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I make great pie, mushroom pie.

I used to associate this pie with creamy filling comfort. It is rich and satisfying from the mushrooms slightly creamy and the crust is perfect and flaky. It is one of the few recipes i follow exactly. it is from "Sundays at the moosewood" which has tons of amazing dishes from all over the world. Now i associate it with victory.

It happened when my friends Vargas and Tully turned on me. Yeah, two of the people I hold closest in my affections, the two I turn to when things are wrong or confusing and I need succor. I watched it happen as if in slow motion. We were going through the various desserts and their pluses and minuses. And then we got to pie, we talked about how good pie is a wonderful thing blah blah blah. I tuned out for a bit thinking about pie. I relived a berry pie I had at nepenthe overlooking the pacific ocean with my mom as we sat in the sunshine and enjoyed a brief respite from our issues. I recalled a savory pie (ok, one every day) on the edge of a picture perfect lake in new zealand. And I remembered it had been too long since I made mushroom pie. I hadn't noticed that somehow the conversation had turned to how pie is often used in 70s songs as a metaphor.

And somehow not realizing this I turned to them and said dreamily "I make the best mushroom pie". They paused and then started laughing and continued to keep goading each other on to tease me into a hopeless mess of laughter and tears.

So the next occasion I could I made mushroom pie for Vargas and the look on her face when she took a bite- and then had more - was worth it all. She HAD to say it; "you make the best mushroom pie". And she had to say it with a straight face. In the end the deliciousness of mushroom pie triumphed over the base instincts of two people teaming up to torture one of their closest companions.

It also is terrific as a main dish for vegetarians who far too often at my house end up consuming a rainbow of sides. The vegetarians in question never make fun of me for my spacey off handed remarks.

On to some notes about preparation: It will take you 45 minutes - really! - And then you bake it. When you take it out of the oven, you get a big dramatic pay off. In the winter, people will love you for making them a pie.

I am normally terrified of piecrusts, probably cause I never bothered to read the recipe on how to make it properly. But the first time I made this I was shocked. The crust is fool proof and comes together very quickly; the sour cream makes it perfect every time. If you take too long with it, just stick it in the freezer for 5 minutes. Also I put big sheets of plastic wrap over my piecrust and roll on top of that. Especially toward the end, it makes it far easier to work with. The lattice really is far simpler than you think and it looks amazing. One thing I have noticed about lattice: no matter how janke it looks when you put it in the oven it always looks good when it done.

Also, throw in as many wild and exciting mushrooms as you can. I usually d0 a crimini-shitake blend, but when I have done it with nicer more hearty mushrooms I have been happier.

Here is a great lattice how to.

MUSHROOM PIE

Ingredients for Filling:
2 cups onion, chopped
3 TBS butter
8 cups chopped mushrooms
Freshly ground black pepper
8 oz. cream cheese

Crust Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup sour cream
Flour (for coating board)

Glaze:
1 egg
1 TBS milk

1. MAKE THE FILLING: To make filling, saute onions in butter in a large skillet. When the onions are soft and translucent, add mushrooms and sauté for a few minutes until the mushrooms release their juices. Add the pepper and the cream cheese, which has been cut into small chunks. Stir cheese into mushrooms until it melts. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. MAKE THE CRUST: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. For the crust, combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the butter just enough to achieve an evenly textured, crumbly mix. Stir in sour cream to form soft dough. Generously dust the dough with flour and form it into a ball. On a heavily floured board, roll out 2/3 of dough to fit a 10" pie pan. Fit into pan and trim the edges. Add the mushroom filling. Roll out the remaining dough for about 1/4" thick - thicker than your original pie crust. Cut into strips 1 inch wide. Weave the strip in to a lattice over the filling. (or you can wimp out and just form vents, but really how often do you make pie, take an extra five minutes.). Fold the ends of the lattice under the bottom crust, pinch the edges together and either flute, or just do the thing where you stick the tines of the fork on to make it pretty.

3. BAKE: For the glaze, beat the egg and milk. With a pastry brush, thoroughly coat the piecrust. Bake at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes until the crust is puffy and golden brown. **8 generous servings.

Beet salad and emotional musings.

When I grew up in Leningrad our biggest holiday was New Years.
This to me this is perfect holiday. In Russia it’s a lot like Christmas. Everyone gets together with close friends and family. You get presents, you have a tree, and there is even a Russian Santa Claus. Unlike Christmas, it has an air of transgression. You stay up later than you usually do. You eat more than you usually do, drink more than you usually do. And the key is: what happens at midnight is what will be happening year. So you create plenty, by filling the house with loved ones, by giving presents, by putting an evergreen in your home, by making tons of food.

The most satisfying thing is to create the table laden with goodies, and then more at midnight. Even when there were just three of us, my family still made tons of different dishes. It felt like creating luck. Which my tiny family, a bit adrift here in the suburban east coast, needed to feel.

We always had several kinds of salads and dips and pickled vegetables. There are different sorts of salted fishes and their eggs, and smoked meats. These you eat with bread, or wrap in thin pancakes with sour cream (there are the thicker, yeasty kind, which frankly are superior but they keep less well, and keeping with tradition not what the people I grew up with made). You also have fruit and candies. Often the salads and dips are different combinations of beets and potatoes and mushrooms.

Every few years I try and do it up the right way. This year, this ritual felt very important. This to me was a valiant effort against the anxiety about the future that is pervading all of our lives. Also I was mourning the loss of someone who taught me to make many of these dishes.

There was something powerful about making these dishes, about long conversations with my mom about what she and I were both serving, and how we made it. I didn’t need a list. I had been purchasing these ingredients over and over for years. I didn’t need a recipe; the food was deep somewhere in my head and hands. I know that some recipes could be improved but it was important that they get done the way my mom did them.

I usually feel sad that my guests do not have the same memories and meaning for new years than I do. Somehow, I didn’t feel that way this year. Perhaps, I tripped over that thing I know but sometimes forget. You only get this moment, these people, this house, this health, this life, this love, this joy. Next year who knows what will happen. Every occasion you get to celebrate that, even if you feel tired, or jaded or exhausted, it is your job to raise a glass or fork to it. To feed the people you love.

I made two kinds of beet salad, two kinds of potato salad, mushrooms cooked in sour cream, eggplant caviar, blini. I bought 5 kinds of pickled vegetables, tons of different kinds of salted fish, and 5 kinds f meats. At midnight, I brought out a pork shoulder with apples and cranberries and buckwheat pilaf. My good friend Vargas brought delicous cupcakes.

People told me they liked the food, which is good, I want people to feel pleasure. But I think it was more important for me that they taste it then what their opinion was. I have no good way of explaining my life and my road to get to be an American. I can tell the stories, but that isn’t my talent. The thing I can do I can put out a proper New years table, I can only truly show them what “olivie”, and baglashania ikra and “vinaigrette” tastes like. I can fire up the Christmas tree and put so many dishes on a table that you cannot see the color of the tablecloth and maybe this explains who I am.

This is my way of making the classic Russian salad “vinaigrette”, it keeps well, it is sweet, tart and tangy and satisfying. You will love it if you love beets.

Vinaigrette

• 2/3 pound beets- the cheap red beets work great
• 1/3 pound potatoes- any kind will do or use all beets
• 6 small sour pickles- the gherkins work best- you will need enough for about a half a cup chopped.
• 3 carrots - you will need enough for about a half a cup chopped
• 1/2 bunch scallions
• 1/2 bunch dill
• 5 tablespoons neutral oil.
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar.
• 2 tablespoons of the juice from the pickles.
• pinch of sugar
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook beets and potatoes – trust me roasting doesn’t taste right, however if you have extra roasted potatoes or carrots, it will still taste good.

• Start two pots of water on the boil when it comes to a boil, salt so it tastes a bit too salty to drink. You COULD put them in one pot but then it’s hard to have them both ready at the same time.
• Remove greens and scrub beets put in one pot of boiling water, turn heat to medium
  
• Peel potatoes, put in other pot of boiling water, turn heat to medium
• Cook both till you can pierce with a knife.
• Drain water and put back on burner to steam for a few minutes. This is optional but it makes the texture better.
• Set aside to cool till you can handle them. But not cold.

2. Cut up vegetables – in a medium bowl

• Slip the beets from skins and do a medium dice.
• Cut potatoes into a medium dice- the key is to have these the same size
• Chop scallions fine including white parts
• Chop dill fine- not the stems
• Chop the pickles about half the size of the beets and potatoes.
• Chop the carrots about half the size of the beets and potatoes.

3. Assemble salad

• Combine all vegetables and herbs.
  
• add the vinegar, pickle juice, oil sugar and salt and pepper to taste. It should taste tart, a little sweet and not too salty.
• Let flavors blend for at least half hour, taste and re-adjust, serve chilled or at room temp.

Pumpkin Soup with Spanish Paprika and Coconut Milk

Lunch this week has had to be fast and brainless and available. It’s deadline week. The minute I came back, it’s been non-stop work. I get this code head thing where I can feel my stomach growling and yet I just keep saying to myself 5 more minutes and when I finally get into the kitchen I can’t think. This isn't a recipe, per se, more of a quick assembly meal.

My friend Sarah has been going on about canned pumpkin lately. So I got a couple of cans with a plan of making pumpkin pie, which never materialised. Instead I am currently loving the fact that canned pumpkin is essentially an instant soup mix. You just dump milk or broth into it and some flavoring and maybe some leftovers, suddenly lunch. So far I have dumped in Indian curry powder and chickpeas; Thai Curry and cauliflower; nutmeg and mushrooms. After a week of this - I know, Vargas, but really there is NOTHING left in the house and I did not have time to go anywhere- I think I have hit upon the perfect combo.

Coconut milk and shallots sautéed in Spanish paprika and. I added chicken but it’s not necessary. It takes 5 minutes longer than the dump method, but it’s worth it.

I went through a Spanish paprika phase last year. I knew it had gone too far when I tried to put it in a cocktail. So by now the bloom was off the rose.

Fast forward to two months ago. I was at the “Spanish Table” in Berkeley. This cute brown-eyed guy sold me the last can of “pimenton de la Vera” with the warning: “this is completely addictive”. Yeah, yeah that is what Nancy Regan told me in the 80s about weed.

Unfortunately, he is right. It is smoke dried with oak wood. And the flavor is full and sunny and deep and smoky. Sort of like if you were to drinking brandy in a field of poppy flowers in July at 4 in the afternoon and you had nothing planned for the rest of the day. It makes EVERYTHING taste mysterious, and exciting. Last week I put it in hot chocolate mmmm.

The coconut milk just brings out the sweetness of the pumpkin and adds a bit of tantalizing exotic something or other.

Pumpkin Soup with Spanish Paprika and Coconut milk.

Serves 3 for dinner- 4 for Appetizer.
time: 15 minutes

1 can pumpkin – not pie.
¾ can coconut milk*
¼ cup broth- you can use water
2 Teaspoons smoked paprika.
3 Shallots. – You can use ½ a small onion.
Splash of sherry vinegar- optional
* You can use light coconut milk and skip the broth.

1. Chop Shallot finely.
2. In a medium saucepan sauté shallot over medium heat in a touch of oil, or just use a bit off the cream off the top of coconut milk. After a minute or so add the paprika, keep sautéing stirring for about 5 minutes until you can smell the paprika and the shallots are a medium brown.
3. Pour in coconut milk, broth and pumpkin, salt and a few twists of pepper, and stir until blended and heated through- about 5 minutes. Cook a few minutes to meld the flavors. Taste and adjust for Sal and pepper.
4. Serve with a splash of sherry vinegar.

Chicken Salsa Salad

Clearly my mind is on Hawaii when it should be on yams. But you should be able to find all these veggies somewhere. Anyway I thought it would be a fine capper to "the first annual poultry month" that my friend the Brownie Queen and I have been celebrating. We are both new to cooking poultry for various reasons. So we have pledged to learn new poultry skills this month.

So what have we learned:
1. The best way to roast a chicken is the Zuni method.
2. Roasting a duck is not nearly involved enough to keep you from getting the butterflies while election results are rolling in, though it is an excellent way to celebrate the victory.
3. This is the best way to cook a chicken breast for Salad: Roast breasts skin on on a pan liberally salted. It comes out juicy and delicious, not bland and water-logged like poaching.

Chicken with Salsa Salad

2 whole bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (large, at least 1 1/2 pounds each)
salt
canola or grape-seed oil.
1 large cucumber -8oz
1 large mango/peaches
red pepper
1/2 red onion
1 small jicama
juice of 2 medium limes
1/2 tbsp grated ginger
2 tblsp rice vinegar
1/4 tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic
avocado
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce
salt to taste

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Set breasts on small, foil-lined jelly roll pan. Brush with oil and sprinkle generously with salt. Roast until meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of breast registers 160 degrees, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool to room temperature, remove skin and bones, and shred meat into bite-sized pieces (about 5 cups). (Can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for 2 days.) Set aside.
2. While chicken is cooking chop:
   
   • mango/peaches
   • red pepper
   • red onion
   • jicama
   • cucumber
   in a large dice.
   cut up avocado in medium dice
   put into large bowl.
3. Combine honey, ginger, lime juice, vinegar, sriracha, salt, and chopped garlic. taste. Stir into chopped ingredients.

Enjoy.

luscious chicken with plums

I do not have a picture for this recipe because frankly it's not so good looking. Also I forgot to take a picture. So instead you get a thousand words, sorry folks.

This chicken IS luscious, and it is based on a recipe from Sally Schneider in “the improvisational cook”. I would highly recommend you go out and by this book now.
For this I give you three reasons

1. It contains the BEST recipe for pork shoulder ever invented.
2. It is the first book about improvising that you can actually improvise from. She starts out telling you how the basic dish was developed. This gets your imagination going. Hint: most recipes were created cause either you only had three things in the fridge, or you tasted something extraordinary but did not have the patience or resources to recreate it exactly. Then she walks you through the basics of the recipe. Then offers direction for fun.
3. It is full of extremely practical recipes and components that you will return to over and over again. It is a book you actually cook from, not just read.

So on to the chicken. I came up with this recipe, because of my love of the French prune plums that appear every year and end so quickly. They are small, the size of a golf ball, and crunchy and so sweet. I had already eaten 6 pounds of them and thought perhaps I should do something else with them. Essentially this is the proverbial chicken in a pot. The magic is that it makes it own sauce, which is amazing over just plain white rice.

You roast the chicken along with plums and Bacon and shallots. The plums turn out soft and silky and redolent with rich golden chicken-ness and slight smoky bacon flavor. The chicken is super juicy and tender and is scented with plums, and you get a thick, luscious gravy. The one thing you do not get is the crisp skin. That sadly is for another preparation, for another day. The chicken comes out looking as white as a McCain campaign center in Boston.

The hard part about this recipe is removing the pits from the plums. Everything else is just cooking up some bacon and slicing some shallots. To be perfectly honest I have no idea where you are going to get good plums this time of year. You could do it with prunes. But my friend Iran wanted this recipe and here it is for her. Also know that like with any recipe involving fruit with savory go over board on the pepper, it bridges the flavors.

As with any whole chicken recipe the key is getting a good chicken. I cheapen out and get the rocky juniors but a good well raised chicken can't be beat. I read somewhere that if you only get access to supermarket chicken, kosher birds are a good way to go. If you do not have a Dutch oven, then you can do this in foil on a baking sheet, just fry the bacon and shallots separately.

Luscious chicken with plums and bacon.

2 pounds of plums- like French prune plums.
2. Shallots
3 strips of bacon
1 whole chicken – gizzards removed. – Any size will do, I tend toward 3-pound birds
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
Salt and pepper.

1. Salt the chicken: this should be done 2-24 hours in advance- and it makes all the difference. Liberally rub the bird inside and out with salt and pepper. Put it on a plate and cover and place in fridge.
2. Preheat oven: Preheat oven to 375.
3. Slice plums: half the plums remove pits set aside
4. Cook bacon: in a heavy Dutch oven. Cut the bacon up into slivers and put in a pan over medium high heat until a tiny bit crispy and the fat has rendered. Remove bacon from fat and put in bowl with plums
5. Slice Shallots: While bacon cooks, peel shallots and slice into thin slices.
6. Sauté Shallots: When bacon is done remove and set aside In the bacon fat, sauté shallots over medium heat until translucent. Using a slotted spoon, remove from bacon fat and put it in the bowls with plums and bacon, stirring the mixture together for a moment. And add a few grindings of pepper.
7. Assemble the bird -
   
1. Pat dry with paper towels
2. Put one 1/3 or so of plums, bacon and shallots inside the cavity.
3. Put bird in Dutch oven and Scatter the rest of plum, bacon and shallot mixture around the bird.
4. Drizzle the cider vinegar over the chicken.
5. Place large sheet of aluminum foil over the bird to eliminate any air pockets. You are supposed to eliminate as much air as possible so the chicken doesn’t steam.
6. Close the lid


8. Roast the chicken Place in oven covered, and cook for approx an hour. Depending on the size of your chicken. A thermometer inserted between the thigh and body should read 170. Or prick the thickest part of the thigh and if the juices run clear, you are golden.
9. Prepare for serving: you COULD de-fat the sauce but I say leave it. Serve carved with luscious plum slices strewn over soft sticky rice or roast potatoes and plenty of drippings.

Lemon Ricotta pancakes

These are based on the ones you get at the big5 restaurant in Sonoma. They make them with cottage cheese. We had them on our 1st anniversary delivered to us in bed at the Sonoma Mission Inn, which is the best way to serve them. However since I won't be able to afford that for a while, I just had them on the couch.

They are creamy, tangy, super lemony and buttery. I once used farmer cheese for them instead of ricotta, it works great (you can get it at Costco, if no where else ). They are also incredibly fast to make the batter takes about 8 minutes and they cook up fast.

I have messed with the proportions a bit. I took the sugar way down, and used less butter, because the farmer's or ricotta cheese has a bit of fat. The key is to keep them small, this way they are mostly cheese and flavor. I made them larger at first but they were harder to flip.

They do not need syrup, just a bit of yogurt or creme fraiche works, but raspberry jam is divine on it too if you need more sweetness, I served them with peaches.

I used Meyer lemons cause that is what you get around here.

also they are delicious cold

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
(serves 4)

• 3 medium meyer lemons
  *if you use more sour lemons like Eurekas which are the ones available at most markets. use 2 lemons and add 2 tablespoons of orange juice.
• 3 whole eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2/3 cup ricotta cheese- or farmers cheese
• 1/2 stick of butter - melted- the recipe calls for clarified, but it seemed to work with just melted.
  

1. zest the lemons and juice them into a medium bowl.
   * I use a rasp grater.
2. separate the eggs, put the yolks into the lemon bowl. the whites into another medium small bowl.
3. heat greased griddle or large skillet to medium high. I used Canola oil in this one, butter would be too heavy.
   
4. to the lemon and eggs bowl add
   Flour
   Sugar
   Cheese
   Butter
   stir together until well combined.
5. whip egg whites until they form soft medium peaks. Fold into rest of batter.
6. Drop into skillet 1 tablespoon at a time.
   *note: I tried bigger but this worked the best.
   
7. Cook until you can see the edges turn dry, and the bottom is golden - about three minutes.
8. turn over and cook on the other side until crisp and brown, about 1.5 minutes.
9. Serve right away, I keep batches warm in a low oven for a few minutes while the others cook.
   

A note about pancakes. I have for years tried to keep two pans going when cooking blini, which I make a lot. but it never works i end up losing blini. Until I get good at this I am