Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

These cookies are called cookies, but texture wise they're more like little cakes, soft and pillowy, not crumbly. Whatever you want to call them, they are delicious. They have a nice, tender crumb that's like a more cakey version of a sugar cookie -- only they're infused with lemon flavor.


This isn't the first time I've made these cookies, but the last time I made them was a year ago. Because I had a bunch of Meyer lemons (from making preserved lemons) on hand, I wanted to make them again. I had a small panic attack when I realized that I'd never posted about these -- I use this blog to store recipes I've tried and loved -- and who the hell knew where I'd gotten the recipe in the first place?!?! I beat myself up for about 10 minutes for being so careless as to not keep some sort of record for a recipe I'd loved, then calmed down and thought about it, and remembered. WHEW. Never doing that to myself again!


It was remembering the ricotta part that was key. If you search for "lemon cookies" on the Internet, a whole ton of stuff comes up. But if you search for "lemon ricotta cookies," the one I was looking for, by Giada De Laurentiis, pops right up. She even has an enticing little video to go with these.


They really are that simple to make. Most of the ingredients are ones you probably already have in your pantry and fridge, with the exception of the ricotta. Heck, maybe you have that lying around all the time too. I didn't, so I had to run out and get a tub.


I adapted the cookies slightly by using Meyer lemons, because that's what I had on hand, but I used regular lemons the first time and it was just as fabulous. In fact, if anything, regular lemons made the end result more lemony, maybe because they're not as sweet and subtle as Meyer lemons. I also accidentally made them healthier, because the recipe calls for whole-milk ricotta, and I thought I picked up a tub of that, but it turned out to be part skim. The good news? I didn't notice a difference at all. So yay, fewer calories and you don't have to pay the price in terms of flavor. (Don't worry, there's still plenty of "good stuff" in them to make them delicious!)


Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze (recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 15oz container whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested

Glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (using a stand or electric mixer), about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated.
4. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat to combine.
5. Stir in the dry ingredients.
6. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through, until slightly golden at the edges.
7. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.
8. While the cookies are cooling, combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Add more lemon juice, a few drops at a time, to thin if necessary.
9. When the cookies have cooled, spoon about 1/2-teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours before packing them into an airtight container.

Preserved Lemons

Preserved lemons are all the rage these days, with cookbooks and food bloggers singing its virtues to the heavens. Used primarily in Moroccan and North African cuisine, preserved lemons have finally come to the attention of the rest of the world, and foodies everywhere are discovering that this extremely versatile ingredient is making a huge difference in their cooking. Added to soups, stews, chicken salad, grilled seafood, and generally any dish where lemon might (or might not!) make sense. I recently had some delicious artisan olives that were marinated with preserved lemon. A little goes a long way, and when you add a bit of it to your dish, you get an extra dimension of flavor that makes people go "Wow."


You may have seen perserved lemons in gourmet grocery stores, but they're fairly pricey considering it's really nothing more than lemon in brine. However, those are ready to use immediately, whereas if you make your own you do have to wait a minimum of 3 weeks before they're ready to use. But homemade preserved lemons are just as good, cost much less (if you have a lemon tree, it's practically free), and if you make a jar (or more) of them, you'll have enough preserved lemons to last a year (at which time you'll want to make a fresh batch, anyway).


Traditionally, preserved lemons are made with regular lemons. In the foodie world, Meyer lemons are popular because they're thinner skinned and sweeter. The peel (with pith) is considered the desired end product, but many people use the flesh as well, particularly in soups and stews where it'll just disappear. The longer they've been preserved the saltier they are, so watch how much salt you add to the dish when using preserved lemons -- always taste!

There's no real recipe to making these beauties. Sterilize a glass jar by running it through the dishwasher (with your other dishes, of course, no need to waste that much water on one jar!) or boiling it, completely immersed in water, for 10 minutes. Quarter your lemons, but don't cut all the way through -- keep them attached at the stem. I've also seen people make one cut almost all the way through, then turn the lemon 180° and rotate it to the side 90° and make another cut there, so that it's almost like an accordion effect. Both methods are pictured here, pick the one you prefer:




Have a big bowl of kosher salt ready (I used coarse salt, but it doesn't need to be), enough for all your lemons. Open your lemon and stuff salt in. Open the other cuts and stuff salt in there as well.


Put the lemon in the jar. Repeat, gently but firmly smashing down the lemons in the jar as you go, releasing their juices, until you've filled the jar about 2/3-3/4 of the way. Top it off with some more salt.


Ideally you'll have enough juice to submerge all the lemons, but you probably won't. Meyer lemons, which are what I used, are super juicy, but I still didn't have enough juice to reach the top. Many people recommend then filling the jar up the rest of the way with extra lemon juice from spare lemons, or even water, but it's not really necessary. Eventually, the lemons will release enough juice to submerge themselves (or if they don't, after the 3-week period feel free to add more lemon juice). Topping it off at the beginning aids in the fermentation process so that you're able to use them sooner, so if that's a factor feel free to do so.


Keep your lemons in the fridge. About once a day (or more), shake your jar of lemons (making sure the lids are tightly closed first!), redistributing the brine and getting the lemons at the top in on the action.

After about 3 weeks, they'll be ready to use. Cut off as much as you need for your dish, then return the jar to the fridge. The lemons should keep for at least a year.

Homemade Spinach Pasta

It's been snowing... and snowing... and snowing in Seattle. I've pretty much been shut in my house for the last 5 days or so, which I suppose is what inspired me to finally do something I've been meaning to do for ages... make my own pasta. I guess it's always been an intimidating concept, despite having the pasta roller/cutter attachments to my KitchenAid mixer for years. And like so many things that seem daunting, in practice it wasn't at all. It was easy and fun.


You start with some basic ingredients: flour and eggs. My first batch of pasta was just a plain egg pasta; couldn't have been easier. It took 2 eggs and 1 cup plus of flour. I'm blogging about my second attempt, which was basically just like egg pasta, except you add spinach to create a lovely green pasta. Anyway, you start with a mound of flour, creating a well in the center, where you add the eggs. Start beating the eggs (and spinach) as you would scrambled eggs, adding flour from the sides of the well as you beat. Keep adding flour slowly, because depending on numerous factors you may not need the full amount of flour. You may also need more. If the dough is still sticky even after you've used up all the flour you began with, keep adding flour a bit at a time as you knead until the dough no longer sticks to your hand.

I based the recipe and method that I used on Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and Canal House Cooking Volume No. 7: La Dolce Vita. They're both wonderful and I recommend them highly. I particularly enjoy how Hazan flat out states her honest opinions on various ingredients and methods.

If you want to use spinach, you'll need about 10 ounces. Clean it thoroughly so that no trace of dirt remains, and remove the stems (or use baby spinach, as I did). Get a pot and place the clean, wet leaves inside, and cook over medium heat with 1 tbsp of salt. No other water is needed. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the leaves are tender, then rinse with cold water. Using your hands, squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible, then chop it up. It should be added to the flour well at the same time as the eggs.


Although I am a fan of using my mixer to knead dough, Hazan recommends doing it by hand, so I did. Immediately after incorporating all the starting ingredients, this is what I had. I continued to knead for about 8-10 minutes, in that time adding more flour. I started with 1 1/2 cups of flour; in the end I used about 2 cups. It all depends on the temperature and humidity of your kitchen, what kind of day it is, etc. You may use more or less.


What you want is a final ball of dough that's smooth and tacky but not sticky. The biggest mistake that people make when they make pasta at home is a dough that's too wet. A too-wet dough will be difficult to handle, and will also stick to your rollers/cutters, creating a mess to clean up.


What you need a lot of when you make pasta at home is -- space. Particularly if you're using a machine to roll and cut your pasta (which, unless you desire wider noodles such as tagliatelle or shapes such as orecchiette, I highly recommend -- you get a much more uniform result, and the pasta is thinner than a normal home cook would be able to create by hand), you're going to end up with some very long, thin sheets of pasta that need to be kept separate from one another.

First, you have to roll the pasta. Divide your dough into six parts (or three parts for every egg you used). Start the roller on the widest setting. Flatten out one of the portions of dough, then run it through the roller. Fold it into thirds as you would a letter, then press the dough around the folds so as to remove as much air as possible. Run it through again on the narrow end, fold into thirds again, and run through again, a total of three times. Lay the dough onto some dry paper towels and repeat with each portion of dough.


When all the portions of dough have gone through the widest setting, set the roller to the next setting up (narrowing the rollers). Run each sheet through. Keep going to the next setting until each sheet of pasta is the desired thickness (I stopped at the second to last setting). You'll notice as you run each sheet through the roller at the next-narrowest setting that they'll get longer and longer and longer, so make sure you have the space for them -- let them hang off the edge of your table if need be! For the ones that got really long (my dough portions weren't even), I ended up cutting in half with a sharp knife.


Once you've got your sheets of pasta at the desired thickness, wait for them to dry a bit -- this is particularly important if you want to store your pasta rather than using it right away. Hazan recommends waiting at least 10 minutes, but again it depends on your house/kitchen. I waited for about half an hour, flipping the sheets occasionally. You want the pasta to still be pliable, but dry enough that the strands/shapes won't stick together once they're cut.


Once you've reached that point, you're ready to cut! I made fettuccine. Because the dough wasn't too wet, it slid easily through the cutter, leaving no extra bits of dough behind. At this point, you can cook the pasta. Fresh pasta requires less time to cook than dry, and cook times depend on the cut. For my fettuccine, I cooked it for about 4-5 minutes to get it al dente.


For storing long noodles, Hazan recommends creating "nests" from several strands, so that they can be easily stored in an airtight container. Just let the pasta sit out at least 24 hours for the pasta to become completely dry -- otherwise it'll develop mold once you put it in storage. If you let it dry out properly, it will keep in your cupboard for months, just like store-bought dried pasta.


Be careful with the pasta once it's dry... it will be extremely brittle. According to Hazan, air drying is a natural process and the pasta will retain its original nutritional value and flavor once reconstituted (unlike what is marketed today as "fresh pasta" in the grocery stores, using artificial means to keep it soft and pliable). Fully dried pasta will take a little longer to cook than when using it fresh.

My birthday dinner. :-)

My birthday was actually earlier this month, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it. Sorry that some of the photos are blurry. Dark restaurant, evening, no flash, etc.

This year, I chose to go to Ethan Stowell's Staple & Fancy Mercantile, specifically wanting to order their "Fancy" chef's choice meal. All this means is that you hand your menu back to the server and the kitchen decides what you will eat that night, based, of course, on their best dishes. This obviously doesn't work for people who have food issues, but it's great for me!

It was the second time I'd been there and was very good. The only criticism I had was that the starters all seemed to come out in a rush (I would have liked some time to savor each dish), so we felt like we had to devour it all quickly because it seemed like the food was coming out really fast. However, after we ate the starters in a hurry, we then had to wait...and wait...and wait... for the next course! That was kind of WTF. It would have even been fine for it to come out that way had we been told by the server that it was perfectly OK to linger over the food, that we could take our time with it. But anyway, the food itself was superb. I would definitely do the "Fancy" meal again in a heartbeat.

Starters

Sliced baguette with olive oil and vinegar for dipping.


Rich and buttery green olives. I wish gourmet olives weren't so salty, but these were better than most.


Ahi tuna crostini. The perfect amount of flavor, creaminess, and crunch.


Thinly sliced beef tongue with a bit of salad garnish. Yummy.


Deep-fried oysters with chili aioli. There are few things I enjoy more than a deep-fried oyster. Mmmmmm.


A steaming bowl of clams in a wine broth and plenty of parsley.


Radicchio salad. I liked it initially, then it got too bitter. This was probably the dish that was liked least by our table, because none of us are big fans of radicchio.


Not pictured -- argh, I thought I had gotten photos of everything -- soft-cooked egg with white anchovy draped over the top. Delicious.

Pasta Course

Squash ravioli with little bits of squash and seasoned with brown butter and some cinnamon.


Seafood Entree

Grilled opah. This is the first time I've had this fish, which was a firm, white fish like cod.


Meat Entree

Roasted chicken breasts on a bed of pureed parsnip. Really tender and full of flavor.


Dessert

Chocolate boudino with whipped cream. Much lighter than regular pudding. Really wonderful.


Ricotta cheesecake with figs and saba. This is the best plain cheesecake I've ever had. So light and creamy, without the denseness that cream cheese gives, nor the sometimes unpleasant (at least to me) after flavor. The photo doesn't do it justice at all (it's a creamy white in reality), but then cheesecake doesn't really look fancy anyway. If all cheesecakes were like this, I wouldn't be iffy about them.

Baklava

I took the opportunity of Thanksgiving in the U.S. to make baklava for the first time. It was as many had told me -- much easier to make than it looks. I love the crispy phyllo dough and honey-drenched walnuts inside. The only true challenge was in not finishing the entire pan myself. Better still, baklava freezes well, so you can make a batch and enjoy it at your leisure. Or, I suppose, share it with others.


Simple though it is to make, there are a few things you can do to ensure a successful, not-soggy baklava. First, it's unnecessary to saturate the layers of phyllo with butter. A thin layer of butter suffices (but don't skimp, either). Toast the walnuts, or whatever combination of nuts you choose to use, beforehand. I've never encountered nuts in a recipe that wasn't greatly improved by toasting them first. Be sure to make the sauce first, so that it can be cooled while you're assembling the the baklava -- while you can certainly pour the sauce hot over the baklava, a cool sauce will help ensure that the phyllo stays crisp. Chop the nuts as fine as you can without turning them into powder. Finally, when you're cutting the baklava into triangles/squares, don't cut all the way down to the bottom, so the sauce soaks into more top layers. And yes, it is best to pre-cut the baklava. Once it's baked the phyllo will shatter at the slightest resistance, which makes for a much less attractive finish.


Just out of the oven.


After sauce as been poured over the top.
Full disclosure: This recipe was a bit sweet for me. I tend to like my sweets very easy on the sugar. Next time I'd probably make half the amount of syrup, or cut the sugar at least by that amount. I'd leave the honey as it is -- baklava should taste richly of honey.


Ingredients

• 1 8oz package phyllo dough
• 1/2 lb chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 tbsp honey

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the bottoms and sides of an 8x8-inch square pan.
2. Toast the walnuts for 10 minutes.
3. Make the sauce by boiling the sugar and water until the sugar is melted. Add the vanilla and honey, bring it to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Place this mixture directly into the refrigerator and get it cooling.
4. Toss the chopped walnuts with the cinnamon and set aside.
5. Unroll the phyllo dough. Cut the stack of sheets to fit your pan, or keep them intact and use the "fold over" method when layering (leaving the overhanging dough where it is, then folding over when a new layer is required).
6. Layer two sheets of dough into the pan, then brush with the melted butter. Make sure you get the edges. You may need to occasionally reheat the butter in the microwave to ensure a liquid consistency. Repeat this layering until 8-10 sheets are layered.
7. As evenly as possible, sprinkle 3-4 tablespoons of the walnut mixture onto a buttered layer of phyllo. Top this with two sheets of dough, brush with butter, then repeat with the nuts and keep layering. The top layer should be 8-10 sheets.
8. Use a sharp knife to cut the baklava into triangles or squares, nearly to the bottom of the pan.
9. Bake for about 60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
10. Remove the baklava from the oven and pour the cooled sauce over it, getting it into every nook and cranny.
11. Serve when completely cool.

Seastack Cheese

I recently bought a small wheel of my favorite cheese: Seastack, made by Mt. Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend, Washington, a great little place about 40 miles from Seattle.



This is very indulgent of me, because eating a whole round of this cheese by myself is so decadent! Usually it's part of a cheese platter meant to be consumed by many more people.



Seastack is a soft-ripened cheese, such as Brie or Camembert, but much more strongly flavored. It almost has hints of a bleu.



In terms of texture, the cheese is semi-lactic, so it almost resembles velvety goat cheese.



See how it's melty at the edges and firmer in the middle? This means it's at the perfect temperature to eat. I let it sit out for about 45 min after taking it from the fridge.

Serious Eats wrote about this cheese, and according to the writer, a New Yorker, Seastack is "one of the best American cheeses available." Because it's a small-batch local cheese, only those of us lucky enough to live in the Pacific Northwest get to eat it. :D "The flavor is mushroomy and even almost nutty -- seriously delicious." Needless to say... I agree!



I'd love to hear about cheeses you enjoy, both local cheese and ones that are nationally available!

Chicken Stew

This is a perfect stew to make during the in-between time of summer and autumn, when it's getting cold enough that you want to sit down in a pair of warm pajama bottoms with a bowl of hot stew, but still have the last of the fresh basil to finish from the garden. It's that time in Seattle already.


I love stew. Just saying the word can sometimes make me hungry. It connotes something warm, filling, and delicious, a concoction of all the things I like to eat. This is the first time I've ever tried making chicken stew, as I usually go for beef stew, but something about chicken stew called out to me, so I had to make it.


In my mind, I wasn't thinking the stew would have a tomatoey base, but this was a very highly rated recipe by Giada De Laurentiis -- and now I know why. It's fantastic, and hit just the right spot. I used chicken leg quarters instead of breasts as the original recipe called for, and I wasn't sorry at all. The only thing about the recipe is that it calls for fresh basil, which is a bit odd for a stew. Not that it's not good, but basil is a summer herb for most people and stew isn't usually something people crave when the sun's beating down on them during those hot summer months. In the wintertime, unless you have an indoor herb garden you'll probably have to make do with store-bought basil, or simply leave it out.

Chicken Stew (recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 stalks celery, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 large carrot, or 2 small, peeled, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 small onion, chopped
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 14.5oz can chopped tomatoes and diced green chilies
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 3 chicken leg quarters, skin on
• 1 15oz can organic kidney beans, drained (rinsed if not organic)

Method

1. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven (or other heavy pot) over medium heat. Add the celery, carrot, and onion and saute the vegetables until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
2. Stir in the tomatoes with their juices, chicken broth, basil, tomato paste, bay leaf, and thyme. Add the chicken; press to submerge.
3. Bring the cooking liquid to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently uncovered until the chicken is almost cooked through, turning the chicken over and stirring the mixture occasionally, about 25 minutes.
4. Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a work surface and cool for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaf.
5. Add the kidney beans to the pot and simmer until the liquid has reduced into a stew consistency, about 10 minutes.
6. Discard the skin and bones from the chicken legs. Shred or cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Return the chicken meat to the stew, then bring the stew just to a simmer. Ladle in bowls and serve.