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A short history lesson and a recipe I wasn’t about to post a dish with an unusual name like Red snapper Livornese without first getting a clue of its origin. The nutshell version is that this Jewish dish was created in the Tuscan area of Italy called Livorno during the end of the 16th century. The period was a time of growth, networking and prosperity. People, goods, culture, music, languages and ingredients and recipes circulated through this network. Livorno’s most famous fish dishes all boast Jewish origins. Many highlight tomatoes, a New World fruit, first introduced to the city and to Italy by Sephardic merchants in the 16th century. I was surprised to find so many recipes for this healthy dish. The sauce is similar in all of them but there seem to be two different ways to cook it. Some prefer baking the fish with the sauce, while other recipes say to fry the fish and then top it with the sauce. I decided on the baked method because I’m not keen on frying fish in my house unless the weather is so nice I can open up all the windows. Plus, I figured why add calories if I didn’t need to? Our house smelled divine last night as it baked and it tasted delicious. I served it with pappardelle pasta which was perfect. I’ll definitely be making this again. A few notes: I like using whole tomatoes even if the recipe calls for chopped tomatoes. San Marzano whole tomatoes are the best and I try to always have them on hand. Also, I really think this dish needs some salt and I added it. However capers are super-salty, so be careful how much salt you add. Red snapper Livornese. Serves 4 Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 small onion, chopped fine 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes (preferably San Marzano), chopped or blended with an immersion blender 1/2 cup dry white wine 2 tablespoons capers 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes Small handful of fresh parsley, chopped 1 pound red snapper fillets 1 small lemon Salt and pepper Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a large skillet heat olive oil and sauté the onion until it is tender and beginning to golden, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and continue to sauté for 1 more minute. Stir in tomatoes, wine, capers, red pepper flakes, and parsley. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. (You can simmer it covered but I covered the sauce with a spatter screen so that it could reduce a little.) Spread 1/2 of the sauce in a large baking dish and arrange the snapper fillets in a single layer on top of the sauce. Lightly salt and pepper them and then squeeze lemon juice over the fillets. Spoon the remaining sauce over all. Bake for 15 minutes for 1/2 inch thick fillets, or 30 minutes for 1 inch thick fillets. Snapper is done when it flakes easily with a fork.

A short history lesson and a recipe

I wasn’t about to post a dish with an unusual name like Red snapper Livornese without first getting a clue of its origin. The nutshell version is that this Jewish dish was created in the Tuscan area of Italy called Livorno during the end of the 16th century. The period was a time of growth, networking and prosperity. People, goods, culture, music, languages and ingredients and recipes circulated through this network.

Livorno’s most famous fish dishes all boast Jewish origins. Many highlight tomatoes, a New World fruit, first introduced to the city and to Italy by Sephardic merchants in the 16th century.

I was surprised to find so many recipes for this healthy dish. The sauce is similar in all of them but there seem to be two different ways to cook it. Some prefer baking the fish with the sauce, while other recipes say to fry the fish and then top it with the sauce. I decided on the baked method because I’m not keen on frying fish in my house unless the weather is so nice I can open up all the windows. Plus, I figured why add calories if I didn’t need to?

Our house smelled divine last night as it baked and it tasted delicious. I served it with pappardelle pasta which was perfect. I’ll definitely be making this again.

A few notes: I like using whole tomatoes even if the recipe calls for chopped tomatoes. San Marzano whole tomatoes are the best and I try to always have them on hand. Also, I really think this dish needs some salt and I added it. However capers are super-salty, so be careful how much salt you add.

Red snapper Livornese. Serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 small onion, chopped fine
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes (preferably San Marzano), chopped or blended with an immersion blender
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 2 tablespoons capers
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • Small handful of fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 pound red snapper fillets
  • 1 small lemon
  • Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

In a large skillet heat olive oil and sauté the onion until it is tender and beginning to golden, about 6 minutes. Add garlic and continue to sauté for 1 more minute. Stir in tomatoes, wine, capers, red pepper flakes, and parsley. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. (You can simmer it covered but I covered the sauce with a spatter screen so that it could reduce a little.)

Spread 1/2 of the sauce in a large baking dish and arrange the snapper fillets in a single layer on top of the sauce. Lightly salt and pepper them and then squeeze lemon juice over the fillets. Spoon the remaining sauce over all.

Bake for 15 minutes for 1/2 inch thick fillets, or 30 minutes for 1 inch thick fillets. Snapper is done when it flakes easily with a fork.

Humble food

Let me just say right now it’s a lot more fun posting pictures of cookies with sprinkles or fudgy frosting on a cake than it is sharing pictures of bean soup or lentil dip. You can at least add a little melted cheese and some cilantro to white chili. But bean soup? It is what it is. Some days around here we eat beautiful, vibrant food and other days we eat food that doesn’t have a lot of eye-appeal, even though it’s every bit as delicious.

Years ago I spent a couple of months off and on trying to recreate the bean soup we ate one summer at a restaurant near Long Lake, Wisconsin. I had ordered it on a whim and couldn’t get over how wonderful it was.

This favorite soup recipe is every bit as good as the one I remembered and now I’m passing it on to you. I usually serve it with perfect corn bread.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound dried navy beans
  • 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1/2 pound (approximately) ham, or meaty ham shank
  • 5 cups water or chicken broth
  • 2 dried bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon salt, or more or less to taste
  • Freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Thoroughly rinse and pick through the dried beans in a colander.

Put the rinsed beans, carrots, onion, celery, ham, water and bay leaves in a Dutch oven or soup pot. Bring mixture to boil over medium-high heat. Cover and let soup simmer on lowest heat for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

After cooking time, remove ham shank and separate the meat from the bone and fat. Cut the ham into bite-size pieces and return it to the soup pot. If you want a creamier texture, crush the beans in the soup a couple of times with a potato masher.

Taste the soup and season with salt and pepper. Serve.

Wine tasting in Oregon’s Dundee Hills

You could easily make a hobby of wine tasting if you lived near Portland, Oregon, and in fact, many people do. Especially since the 1960s, growing grapes in the fertile, hilly soil in and around the Willamette Valley has produced some of the best wines in the world.

My friend Ann, an experienced wine taster, called me a week or so ago and told me she had just landed a new job that would start the following Monday. If I was game she wanted to show me some of her favorite wineries. The following Thursday we were driving through the hilly, lush Dundee Hills tasting one wine after another. When we found our way to Lange Estate Winery, the sunny skies and unbelievable view from their tasting room made us pause. We bought a chilled bottle of our favorite 2012 Reserve Pinot Gris and lingered outside. After a glass and a toast or two to our friendship and her new job we had the bottle corked and got back underway.

The day was so spectacular I urged Bill to join me on Saturday. A short 28 miles from Portland, we arrived in Dundee by 11:00 and slowly replayed the route Ann and I had taken a few days earlier. The wine and the hills, the views from the vineyards and each other’s company made for a perfect day.

I see how this could become a hobby.

Key lime pie This smooth, incredibly creamy key lime pie was dessert last night. It was also my early morning breakfast today. I woke up and couldn’t get the thought of this pie out of my head, so after a while I caved in and padded my way through the quiet house to the kitchen. Five minutes later I had cut a wedge and was standing at the kitchen sink taking one slow blissful bite after another while sipping my espresso. I’m not sure when my love affair with limes began but they’re such a part of our diet I always have many stored away in our refrigerator crisper. I love a squeeze of lime on fresh tacos and Thai food. I love vodka gimlets, margaritas and lime sherbet. Key lime pie just happens to be my favorite way to use them. I can hear some of you already thinking I should not dare call this a “key lime” pie without using key limes. Technically you’re right of course but I’ve tried the key limes, I’ve tried bottled key lime juice and over the years I settled on using the garden-variety fresh limes from my favorite market. After a bite or two of this pie I don’t think anyone could find fault with anything about it. It’s that good. Make it the day before serving. Graham cracker crust ingredients: 1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs (1 sleeve plus 2 whole crackers) 1/3 cup granulated sugar 6 tablespoons melted butter 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional) Pie ingredients: 2 (14 ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk 1/2 cup sour cream 3/4 cup key lime or regular lime juice 1 tablespoon grated lime zest Whipped cream and lime slivers for garnish (optional) Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  To make pie crust, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, butter and cinnamon. Press mixture into the bottom and sides of an 8 or 9 inch pie pan. Bake crust for 5 minutes. For filling, combine the sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice and lime zest in a medium mixing bowl. Pour into prepared crust. Bake pie for 5 to 8 minutes or until pinhole-size bubbles appear on top of pie. (I have to take my pie out of the oven to look for these as they’re hard to see.) Do not over-bake.

Key lime pie

This smooth, incredibly creamy key lime pie was dessert last night. It was also my early morning breakfast today. I woke up and couldn’t get the thought of this pie out of my head, so after a while I caved in and padded my way through the quiet house to the kitchen. Five minutes later I had cut a wedge and was standing at the kitchen sink taking one slow blissful bite after another while sipping my espresso.

I’m not sure when my love affair with limes began but they’re such a part of our diet I always have many stored away in our refrigerator crisper. I love a squeeze of lime on fresh tacos and Thai food. I love vodka gimlets, margaritas and lime sherbet. Key lime pie just happens to be my favorite way to use them.

I can hear some of you already thinking I should not dare call this a “key lime” pie without using key limes. Technically you’re right of course but I’ve tried the key limes, I’ve tried bottled key lime juice and over the years I settled on using the garden-variety fresh limes from my favorite market. After a bite or two of this pie I don’t think anyone could find fault with anything about it. It’s that good. Make it the day before serving.

Graham cracker crust ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs (1 sleeve plus 2 whole crackers)
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 6 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Pie ingredients:

  • 2 (14 ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 3/4 cup key lime or regular lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon grated lime zest
  • Whipped cream and lime slivers for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

To make pie crust, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, butter and cinnamon. Press mixture into the bottom and sides of an 8 or 9 inch pie pan. Bake crust for 5 minutes.

For filling, combine the sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice and lime zest in a medium mixing bowl. Pour into prepared crust.

Bake pie for 5 to 8 minutes or until pinhole-size bubbles appear on top of pie. (I have to take my pie out of the oven to look for these as they’re hard to see.) Do not over-bake.

Persian jeweled rice – the king of rice and the rice of kings

As I stood at the checkout yesterday morning at 7am the clerk finally asked me what in the world I would be making with all of the interesting ingredients I was buying. Small amounts of turmeric and cardamom, nuts, basmati rice, an orange, and saffron. I also was gathering leeks, fresh ginger and garlic for another dish on the agenda. Throw in the regular stuff that I usually buy like tortillas, tomatoes, avocados and bacon, and I’m sure it looked random. I tried to describe to him the recipe for jeweled rice that I would be making as soon as I got home and he almost sounded interested, but maybe I mistook it for just being polite. Thank goodness I was at the store so early no one was in line behind me.

By 7:30 I was stripping the peel off an orange and the kitchen already smelled wonderful. Saffron was steeping in hot water, dried fruit was soaking and nuts were toasting in the oven.

This recipe requires a fair amount of labor and I would say a fair amount of love. It’s not something you make every day (unless you’re someone like me, I guess) but it’s well worth the effort. I’ve read that this Persian dish is a thousand years old and traditionally served at festive occasions such as weddings and other joyous celebrations, but I suggest that you not wait for those rare situations to make it.

Only a few more notes: 1) I couldn’t find raw, unsalted pistachios so I substituted raw pecans. I’m sure that’s probably a no-no, but they were delicious.  2) I don’t know why the recipe tells you to use a kitchen towel along with the pan lid when it all cooks, but I went along with it. 3) When it was all said and done I took a careful peek and the rice at the bottom of my dish was crisp but not golden. I took the lid off and poured a tiny bit of oil into the holes I had poked in the rice and turned up the heat a bit. After about 5 minutes I got the texture and color I was looking for.

It’s important to read the recipe through before you begin because there are many opportunities to multi-task. Also, some of the steps can actually be done a day or two before

Jeweled rice, a recipe from Bon Appétit

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup unsalted, shelled raw natural pistachios
  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds
  • 2 cups basmati rice
  • Kosher salt
  • 1 orange
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled, cut into matchstick-size pieces
  • 1/4 cup dried barberries or 1/2 cup dried cranberries (barberries, sold as zereshk, are available at Middle Eastern markets)
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Spread pistachios on a rimmed baking sheet and toast until just beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate, let cool, then coarsely chop. Spread almonds on the same baking sheet and toast until golden brown, 5–8 minutes; let cool. Set nuts aside.

Place rice in a fine-mesh sieve and rinse under cold water until water runs clear. Cook rice in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until grains have lengthened but are still firm, 6–7 minutes; drain and rinse under cold water. Spread rice on another rimmed baking sheet; let cool.

Meanwhile, using a vegetable peeler, remove zest from orange and thinly slice lengthwise (reserve flesh for another use). Bring sugar and 1 cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add orange zest and carrots, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until carrots are tender, 15–20 minutes; drain and set aside (discard syrup). (I found that the carrots cooked in about 6 minutes rather than the longer amount suggested.)

Combine barberries and raisins in a small bowl and cover with hot water; let soak 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. Place saffron in another small bowl and add 1/4 cup hot water; set aside.

Heat butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, season with salt, and cook, stirring often, until soft and beginning to brown, 8–10 minutes. Add cardamom, cumin, turmeric, and 1 tablespoon saffron mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Reduce heat to low, add barberries and raisins, and cook, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Stir in reserved nuts and orange zest and carrot mixture; season with salt. Set fruit and nut mixture aside.

Heat remaining 3 tablespoons oil in a large wide heavy pot over medium heat. Add half of rice, spreading evenly; top with fruit and nut mixture, then remaining rice, spreading evenly. Using the end of a wooden spoon, poke 5–6 holes in rice all the way through to bottom of pot (to help release steam and help rice cook evenly).

Drizzle remaining saffron mixture over rice. Place a clean kitchen towel over pot, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and secure loose edges of towel on top of lid, using a rubber band or masking tape.

Cook until pot begins to steam, 5–8 minutes. Reduce heat to very low and cook, without stirring, until rice is tender and bottom layer of rice is browned and crisp, 30–40 minutes.

Scoop rice into a wide serving bowl, breaking bottom crust into pieces.

DO AHEAD: Fruit and nut mixture can be made 2 days ahead. Cover fruit and nut mixture and remaining saffron mixture separately and chill

Garden fencing

Our sugar snap peas are already over my head and they’ll grow another 3 feet or so before their season’s over. Year after year people who walk by our house are fascinated by their height and how well they climb. Because so many people have asked about the wire they cling to, I thought it might be interesting to some of you as well.

Not only is this green PVC covered wire a great medium for our peas and beans to climb it’s also great fencing for unruly plants like potatoes. Before we plant our seeds we lay it down on the soil as a digging deterrent for squirrels and cats. Occasionally we’ll get a creative critter who can work around it but not usually. We surround our sunflower plants with the fencing when they’re young mostly for protection from wayward children and their toys. After the last of the garden has been picked it gets taken down, rolled up and saved for the following year.

As I was out taking a few pictures an Oregon Junko very conveniently decided to land on the fencing surrounding the sunflowers. It’s not the world’s greatest picture but I felt it necessary to add because of the coincidental nature of the situation.

In another week we’ll be eating the first of the peas and then for weeks we’ll have more of them than I know what to do with. Like last year, I will spam you with a multitude of photos and recipes that include them. Stay tuned.