Quesadillas De Flor De Calabaza

There are many wonderful things to eat in Oaxaca, Mexico, but one of my favorites was this simple quesadilla with squash blossoms.

This senora had set up shop on the sidewalk making quesadillas de flor de calabaza over a charcoal fire.

She pressed the masa dough using a handmade wooden tortilla press and cooked the tortilla on the comal.  After flipping the tortilla over, she added quesillo (Oaxacan string cheese), squash blossoms, and epazote (an anise-flavored herb).

She folded the quesadilla in half and turned it over on the comal a couple more times until heated through.

To finish the dish, she added a spoonful of salsa roja or salsa verde inside the quesadilla. Wonderful!

Radishes with Chèvre, Nori, and Salt

I was intrigued by the unusual combination of goat cheese and nori in this recipe from Jeremy Fox of Ubuntu Restaurant.

In this dish nori flavors the goat cheese, contributing umami and balancing the soft lactic acid in the cheese. The nori-enriched goat cheese contrasts nicely with the crisp, peppery radish slices and an assertive mustard dressing.

The other way I like to eat radishes is sliced thinly on an Acme baguette with unsalted butter and sprinkled with flakes of Maldon salt:

Recipe: Risotto of Fresh Peas and Pea Shell Infusion

I developed a recipe for the pea risotto I described in a previous post for those of you who are more comfortable working from more explicit directions. Enjoy!

Risotto of Fresh Peas and Pea Shell Infusion

2 pounds fresh peas, in the shell

1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cups arborio rice
1/3 cup parmesan cheese

Shell the fresh peas, reserving both the peas and the shells.

Roughly chop the pea shells. Microwave the pea shells in two batches in a glass bowl or dish for three minutes, adding 1/2 cup water to each batch. Add 4 cups water total and the salt to the pea shells and puree them in batches in a food processor or blender.

Line a colander or sieve with a clean dishtowel. Place the colander in a large bowl or pot and pour in the pureed pea shells. Allow the infusion to drain through the dishtowel for about two hours. Gently squeeze the towel to extract some additional liquid; you should have about five cups.

Saute the chopped onion in a saucepan over low heat until translucent. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains. Add two cups of the pea shell infusion and bring to a simmer, stirring occaisonally. Continue adding additional infusion, about a cup at a time, as the rice absorbs the liquid just until the rice becomes tender. If you run out of the infusion, just use water.

While the risotto is cooking, blanch the peas in boiling water for about two minutes. Drain the peas and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking.

Once the risotto is done cooking, gently stir in the parmesan cheese and peas. Serve. Enjoy!

Risotto of Fresh Peas and Pea Shell Infusion

One of the aspects of appreciation that Elizabeth discusses in "Kansha" is fully utilizing your ingredients and avoiding waste.

Fresh peas are a treat, but I've always been bothered by the disappointingly small yield. After shelling a bag of peas from my local farmer's market, I had 1/3 peas and 2/3 pea shells by weight.

So, what can you can do with the pea shells?

I decided to steal an idea from the wonderful "Peas & Shoots in Shell Consomme'" featured on an early June tasting menu at Ubuntu restaurant in Napa, CA:

Ubuntu's chef, Jeremy Fox, shows appreciation for the garden by using peas, pea tendrils, and a pea shell consomme' to create some complexity and interplay. We've got two forms of mint: fresh chocolate mint leaves and fresh mint oil. For me, the most unexpected elements of this dish were bits of white chocolate, which provided some creaminess and accented the sweetness of the peas, and some toasted chopped macadamia nuts to provide some crunch and a counterpoint to the brightness of the vegetables.

I found this dish to be the perfect expression of Spring. Jeremy nurtures and amplifies the pure flavors of the peas using exceptional technique and careful composition. In my opinion, Ubuntu is serving the most innovative and delightful food in the San Francisco Bay Area right now.

After enjoying the tasting menu at Ubuntu, I got a chance to talk to Jeremy and asked how he'd achieved such an intense and pure flavor in his clear pea shell consomme'. He generously explained the process, which turns out to be similar to making tomato water.

I wasn't interested in trying to replicate Jeremy's Pea & Shoots in Shell Consomme', but I decided to rework pea risotto using what I'll call a pea shell infusion.

I think Jeremy said that he blanched his pea shells. I believe this is necessary to denature the natural enzymes. Otherwise, I think the enzymes would go into overdrive after the food processor broke down the cell walls and incorporated oxygen. I didn't want to take the time to bring a pot of water to boil, so I just microwaved the peas shells in a covered bowl with some water. I'm also thinking that this minimal water approach would preserve more flavor than traditional blanching in a pot of water.

I pureed the pea shells with some water in my food processor, and transferred them to a towel lined sieve

And let the liquid drip through:

Resulting in the following.

Note that my pea shell water has a green tint compared to Jeremy's crystal clear rendition. I think this is due to my towel letting the fine sediment through. I probably would get a result like Jeremy's if I let it drip through a coffee filter, but I just didn't want to bother.

The pea shell infusion tasted wonderful - a clean, sweet vegetal elixir. I used the pea shell infusion in place of stock to create a bright, flavorful risotto. I added the blanched fresh peas and finished the dish with some shaved parmesan.

I love the contrast of the bright green peas against the white risotto and the surprise of discovering that the risotto itself tastes of peas. I think a stock-based risotto would tend to overwhelm the delicacy of the peas.

Click here for the recipe.

A final comment: I found it interesting that Elizabeth and Jeremy (neither of whom are vegetarian) profess similar motivations for their current work:
Elizabeth: "One of several important themes of [Kansha] is the variety and richness of a plant-based diet. Kansha is not about abstention -- doing without meat, fish, poultry, eggs or dairy. Rather, it is about abundance -- of grains, legumes, roots, shoots, leafy plants (aquatic and terrestrial), shrubs, herbs, berries, seeds, tree fruits and nuts. Further, kansha is about the clever and respectful transformation of natural resources into nourishing food."

Jeremy: "Celebrating the natural bounty of the earth, Ubuntu is less about a philosophy of no meat and instead a celebration of our own biodynamic gardens, what shows up at the door and relationships with the local farms in Napa. Chef Jeremy Fox looks forward to offering vegetable-inspired meals and supporting the local community while simultaneously presenting extraordinary, innovative cuisine to be enjoyed by both omnivores and herbivores.

http://www.ubuntunapa.com/

Prosciutto and White Rose Nectarines with Green Almonds

Browsing through my neighborhood farmers' market this morning, I discovered that one of the fruit vendors was selling green almonds. The botanical kinship between almonds and stone fruit is apparent when you see green almonds - they look like immature peaches:












I immediately thought of the cover of Judy Rogers' "The Zuni Cafe Cookbook."











With white nectarines in season, I decided I needed to try her recipe for "Prosciutto and White Rose Nectarines with Green Almonds."

Paring through the flesh of the green almonds with a knife brings you down to a thin shell and the nutmeat:

The green almonds are similar to blanched, raw almonds - which is what Judy recommends using you can't get green almonds. The green almonds have a soft crunch and some vegetal notes - I was thinking of very fresh, uncooked green beans.


Here's what Judy says: "The rose scent, faint bitterness, and long flavor of a ripe white nectarine reveals flavors in prosciutto that you can miss when you taste the ham with sweeter fruit... During the few weeks a year we can get them, I do like to serve this dish with green almonds. Pried from their fuzzy pods and painstakingly peeled, tender unripe almonds have as delicate flavor as I know, one that reads best against something savory rather than sweet."

Isn't that beautiful?

The perfumed, meltingly soft, honeyed white nectarines play off very interestingly against the salt and fat of the prosciutto. And the green almonds take the dish another direction with their soft crunch, nuttiness, and vegetal notes. A very interesting tasting!

Fresh Hijiki

At the Granville Public Market in Vancouver, British Columbia, I spotted fresh hijiki. I was surprised by how green the fresh hijiki was. Compare this to the black dried hijiki pictured below for the "Assorted Vegetables with Sun-dried Radish" recipe .

I don't remember ever seeing fresh hijiki in the U.S. or in Japan. The vendor said the hijiki had been harvested in the Vancouver area. The hijiki was crunchy and briny inside, like seawater. Unfortunately, I didn't think U.S. customs would let me bring a fresh sea vegetable into the country, so I didn't get to try cooking with it.