I have never really thought of myself as a hippie.  I do not wear birkenstocks, I do not own anything tie-dyed, I am hopelessly addicted to Gossip Girl.  Pretty un-hippie-ish, if you ask me.  And yet, one Sunday, I felt this inexplicable tug, whispering into my ear, “homemade granola.”

Um, excuse me?  Homemade granola?  Seriously?

But that little whisper became a craving, and soon I was sitting over a bowl of oats, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and farmer’s market honey and maple syrup.  And you know what?  I was a pretty happy little wannabe-hippie.

Because this stuff is really, really good.  So good that I’m shocked at how quickly it was eaten — let’s just say that “breakfast for the week” soon became “after dinner snack.”  And by Wednesday, I was back to eating instant oatmeal at my desk, because my lovely bag of homemade granola was a (fond) memory.

I will also say, that if you are looking for healthy breakfast options on a budget, this recipe is about as good as you can get.  I bought oatmeal, raisins, cashews and pumpkin seeds from bulk bins at my favorite health food store, and I think all together they cost about $2.  And, a quick note on maple syrup — I buy Grade A Dark Amber syrup from the farmer’s market to use for baking, and it has an incredible strong maple flavor. If you can get your hands on a bottle of it, definitely give it a try!

In fact, give this whole recipe a try. It’s worth embracing your inner hippie.

Honey Maple Granola

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup chopped cashews
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
4 tbsp maple syrup (I use “Grade A Dark Amber” maple syrup in baking)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup raisins

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients except the raisins.
3. Spread out the granola on a baking sheet lined with silipat, or on a nonstick baking sheet.
4. Bake the granola for about 30 minutes, stirring every 8 minutes or so. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and store in an airtight container for up to two weeks (if it lasts that long!).

Makes about 2 cups of granola.

My family goes to the same spot in Jamaica every year, and my dad always tells us that he swears the restaurant at the resort we stay at puts something in their chocolate cake to make it completely addictive. He might be right, because I always find myself going back for an extra bowl or four. Finally, after several years of listening to this, I asked one of the waiters what was in the cake my dad raves so much about.

He kind of laughed, and told me that it was actually a chocolate and tia maria cake. No wonder it was so addictive. But it speaks to a fundamentally true dessert concept: while chocolate is good, chocolate, coffee and liqueur are great.

Well, I have managed to turn my dad’s favorite dessert into a chocolate mousse. And I’ve realized, now, what my previous mousse recipes were lacking, and what made them go wrong: they needed several very generous splashes of liqueur.  Ok, well, maybe that couldn’t have saved all of my previously chronicled mousse failures, but it was actually a large part of the texture problem. The chocolate section of the recipe needed something to make it a little bit lighter, so that it could incorporate itself into the egg and cream without deflating them: water and liqueur.

I didn’t figure this out entirely on my own, though. My DVR helped quite a bit, because it happened to record an episode of America’s Test Kitchen, which is pretty much my favorite cooking show, and in that episode, they tackled chocolate mousse.  With this knowledge, and adding a few of their tweaks to my prior recipe, I was ready to boldly go where I’d never (successfully) gone before.

But, if I do say so myself, this one knocked my expectations out of the park.  It was just incredible.  I served the mousse in pretty little dessert cups at the end of a great dinner party, and everyone loved them. And now that I have the basic principles down, there will be plenty more chocolate mousse recipes where this one came from — it’s a perfect dish to entertain with because it’s made ahead of time, and everyone loves chocolate. But don’t take my word for it — go make it yourself!

Chocolate Mocha Mousse

INGREDIENTS:
For the Chocolate Mocha Mousse:
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tablespoons tia maria
1 tbsp butter
4 tbsp water
3 eggs, separated
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp sugar

For the Whipped Cream:
2 tbsp tia maria
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp chocolate shavings

DIRECTIONS:
1. Combine chocolate, butter, cocoa powder, 4 tbsp water water and 3 tbsp tia maria in a double-boiler, and heat until chocolate melts to a smooth consistency.
2. Remove from the heat and let cool until the chocolate warm, but not hot.
3. Beat together the egg yolds and 1 tbsp of sugar. Stir a little bit of the warm chocolate into the egg yolks, and then stir all of the egg yolk mixture into the chocolate.
4. In another bowl, beat the egg whites and one tablespoon of sugar until they form soft peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
5. Beat one cup of heavy cream until it forms soft peaks (do not overbeat!). Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture.
6. Spoon the mousse into serving dishes. Refrigerate the dishes, covered with saran wrap, for at least 8 hours or up to one day.
7. Immediately before serving, whip 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1/4 cup sugar to soft peaks. Beat in 2 tbsp tia maria until incorporated. Spoon a dollop of whipped cream onto each of the mousse dishes, and garnish with chocolate shavings. Serve.

Makes about 10 small-ish servings, or 6-8 medium-sized ones.

At the farmer’s market this week, I overheard two girls standing over a pile of ramps, asking each other what they were and what to do with them.  And I didn’t want to butt into their conversation, but I really hope those two girls read this blog, because I humbly suggest that the perfect way to serve ramps this spring is sauteed whole with shallots and olive oil.  

But that didn’t answer their first question — what are ramps?  Since I can’t just refer to them as “yummy things that grow in the earth in springtime” without being a little bit more specific, here goes.

Ramps are tiny, delicate, thin spring onions that are sometimes known as wild leeks.  According to Wikipedia, they’re especially popular in the state of West Virginia and the province of Quebec. Seriously. (Who writes this stuff?)

But those West Virginians and Canadians are onto something, because they are absolutely delicious. Wild-tasting and incredibly fresh, I could barely photograph them before popping each stalk into my mouth.  I didn’t eavesdrop for too long, but I really hope those girls bought a bundle or two — it doesn’t get any more fresh and seasonal than these.

Sauteed Ramps and Shallots

INGREDIENTS:
2 small bunches of ramps (around 1/2 pound, I think)
2 large shallots, peeled and cut into slices
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat a medium sized saute pan over medium-high heat, with the olive oil, for about 4 minutes, or until oil is almost smoking. Add shallots to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes, or until caramelized on one side (try not to stir too much).
2. Add ramps to the pan and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until leaves have wilted and cooked down, and stalks are tender. Remove from heat and serve.

Serves two.

 

 Scallion Pancakes Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (238)

You’ll have to indulge me while I yield to my host-my-own-cooking-show fantasies. 

And, ok, I am new at this. You’ll notice that parts of the video are a little choppy — that’s where I had to edit out my saying “um” because I was nervous. You’ll also notice that there’s a somewhat conspicuous dog toy on the ground underneath my feet, and you might also notice that my dogs’ food and water bowls make standing at the stove pretty awkward. For my next video, I’ll definitely remove all traces of household animals from the cooking show.

You’ll also notice that when I have said that I have a small Manhattan kitchen, I was not joking! It is teeny tiny. And finally, see that three foot tall plant on the stairs? That is one of my cherry tomato plants, grown from seeds in about eight weeks! I am quite proud of them, so although they have nothing to do with this recipe, I wanted to point them out.

On to the scallion pancakes. These are really yummy, and so simple!  I bought scallions at the farmer’s market, and wanted to find a dish that would show them off — these fit perfectly! I debated whether to post this recipe, or just to post the video, but I’m going to do both this time.

The video takes a few minutes to load, so you can a) go back to whatever else you were doing before you came to my site, or b) open up a new window and check out some of my other recipes while you wait!  I know, I know… I am totally shameless.  

One last small update — anyone who had trouble printing a recipe in the last few weeks, I finally got the Print program fixed.  The “Print This Post” button should be working again!  

Ok, now go watch my video!

Scallion Wheat Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch of fresh scallions, chopped (about 1/2 cup of scallion pieces)
1 tbsp canola oil
1 cup 100% whole wheat flour
1 cup water (you may need less water if your whole wheat flour is newer than mine!)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Salt
Canola Oil, for pan frying (about 1/3 cup)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Saute the scallions over high heat in 1 tbsp canola oil for about one minute and set aside.
2. Mix flour, water, sesame oil and salt and stir to combine. Stir in the scallions.
3. Heat about 1/3 cup of canola oil for pan-frying the pancakes. Drop the batter into the heated pan, using about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. When the edges of the pancakes begin to solidify and darken, flip the pancakes (about two minutes per side). When fully cooked, remove the pancakes from the heat and let cool on a wire rack.
4. Serve plain or drizzled with soy sauce or sesame oil.

Makes about 10 medium-small pancakes.

For those of you reading this with a feedreader, you’ll have to go to the actual site to watch. Click here!

This post has been in my “drafts” folder for almost a week, but I didn’t want to post it because I felt like I owed you guys an at least somewhat sweet recipe, since my last dessert was in March! But, with that out of my system, I am equally excited about this seared scallop salad.

And for you to fully appreciate this salad, I have to tell you a very cute story. It involves the farmer’s market, and an adorably hungry dog. Now, the fish stand at our farmer’s market is so popular that if you show up anytime after about 11 am, the only things left are scallops, mussels and cod. All of which I like! But it sometimes hurts to see their whiteboard of delicious fish options, 90% erased by the time I make my way down to Union Square.

But, as I was waiting on line one Saturday, suddenly this dog in front of me got up on its back paws and pressed his little nose up to the front of the fish case. As the poor owner was trying to get the (rather large) dog to pry its face away from the plastic divider, the man behind the counter plucked a scallop out of his bowl, and tossed it to the dog, who greedily chomped it down. Too cute! And, I thought to myself, “if that dog can get that excited about scallops, then I can find something really lovely to do with them (that does not involve eating them raw in one bite).”

I decided to try some of the artisan greens that were available, and they were very different from what I expected! Corn shoots, which are the long, straight, very light greens in the salad, were intensely flavorful and just burst in your mouth — different from any lettuce I’ve ever eaten. The other greens in the salad are white pea greens, pea shoots, and buckwheat greens, and there are some sunchokes thrown in because you know how much I love them.

In other news, I am very excited to announce that two blogs that I like a lot have given me awards (although I feel like I don’t deserve them after steering two people astray with the muffin/large loaf debacle)! Elle and Sarah have given me, respectively, the “E for Excellent” and “Blogging with a Purpose” blogging awards! Which means that I get to pass them on — and honestly, there are too many wonderful food and cooking blogs out there to choose from, and new ones popping up all the time! But here are a few of the blogs whose entries I am always excited to see:

Seared Scallop Salad

INGREDIENTS:
1 pound large scallops
2 tbsp olive oil
2 sunchokes, peeled and chopped into matchstick slices
1 pound mixed artisan greens (I used corn shoots, pea shoots, white pea greens, and buckwheat greens)
2 tsp mustard
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper

DIRECTIONS:
1. Salt and pepper the scallops and set aside.
2. In a large frying pan, heat olive oil until nearly smoking. When pan and oil are hot. add scallops to the pan, being careful not to overcrowd them. Sear for about 2 minutes per side, turning once. Don’t move them around when they’re on the pan, except to flip them once!
3. Remove the scallops from the pan and set on a paper towel to cool.
4. Whisk together mustard, vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and salt and pepper, as desired. Dress the greens and sunchoke slices with the dressing and set them onto plates. Place the scallops on top of the greens, about 4 or 5 scallops per plate.

Serves four, as an appetizer.