This is so difficult you may not even want to try.

Photography by Sam Armocido

The gift of a spaetzle-maker, originally intended for the giver’s daughter – “Honestly, you’re more likely to use it.” – has plagued me for years. It sat in the cupboard leering, challenging me to finally take it from it’s simple, clear plastic wrapping and make a batch of the quickly simmered soup dumplings.

For some reason, however, making doughs, an activity involving things like measuring and specific ingredients, always seems so foreboding, a challenge best left to classically trained pastry chefs and German grandmothers.

Last week, the need to dress up my recipe for asparagus soup drove me to research spaetzle. Custards felt fussy, and a garnish of wild mushrooms just lazy. Mushroom spaetzle, though daunting, seemed the perfect solution. We carefully measured each ingredient only to discover that sweet, light Oyster mushrooms disappeared in the rich dough. We pressed on, sautéing hearty, bold Criminis for a second batch. They were delicious and we were in love.

So, was it worth the painstaking pain and suffering? Should spaetzle be left to the chefs? The answer is “no.” Made with four ingredients, simmered and served, spaeetzle couldn’t be simpler. Guten appetit!

Mushroom Spaetzle

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 cups chopped Crimini mushrooms
• 1/4 cup Madeira wine
• 1 tbs chopped parsley
• 1.5 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup whole milk

Directions:

• Warm oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
• Add mushrooms and cook until softened and golden on edges. Add wine to pan and scrape up any brown bits. Cook until liquid has evaporated. Season to taste with salt and pepper
• Chop mushrooms and parsley together until minced.
• Bring a large pot of water to a simmer.
• Meanwhile, whisk together flour and salt. Add mushrooms and whisk to combine.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Add to dry ingredients and whisk until it forms into a smooth dough.
• Press dough through a colander, or spaetzle-maker, over simmering water. Cook for 2-3 minutes and drain.
• Serve with butter or over soup.

Asparagus Soup

Serves 6-8

Photography by Sam Armocido

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches asparagus, about 2 pounds
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbs chopped parsley, reserve stems
• 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 tbs butter
• 2 medium red potatoes, diced
• 2 leeks, white and light green parts thinly sliced
• 2 tbs butter
• Sherry vinegar

Directions:

• Snap tough ends from asparagus. Add ends to a 4 qt saucepan with stock, thyme, bay and parsley stems. Simmer for 20 minutes.
• Melt butter in a soup pot over medium-low heat. Simmer potatoes and leeks in butter. Add a little water as needed. Cook until potatoes are soft.
• Strain stock into soup pot and cook for five minutes. Cut remaining asparagus into 2” pieces and add to stock. Remove 10-12 tips after 3 minutes.
• When asparagus is just tender, pass soup through a food mill or processor. Stir through parsley.
• Season to taste with salt, pepper, butter and vinegar. Garnish with asparagus tips.

Mom smells.

Photography by Sam Armocido

I knew the smell long before I knew the recipe. Hitting me as I entered the kitchen, it was intoxicating and made my mouth water. It was the smell of sharp, acidic Worcestershire and red wine, the bite of red onion and clove after clove of garlic. Pungent rosemary and the dry, grassy smell of fresh thyme blended with a sweet hint of fresh orange juice.

The skirt steak would spend an afternoon on the counter soaking in the bright, earthy marinade, telegraphing hours ahead the meal that would follow. The minute I smell this combination of flavors, even before seeing it, I am in my Mother’s kitchen, safe and happy at home.

We all have Mom smells – as opposed to Moms who smell - those scents that bring us home. (I know you exactly what you were thinking, ’cause I’m twelve years old too.) Whether its lilac or peonies from the garden, tomato sauce simmering on the stove or steak marinating on the counter, these sense memories are – if you will excuse a moment of sincere sentimentality – like a hug you can access any time. And they are a testament to our mothers who gave us these gifts.

I love you Mom.

Marinated Skirt Steak

Serves 4. To feed more people, buy a bigger steak, or a second steak. Cook this steak to medium or medium-rare. It’s a bit chewy at rare. (And you weren’t even thinking about well, right?)

Photography by Sam Armocido

Ingredients:

• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups dry red wine
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1/4 cup Merlot or other acidic red wine vinegar
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 tbs fresh thyme, separated
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1-1.5 pound skirt steak
• 2 tbs cup brandy – it’s a steak, use V.S. Courvoisier.
• 2 tbs chilled butter

Directions:

• Make the marinade: combine red onion, garlic, Worcestershire, red wine, orange juice, vinegar, bay leaves, 2 tbs thyme and the pepper, in a bowl. Pour over steak in a freezer bag and marinate in the fridge for 4-8 hours.
• Bring the steak to room temperature for 30 minutes. Remove steak from marinade and pat dry.
• Grill: prepare a medium-high fire. Sear over direct heat for 3 minutes per side,  and finish the steak off to the side to medium or medium-rare.
• Stove top: Over med-high heat, warm 1 tbs vegetable oil in a heavy skillet until almost smoking. Sear both sides of steak, about 3 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium and cook steak to medium or medium-rare.
• Cover steak with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before carving across the grain.
• Meanwhile, strain marinade into a skillet, add brandy and bring to a boil. If you cooked the steak on the stove top, reduce the sauce in the same pan, scraping up any brown bits. Reduce liquid to 1/2 cup. Remove from heat and whisk in cold butter.
• Season to taste and serve over sliced steak.
  

  Photography by Sam Armocido

Why cook anything else?

Photography by Sam Armocido

I blame bacon. Amish bacon.

You see, until last week, I was living in a beautiful fantasy world where people came to my Eastern Market demos each week to taste new, farm-fresh, seasonal ingredients. We were learning new foods, new recipes and new techniques together. But it was all a lie.

One of my farmers, Dan, picked up four pounds of bacon during his weekly run into Lancaster County, PA. “Fry it up at the end of your demo,” he asked, so he and his staff could eat it for lunch between slices of bread with fresh baby arugula. I got more attention and more questions during 20 minutes of frying bacon then I had throughout three hours of strawberry soup, spinach salad and fiddlehead ferns. Most of them were, “Is that bacon?”

But, Mom and Dad didn’t raise a quitter. So sorry folks, you’re just going to have to suffer through asparagus soup with mushroom spaetzle this week. As my Dad used to tell me, “People in hell want ice water.” And, apparently, bacon.

Spinach With Spicy Bacon Vinaigrette

This is not the salad to use baby spinach for. The hot vinaigrette will wilt it right down into soup. Buy grown-up spinach with good substance to the leaves. Yum! No Cabernet Sauvignon jam in the fridge, bust out just about any jam with this salad from tart beach plum or cherry to acidic orange marmalade.

Photography by Sam Armocido

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 4 thick slices bacon, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1/2 red onion cut in thin slices
• 1/4 cup Cabernet Sauvignon or other tart jam
• 1 tsp grainy mustard
• 1/4 cup Sherry or Roasted Red Pepper Blackberry Vinegar*
• Ground Habañero chile or cayenne pepper
• 1 orange, sectioned
• 1 pound grown-up Spinach, de-ribbed

*You can find Roasted Red Pepper Blackberry Vinegar at Washington, DC’s Sapore Oil and Vinegar. Stop by or order online. I love it and easily go through a bottle a month.

Directions:

• Warm oil in a 10” skillet over medium-high heat. Brown bacon and remove with a slotted spoon, leaving behind rendered fat.
• Add diced onion, reduce heat to medium and sauté until softened, about 2 minutes.
• Add Cabernet Sauvignon jam and mustard and cook, stirring, until jam liquifies and liquid reduces by half.
• Add vinegar and whisk until vinaigrette comes together and thickens.
• Season vinaigrette to taste with salt, pepper and Habañero or other hot chile powder.
• Toss spinach, sliced onion and oranges with vinaigrette and serve. If you want this to look extra special for guests, dress the onions and orange sections in a separate bowl and plate on top of the dressed spinach.

 

Of record.

Photography by Sam Armocido

Five or six years ago, my parents’ newspaper changed, and not for the better. The wonderful, large pages got smaller, and the bylines all read AP. Now, the Associated Press is an important news source, and do a much better job at covering Washington politics and major events around the country then the small writing staff in Springfield, MA, but I miss garden writers gardening in the same weather and soil that I am and reporters intimately knowledgeable of local politics.

The local Gazette and Penny Saver, still employing staff to cover local politics, sports, business and schools, have become local publications of record. While DC’s local paper is a national paper of record, we are also blessed with smaller papers employing writers who are embedded in our city. They cover the issues that impact our neighborhoods and the people who make them special.

Last week, we had the opportunity to host a writer from DC’s Hill Rag at #testkitchen. She joined us as we refined a recipe I had presented at an American University health and wellness event the day before. Annette joined right in helping to taste recipes and suggest ingredients and, as always, many palates make a stronger dish. Look for Annette’s write up in the May issue of the Hill Rag. In the meantime, enjoy this salad, and many thanks to the students, faculty and staff at AU for tasting it last Wednesday afternoon.

Lemongrass Fennel Orange Salad

For dressing:

• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/3 cup Lemongrass or other light, sweet vinegar*
• 1 tbs honey
• 2/3 cup Avocado or other neutral flavored oil*

*This is another chance to shop online or in person at Sapore Oil and vinegar. A strong olive oil will overpower these ingredients, so use something neutral like avocado, grapeseed or vegetable oil. For a vinegar, use something light and sweet. Unseasoned rice wine vinegar is easily available. This is also a good opportunity to break out the gift bottle of Pear Chardonnay or other fruit-wine vinegar that’s aging in your pantry.

For salad:

• 1 head fennel, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries
• 2 heads butter lettuce, gently chopped in pieces*
• 1 orange, peeled and sectioned, sliced or chopped

*My big meathooks rough up easily bruised butter lettuce, so I chop mine gently.

Photography by Sam Armocido

Directions:

• Make dressing. Whisk together shallot, vinegar and honey with a pinch each of salt and pepper.
• Whisk in oil in a thin stream to form a creamy emulsion.
• Toss together fennel, orange and cherries. Lightly dress with 1/4 cup dressing.
• Lightly dress lettuce with 1/4 cup dressing.
• Plate lettuce, topped with fennel mixture.

The root of the problem.

Photography by Sam Armocido

A beetroot salad, in British television, seems to be shorthand for punishment or penance. However, faced with a spring   season where the calendar had gotten far out ahead of the weather, that’s precisely what we made.

Cold days had prevented the emergence of sweet asparagus or spring onions, so we sat in the test kitchen staring at winter storage celeriac, parsnips, carrots and beetroot. They seemed more suited to a fall roast tossed with thyme than a light spring salad.

Our first decision was to serve them raw, the second was a light poppyseed vinaigrette. Shaving them thin on the smallest side of our box grater eliminated thick , tough shreds  of fibrous root vegetables. With the grater already out, we grated onion rather than dairy to thicken our dressing.

Faced with several vinegars, Sam, part of our #testkitchen crew, selected a mildly acidic, slightly sweet Autumn Apple from Sapore. It was the perfect choice.  Winter never tasted so much like spring.

*Yes, this blog post title is a terrible pun. If one of you had brought me more coffee it could have been avoided.

Sam’s Root Vegetable Slaw

The beets turn the rest of the vegetables a beautiful bright ruby color.

Photography by Sam Armocido

For slaw:

• 1 cup grated beet
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup grated celery root
• 1 cup grated parsnip

For dressing:

• 3 tbs grated onion
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• 1-2 tbs honey
• 1/4 cup Autumn Apple* or Sherry vinegar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

*Autumn Apple vinegar is available in DC or online at Sapore. Commonly available cider vinegars tend to be bitter and acidic. Sherry vinegar would be a closer match to the autumn apple.

Directions:

•  Toss together grated vegetables in a large bowl.
• Make dressing: whisk together onion, dry mustard, paprika, poppy seeds, honey and Autumn Apple vinegar with a pinch of salt and pepper.
• Whisk oil into dressing in a thin stream to form a creamy emulsion.
• Dress slaw and let rest 10-20 minutes before serving to let flavors develop. These vegetables are bold and heavy, so add a little more dressing than you would to fresh greens.
• Serve topped with grated lemon zest.

Trust.

Photography by Sam Armocido

During my Eastern Market cooking demos, I am often asked, “Do you only cook with organic ingredients?”

The answer? “No.” I prefer organic, but I put my full faith in farmers. The reality is that raising and selecting healthy food is more complicated than a single factor, like organic. There are highly toxic organic pest and disease controls. And who has certified the food to be organic, the USDA? Those standards are too broad to be meaningful, and don’t cover important health and flavor factors like soil nutrition, cultivar selection and harvest and storage practices.

Develop relationships with farmers and their food. Ask them where it was grown*. If it tastes amazing when you bring it home, go back to them and buy more. If you’ve never been to the market before, watch the locals.

At the end of the day, I trust that they are experts in growing healthy and flavorful food. Like electricity or aspirin, some chemical pest and disease controls are okay, used properly. That’s part of the expertise of farming.

My farmers sell me and my family the same food they serve their own families. Their livelihood depends on being able to look me in the eye, confident I will return healthy and happy the following week.

So, when Marvin at Long Meadow Farms told me his Gold Rush apples had stored well over the winter, that they were nice and crisp, despite wrinkled skins, I trusted him. And they were delicious.

*Sometimes I hear people complain that farmers sell produce they didn’t grow themselves. Farmers are often part of local agricultural communities. They have friends and neighbors who grow great food too. Growing everything yourself isn’t a pre-requisite for being a great purveyor of delicious, healthy farm-fresh produce.

Golden Apple Oyster Mushroom Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs butter
• 2 cups chopped Oyster mushrooms
• 2 tbs brandy
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/3 cup Blackberry Balsamic or balsamic vinegar*
• 1/4 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp honey
• 2/3 cup Koroneiko or another high- quality, light, grassy olive oil*
• 1 pound baby spinach
• 2 Gold Rush or other golden apples cut in matchsticks

*Blackberry Balsamic vinegar and Koroneiko olive oil are available in Washington, DC or online from Sapore Oil and Vinegar.

Directions:

• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and sauté until softened.
• Deglaze pan with brandy. Cook until evaporated and season to taste with salt and pepper.
• While mushrooms cook, whisk together shallot, Blackberry Balsamic vinegar, mustard and honey with a pinch each of salt and pepper.
• When mushrooms finish, whisk oil into vinegar mixture. Taste with spinach and adjust seasoning.
• Lightly dress spinach and top with mushrooms and apples.

Stock stock.

I’m a strong advocate for homemade stock. Store-bought not only lacks the same depth of flavor, but even low-sodium versions end up too salty when reduced. The answer? Make your own.

Vegetable stock is a simple mix of carrot, onion and celery, thyme sprigs and parsley stems, bay leaves and peppercorns. Simmered for 30-40 minutes, it’s flavorful and ready just as you finish the rest of your vegetable prep, easily completed for a Tuesday night meal.

“But,” you say, “I want to make chicken stock.” Simple, just add chicken parts. If you are lucky enough to live near a market that breaks down whole chickens in to breasts, wings, legs and thighs, then you can buy backs and necks for about $1 per pound. Simmer for three hours and you have beautiful, rich stock.

“But wait,” you say,” I never have three hours to cook anything.”

I’m going to make an assumption, and forgive me if I offend, but sometime in the next, let’s say 45 days, you are going to wake up on Saturday morning just a little hungover. Your big plan for the day is to sit on the couch with a giant cup of coffee and watch Tyra Banks chew out models for 8 hours straight (or you’re just checking out the models). Either way, there is no reason that a big pot of stock can’t be simmering on the back of the stove.

We’ve posted recipes for chicken stock and vegetable stock before. Here are two stocks that we use for Indian or Asian sauces, soups and braises.

Asian Stock

Perfect for soups, stir-frys and sauces.

Ingredients:

• 1 carrot, roughly chopped
• 3 ribs celery, roughly chopped
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 leek, roughly chopped
• 1 sheet kombu seaweed
• 1-2 cups Shitake mushroom stems
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs rice wine vinegar

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in a stock pot and cover with 8-10 cups water.
• Simmer for 40 minutes and strain solids reserving stock.

Indian Stock

This special stock adds additional richness to Indian-flavored dishes. You could also use it for soup with the addition of lightly browned pieces of carrot, potato and chicken.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs ghee or butter
• 1 carrot, roughly chopped
• 3 ribs celery, roughly chopped
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 leek, roughly chopped
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 cardamom pods
• 2 whole cloves

Directions:

• Melt ghee in a stock pot over medium-high heat. Add carrot, celery, onion and leek and cook until browned.
• Add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Cook for 1 minute more and fill with 8 cups water.
• Simmer for 40 minutes and strain solids reserving stock.