beginning to cook, about 1 minute – 90 seconds.  Add the white wine and stir until smooth.

Add 4 cups chicken stock, and the root vegetables (but not the peas).

Simmer until sauce is thickened and vegetables are mostly cooked through, about 10-15 minutes. You do not want to fully cook the vegetables until they are completely tender, as they will continue to cook in the oven. Add more stock if the sauce seems too thick or there is not enough.  It should have the consistency of a thick stew or gravy. I ended up using about 4 ½ -5 cups.

Once the vegetables are near done, remove from heat.  Add the frozen chicken and stir.  Add the frozen peas and stir.  Add cream and stir. You want to cool down the filling as much as possible so the fat in the crust does not melt until it begins to crisp.  Pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish, making sure there is at least 3/4 inch between the top of the filling and the lip of the pan.  The entire pie can be prepared up to this point and refrigerated up to two days, or until ready to bake.

For the crust
I have made this with a variety of crusts:  herbed biscuits, light, crispy herbed pie crust, or my great-aunt’s recipe for a quick and easy pie crust, as I did here.  They have all turned out great.

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 3/4 cup shortening or lard (I used shortening, as we didn’t have any lard on hand)

Mix the sifted flour and salt.  Remove 1/3 cup of flour mixture, and mix with the water to make a paste.  Cut the shortening into the flour until it is in pea size pieces.  Use your hands to mix the paste and shortening mixtures into smooth dough.  Roll out into a rectangle to cover the 9 x 13 pan. (I used two smaller casseroles instead of the 9 x 13)

To finish the pot pie

Preheat oven to 400.  Lay pie crust on top, pressing against the sides of the pan.  Cut a few slits into the crust to allow steam to escape.  Make a flower or something cute with any extra crust to put on top, or don’t.  I rolled it into rough edged shapes and arranged them on top with their sides overlapping and a few holes for steam to escape. This made for lots of crispy edges.

Bake until crust is golden, 35-40 minutes.  If your pan is really full, place a foil-lined baking sheet underneath to catch any sauce that drips out. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for five minutes, and serve.  I usually serve this on its own, or with some bread to mop any sauce. It is definitely a complete meal in a dish.

Have you ever had something disappear into the abyss of the internet? That’s what happened to this Moroccan bread recipe.

You’d think I’d be less likely to find a recipe on paper…especially since I’m known to scrawl information on magazine inserts or any scrap I can find…but there it was: the bare bones directions for Moroccan bread, unlabeled and in between notes from an interview I conducted and a page of rhymes (knead, read, seed, feed, proceed, decreed, agreed, ID’d, IV’d…vibe, bribe, subscribe, diatribe…).

So that’s a little insight into who I am.

This bread, to get back to the point, is meant to be served with tagines or other saucy dishes so you can use it for mopping up all that flavor. I wish I had some tonight. My mom has some Moroccan chicken simmering away right now.

Alas, bread takes a little more forethought. You can think about making it with Saffron Chicken Tagine with Prunes, Tunisian Lamb Stew or Spice-Rubbed Roast Chicken.

Moroccan Bread

I’ve lost the link where I found this. The following recipe is in my words.

• 3 teaspoons yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons warm water
• 3 1/2 cups flour (but have 1 1/2 cups around if the dough needs more and so you can flour the surface you’re kneading on)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk (plus about 1/4 cup for brushing on later)
• 1/4 cup water
• about 1/4 cup cornmeal for the baking sheet (optional)
• about 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds (you could also do cumin

Mix yeast, sugar and warm water together in a small bowl. Let sit while yeast gets to work.

In a larger bowl, mix flour, salt, milk and water. When yeast mixture is bubbling and fragrant, add it to the flour mixture. Mix then cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm spot of the kitchen, about an hour or until dough has doubled in size.

On a floured surface, knead dough 7-10 minutes. Add more flour if it seems too sticky. Divide into three balls and flatten them a bit.

Put the disks on a baking sheet (you’ll probably need two) that has been dusted with cornmeal or flour. Brush loaves with milk, then sprinkle with sesame seeds and a little bit of kosher salt. Rest in a warm place for 1 hour.

Bake at 425 about 20 minutes or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when you tap them. (If you have two baking sheets, you probably want to rotate them halfway through.)

Serve warm and use to mop up sauces from tagines and other dishes. It’s really only good for a day. But as long as you have some sauce or soup, you can reheat it and it should be ok the next day for lunch.

A “He Cooks” post from my friend Mike, who introduced himself last week with Fried Beer-Battered Pickles.

After seeing Brittany’s squash soup post, I decided to make one myself. I thought the distinctive flavor of five spice would go great with the sweetness of the squash. (Five spice is a Chinese blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Szechwan pepper and ground fennel seeds.) The five spice was wonderful with the squash, but the soup was a little sweet. I’ll definitely skip the roasting to cut down on the sweetness next time I make it. (The recipe below takes that into account.)

Unfortunately, I’m not much of a photographer, and was in a bit of a hurry to get this one on the table, so the picture doesn’t really do it justice. I also made some spicy shrimp to go on top, but the spoonful of crème fraiche, fresh chives, and pickled ginger I had on the leftovers complemented the flavors of the soup much better.


Five Spice Squash Soup

I don’t usually follow recipes, but I’ll try to estimate about how much of everything I put in.

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 leek, thinly sliced and washed
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
• 1 acorn squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
• 1 teaspoon five spice powder
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 quart of chicken stock, more if needed
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• whipped crème fraiche, pickled ginger, and fresh chives for garnish (optional)

Sauté the leek, onion, carrot and a pinch of salt until softened. Add the ginger, garlic, cayenne, and five spice and sauté until fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute.

Add the stock and squash and simmer until tender.

Puree, in batches if necessary, and add more hot stock or water to reach a creamy consistency.

Stir in the lemon juice off the heat.

Top with a dollop of whipped crème fraiche, fresh chives, and thinly sliced pickled ginger for garnish.

People always seem to come up with a reason why they think they wouldn’t like this tart. I don’t like pecans. Dulce de leche is too sweet. Cranberries aren’t my thing. But somehow, everything comes together in a way that just works. The cranberries and dulce de leche balance each other out, and the whole thing is so delicious the pecans probably won’t even bother you…unless you’re prone to anaphylactic shock upon contact with them.

Anyway, this is a dessert I’ve made several times since I saw cranberry caramel almond tartelettes on Smitten Kitchen years ago. I go to Argentina often so I always think of dulce de leche instead of caramel. And since my sister is allergic to almonds, I’ve started to use pecans instead. I also make one big tart instead of several smaller ones like Deb did.

What is amazing about this recipe besides the trifecta of nuts, cranberries and dulce de leche is the rich crust that tastes like a shortbread cookie. The dough comes from chef/owner of City Bakery, Mary Rubin, and it’s…divine is the word that comes to mind, even though I’m not the type of person who normally says divine.

But this tart is, whether you follow the original City Bakery recipe or try my version. I’d say Valentine’s Day would be a prime time to get one in the oven. It makes a nice holiday tart — I made it for Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve — but, hey, any day ending in Y is occasion enough.

Cranberry Pecan and Dulce de Leche Tart

Adapted from City Bakery’s Cranberry Caramel Almond Tart recipe

Dough

• 13 tablespoons (1 stick plus 5 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350. Let the butter soften to room temperature.

In a standing mixer with paddle attachment or food processor with the dough blade attached, add powdered sugar and the pieces of butter. (Of course this can be done by hand with some extra effort.) Toss to coat, then combine the sugar and butter at medium speed, until the sugar is no longer visible.

Add the egg yolk and combine.

Scrape the butter off the sides of the bowl. Add half of the flour, then begin mixing again until the dough is crumbly. Add the remaining flour and then the cream and mix until the dough forms a somewhat sticky mass.

Flatten the dough into a thick pancake, wrap it in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours before preparing to roll out the dough.

Lightly butter a 9-inch pastry ring or fluted tart pan and place it on a baking sheet.

When the dough is chilled, sprinkle your work surface with a thin layer of flour. Divide dough into 16 equal pieces then knead together and reform a flattened ball. (I seem to have forgotten about this step until I looked at the recipe just now. Skipping it might be the reason my dough never rolls out nice and pretty.)

Flour a rolling pin and roll out the dough into a circle large enough to cover the tart pan.

Transfer the dough into the ring or tart pan by rolling about a third of it around your rolling pin, lifting it and placing it into the ring. Gently pat the dough onto the bottom and up the sides of the ring. (I always have some trouble with this, so I usually end up pressing the dough evenly across the bottom and sides.) Prick the dough all over with a fork. Trim the edges so that they are even with the top. Put the pan into the freezer for one hour.

Then bake 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature before filling.

Filling

• 1 3/4 cups frozen cranberries (buy fresh cranberries then freeze them so they don’t turn to total mush when you put them in the oven)
• 2 cups pecans (almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts or cashews would work. I’ve done pecans and almonds each twice)
• 4 – 6 oz. dulce de leche, at room temperature (I’ve never measured, just scooped out about half a jar of dulce de leche, enough to coat the cranberries and nuts)

In a medium bowl, evenly mix cranberries, nuts and dulce de leche with a silicone spatula. Scrape mixture into slightly cooled tart dough. Even it out, then bake for about 20-25 minutes still at 350. Cranberries and dulce de leche should be bubbling slowly around the edges.

Allow to cool before serving. (My crust is always crumbly so I leave it in the tart ring.) The tart is great cold as well. Keeps several days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.