Fennel and Celery Slaw with Orange, Cumin and Chilies

Fennel slaw.

Intriguing and not at all what you would think it would be.
Especially when you only have one fennel bulb.

And you realize fennel’s best friend is celery.
And there’s a plethora of the celery in the fridge.

A little bit of orange zest, crushed fennel seeds, ground cumin, hot red pepper flakes and minced garlic.

Let this baby sit a bit and it gets a mind of its own.

Spicy, peppery, fragrant and so damn good with a piece of grilled chicken marinated in fresh lime juice.

Dare I say it?

Big Fat Yum!!!

Fennel and Celery Slaw with Orange, Cumin and Chilies
Adapted from Molly O’Neill’s A Well Seasoned Appetite

1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed and julienned
1 large cup thinly sliced celery
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp fennel seeds, crushed
Good pinch crushed hot red pepper flakes
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 small clove garlic, smashed and minced
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp fresh orange juice
Extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine fennel and celery in big bowl. Combine fennel seeds, cumin and crushed red pepper flakes in small bowl and add to fennel and celery and toss. Whisk together the orange zest, garlic, fresh lemon and orange juices. Add a couple of good swirls of extra virgin olive oil and season to taste with the coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add to the fennel and celery and toss til well coated. Let sit for an hour at room temperature.
The original recipe calls for chopping ¼ cup of fresh fennel fronds and adding to the salad prior to serving.
I forgot. I’m sure it would be divine. Also you can do this recipe with 3 medium fennel bulbs and leave out the celery. Up to you!

Serves 3.

Click here for a printable recipe!

One Year Ago on Feeding Groom

Two Years Ago on Feeding Groom

Fennel and Celery Slaw with Orange, Cumin and Chilies

Provencal Oven Onion Saute

These days, inspiration in the kitchen has been hard to come by. A long winter probably hasn’t helped, but the promise of spring has me reaching for different cookbooks to read, different flavors to explore and getting myself excited about the food to come.

One of the most inspiring cookbooks whose inspiration is hidden in the simple, straightforward directions and hints, uses normal ingredients and allows you to end up with the most fabulous dinners is The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper.

This Provencal Oven Onion Saute is perfect for an easy, easy dinner that can impress friends as a pasta sauce, or as a bed for a beautiful piece of grilled steelhead trout, or as a topping for a quick homemade pizza, or whirled together with a bit more olive oil as a spread for crusty bread, or a stuffing for baked tomatoes….

See what I mean?

Inspirational!

Provencal Oven Onion Saute
Adapted from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift

5 oil packed anchovies
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
5 good swirls extra virgin olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
½ tsp fennel seeds, bruised
½ large orange
2/3 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
4 canned San Marzano tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 medium onions, all red or a mix of red and sweet yellow, sliced ¼ inch thick
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 450. Cover a large pan with aluminum foil. Slid into the oven to preheat.

In large bowl, mash the anchovies into the balsamic vinegar olive oil and garlic. Shred the zest of the orange into the bowl. Add fennel seeds, olives, tomatoes, onion, salt and pepper and toss with your hands to mix. It’s easier that way.
Spread mixture over the pan and roast, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. Squeeze the lemon over to taste. Let your inspiration guide you!

Serves 3 generously.

Click here for a printable recipe!

One Year Ago on Feeding Groom

Provencal Oven Onion Saute

Chicken Piccata

Cooking can be an exercise for your body as well as your brains. Really, you ask. How do you figure that? Well, it takes a brain to be able to cook and imagine different flavors together, right?. But there are plenty of meals that involve physical exertion to get dinner ready. Not the usual chop, chop, stir, repeat. Oh no. There is the piccata family of excellent food and exercise combined in one meal. The exercise definitely balances out the butter that is always in a piccata.

At least in my humble opinion.

Take boneless chicken thighs or breasts and put between two sheets of plastic wrap and take a rolling pin or meat pounder thingy (obviously I have a rolling pin) and go to town. Be sure to beat using both arms, to balance out your exercise program. Then have a bit of House Red . Flip the chicken and beat again. This is a fast dinner to prep and cook and is loaded with lots of flavor from the lemon, butter and white wine sauce. Added zing comes from the salty oil cured olives added at the last minute.

Piccata in Italian means tasty. It certainly is.

Chicken Piccata
Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

5 boneless chicken thighs, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 good swirls extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp butter
¼ cup dry white wine (I used vermouth)
1-½ tbsp fresh lemon juice (I used Meyer lemons)
¼ cup oil cured olives, pitted and chopped

Take the chicken thighs and put between two pieces of Saran Wrap and bang on them with a rolling pin until flattened to about an 1/8th of an inch, depending on how much you’re enjoying banging the hell out of the chicken.

Put large skillet over medium high heat and swirl in the olive oil. Add 2 tbsp butter and when the foam subsides, add the chicken, several pieces at a time and cook til golden brown on both sides, probably takes about 3 minutes per side. Remove to plate and tent with foil and repeat with remaining chicken thighs.

Pour off any fat in the pan and off the heat, deglaze with the vermouth. Put back on the heat and bring to boil, scraping up the brown bits. Then stir in lemon juice and 2 tbsp butter. Remove from the heat and stir in the olives and freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Plate and garnish with fresh chopped Italian parsley.

Serves 2-3 depending on the size of the chicken thighs.

Chicken Piccata

A Good Thing from Martha

You gotta love Martha. The woman can organize a closet, plant an herb garden, iron fitted sheets and fold them so they look like flat ones…and she can come up with some great recipes. I love Martha. Not to excess, but I do love her. And it has nothing to do with the fact that when Anne and I did a party years ago for a Junior League function, she attended and wrote a wonderful column about our food. Seriously, it’s not about that.

I get MARTHA STEWART LIVING magazine and have for years. I cut out all the

GOOD THINGS and save them all over the house. It probably would be a good thing if I would put them all in one beautiful linen box calligraphied with the words “good things Martha thinks I need to do.” But I haven’t done that. Probably won’t.

However, the January 2008 mag appeared in the mailbox on Saturday and perusing the pages I came across a very cool recipe for Pan Seared Scallops with Lemon and Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Herbs. And the best thing is the recipe is on those cards you can tear out and stick in a drawer somewhere for Groom to find in four years and ask me, “Honey, don’t you want to put all of these Martha things a file or a box so you can find them?” And I’ll smile and say, “Ok, Groomie, maybe I'll look through them.”

Pan Seared Scallops with Lemon…adapted from Martha Stewart Living January 2008 issue

1 pound sea scallops, tough muscles removed
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Lemon, cut in wedges
Pat scallops dry with paper towels and season well with salt and coarsely ground black pepper. Heat oil in cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add scallops to skillet and cook until golden brown and cooked through about 3 minutes to the side.
Serve immediately with lemon wedges on the side.
Serves 4.

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Herbs..adapted from Martha Stewart Living January 2008 issue

1 large spaghetti squash halved lengthwise and seeds removed
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 ounces Parmesan Reggiano grated
½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted
Preheat the oven to 400’. Sprinkle olive oil over the squash and using your fingers, rub it in the cavity. Sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Place squash, cut side down on a Pam’d baking sheet and roast til tender probably about 40 minutes or so. Cool slightly.
Take a fork and scrape the squash to remove the flesh in long strands. Place in bow and all oil, parmesan, parsley and pine nuts with salt and pepper to taste. Toss and serve immediately. Serves 4.

A Good Thing from Martha

Mary Herbert's Lemon Meringue Pie

One of Groom’s favorite things in the world is pie. Any kind of pie. He is lucky to have married me. Not because I make great pies. Far from it. As a matter of fact, I can ruin a pie in no time flat. I’m really not a baker. Ask me to roast or braise or saute something, I’m your gal. Pie. Nope. Can’t do it.
However, I have a dear friend who is the queen of desserts. Her pound cake is legendary. Her chocolate desserts are the stuff dreams are made of. And her lemon meringue pie absolutely rocks. Her busband asked her to make it for our dinner last night…he loves it dearly. When Herbie heard that Groom loves pie, the dessert part of the meal was set.
The meringue was perfect..light..sweet and just a golden touch of color on the swirls.
The filling was all about lemon. Tart and sweet at the same time.
Groom smiled. And ate more pie.

Mary Herbert’s Lemon Meringue Pie
1 ½ c. sugar
1/3 c. cornstarch
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ c. cold water
½ c. lemon juice (about the juice of two lemons)
5 eggs, separated
2 T. butter
2-3 tsp. grated lemon rind
one baked 9-inch pastry shell (I used the Pillsbury already-made shell)
¼ t. cream of tartar
½ c. plus 2 T. sugar
½ t. vanilla
Combine 1 ½ c. sugar, cornstarch, and salt in heavy saucepan; mix together. Gradually add water and lemon juice, stirring. Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored; gradually stir into lemon mixture. Add butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Cook exactly one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in lemon rind. Pour into pastry shell. Combine egg whites (which have been at room temp.) with cream of tartar; beat until foamy. Gradually add ½ c plus 2 T. sugar, one tablespoonful at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla. Spread meringue over filling, sealing to edge of pastry. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Let cool to room temp.

Mary Herbert's Lemon Meringue Pie