Kool-ickles

If you can't find it, make it. That's what I always say. I've looked on the countertop of every gas station from Memphis, Tennessee to Columbia, Mississippi in search of this hard-to-find regional specialty and have come up empty handed so far. Legend has it that this Mississippi Delta-born pickle lives next to the pickled eggs and the pig's feet in every 
mom-and-pop shop this side of the Mason-Dixon..but the legend is wrong.


I've been in full-on pickling mode all summer, so I figured I'd give this one a shot, too. I made Wild Cherry and Lemon-Lime pickles out of Kool-Aid unsweetened drink mix.  I really think that they're both unexpectedly good -- and believe it or not, I don't even like Kool-Aid!


As I excitedly put these together, my wife pointedly asked what I was going to do with 2 quarts of Kool-ickles. "I'm going to make everyone who comes over here try 'em," I responded. That's just what I've done, with unanimously positive results. Why not pick your favorite flavor and make your own today?


Kool-ickles


7 small cucumbers (4 to 5 inches in length)
1 cup water
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup vegan cane sugar (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 teaspoon pickling or kosher salt
1 package Kool-Aid unsweetened soft drink mix (any flavor)



Quarter the cucumber and pack slices into a 1 quart glass jar. In a medium pot over high heat, bring the water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and Kool-Aid mix to a boil. Carefully pour the hot liquid over the cucumbers and allow it all to cool on the countertop. Place the lid on the jar and refrigerate at least 2 days before enjoying. (Makes 1 quart of pickles; Kool-ickles will keep in the refrigerator for up to a month.)

Chickpea Cobb Salad

Rarely is a salad fit to be a stand-alone dinner. This is the rare exception. The combination of good fat, like avocado, and protein, like eggs and chickpeas, make this a satisfying meal in and of itself. Add a little buttered take-n-bake baguette on the side and dive into a pint of chocolate and banana gelato at the end to make this salad really, well, a party.

Simplify this dish by using a bottled vinaigrette and a commercially-produced bacon substitute if you are short on time. Much of this can be done ahead, though. The eggs, tomato, Smoked Coconut Bacon, and the vinaigrette can all be made the day before; however, wait to slice the avocado and fry the chickpeas just before serving.


Chickpea Cobb Salad

1 head butter lettuce (cored, chopped, about 4 cups)
Mustard Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
3 hard-boiled eggs (diced)
1 1/2 cups diced tomato (about 2 medium)
Pan-Fried Chickpeas (recipe follows)
3/4 cup Smoked Coconut Bacon
1 ripe avocado (peeled and sliced)
2 ounces crumbled blue cheese
Maldon sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper (to taste)
olive oil (drizzle to taste; like Whole Foods 365 brand extra-virgin olive oil)


Simply toss the lettuce with the Mustard Vinaigrette and arrange in a flat layer in a large bowl or serving platter. Arrange the eggs, tomato, Pan-Fried Chickpeas, and Smoked Coconut Bacon in stripes on the bed of lettuce. Place the sliced avocado and blue cheese on top. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Drizzle the whole wonderful concoction with good olive oil.


Serves 2 hungry people as a main dish.


Mustard Vinaigrette


1 tablespoon grainy mustard (like Zatarain's)
2 tablespoon champagne vinegar
2 teaspoon vegetarian Worcestershire
1 teaspoon local honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
Maldon sea salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)


In a jar with a lid, combine the mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire, honey, and olive oil. Place the lid on the jar and shake until well combined. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pan-Fried Chickpeas


1 can chickpeas (drained)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (like Whole Foods 365 brand unbleached)
1/4 cup olive oil


In a medium bowl toss the chickpeas with the flour. In a medium pan over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil until it begins to smoke. Add the chickpeas in a single layer and allow them to cook undisturbed for 5 minutes. Toss them and continue to cook until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Set aside until ready to use.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

I made this ice cream on a whim and at the last minute for Father's Day to go with peach pie but never wrote down the recipe. It was worth remembering and re-doing, and it's really easy to make. At the TCV / Napa Café / Frederick Wildman & Sons wine dinner last weekend, we served it with a peach-tarragon pop tart (which baker Jason Doty of Bluff City Coffee, who was kind enough to be our third set of hands at the dinner, told us the secrets of how to make so that it actually works out -- our recipe coming here soon!) plus Chef Rick Saviori's amazing tarragon and white pepper frosting.

*Just be sure to use real coconut milk in this, not reduced fat. Whole Foods 365 brand is the best one out there and has the perfect amount of sweetness and skips the long list of preservatives you find in other kinds.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

1 can full-fat organic coconut milk (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup vegan cane sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon vanilla powder
pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes
chocolate syrup or Magic Shell at Home (optional)

Whisk all ingredients together well and chill them in the fridge for an hour. Pour into your ice cream maker and start it. After about 30 minutes of churning, spoon ice cream into a container and let it harden in the freezer for at least 3 hours. Add chocolate syrup if you wish. (Makes 1 quart.)

Tasting Talenti Gelato and Sorbetto

(***UPDATE***Commenter Kristen, you won! Contact us in order for us to snail mail you a coupon for your free pint. See comments section below for a few options. Congratulations! Thanks to all who participated in the fun.)

Recently, while late-night ice cream hunting, I came across the Talenti gelato and sorbetto section. I had seen the little pints and their striking design before, but had never tried any. Now that I have, I'm really inspired to learn how to make proper gelato and have been researching the basic ratios for it and the details of how it differs from ice cream. In the meantime, here are my notes: 

Caramel Cookie Crunch Gelato: the best, most surprising flavor of all; vanilla swirled with caramel and crunchy chocolate cookies.
Mediterannean Mint Gelato: tastes just like real live mint from the garden -- and colored green with alfalfa sprout extract!
Sea Salt Caramel Gelato: fleur de sel and chocolate-carmel truffles are in it; a little on the too-sweet side overall.
Toasted Almond Gelato: tiny bits of almond in a vanilla base that's like snow cream.
Raspberry Sorbetto: zero fat and super-concentrated berry flavor; good with chocolate syrup. 

All in all, this company uses good ingredients and knows gelato well. I am looking forward to trying more Talenti flavors this summer. It runs about $4.99 at Whole Foods, Target, and Kroger here in Memphis, and it's so rich that you'll get about 4 servings per pint. 

*I contacted the company, and they kindly allowed me coupons for review purposes. For one lucky TCV reader in the U.S., we reserved one coupon for a pint of Talenti, any flavor. To enter, all you have to do is comment below this post about your favorite icy treat now and/or your favorite one when you were a kid. Winner will be chosen by random number generator this Friday, 7/27.

Tomato Sliders

If there is anything better this side of heaven, I don't know about it. I'm talking about a thick slice of a ripe, red summer tomato on crusty bread with smear of good mayonnaise and plenty of salt and pepper. It's so simple, but it just couldn't be any better. It's simplicity is its perfection.

In our family, we love tomato sandwiches so much that we typically have a party once a year to celebrate the abundance of juicy tomatoes. You don't need much more than bread, tomatoes, and a few cold drinks. Set a tray of these out at your next summertime get-together and watch your guests swoon.

1 whole wheat baguette (about 24 inches)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 medium tomatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil mayonnaise (like Spectrum)
Maldon sea salt flakes
cracked black pepper

Turn the broiler on high. Slice the baguette into 32 little rounds. Arrange the slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then brush the tops of the baguette slices with the melted butter. Toast the buttered side of the baguette slices for only 10-30 seconds or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside.

Slice the tomatoes into 1/4-inch slices reserving the tops and bottoms for another use. (We used them in this.) Slather half of the baguette slices with olive oil mayonnaise. Be generous -- this is no time for calorie counting! Top each one of those slices with a thick tomato slice. Add salt and pepper to each slice of tomato according to your own taste. Top your sandwiches with the remaining baguette slices, secure with a toothpick, and serve. (Makes 16 sliders.)

Grilled Anaheim Chili Peppers with Cotija Cheese

I rediscover the bold flavor of grilled peppers every year. Last year it was shishito peppers, and this year, it's these wonderful and flavorful anaheim chili peppers that my father-in-law is growing. This is the perfect time for a dish like this as so many peppers are coming in from the farm. I'll take some of the surplus chilis outside with me as I roast tomatoes on the grill for a large batch of salsa or while I grill some portobello caps for dinner. I lightly char both sides of the chili, and WOW! That is the taste of summer. They are meaty, smoky, and just a little spicy. It's the perfect little snack while you cook.

To make this dish even better, I added a little hot sauce, cotija cheese, and a few leaves of cilantro. It's so simple and perfect. There is no need for salt and pepper. There's no need for a utensil.  Just pick it up by the stem, dive in, and be thankful for the season.

Grilled Anaheim Chili Peppers with Cotija Cheese

12 small anaheim chilies
hot sauce (I really like Cholula for this)
1 tablespoon finely crumbled cotija cheese
cilantro leaves (to garnish)

Preheat your outdoor grill to high. Grill chilis over a high flame for just a few seconds or until they begin to blister and blacken. Repeat on the other side. Remove chilies from the grill and line them up on a plate. Drizzle the chilies with hot sauce, which will help the cheese to adhere to the chili. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and garnish with a few cilantro leaves.

Figs, Cream, Cake + Red Wine Syrup

Got a great surprise this week...our sister-in-law brought us a quart of figs from her neighbor's tree. (Well, it reaches waaaay into her yard, so...) Wanting to use them right away, we put together this dessert to showcase the summer perfection of small, brown fresh figs.


Figs, Cream, Cake + Red Wine Syrup


2 tablespoons unsalted butter

pinch of Maldon sea salt

6 sponge cake dessert cups (like Whole Foods brand)

1 cup red wine or port wine
1/2 cup cane sugar (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 vanilla bean 
pinch of Maldon sea salt
2 cups figs (cut in two, stems removed)
Easy Whipped Cream (recipe follows)


To start the toasted cake component, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter and set aside. Chop the sponge cake dessert cups into small squares and place them into a bowl. Pour on the butter and add the salt, and then stir the cake around to coat. Spread the cake onto a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. 


For the figs in syrup, whisk wine* and sugar together in a medium saucepan. Split the vanilla bean (cut it open by making a long slit in the bean, but keep the bean intact) and add it to the pan. Add salt. Cook this mixture on medium-high heat on the stove and whisk it often for 15-20 minutes. You should see a slightly thicker syrup forming at that point, so once liquid has reduced and is at a syrup-like consistency, set the heat to medium-low and add the figs. Gently stir them into the syrup so that they're all coated. Heat for 5 minutes and then set aside. Remove the vanilla bean and scrape its seeds into the syrup before discarding it. 


*A clearance-rack bottle of old Italian Negroamaro puzzlingly tasted exactly like port, so we used it for the syrup.


Putting the dessert together is easy. Add toasted cake to a small bowl, add figs and syrup, and then top with whipped cream. 


Easy Whipped Cream

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl whisk cream vigorously until slightly stiff. Add sugar and vanilla and whisk to combine.  Set whipped cream aside in the refrigerator until ready to serve. 

Dried Peach + Tarragon Biscuit Cookies

Inspired by the wonderful Dorie Greenspan and her recipe for Apricot-Tarragon Cocktail Cookies, our very slightly altered version came about due to a bunch of tarragon growing wildly in the garden and some sort-of-sour dried peaches we wanted to use instead of lament or even return. (Sort of like this kind of situation.) It's the kind of almost-savory cookie/cracker we make all the time because it's great as a different sort of dessert or snack as well as with cheese and wine. This particular recipe makes something more like a flat, dense biscuit.

 *We're really excited to be serving a seasonal version of cocktail cookies at our next dinner here in Memphis at Napa Café on Saturday, July 21, and there are fewer than 10 seats left. Make your reservation this week by calling 901.683.0441 ($65 + tax and gratuity, 6 courses with international wine pairings from Frederick Wildman).

Dried Peach + Tarragon Biscuit Cookies

1 cup dried peaches, diced
1 cup water

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves

1/2 cup cane sugar (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
4 tablespoons olive oil margarine
1 egg

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cups all-purpose flour (like Whole Foods 365 brand)

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Combine diced peaches and water and microwave for one minute. Set aside to cool. Add chopped tarragon to sugar and crush them together with your fingers for a couple of minutes. Cream butter and margarine with sugar mixture. Whisk in the egg and olive oil. Set aside. 

Combine flour and salt and then mix it with the dough mixture. Drain water from the chopped peach and add to dough and stir to incorporate until there are no flour streaks remaining. Place dough in freezer in 2 rolls for later or 2 flat disks for at least an hour. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out cookie dough on a floured surface and use a small cutter or glass to make your shapes. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden brown. 

Samosas + Raita Dipping Sauce

This is a great recipe if you're looking for a dish to set out at a party. It's far more creative than chips and dip -- and it makes a ton. You can fry the samosas ahead of time and just warm them in the oven before you serve them. 


These also freeze well, so if you make the whole batch and you just eat a few, that's no problem. Just lay the unfried samosas on a cutting board in a single layer and stick them in the freezer for a couple of hours and then transfer them to a container until you're ready to use them.


If you don't want to use all of the potato mixture to make these little samosas, the mixture is great with some greens and tomatoes rolled up in a tortilla. It's like an Indian food burrito. If you're in a bit of a hurry, just serve it on rice with the raita, which tastes nearly as good but with a lot less work.


Samosas + Raita Dipping Sauce

1 tablespoon unsalted butter 
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon Maharajah curry powder (may substitute hot or sweet curry powder)
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups diced potato (about 3 medium, peeled)
1 can coconut milk (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1/4 teaspoon green cardamom seeds (not the pods!)
1/4 teaspoon meti (fenugreek) seeds (optional)
1 cup frozen green peas (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 teaspoon cane sugar (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/4 cup finely chopped golden raisins
sambal (to taste)
1 12-ounce package wonton wrappers
canola oil for frying
Raita Dipping Sauce (recipe follows)


In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter and add the canola oil. Add the onion, curry powder, coriander, cumin, garlic, and salt. Cook while stirring constantly for about 4 minutes. Add the potato, coconut milk, cardamom, and meti seeds to the mix. Cook uncovered until potatoes are tender (about 10 minutes). Using a potato masher, mash the mixture. Add the peas, sugar, vinegar, and raisins to the mixture. Taste mixture and add enough sambal hot sauce to give it a little heat -- I used 1 teaspoon. Stir to incorporate. Set aside to cool.


Place 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the center of a wonton wrapper, dampen two edges with a tiny bit of water to help it seal, fold it into a triangle, and pinch the edges together to ensure a tight seal. It's best to use a small ice-cream scoop to transfer the filling, and it's very helpful to have a small bowl of water handy in order to help seal the samosas quickly.


In a large frying pan over medium heat, heat 1/2 inch of canola oil. Fry samosas in batches of 5 for just about 30 seconds per side or until golden and crispy. (Makes about 50.)


Raita Dipping Sauce

3/4 cup very finely diced cucumbers (peeled, seeded)
1 cup 2% Greek yogurt
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cane sugar
1 tablespoon finely diced mint


In a medium bowl, mix the cucumbers, yogurt, salt, sugar, and mint until combined. Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to serve. (Double the recipe if you plan on serving all 50 samosas at once.)

AMIK Pickled Mustard Seeds

We were so excited to see that our article about pickling made the cover of the summer  issue of Edible Memphis. Ah, pickles: a subject near and dear to our hearts. We just love 'em in the summer when the produce is coming in faster than everyone can use it up: pickle it, freeze, it, dry it, can it -- just don't let it go to waste. That'd be a shame.

Pick up your copy of Edible Memphis at these places around town, and you'll see four of our pickling recipes with some unexpected ingredients. We also have this bonus recipe here that goes well with so many dishes. The cool thing about this particular preparation is that the yellow mustard seeds take on a quality not unlike caviar (!) when they soften. The chefs at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen here in Memphis serve it on sweetbreads at the restaurant -- and at their recent all-vegetarian No-Menu Monday, it was on top of smoked eggplant crostini -- but it would be a great addition to a cheese plate as well. It's perfect for sandwiches, salads...really anywhere you'd normally use mustard. One of our favorite ways to use this recipes is on Grilled Muffuletta Pizza.

AMIK Pickled Mustard Seeds

(Adapted for home use from Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman's recipe)

1/2 cup cane sugar
1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar
1 cup water
1 head roasted garlic (roughly chopped)
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
zest from 1 small orange
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2 teaspoon salt
1 cup yellow mustard seeds (only this type)

Add the sugar, vinegar, water, garlic, peppercorns, coriander, orange zest, red pepper flakes, and salt to a medium pot and bring up to a boil.  Boil 5 minutes and then strain the spices out using a fine-mesh strainer. Return the liquid to the pot along with the mustard seeds and simmer for 30 minutes. Transfer pickled mustard seed to small jars, and share it with your friends. (Makes 3 1/2 cups.)

Buttered Baguette Ice Cream + Gianduja, Peach Sauce, and Peach Leather

I saw this idea for an add-in for store-bought vanilla ice cream in a great ice cream article by Tara Bench in LHJ and had to develop it from scratch as part of a summer version of fresh baguette with chocolate-hazelnut paste and peaches. It's one of those things you just have to taste to believe. Use some special butter like Plugra for the richest, crunchiest bits of baguette throughout the ice cream. Be amusing and top with what you'd usually put on baguette, like gianduja or a fruit sauce instead of jam.

Buttered Baguette Ice Milk

roughly 3 tablespoons Plugra butter

15 1/4-inch slices of baguette bread

2 tablespoons neufchâtel cheese

1 1/2 cups 2% milk (like Whole Foods 365 brand)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup cane sugar (like Whole Foods 365 brand)

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon Maldon sea salt flakes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter both sides of the baguette slices and set them on a pan. Put it the oven for about 10-15 minutes until all start to lightly brown and become crunchy. Set aside on a plate for a couple of hours or even overnight. When it's completely cooled and crisp, pulse baguette slices in the food processor until you have fine crumbs. Set aside.

Whisk the cheese, milk, whipping cream, sugar, vanilla, and salt together. Put into your ice cream maker and let it spin for about 30 minutes; you'll know when it's ready when you see it start to fluff up and creep up the sides of the container as it goes around. At this point, spoon in the baguette crumbs. Once they're dispersed, immediately spoon ice milk into a container and place it in the freezer for at least 4 hours so it hardens. Top as you wish -- see above for tips -- or serve it plain. (Makes 1 quart.)

I love the ease and expertise in this video about making raspberry tuiles and wondered if the same technique would work with peaches. It does! It seriously tastes like a fresh peach Fruit Roll-Up. You can also cut it up into shapes or roll it into tiny cylinders as a part of this dessert.

Peach Leather

6 peaches (for peach purée)
2 tablespoons cane sugar
pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. To make the purée, peel and pit peaches, and then put the flesh into a blender. Set it on high for a minute until there are no lumps. Into a bowl, strain out the pulp using a fine-mesh sieve. Rinse the blender and then add strained juice, sugar, and salt and blend on high for another minute.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silpat. Spread peach mixture in a thin layer across it. Bake for 2 hours. Lift it carefully using a knife to loosen the edges. Use scissors to cut sections of it from the pan. We rolled 1/2-inch strips into small, loose rolls as a pastry decoration and placed them on a plate to set.

Peach Jam / Peach Sauce

12 peaches (peeled and pits removed)

2 1-inch strips of lemon zest

juice from half a lemon

pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes

Mash peaches in bowl with a potato masher. Add peaches, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt to a medium saucepan. Cook on a low or simmer setting for an hour. Stir occasionally, about every ten minutes. Let jam cool before you spoon it into containers. For a smooth peach sauce, strain the warm jam through a fine-mesh strainer or put it through a food mill. Store either in a jar in the fridge and use within a week or put up a jar in the freezer to enjoy later.

Gianduja

For my first time making this, I just followed this classic chocolate-hazelnut paste recipe to a T and added a small scoop of it plus toasted, finely chopped hazelnuts on the dessert.

For more fun with peaches, check out some of our other recipes:

Grilled Peach Ice Cream

Peach + Tarragon Pesto Pizza

Oven Roasted Peaches and Cream

Sweet Potato Pancakes with Peaches and Pecans

eaTABLE Supper Club: June 24, 2012

What a night! On Sunday, we cooked a 6-course dinner for 16 people under the stars in a beautiful outdoor kitchen. We couldn't have pulled it off without our wonderful hosts, the Fishes, and our friends Margot McNeely of Project Green Fork, who coordinated and decorated, and Jody Moyt, Executive Chef at Owen Brennan's, who kept things calm and moving forward in the kitchen.


This is the third eaTABLE supper club event presented by us here at The Chubby Vegetarian. (We did all-vegan comfort food last fall for comforTABLE. And our first one with a Latin theme back in 2010 was actually the first eaTABLE!) 


It's hard work to prepare and present so many dishes to so many people in an unfamiliar kitchen. It's usually an all-weekend event for us from menu planning to shopping at the farmers markets, to prepping the sauces and ingredients, and then packing, transporting, and unpacking. It's fun, but can be a little head-spinning. Why do we keep doing it? It's simple, really. This particular group of people are such an appreciative audience. They are there for the experience and to try something new, so that is what we wanted to give them.

We called the menu comporTABLE, which means 'appropriate and suitable'. Since we were eating poolside out in the heat, we wanted to keep the food fairly light. Here is what we came up with for the menu:



1. Banh Mi Spring Rolls
Local Shiitake Paté, Cucumber, Do Chao, Sriracha

2. Corn + Fennel Stuffed Squash Blossom 
Grilled Zucchini, Crookneck Sauce, Fennel Pollen


3. Grilled Watermelon Steak
Jewel Tomatoes, Goat Cheese, Honey-Lime Vinaigrette

4. Deconstructed Potato Salad
Truffled Grilled Potato, Five-Minute Egg, Pickled Mustard Seed, Greens


5. Chorizo Stuffed Pepper
Chipotle-Tomato Sauce, Corn Nuts


6. Buttered Baguette Ice Cream 
Peach Jam, Gianduja

We had a blast cooking and are so glad that we were asked to participate this time. In other news, we will have information for you this week about another upcoming TCV dinner at an East Memphis restaurant in late July; we would love it if some you would be able to attend!

Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim Chili Pepper

The pepper crop from Concord Farms is rolling in, and we've been using them as fast as we can. We have pickled a bunch of jalapeños, used fragrant green bell peppers for the filling of a socca crepe, and been lit on fire by some unidentified pepper that looks a lot like a devil's horn.


We are pepper-rich these days with almost every kind of pepper you can imagine -- except poblanos.  No poblano, no problem-o. This is a dish similar to the ubiquitous "Chili Poblano" you will find on the menu at most Mexican restaurants.We used the light green variety of Anaheim peppers in the place of the poblanos with delicious results. 


Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim Chili Pepper

6 Anaheim peppers (about 5 inches long)
1/2 pound smoked Gouda (shredded)
1 cup canola oil (for frying)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Spiced Batter (recipe follows)
Chipotle Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)
sour cream 
Mexican crema (to garnish)
finely chopped pickled jalapeño (optional, to garnish)


Using a paring knife, make a slit all the way down the long end of the pepper without going through to the other side. Gently open the pepper and insert your knife in order to cut the seeds loose from the top of the pepper. Pull out the seeds with your hands. Stuff each pepper loosely with the Gouda cheese. Repeat until all peppers are stuffed. 


In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, heat the canola oil until it shimmers.


Dust each pepper in the flour in order to allow the batter to adhere to the pepper's slick skin. Roll each stuffed pepper one at a time through the Spiced Batter and make sure every surface is covered. (This will keep the cheese from leaking.)


Lay the pepper into the hot oil and allow it to cook for about 2 minutes before turning. Once all sides are golden brown, remove the pepper and place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet in a 350-degree oven to keep warm. It's best to fry the peppers in batches of 2 or 3.


To serve, place a spoonful of the Chipotle Tomato Sauce onto the center of a plate, top that with one Cheese-Stuffed Anaheim, and garnish with sour cream and pickled peppers. It goes well with rice and beans on the side.


Spiced Batter

1 egg (beaten)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon finely chopped cilantro
sea salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)


Mix the egg, flour, water, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Use a whisk to work out any lumps. The batter should be thicker than pancake batter.



Chipotle Tomato Sauce 

2 cups chopped Roma tomato
1 smoked chipotle pepper (from a can)
1 cup sweet onion
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons tomato paste
sea salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)

Place the tomato pepper, onion, chili powder, cumin, and tomato paste into the work bowl of your food processor and blend until smooth. Place mixture into a medium pot over medium heat and allow mixture to cook until thickened. Stir the mixture often to prevent the bottom from scorching. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Caramelized Fennel + Corn Gnocchi

We had this dish at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen here in Memphis about 2 1/2 years ago, and it's been on our own at-home dinner menu ever since. The combination is perfect. The corn retains a crunch and adds a subtle sweetness to the sauce, and the fennel, when caramelized, becomes mild and creamy. This dish is proof that you can do a lot with a few ingredients and a bit of imagination.

The sauce comes together in no time, so if you buy the gnocchi you could be eating this dish in under 30 minutes from start to finish. Try this one at home; you will love it.

Caramelized Fennel + Corn Gnocchi

Microwave Gnocchi
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
2 cups fennel (cored, thinly sliced)
1/8 cup sliced shallot
1/4 cup white wine (like pinot Grigio)
1 cup corn (one large ear cut away from the cob)
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup grated parmesan (more for garnish)
sea salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)
fennel fronds (for garnish)
black truffle oil (optional, for garnish)


Make the gnocchi according to the recipe and set it aside while you make the sauce. Heat a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once the sauce is finished, you will need that water to cook the gnocchi. 


In a large pan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the fennel and shallot to the pan. Continue to cook until the fennel is soft and translucent and beginning to caramelize, about 15-20 minutes. Turn the heat up to medium-high and deglaze the pan with the wine. Allow the wine to reduce until most of the liquid has evaporated. Turn off the heat, add the corn, half and half, and the parmesan cheese. Stir to incorporate.


Cook gnocchi in boiling, salted water until they float. Remove gnocchi from the water using a slotted spoon and place it directly into the sauce. Toss to coat. Divide gnocchi between 4 plates and garnish with fennel fronds, black truffle oil, sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste. (Serves 4.)

Rosemary-Lemon Cookies

We asked a good friend of ours who is expecting twin girls this summer if she was having any cravings. She was ecstatic about all kinds of sweets, especially the rosemary shortbread someone she knew made recently, and that sounded really good to us, too, right about now.

There's so much rosemary flourishing in the garden--big, established plants that come back even stronger each spring--and sometimes it's tough to find a use for all of it since it grows so fast. The first steps of this cookie recipe are chopping up the leaves of a fragrant fistful of just-picked rosemary and then using your hands to mix it with sugar, salt, and lemon zest; this makes the kitchen smell amazing.

The funny thing about these is they fall on that line between sweet and savory. Kind of like our hazelnut-black pepper cocktail cookies, it's your call: have them with milk or top with parmesan and  enjoy them with a glass of wine.

Rosemary-Lemon Cookies

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (stems removed; finely chopped)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (from 2 organic lemons)
1/2 cup cane sugar  (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 egg
1/2 cup olive oil margarine (melted)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (unbleached; like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 teaspoon baking powder (aluminum-free; like Whole Foods 365 brand)

(First, a trick for easily getting the leaves of the rosemary off the stems: press the stems into your cutting board and the leaves will flatten, allowing you to cut a bunch of them off the stem at once. Pulling them off bit by bit is too much of a pain!)

Combine rosemary, salt, lemon zest, cane sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl. Mix it well and set aside. In another bowl, whisk the egg and then add the margarine and vanilla and stir. Pour in the sugar-rosemary mixture and stir. Set aside. Whisk together the flour and baking powder and add to the wet ingredients. Mix until none of the flour is visible. Chill dough in a container in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chilled dough onto lightly floured surface, flour your rolling pin, and roll out thinly to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut cookies. Place on 2 parchment-lined cookie sheets and bake until edges are golden brown, about 12 minutes. (Makes 24 cookies.)

Blueberry Cream Snow Cones

This snow cone is actually an easy granita, but isn't it more fun for everyone to go ahead and call it a snow cone? We miss pulling up to the old SnoBiz , the one that was in the parking lot of Poplar and Kirby in East Memphis. We used to hold up the line considering the dizzying array of sugary choices only to ultimately decide on our usual. We'd either get Mud Pie or Black Cherry, both with extra cream on top for richness. That's the idea that inspired this dessert. 


These snow cones were made with fresh, in-season blueberries and local honey, which may make it the best snow cone you've ever had. We added orange flower water (available in specialty grocery stores or online) to reinforce the floral nose truly fresh blueberries possess. You can do this same operation with other berries and add whatever you like to the top to customize your own grown-up snow cone. 


Blueberry Cream Snow Cones


2 pints fresh blueberries
2 cups water
1/2 cup cane sugar (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon orange flower water
2 tablespoons local honey
half and half (to garnish)


In a medium pan over medium heat, cook the blueberries, water, sugar, and lemon juice for 10 minutes to soften the berries. Run the mixture through a food mill or blend it in a food processor and strain it using a fine mesh strainer in order to remove any of the blueberry pulp. Stir in the orange flower water and the honey. Allow the mixture to cool.


Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 inch ceramic casserole dish and place into the freezer. After one hour, stir the mixture; use a fork to break up any lumps and return it to the freezer. After another hour, use a fork to scrape the surface of the ice, stir, pack it back town, and return it to the freezer. After one additional hour, it will be ready to serve.


To serve, scrape the surface of the ice with the tines of a fork. This will create what looks like purple snow. Using an ice cream scoop, place two scoops in a cup, top it with a 1 1/2 teaspoons of half and half, and enjoy. (Makes 6 servings.)

Grilled Muffuletta Pizza + Pickled Mustard Seeds

(We just had to feature a grilling recipe today in order to highlight Jennifer Chandler being mentioned on thekitchn.com during their grill week for her cookbook Simply Grilling! What a great thing to wake up to on a regular old Tuesday morning.)

Hey, don't be afraid to grill pizza dough. It's way easier than it sounds. The best part is that you can make the dough and put this whole meal together in less time than it takes to order a mediocre pizza. You can use this grill top method for all other kinds of pizza, too -- on the same night, we also made truffled grilled potato pizza with goat cheese.


For our mash-up of a pizza, make the olive dressing a day (or at least a couple of hours) ahead of time, and assembling it will be easy from there. The Pickled Mustard Seed recipe is something you'll just have to wait to see. Sure, there are other versions out there, but we talked Andy and Michael out of their Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen recipe, and it'll be included in an upcoming article we wrote for Edible Memphis.


Grilled Muffuletta Pizza


Beer Pizza Crust (makes 3 crusts)
Vegetarian Olive Dressing (recipe follows)
olive oil (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 pound provolone cheese (shredded)
Pickled Mustard Seeds or Creole Mustard
1 cup chopped parsley


Follow my beer crust instructions, but be sure to omit the honey since it will burn on the grill. There is no need to allow time for the crust to rise either. This is a quick dough. 


Turn your outdoor grill on the highest setting and shut the lid in order to preheat it. Roll each dough ball out as thinly as you can; use a rolling pin to make about a 10-12 inch crust. Don't worry about it being a perfect circle -- this is supposed to be rustic. 

Drizzle each circle with about a teaspoon of olive oil and rub it into the surface of the dough on the top and bottom. Using your hands, lay a disk of dough onto the grill grates. Once the top surface is bubbly and the bottom side is nicely marked, remove the dough, using a pair of kitchen tongs, from the grill and set aside. Depending on your grill, this process should take about 3 minutes. Repeat with the other two portions.


Top the cooked side (the side that was face-down on the grill) of the crust with 1 1/2 cups Vegetarian Olive Dressing and 1/3 of the provolone. Return the pizza to the grill top for another 3 minutes or until the cheese has melted. Garnish with a tablespoon of mustard and 1/4 cup chopped parsley. (Makes 3 pizzas. Serves 6-8.)

Vegetarian Olive Dressing

2 to 3 cups spicy, pitted olives (green, black, and kalamta)
2 stalks celery (about 1 cup, sliced)

2 cups cauliflower

1 large carrot (about 1 cup, sliced)

4 roasted red peppers (chopped)

8-12 peperoncini peppers (optional, chopped)

2 teaspoons good Italian seasoning mix (Whole Foods has a really good one in the bulk spices section.)
4 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 cup olive oil (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 cup white vinegar

Using the slicer blade on your food processor, slice the olives, celery, cauliflower, and carrots. Place sliced vegetables into a 2-quart container; add the red peppers, peperoncini peppers, Italian seasoning mix, crushed garlic, olive oil, and vinegar. Allow mixture to marinate and the flavors to meld for a day or so...seriously, the longer you leave it, the better it will be. (Makes 2 quarts. Keeps in the fridge for up to a month.)

Gender Reveal Cake for a Boy

This week, we felt honored to be chosen to bake the cake that revealed my brother and sister-in-law's big news to the family: it's gonna be a boy! SO excited to have another nephew running around.

We did a ton of very serious research and learned a lot about making a gender reveal cake. Having never even been to this type of party before, we knew it would be a blast and wanted our cake to taste really good and also be really striking in the big moment.

Here are our baking notes, which might be of use to those of you who can foresee this type of event coming up soon for someone you love:

1. Stay with the tried-and-true recipes. This is not the time to test out any weird ideas. The cake was a simple butter cake (recipe doubled) and the frosting was sour cream milk chocolate (I subbed 2 Whole Foods organic milk chocolate bars and half a dark chocolate bar in the recipe, which calls for chocolate chips).

2. The color blue does not occur in natural foods. Blueberries would look purple, and sure, we could have tried cabbage-blue cake, but barring that, sometimes you just have to raid the back of the cabinet and break out the food coloring used once a year for Christmas cookies.

3. Do different layers: four drops of blue for sky blue, eight drops for a medium blue. (We included a plain white layer for contrast and normalcy. All blue just seemed a bit much.)

4. Don't just make a white cake with blue or pink frosting filling. Everyone will know the deal once the coated knife comes out after the first cut, and it makes for a better reveal if you have to wait a sec to see the cake color all at once.

5. Cutting out parchment circles is a lifesaver when it comes to getting the cakes out nicely. Just trace the bottom of the pan with a pencil and then set the parchment circle into the bottom of the fully buttered and lightly floured pan.

6. Run a knife along the edges of the pans to loosen the edges. (A lettuce knife is good to use once the cakes have halfway cooled because it won't scratch up pans like metal knives.)

7. Let the layers cool before placing a cutting board on top of the cake-side of the pans and flipping cake onto the board. A fish spatula helped us safely move the layers to the cake carrier.

8. Choose a dark-colored frosting so that there's no chance of the color peeking through and ruining the surprise.

9. Put a dollop of frosting in the middle of the plate part of the cake carrier before setting the first layer down. It will help to make the base of the cake steady.

10. Instead of the typical packaged cake decorating items, we used a plain old peeler to make curls and shavings out of Callebaut white chocolate and dark chocolate blocks for the question mark on top and also for decorating the top and bottom edge.

11. You probably want to wear disposable gloves if you don't want to be frantically scrubbing color off your hands pre-party so as not to inadvertently alert people to the color of the cake you've baked!

12. A cake carrier helps to prevent any disasters in transport, and taping a pie/cake server to the top of it makes things a lot easier when it's cutting time.

Next up, maybe we'll try out a girl's cake. Honestly, making a strawberry cake would seem like it would be easier than something blue, but we tested blended strawberries in the batter from above, and it just make the sample cupcakes heavy enough to fall in...we'll get back to you on that!