I’ve known Giuliano, Lael and the girls since their early days of the blog. The Hazan’s live in Sarasota, Florida, just a few minutes hop down the interstate from us. If you’re not familiar with Giuliano, I’m sure you’ve heard of his mother, Italian cooking doyenne, Marcella Hazan, whom I was lucky enough to spend time with a couple of years ago.

Giuliano, Lael and I have crossed paths many times, though usually it’s is a quick “hi!” at the IACP conferences or other blogging conferences. We’ve dined at their house and they at ours – I’m in love with their girls, Gabriella and Michela, who love their pastas almost as much as their papa.

Giuliano just came out with a new book, Hazan Family Favorites, featuring recipes from his childhood and new recipes that he loves to make at home with the girls. The dishes are unfussy and simple to prepare – most recipes have just a handful of ingredients and 3 steps. My favorite part of the book was reading the family stories and watching Giuliano grow up with Marcella and Victor through photos!

This morning’s eggs from our hens and a giant zucchini from the garden went into the Frittata with Zucchini. We added a super-ripe heirloom tomato, also from our garden and finished it off with goat cheese crumbles (sadly, not from our homestead, though one day….maybe…a goat or two)

Zucchini Frittata Recipe

The zucchini is best sliced on a mandolin – the one I *love* is the handheld mandolin by Oxo for $14.99. It’s lightweight, under $15 and requires no setting up.

Gorgeous heirloom tomato from my garden – I don’t remember the name of this tomato, but it ripens to a deep dark red/black color.

The onions are caramelized with just a pinch of sugar. The sugar helps speed up the caramelization by half the time.

Sliced zucchini is added to the pan and cooked until soft.

Those pretty eggs are from the hens – we used 5 of them. Whisk the eggs well.

In the pan, pour in the eggs, throw on the tomato slices and dot with crumbled goat cheese. Bake.

Great for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 21 comments

When we first moved into our house, I had carved out a small patch of land for the herb garden. Since the irrigation was a little messed up, the gardenette was close to a hose and small enough to be manageable daily.

Once the main garden was built last October, I had transferred all my energy, plants and herbs into raised beds and sort of neglected the temporary gardenette. Most everything had died (that patch is still without automatic irrigation) except for the weeds and the fennel plants, which had miraculously thrived with no attention and no water. I have no idea what super-strain of fennel this is, but heck, I’m grateful.

I’ve got more fennel than I can ever eat myself, so I’ve been inserting both the bulb and the fragrant fronds into salads and grilling recipes when we entertain. People say fennel is licorice-y, but it’s so much more than that. Fennel is refreshing, slightly minty with the fragrance and “mist” of anise. I think the word, “licorice flavor” is too strong of a description — I don’t taste the licorice flavor straight on my tongue, it’s more of an overall delicate aroma. Kind of like how fresh basil, mint or dill tastes in your mouth.

Fennel is perfect to pair with miso, honey and orange. It’s an herb that can stand on its own – the fresh crunch of the bulb and don’t forget the lovely fronds, which are equally fragrant with a more floral slant.

If you’re not a big fan of fennel – I’ve got substitutes for you in the recipe.

Miso Salmon with Orange and Fennel Recipe

This is another miso inspired recipe I’ve developed for my client, Miso & Easy, a ready-to-use miso paste. Use any miso paste that you wish!

Here’s what ya need:

The first step is to marinate your salmon (or any fish of your choice) with miso, honey, ginger, sake (or white wine – or omit the alcohol altogether). Marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour or even overnight is fine.

On a baking sheet, layer sliced fennel bulb and a few orange slices. Substitute onion for the fennel, omit the orange if you’d like.

Lay the marinated salmon on top.

Top with fennel fronds – or fresh herb of your choice (basil, parsley, etc) You can even top it with more orange slices if you want.

Bake until done and serve with rice.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 13 comments

Usually, the kitchen is loud….or should I say “lively” – the boys are running through with their Nerf guns, old-school Madonna playing on Pandora, me singing, “borderline….feels like I’m going to lose my mind…you just keep on pushing my love….” and Coco at my feet, waiting for me to drop a morsel of food as I fling my arms trying to dance my Madonna.

Yeah, that’s usually the scene.

Last week, I was alone in the house during the day – the kids were at school and Scott was in New York to be with his very ill dad – my kitchen was very quiet. I liked it that way, I had forgotten how the sounds of cooking can be soothing.

the “pop” as my sharp knife breaks and pierces the skin of a taut, ripe tomato.

chorus of scratching as I grate parmesan cheese.

gentle tzzzzssssss of bubbling butter in a pan.

if you can hear with your eyes, the sucking and drawing up of hot melted butter into the spongy pores of the bread.

fllllueeaappp as the face of the sandwich falls back on the pan after you flip it.

zzzahhhhhhhh as grated parmesan relaxes, melts and spreads out.

(smile) thanks for listening….

This recipe is from my friend, Michael Natkin, who happens to have one of the most happy smiles I’ve ever encountered. Michael runs Herbivoracious blog, which is all about vegetarian recipes. His very first book is just out - Herbivoracious and I’m so giddy proud of him.

Of all the recipes, I chose Super Frico – only because after seeing that recipe name, I couldn’t stop singing, “She’s a super frico, super frico. She’s super-frico, yow”

Come on! Be a dork and sing with me!

That sandwich is pretty kinky
It’s a super frico
The kind of lunch you read about
In foodie magazines

That cheese is pretty wild now
It’s a super frico
I really love to taste it
Every time we meet
She’s all right, she’s all right
That sandwich all right with me, yeah

Super Frico, baby

Make your standard grilled cheese sandwich (I like adding tomato to mine)

Remove the sandwich and sprinkle in your grated parmesan cheese, roughly in the same size as the sandwich.

Once it gets a little bubbly and melty, put your grilled cheese on top.

Press with a ginormous spatula to weld the cheese to the sandwich.

Lovely.

Stuff from the store

Need a cheese grater? I love this one.

I’m a big fan of fat spatulas…this one is nonstick.

Best Parmegiano Reggiano – big love for Whole Foods, the only company I know who has “crack parties“

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 25 comments

This is a variation of one of the most popular recipes from my cookbook (Todd & Diane posted the recipe for Garlic Butter Noodles) and SteamyKitchen.com (Garlic Scallion Noodles).

I’ve one-upped the recipe by adding in a spoonful of miso paste and throwing in fresh mushrooms, which is like upgrading from (okay, I just deleted a lame analogy of something related to stereos….too doiky, too predicable….deerrrrrr….)

Anyways, the miso paste, even just just a spoonful of it, melted into butter gives the entire dish richness (without adding meat!) I’ve created this recipe for my client, Miso & Easy, who makes ready-to-use miso paste. 

Garlic Noodles with Miso Butter

You can use any type of noodles that you want, Asian noodles or even spaghetti noodles (which is what I used). The secret ingredient is miso paste and Maggi Sauce….but soy sauce will work just as well.

Get your wok out (or a large saute pan with high sides) and add saute the garlic and green onions in butter, but for the love of Buddha, don’t burn the garlic – keep the heat in control!

Add in the mushrooms.

Just as the mushooms are softening, add in the miso (you might want to make a little space in the pan and stir the miso with the butter to melt it)

Maggi or soy sauce.

Cooked noodles and toss! toss! toss!

And toss more!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 20 comments

Lamb is crazy-expensive at our markets, it’s actually cheaper to go to a fancy restaurants to order lamb chops than it is for me to cook at home.  Ground lamb prices are a little better, but still a splurge when compared to beef. Splurge I must (yum….lamb….) and decided that I need to fancy the lamb burger up with warm, melty brie and quick pickled onions. Quick as in 10-minute, 3 ingredient quick.

The quick pickled onions is essential to the recipe, in my opinion, because the lamb has a strong, distinctive flavor and the brie is ooooey, goooey, rich. The pickle helps cut that fat and richness and provides a contrast to the gamey lamb.

Wow, do I sound cheffy or what!?

The 10-minute red onion pickle only takes 3 ingredients – rice vinegar (or red/white vinegar), water and a pinch of sugar. The onions mellow out in the vinegar and water – so you won’t get the hot bite that you would from regular raw onions.

You can even throw in some chopped chile pepper if you want the red onion pickle to be a little spicy.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 13 comments

The Chinese equivalent to bacon is Chinese Sausage, or “lap cheong” in Cantonese. If there’s one ingredient that will make brussels sprouts your most favorite vegetable, it’s Chinese Sausage (yes, even more so than bacon).

Chinese Sausage is the secret ingredient to my fried rice - and hey, it’s sold on Amazon.com (actually, that’s a pretty good price $12.85 for a package of 3).

I should probably compare Chinese Sausage to pancetta, as it’s more like pancetta than bacon. But it’s much sweeter and not quite as salty.

Each sausage is dotted with fat…lot of it. Is that a good thing? Well, I believe that sausage without fat is just pork. The fat is where the flavor is, but I do understand the fine line between full-flavored and too fatty. I’ll show you exactly how to deal with this and let you decide how much of that fat to keep or discard. (photos of Chinese Sausage from Amazon.com)

Brussels Sprouts Chinese Sausage

One of my favorite ways to prepare brussels sprouts is to treat it like cabbage and shred it with a chef’s knife. It is a little time consuming, cutting every itty bitty mini “cabbage ball” by hand….feel free to use a food processor with a shredding disc OR just cut each brussels sprouts in half and leave ‘em half orbs.

Dice the Chinese Sausage and throw ‘em in a cold wok or saute pan. Yes. cold pan. Turn on the heat to medium-low and let the sausage heat up gradually.

As it heats up, you’ll begin to see ‘em sweat. That’s a good thing – the fat inside each sausage is melting.

If you use a wok, it makes it easier, push the Chinese sausage up the sides of the wok and let the fat drip down. Make sure you control your heat – don’t let the sausage burn. Now at this point, you can use a paper towel and mop up all this extra fat and discard (!!!) or be like me and just use that fat to fry the brussels sprouts. Just do an extra lap in the pool.

Remove all of the cooked sausage to a plate, being careful to not scoop up any of that fat. We’ll add the cooked sausage back in the pan later.

Crank up the heat and add in the brussels sprouts. Add in 1 tablespoon of water to get the b.s. cooking. If you’ve taken the easy way out and only cut the b.s. in half, you’ll add in a bit more water, cover the pan and let the b.s. steam. But since we’ve got shreds, they cook rather quickly – no need to cover the pan.

Fish sauce is my other secret weapon in this dish – feel free to sub with soy sauce.

Once the brussels sprouts have cooked through – just taste one of them, they should still be just slightly crunchy but with no raw taste – add the Chinese Sausage right back in.

Toss toss toss!

Done. You’ll never have brussels sprouts quite like this….feel free to do this with regular cabbage as well.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 32 comments

You know the beginning stages of falling in love? That exhilarating, “I’ll stop the world and melt with you….” feeling (that’s for my Modern English fans).

Well, back on 8/8/08, my birthday a few years ago, I fell in love all over again with my husband. The morning of my birthday, he told me, “pack your bags, we’re going on a surprise trip!”

I’m like, “YAY! How fun!” But of course super-neurotic control-freak me went a little crazy.

Where are we going? Who’s going to take care of the kids? What do I pack? Who’s going to water my garden? Get the mail? Take the kids to school? Who will feeeeeeeeed my babies? Tellmetellmetellmeeeeeeee!!!!

Scott had it all taken care of. Like clockwork, the nanny rang our doorbell, the kids were hugging me goodbye, boarding passes were printed out (but not shown to me) and the car was packed.

I just had to force myself….pry myself away….and just go with the flow. Well, it turned out that we were headed to Las Vegas with reservations at a restaurant that I’ve been dying to try, Japonais at the Mirage. One of the side dishes was a mashed potatoes – savory, nutty, creamy and buttery. The funny thing was that you couldn’t really tell straight away what flavored the mashed potatoes and I had to ask the server for the secret ingredient, which he happily gave.

Miso paste.

Absolutely divine. Umami to the max. And still to this day, it’s one of my favorite ways to have potatoes.

As I’m writing this post, I’m gettin’ those same goosebumpy feelings – for my husband (not the potaotes). Scott rocks my world.

Miso Mashed Potatoes

Crazy easy to make. Basically, make mashed potatoes the same way you’ve always been making them, but stir in miso paste.

I’ve made this recipe for my client, Miso & Easy, who makes a super-convenient prepared miso that comes in a squeeze bottle. The same company is also the maker of best-selling miso paste called Marukome. You can use either product in this recipe.

Ingredients:

Okay, time to have a little fun here. Use any type of potatoes – white, russet or reds work best. Any type of fresh herbs- chives, tarragon, parsley or green onion. Cream or milk.

The first step is to boil the potatoes and them mash them.

Add in the butter and miso.

Pour in the milk.

Throw in some fresh chives.

No gravy, salt or pepper needed. The miso paste provides all the flavor.

By the way, I’m serving the Miso Mashed Potatoes with Ham with Grilled Peaches Recipe.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 19 comments

[Those potatoes are Miso Mashed Potatoes Recipe]

Don’t be intimidated by a big ol’ Easter ham. First of all, it’s fully cooked already (unless you’re buying country ham, which is an entirely different thing altogether) and all you’re doing is warming it back up, slowly.

Seriously! You can do it! The recipes I create for ham are soooo simple, fruit + sugar makes a fab glaze. With this recipe, I added grilled peaches to serve alongside the ham. It’s a light, simple and happy plate.

Grilling the peaches makes ‘em sweet, warm and juicy.

Here’s the key to buying ham: check out the label and make sure it says, “Ham with Natural Juices.” If your label says “Ham with Juices and Water” – don’t get it. The best ham is the one with the least amount of additives and water.

I’m going to give you step by step photos on how to make this recipe, but I’m cheatin’ – the step by step recipes are borrowed from my Ham with Mango Ginger Glaze since it’s almost the exact same procedure. I hope you don’t mind!

Easter Ham with Grilled Peaches

Here’s the ham. See on the label “Semi-Boneless Ham with Natural Juices” – that’s good. Open it up.

Use a sharp knife to score the ham, criss-cross. Just go in one direction diagonally, then the other way so you get “diamonds.” The scoring is totally not necessary, but it looks really pretty and also will help the glaze really stick onto the ham in a later step.

Place your ham in a oven-safe vessel not too much larger than the ham itself. Either a roasting pan, or large saute pan will do. Here’s my beloved cast iron. See how there’s only a couple inches of space around the ham?

Pour the peach nectar in the pan until it reaches about 1/2 inch up the sides. The juice helps with keeping the ham moist.

Continue reading Easter Ham with Grilled Peaches...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 13 comments

Just when I thought I could devote entire week to writing headnotes for my cookbook, Scott reminded me that corporate taxes were due end of the month. “End of the month!??? That’s like in a few days! Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Of course, he did. Everyday for the past 10 days he’s reminded me, but I’m the mistress of procrastination and born with true talent in only hearing what I choose to (says my mom too)….covering ears…”lalalalalala!”

So this week’s recipe development centered on all things grilled….I make it, Scott grills it, the kids clean up. Our entire family understands the “shared responsibility” rule, but what they don’t know is that my portion only takes 10 minutes. Shhhh…..we won’t tell them, will we?

Grilled Honey Miso Wings

Here are the ingredients. The recipe features either using miso paste that you can fine at most grocery stores, Asian markets, Whole Foods or other health food grocery stores…..or Miso & Easy (you can buy it online at Marukai) which is miso paste in a convenient squeeze bottle.

Miso & Easy is a client of mine – I create recipes for them – if you want more miso recipe, all of them are right here!

Whisk together the marinade ingredients:
Continue reading Grilled Honey Miso Wings...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 22 comments

Rule #1 of food blog design: Never launch a new design or features the day before you go on vacation or travel.

I thought I had learned this lesson, oh…..5 WordPress themes ago, but apparently I underwent a momentary lapse of good judgement last Friday. Not only were we going on a family vacation at Disney World, but we were hosting Food Blog Forum in Orlando at Disney World for 100 attendees and their families. (More on those fun times in another post!)

Scott and I started getting emails from readers that, “Your site be broke!” as one so eloquently wrote. But our energy was dedicated to creating magical moments for FBF attendees and our boys, and not for freaking out on a broke site. So we stopped checking emails and just had fun.

It was harder than I’m making it sound. There’s no such thing as “stop checking emails” or “turning off phones” for geeks like us. But we did our best and you know what? Our weekend was one of the best eeeevvveerrrrr!!!

Broccoli Spanakopita…or Broccolikopita

Spanakopita is a Greek pastry, usually filled with spinach and feta cheese folded in layers of filo dough. Most of the time, I see them folded into triangles (kinda like how you fold an American flag), but I decided that rolls were easier to shape, easy enough for my boys to help me in the kitchen.

Instead of spinach, we used fresh broccoli, something we had plenty of in the garden. Crispy, flaky and savory.

The first step is to lightly saute the onions, garlic and broccoli in olive oil. Season with a pinch of ground nutmeg and salt and pepper.

The broccoli should still be a little crunchy and bright green. Let the pan cool a bit and then stir in the raw egg. If the pan is too hot, the egg will cook. Remember, this all goes in the oven later for 20 minutes, so everything will be perfectly cooked.

Lay out a sheet of filo, brush with melted butter, then add another sheet. Spoon a couple tablespoons of the broccoli filling in the middle, near the bottom.

Fold over both sides.

Roll up.

Once you’re done with all of the rolls, brush the tops with butter.

Bake for 20 minutes and serve hot!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 45 comments