Strawberry rhubarb sorbet

Ali and I have gotten in a rhythm of making sorbet or ice cream every week or so, as that's how long it seems to take for our ice cream maker bowl to fully freeze. This past Saturday we found it frozen again, and the timing couldn't have been better – a heat wave was sweeping the city, leaving us sweltering in 100 degree heat. This strawberry rhubarb sorbet, taken from the pages of David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop, was the perfect antidote.


STRAWBERRY RHUBARB SORBET

1 qt strawberries
3 stalks rhubarb, trimmed
1/3-1/2 cup sugar, to taste
2/3 cup water

1. Cut the rhubarb stalks into 1/2 inch pieces and quarter the strawberries.
2. Combine rhubarb and water in a pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and cook for five more minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
3. Combine rhubarb, water, and strawberries in food processor; purée until smooth. Put mixture in the fridge for thirty minutes, then freeze in your ice cream maker.

The best turkey burgers ever

There's something magical about showing up at the Union Square Greenmarket without a shopping list or a recipe in mind. The trip becomes a type of foodie dérive, and we are able to wander the stalls, drooling over the freshest, most local produce in New York without the premise of a specific search. At some point, the things we covet come together on their own and become a meal.

This past Saturday that meal was turkey burgers with Austrian fingerling potatoes and peas. We picked up fresh tomatoes, potatoes, and peas, still in the pod, from a few different Jersey farms, and we got organic jalapeño cheddar and whole-wheat sourdough rolls from Hawthorne Valley Farms, which is upstate in Columbia County. The turkey meat is from Trader Joe's, seasoned with a marinade I came up with on the spot. Most of its components are interchangeable; for the best turkey burger, the cumin is not.


THE BEST TURKEY BURGERS EVER

Time: 20 minutes, plus 30 minutes to marinate

1 1/3 lbs ground turkey
1 1/3 tbsp cumin
1 tsp hot paprika
1 jalapeño pepper, finely diced
1 tbsp garlic, finely diced
1/2 tbsp ginger, finely diced
1 cup teriyaki sauce (we used Soy Vey)
salt and pepper to taste
a few tomato slices
a few leaves of spinach
garlic mayo (add 2 tbsp minced garlic to 3 tbsp mayonnaise)
organic jalapeño cheddar cheese
caramelized onions

1. Put ground turkey in a ziploc bag with salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, jalapeño, garlic, ginger, and soy vey. Shake vigorously, then let marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
2. Shape meat into four patties, then cook in a skillet until well-done. A grill might be even better, if you're fortunate enough to have one.
3. Serve burgers on whole-wheat sourdough rolls, and top them with jalapeño cheddar, tomato, spinach, garlic mayo, and loads of caramelized onions.

Yield: 4 servings


SMASHED BAKED POTATOES
(inspired by this recipe from The Pioneer Woman)

Time: 15 minutes, plus 25 minutes in the oven

6 fingerling potatoes
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
rosemary

1. Boil potatoes in well salted water until slightly tender.
2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Drizzle oil on a baking sheet, and lay the potatoes out on it.
3. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, and rosemary, then bake for 20 minutes or so.
4. Finish the potatoes under the broiler for 2 minutes or until the tops have browned to your liking.

Yield: 2 servings


FRESH PEAS WITH SHALLOTS, TARRAGON, AND BUTTER

Time: 10 minutes

1 qt fresh peas
2 shallots
2 tbsp minced tarragon
1 tbsp salted butter
salt

1. Shell the peas (make sure to eat a few right out of the bowl).
2. Sauté the shallots in butter until they start to melt a little. Add the peas and cook for a minute or two, just until the color starts to turn. Add salt and tarragon, then serve.

Yield: 2 servings

Nested eggs benedict

For most of my life, I ate eggs two ways: scrambled, or in an omelette. I've always hated hard-boiled eggs, which seem like another (lesser) food altogether, and I have to admit I was afraid of them sunny side up or poached. In the last few years, however, I've come to enjoy them both of those ways, but it's only recently that I've tried making them myself. I fried my first egg a few months ago, and have quickly become comfortable enough to serve up lightly fried quail eggs atop the second iteration of my warm fava bean salad.

But I hadn't tried to poach an egg until this week. I scoured the internet for advice, and I probably would have gone with the plastic wrap method if I weren't worried about dropping potentially toxic plastic into a pot of boiling water with my dinner. Then, I thought to ask my dad, who said the trick is in the vinegar – adding enough of it to the water that the egg doesn't separate – and in sliding the egg into the water with a gentle touch.

I followed his advice as I set out to deconstruct a dish that somehow I've never actually eaten. I'm no fan of Canadian bacon, generic English muffins, or hollandaise sauce at brunch, so I've so far managed to steer clear of eggs benedict, though I'm sure there's an intriguing version somewhere nearby waiting to be eaten in the near future. Still, I thought that I could take the elements that do attract me – the poached egg in butter atop some carbs – and turn them into an appealing and easy dinner.

What could be more natural than an egg in a nest? So I cooked up some whole-wheat spaghetti, swirled it in a sauté pan with a little butter, salt, and freshly ground pepper, and piled it on the plate. The poaching went as smoothly as I could have hoped for, and I placed an egg inside each little nest and topped it off with a flurry of parmigiano reggiano. A quick sauté of organic baby spinach with olive oil, onions, garlic, and a hearty shake of the compelling but unidentified spice mix Jon's mom brought back from Istanbul was perfect on the side, as a sort of improvised "florentine" accompaniment.


NESTED EGGS BENEDICT

Time: 20 minutes

1/4 package Trader Joe's whole wheat spaghetti
2 eggs
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp salted butter
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
parmigiano reggiano


1. Add 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar to a large pot of water and heat until it's just about to boil.
2. Break eggs one at a time into a small dish and carefully slide egg into the water. Cook for about 2 minutes, then carefully remove and let the water drain off the outside of the egg.
3. At the same time, cook spaghetti until it's al dente. Heat butter in a skillet. Drain the pasta, reserving a bit of cooking water, and add pasta and cooking water into skillet with butter. Season with salt and pepper, then plate with the egg.
4. Grate parmigiano reggiano over the dish to taste.

Yield: 2 servings

Kimchi pancakes and spicy Korean pickles

We both love Korean food, but we don't eat it too frequently because our favorite spot to get it, Bonjoo, is not that inexpensive – and because of all the meat and white rice that tends to show up on our table there. Neither of us had ever cooked Korean food, though we've been enamored of gochujang chili paste for a while now, but I was craving the flavors of the transected peninsula, and we had a veritable jug of kimchi that had started to leak in the refrigerator.

This was really one of those moments that makes me appreciate the internet. By what other means could I uncover a slate of Korean family recipes to try and replicate in my own kitchen after searching for only a few minutes? I came across Kitchen Wench, where Ellie Won posts gorgeous photos of her cooking, and her exciting stash of family recipes for some of the most inescapably intriguing dishes in the cuisine. Jon and I have been pondering the process of fermenting our own kimchi for a while now, and I have a feeling it's Ellie's recipe we'll turn to when the time is right.

One of my nicknames for Jon is "Kimchi Jon" – since the pancakes we relish are transliterated as kimchi jeon, and since kimchi is one of his favorite foods – so I couldn't resist starting there, incorporating our maturing cabbage into a healthfully whole-wheat batter.



I've always loved the spicy cucumbers that often arrive among the banchan presented with your meal at a Korean restaurant, and I figured that with enough chili powder, salt, and vinegar, even Jon would eat these kirbies, despite his innate disrespect for the vegetable. This recipe came from Merril, at Food to Savor, and I'll definitely be returning to her site for more ideas. We snacked on these pickles all night and the next day at lunch. Jon actually just broke out the last of them now for a snack while he watches the Lakers game.


WHOLE-WHEAT KIMCHI PANCAKES

Time: 20 minutes

1 cup kimchi, liquid squeezed out and diced
1/2 white onion, finely sliced
freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 - 2/3 cup water
Sunflower, olive or any other mild-flavored oil for frying

1. Put the kimchi in a bowl, season with freshly ground black pepper and garlic. Add the gochujang and onion and mix together until evenly combined.
2. Add the flour and egg and mix altogether, then slowly add the water, stirring briskly after each addition. Stop once the batter has thinned a bit but isn’t quite as thin as normal pancake batter.
3. Heat up some oil in a large skillet/frying pan over low-medium heat, and once it’s hot, pour a ladle of batter into the pan in the shape of a circle, using the back of the ladle to spread out the mixture and thin out the pancake (you want a nice thin pancake to get a good ratio of crispy outer to soft inner).
4. Once the edges have set and the bottom is nice and crispy, carefully flip the pancake and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Place the pancake on a plate lined with paper towels, allow it to drain, and slice into squares before serving.

Yield: 2 large pancakes – serves 8 as an appetizer, 4 as an entrée.


SPICY KOREAN PICKLES

Time: 10 minutes prep, 15 minutes to sit

5 seedless kirby cucumbers
1 tbsp salt
1/4 cup rice vinegar
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Korean red pepper flakes (not the American kind)
1 1/2 tbsp gochujang red pepper paste
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1. Slice cucumbers into the thinnest discs you can manage.
2. Put cucumber slices in a bowl and sprinkle salt over them. Mix the cucumber slices around so salt is evenly distributed. Let sit for at least 15 minutes.
3. Add all remaining ingredients. Toss cucumber slices to distribute ingredients evenly.
4. Taste; add more salt/vinegar/garlic/sugar as desired.

Spinach and strawberry salad

I've made this salad a few times this week, and Jon can't seem to get enough of it. Yet when I told my mom I was making a spinach and strawberry salad, she couldn't quite wrap her mind around the combination. These spring stalwarts are actually a delightful pairing, especially with a quick balsamic vinaigrette to bring them together. If my mom would try it, I'm sure she'd fall in love -- and so will you.


SPINACH AND STRAWBERRY SALAD

Time: 10 minutes

1 package organic baby spinach
1 pint perfectly ripe strawberries (organic if you can find them -- we couldn't this week)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
parmigiano reggiano


1. Cut the tops off the strawberries and slice them as thin as possible. Add them to serving bowl with washed spinach and sprinkle lightly with salt.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste.
3. Dress the salad, then shave some parmigiano over the top.

Yield: 4 servings

Sweet potato gnocchi

We've been salivating over this recipe for sweet potato gnocchi since we came across it a few weeks ago, and we decided to dedicate Saturday night to churning out bright orange pillows of deliciousness.

It was easier than we expected to make way too much gnocchi to feed the two of us, so after we played with dough and ate the first results on Saturday, we had two friends over the next night to help us eat the rest of it. Both times, we sautéed the gnocchi in brown butter with sage, but the larger crowd of night two necessitated a trip to the oven for warming -- which resulted in a delightfully crisped exterior worth replicating even when we cook up smaller batches in the future.

We tried twice this weekend to make homemade ricotta according to the recipe from the Times, since it seemed to be the zeitgeist thing to do, but failed both times to achieve the right texture in the final product. It smelled fine and tasted not-awful, but it was way too rubbery. So we resorted to local, organic ricotta from Whole Foods -- theoretically the next best thing. It added the necessary lightness to our dough, and was perfect dolloped atop a plated mound, a deep-fried sage leaf nestled in its peak.


SWEET POTATO GNOCCHI WITH BROWN BUTTER AND SAGE

2 large red-skinned sweet potatoes, rinsed and patted dry
1 1/2 cups fresh ricotta cheese, drained in sieve, plus 1/2 cup for garnish
1 cup grated parmigiano reggiano, plus more for garnish
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 stick butter
6 tbsp chopped fresh sage plus whole leaves for garnish

1. Place sweet potatoes on plate; microwave on high until tender, about 5 minutes per side. Cut in half and cool. Scrape sweet potato flesh into medium bowl and mash; transfer to large bowl.
2. Add ricotta cheese; blend well. Add Parmesan cheese, brown sugar, salt, and nutmeg; mash to blend. Mix in flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, until soft dough forms.
3. Turn dough out onto floured surface; divide into 6 equal pieces. Rolling between palms and floured work surface, form each piece into 20-inch-long rope (about 1 inch in diameter), sprinkling with flour as needed if sticky. Cut each rope into 20 pieces. Roll each piece over tines of fork to indent (or leave them smooth and simple). Transfer to parchment-covered baking sheet.
4. Bring large pot of water to boil; add salt and return to boil. Working in batches, boil gnocchi until tender, 5 to 6 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 250°F. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until butter solids are brown and have toasty aroma, swirling pan occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add chopped sage (mixture will bubble up). Turn off heat. Season sage butter generously with salt and pepper.
6. Transfer half of sage butter to large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add half of gnocchi. Sauté until gnocchi are heated through, about 6 minutes. Empty skillet onto baking sheet; place in oven to brown. Repeat with remaining sage butter and gnocchi.
7. Divide gnocchi and sauce among shallow bowls. Garnish with ricotta, more grated parmigiano, and sage leaves.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Baby arugula and jicama salad

Since Jon was cooking up some spicy chicken and rice, I wanted a salad with Mexican flavors to match. Since I'm still not totally comfortable following a recipe word for word, I did what I always do – my one from column A, two from column B, etc style of cooking.

I was hoping for watercress, mâche, or pea shoots when I sauntered through the Greenmarket yesterday afternoon, but it's not quite yet the season, so I ended up with some tender organic baby arugula from Migliorelli Farm in Tivoli, NY. I picked up jicama at Whole Foods, and some organic chicken chorizo at Trader Joe's, flipped through the Bayless book that we just bought with an old gift card, and threw in the cilantro left over in our produce bin, pepitas I bought in November, and some lime juice. In all, it made for a fresh and fragrant start to one of the more latin-leaning meals we've made so far together.


BABY ARUGULA AND JICAMA SALAD

1/4 lb baby arugula
1 small jicama
pepitas (for garnish)

For the dressing (adapted from Rick Bayless):

1 chicken chorizo sausage, casing removed
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
salt to taste
juice from 1 small lime
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1. Peel jicama with a knife and cut into long sticks.
2. Whisk together oil, vinegar, lime juice, cilantro, and salt in a bowl.
3. Sauté the chorizo in a small skillet over medium heat. Stir and break up clumps until it's browned and cooked through, 6-8 minutes. Add the garlic, stir for a minute, then add to vinaigrette and mix thoroughly.
4. Pour vinaigrette and chorizo over arugula and jicama. Toss to coat and garnish with salted pepitas.