skillet filled with sunshine

I know it's only Wednesday, but I’m on cruise control into the weekend because my vacation starts tomorrow. We’re heading to L.A. to visit my sister and the rest of my West Coast homies: my nephew Noah, brother in law Chris, sister’s sister-in-law, Nicky, etc. I’m so thrilled. I’m excited to show Paul California, snuggle up with my baby nephew and catch some sunshine on my pale, dimpled skin.





That being said, I’ll leave you this week with a skillet full of sunshine. Light, lemony goodness in the form of a (shockingly easy) soufflé. When I saw how simple this recipe was, I really wanted to try it. Not only because I love lemons but I really wanted to try out making a soufflé. The recipe is so straight forward you really can’t miss and when you bring a fluffy, lemony soufflé out of the oven, you will feel very proud of yourself. Big thanks to my main damie, Aja, who not only was down to help me out by taking photos, but also more than willing to eat dessert for lunch.




SKILLET LEMON SOUFFLÉ
(from Cook’s Illustrated’s Best Skillet Recipes)

5 large eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/3 cup (4 2/3 ounces) granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup juice from 2 to 3 lemons
1 teaspoon grated zest from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting



Preheat your oven to 375. Using an electric mixer or stand mixer, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium-low speed until foamy (a little over one minute). Slowly add 1/3 cup of the sugar and the salt; increase your speed to medium-high and whip until stiff peaks form (3-5 minutes). Transfer the whites to a clean bowl (gently) and set aside.





To your dirty mixing bowl (no need to wash) combine the yolks and the remaining 1/3 cup sugar on medium-high speed until pale and thick (like me at the outset of bathing suit season), approx. 1 minute. Whip in the lemon juice, zest and flour until incorporated (30 seconds).



Heat the butter in your skillet over medium-low heat. As it melts gently fold ¼ of the whipped egg whites into the lemon batter, continuing in two more batches until all of the fluffy white is just incorporated. Gently scrape the batter into the skillet and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the edges begin to set and bubble just a little.



Transfer the skillet to your oven and bake until puffed and the center jiggles only slightly when you shake the handle of the pan.



There will be some light browning on the edges. The baking will take 7-11 minutes but it is absolutely crucial that you do not open the oven door for the FIRST SEVEN MINUTES of cooking. You hear that? Sorry for getting so stern, it’s just the most important step. My soufflé took the full 11 minutes to cook and even then, I think it could have used one more minute. My oven runs low though, so I think that’s why.



Use a pot holder or oven mitt to remove the skillet from the oven, lightly dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve immediately.



Don't be afraid to try this! I promise if you follow the directions, you won't be disappointed! xo, jess

the musical fruit

Anyone that knows me knows that this post was only a matter of time.



I made a delicious soup for you. The only hitch is you can’t eat it and then go out in public. I’m being deadly serious here because I care about you. You simply cannot eat this soup and then expect to go join the general populous for any sort of indoor activity where they will be able to hear what you’re doing. You could probably eat it and then go to a Nascar race or Air Force Fighter Jet show, because in either of those instances the engine noise and blasting of “Rock You Like a Hurricane” will drown out any noise that you’ll be creating. And you will be making noise. Or at least the gentlemen among us will be, because this is quite simply: fart soup. I should just give the rest of the leftovers to my dad, because that man has never cut an air biscuit he wasn’t damn proud of. He’s very comfortable in his own skin.

Behold the Christmas lima bean: the Black Widow of beans. 100% gorgeous; 100% deadly.



I’m a big bean eater and I’ve often attempted to defend their tarnished reputation as fart fuel; but in this case, Christmas lima beans, you are on your own. These beans could blow the toupee off your high school science teacher. These beans give all other beans a bad name. Not that I know of course, because I’ve never farted in my life. I am a girl. We spend our time in the bathroom spritzing rose dew on our temples and brushing our hair 1,000 times before bed. But I heard from a couple guys, well one guy, okay it was obviously Paul, who claimed this soup turned his back side into a total butt trumpet for approximately 12 hours after consumption. It’s bad. Bad, bad. Like Feel Embarrassed Even If You’re By Yourself Bad; Levitate Out of Your Office Chair But Not In a Transcendent Yogic Way Bad. Like, I’ve Never Actually Considered Buying Beano But This Is Different (I'm So Scared) Bad. That bad. Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife.



And it’s a bummer too (see what I did there?) because it’s truly delicious. I mean really one of the best tasting soups in recent memory. So it’s not as though I would discourage you from making it; actually, I dare you to make it. But know this: I am completely serious when I say it’s not fit for public consumption. If you’re hosting a fart contest to raise money for a charity of your choice, by all means, double the recipe. But if you’re planning on working with other people in an office setting you may want to take a vacation day. Likewise, if you say teach yoga and will be in a soothing, peaceful yoga studio guiding practitioners through sun salutations and forward folds like, um, my friend was the other night, you might want to get a sub. Or be prepared to reach new levels of glutial strength as you tiptoe across the room and turn the music up. I mean like I said, my friend might be exaggerating, but you’ve been warned. With that being said, here’s the soup:



CHRISTMAS LIMA BEAN and VEGGIE SOUP with
WHOLE GRAIN PARMESAN CROUTONS (a/k/a FART SOUP)

2 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. butter
1 Spanish onion (or other white onion), cut into a small dice
1 summer squash, but into a small dice
1 zucchini, cut into a small dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tsp. cumin
½ tsp. ground coriander
1 package Christmas Lima Beans* (soaked overnight or quick soaked**)
1 small can whole peeled tomatoes in sauce
Chicken stock (about 2 quarts I think)
Salt and pepper

For the Croutons (optional):

A few slices of whole grain or wheat bread, cut into large cubes
Olive Oil
Garlic Salt
Grated parmesan



*or, may I (strongly) suggest any other kind of bean. Garbanzos or cannellini beans would stand in well here and decidedly dial down the possibility of alienating yourself from strangers and making any roommate or bed fellow you have consider putting you on the next flight to Siberia.



**TECHNIQUE: How to Quick Soak Dried Beans:

Dried beans will almost always come with instructions to soak the beans overnight. I am completely incapable of planning that far ahead, so I have never actually done this. What I do is a “quick soak” method that I have found works just great for me. Rinse your beans with water and pick them over to make sure there are no foreign objects in ‘em. Then place in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat and then shut off the heat and let the beans soak for 1 hour. Drain them again, maybe giving another rinse. You can now proceed to either cook the beans on their own, with water, salt, pepper and any herbs or spices you would like, or you can add these soaked beans to your soup and let them cook in the soup until tender. If you choose to cook the beans on their own and keep them around for future use, just put them in a jar or Tupperware and refrigerate until ready to use. I would suggest using them within a week. The Christmas limas took about two hours. So you will have your soup simmering for quite some time to cook them through, but the resulting soup broth is really delicious. I think it’s worth it.



Heat olive oil and butter over medium- medium high heat until the butter is melted. Add onions and sauté until fragrant and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add summer squash and zucchini and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Add garlic and cumin, tossing everything together until fragrant (about 1 minute, if that). Pour in tomatoes and their sauce, using your spoon to break the tomatoes up into large chunks; add the beans and cover the whole thing with chicken stock. I used homemade, so I have no idea what the measurement is, but I think you would be able to simply use one 32 oz. container of store bought stock here. Let the soup come to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and let cook until the beans are tender.

While the soup is cooking, make your croutons. Heat the oven to 350 and cut any bread you have on hand into large chunks (I had a whole grain loaf that was pretty much stale. This is the perfect way to use stale bread). Toss the bread cubes on a cookie sheet with a small amount of olive oil, or a few sprays of olive oil spray. Sprinkle with a pinch of garlic salt and maybe some crushed pepper. Bake for 15 minutes, stirring once for even browning. When there are about 3 minutes remaining, remove the cookie sheet and grate parmesan over the top. Return to the oven until the parmesan melts (the extra three minutes should do this). If you’d like, you can finish them in under the broiler as well, in which case it will only take about a minute for the cheese to melt.



When soup is ready spoon into a bowl, top with a couple croutons and another sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Serve immediately. We had this for dinner with some grilled Panini (turkey, prosciutto and mozzarella with a spread of hummus and Sriracha and arugula in the middle). Absolutely delicious, but perfectly dangerous as well. You’ve been warned.

just grab him in the biscuits

While I am by definition a Yankee lady, born and raised in the great Commonwealth with not a trace of Southern gentility or even the ladylike capability to wear nail polish without chipping it within the first 15 minutes, I do have a whisper of Southern roots about me. My Nana, Inez, was born and bred in Jackson, Mississippi and since I have inherited not only her ability to cry at a moment’s notice, her old kitchen table and the better part of her set of pots and pans, I would say her spirit is alive in my kitchen on a regular basis.





I couldn’t help but think of her kitchen (pale green linoleum) and the last time she made me supper (fried chicken) as I baked up a batch of the Southern bread basket standard on Saturday afternoon. I have never made biscuits from scratch, but I hoped it would be somewhat like making scones (easy), but less British (their “biscuits” are more like those baby teething things). These biscuits come together in just a few minutes and they are totally delicious. I love that the addition of the sweet potato actually adds essential vitamins (A and C) to an otherwise normally nutritionally devoid food. Because the potato lends moisture, the end result here is moist without being overly dense or heavy. They are simply a very nice biscuit indeed. Nana would be proud.



SWEET POTATO BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
(found on the kitchn.com)

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into cubes
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato (approximately 1 large potato)
1/2 cup buttermilk, plus additional as needed





Preheat your oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender, two knives or your very own fingers, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter is a mix of small crumbs and pea-sized balls. I used a combination of two knives and my fingers. If you have never used knives to cut butter (raises hand), the method I came up with was to cross the blades close to each other, so they formed a tight X, then would drag the blades away from each other into a big X. I felt like a medieval swordsmith and my butter got incorporated just swell. This method is highly recommended.



While you’re doing your butter slicing, you can pop a large sweet potato in the microwave. Stab it a few times with a knife or fork and cook it on high until its ready. This will take anywhere from 6 minutes to 15 depending on the size and density of your potato. Mine was huge, it took 15. Once it’s done, slice it open and let it cool for a few minutes to avoid hand scorching and buttermilk cooking. Once it’s cooled slightly. Scoop the potato out of its skin into a medium sized bowl and mash thoroughly with a fork. Add the buttermilk and stir together completely. Add this mixture to your flour mixture and fold together. If you need to add extra buttermilk you can. I had to add about another ¼ of a cup. Your dough will form a nice ball and be just slightly sticky. At this point, you can chill the dough for a half hour, or proceed right to the baking. I chilled mine for about 10 minutes and then I got impatient.



Flour your countertop or cutting board and pat (do not use a rolling pin) the dough until it’s about an inch thick. Use a well floured biscuit cutter (if you have one- you will note by the photos that a floured rocks glass worked just fine for me) cut out your biscuits and place them on a cookie sheet. In the interest of not sticking I lightly spritzed my sheet with a little olive oil spray, but truthfully, I don’t think these would stick regardless, because of the butter in them. Gather the scraps together and pat it out again, cutting more biscuits until you have used all the dough. Bake for 15-20 minutes. They stay a pretty pale orange color, so to check for doneness, I lifted up one and peeped at the bottom, when the bottom looks cooked, i.e. dry and browned, I took them out.



I can’t believe it’s this easy to make biscuits! I had one (alright one and half) of these right out of the oven, with butter; and the next morning we had some with baked beans and poached eggs. I have frozen the other half of this batch and when I’m feeling ambitious (and have run a 5K) I’m going to try my hand at making sausage gravy to reproduce a breakfast I used to order all the time at the B Side Lounge (R.I.P.) in Cambridge: sweet potato biscuits and sausage gravy. Holy mother. Now that is a (heart attack) breakfast. Happy biscuiting my friends. Now go listen to some Digital Underground.

because you can't eat angry birds

Last Friday my cousin sent me an email:
(actual transcript from my email. Don’t judge on the grammar, we keep it loose)

Jess!

A few things. One, what are your fave apps? I am trying to find a food one for printing to our wireless printer.

To which I responded:

My fave apps...let's see, like off the top of my head what I would put out on the table? Roasted cherry tomatoes a chunk of manchego and some crackers, maybe a small bowl of caramelized onions too. Last night I made an impromptu appetizer of a goat cheese log with red pepper jelly spooned over, microwaved for about 30 seconds, just to warm and make spreadable and um, let's see what else, Sue Pithie's chicken wings and "Swedish" meatballs are party go-tos and Cousin Jenny's Cheeseball, which is on Porky D in December of 2009.

To which she responded:

You are soooooo awesome! Because, of course, one day into iPhone-ness, I meant iPhone apps! But of course any other time of the year I would have responded the exact same way! ( and your list of app apps will do me well this weekend!)

I should probably mention that I too have an iphone and because I am an American citizen with access to the outside world on a regular basis, I know what an “app” is. My nephew taught me when he got his iTouch. He is 8.

Anyways. After her response email I had a good laugh at myself and was thinking about this dual use of the abbreviation “app”. Because in my social circle “should we get an app?” is met with heads bent towards the menu studying what worthwhile starters are on there, not fingers swiping their way along the app store to find a free version of Tetris*. Is there an app for apps? Is that the most meta thing out there? Should I call a lawyer and take out a patent or a copyright or whatever the heck you use to make money off your ideas right now?

Nah. That sounds like too much of a hassle. Plus it’s nice out for the first time since September so for today let’s keep it short and sweet and I will serve as your App App.



WARM GOAT CHEESE and RED PEPPER JELLY

This app (okay I’m getting a little tired of it already) was something I made out of necessity because the friend who was bringing the appetizers was stuck in traffic and we were ready for a snack. It’s a slightly more bourgeois take on the old party classic: cream cheese and red pepper jelly. All you need to do is sub the cream cheese out for a log of goat cheese, dump some red pepper jelly over, microwave it for about 30 seconds, just to soften and warm it slightly and serve with crackers or crostini. Oh snap. Now that’s an app.



*does this exist? If so please message me privately and tell me how to buy it. I need a new time suck and Tetris always did the trick back in 1992.

that's one old quiche

Check me out this week over at Edible South Shore. ESS celebrates all things local. Which, here in the Northeast, during winter, means those people eat a hella lot of root vegetables. One of my main damies, Aja Amontea, is their blog editor. Which means occasionally she plies me with wine, gelato and compliments in order to get me to drop some Porky knowledge on that corner of the web. This week, I herald the coming of spring with a recipe celebrating the humble ramp.

You might recognize the photos because I included some old faves from a brunch post from last spring. Ramps are seriously really good. You will start to see them now in the produce section and at the farmer's market. Ramp it up!

tastes like spring

Did you know pine nuts are made of spun gold and the dander from endangered species? Well, they must be, because they cost $9.00 for a small container. I blinked my eyes several times and gasped out loud so that the lady standing next to me would wonder what I was upset about and I could say to her “get a load of the price on these pine nuts! How do they sleep at night?!” and we would enjoy a moment of grocery store camaraderie about food inflation; but she ignored me and may or may not have angled her fleece-jacketed shoulder farther away from me so as to make it completely clear that she was not interested in hearing my musings on the high price of pine nuts. Whatever lady, your loss. Because you should probably know they are expensive.

OUCH



But still, I splurged. I look at them as an investment, because truly, a nicely toasted pine nut. In the right recipe, there really is no substitution. And in the pasta I was scheming to make I knew no other nut would suffice. As I put them to toast over low heat I made a mental note “Jess, don’t forget about the pine nuts.” And then I sat down on the couch with Val and started yakking and completely forgot about the stinkin’ pine nuts. But only a few were too toasted. The rest were salvageable, which is good, because I’m no Hercules Rockefeller.



PESTO PASTA with SPRING VEGETABLES

One box pasta
One bunch asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into pieces
Half box frozen petite peas (defrosted)
Half bag baby spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
½ cup basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
½ cup pine nuts, toasted
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more shaved into strips
One jar store bought pesto, or homemade, if you’ve got it
Juice from half a lemon
Extra virgin olive oil



Prior to cooking, toast your pine nuts in a nonstick pan over low heat until they are fragrant. Set aside. Heat a large pot of water over high heat for pasta, once boiling, salt generously and add pasta. Meanwhile, trim and chop your asparagus, spinach and basil. Most pasta should take about 8-10 minutes to cook, check the box for cooking time and set your timer. When there is about 3 minutes left add the asparagus and let cook a minute or two. For the last minute of cooking add the chopped spinach. Then drain the whole thing together and dump it back into the pot. Add the peas (if they are still a bit frozen, the hot pasta will cook them through in no time), the pesto, basil, pine nuts, cheese, lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir together; salt and pepper to taste. Shave thin slices of parmesan over for serving and more cheese on the side if needed.





This pasta dish was really delicious and came together in one pot, in about 15 minutes. Get a good pasta that has lots of surface area to catch the sauce and vegetables. I used an oversized rotini and it was perfect. When I make this again, I will use even more peas, spinach and basil, because the more vegetables, the better. By the time we were done with dinner we had picked them all out and mostly just pasta remained in the bowl.



To serve with this, I made a simple little baby mache salad with a few shaved pieces of parmesan cheese and a light drizzle of olive oil and some aged Balsamic vinegar. Even if it doesn’t look like spring outside, this meal tasted like it.



photo credits to Mish and Val. Who gladly assisted in the production of this post and also got to eat its contents. Thanks ladies.