They’re hee-ere….not the extraterrestrials, the fava beans.  They are just vegetables after all so don’t worry about them tying you up and holding you hostage or overthrowing the government or anything like that.  Just don’t look them straight in the eyes or they might hypno-bamboozle you flat in your tracks. If they do manage to outsmart you while your cooking, then you had it coming, dummy.  The weirdest part I admit is the googly eyes, I don’t remember that from last year — maybe they’re evolving, rapidly. Scary!

{Just look at them trying to intimidate me on my own porch!  Cigarette butts everywhere — such the riff raff.}

When I lived on the east coast we got Gypsy Moths this time of year. Out here in California we get fava beans (pretty sweet I know).  This recipe would be all wrong with caterpillars though, so for all you New Englanders, nice try but no substitutions.

{I’m so sorry to tempt you with this perfect bite, talk about rude!}

I poached this recipe from my Australian friend Haalo’s blog Cook Almost Anything at Least Once.  Her recipes and photos are always stunning and full of inspiration.  I kept the the ingredient proportions the same only I substituted fava beans, feta, and basil for the original pea, Haloumi, and mint:

Once you have corralled and shucked the wild favas, saute them until they are just tender along with the corn, let cool.  Puree half the veggies until smooth.  Mix together the milk, eggs, flours, baking powder, then fold in the remaining fava beans and corn, feta, basil, salt and pepper.

Heat olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat.  Add heaping tablespoons of the mixture to the pan in batches, pressing down to flatten slightly.  Flip them once when nice and golden and set on paper towels to drain.

{Salty, crunchy, summer-time little cakes…}

The feta is soft and melty and the basil adds a sweet light flavor to the rest of the ingredients.  I loved these crispy little cakes so much I ate them cold at dawn the next day, with my bare hands standing up in the dim glow of the refrigerator’s interior light.

{Eat them on a plate with a fork if you’re the civilized sort.}

{tags fava beans fava bean cakes recipe}

This is my favorite breakfast, pure and simple.  I’ve tried for years to perfect the soft boiled egg and just cannot get the yolk perfect and ensure the top shell is removed sans those most undesirable shards.  And that the yolk is runny on the inside and jelly around the edges that is easily achieved by poaching.
There’s something comforting about this meal’s raw elegance in that, if for some reason I should wake up in the forest alone and hungry, I’m secure in the fact I could scavenge old bread and an egg from the dwellers there to poach and toast by a sunlit stream.  I’d serve it on dewy leafs to the field mice, burrow owls, and any forest friends awake and hungry.  Here’s what you need for kitchen preparation (ad-hoc wilderness improvisations are up to you of courshe.)

Here is what I do in the luxury of my own kitchen:

In a heavy pan like a La Crueset, fill 3/4 of the way with water, add a pinch of salt, and bring to a mellow boil.  Pour in about 1 tablespoon of white vinegar, and with a spoon, swirl the water around creating a slow whirlpool.  Crack each egg into a bowl and then gently slide into the eye of the swirl.

After about 3 minutes, using a slotted spoon, lift the egg out to check the yolk’s doneness. If it is to your esteemed satisfaction,  lift the poached egg out of the water allowing it to air dry a bit, and then place onto the toast you have prepared and buttered.  You have, haven’t you?!  Finish your masterpiece with some fresh cracked white pepper and crunchy Maldon sea salt.

{tags poached eggs on toast recipe}

Like it’s velvety counterpart, this dish is bursting with flavor. The combination of fresh tasting celery and salty Parmesan is a match made by the gods for us mortals to enjoy all year round. I used a mandoline to slice the celery extra thin. I thought it only proper to show the utmost respect to the star player here. Make sure that you use the whole bunch of celery down to the the last sweet bits of heart. Oh, and please quietly dispose of the outer stalks as they tend to be tougher than the rest.

Set the oven to 400F, mix celery, 1/2 cup Parmesan, cream, 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, and 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper. Divide evenly among four 6-ounce ramekins, and place them on a baking sheet. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes until celery is tender.

Meanwhile, tear bread into large pieces, and pulse in a food processor until coarse crumbs form. Add the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan, and drizzle with olive oil (1-2 tablespoons); pulse just until crumbs are coated.

Remove aluminum foil from ramekins. Dividing evenly, sprinkle breadcrumbs over celery. Return to oven and bake, uncovered until golden, about 12 minutes more. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Warning: Don’t turn your back while they’re cooling or else…

{tags celery gratin recipe celery recipe}

This was easy as can be to make and worth every minute of effort. I never saw a desert pull a disappearing act quite like this one. It was like my kitchen was in time lapse film with plates and whipped cream flying about at warp speed. My only advice would be to wear some protective lab goggles, you can never be too careful with your peepers.

Lemon Tart with Buttery Shortbread crust

(The Crust)

Prepare a tart pan, the type with the removable bottom, by lightly buttering then flouring it, tapping away any excess and set the oven to 425F. In a food processor, blend flour, sugar, and salt. Add butter and pulse until pastry starts to come together and form clumps. Put the pastry in the tart pan, and using your fingertips, evenly press onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Pierce the bottom once with a fork and freeze for 15 minutes. Once chilled, place the tart pan on a larger baking sheet until the crust is golden, about 13-15 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool.

(The Custard)

Reduce oven to 350F while you prepare the filling. In a food processor, blend cream cheese until smooth, add sugar and eggs until incorporated. Add the remaining ingredients until well blended and smooth. Pour into your tart shell and bake for 25-30 minutes until the filling is set. Let cool, then refrigerate until chilled before serving.

{The essential cream topping is 1/2 cup heavy cream whipped with 1 tb powdered sugar for the ultimate experience. Yum!}

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger Snaps Crust

(The Crust)

This is another holiday cake that is beyond temptation. Whole Foods of course had home made ginger snaps that really pushed this crust over the edge of all reason. Set the oven to 350F and use a food processor to pulverize the cookies. Mix the ground cookies, sugar, and melted butter together in a bowl and then pour into a prepared spring form pan. Press the crust on the bottom and up the sides as much as you can. It doesn’t have to be even at all, and then freeze while you prepare the filling.

(The Filling)

In a food processor, blend the cream cheese until smooth, one at a time add the rest of the ingredients until combined and smooth. Put spring form pan on a baking sheet and pour filling over the chilled ginger crust. Bake for 30 minutes and then reduce temperature to 325F, bake 15 minutes more until edges are puffed but the center still jiggles a bit.

(The Topping)

Meanwhile, whisk together sour cream, vanilla, and sugar. Remove cake from oven and pour sour cream mixture over the top. Very gently distribute the topping, return cake to the oven and bake 15 more minutes to set the topping.

To prevent cracking, loosen the cake from the pan by running a sharp knife around the inside edge. Let cake cool completely and then refrigerate at least 8 hours (preferably overnight) before serving to your besties and the gathering crowds.

{tags lemon tart with shortbread crust recipe gingery pumpkin cheesecake recipe}

I know what your thinking right now. I do, your thinking ‘oh what a bore. Another tiresome old crisp, why must I be subject to such commonplace treats?’ Well, my answer to you Sir et Madame, is that in the land of crisps and crumbles I know what’s best for you and this is where the party’s at.

The buttery cinnamon, brown sugar, and apples is pure heaven in a spoon with some vanilla ice cream. Oh Yum! The leftovers have been a huge hit at our house all week. The first thing Chris asks me when he gets home is if I ate all the apple crisp. I don’t know what makes him think such things of me, certainly not the crumbs on my desk, I swear.

For the Topping, mix the following ingredients together in a food processor:

Filling:

Here’s what you do: Park yourself somewhere you want to be for a while, bring your apples, a bowl for the peels and cores, another for the cut up apples, a small cutting board, your favorite paring knife, and go to work. After you have the apples all peeled and chopped, mix in the lemon zest, cinnamon, and brown sugar.

Spoon the apples into one large or a few small baking dishes and cover each one with a layer of the crisp mixture. Make one special for yourself with extra crisp but don’t tell anyone. Put them all on a baking sheet and then into a 350F oven for about 40 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when the apple begins to bubble up around the edges and your house smells like cloud nine.

[Oh yes, and thanks Amanda for the inspiration]

{tags apple crisp recipe}

{panang or RED curry, I can see the logic and maybe my own lack thereof landed me this unfriendly mixture containing shrimp paste. my bad!}

I’m allergic to shrimp eeeek! It’s not a problem because shrimps are big enough that if I set my mind to it, lobsters and shrimps won’t accidentally fall into my mouth. Ever subversive, however, are the pastes. It has it’s ways and wits about it, sneaky sneaky that one. Imagine my alarm when I noticed I didn’t notice the fine print. I was just so lost in the excitement of locating such wonderfully authentic curries, now boo!

These brand new still sealed cartons of curry deserve better than my dusty top shelf of the forgotten. It gets rowdy up there in the slums and I simply don’t think they can manage gang activity. So to rescue them from a life of despair I will mail them to you, as the winner of the In Your Face Shrimp Paste, Free Curry Contest!

Leave a comment on this post with your submission, I can’t wait to hear what you guys come up with. Not to worry if your entry is in another language, a team of translators await. All entries fully qualify! Please play, it will be fun, I promise!

Update: Congratulations Pete who loves curry so much he ‘even thought of putting it in jello’ heehee! Your box of goodies is in the mail, enjoy them [grins].

{tags mae ploy green curry paste mae ploy panang curry paste}

I’m allergic to shrimp, crab, and lobster. It’s my curse and I’m mostly okay with it since mollusks and me are a match made in heaven. Plus, I really shouldn’t complain since the majority of people in my support group* can’t even have that. Occasionally though, there’s a recipe that will lead me to radical kitchen experiments driven by desperation and denial. Desperate to experience that which the uncursed can indulge and denial of my reality that is ‘hello delicious crabcake’ one minute and ‘goodbye cruel world’ the next.

Amanda over at What We’re Eating recently posted one such recipe for crab cakes that I’ve been stalking and drooling over ever since. I had to have them, no matter the cost. Thus, beginning my week-long expedition into the uncharted territory of crabless crab cakes. The first version I made with sea scallops that were seared, cooled, and then shredded. And the second being this one, made with the best quality salmon I could get my grubby mitts on, poached and shredded.

{the top one is made with scallops and the bottom with salmon. amanda, please accept my apologies for the the bastardization of your lovely crabcakes!}

Keep in mind that I’m a desperate woman. Adding more saltines is a small price to pay for me to have barely remeniscient of a crab cakes on my plate. Besides the extra crackers and the blatant lack of crab, I followed Amanda’s recipe to a tee. Which, I must point out, is simply perfection. I think no matter what you made these with, swordfish/swedish fish/etcetera…, they would be delicious. Seriously you guys, if your hell bent on crab cakes this is the recipe to make.
{yum, eat these with a baked potato and you will love me forever}

* Just kidding, I dont really have a support group, unless you count 2 cats, a hamster named stoney-b, and a gecko.

{tags salmon cakes scallop cakes recipe}

Do you like squid thats crispy on the outside and tender on the inside? Do you appreciate the juxtaposition between the salty and the sweet? Are you totally crazy for calamari like I am? Then, this is por vous mon ami, a triple threat from the sea!

Look at these bespeckled pieces, aren’t they neat? This is so simple and quick to make and snaps of the ocean which is nice in the middle of winter. Mix together flour, salt, and pepper. Dry the squid and roll in flour mixture, tap off excess and fry for about 2 minutes in hot oil until golden.

For the sauce, Bring vinegar, soy, sugar, and ketchup to a boil. Stir in cornstarch mixture, simmering until thickened. Drizzle a few spoonfulls of sweat and sour over the cooked squid, and mix to coat . Serve with lime and your done. Fini!

We ate ours alongside rice with a little butter and soy. The squeeze of lime balanced everything perfectly. I love the little tentacle pieces so much, they’re my favorite so I always ask for lots of those at the fish counter. There’s something about the way they curl up and the flavors cling to them, mmmn…yum!

Ps. Thanks so much M and G for the beautiful rice bowls, i *love* them.

{tags calamari sweat and sour squid recipe}

I know it looks crazy you guys, but listen to this. So yesterday, a giant sea monster from the abyss showed up threatening to suction all of humanity into oblivion. Luckily for mankind though, I’m not the squeemish type. I *was* scared of the tentacles but who’s bigger, huh? Who?! Basically he attacked me, so I chopped his head and legs off and then ran for my life. That’s how it went down. After our battle, it was quite empowering to devour him. …Mumble, mumble, …mess with me! (swallow)

Just kidding, that’s not really what happenned. This is the octopus I needed for the third and very special Cooking Mama installment. Special because it’s one of the few items I have gotten a gold medal in (Mama doesn’t just hand them out to anyone you know. What do you think they grow on trees? I said chop faster!), plus I ordered a special Takoyaki pan for this specific purpose. I know, it’s very exciting – aaand it comes with these cute little takoyaki tools of the trade:

Once you manage to subdue your octopus, the rest is a easy. The bottom line is that you want chopped boiled octupus so if you can buy that, do. If you are presented with a whole raw octopus staring you down with that one creepy eyeball, behead him immediately and throw him into a boiling pot. It only takes about 10 minutes to cook; remove the menacing creature when firm after poking at him from afar with a 10 foot skewer. Then cut his extremeties off and quietly dispose of the body.

Boil water with the bonito flakes for 2 minutes then strain out all flakes, let the broth cool. Stir in 1 cup of flour, baking powder, and eggs. Gradually add more flower untill the the consistency is like pancake batter. Oil the pan and heat over a high flame. Add a few pieces of octopus, green onion, and ginger to each one, pour the batter over until full and cook so the surface is golden all the way around. Using a skewer to turn each ball over so they cook evenly. Serve with dried green seaweed sprinkled on top and any sauce you like. Wasabi mayo and ketchup was my favorite. Dont they look delicious?

{tags takoyaki cooking mama DSlite octopus balls recipe}

{tags malibu canyon ghost picture}