Russelnod.com

Shells from 1 pound of shrimp
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 onion
Bay leaf, parsley stems, black peppercorns

Wash the shrimp shells and place in a 2-quart pot. Add the remaining ingredients and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat so the stock is at a slow simmer. Cook for one to two hours. Strain into a clean pot and bring to a boil. Reduce until the liquid is almost gone and the stock is brown and syrupy. Be careful not to scorch it. Stir in a pat of softened butter and some fresh thyme or chopped parsley and serve over grilled or broiled shrimp or fish.

Makes enough for 4 servings.

This is adapted from cookbook author Joanne Weir’s recipe. Make sure you start out with a large enough glass container as you will more than double the amount of liquid in it before you are done; a 5-gallon container works well. Or, divide the ingredients among several smaller glass jars. It is hard to predict how much you will get since there seems to be a “spillage and evaporation” factor, even when the containers are tightly covered. Because the vodka is diluted by the sugar syrup, you start with a 100 proof vodka. I have also seen recipes that call for grain alcohol, if you happen to have any on hand.

The bottling can be messy. I do everything in my sink or at my picnic table, which can be hosed down afterward.

15 organic lemons
1.5 liters 100 proof vodka
4 cups sugar
5 cups water

Wash the lemons with soap and water, scrubbing them well. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the lemon zest in large strips and place in the bottom of your container. Try to avoid getting any white pith as it is bitter. When you are done, cover with half the vodka. Close the container and place in a cool dark place for about 40 days.

After 40 days, make a syrup by heating the sugar and water until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let it cool and add it to the container with the rest of the vodka. Cover and let sit for another 40 days. Run your bottles through the dishwasher on a regular dry cycle or wash well in hot soapy water and rinse thoroughly. Strain some of the completed limoncello into a 2-quart pitcher, and pour into the bottles. Repeat as many times as necessary. Cork the bottles and wash the outsides thoroughly.

Traditionally, you store limoncello in the freezer and serve it ice cold by itself or over ice cream.

When I made this at home the day after the class, I ended up using organic milk that I had on hand, and the curds were very soft. I let them sit for 10 to 12 minutes and they still fell apart. I eventually was able to form them into a ball the size of a softball. The flavor was good.

A more detailed version of this recipe appears on Carroll’s Web site, www.cheesemaking.com.

¼ rennet tablet or ¼ teaspoon liquid rennet
¼ cup cool nonchlorinated water, plus an additional ½ cup
1½ teaspoons citric acid
1 gallon whole milk (not ultrapasteurized)
1 to 2 teaspoons kosher salt, sea salt or other large-crystal salt

Crush the rennet tablet and dissolve it in the ¼ cup cool water and set aside.

In a large pot, dissolve the citric acid in the ½ cup cool water. Stir in the milk, then heat to 88 degrees Fahrenheit over a medium flame. When it reaches that temperature, take the pot off the heat, add the rennet solution and stir gently for ½ minute. Allow the curds to set for 5 to 8 minutes. The curds will look like custard and the whey will be a yellowish liquid.

Cut the curds into 1-inch cubes with a knife that reaches to the bottom of the pot. Use four cuts: lengthwise, crosswise and two at 45-degree angles. Lift the curds into a microwaveable bowl and pour off the whey that forms. Microwave for 1 minute on high, then drain off any additional whey. Add the salt and knead quickly with a spoon or your hands to form a ball. Microwave for 35 seconds and work again. The curds will be hot; they need to reach 135 degrees internally in order to stretch. When they stretch like taffy and the curd is shiny, it is done.

Place the cheese in ice water until cool. Eat immediately or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Try sandwiches of mozzarella and fresh basil and tomatoes. In the winter, you might top some mesclun greens with mozzarella and drizzle it with olive oil and a few drops of balsamic vinegar.

You can form the curds into balls of different sizes. If you like, marinate them in good extra-virgin olive, chopped herbs, garlic, chopped chili peppers, etc. for a few hours. Use small balls for tapas or party appetizers.

You can also stretch the curds into a sheet. Place the sheet on a piece of plastic wrap and strew with your choice of basil leaves, oil-cured sun-dried tomatoes, chopped olives, roasted red peppers, chopped oregano, pieces of roasted garlic, prosciutto, etc. Roll jellyroll-fashion into a tight log, then wrap it well in plastic wrap and cool in ice water. Store in the refrigerator. To serve, remove the wrap and slice the roll crosswise.

Whey Ricotta 

You can make whey ricotta from the whey left over from your mozzarella. In a heavy pan, heat the whey to 195 to 200 degrees, stirring often. When the curds separate from the whey, remove the pan from the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Ladle the curds into a colander lined with butter muslin and drain for 20 minutes. Add salt or herbs.

Ricky Carroll says that you can add 1 quart of whole milk to the whey to increase your yield, which I plan to do the next time I make it.

Whole Milk Ricotta

Makes 1¾ to 2 pounds

Citric acid crystals — sometimes called sour salt — are available in the spice sections of grocery stores. My grandmother used sour salt in her sweet and sour cabbage soup.

1 gallon whole milk
1 teaspoon citric acid diluted with ½ cup cool water
1 teaspoon salt (kosher, sea salt or any other large-crystal salt)

Pour the citric acid solution into a stainless-steel or nonreactive pot and add the milk, stirring as you do. Heat the mixture to 195 degrees, stirring often to keep it from scorching. When the curds and whey separate, turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Line a colander with butter muslin. Ladle the curds gently into the cloth. Tie the cloth into a bag and hang over a bowl or the sink to drain for ½ hour or until the desired consistency is reached. Sprinkle the salt over the cheese and mix gently. The cheese is then ready to eat. It will keep for two weeks in the refrigerator.

Serves 6

Lamb shanks are always available at Whole Foods Market in Hadley and often in the other local supermarkets as well. A serving is one shank per person. Yes, it is a production, but it is delicious and worth the effort. It is a perfect dish for entertaining, since you get it ready before your guests arrive. It can sit for while, if necessary.

I usually cook the dish in a large turkey-roasting pan.

6 lamb shanks
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 bottle red wine (Merlot, Cabernet, Syrah or Zinfandel)
6 to 8 cups chicken stock
2 heads garlic
4 ribs celery
8 large carrots
2 large onions
1 pound mushrooms
Several sprigs fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Trim any fat from the lamb. Heat the oil in a frying pan over high heat. Brown the shanks, 3 or 4 at a time, over medium-high heat. As they are done, transfer them to the roasting pan. Take your time with this step. The results will be worth it.

Using ½ cup of stock, deglaze the frying pan and add the liquid to the roasting pan.

While the meat is cooking, prepare the vegetables: Cut each rib of the celery in half. Peel 4 of the carrots and cut into halves or thirds. Remove the loose, papery skin from the garlic bulbs and slice the bulbs in half crosswise. Remove the stems from the mushrooms. Reserve the mushroom caps separately from the stems.

Tuck the bay leaves, rosemary, carrots, celery and mushroom stems around the meat. Sprinkle with the peppercorns. Add the bottle of wine and enough stock to cover the meat. Bring to a boil on the stove. Place in the oven uncovered and cook for 2 hours, or until the meat is tender and almost falling off the bone. Turn several times during the cooking. The liquid will cook down. Add some stock if necessary.

When the meat is done, remove to a plate and cover to keep warm. Strain the liquid into a 2-quart pot. Keep 1 cooked carrot and 1 of the garlic heads. Degrease the liquid if necessary. Simmer until reduced by a third. Peel and cut the remaining carrots into 1-inch chunks and cook in the broth until done. Saute the mushroom caps in a little butter until cooked. Add whatever liquid is in the mushrooms to the sauce, but reserve the cooked mushrooms.

Squeeze the reserved garlic cloves into a small bowl and add the reserved carrot. Mash well and add some of the sauce to make a paste. Add to the simmering sauce and stir. This will help to thicken it without additional flour.

To serve: Place the lamb shanks in a large tureen, bowl or slope-sided platter. Place the sauteed mushrooms and carrot chunks around the sides and pour some of the sauce over the platter. Serve the rest of the sauce on the side. This is good with garlic-smashed potatoes, mashed white bean puree, mashed potatoes or baked potatoes.

Winter is here with a vengeance. With summer months away and a trip to warmer climes just not an option, your only solution is to fill the house with the smells of something delicious. Braising - cooking meat and/or vegetables in a flavored liquid - fills the bill like almost nothing else. Your kitchen is awash in fragrant steam and a comforting aroma seeps into the rest of the house. A braised dish is a perfect Sunday-afternoon dinner, although chicken, fish and vegetables can be braised in an hour or so, making them a good choice for the middle of the week as well.

Braises, soups and stews may seem the same, but there is a difference. For a soup or a stew, you cut ingredients into smaller pieces, submerge them completely in the cooking liquid and keep them submerged. For a braise, you typically use larger pieces and put them in a liquid that comes no more than halfway up the ingredients. As the ingredients simmer, the liquid cooks and tenderizes them, releasing flavors that enliven the broth.

Most of us think of braising meats like pot roast, short ribs, veal or lamb shanks and the like. Certainly most of my favorite braised dishes are beef- or lamb-based. But cooking vegetables in a little liquid, such as the cabbage dish below, gives them a sweetness that other quicker methods lack. Chicken, too, becomes moist and tender, and if the liquid is flavorful, a perfect foil for rice or couscous.

The technique of braising is pretty straightforward. If you are using beef or lamb, you typically select a tougher cut, such as brisket, chuck, short ribs, shanks and so on. Since these are less desirable, they are usually less expensive, offering the double payoff of good flavor and lower cost.

For the best results, brown the meat slowly and deeply. Whether or not you flour the meat, you want to season it with salt and pepper, plus any spices the dish calls for. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and saute the meat over a medium-high flame. If you are using pieces, don’t dump them in at once. Give the pieces some room; otherwise the meat will steam and turn gray and the dish won’t have as much flavor. Let the meat brown on one side before you turn it. Brown it thoroughly on all sides and remove to a plate. Then add more pieces until you’ve browned all of it.

If your recipe calls for sauteed onions, garlic and aromatic vegetables (carrots, celery, etc.), add them next. For maximum flavor, cook the onions first until they are as brown as you need, then add the vegetables. Stir the bottom of the pot to loosen all those brown bits and incorporate them into the vegetables. I like to add the chopped garlic at the very end and stir it just until you can smell the garlic cooking.

Stock, wine, beer and apple cider are all good liquids for braising. If you use canned stock, dilute it with some water or other liquid. If you use wine, you don’t need to add a $50 Barolo, but do use something you would drink, not the dregs of bottles that have been in your cupboard for months. Deglaze the pan by adding a half cup or so of your liquid. Stand back and let the steam rise, then use a wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula to loosen all those brown bits. Add your meat and other ingredients, pour in the rest of your liquid and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, turn down the heat and let it simmer slowly. A simmer is when small bubbles come to the surface, not a rolling boil. If you like, skim off the grayish foam that collects on the surface for a clearer finished dish.

You can simmer over a burner or you can braise in a 350-degree oven, which is my preference. The oven provides even heat and the ingredients are less likely to stick to the bottom and burn. You don’t have to peek and stir so often, which means you aren’t tied to the kitchen for the whole time. Plus, the heat of the oven will warm your kitchen.

If you are interested in braising, look at Molly Stevens’ cookbook “All About Braising.” She gives a good explanation of the method and covers the topic pretty thoroughly, from vegetables to chicken, fish and red meat. If you are stuck in a pot-roast rut, she includes recipes from Morocco, China and Thailand, as well as Europe and the United States.

Recipes

Braised Lamb Shanks

Moroccan Chicken With Green Olives

Originally published Daily Hampshire Gazette, December 28, 2007 ]

Serves 8

This is adapted from “All About Braising.” We got a jar of preserved lemons for Christmas last year and I am always on the lookout for dishes that use them. You can omit them if you can’t find them, but they are fairly easy to make. Rice or couscous makes a great accompaniment. I use whole-wheat couscous that cooks in 5 minutes.

You can make this with 8 chicken thighs or thighs and legs. You can omit the liver if you like, but it adds a little something to the sauce.

½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika (or Spanish smoked pimenton)
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
½ cup green olives (Pincholine, Cerignola, etc.), unpitted
1 3 ½-pound chicken
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
Coarse salt and black pepper
1 medium yellow onion
3 garlic cloves
¾ cup water
1 lemon
¼ cup chopped parsley or parsley and cilantro mix
1 whole preserved lemon

Mix the spices together. Cover the olives in cold water and let soak. Cut the chicken into 8 pieces. Cut off the back and wing tips and reserve. Heat the oil and butter in a large 4-quart pot and brown the chicken a few pieces at a time. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. The olives and preserved lemons add salt to the dish so you won’t need much additional salt, if any. Let the chicken pieces brown on one side before you turn them. Place the browned chicken on a plate covered with a paper towel.

Slice the onion and garlic into thin slices. When all the chicken is browned, pour off most of the fat and add the onion. When it begins to soften, add the garlic and cook until you can smell it. Add the spice mix and stir for a few minutes more. Pour in the water and deglaze the pot. Add the legs and thighs, the reserved backs and wing tips, and the gizzard, neck and liver. Cover and braise gently for 10 minutes. Turn the pieces and add the breasts and wings. Add the juice of half the lemon and half the chopped herbs. Cook for another 20 minutes.

Pit the olives: Press an olive firmly with the side of a chef’s knife until it pops. Pull out the pit. Most of the olives will stay together, but if some don’t, it’s OK. Rinse the preserved lemon quarters and scrape off the pulp. (You only use the peel of a preserved lemon.) Chop the peel into ½-inch pieces. Add the olives and lemon pieces to the chicken at the end of the 20 minutes. Remove the liver, put it in a small bowl and mash it with a fork.

Continue braising for another 15 minutes or so, or until the juices run clear when you pierce the chicken with a knife. Transfer the chicken pieces to a serving dish. Remove the backs, wings, giblets and neck and discard. Cover the chicken to keep it warm.

Add the juice of the other half of the lemon and the mashed liver to the sauce. Raise the heat and reduce the liquid slightly for about 5 minutes if it needs it. Add the rest of the herbs, spoon over the chicken, and serve.

Serves 6

This recipe is adapted from one by Elizabeth Terry in Fine Cooking. I find chicken breasts boring and often overcooked. This version keeps them moist and flavorful.

6 chicken breasts
6 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon water
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Combine the mustard, water, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover the chicken breasts with the mixture and let them sit for 20 minutes or so.

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
4 tablespoons melted butter
Salt and pepper

Combine these ingredients in a shallow soup bowl. Roll each chicken breast in the mixture and then place on a baking sheet. Bake the chicken breasts for 25 minutes, until they are brown and crisp. Turn down the heat if they are browning too quickly.

Serves 10 to 12

My wife’s friend Joan passed along this recipe from Paula Deen, a Food Network cook from Savannah. The result is sweet and sticky and utterly delicious.

1 loaf French country bread
8 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Dash salt

Cut the bread into 1-inch slices. Arrange the slices in two rows in a buttered 9-by-13-inch baking dish, overlapping them.

Combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, spices and salt in a large bowl and beat until well blended. Pour over the bread, making sure it flows over all the slices. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, make the

Praline Topping

1 stick butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the baking dish from the refrigerator and let sit on the counter while the oven is heating.

Combine the topping ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Top the casserole with the praline and bake for 40 minutes, until it is lightly browned and puffed up.

Serve with maple syrup, if you dare.

Bread Pudding

Serves 12

This recipe is adapted from Paul Prudhomme’s version. You can cut the sugar if you are using a country white, but leave that amount if you include a sourdough. I am not fond of nutmeg, so I generally use only the vanilla and cinnamon.

5 cups stale bread cubes
½ cup raisins
½ cup chopped pecans
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ cup melted butter
2 cups milk

Let the bread cubes sit overnight to dry.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the bread cubes with the raisins and pecans in a large bowl. Beat the eggs and sugar for several minutes. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and melted butter, then beat in the milk. Add to the bread crumbs and let sit for an hour or so, until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan, put in the oven and reduce the heat to 300. Bake for 40 minutes, then raise the heat to 425 and bake until the top is brown and the pudding is puffed up, about 15 minutes. Serve warm with lemon sauce, whipped cream, ice cream, etc.

When I told a friend I was writing about artisan bread, she asked what that was. “Any bread you can’t roll into a ball the size of a marble,” I answered flippantly. Actually, I wasn’t too far off. The term is used to refer to bread made by professional craft bakers — not the airy loaves produced by large production-line operations. The loaves contain flour, water, yeast or sourdough, and perhaps a few other ingredients, but no artificial leaveners or chemical preservatives.

Bread has been with the human race almost as long as we have been eating grains. The first breads were mixtures of ground grains and water, baked on hot rocks and unleavened. The discovery that bread could be made to rise, using either airborne yeasts or the yeasts left over from making beer, gave rise (so to speak) to the breads we commonly eat today. From Greek and Roman days, the whiter the bread, the more refined and hence expensive and desirable it was.

The search for whiter bread culminated in the Wonder Bread of the 1950s and ’60s. Pure white, airy, loaded with vitamins to replace those removed in the milling of the flour, and flavorless, Wonder Bread became the symbol of where our culture had gone wrong. The search for good bread began.

During this period, I ate dozens of dense brown loaves that might have been good for me but were decidedly not good to my taste buds. That’s all changed today. Artisan bakeries are springing up in virtually every city and town. The bread may be white or brown, but it is both good for you and tasty.

The artisan breads you’ll find these days have a few things in common. The ingredients are flour and water, a leavener such as yeast or sourdough, and salt. Add-ins may include olives, herbs, cheese, or dried fruits and nuts. Depending on the type of bread, there may be other flours, such as rye, and eggs and seeds. Whether the ovens are gas-fired or wood-fired, the resulting loaves are crusty on the outside and soft on the inside — and they taste like bread.

The chemistry of bread baking is fascinating and complex. Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking,” an indispensable reference for the serious cook, has a complete discussion, including electron microscope photographs of flour and gluten. Simply put, the proteins in wheat, called glutens, form long chains that hold the starches and the gas bubbles produced by the leavening agents. Kneading the bread causes the glutens to form regular chains that trap water and gas which help the dough rise. You don’t want this behavior in pie crusts, which is why you work these as little as possible to make a flaky crust.

In this area, there are the two grand dames, if you will, of artisan baking, BAKERY NORMAND at 192 Main St. in Northampton and HENION BAKERY at 174 North Pleasant St. in Amherst (www.henionbakery.com). Each offers a range of baguettes, country white, wheat and other specialty breads. I look for Henion’s corned rye, a dense rye bread.

In Amherst, there is also the new WHEATBERRY, 321 Main St., whose bread is also available at the CUSHMAN MARKET in North Amherst. In Northampton, HUNGRY GHOST BAKERY at 62 State St. offers wood-fired sourdough bread with serious crust. I especially like their 8-grain bread. I first had BREAD EUPHORIA’s bread at their stand at the Amherst Farmers market; its bakery is at 206 Main St. in Haydenville and is worth a stop. In Easthampton, there is SUNRISE PASTRY SHOP, 42 Cottage St.

And then there is EL JARDIN (www.eljardinbakery.com). The Holyoke-based bakery was started by Nuestras Raices, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable development in Holyoke, and it’s now owned by its former head baker, Neftal? Dur?n. El Jardin bread is available in many locations (Atkins Farms Country Market in Amherst, Serio’s in Northampton, McCusker’s Market in Shelburne Falls, Blue Moon Grocery in Easthampton) and is served at local restaurants, including Chandler’s in South Deerfield and Chez Albert in Amherst. El Jardin has just opened a cafe in South Deerfield at 265 Greenfield Road. The bakery proves that you can bake wood-fired sourdough in commercial quantities without having to compromise.

You typically buy artisan breads unsliced, which keeps the bread fresher. A serrated blade is best for slicing. The trend is for offset bread knives, shaped like Harry Potter’s lightning-bolt scar, which let you slice all the way through the loaf without hitting your knuckles on the cutting board. I have a great offset bread knife from Lamson & Goodnow, but these knives are available everywhere.

Smeared with butter for breakfast or dipped in olive oil at dinner, artisan breads need no other embellishment. The loaves tend to disappear quickly in my house so there is no need to store the bread more than a day. If a loaf does stay around longer, freshen it by sprinkling some water on it and reheating it in the oven. You can also use it for toast. Or you can cook with it. Here are some ideas:

First of all, there’s garlic bread. Toast the slices of bread, and at the same time melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan, adding an equal amount of olive oil. Mince or grate garlic to taste (I use about 7 cloves) into the butter and saute gently until the garlic is fragrant. Add some dried or fresh oregano, marjoram, hot pepper flakes and/or basil. Drizzle or brush the oil mixture over the bread. Top with some fresh-grated Parmesan and bake in a 400-degree oven or broil until the cheese is lightly browned. The same mixture, with less garlic and a little more oil, can be stirred into a couple of cups of bread cubes. Bake the cubes at 400 until they are crisp and use them as croutons in salads or soups.

Italian panzanellas use stale bread cubes as salad ingredients. Dip the bread into water, pat dry, then mix it into a tomato salad and dress with olive oil and vinegar. Add lettuce, cucumbers, onions and herbs to taste. Let the salad sit for 10 minutes or so before serving.

Soaking stale bread in a milk and egg mixture and frying or baking the resulting custard takes many forms. The French call French toast pain perdu, or “lost bread,” a much more poetic name for the perfect use for leftover bread. Challah, a Jewish egg bread usually served on Friday nights, is available in many local bakeries and makes superb French toast. You can vary the basic mixture, which is ½ cup of milk and two eggs, by adding cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg or allspice. Dip the slices briefly into the mix and saute over medium heat in a little butter.

The recipes that follow use artisan bread as ingredients. I haven’t given any recipes for bread. I’m not a baker and, besides, my goal is to get you to try the artisan breads that are available locally. Bon appetit.

Recipes:

Bread Pudding

Strata With Praline Topping

Bread-Crumb Baked Chicken Breasts

Originally published Daily Hampshire Gazette, September 28, 2007

Serves 4 to 6

This makes a thick soup that is mostly vegetables. Add more liquid if you want a thinner soup. Vary the herbs to your taste.

6 cloves garlic
1 medium yellow onion
Half of a head of cabbage
4 large carrots
1 cup corn kernels
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 can cooked kidney or cannelloni beans
3 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
¼ teaspoon dried rosemary or a small sprig of fresh
½ teaspoon dried marjoram or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh
¼ teaspoon dried sage or several leaves chopped
1 small dried hot pepper
Salt and black pepper
¼ cup pesto

Roughly chop the garlic and dice the onion. Cut the core out of the cabbage. Place the half cabbage cut side down on a cutting board and slice thin strips lengthwise. Cut the strips in half or in thirds, depending on their length. Cut the carrot into thin coins. Wash and drain the beans.

In a large pot, saute the onion in olive oil until it is just starting to color. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant. Add the cabbage and stir. Cook until the cabbage begins to color. Add the carrots and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes more. Add the herbs and stock and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the beans and simmer for another 15 minutes. Correct the seasoning.

To serve, place a spoonful of pesto in each bowl and ladle on the soup. Pass extra Parmesan cheese and serve with hot crusty bread and a good red wine.

Serves 3 to 4

You can serve the mussels over pasta, in which case they will serve four, or in bowls by themselves, in which case they will serve three adults. The mussels throw off a lot of liquid and the sauce will not be a thick tomato-y one. You can add tomato paste, herbs, wine or hot pepper to the tomato sauce if you like, but sometimes simple is best. Serve with crusty bread to mop up the sauce and a good red wine.

1 bag (2½ pounds) mussels
2 cups chopped tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley

Flatten the garlic cloves and saute in the olive oil until they are brown on each side. Remove. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes. You’ll know it is ready when you see drops of oil on the top.

Clean the mussels: Wash them, remove any beards and discard any mussels that are broken or open. Add to the tomato sauce and steam over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until the mussels are all open. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving. Discard any mussels that are still closed.

Serves 4 to 6

This is a Cajun specialty, pronounced “mockshoo,” that can be a side dish or, when stewed with chicken, shrimp or crayfish, a main course. The version below is for a side dish. If you have it, add the corn milk in addition to the milk. Many recipes call for a chopped tomato or two and omit the milk, but I like this version. If the corn is really sweet, you don’t even need the cumin.

2 cups corn kernels (defrosted and drained, if using frozen)
Half of a red bell pepper, cut in small dice
3 tablespoons butter
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
Salt and pepper

In a frying pan, melt the butter. When it is hot and foaming, add the corn. Saute over medium-high heat until the corn is slightly browned. Add the cumin and cayenne and ¼ cup of the milk and cook until the milk is absorbed. Add the red pepper and the rest of the milk and repeat. The bell pepper should still have some crunch to it. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 8 to 10 as an appetizer

I learned to make this soup at a cooking class at Sienna a number of years ago, and remembered it when I smelled a ripe cantaloupe and saw the Turkish yogurt at Maple Farm Foods. It’s best made with whole-milk yogurt. Using low-fat or fat-free yogurt is fine, but the soup won’t be as creamy. Add additional honey or peppers to taste. You might try using just half the pepper unless you like hot foods.

1 ripe cantaloupe melon
1 container Turkish or whole-milk yogurt
1 fresh jalapeno or Serrano pepper
3 tablespoons honey (or to taste)
Sliced almonds and mint or cilantro leaves for garnish

Slice the cantaloupe in wedges, then remove the wedges from the skin and cut them in 1-inch chunks. Place in the bowl of a food processor. Slice the pepper in half and remove the seeds and ribs. Dice in small pieces and add to the food processor. Process until the cantaloupe is smooth, then add the yogurt and honey and pulse a few times to blend.

Chill the soup and serve in small cups, garnished with a few sliced almonds and a leaf or two of mint or cilantro.

Serves 4 for dinner

I have a number of recipes for this dish. I like to pair fruit and meat so the version I make most often incorporates raisins or dried cranberries. You can make this with ground chilis or whole, and vary the hot peppers to taste. Mi Tierra has a good selection of hot peppers, which reminded me of the dish.

Picadillo is a refreshing change from the usual chili and it makes a great filling for tacos or wraps.

1 pound chopped beef or turkey
1 medium onion, minced fine
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground ancho chilis or 3 whole dried anchos or mulatos
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon hot Hungarian paprika or cayenne
½ bottle beer, preferably a dark amber beer
1 2-inch stick cinnamon, or ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cloves
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup raisins or dried cranberries
¼ cup sliced almonds

If you are using them, toast the dried chilis in a frying pan until fragrant. Tear them into pieces and let them soak for 20 minutes in hot water. Blend the water and chilis in the small container of a blender.

Heat the oil in a 2-quart saucepan and saute the onion until it is transparent. Add the chopped meat and saute until cooked through, stirring to break up lumps. Add the chilis, paprika, cinnamon and cloves and cook for a couple of minutes more. Add the beer and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. The liquid should be almost gone. Add a little more beer or water if the mixture dries out too much. Add the raisins and almonds and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Serve with warm soft wheat tortillas, chopped lettuce and tomatoes, grated Cheddar cheese, sliced onions and pickled jalapeno slices.

Beets stain. My stepchildren’s grandmother used to apply a touch of beet juice to her cheeks, or so the story goes. Be aware that your cutting boards and dish towels may turn red. But don’t let that stop you from eating beets. There is a reason that more sugar is processed from beets than sugar cane.

You can boil beets or roast them, but every recipe I have seen for roasting beets involves covering them in a pan, which steams as much as it bakes. I’ve given up and simply simmer them until a skewer pierces them easily. After they cool, the skins slip off and they can be sliced or diced and added to salads, perhaps with some fresh goat cheese and toasted walnuts.

Cut the tops off the beets, leaving about an inch of stem still attached to the beet. Leave the root on the other end intact. Wash the beets thoroughly and place in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until a skewer or toothpick meets just a touch of resistance when inserted. Small beets take about 20 minutes and larger ones can take 40 minutes or more. Remove the beets to a plate as they are done.

Peel them by slipping the skins off under running water. Cut off the ends. I usually cut them with a paring knife on a plate, which doesn’t stain. I have found that cutting thick slices into small chunks is easier than trying for perfect thin slices.

We like a salad made from spinach, toasted walnuts or pecans, beets, rings of red onion and goat or feta cheese. I sometimes sprinkle the juice of half an orange on the beets and let them sit for a half hour. Or, you can heat them with some butter or orange juice or use a lemon juice and sugar combination for Harvard Beets.

Since I buy radishes in large bunches, I am always looking for ways to use them. I tried a grated radish, apple and carrot salad that I found online. It was fine and the sweetness of the apple moderated the bite of the radish, but it did not look especially appealing. Then I remembered Joanne Weir’s cookbook “From Tapas to Meze.” She has a recipe for a Moroccan Carrot, Radish and Orange Salad that proved to be the perfect solution; a version of it follows. She also has a Beet, Orange and Walnut Salad, in case you have any leftover beets.

2 navel oranges
2 large or 5 baby carrots
12 small or 6 large radishes
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon orange flower water
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch cayenne or hot Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon confectioner’s sugar
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Peel the oranges, then slice the tops and bottoms off and, using a sharp knife, cut the peel and white pith off. It is easier than it sounds: Take your time and follow the curve of the orange. Slice the orange and cut into small pieces, removing any seeds. Put the orange and any juice into a bowl.

Cut the radish into thin slices. Cut the carrot into thin slices. If you are using baby carrots, cut on an extreme bias to make the slices longer. Add to the bowl.

Mix the juices, olive oil, orange flower water, cinnamon, cayenne and confectioner’s sugar in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add with the parsley to the bowl, mix well and serve.

It seems unnecessary to give a recipe for caprese salad: Slice tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, arrange attractively and sprinkle with chiffonaded basil and olive oil. However, while I think that the slices look great, they are hard to eat so I use chunks of tomato and mozzarella and add some additional ingredients.

1 bunch arugula
2 large ripe tomatoes
Half of a piece of fresh mozzarella
1 ripe avocado
Basil
Olive oil

Wash the arugula and tear in half if necessary. Add to a bowl. Cut the eyes out of the tomatoes and slice from top to bottom. Cut into wedges and cut each wedge into 2 or 3 chunks. Add to the bowl. Slice the mozzarella thickly and cut each slice into 6 or 8 pieces. Add to the bowl.

Cut the avocado in half. Leave the avocado in the peel and, using a paring knife, cut it into strips. Cut the strips into chunks. Run a soup spoon around the edge of the avocado and turn the skin inside out over the bowl. The chunks will drop into the bowl. Use the spoon to help them out, if necessary. Repeat with the other half.

To chiffonade the basil, stack about 8 leaves and roll them into a cigar shape. Cut across the roll to create ribbons. Add as much basil as you like to the bowl. Drizzle with good olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste and mix gently. Serve immediately.

Mix the following ingredients well. It makes enough for a whole chicken cut in pieces or two pork tenderloins. You can up the red pepper for more heat.

2 TBS black pepper
2 TBS white pepper
1 TBS Hungarian Hot Paprika (or 1/2 tsp cayenne)
1 TBS dried garlic pieces