Either my blog has secretly been hoarding some of my recipes for its hungry self, or I’m dreaming. I could have sworn that I waxed poetic about these cookies last July, when I made them as the finale for a balcony barbecue I had with some friends. But I’ve searched — in the archives, in the recipe index, under every conceivable name — and they’re nowhere to be found.
Let’s remedy the situation right here and now. You need this cookie recipe. It’s a soldier of a cookie, one whose sturdy crust cloaks a tight log of nuts, dates, zest, and just a bit of orange blossom water. It’s intensely flavorful, but, amazingly, dairy-free. Everyone needs a good dairy free cookie recipe for the back pocket.
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This isn’t the recipe I planned to share with you today. There’s a recipe for a cookie that I absolutely adore, that I was sure I posted last July. Thing is, I’ve been searching and searching for it on this site, but it seems either to have gone missing or to have never been posted. I’m still totally confused about where it’s gone, but I’m getting to the bottom of this and will post the recipe later this week…so stay tuned.
In the meantime, peas, anyone?
Fresh peas a staple of springtime, on the menus of every restaurant in the city, and when they’re really fresh, they’re amazing. But I mean really fresh. Like, 1 day old or less. Sometimes, you get a lucky batch of pods, and the peas inside are small and young enough that they never take on that starchy texture or lose their sweet, clean flavor. But generally, fresh peas are hit-or-miss if you buy ’em more than a couple days out. That’s why this recipe calls for frozen peas (*collective sigh of relief*).
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My beverages of choice? Water and wine. Every once in a while I can get into a good beer, and I’ll drink pretty much any cocktail mixed by the geniuses behind the bar at Restaurant Eve. But when I grab something to drink, it’s almost always either a tall glass of ice-cold water, or a spot of vino.
If I’m going to indulge in other liquid calories, I want something interesting, something that makes me go “hmm.” I want something refreshing and zippy. I definitely want some lime. And I want there to be something delicious around the rim.
Enter Tamarind Ginger Fizz, the most quaffable drink of spring (and summer…) and only the second drink to take up real estate on NDP. (Remember the first one? Boy was that fun.) It checks all the boxes on my drink checklist: intrigue (the tamarind), refreshing and zippy (lime, seltzer, and mint), and something delicious around the rim (an addictive blend of chili, sugar, and salt). Also, it’s beautiful. Isn’t it?
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Forget that crap they serve in bad Italian restaurants. (All year round, mind you. Does anyone else see the irony in that?) This is the real thing. It’s spring (did you hear?), and this is a pasta dish that shows off the season’s finest. It’s a dead-simple preparation that doesn’t skimp on flavor, and it takes mere minutes to throw together.
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If you’ve eaten your vegetables — in this salad and this delightfully spring-y side dish and oh, this is quite nice, too, I forgot about it! — I’ve got some dessert for you. It’s Linzer Torte, and it’s such a steadfast ritual in this house, I’m practically embarrassed to have not shared it before now.
In a world where desserts are froufrou and frosted and altogether cupcaketastic, Linzer is a refreshing aberration. It’s dark, dense, and jammy, with not a dab of frosting in sight. Granted, it’s a bit on the fussy side. But between you and me, if you want to skip the whole lattice crust situation and just plop clumps of the dough on top of the jam, it’ll taste just as good. The almond flour dough is spiked with cinnamon, cloves, and lemon zest. There are egg yolks. There is raspberry jam. I’m pretty sure I’ve done my job — you want some, right?
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Back in March, when I posted the fourth or fifth consecutive recipe calling for raw fennel, I started to get guilt pangs. Readers, you must have thought I’d gone mad with all that fennel! Truth be told, I’d only recently come to love the vegetable, and once I discovered how delicious it was, the wheels started turning and wouldn’t stop. Fennel was everywhere.
Well, those days are behind us now. I have one lonely bulb of fennel in the fridge, and while I do plan to use it in a salad, I promise not to bore you with yet another fennel recipe. No no. Today is about salads that celebrate Spring produce. When there’re asparagus to discuss, who wants to talk fennel?
That’s what I thought.
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by rivka
on April 30, 2010
It’s official: Rhubarb Curd Shortbread is a winner! These treats took top prize over at Food52’s “your best rhubarb” contest, and they’ll be going into the food52 cookbook! Thanks to you all for voting and visiting!
When it comes to pantry stocking, I’m a minimalist. I keep only those things I need, being careful to clear out those non-essentials, so that I have as much space as possible for vegetables and cheeses in the fridge, ample room in the cabinets for all my pots and pans.
Um, can you hear the snickers and scoffs in the background?
In truth, I couldn’t be less of a minimalist if I tried. I have absolutely no this-not-that discipline; I so readily add to my growing list of “essentials” that my fridge simply feels naked without homemade rum-soaked cherries, Shady Maple Farms maple butter, Huy Fong sriracha and sambal oelek, Aleppo pepper, homemade tamarind pulp, and even a jar of caramelized onions (which I make in bulk and keep on hand — perhaps my wisest decision ever). What has become of my fridge? Whither simplicity?
If you thought this’d be my mea culpa, the one where I clean out the clutter and make some simple toast and butter, think again. The above items, however quirky and specialized, truly have become staples. My toast simply wouldn’t be as good in the morning without a slather of thick maple butter. The rum-soaked cherries made my brunch pound cake a whole different thing, all the more so for its finishing gloss of that cherry-rum syrup. Yes, I’m crazy. But these are the items that bring character to my fridge. They’re what make those “what’s for breakfast?” questions so fun to answer.
And today, I’m adding one more item to this list: rhubarb curd.
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by rivka
on April 28, 2010
In the five-plus years that D and I have been together, I think she’d probably say she’s learned that vegetables aren’t half bad. Hell, she really does enjoy them sometimes. Does she love asparagus? No. Ditto brussels sprouts. But I make ’em, she eats’ em, and we all come out alive.
It’s not a one way street, either. D’s got plenty to teach me about the wonder of simplicity. I may love my arugula salads dressed with nothing more than lemon and olive oil, but that girl knows her mac and cheese. She’s got the Subway sandwich situation down to a science. And she’s the reigning expert on homemade pizza.
I never used to want to make pizza, but these days, I seemingly can’t get enough of it. I always used to marvel at what a wood oven and ten minutes could do to a lump of dough; since giving homemade pizza a whirl, I can marvel at the fact that my modest little oven produces a damn good pie.
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