Grapes - watercolor painting by Carol Egbert

There was caviar, pate, platters of unfamiliar cheeses and even an oyster bar. I was twenty-five years old and impressed. In the midst of this exotic spread, there was a chafing dish filled with sweet and sour meatballs that were irresistible. I asked a fellow meatball-spearing guest if she knew how the meatballs had been prepared. “Oh,” she said, “these are always served at Peter’s parties. He’s related to the Welch’s, the grape people, and this is his favorite way to eat grape jelly.” Trying to keep up my side of clever party banter I added, “Yes, of course, and the meat balls are filled with peanut butter.” With an un-amused shake of her head she said, “Actually, the sauce is made by combining equal portions of Heinz chili sauce and Welch’s grape jelly, the culinary merger of two important families,” and walked off.

Jam unexpectedly came to my rescue when I was a passenger on a Russian train traveling from Mongolia to Siberia in the mid 1980’s. I was weary and homesick and craved a pot of freshly brewed tea flavored with a squeeze of lemon and a bit of sugar. I went to the dining car and asked the waiter, chef and busboy (all the same person), for a pot of tea.

The tea came in a small, dented metal teapot, along with a chipped mug, a spoon and a small pot of strawberry jam. I asked why he had brought me a pot of jam when there was nothing to spread it on. He explained that there were no lemons on the train or probably anywhere else in Siberia and, more importantly, real Russian tea was flavored and sweetened with jam rather than with lemon and sugar. I put half a teaspoon of jam into the mug, he shook his head, took the spoon and added a very rounded spoonful of jam to the mug, filled it with tea, stirred it vigorously, handed the mug to me with an expectant smile and hovered as I sipped. The tea was very strong and quite smoky, the addition of the strawberry jam made it palatable and a few hours later we parted as friends when the train pulled into the station in Irkutsk.

It was a jar of peach jam in my pantry that saved the day last summer when I was preparing the dressing for a brown rice and papaya salad for a potluck picnic. I had forgotten to buy a jar of mango chutney and had no time to make a trip to the market but I did have a jar a peach jam in the pantry. Combined with spices, vinegar and oil, it provided the sweet note that made the salad sing. Since then I always use peach jam rather than mango chutney when I make this salad. Here’s how I did it:

Brown Rice and Papaya Salad

I began by preparing the rice. I preheated the oven to 375 degrees, heated two and a half cups of water, one tablespoon of unsalted butter and one tablespoon of kosher salt in a saucepan. I put one and a half cups of short-grain brown rice into an eight-inch square, ceramic baking dish. When the water was boiling, I poured it over the rice, covered the dish tightly with aluminum foil and baked it for one hour. I uncovered the rice and fluffed it with a fork and set it aside to cool.

I cut a peeled and de-seeded large, ripe papaya into one-inch chunks. I put the chunks into a large salad bowl. I cut one medium red onion into quarter inch dice and put it into a small bowl of salted, cold water to eliminate the raw onion tang. I added one large red pepper cut into half-inch chunks, one finely minced jalapeno pepper, half a cup of walnuts, half a cup of raisins, the leaves from a bunch of cilantro, the rinsed and drained onion and the cooled rice to the papaya chunks.

For the dressing, I blended together two teaspoons of ground cumin, one teaspoon of ground coriander, one minced clove of garlic, three tablespoons of red wine vinegar, three tablespoons of olive oil and half a cup of peach jam. I stirred the dressing into the rice and papaya mixture and headed to the picnic that was jam packed with friends.

Download and print cookie recipe with an ingredients list here.

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No need to worry - Soe is in charge.

We met Michelle and her husband Burmese husband, Soe, at the Cafe Minerva. I invited them to sit with us and in less time that it takes to figure out how many c’s there are in cappuccino, Soe and I were talking about food. We finished our coffees and decided to walk to the market together.Michelle and Charles walked together and talked about the challenges of speaking Italian and as I shopped, Soe talked about what he would cook if he had a kitchen in Ortigia. I had a kitchen. He had a menu in mind. We decided to have dinner together. It would be a Burmese dinner with shrimp, orange salad and green beans and Soe would be in charge.

Red onion, garlic mint & citrus leaves

When Soe and Michelle arrived, he began by trimming and slicing.

Celery leaves, ginger, red chili, citrus & mint leaves

He cooked like a classically trained French chef. I tried to stay out of his way as I watched him assemble a tray of ingredients for each dish.

We made the savory orange salad first. Here’s how we did it:

Orange Onion Salad

I cut the peel and pith from six blood oranges, cut each orange into eight pieces and put the pieces into a shallow bowl. In Burma, this salad would be flavored with fish sauce and kaffir lime leaves. Instead of fish sauce, we used a tablespoon of chopped salted anchovy that had been rinsed and soaked in cold water for ten minutes and then drained. Instead of kaffir lime leaves, we used a tender leaf from a branch of oranges. I stirred in the anchovy and finely minced orange leaf, Soe added a couple of teaspoons of fresh mint leaves, half a small red onion that had been thinly sliced, and poured on three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.  A quick toss and it was ready and we moved on to the green beans.

Download and print orange onion salad recipe with an ingredients list here.

Spicy Green Beans

I blanched the green beans in a large pot of rapidly boiling salt water until they were barely tender, shocked them with cold water and drained them. Soe sauteed the shrimp heads in a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. After they had cooked for three minutes, he lowered the heat, added a tablespoon of sweet paprika and two tablespoons of white wine and continued cooking it for two more minutes. He poured the mixture into a strainer and used a spoon to force the liquid into a small bowl. He wiped out the pan with a paper towel, put a tablespoon of oil into it and when the oil was hot he added two cloves of thinly sliced garlic and half of a thinly sliced red onion. When the garlic and onion were cooked, he added the pre-cooked green beans, stirred in the paprika-wine sauce and cooked the mixture until the beans were hot and covered with the sauce.

Download and print spicy green bean recipe with an ingredients list here.

It was time to cook the shrimp. Soe had bought a kilo, about two pounds, of large, nearly five inches long, whole shrimp at the market. He cleaned them by removing the heads, splitting the shell with scissors in order to removing the dark vein but he did not remove the shells from the shrimp.

Spicy Burmese Prawns

And then, he turned into a Burmese whirlwind. I couldn’t keep up. I know he used a large, frying pan to stir-fry thinly sliced red onion, garlic, fresh ginger and a few small, dried hot peppers. I think he added a splash of white wine after he added the shrimp.  It seemed as if the shrimp were cooked in less than three minutes. To finish them, he turned off the heat, added a tablespoon of water, (a Burmese technique to keep the shrimp from overcooking and becoming rubbery, he said), added a generous handful of tender celery leaves and there may have been some fresh basil in the mix. Perhaps some mint, maybe orange leaf, I don’t know – I lost track of what he was doing.

Dinner by Soe!

Dinner was amazing, the food was perfect, the conversation non-stop. It was unimaginable serendipity. After Soe and Michelle had gone back to their hotel, I tried to remember how he had cooked the shrimp, I tried Googling Burmese Shrimp but couldn’t find anything that resembled what he had cooked.  I’ll have to invite them to come to Vermont and ask Soe for another cooking lesson.  Even though I can’t tell you how he made the shrimp, I promise that the orange salad recipe works and I hope you will try it. Don’t worry if you don’t have a fresh citrus leaf you can use the zest from one orange instead.

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Watercolor by Carol Egbert

I bought a deep violet eggplant,

Watercolor by Carol Egbert

a sweet pepper that was sap green on one side and cadmium orange on the other, white cippolini onions with forest green leaves, a bunch of celery with chartreuse leaves attached to leaf-green stems,

Watercolor by Carol Egbert

blue-black olives cured in oil, a scoop of grey-green salt cured capers, six Windsor yellow lemons and two kilos of blood oranges.

I created an ad hoc still life as I unpacked the market bags and thought about what I would cook. The caponata I had eaten in Taormina earlier in the week came to mind. Considered a Sicilian classic, caponata, like pasta, couscous, oranges and lemons, was brought by the Arabs when they conquered Sicily in 827 AD. The Arabs, then called Saracens, also introduced sophisticated methods of irrigation that made vegetable farming possible. Making caponata, a salad of cooked vegetables with a sweet and sour sauce, is an opportunity to combine colorful vegetables and Mediterranean history. Here’s how I did it:

Caponata

When I was choosing the eggplant at the market, a fellow shopper suggested that it was important to soak eggplant in salted water for at least half an hour before cooking it. I usually skip this step, but she insisted it that kept the eggplant white and prevented it from absorbing excess oil, so – when in Sicily, do as the Sicilians do. I cut the unpeeled eggplant into one-inch cubes, put them into a large bowl filled with water, added a tablespoon of sea salt, Sicilian of course, and left them to soak for half an hour. I rinsed two tablespoons of salt-cured capers in cold water and put them in a bowl of water to soak to eliminate the excess salt.

I put two tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and when it was hot, but not smoking, I added the drained eggplant cubes and cooked them over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they were tender and browned on all sides. It took about fifteen minutes. I put the cooked eggplant into a colander, poured the olive oil that drained from it back into the frying pan, reheated it and added the sweet pepper that had been cut into one-inch pieces. After about ten minutes the pepper was cooked and had begun to brown and I added it to the eggplant in the colander.

I followed the same procedure to cook one thinly sliced onion and four thinly sliced stalks of celery, including the tender chartreuse leaves. I used a small glass to gently push the excess olive oil out of the vegetables into the frying pan, reheated it and added the rinsed and drained capers and a handful of olives to the oil. After they had cooked for three minutes, I added the capers and olives to the cooked vegetables and returned the frying pan to the heat to make the agro dolce or sweet and sour sauce.

I added a tablespoon of granulated sugar to the oil that was flavored with the caramelized juices of the vegetables and cooked it over medium heat, stirring constantly. When the sugar had melted, I stirred in two tablespoons of red wine vinegar and cooked the mixture until most of the vinegar had evaporated and the sauce had begun to thicken.

I added all of the cooked vegetables to the sauce and gently stirred them together over medium heat for three minutes to combine the flavors. I put the finished caponata into a bowl to cool.

To complete my Arab inspired cooking extravaganza, I made orange-lemonade by adding three tablespoons of sugar to the juice from two lemons and one blood orange to a pitcher of water.

Caponata is eaten at room temperature and served as an appetizer or as a side dish. It can also be heated and served with pasta or polenta and, if the ingredients are cut more finely before being cooked, it can be used as a spread for crostini. Caponata is a recipe that does not require exact amounts or ingredients. Its flavor improves with age and it will keep for a week in the fridge. Some recipes include chunks of tomatoes or tomato paste, green olives can be used instead of ripe ones and anchovies may be added with the capers and olives. The olive vendor, who also sells chocolate from Modica, suggested I could make the caponata “Baroque” by sprinkling it with unsweetened chocolate just before it is served. That sounded strange to me, what do you think?

Download and print caponata recipe with an ingredients list here.

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Blood Orange Juice and the Ionian Sea

The glass of blood orange juice that Charles makes for me with four fresh Tarocco oranges is my favorite way to start the day. Tarocco oranges grow in the fertile soil surrounding Mount Etna. They are sweet, less acidic than other oranges and have the highest vitamin C content of any orange variety grown. The juice is orange in name only, it varies in color from peachy pink to rose dore to nearly garnet red. I love it freshly squeezed and thick with pulp. Although there are  blood oranges in the markets in Vermont, I’ll miss watching the sun shimmer on the Ionian sea as I sip the sweet juice.  Unfortunately, blood orange juice at the edge of the Ionian Sea must be put into the impossible to recreate category.

Salt cured capers are sold by weight at the market. They are about the size of lentils and have a sharp and sour taste that is lovely with chicken or fish and are a crucial ingredient in the tomato/potato salad I tasted on a recent trip to Marsala. Although it isn’t easy to find salt-cured capers in Vermont, there are jars of vinegar-cured capers in the pickle aisle of every grocery store. Here’s how I made the tomato/potato salad when we got back to Ortigia.

Tomato/Potato Salad

I peeled and cut into one-inch chunks, five new potatoes that had been steamed until they were tender. I added three medium tomatoes that had been seeded and cut into chunks, two thinly sliced green onions, one tablespoon of roughly chopped, salt-cured capers that had been soaked in cold water, rinsed and drained, two tablespoons of chopped flat leaf parsley, three tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of red wine vinegar, three grinds of sea salt and five grinds of black pepper to the still warm potatoes. With a jar of vinegar cured capers from the market this souvenir goes into the can be recreated category.

I don’t remember when Italian flat leaf parsley won a place in my heart and kitchen. It might have been when I planted my first herb garden or perhaps it was when Fiorina Paci, my older son’s Italian great-grandmother, combined it with garlic and green beans from her garden. However it happened, the good news is that this tasty herb is available year round, in the produce department of nearly every grocery store, generally next to its curly leafed cousin. I use it in Sicily and in Vermont to flavor vegetables, chicken, fish, beans, and grain and rice salads. Seasoning with Italian flat leaf parsley definitely has a place in the can be recreated category.

Download and print tomato potato recipe with an ingredients list here.

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I was intrigued when I heard Honey and Elizabeth talking about a peach and tomato salad that Honey had made for a dinner party. Luckily, they were willing to tell me about it and I made my version on Wednesday. Here’s how I did it:

Peachy Tomato Salad

I put two ripe peaches and two tomatoes cut into one-inch chunks and one thinly sliced red onion into a shallow bowl. For the dressing, I combined two tablespoons of olive oil, two teaspoons of white wine vinegar, a teaspoon of honey, a pinch of salt and a wee bit of cayenne pepper in a small bowl. When the honey was dissolved, I poured the dressing over the salad and tossed it. I topped the salad with a small handful of torn basil leaves and two tablespoons of goat cheese, cut into quarter inch cubes.Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

The crimson red of pomegranate seeds adds color, flavor and loads of health benefits to a cucumber salad. Here’s how I made it:

Cucumber and Pomegranate Salad

I combined half a cup of finely sliced scallions, two tablespoons of chopped flat leaf parsley, one cucumber, peeled and cut in half inch dice, the seeds from one small pomegranate, about half a cup, two teaspoons of fresh lime juice, one tablespoon of grape seed oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The salad, along with a bowl of hummus and a basket of toasted pita bread reminded me of a dinner I was served on a trip to Turkey. Here’s how I made it:

Oranges and Red Onions with Cumin

I cut two medium red onions into quarter inch slices. To get rid of the strong taste of raw onions, I covered them with cold water, added a teaspoon of kosher salt and left them to soak while I peeled and sliced six seedless oranges. I rinsed and drained the onions and arranged the orange slices and onion slices in a shallow dish. I topped the salad with one tablespoon of toasted cumin seeds, freshly ground pepper, one tablespoon of fresh mint leaves, and half a cup of olive oil. After the salad marinated, at room temperature for two hours, I topped it with a handful of oil cured black olives.

I served it with a roasted chicken from the market. Here’s how I did it:

Purple, Red and Orange Salad

I used a whisk to combine two tablespoons of red wine vinegar, three tablespoons of olive oil, one tablespoon of toasted sesame oil, one teaspoon of light brown sugar, a quarter of teaspoon of salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper in a large salad bowl. I added one large, peeled and diced mango, one small red cabbage, shredded, and three large tomatoes cut in half-inch dice. I tossed the salad and finished it with a handful of chopped cilantro leaves.

Nana gave me my first tools – a hammer, a saw, screwdrivers and a hand-crank drill. I drilled and hammered beside her at the workbench. Although she was an enthusiastic cook, she was not a good cook. For Nana, speed and efficiency in the kitchen were most important. Her version of a pancake dinner was literally ‘a pan cake’ – a twelve-inch disc, an inch thick that was cut in quarters to serve four. The pancake was always served with a salad and the salad was always the same, the only salad she ever made, a wedge of iceberg lettuce with a puddle of bright orange French dressing poured from a bottle.

I am like my Nana in many ways. I can fix almost anything. I still have my own toolbox and my hands are rarely idle, but for me, neither speed nor efficiency in the kitchen are nearly as important as flavor and beauty. Color is important but rather than resorting to bright orange, bottled salad dressing, I use fruit to add a splash of color to a salad. In the past few weeks I have been making savory salads that combine fruits and vegetables.

I love the combination of blue and yellow whether I am setting a table, painting a still life, decorating a room or making a salad. When a friend told me about a salad she had made that combined corn and blueberries I knew I had to try it. Here’s how I made it:

Blue and Yellow Salad

I made the dressing first, combining 6 ounces/170g frozen orange juice concentrate, two tablespoons of white wine vinegar, two tablespoons of honey, the juice of half a lime, one tablespoon of lime zest, one tablespoon of curry powder, two tablespoons of grape seed oil, half a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper. I used a whisk and mixed the dressing until the honey was dissolved.

I cooked four ears of corn in the microwave. It takes three minutes an ear in my microwave. When the corn was cool enough to handle, I sliced the kernels from the cobs and added them to the dressing. I finished the salad with the addition of one cup of blueberries and a quarter of a cup of minced flat leaf parsley.

Corn & Blueberry Salad List

orange juice concentrate

• white wine vinegar
• honey
• lime
• curry powder
• grape seed oil
• salt
• cayenne pepper
• corn
• blueberries
• flat leaf parsley

Soon after his return, he invited us to dinner. When we arrived, he was emptying the wood shavings from his pencil sharpener into the wok. We watched as he added the contents of two tea bags to the wood shavings. He explained that he was going to make tea smoked chicken for dinner. He put a bamboo steamer filled with raw chicken over the tea and wood shavings, covered everything with aluminum foil, put it on the stove and turned on the heat. The tea and wood smoldered and I worried about the yellow paint from the pencils, but Tom explained that it wasn’t a problem and that the smoke imparted a wonderful flavor to the chicken.

While we waited for the chicken to smoke, we enjoyed a cucumber salad that Tom had learned to make in China, and he described the all-duck banquet in Beijing that marked the end of his trip. He described, in detail, dishes made from duck innards, head, wings and webs. We neglected the wok and concentrated on the salad that was spicy, loaded with garlic, Szechuan peppers and peanuts. Unfortunately, the bamboo steamer that held the chicken above the smoke caught fire and so did the chicken. Our dinner was a bit meager, steamed rice and cucumber salad, but we laughed a lot and I went home with a great recipe for Szechuan Chinese pickles. We call it Tom’s Chinese Cucumber Salad and the recipe is my souvenir from his trip.

On a steamy evening a couple of weeks ago, I made Szechuan Cucumber salad and sesame noodles for dinner and we drank a toast in memory of our friend Tom and his love of exotic food. Here’s how I made it:

Tom’s Chinese Cucumber Salad

I combined two cups of unpeeled, seeded cucumber, cut into pieces half an inch wide and two inches long with two tablespoons of kosher salt. I waited an hour before I rinsed, drained and dried the cucumber pieces.

I toasted one tablespoon of Szechuan peppercorns in a dry skillet over medium heat until they were fragrant, about a minute, and ground them with a mortar and pestle. I combined them with one and a half a tablespoons of minced garlic, one tablespoon of hot bean paste, two teaspoons of sugar, one tablespoon of rice vinegar, one tablespoon of toasted sesame oil and half a teaspoon of chili paste in a medium serving bowl. I mixed the sauce with the cucumbers and put them in the refrigerator for half an hour. Just before serving, I topped the cucumbers with a generous handful of peanuts.

The exotic ingredients, Szechuan pepper, bean paste, toasted sesame oil and chili paste, are all available in the International Foods aisle of many grocery stores, in Asian grocery stores and online. A slightly less authentic, but still tasty salad, can be made without them.

Sesame noodles are best served at room temperature soon after the noodles and sauce have been combined. When I need to make this salad in advance, I prepare the pasta, sauce and asparagus and combine them just before serving.

Sesame Noodles with Grilled Asparagus

I cooked one pound of linguini in salted, boiling water until it was al dente and reserved a cup of the salty starchy pasta water when I drained pasta. I mixed the pasta with a tablespoon of oil and set it aside while I grilled the asparagus and made the sauce.

I cut off the bottom inch of the asparagus, and used a vegetable peeler to peel the bottom third of each stalk and brushed them with olive oil. It took five minutes, on a hot grill, for them to cook.

I put two cloves of garlic, one tablespoon red wine vinegar and one-tablespoon brown sugar into the work bowl of a small food processor. When the garlic was minced, I added a half-cup of chunky peanut butter and then processed the mixture for a minute before adding a quarter of a cup of soy sauce, six tablespoons of toasted sesame oil and three tablespoons of chili oil. When the sauce was well blended, I combined it with the noodles and stirred in four tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds. I used two tablespoons of the reserved pasta water to thin the sauce a bit and topped the noodles with one diced red pepper, half a cup of fresh cilantro, and one sliced cucumber. I arranged the grilled asparagus on top, sprinkled an additional tablespoon each of toasted sesame seeds and black sesame seeds on to the salad and dinner was ready.Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.