Buckwheat Kumquat Muffins or Loaf

Every so often, I take a trip to New York for no reason whatsoever. Without a wedding or baby naming or conference to attend, I'm free to roam the streets of my former home off the clock, and with no particular destination in mind. I wake up early, lace up the sneaks, and head downtown in search of the cravable. I've got Sam Sifton's app loaded on my iPhone, a couple Chowhound threads open in safari, and an appetite. On days like these, I've discovered Joe the Art of Coffee, Doughnut Plant, Thelewala, Ippudo, and more.

It happens less and less, as schedules have grown busier and there's nary a day with nothing to do. But the last time it did, which was over a year ago, I ate my way through the Bowery. Only this time, I was so single-minded about a particular destination that I basically skipped the exploring and made a B-line for Peels, the beautiful bakery where Shuna Fish Lydon works her magic. And I mean magic.

I've been following Shuna's blog, Eggbeater, for a long time. Many of her recipes are beloved in my kitchen - especially her leeks (aren't they beautiful?). She's doing amazing work at Peels; if you haven't been, go. And when you do go, get the house muffin: a combination of buckwheat, lemon marmalade, and rosemary, it's the inspiration for the recipe I'm sharing with you today, and it's unforgettable.

I'll come at you honestly, with a bit of a confession: I couldn't get either the loaf or the muffins to be as weightless and fluffy as Shuna's house muffins are. I really don't know how she does it. And people, I've tried to find out, I have. I tweeted with her about it a while back. She suggested I write Bon Appetit and ask them to get the recipe, which I did to no avail. Still, it isn't all bad news today. Left to my own devices, I poked around online and experimented quite a bit, and I think I've found a buckwheat cake recipe that's pretty delicious in its own rite. The template comes from the lovely Glutton For Life, whom I encountered via (yet again...) Food52. Her name is Laura Chavez Silverman, and among her recipes are many, many winners. She tried to recreate Shuna's Peels muffins, and her recipe looked promising, so I used it as a template for my own experiments.

Two choices when making this recipe. Muffins: breakfast, party food. Or, a loaf: great in the lunch bag, sliced for tea, whatever. Cooking times are different, but that's it. Perhaps the best thing about the final product? It's blue. Legit blue. Good buckwheat is tinted a beautiful shade of blue, which I definitely thought would fade as the stuff bakes. But nope. This just shows there is such a thing as (non-blueberry) blue food after all.

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To contrast with the blue, I chose orange. Specifically, I employed kumquats in two forms: a quick marmalade, and sliced raw. You get the amazing aromatic kumquat essence from the marmalade, and the tang and freshness from the raw slices. I think it's a winner - but hopefully, you'll make it and let me know what you think.

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Buckwheat Kumquat Muffins or LoafAdapted from Glutton for Life and Garrett McCord, via Epicurious

For the quick kumquat marmalade: 1/3 cup sliced kumquats 1/4 cup water 3 tablespoons sugar

For the cake: 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 3/4 cup buckwheat flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/4 cup thinly sliced kumquats 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons greek yogurt 1 egg Kumquat marmalade (recipe above) 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 tablespoons butter

First, make the marmalade: place kumquats, water, and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the liquid has reduced and thickened (it will thicken more as it cools). Set aside.

Next, brown the butter: In another small saucepan (or the same one, but rinsed), melt butter over medium heat. It will foam, then the foam will subside. Then you'll start to smell the nutty notes. Pay close attention - nothing burns faster than butter browning unattended. As soon as the milk solids (the little bits in the bottom of the pan) are deep brown and the butter is toasty colored, remove from the heat. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease or line with parchment paper either a loaf pan or a muffin tin.

Now, make the cake or muffins: In a medium bowl, combine flour, buckwheat, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and sliced kumquats. In a separate bowl, combine yogurt, egg, all but 1 tablespoon of the marmalade, and the vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then add the butter and fold into the cake batter.

Scoop the batter into the greased or lined pan or tins. Use a brush to brush the top of the loaf or muffins with the remaining marmalade. Bake loaf for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

The cake/muffins are best the day they're made, preferably warm. Still, muffins or cake slices are also quite good toasted, and they'll keep about a week at room temp. If you're worried about them, just stick them in the fridge.

Adobo Black Bean Soup

Counter to what you may believe about this quasi-southern city, DC has some bitter winter weather up its sleeve. This is shaping up to be the first really cold week here in Washington, and like clockwork, I've got swollen glands, a stuffy nose, and a feeling I still haven't seen the worst of this bug. Thankfully, I also have my slow cooker on the counter, a big jar of black beans, my trusty slow-cooker, and a hankering for something thick, hot, and comforting. Black bean soup is on the menu.

Apparently, I'm on a southwestern kick. Last week, we made Texas chili so good, I went to twitter asking why none of you had told me about it earlier. This week, we're recovering from the beef-fest with a fully vegetarian black bean soup that's no less flavorful, enlisting chipotle chilies, adobo sauce, cocoa, and molasses. It's easy to make - very easy - and quite delicious.

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Ok, but let's be honest. What really puts this soup over the top is the chipotles in adobo sauce, which in my case was homemade by my friend Cathy, aka Mrs. Wheelbarrow. She smoked her own chipotles; she made her own adobo sauce; and to a very lucky few, she bequeathed a jar of the results. I tell you, the stuff is delicious. Fancy homemade version aside, the canned ones are delicious, too. They're what make this soup sing.

Soups in the slow-cooker: the epitome of simple. But I'll admit it here - our slow-cooker lives in a cabinet, woefully underutilized. I put it to work on this soup after hearing that my friends Phoebe and Cara, over at Big Girls, Small Kitchen, were hosting Slow-Cooker Week on their blog. Click over, and you'll see that they've got recipes for everything from slow-cooked beef stew to all-day hummus made in the slow-cooker. Check it out.

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Inspired to dust off my own slow-cooker, I knew immediately that I'd be making black bean soup. Because you're cooking the beans for several hours, you don't need to soak them first. You just put up the soup in the morning, and by the time you get home from work, your beans and vegetables have transformed into something silky, soft, and flavorful: the total package.

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Still, I should note that you definitely can make this soup equally well on the stove. You'll need to soak the beans first, so that they cook all the way through, but other than that, it's straightforward. I've included instructions below.

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Several folks have emailed over the past couple of weeks about needing more work-friendly recipes. Ask, and you shall receive: this soup practically makes itself. We've been eating the leftovers all week, no extra cooking needed.

Did I mention there's something in it for you? Cara and Phoebe and Kelsey the Naptime Chef, masterminds of the Slow-Cooker Challenge, teamed up with a few great folks at OXO, DeLonghi, and Breville to snag some great prizes for folks who follow along with the slow-cooker festivities. You can win fancy, high-end slow-cookers (much nicer than mine!) here and here. Follow along on both of their sites for slow-cooker recipes galore, OXO prizes, and more.

Adobo Black Bean Soupadapted heavily from Whole Foods Market serves 6-8

3 tablespoons olive oil 1 large red onion, diced (about 3 cups) 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 red bell pepper, chopped, divided 3 cloves garlic, sliced 3 tablespoons fresh oregano (or 1 tablespoon dried oregano) 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin 2 chipotles in adobo, chopped 1/4 cup adobo sauce (may need two cans to yield this much sauce) 1 bay leaf 2 cups black beans 12ish cups water 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa 1 tablespoon molasses 3/4 cup orange juice 1 teaspoon salt (to taste) 1/2 cup cilantro 4 scallions, thinly sliced 2 avocados, halved and thinly sliced 1/4 cup yogurt or sour cream

To make the soup in the slow-cooker the easiest way:

Put everything through the water in the slow-cooker, turn it on, and leave it alone. When you get home, stir the cocoa with a spoonful of soup until smooth, then add it, the OJ, and salt - to taste - into the soup. By the time you've got the troops around the table, soup will be ready. Serve with scallion, avocado, yogurt, and tortilla chips. Speedy, eh?

The hybrid method: maximum flavor, but makes itself while you work:

Here's how I made the soup.

Plug in the slow-cooker and turn it to high. While it heats, saute the onion, green pepper, and half the red pepper in olive oil in a small saucepan until translucent. Add the spices, garlic, chipotle, and adobo sauce, stir to combine them with the aromatics, and cook a couple minutes more. Pour 2 cups of water into the saucepan, scrape up the bits from the bottom of the pan, and pour the whole mixture into the slow cooker. Add the beans, the bay leaf, and enough water to cover the beans by a few inches (should be about 10 more cups). By now, the slow-cooker should be plenty hot. (Doesn't matter if it isn't, though.) Turn slow-cooker to low, and let cook at least 5 hours and as many as 8 hours (yes, I tested it to make sure). You're not adding salt at this point: when cooking beans, always add salt at the end. The beans will stay whole, and you'll be able to control the saltiness of the soup better that way.

When you get home - or, about 10 minutes before serving the soup - put the cocoa in a small bowl, and add a couple spoonfuls of the soup broth. Stir together until smooth, then add to the soup along with the orange juice and cilantro. Next, you'll salt the soup. Start with half a teaspoon. Stir it in - thoroughly - and then taste the broth. (Not the beans: they won't have taken on the salt yet.) If the broth needs more salt, add another half teaspoon.

Serve soup with sliced scallions, sliced avocado, yogurt, and tortilla chips.

To make soup on the stove:

First, soak the beans for 6-8 hours. Sorry, you gotta.

Now: same instructions as above, but instead of sauteing the onions in a small saucepan, do it in a soup pot. When you're ready, add all the remaining ingredients straight into that pot. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1.5 hours, until beans are soft. Add cocoa, orange juice, and cilantro 5-10 minutes before serving.

Raisin Walnut Rolls

We've been in our new place for over 2 months; it really is time I share at least one picture, eh?

our apt

There. That feels much better.

As you can see, our new home is....well, it's magical for us. We wake up every morning totally tickled at how fortunate we've been to find, acquire, and inhabit such a warm, open, beautiful space. The kitchen is totally open, allowing me to prepare food while hanging out with our company. The couch is big and brown and leather and cozy - just what D wanted. The lounging chair is structured and linen-colored and funky and whimsical - just what I wanted. Our ketubah is up, our bar is stocked, and the fridge is embarrassingly full. We're lucky ladies, the two of us.

As beautiful as our new kitchen is, cooking for the first time in a new home is challenging. At the very least, the appliances are unfamiliar, your cutting board is in a new spot, and everything feels somewhat off-kilter. At most, you're simply overcome by the spotlessness of it all, and you can't imagine spilling on the new counter anymore than you're looking forward to the first dent in your new car. It's all a little touch-and-go.

Having lived in 4 different apartments in two countries over the past 6 years, I've developed a bit of a routine for breaking in a new kitchen. You won't find me butchering whole ducks during week 1 in a new place; instead, I start with the basics. A simple pasta dinner, with good tomato sauce. Pure, undoctored, totally unrivaled chocolate chip cookies. And last but not least, a good loaf of bread. Why bread? Think about it: get out that bread recipe, and you'll find yourself measuring, mixing, kneading, preheating, baking, cutting, and eating - all essential firsts for a new kitchen. Back in November, I made a whole lot of no-knead bread as a sort of personal housewarming for our new apartment. Then, when the workbench was sufficiently familiar with my somewhat erratic movements and my fridge had more than a few shmears on the door handle, I got around to making these no-knead dinner rolls.

raisin walnut dough

They sell rolls like these at Whole Foods, and I've been planning to duplicate them literally for years. We don't eat enough bread to make it worth baking two loaves in one week, but we had a couple slices of last week's plain loaf leftover, so I figured now was my chance to branch out. I'm glad I did - not least because I froze the extras, and now we have snacks tucked away in the freezer for another time.

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For these rolls, I used some fresh rye flour, and I just love its distinctive flavor. If you don't have (or don't like) rye flour, feel free to swap in whole wheat or white whole wheat. The rest of the recipe is pretty straightforward. You can swap out walnuts for pecans, and use currants or cherries in place of raisins. Whichever way you make them, it doesn't get much better than crusty, raisin-studded bread on the last morning of a holiday weekend.

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break bread

Raisin Walnut Rollsadapted from Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread recipe

2 1/4 cups (300 grams) bread flour 3/4 cup (100 grams) rye flour 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon pinch freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 1 1/2 cups (350 grams) cool water

Stir together flours, yeast, salt, cinnamon, black pepper, walnuts, and raisins. Add water and use a fork to stir the dough together just until all dry ingredients are moistened; dough should look shaggy. Cover bowl with a dish towel or plastic wrap, and set aside to rise in the area of the kitchen that's closest to 70 degrees (but don't go crazy with a thermometer, people) for 12-18 hours, until bubbles dot the top of the dough.

Dust a workspace generously with flour, and use a spoon or spatula to turn dough out onto the workspace in one piece. Use your (flour-dusted) hands or a bench scraper to nudge the edges of the dough into the center, and do this on all four sides, then flip dough tuck the stray edges under until dough is round. Dust a tea towel with flour or bran, and set dough seam-side down onto towel. Loosely cover dough with towel sides, and set aside to rise for 1-2 hours, until dough has nearly doubled in size. Test dough's readiness by poking a finger in the side of the dough; it should hold the shape of your finger. This indicates that gluten has fully developed.

Preheat the oven to 450. For a baking surface, either stick a pizza stone in the oven to preheat, or simply oil a baking pan.

Use a bench scraper or large knife to slice dough into 4 equal strips, and cut each strip into 3 pieces. (Lahey says dough should make 20 80-gram rolls, but mine made 12 70-gram rolls, and that's the basis for my instructions - go figure. Aim for between 70-80 grams per roll, and you should be just fine.) If using a pizza stone, you'll want to load the rolls onto a heavily-floured peel, the better to slide the rolls right onto the pizza stone without having to remove it from the oven. If using a baking pan, even easier! Just plop the rolls onto the pan in neat rows. Don't worry about leaving lots of space between rolls; if they kiss in the oven, you can easily separate them once they're out.

Bake for 40 minutes on a baking pan, 35 on a stone, until browned on top. Eat slathered with good butter and jam.

Getaways: New Orleans

As I mentioned in my last post, I was lucky enough to be swept away on not one but two vacations over the holidays. We went first to Aspen, then to New Orleans, each with different parts of D's family. It was my first time in Aspen; I'm not a skier, but I had a blast snow-shoeing with my brother-in-law Sam up a mountain so steep, and at such a high altitude, that every ten or fifteen steps, we had to catch our breath.

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And it was my first time in New Orleans, too. Both of our first time. We were there with purpose - to cover ourselves in Maize and Blue, sing Hail to the Victors, and make sure U of M won that Sugar Bowl (oh thank goodness they did: made for a much happier vacation). But to say we fell in love with the city, well...it wouldn't be an overstatement. I'm already itching to go back.

We only had three days to explore New Orleans. Before we left, everyone told us that was all we'd need. But now that we've been, I feel like we've barely scratched the surface of what NOLA has to offer. Everyone also told us that we'd probably have a hard time finding what to eat, since most of us keep kosher and thus wouldn't be eating meat or shellfish on the trip. But we managed to find restaurants with plenty of options for vegetarians and pescatarians alike. Here, then, are just a few of the many highlights of our trip - what'll be just a small fraction of your own trip's highlights, if you go.

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Restaurant August: the most well-regarded restaurant from local chef John Besh, August looks, feels, and tastes like a restaurant that'd exist only in New Orleans. The small, cramped bar area at the front belies the two elegant dining rooms, each with dim lighting, vaulted ceilings, white tablecloths, and trademark southern hospitality. The wine room, tucked away at the back of the restaurant, is especially beautiful, seemingly lined floor-to-ceiling with wooden cellar shelves. August infuses bourbon in house with vanilla and citrus, satsuma and coriander, local honey, and - yes - bacon. Yet, they offer two nightly tasting menus, one entirely vegetarian - a precious rarity in a city where everything comes with bacon crumble, clam broth, lump crab garnish, and a handful of shrimp. I'd happily have gone back to August a second time. If you go in the near future, you'd be wise to order the tagliatelle with fresh truffles and a truffle-cured egg yolk, as memorable for their deeply earthy flavor as for their sheer luxuriousness. But the thing you must try is the broccoli rabe. It's cooked till just barely tender, set atop a swipe of bright, fresh green harissa, and topped with the softest, sweetest feta you've ever had. Not to be missed.

The Garden District Picture the most beautiful suburb you've ever seen - one with rows of trees, old houses each different than the next, all with sprawling porches and traditional architectural flourishes. Now plant that suburb smack in the middle of a city, and you've got yourself the Garden District. Take the streetcar past the highway, hop off, and start walking. If you're lucky, you'll happen upon Sandra Bullock's house. It's big and grey, with a huge, beautiful wrought iron porches that are a signature feature of New Orleans homes. And even in January, when most of us can't cut indoors to the fireplace fast enough, residents of the Garden District sit on their porches, eating light brunch, taking in the passers by. If I had a house with a porch in a neighborhood like this, I'd do it, too.

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St. James Cheese Co. Every city has a cheese shop, but not every city has a good cheese shop. St. James is a good cheese shop. They have my favorite cheese - Tomme de Bordeaux - as well as 2 others from the same maker, one of which I'd never tried before; they have all sorts of cheeses you've probably never encountered, and staff to happily facilitate tasting enough cheese that you may be less hungry when you leave than you were when you came; and, if you can muster up a sufficient appetite after trying all those cheeses, they have an all-star roster of sandwiches, including their take on a Reuben, complete with house-cured pastrami. For the vegetarians, the gruyere panini tastes like onion soup on a sandwich. In the best way.

St. James Cheese Co

Creole Creamery: Were it not for the soda-fountain decor, I'd have said this place felt like it came out of New York. The ice cream is really high-quality, and the flavors - from standards like vanilla and mint chip to more esoteric options like creme fraiche, lavender honey, and chocolate Madeira - leave nothing to be desired. (Just look at their menu!) The day we were there, they had a smoky dark chocolate with almonds and sea salt that none of us could stop eating; they also had "chef's perfect chocolate, made from Vahlrona chocolate, Godiva liqueur, and cocoa nibs. My jeans appreciate that Creole Creamery is far from home.

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The Spotted Cat Ok, it's not a food spot. Still, it nourishes all the same. For the first time in a long time, I felt I'd come to love a city for something other than food. The music scene in New Orleans - and I saw but a tiny corner of the action - is alive and well, and nowhere on better display than at The Spotted Cat. One night, there was a funk-ish jazz band playing some insane drumbeats. Another night brought a more mellow band, with a beautiful blond singer whose voice recalled Etta James, or Eva Cassidy. When you walk in, you'll scan the room for a place to stand (or sit, if you're lucky) while someone whispers in your ear, "1-drink minimum." Grab a beer, grab a seat, close your eyes, and let the rhythm wash over you.

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Mahoney's Po-Boy Less an endorsement of food than an endorsement of a scene. On the day we went, Mahoney's had a 1-hour wait from the moment you place your order, which itself could take 30 minutes given the line. By the time food arrives, it almost doesn't matter what's inside the butcher paper, you're tht hungry. Fortunately, what's inside the butcher paper ain't bad: po-boys of all varieties, including one with fried green tomatoes, which we all had. Not glamorous, but a quintessential NOLA lunch on Magazine Street, which you'll most definitely want to explore.

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Beignets at Cafe Beignet Everyone will tell you to go to Cafe Du Monde for beignets. In a sense, they're right: Cafe Du Monde is a scene that should be experienced if only for its total absurdity: parties of 8, clustered around a tiny table for 2, bags and coats and gloves piled on their lap or the ground, all tucking their cheeks and chins and fingers into beignets positively coated with powdered sugar. The beignet gets dunked in excellent chicory coffee, then eaten; the sugar gets everywhere; the people are giddy and gleeful, and stuffed. It's a good time.

But the best beignets are not at Cafe Du Monde. They're at Cafe Beignet, an unassuming place near the Central Business District. Cafe Beignet's coffee is nothing special, and their other food is mediocre. Stick to beignets, though, and you'll be rewarded with big, hot pillows of fully-cooked dough (the ones at Cafe Du Monde were a bit underdone) and plenty of powdered sugar to spill on your jeans. Delightful.

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Borgne The Jury's still out on John Besh's newest creation, Borgne. In fact, we ate there - somewhat unwittingly - on opening night, and that was just over a week ago. After hitting the U of M pep rally before the Sugar Bowl and discovering a complete lack of edible food, we frantically searched for somewhere nearby where we could fill up before the game. We headed in the direction of Mother's, planning on biscuits and eggs for dinner, but my brother-in-law Adam spotted Borgne, and in no time, we were escorted to a nice long table smack in the center of the restaurant. The maître d' told us we were the restaurant's first customers. Sure enough, as we sat down, we realized it was just us: the only other people in the restaurant were servers, huddled in the corner of the restaurant tasting the menu dish by dish, and investors, standing along the bar, drinks in hand, having a good ole' chuckle with....Chef Besh. Now I don't know if you've ever seen Besh on TV (he's had a couple stints on Top Chef), but the man is easy on the eyes. In person, he's downright hot. After less-than-subtle ogling, we wooed him over to our table, where he introduced himself, checked in about the food, and snapped that lovely picture you see above. As if that weren't enough, he comped our entire meal -- a good meal, at that. If you're in NOLA, Borgne may be worth a try. It's got subtly modernized takes on classic dishes like frogmore stew, Ya Ka Mein, and oysters in every style imaginable. If you do try it, let us know how it was.

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Could, Shoulda, Woulda As many places as we did try, there are so many others on my list that we couldn't squeeze into this visit. On Magazine, Lilette, La Petite Grocery, and Coquette are all supposed to be great. We peered inside the windows (most were closed while we were in town) and they look every bit like A La Biche au Bois and other charming Parisian bistros.

If you want to round out your NOLA experience with a truly traditional meal -- and all the gentlemen in your party have jackets, which are required at NOLA's most storied restaurants -- you might try Commander's Palace or Galatoire's. They're expensive, they're stuffy, and they can be chock full of tourists - but, especially at lunch, tables are occupied by those well-to-do elderly couples that seem to have lunches like these several times a week. They have napkins tucked into their shirts, well-coifed hair, and an appreciation for the finer things. We watched through the windows, and I'd consider going on my next visit, if only for the shtick of it all.

August 301 Tchoupitoulas St. New Orleans, LA 70130

St. James Cheese Co. 5004 Prytania St New Orleans, LA 70115

Creole Creamery 4924 Prytania Street New Orleans, LA 70115

The Spotted Cat 623 Frenchmen Street New Orleans, LA

Cafe Beignet 334-B Royal Street New Orleans, LA

Lilette 3637 Magazine Street New Orleans, LA 70115

Borgne 601 Loyola Avenue New Orleans, LA 70113

Mahoney's Po-Boy Shop 3454 Magazine Street New Orleans, LA 70115

Commander's Palace 1403 Washington Avenue New Orleans, LA 70130

Galatoires 209 Bourbon St. New Orleans, LA 70130

La Petite Grocery 4238 Magazine Street New Orleans, LA 70115