Red Cabbage Slaw with Golden Raisins and Mint

Whew! It's been a while, hasn't? I could make excuses -- work, Passover, a drab, terrible winter that dragged on and threatened never to leave -- but I'd rather just get down to business. I hope you've been well these last few weeks, cooking all sorts of delicious things and enjoying the change of seasons. We've been busy, and also under the weather, which hasn't resulted in much cooking. But I'm back, and I've got a slaw to share today. I want to share it, so you can go and make it. There's no time to waste.

In my recipe browsing, I saw a recipe for red cabbage salad and thought, now whatever happened to red cabbage? I haven't touched it since sometime last year. It seems I'd forgotten about it. And while red cabbage brings braised, creamy joy in winter, it makes a fine base for a spring salad, too.

As you know, I dislike mayo and really don't use it, ever. Yogurt offered itself as a perfect substitute to make this slaw creamy. The dressing is tangy-tangy, from yogurt and lemon. It's got a healthy amount of black pepper, because I like a bright salad to have some lingering bite. And it's got plump golden raisins (which I soaked with some red onions in rice vinegar, to soften and season them), as well as fresh mint. So there's not much to it, but I tell you, when we served it for Saturday brunch, it got gobbled right up. The little leftovers were a late-afternoon snack, and by Sunday, I was off to the races again, fixing a fresh batch.

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I'm so, so happy it's spring. We've waited for this forever. The coming weeks will contain many un-frigid trips to the farmers' market, the glorious return of my beloved asparagus, cultishly obsessed hordes snatching up ramps and morels and fiddleheads, and yes, plenty more cooking. See you there.

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Red Cabbage Slaw with Golden Raisins and Mint serves 4-6

Half a red onion, sliced into thin quarter-moons 1 cup golden raisins 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar Half a medium-large head of red cabbage, shredded 1 cup fresh mint leaves, coarsely chopped

For the dressing: 1/4 cup yogurt 1 tablespoon mustard (I like either grainy or smooth dijon) 2 teaspoons honey 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil juice of 1 lemon 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a small mixing bowl, combine onions, raisins, and rice vinegar. Stir to coat, and set aside 30 minutes. (This step is nice, but not essential; if pressed for time, cut the vinegar in half, toss the ingredients together, and let sit while you prepare the rest of the salad.)

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing: combine all ingredients in a jar with a tight lid. Shake for 10 seconds until fully emulsified.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cabbage, onions and raisins (with whatever little vinegar remains in the bowl), and 3/4 cup of the mint. Pour half the dressing and toss the salad. Taste, and add more dressing as needed.

Sprinkle remaining mint on top of salad and serve. Salad can be made and mixed up to 1 hour in advance.

Nine-Minute Mocha Brownies

I made this recipe on an absolute whim, because my in-laws were coming over for dinner and we had no dessert in the house. My father-in-law, whom I am on record as saying I adore, has very simple tastes in food. He wouldn't have enjoyed the labneh tart I had my eye on. So instead, I figured I'd make straightforward, no-frills brownies. I got home, dropped my shopping bags, pulled up the blog on my iphone, and started at my standard recipe, taking as many shortcuts as possible. One bowl, a fork to mix the batter, a sprayed pan. To make sure the brownies weren't completely flavorless, I added a teaspoon of ground coffee. Not espresso powder; just regular ground coffee.

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I anticipated a passable version of a loved dessert. Instead -- and maybe none of you will find this surprising -- I made a batch of hassle-free brownies that were actually delicious. As in, my stepmother-in-law asked me for the recipe. I hadn't even written it down, because it seemed like nothing. But I sent her the basic instructions for what I'd done, and then, a couple weeks later, I followed the instructions myself.

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Surprisingly, the grounds melt into the brownies. You don't get grit when you bite in - just a slight undercurrent of coffee that doesn't pronounce itself, but instead intensifies the chocolate flavor.

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Many occasions call for a quick dessert. Those same occasions call for as few dirty dishes as possible. With that in mind, here are one-bowl, nine-minute brownies. You can make the batter while your oven preheats. Wash the bowl while the brownies bake. I got out the chocolate at 6:05; by 6:14, the brownies were in the oven. By 6:25, the house smelled like chocolate. Victory on multiple fronts.

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Nine-Minute Mocha Brownies

1/2 cup butter or canola oil 4 oz. chocolate chips, plus additional 1 oz. for sprinkling (optional) 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1/4 cup dutch-process cocoa powder 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon ground coffee 2/3 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon flaky salt, plus more for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and set a rack in the middle of the oven.

In a double boiler or a large, microwave-safe bowl, melt butter/oil and chocolate chips together, stirring occasionally, until completely melted. This takes less than 2 minutes in a microwave, and about 5 minutes in a double boiler.

Remove bowl from the heat and stir mixture until completely smooth. Add sugar; whisk to combine. By now, the mixture should be warm but not hot. Add eggs; whisk thoroughly to combine.

Add cocoa, vanilla, and coffee. Stir to fully combine -- slowly at first, so cocoa doesn't fly out of the bowl. Add flour and salt. Stir just until fully combined. If using additional chips, add to batter and stir just to distribute.

Line an 8-inch pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Grease or spray with non-stick spray. Pour batter into prepared pan, and use your fork or (gasp! another utensil!) a spatula to smooth the top. Sprinkle with a bit of flaky salt.

Bake for 25 minutes for fudgier brownies, 30 minutes for firmer brownies, or 27 minutes for something in between. Remove from the oven, and let cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes, preferably 30, before carefully removing the brownies onto a workspace and slicing.

Yellow Lentils with Tamarind (Khatti Dal)

Long overdue, this is the latest in my Indian for Dinner series, where I attempt to spend less money on takeout from Masala Art.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that this weather tries all patients. Some days taunt with 70 degrees and sun, but looking outside, it seems to be snowing, yet again, and here we are, facing another day of lost productivity and frigid air.

The silver lining is that this unpredictable and frequently unpleasant weather has given me loads of time to work on my dal-making skills. I love lentils in all forms, but dal reins supreme.

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"Dal" is just the Indian term for legumes. The category of dishes called dal includes crunchy snacks, soupy stews, smooth purees, and mixtures with rice not unlike Mujaddara. My favorite is dal makhani, the smoky, tomatoey preparation of dark lentils. But a couple of recent articles about dal have convinced me to expand my horizons beyond the familiar. That's how I came upon Khatti Dal, a chunky stew of yellow lentils with heaps of curry leaves and plenty of tart tamarind. I've been eating it on and off for the past week, retroactively missing it on behalf of all those times I could have made it but didn't know to.

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The key to flavor in this and many other Indian dals is a tarka (or tadka), which is basically a spiced butter. To make the tarka, you heat ghee (or a combination of oil and butter), and add mustard seeds, curry leaves, and garlic. You let everything get super hot and fragrant. When the mustard seeds stop popping and the butter smells like something you need to eat immediately, you pour the whole mess into the pot of cooked, mushed lentils. Then, because reasonably speaking you can't wait any longer, you ladle a big bowl of the dal into a bowl that fits well in your hands. You wrap yourself in your coziest blanket. And then, you eat up.

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And when you're nice and full and warm, maybe you'll put in a tiny request with the weatherman to just call it quits on the snow already. What do you think?

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More Indian for Dinner:

• Potato and Eggplant Curry
• Chana Dal with Golden Raisins, a real winner
• Mushroom Pea Curry, a weeknight staple around here
• If you feel like something lighter, Gujarati Mango Soup is great
• Finally, Masala Dosas, my crowning achievement

Yellow Lentils with Tamarind (Khatti Dal)Adapted from Mark Bittman and Julie Sahni, via the New York Times

This makes enough to feed about 4, but I'd say while you're at it, make a double batch. It keeps very well in the fridge, and unlike those stray pieces of Saturday's cake, it's the sort of thing you'll want to have lying around.

Also, I understand why Bittman makes the curry leaves optional. Where I live, they're only available in Indian grocery stores, and the dal will taste great without them. That said, if you have any inclination to schlep, I'd pick some up. They're part of what makes this dal taste Indian.

1 cup yellow lentils (toor dal) 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric 1/2 a green (I like serrano) chili, seeded and minced 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 1/4 cup tamarind concentrate or 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 2 tablespoons ghee, or neutral oil like safflower 1 teaspoon mustard seeds 1 teaspoon minced garlic 12 curry leaves (optional) 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Cook the dal: Put the dal, tumeric, chili, salt, and 4 cups of water into a pot. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. When lentils come to a boil, uncover the pot, and cook at a rolling, bubbling boil for 25-35 minutes, until lentils are cooked through.

Add the tamarind concentrate and 1/2 cup additional water, and let bubble for another couple minutes. Turn off the heat. Then use a whisk to stir and break up the lentils; you're aiming for a smoothish puree that retains a bit of texture. Whisk and mash until the lentils achieve a consistency that you'll enjoy.

Make the tarka: Heat the ghee or oil in a small saucepan over high heat. When the ghee/oil is hot, add the mustard seeds and cover the pan; let the seeds pop and sizzle. When the popping begins to subside, add the garlic and cook until lightly browned, about 15 seconds. Add the curry leaves, if you’re using them. Cover the pan (to prevent spattering) and cook for about 10 seconds, allowing flavors to meld.

Pour the tarka into the dal, and swirl around to just barely incorporate. Taste, and add more salt if needed. Serve immediately with chopped cilantro.

Dal keeps in the fridge for at least a week. It will thicken when chilled, so reheat with a bit of water to loosen it up.

No-Frills Toasted Walnut Cake

According to my big stack o' food magazines, Thankgiving is the day for pie, and the December holidays are prime-time for cookies. Since there's no formal season for cakes, we'll eat them all year and call it even. Fair?

Early spring brunches bring rhubarb coffee cake; summer calls for double-decker strawberry cake; and I've got a slew of French-style no-biggie cakes, peasant and pound, to finish off just about any meal.

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But when winter can't seem to let go, I want something toasty and comforting, something simple and relatively unadorned. The days are so short that I can't really motivate to make something sky-high and celebratory - plus, after dinners of thick lentil soup and rib-sticking stews, I want a desert to finish things off without overdoing it.

When I first came upon this walnut cake, it was quite the opposite of "not overdoing it:" a towering thing, with piles (I'm serious, piles) of jam, and a big, fluffy cloud of tangy whipped cream gilding the lily. The thing was tasty, but it was so done up, it had almost nothing to do with the cake at the center of it all.

In my world, the solution to all not-quite perfect recipes is to add chocolate. And so, armed with my best Valrhona, I baked the original cake, slit it in half, painted a thin layer of jam in the middle, smacked the two halves backed together, and cloaked them in chocolate ganache.

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In my world, this sounds like the cake of dreams -- only it wasn't. It was dense, cluttered, and, quite truthfully, unpleasant to eat. Womp.

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And so it was that I attempted time #3. I ditched the fancy springform  and pulled out my most trustworthy, least fussy square baking pan. I ditched the Valrhona (don't tell on me) and I even ditched the jam. Back to basics: It felt a bit like wiping off the makeup from a stage performer.

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My instincts were right: the cake was drop-dead gorgeous au natural. Toasty and warm, nutty but also plenty buttery, absolutely perfect with a cup of tea. That's how we ate it, morning and afternoon, until it was all gone. Did I mention it comes together in one bowl (a food processor bowl, but still) in no time at all? Just as it should be.

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Where I live, the snow is still coming down. That means there'll be another pan full of this cake, and lots of hot water for tea. It's the little things that make me feel lucky these days. This is one of them.

No-Frills Toasted Walnut CakePared down and adapted from an old Gourmet recipe

Notes: You can make this cake in either a round pan or a square one. Make sure it's an 8-inch pan, though: a 9-inch pan will give you a thin cake that's a bit less satisfying to eat.

If you must fuss, mix 1/2 cup of whipped cream with 2 tablespoons sour cream and a tablespoon of sugar. The tangy whipped cream, in small doses, compliments the cake without overpowering it.

1 1/4 cups walnuts (4 1/2 oz) 2/3 cup sugar 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces 4 large eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350° with a rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and flour an 8-inch square or round cake pan.

Spread walnuts in a single layer on an ungreased, unlined sheet pan. Toast for 10-15 minutes, until nuts are tinted slightly and smell very fragrant. Watch carefully: you want to take the nuts into golden-brown territory but if you burn them, you'll need to start over.

Pulse walnuts and sugar in a food processor until finely chopped. Add butter and process until combined, then add eggs and vanilla and process until combined. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and pulse just until incorporated. Spread batter in cake pan.

Bake until cake is just firm to the touch and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in pan, then turn out onto a rack and cool completely.

Cake keeps, well-wrapped, at room temperature for up to 4 days.