Carrot-Zucchini Bread

This is the kind of recipe I live for. It reminds me of those really good bran muffins you find at local coffee shops, with the nutty, wholesome flavors and tops that crust around the edges and never are perfectly round. It's got a more well-defined crumb than carrot kugel, but it's not as sweet as carrot cake, and grated zucchini lends it sophistication. Not that this is a snobby loaf -- just the opposite. It takes about 5 minutes to mix together, and the 80-minute baking time lets you actually get something else done while you wait. I brought it to our pre-Yom Kippur meal on Sunday afternoon, but it'd make a phenomenal breakfast or afternoon snack.

special thanks to reader Catherine for pointing out that I failed to mention the eggs in the ingredient list. Sorry everyone! Three eggs.

Carrot Bread adapted loosely from Bon Appetit

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. baking powder 1/2 cup brown sugar 3/4 cup cane sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup applesauce 3 eggs 2 cups grated carrot 1 cup grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Sift first 6 ingredients into medium bowl. Beat sugar, oil, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla to blend in large bowl. Mix in zucchini and carrot. Add dry ingredients and stir well.

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool bread in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around bread to loosen. Turn out onto rack and cool completely. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature.)

Pickles!

Folks, I'm finding it hard to contain my excitement about NDP's second-ever guest post. Guess who wrote it? MY MOM!

That's right: in the post below, NDP Ima tells you all about easy-to-make, hard-to-stop-eating pickles. You'll see from her intro paragraph where I got my taste buds. These pickles are salty, tangy, and really bright from the addition of fresh dill. So read up -- then go make some pickles!

I am really not a salt lover. I don’t use much when I cook, and in restaurants great food that’s well-seasoned is often too salty for my taste. I don’t care for chips or french fries, and I prefer nuts spicy or au naturel. Nonetheless, I do love briny salty things – olives, capers, and sour pickles. So when I was leaving town for a long weekend and had a lot of small cucumbers that wouldn’t last until my return, I decided to try my hand at some pickles. I wanted spicy, garlicky, dill pickles that would make themselves in the refrigerator while I was gone. I remembered the ones a family friend used to make with cucumbers from his garden and my dad’s. He didn’t use shortcuts, though – he put his pickles in huge crocks of brine and alum in the basement for weeks.

I cut the cukes into thick, chunky slices and placed them in a quart jar with pickling spices and garlic. I didn’t have any fresh dill, so my first batch just had dill seed from the pickling spice, but it still tasted authentic. I prepared the vinegar brine and filled the jar, leaving it upside down on the counter overnight. The next morning, before rushing to the airport, I put the jar in the frig. When I returned four nights later, the pickles were done to perfection!

The recipe below is really more of a method – you can vary the ingredients, and the size of your jars and your cucumbers will determine your quantities. As long as you maintain the proportions of ¾ cup of vinegar and ¼ cup of kosher salt per quart of boiled and cooled water, your brine will work and you’ll have great pickles in a matter of days. Try this with green tomatoes if you have them in your garden, with blanched cauliflower, small sweet peppers, or blanched pearl onions. Add onions or hot peppers for extra kick. I used just one hot pepper to enhance the spicy flavor. I made a second batch with fresh dill sprigs, blanched carrots, and a few kalamata olives in addition to the cukes. They’re not quite finished as a I write this, but they look so good I can’t wait to sample them!

If you like sweet pickles instead of sour, substitute sweet pickling spices, cloves, and allspice, use cider vinegar instead of white vinegar, and add sugar (1/2 cup to ¾ cup) to your brine.

Your pickles will keep about four months in the refrigerator. If you seal your finished pickle jars with a canning process, they will keep on the shelf indefinitely. Open jars should be refrigerated.

Refrigerator Dill Pickles

1 dozen or more pickling cucumbers or small English cucumbers

4-8 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half

2-3 tablespoons pickling spice (the brand I used had dill seed, mustard seed, celery seed, coriander, ginger, black peppercorns, bay leaves, and red pepper)

A few sprigs of fresh dill

1 small dried hot pepper, or a fresh hot pepper cut in half and seeds removed (optional)

1 quart water boiled and cooled

¾ cup white vinegar

¼ cup salt (kosher salt works well, but sea salt or table salt are also fine)

A pinch of sugar (if desired – I omitted)

Use one or two quart jars or a gallon jar, depending on how your cucumbers fit into the jar. The amounts of spices are for one gallon jar or two quart jars, but you can modify this according to taste and the quantity of pickles you want to make. Place one tablespoon of pickling spice, half the dill and half the garlic in the bottom of the jar. If using slender or English cucumbers, you can cut them into thick chunks/slices and they will be ready in less time. If you use larger cucumbers, you can pickle them whole and cut them into lengthwise quarters when you serve them. Pack the cucumbers tightly into the jar(s). When you have added most of the cucumbers, add half of the remaining spices and garlic. When all the pickles are in the jar, add the last of the spices. If using the pepper, place it in the middle layer.

When the jar is full of cucumbers and spices, stir the salt into the vinegar. Pour the mixture into the boiled water and stir to finish dissolving the salt. The water does not have to reach room temperature, since it will continue to cool as you make the brine. Fill the jar to the brim with brine. Close the jar tightly with its lid. Invert the jar into a bowl and leave it outside the refrigerator. After one day, turn the jar upright. Check to see how pickled the cucumbers are. If you used the smaller, slender cukes, it is probably time to refrigerate the pickles. They will be completely done in another three or four days. If you used larger cucumbers, leave them out for another day or two. Check for doneness according to your preferences – if you prefer half-sour, they should be edible after just one-two days.

When the pickles are as done as you like them, you can pour out half the brine, leaving as many spices in the jar as possible. Replace the removed liquid with a mixture of plain boiled water and vinegar. For each cup of boiled, cooled water, add two tablespoons of white vinegar. Fill the jar to the top again and refrigerate. You can also remove the hot pepper if you don’t want the pickles to get spicier over time.

Salmon with Herb Butter and Various Roasted Vegetables

D and I had people over Friday night. As of Thursday, I not only had done no cooking, I hadn't even figured out my menu. Now, I'm not one to plan these things all too far in advance -- but 24 hours is not much time to plan, shop, and make food for a dinner party. Not impossible, but not ideal.

When I'm cutting it close to the wire, I tend to keep it as simple as possible. I picked up a bunch of salmon fillets and all the good-looking vegetables that TJs had to offer. Without much time to contemplate interesting recipes and a lingering fear of making the whole house smell like fish, I wrapped each piece of salmon individually in parchment paper and tucked a bit of herb butter inside. The herb butter infuses the salmon while it steams, and the end result is both healthy, flavorful, and much less potent. No fish smell whatsoever in the house as of Saturday morning.

I made a vinaigrette with the herb butter, some capers, and lots of lemon and lime, and served it alongside the fish. In retrospect, I should have just made the vinaigrette first and skipped the herb butter step entirely; that's the recipe I provide below. It's a simple presentation that almost always pleases.

In terms of vegetables, I had a big variety -- eggplant, cauliflower, baby potatoes, grape tomatoes, zucchini -- but not enough of any one to feed 7 people. The solution: I roasted each separately, and then served them together on a big platter and let guests take some of each. Another success: the mix of vegetables gives the plate nice color contrast, and because I roasted them individually, I flavored each vegetable slightly differently to give the final dish even more appeal. Cauliflower got east-Asian treatment with galangal, tumeric, and a pinch of saffron; tomatoes got the sweet tangy complexity of red onions; potatoes were a nod to the season with the last of my summer savory; and zucchini were simple as can be, with just olive oil and salt. Given the slightly frantic menu planning and shopping for this dinner, I certainly can't complain about the end-product.

The only thing to end a meal like this is birthday cake - red velvet cake, in particular, to celebrate the lovely Rebecca's birthday. But that's another post for another time.

Salmon with Herb Butter and Various Roasted Vegetables Serves 8

8 fillets salmon, cleaned and patted dry 3 tbsp. butter, melted 2 tbsp. chopped herbs; I used a mix of mint, parsley, and chives, but any herbs will do 2 tbsp. capers, chopped 1/4 cup lemon or lime juice (I used half and half and needed 2 limes and 1 lemon) salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add citrus juice and salt to blender. With motor running, pour in butter in steady stream. Mix until fully blended. Transfer to bowl.

Add herbs and capers; mix to combine. Set aside.

Meanwhile, rinse fillets and pat dry. Rip 8 pieces parchment paper; each should be at least 8x11. Set one salmon fillet on the center of each paper at a diagonal, and drizzle 3 tbsp. vinaigrette over each one. Rub into flesh to help absorb. After washing your hands, wrap paper around each fillet and twist ends as you would a piece of candy in a wrapper, until snug.

Put individually-wrapped fillets on baking sheet in single layer. Bake at 350 for between 15-25 minutes, or until cooked through. My oven runs a bit cold, and my almost 2-inch thick fillets took about 22 minutes. Definitely start checking them at 15 minutes; you're looking for orange flesh that's not translucent but also not tough to the touch. You can always open the one you plan to serve yourself and check for doneness.

Various Roasted Vegetables serves 8

2 heads cauliflower, de-stemmed and trimmed into florets 4 zucchini, sliced on sharp bias 2 lbs. grape tomatoes 1 red onion 2 lbs. baby potatoes

Here's the method: put vegetables in a clear plastic bag with plenty of olive oil, salt, pepper, and whatever spices you're using. Shake, mush, and toss to get those spices and seasonings spread evenly over the vegetables. Put on a roasting pan in a single layer and roast in a 325-degree oven until done. Details below:

Cauliflower: I used 1 tsp. galangal (a mild, floral, fruity relative of ginger), 2 tsp. tumeric (for color), a pinch of saffron threads, salt, and pepper. Baking time was about 15 minutes, maybe 17.

Tomatoes: I sliced a red onion into 1/2-inch rings and scattered them among the tomatoes. Come to think of it, I also used a sliced garlic clove. Other than that, just salt and pepper. I tossed them once at minute 15 and left them in there for about 30 minutes, at which point the onions had basically melted into deliciousness and the tomatoes were about ready to burst. Perfect.

Zucchini: real simple -- slice on bias, toss with salt, pepper, olive oil, bake 20 minutes turning once halfway through.

Potatoes: I halved them but you don't need to. I coated them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and summer savory (two sprigs was plenty). I roasted them for about an hour. I like'em tres crunchy.

Granola with Tahini

Ahh lovely readers, I've missed you! I've been posting sporadically at best for the past month, because work has been absolutely insane and I haven't had time to even enter the kitchen, let alone write about it. That last post on zucchini soup was my lame attempt to give you reading material while I was at work, so as not to abandon you completely -- but I unwittingly passed along a post from last year, just before my Alaska cruise, and let you all think I was headed on a fabulous vacation. Not so! I spent Labor Day.....well, laboring. At the office. Until very late. But now all that should be behind me because we signed off on our research yesterday, and all that's left to do is write the accompanying speech. I'm hoping today is the beginning of my re-entry into my favorite room of the apartment. Cross your fingers for me, will you?

Busy times at the office need to end with something restorative. Sometimes it's a big bowl of pho, with its etherial broth and slurp-tastic noodles. Other times it's a piece of good toast with some homemade jam. This morning, the first in a month that I haven't had to start a 15-hour day at 8:30 am, I made my own granola.

I once was in the habit of making granola every week. It's a good thing to have around for breakfast in the morning, and it pairs great with that super-tart yogurt in the fridge. But lately there's been no time for such simple pleasures, and breakfast has consisted mostly of whatever I grabbed the night before at Trader Joe's. Needless to say, I was more than ready to put my own labor hours back into the food I eat.

My usual granola has almond butter, which I find creates clumps better than water or oil and whose flavor doubles down on the granola's nutty flavor. This morning, though, I was out of almond butter, so I went with tahini (sesame butter), which has a similar texture, instead. To balance the flavor of tahini, which can be overwhelming if not used sparingly, I added a splash of walnut oil, as well as a bit of chopped crystallized ginger, which paired well with the sesame flavor and gave a little punch. A generous pinch of cinnamon and a whisper of cloves brought the granola squarely into fall's territory, which I suppose is appropriate, given that the weather is dreary and it's dark when I wake up these days.

I was still concerned that the tahini might overwhelm, but it totally doesn't: because the granola cooks until golden, the other flavors in there -- almonds, oats, ginger, cherries, raisins -- get a chance to toast and intensify, bringing the sesame flavor into balance. I LOVE this batch and plan on making another one, some other not-super-early morning.

Hope you all had great weekends, and I look forward to seeing you around here more regularly!

Granola with Tahini

2 1/2 cups oats 1/3 cup maple syrup 1/4 cup tahini 1 Tbsp walnut oil, optional 2/3 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds), either salted or unsalted, depending on preference 2/3 cup sliced almonds 2/3 cup chopped pecans 2/3 cup raisins, cranberries, or other dried berry (I like half raisins, half cherries) 2 Tbsp chopped crystallized ginger 1/2 tsp salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon cloves

Preheat oven to 325.

In a small bowl, mix syrup, tahini, oil if using, salt, and cinnamon until incorporated. In a large bowl, mix all remaining ingredients until well-distributed. Drizzle the syrup-tahini mixture overtop, stirring with a fork until all dry bits are at least slightly wet and clumps have started to form.

Spread granola on a large rimmed baking sheet in a thin layer and bake at 325 for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven, stir with a fork to move pieces from edge to center and from top to bottom. Make sure pieces that have started to brown are in the center and well-surrounded. Return to oven and bake 10-12 more minutes, until golden brown throughout. Granola will not be crunchy when it leaves the oven; don't worry -- it'll crisp up as it cools. Once cool, transfer to air-tight container; granola will keep this way for up to 1 month.