Cilantro Sauce

We've been doing some taco experimenting around here lately. And while most of the focus has been on fillings (which I'll share when we get them perfected), sauces and salsas are just as important.

I tried this one to accompany a grilled steak taco. It's quick and easy to make on the fly. The brightness of the lime with the fresh, tangy greenness of the cilantro layered with a little onion and garlic make a perfect accompaniment to a grilled steak, straight up or on a taco. I haven't tried it yet on chicken or grilled veggies, but I think it would work there too. I even caught myself dipping chips into it.

I used the mini processor attachment that came with my immersion blender to process this. A mini-food processor or blender would work fine too.

This is best served fresh, immediately after processing. The flavor is still good the next day on leftovers, but the cilantro starts to wilt a bit, so it's not such a pretty presentation.


Cilantro Sauce

1 garlic clove, peeled, chopped
2 tablespoons white onion, peeled, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch cilantro

In food processor or blender, whiz together garlic, onion, salt and lime juice. Add olive oil and process into a paste.

Trim off the bottom edges of the cilantro stems and discard. Cut the bunch of cilantro into thirds (including stems) and add to processor. Process into a smooth paste. Taste and add more lime or salt, as you like.

Serve immediately on tacos.

Makes 1/2 cup. Recipe can easily be doubled or multiplied into bigger batches.

Adapted from Baja! Cooking on the Edge by Deborah Schneider.

Green Tomato Jam

I've been on a corn kick lately. Fresh corn in salads, gorditas, pupusas, cornbread... I spotted this recipe in a recent issue of Food & Wine — their best new chefs issue. The recipe comes from one of their picks for best new chef this year, Clayton Miller from Trummer's on Main in Virginia. Miller makes hush puppies with this Indian-spiced Green Zebra tomato jam. With honey, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cumin and cayenne, the jam explodes in your mouth and pairs well with cornbread or hush puppies.

Green Zebra tomatos are common at the farmers market. They are light green with dark green stripes and will ripen to a golden green with a mild, tart, sweet flavor. I love to grow them in the garden. Their flavor and color contrast well with the other red and gold tomatoes we usually grow.

Note: this recipe makes plenty. I ended up filling a quart jar. So you could probably cut the recipe in half, if you like. But it keeps well in the fridge because of the cider vinegar and I've found myself finding more and more things to put it on. It's even tasty as a quick Indian sauce on some chicken or veggies and rice. It's refreshing and full of flavor. Nice for this time of year when we're starting to crave more complex fall tastes but it's still too hot in Austin to dive full-on into those dishes just yet.



Green Zebra tomato jam

2 lbs. of Green Zebra tomatoes
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 garlic clove, grated or minced
1-inch cinnamon stick
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cut the tomatoes into a half-inch dice.

Combine tomatoes and other ingredients in a saucepan. Bring up to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer for about 40-50 minutes, until thickens. Stir occasionally.

Let cool to serve. Store covered in the fridge — a glass jar is perfect for this.

Yield: one quart

Adapted from Clayton Miller in Food & Wine, July 2010

Food Find: Salt + Time

I'm guilty of not posting lately. Sorry to be absent. I don't want to slide into the realm of TMI, but suffice it to say that I've been unraveling the mystery that is my digestive system for awhile and haven't been eating or cooking much. But I have been experimenting with some new things that I'll share as soon as I can get the recipes where I want them. Until then, I've been trying out some new food finds in Austin.

Last weekend, we went to the Hope Farmers Market in East Austin in search of some grassfed beef that my soon-to-be-backpacking husband wants to make into jerky for his upcoming trip. (The adventures of jerky-making, coming soon!) While we were there, we ran across a new vendor, Salt + Time from Niederwald. They make salumi, pickles, relishes and jam. We picked up some of their Tuscano salumi, pancetta, and their smoked pimento chile sauce — a taste sensation. I love this sauce. They told us they smoke fresh pimento peppers (they even showed us one) and then blend it into this smooth, intriguing sauce. It's just the right amount of smokiness with a little zing, but it isn't spicy hot.

I'm usually a mustard girl, but we tried it with the porky goodness of their salumi and it made the perfect accompaniment. We also put some of the sauce on some shredded roast chicken. It was so good, I stood at the counter eating it before I could pop it into a corn tortilla for a quick dinner. I think this sauce would also be a great match with a big bowl of beans and cornbread. Now I wish I'd gotten two of those bottles.

Find Salt + Time on Sundays at the Hope Farmers Market in East Austin. And check out their blog too.

Beecher's Mac & Cheese

While exploring Pike Place Market in Seattle, we stopped by Beecher's Handmade Cheese shop. I'd heard of Beecher's and even tried some of their Flagship Cheddar locally from Central Market. It was the best cheddar I'd ever tasted — a much more dynamic and full-flavored cheddar than I'd ever had before. Beecher's makes their cheeses with no artificial preservatives, flavor enhancers, sweeteners, colors or hydrogenated oils. It's just pure goodness.

I'd seen Beecher's Kurt Dammeier on the Martha Stewart show making "the world's best mac and cheese." That's a mighty big claim. I grew up eating my grandmother's mac and cheese. She was an old-school Southern cook who spoiled me with buttermilk biscuits, chicken and dumplings and the mac and cheese by which I've measured all others. Hers was creamy and cheesey underneath with a thick, crusty layer of cheddar over the top. I've experimented for years with different down-home and gourmet recipes to try to find one I liked as much as hers. Beecher's recipe is the one. We sampled some in their store and I had to try making it myself when we got home.

My husband immediately declared it one of the best things he's ever tasted. I have to agree. The sauce is not just creamy and luscious, but the also the cheesiest I've ever had. The crust of Gruyere and cheddar on top replicates the crust I always loved from my grandmother's version. First, you make your sauce and cook your pasta. Then combine them in a casserole pan (individual little casseroles are handy here and avoid fighting over the serving spoon), sprinkle the top with more cheese, and then bake it in the oven. You can make your sauce and pasta and assemble and refrigerate it before baking. This will actually enhance the flavor. (Saveur magazine recently had an article about the chemical reactions that take place in mac and cheese and they recommended letting the flavors develop like this before baking. So keep that in mind, if it's more convenient. This also means your leftovers will rock.)

This is rich stuff. It has a little chipotle in it to give it just a touch of heat. It takes a lot of cheese. It's not a cheap dish. But it is one of the most satisfying ever. A special occasion, over-the-top splurge. This is the kind of dish that will get you marriage proposals, so don't make it for just anyone.

Cooking notes: Be sure to undercook the pasta by a few minutes — it will continue cooking in the oven and you don't want it to get too soft. I used a rigatoni pasta because I wanted something with a big enough center to capture the sauce. It was perfect. I also used 2% milk and it was still incredibly rich. Beecher's Jack cheese wasn't available locally, so I subbed the Central Market house Jack. But be sure to use Beecher's Flagship for the cheddar. It's what makes this dish transformative.



Beecher's Mac & Cheese

For the cheese sauce:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup flour
3 cups (2%) milk
14 ounces (3 1/2 cups) Beecher's Flagship cheddar, grated
2 ounces (1/2 cup) Jack cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder
1 clove garlic, minced

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the garlic, and cook for a couple of minutes to soften the garlic. Add the flour and whisk together. Continue whisking while it cooks for about two minutes.

A little at a time, pour in your milk and continue whisking to incorporate. Then add a little more. Continue the whisking and adding until you've incorporated all of the milk. Keep whisking and cooking for about 10 minutes, until the sauce thickens.

Turn off the heat under the pan. Add the grated cheese, salt and chipotle. Whisk or stir until all of the cheese has melted. Refrigerate for later assembly or assemble into mac and cheese immediately (see below).

For mac and cheese:
6 ounces rigatoni pasta, slightly undercooked (by about 2-3 minutes) and rinsed in cold water, then drained
Beecher's cheese sauce (above)
1 ounce (1/4 cup) Beecher's Flagship cheddar, grated
1 ounce (1/4 cup) Gruyere cheese, grated

Spray one large or 6-8 small casserole pans with cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the warm cheese sauce and the (undercooked) pasta. Pour the pasta and sauce into your baking dish(es). Sprinkle the top with the cheddar and Gruyere.

Bake for about 20-30 minutes, until warmed through. Note: while mine was cooked through at this point, the top wasn't quite browned yet, so I turned on the broiler for the last two minutes of cooking. Be sure to watch over it and pull it out before it goes too far.

Let cool for about five minutes before serving, if you can stand it.

Mac and cheese is uaually considered a side dish, or in the South, a vegetable. And you can serve it on the side with something else, like roasted chicken or whatever. But no one will notice anything else on the table. Just know that. If you have kids, I'm sure you could use this as a bribe to get them to eat their green veggies first.

Adapted from Beecher's World's Greatest Mac & Cheese recipe on MarthaStewart.com.

Serves 6-8.

Murgh Makhani

Our friend, Amar, is coming to visit in a few weeks. He's from India, has lived in Texas, Japan, Morocco and now in Maryland. Before he left Austin for Japan, he shared with me his recipe for murgh makhani — "buttered chicken." It is one of my favorite Indian dishes. (I've also seen it spelled "mahkni" or "mahkane.")

Chicken is marinated in yogurt, ginger, chili, garlic and spices, and then finished with a tomato cream sauce. It is an exotic, velvety delicacy. I've been hooked since the first time I tasted it. We served it over basmati rice with roasted cauliflower — which offers a nice contast in texture. This same sauce could be made vegetarian by omitting the chicken and cooking it with veggies or tofu instead.

Here's hoping I can talk Amar into sharing some more of his recipes when he visits.

This is a rich sauce. I used 2% Greek yogurt this time. I've made it with cream, half and half, fat free half and half and even whole milk. Of course, the more fat you use, the more velvety it is. Leave the jalapeno seeds in if you want a very spicy version. Note that the chicken needs to marinate for at least two hours or overnight. Also, the flavors of this dish really develop over time. I noticed that the leftovers we had for dinner the second night were even more flavorful than the first time. So you could make it ahead and then add the cream and butter when you reheat it just before serving.

Murgh Mahkani

one pound boneless chicken tenders
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 teaspoon salt
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, minced
2 teaspoons Garam Masala
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 whole cloves
2 black peppercorns
28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar
8 ounces cream
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
cooked basmati rice

Stir together yogurt, ginger, salt, garlic, jalapeno and Garam Masala.

Place the chicken in a zip bag or large lidded container. Add yogurt mixture and stir or rub together to cover chicken completely. Marinate in the fridge for at least two hours or up to overnight.

In a large saucepan, cook the onion, cloves, and peppercorns until onions are translucent. Add the chicken, tomatoes, cayenne and honey and stir together. Simmer together until all ingredients are heated through and flavors come together.

At this point, you could let it cool, refrigerate it and reheat it the next day. The flavors will be more intense. To serve, add the cream and butter and stir together. Bring up to a simmer and let butter melt.

Serve over basmati rice and sprinkle with cilantro.

Serves 4.

Adapted from Amar Shekdar.

Brent's BBQ Sauce

One year at Christmas, our friend, Brent, sent us some of the finest dang barbecue sauce I've ever had. Now, I grew up in the South, so barbecue for me means pork. I know, I live in Texas, and here, it's all about the beef. But as my husband says, pork is still the king of meats. I'm usually partial to a Carolina mustard-based sauce on pulled pork. But Brent's red sauce has convinced me that red can be as good as yellow.

This sauce is a little smokey with a nice balance of sweet (from brown sugar) and tangy (from cider vinegar and mustard) with a slow heat at the end (from cayenne and chipotle) that's really nice. Garlic, onion and molasses give it backbone.

There's a pot of it simmering on the stove right now — the perfect smell to go with a windy day and football playoffs in the background. I made a double batch so we'll have plenty. Brent's original quantities are listed below, but it's easy to double if you're feeling generous enough to share it with friends.



Tonight, we put this on chicken on the grill. (Note the dog's undivided attention on the chicken.) Tips from my husband, the grillmaster: don't put the sauce on the chicken until the last five minutes of cooking or the sugars will burn. He brushed it on and then turned it twice, so one side got a little more carmelized. Just keep a close eye on it.

For a quick meal, we also threw some zucchini and pineapple on the fire too. Next, I want to try it on pork and put it in a steamed Asian bun, dim sum-style.

A note on the ingredients: I used canned chipotles in adobo sauce. I picked out the biggest ones and chopped them up, seeds and all. If you want the flavor of the chipotles, but with less heat, you could leave out the seeds. Also, I made sure to use a natural liquid smoke with no MSG and no preservatives.

Muchas gracias, Brent!

Brent's BBQ Sauce

In a heavy-duty saucepot, sauté until onions are translucent:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, finely diced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped

Add:
1/2 cup Jack Daniels

Brent flames it here, but I was a bit sleep-deprived when I made this and felt a little paranoid about lighting the kitchen on fire, so I brought it up to a boil and let it bubble for a few minutes instead. Such a girl move, I know.


Add and stir together:
2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup tomato paste
4 teaspoons liquid smoke
1 tablespoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons cayenne
2 chipotle peppers

Let simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Yield: approximately 6 cups.

Adapted from Brent Warner.

Tacuba Enchiladas

This recipe comes from a PBS special that aired recently called Moveable Feast. It showcased chefs like Rick Bayless, Ming Tsai, Lydia Bastianich, Jose Andres, Christopher Kimball and Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl, all sharing recipes.

I've been a Rick Bayless fan ever since my friends Jennifer and Kevin turned me on to his cookbooks and tasty interior Mexican recipes. And I'm so glad they did. He's now my go to source for real Mexican dishes.

This is one of the recipes he shared on the program. He said it comes from one of his favorite dishes from Cafe Tacuba, a restaurant in Mexico City. It turned out to be as tasty as it looked when he made it. The recipe is easy to make, but does make a bit of a mess in the kitchen, utilizing a lot of different pots and pans.

I liked that it had a warm, gooey, comfort food quality, but also included a healthy dose of veggies with spinach and poblanos in the sauce. I went one step further and added strips of zucchini to the chicken filling to make it a one-dish meal.


Tacuba Enchiladas

3-4 poblano chiles
6 big handfuls of fresh baby spinach
1 stick (4 ounces) butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups milk
12-14 corn tortillas
cooking spray
meat from one rotisserie or roasted chicken, shredded
3-4 small zucchini, shredded or julienned into sticks
1/3 pound Chihuahua (or Monterey Jack) cheese, shredded
cilantro to garnish

Roast the poblanos under a broiler until black and blistered on all sides. Allow to cool, the peel off the skin and remove the seeds and stem. A quick rinse under cold water makes this easier. Chop the chiles and set aside. Reset the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

While the chiles are roasting, put the milk and broth into a pan and bring up to a simmer.

Make a roux. Melt the butter over medium heat, then add the garlic and stir for one minute. Add the flour, stirring continuously. Let the flour cook, about one minute, while stirring. Continue stirring and slowly add in the heated broth mixture. Whisk together completely and then bring up to a boil. Then lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt and whisk.

While the sauce is simmering, spray each side of each of the tortillas lightly with cooking spray and place them, 2-up, on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 3-4 minutes. Remove from oven, pile all the tortillas into one neat stack and cover with a kitchen towel to keep them warm.

Finish the sauce using a blender or immersion blender. Whiz together the chiles, spinach, and half of the sauce. Blend well until completely smooth.

Pour into the pan with the other half of the sauce and whisk together to completely combine.

Place the shredded chicken meat and zucchini in a bowl and ladle one cup of the green sauce over it. Stir together to combine. This is your filling.

You can use either individual gratin dishes or a larger casserole pan to bake these. Whichever you're using, spray your pans with cooking spray first. Ladle some sauce into the bottom of your pan and spread it around evenly with the back of the ladle.

Now, assemble your enchiladas. Take one tortilla, place a large spoonful of filling across the middle of your tortilla in a strip. Roll the tortilla up around it. Place into the pool of sauce in the prepared pan. Continue with remaining tortillas and filling.

When the filled tortillas are all snug in their pan, ladle more sauce evenly over the top to cover. Sprinkle the top with the shredded cheese.

Baking time depends on the size of the pans you're using. I baked individual pans with two enchiladas each, so it was only about 20 minutes. You just want them warmed through and the cheese melted and a little bubbly on top. For one large pan, this could take up to double the time. I'd test the middle ones after 30-40 minutes to make sure they're hot all the way through. (If your cheese browns too fast, cover it with foil.)

This makes a big ole mess of enchiladas, 12-14. How many that serves is up to you. I'd count on 2-3 per person.

To serve, top with chopped cilantro.

Serves approximately 4-6.

Adapted from Rick Bayless.

Faster Mole?

Mole. The rich, velvety complexity. It's warming and soul-satisfying. But, intimidating. I really like the intriguing combinations of flavors in different kinds of moles. But the laborious process of producing this wonderous sauce has kept it out of my reach. Elusive and mysterious. It's one of those, "one day, when I have time..." things. But I never have time. So I've never tried making mole myself.

Then I ran across this recipe in Cook's Illustrated for a faster mole. I was dubious. Instead of cooking all of the ingredients separately and then simmering them together for hours, this recipe calls for thickening the sauce for about 10 minutes and then pureéing the ingredients together before pouring them over chicken and baking for about 40 minutes. They used ancho and chipotle chiles, onion, cinnamon, a little chocolate, clove, garlic, tomatoes, raisins, sesame seeds and instead of a combination of ground nuts, they used smooth roasted almond butter instead. This adds velvety, nutty richness that is smooth and binds the sauce together with no grit.

I tinkered with this recipe just a little, using golden currants instead of raisins, adding more cinnamon and chiles and substituting agave syrup in place of sugar.

As you can see from the photo (which I've agonized over because it's so homely), this is not beauty pageant pretty food, but it's really tasty. Especially if you let the flavors develop overnight and serve it the second day. I'll be making this one again and will try to get you a prettier shot to replace the one above.

I made it according to the timing directions called for and we had it for dinner the first night. It had a nice complexity but I kept wanting the flavors to be more cohesive, to work together more smoothly. Then we put the leftovers in the fridge and had it again for dinner the next day. It was sooooo much better. The cinnamon was warmer, the flavors were rounded and fuller and not as rawly spicy. It came together. So next time, I would make the sauce, then put the uncooked chicken in it as a marinade and refrigerate overnight. Then cook it, probably a bit longer than the 40 minutes called for, maybe closer to an hour and a little lower temp so that the chicken doesn't dry out.

Try it yourself and see what you think. This is a mole I'd be proud to serve for company. It's perfect on a chilly day like this. And we won't get many more of these before the Texas broiler heats up for summer.

Faster Mole

2 ancho chiles
1 chipotle chile
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (canola)
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 ounce bittersweet or Mexican chocolate, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth (low-sodium)
14.5 ounces canned diced, roasted tomatoes
1/4 cup golden currants
1/4 cup almond butter
2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, toasted plus more for garnish
1 teaspoon salt
ground pepper to taste
3 tablespoons agave syrup
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast

First, toast the chiles. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and make sure your oven racks are in the middle position. Put the chiles on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until fragrant and puffy, about 6 minutes. Let cool, then remove seeds and stems and tear chiles into small pieces. (If you wear contacts, you may want to consider doing this with gloves on to avoid unhappiness later.)

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the onion. Cook 5 or 6 minutes until softened. Then add the chile pieces, cinnamon, cloves and chocolate. Stir together for 2 minutes until the chocolate melts and the you can smell the spices.

Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds. Stir in the broth, tomatoes, raisins, almond butter and 2 tablespoons sesame seeds. Let thicken over heat, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens down to about 2 1/2 cups. (They recommended a 10-minute timeframe here, but I cooked it longer. Let your taste be the judge.) Add the salt, pepper, and agave syrup and stir together.

Here, you can decide if you want to cook it right away or let the sauce cool, add the uncooked chicken and let it marinate overnight before proceeding.

Either way, take a wide, shallow casserole pan, and spray it with cooking spray. Place the chicken across the bottom (single layer). Let the sauce cool first, if you're going to marinate, or dump it right on in there if you're going straight into the oven.

Bake, uncovered, for at least 40-45 minutes. Next time, I think I'll lower the oven temp a bit and cook it slower and lower. Follow your own judgement here.

When cooking is complete, let rest on stovetop, covered loosely, for 5-10 minutes. Serve over rice and garnish with additional toasted sesame seeds.

I still want to try making mole the traditional way. One day, I'll get out my Rick Bayless and try my hand at a green mole. But in the meantime, I'll be making this one.

Serves 6.

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated.

Wild Mushroom Tomato Sauce with Bison

So the other day, I'm taking the dog for a walk. It's recycling day, so everyone's blue bins were out on the curb. I don't like to be a snoop, but I couldn't help but notice that in almost every bin was an empty spaghetti sauce jar. Really?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for shortcuts that make sense. These days it's a challenge just to get home at a decent hour, much less to have time to plan a meal, shop for provisions, and then come home and put it all together. But I've never had a jarred spaghetti sauce that tasted like anything but adulterated ketchup. Even if you only took a can of roasted chunky tomatoes and heated it up with some basil and maybe a little garlic, you'd be much better off. I always thought spaghetti sauce was one of those things that was universal. Something everyone made, whether they "cooked" or not. Guess I was wrong.

Spaghetti sauce is easy enough for kids to make and is incredibly versatile. Make spaghetti, lasagna, stuffed shells, baked pasta dishes, stuffed peppers... It's good to have in the freezer. And who doesn't like spaghetti? Kids, adults, make it fancy or just homey and comforting, it's all good.

This is a basic recipe I've been using for years that relies on lots of mushrooms for meaty richness, whether we add meat or not. You can make it vegetarian (serve it with grilled portobellos) or not, tinker with the flavorings as you like. It still stands up. One addition we've made recently is to use ground bison meat instead of ground beef. I don't want to get into preaching about grass-fed versus grain-fed, but suffice it to say, it's worth learning about. The average supermarket grain-fed, antibiotic-filled and steroid-loaded ground beef from industrial feed lots is scary, scary stuff. Not to mention, who needs more unnecesasry fat and cholesterol?

Enter buffalo meat. It's low fat, low cholesterol, full of nutrients and has as many Omega-3s as salmon. Did you know that? 100 grams of beef can have over 8 grams of fat. The same amount of skinless chicken, over 7 grams of fat. Grass fed bison has under 2 grams of fat. So if you're craving red meat, try bison. You'll be satisfied in your tummy and in your heart.

We've been buying bison locally from Thunderheart Bison at the farmer's market. Find out more about bison on their web site. Their jerky is also really good, not too salty and not full of bad stuff.

Now you're saying, but yeah, how does it taste? Bison is very lean. So in a cut like a steak, it's going to be a little different than beef. But in a sauce, it's perfect. I truly can't distinguish any taste difference. We've served it to folks who would have thought bison just plain weird and they loved it. So you can have your red meat spaghetti sauce and eat it too.

This recipe freezes really well. We made a double batch before going on vacation and took a frozen container of it with us to have at our little cabin. This is a good dish to make ahead, to allow the flavors to fully develop. It's really better if you can make it a day ahead and let it all come together overnight in the fridge.

Wild Mushroom Tomato Sauce with Bison

1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
12 ounces button mushrooms, quartered
8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon dried, crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 - 1/4 cup dry red wine
1 pound ground bison
28-ounce can crushed, roasted tomatoes with added purée

Put the dried porcinis in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Cover and let soak for 30 minutes. (Tip: it sometimes helps to put another bowl on top to cover them and help fully submerge all the little dried pieces.)

Strain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid. Remove the stems and then slice the mushrooms.

Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion and cook until tender and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the fresh and rehydrated mushrooms and garlic. Sauté another 5 minutes. Add the rosemary and red pepper flakes.

Add the ground bison, stirring occasionally, until cooked through.

Add the wine and reserved mushroom soaking liquid. Increase heat and boil until the liquid is reduced by half, about 5 minutes.

Add the canned tomatoes. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to come together. You can simmer much longer or let cool and refrigerate overnight. The flavors will marry in the fridge and be even richer the next day.

Serve over your favorite pasta. We like to use whole wheat linguine or perciatelli. (Perciatelli is like spaghetti, but a little thicker and with a hollow center. Gives it a wonderful toothy bite.)

Serves 4-6. Can be easily doubled.

Green Chutney

You know the green and reddish brown chutneys you see in Indian restaurants? I'm never quite sure what I'm supposed to do with them, but I can't get enough of the green one. On naan bread, on rice, on veggies, just on a spoon. I love the stuff. It's so brightly flavored and refreshing.

I really like Indian food but don't know enough about it. I've tried some recipes here and there but never really found a source to rely on heavily. Until now.

Indian Home Cooking is my new go-to source for Indian feasting. It's written by Suvir Saran, the chef of New York's Devi restaurant. But tackling a new cuisine, especially a foreign one, can be daunting. This book is designed for American cooks using mostly supermarket ingredients.

Originally, I checked this book out from the library (yes, I'm a nerd) thinking I'd try a few recipes. But when I plopped down on the sofa with it, I found myself bookmarking so many pages, I realized immediately that I'd need to get a copy to keep. There's just too much in this book I want to try. Like lentil dal with ginger, chiles and cilantro; lentil dal with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves; stir-fried green beans with coconut; cauliflower hyderabad style; sweet and sour butternut squash with ginger and chiles; vegetable jhalfrazie; butter chicken; coconut chicken with cashews; salmon curry; pineapple raita; lamb with almonds, cardamom and coconut...I could go on and on.

But first, the green chutney. I was so excited to make this, I anchored dinner around it. I made the chutney with cilantro, mint, green chiles, ginger, onion and lemon. Then I threw together some wraps using a new naan bread I discovered at Whole Foods. It's a house brand that comes in several flavors. We used the whole wheat. You just pop them in the toaster oven briefly and they're ready to go. Use them as we did, as a wrap, by themselves with your Indian feast, or just as a raft for a quick pizza. You can freeze them or they keep well in the fridge.

Saran notes that you can vary this to your liking. Skip the mint and use only cilantro, add green mango for increased sourness, increase the chiles for a spicier flavor or increase the mint and use less cilantro (but don't omit the cilantro altogether).

I love it just like this. I love, love, love all things mint. This isn't overly minty but has a beautiful balance of the freshness of the mint with the green flavor of the cilantro, soft heat of the ginger and sourness of the lemon. I could eat this stuff every day.


Green Chutney (Haree Chutney)

1 1/2 cups firmly packed cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup firmly packed mint leaves
2 - 3 green chiles (I used jalapenos)
2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped into chunks
1/2 onion
juice of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and whiz into a purée. This will take a little while. Stop frequently and scrape down the sides to get it to all blend together. Add more water if you need to, but this will soften the flavor.

Refrigerate before serving to allow the flavors to come together.

Keeps for 4-5 days in the fridge. (Note: a pinch of vitamin c powder would probably help it maintain it's bright green color if you're not serving it the same day.)

Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Adapted from Indian Home Cooking by Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness.


Serving suggestion: I wanted to really focus on the flavor of the chutney, so I threw together a basic little wrap and used this as the sauce. Using the Whole Foods naan bread, we added some shredded roast chicken, red bell pepper strips, slices of cucumber and a sprinkling of fresh mint. Fast, healthy and easy. Let me know what you use it on.