Haricot Vert, Purslane & Swiss Summer Panini

A dear friend invited me to raid her garden over the weekend and I was there almost before I hung up the phone. After a lovely evening filled with berry juice-stained fingers, floppy hats, the warm wink of fireflies and the thunk of beans hitting the bottom of a new bucket, I came away with quite a bounty, including a bit of a brand-new-to-me edible weed, purslane. Her Turkish beau pointed out its presence on her property - I gather it is greatly enjoyed by Turkish folk (with yogurt, especially). I like it; it has a slight mucilaginous quality but it is succulent (and IS a succulent!), with a lightly sour, cress-like flavor. A perfect addition to salads, or in this case, a crisply verdant summer panini with beans also plucked from the garden. However, if you don't stumble across it outdoors, you can always sub arugula or watercress.

This sandwich is inspired by the haricot vert panini on the menu at my beloved Tired Hands, although I must confess that even though it has intrigued me for months I have never ordered it because their meat ones are SO GOOD that I'd never dream of eating anything else there. However, my version has me convinced that it's a true contender with the meat'uns, especially in these summer months where something lighter is better. Sometime I'll have to actually order my inspiration while I'm sipping a delicious saison and see how it stacks up!

Haricot Vert, Purslane & Swiss Summer Panini
Makes 1 sandwich

*About 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, divided

*1 teensy shallot or 1/2 of a small sweet onion, sliced thinly

*1 big handful of haricots verts, trimmed & blanched (briefly, like 10 seconds max)  

*1/4 cup purslane leaves + a few extra tender sprigs

*2 slices hearty bakery bread

*4 slices of really good Swiss cheese

*Your favorite fancy Dijon mustard, about a teaspoon & a half
*2 tablespoons good EVOO
*2 teaspoons lemon juice
*Leaves from a few thyme branches
*S&P

Whisk together the mustard, evoo, lemon juice, thyme leaves and pinches of S&P, set aside. In a skillet, melt a pat of butter with a drizzle of oil over medium low and add the shallots. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and saute for a couple minutes before adding in the beans. Saute a few minutes more then add the purslane leaves and remove from heat. Toss with the mustard vinaigrette. Season to taste.

Brush one side of each of the bread slices with a bit of the other tablespoon of butter (melted or room temp), then assemble the sandwich by smoothing a thin layer of mustard on one slice, then top with half the Swiss, the bean-purslane mix, the reserved sprigs of purslane, and then the rest of the cheese. Press the sandwich in a preheated panini maker for a couple minutes until the sandwich is toasty and the cheese has oozed. Cut 'n eat!

Fiddlehead & Ricotta Crostini with Tarragon & Lemon

It's that wonderful time again, when I amble down to the park and take an appraising look at the verdant curlicues popping up from the brown, leaf-strewn earth - fiddlehead season! Last year I made a pasta dish with my modest take, and this year, with a largesse of homemade ricotta cheese left in the fridge, I decided to serve the fiddleheads with an herb-spiked, lemony ricotta spread over crostini. I love asparagus with lemon and tarragon and as I guessed, the fiddleheads fit right in with the flavors as well.

Feel free to refer to my previous post for further information about foraging for fiddleheads. Also, I highly recommend making your own ricotta cheese for this recipe (and any other recipe, in perpetuity!). Using instructions from The Kitchn, I found it an extremely simple process with a vastly superior result.

Fiddlehead & Ricotta Crostini with Tarragon & Lemon
Makes 4 crostini

*4 slices bread from a nice bakery loaf
*EVOO
*1 small nubbin butter
*20-some fiddleheads, washed and cleaned well
*1/2 cup ricotta cheese (preferably homemade)
*1/2 teaspoon chopped tarragon leaves
*Lemon zest from one lemon
*S&P
*1 clove garlic, cut in half

After cleaning the fiddleheads thoroughly, blanch for about 30 seconds in roiling water and drain. Brush your bread slices with a little bit of evoo and pop in the (toaster) oven at 350 to bake until golden. Meanwhile, melt a touch of butter and a drizzle of evoo in a wide skillet over medium and saute the fiddleheads a couple minutes. Stir the tarragon, ricotta cheese, about 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest (or more, to taste), and pinches of S&P together.

When the bread is toasty, rub them with half a garlic clove, and spread on a thick layer of the ricotta mixture. Arrange fiddleheads on the crostini, and add a few flakes more of lemon zest over top. Serve immediately.

Ultimate French Toast

Last year at the fabulous Rose's Luxury, my husband and I encountered the best dessert of our lives: a small piece of decadent French toast, topped with foie gras and served with a wee scoop of cinnamon toast crunch ice cream. We were informed that the toast had soaked IN melted cinnamon toast crunch ice cream before it was fried up. This detail stuck in my craw, naturally, so when my husband made a rash but delicious impulse buy of a bourbon barrel aged maple syrup the other day I decided to try my own version of ice cream battered toast for an old-school breakfast-for-dinner evening. Uh, sans foie. I might have the budget and the frivolity necessary for melting down some Ben & Jerry's, but I leave the foie to luxe professionals. I'd heard a tip somewhere along the line about toasting rolled oats and crusting them on dipped french toast before frying, so I decided to go all out and do that too. AND invite caramelized bananas to the party.

Freshly whipped cream spiked with bourbon too, if you please.

Drizzled over this behemoth was the bourbon barrel aged maple sizzurp. I daresay this is the Ultimate French Toast.

Bear plate by Rachel Kozlowski for West Elm

Ultimate French Toast
Makes 3 servings

*3 tablespoons butter

*2-3 egg yolks

*1 heaping cup vanilla ice cream, melted

*Pinch of cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg, pinch of salt

*3 slices thick, hearty bread (challah, brioche, French or Italian)

*1/2 cup rolled oats, toasted until lightly browned and nutty

*1 tablespoon brown sugar

*Bourbon barrel aged maple syrup (or regular grade B, for plebes)

*Fruit of choice (caramelized bananas for me*)

*Freshly whipped cream (OR, a scoop of the vanilla ice cream you used if there's any left)

Melt butter in a wide cast iron skillet over medium. Whisk the egg yolks with the melted vanilla ice cream in a shallow dish, and stir in the seasonings. On another plate, toss the oats and brown sugar together. Dip the slices of bread in the ice cream mix, soaking nicely on both sides, before crusting one side of each with the oats. Fry the bread in the butter about 3 minutes per side. Top with the syrup, fruit and whipped cream (can be made a little before you start the toast prep and kept in the fridge). 

*To caramelize bananas quickly, cut up a few ripe (but not overripe) ones and saute in a couple tablespoons of butter over medium. Sprinkle in some brown sugar and splash in a little bourbon. Cook down for a few minutes, then serve hot.

Turkey Avocado-Blue Sandwiches with Kale Chips

Perhaps not a La Rochefoucauld-minted maxim, but "Everything Tastes Better with Bacon" is nonetheless a simple, amaranthine truth. Less constant is "Everything Tastes Better with Avocado", but when it comes to sandwiches, the saying is: Absolutely Correct. Biting through the layers of any given sandwich, it is always a pleasure to come across a rich, buttery wealth of avocado. For this particular specimen, instead of simply cutting the avocado into slices I decided to mash the pale green fruit flesh with some blue cheese (Gorgonzola), a delicious combo reminiscent of Nigella Lawson's "Roquamole". I slathered it on the bread as a spread before stacking the bacon, turkey, tomato, Swiss and lettuce. I opted for some verdant kale chips on the side for a tidy noontime meal, but you could just as well serve the sandwich next to a luscious bisque for a quick and hearty dinner.

Turkey Avocado-Blue Sandwiches
Makes 2 Sandwiches

*4 slices of your preferred bread (I'm using a rustic loaf from my local bakery)
*Half an avocado
*Heaping 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese of your choice
*Squeeze of lemon juice
*Romaine lettuce leaves
*4 slices good slab bacon
*6 oz deli-sliced turkey
*2-4 thin slices of tomato
*4 thin slices of a nutty Swiss

Fry bacon until crisp, blot on paper towels. After splitting 'n pitting the avocado, remove the flesh from the jacket and mash with the cheese and a squeeze of lemon until it resembles a thick spread. Lightly toast your bread, and then spread two slices with the avocado-blue cheese mix. Assemble the lettuce, bacon, turkey, tomato and Swiss as well as any other fixings of your choice, and presto, sandwich! I usually wrap the other half of the avocado well in Saran and pop in the fridge for the next day, but you could always mash it up with more cheese, a squeeze of lemon and a dusting of paprika for an excellent quick dip.

You may find my kale chips post here. 

Pumpkin French Toast

The crush of busyness to which I alluded in my last post? It didn't stop. In fact, it got worse; October has been nothing but a maelstrom of activity. However, on this rainstreaked Friday morn, I was actually able to rub a few minutes together and somnambulate into the kitchen to rustle up a good gourdy breakfast.  Even if I can't remember the last time I went to the store, canned pumpkin always seems to be readily available at a moment's notice in my kitchen during the month of October, and all that's needed for this tasty breakfast recipe is a healthy dollop, which leaves you free to use the rest for other pumpkin-based needs (I'll be making a pumpkin-black bean soup tomorrow, for example). If you happen to have some day-old French, brioche, or challah, those would be ideal bread vehicles for French toast. Pepperidge Hearty Farmhouse White straight out of the double-wrapped bag is usually what I reach for, though. You could be outrageously decadent and try this with pumpkin bread as well, but I just am too meek for that. Maybe on the next lazy rainstreaked Friday....

Pumpkin French Toast
Makes two slices

*2 slices of bread, on the thicker side
*2 eggs
*1/4 cup milk
*1 teaspoon sugar
*A healthy pinch of cinnamon
*A smidge each of ground cloves, allspice, and nutmeg
*1/8-1/4 cup of pure pumpkin puree
*A splash of bourbon or dark spiced rum (about a teaspoon)
*1 1/2 tablespoons butter, plus a little bit of vegetable oil

Whisk the eggs, milk, sugar, spices, bourbon and puree together in a wide, shallow dish and set the bread slices in to soak for a few minutes. You may need to flip them to coat both sides. While bread is bathing in the stuff, throw a tablespoonish lump of butter in a wide nonstick skillet over medium to melt, and drizzle just a touch of the oil over it as it slides across the pan to prevent burning. When the butter has completely melted and sizzles, drape the dribbling slices in the pan and let them develop a nice crust before flipping and browning on the other side. Drizzle with maple syrup and enjoy!

The Bakers At Red Lion

 

If your weekend travels take you down the bucolic backroads where Kennett Square and West Chester rub elbows, then you've probably seen these bright French flags fluttering in the breeze and the friendly sign inviting you inside with promises of fresh-baked bread. If you've stopped, then you're a convert and I'm preaching to the choir...but if you haven't yet tasted the wares from the Bakers at Red Lion, I urge you, IMPEL you, to do so at the earliest weekend convenience.

Two mature ladies, one bespeckled in adorable Ben Franklinesque frames, got together and purchased the lovely home on the corner of Doe Run and Folly Hill, and then in their retirement decided to put their esteemed baking talents to good use and crank out loaves for the local folk at their leisure. This weekend hobby has gone on for years and years and they have built up a considerable following, yours truly included. They bake the 4 dollar French loaves per the sign, but they also bake smaller French loaves, little boules cracked open with a pat of butter slipped inside (my favorite), brownies, cheesebread, and more. All cranked out over the most quaint-looking stove by the bespeckled Miss, who usually has a batch going when you stop in during the A.M. The smell wafting through the air in the charming kitchen beyond the door marked "open" is divine, truly one of the greatest scents ever to pass by the nostril's vibrissae. Prices range from a dollar to the aforementioned boules 'n brownies to six or seven for specialty loaves, and payment is by the honor system and deposited into a coffee can on the table. Check 'em out on Fridays and Saturdays (and maybe Sundays? I work on Sundays, so never have the luxury of driving down then).

The Kennett/West Chester border is dotted with a number of other such glittering gems, which I'll surely note in posts to come. I adore this area and am happy to share its wonders with others! If you the reader know of any other special nooks in this neck o' the woods, do let the secret slip.

 

Banana Bread

The massive bag of bananas that I bought at Produce Junction...the same haul whence sprang the Roasted Banana Ice Cream, dwindled down to a motley collection of 5 overripe and deeply freckled fruits over the week. Perfect pickins for banana bread. I have cobbled my recipe together from many bits and pieces of recipes gleaned over the years, but decided to sub some of my usual allotment of brown sugar with maple syrup. The good stuff, straight from the mighty tit of a Québecois maple. The flavor is definitely improved by its addition, but certainly just use brown sugar if you don't have any of the good stuff on hand.

Banana Bread
Makes one 4x8 inch loaf

*4 extra-ripe bananas (I used the whole bunch [5] because they were on the smaller side)
*6 tablespoons melted butter
*1/2 cup light brown sugar
*1/3 cup good maple syrup
*1 scant teaspoon vanilla
*1 large egg, whisked
*1 glug of bourbon (a tablespoon, I'm guessing, if you don't adhere to the glug system of measurement)
*A pinch of salt
*1 scant teaspoon cinnamon
*1/4 teaspoon allspice
*A pinch of ground cloves
*1 teaspoon baking soda
*1 1/2 cups flour
*A handful of walnut pieces (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350. Smash the bananas in a bowl with a fork until no large chunks remain, and stir in melted butter. Mix in the sugar, syrup, egg, vanilla, bourbon, salt, spices, and baking soda. Add the flour in 1/2 cup additions, stirring well after each. If you want to throw in some nuts, go for it. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a spell, and then remove the bread from the pan.