OAXACAN-STYLE SPICY SEASONING FOR CORN ON THE COB

Again, I’ve had this for a while and have no idea where it came from. While I didn’t have the good fortune to eat any seasoned corn like this while in Oaxaca (though I made up for it by eating plenty of mole and guacamole…and I even tried fried grasshoppers), I love to keep this zesty concoction in a spare salt shaker each summer to sprinkle over my buttered corn at home. A loves it, too. To me (and I’d say I have about a medium spiciness tolerance), it’s not too hot—just enough to perk up the corn and contrast with its sweetness—but I’d start with just a light sprinkling on your corn until you’re sure you like it.

1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground red pepper (cayenne)
3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Mix seasonings together in a small bowl. Prepare and cook corn, spread with butter, sprinkle on all sides with seasoning mixture, and enjoy. The extra seasoning mixture will keep nicely in a salt shaker, covered jar, or other container for at least a few months.

Serves: The recipe says this makes “enough to cover 8-12 ears of corn,” but I’d say I’ve had the same saltshaker full of seasoning for…oh gosh, over a year now (its flavor has probably faded a bit, but I still like it) and it’s still at least 1/3 full. Maybe the creators of this recipe liked to encrust their corn in the seasoning, but we just sprinkle it on as we would do with salt. So I’d say a batch of this will last two moderate seasoning users through a summer of active corn-eating.

Time: 5 minutes

ITALIAN BREAD-AND-TOMATO SALAD

This is what we had with the corn cakes the other night. I’m surprised I haven’t posted it before, since we eat it fairly often as a summer side dish, with chicken or zucchini fritters or such. I’ve had it for so long, I have no idea where it came from.

This salad is really like eating a big bowl full of bruschetta. The original recipe calls for stale bread; I think the texture is supposed to be softer, with the dressing completely soaking into the bread. But I like to enhance the bruschetta resemblance by toasting my bread cubes in a skillet with a little olive oil (about 1 tablespoon) beforehand, which makes it crisper. Do whichever you like. Just be sure to make this salad with perfectly fresh, ripe, meaty summer tomatoes.

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons water
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon salt
Black pepper to taste
6 cups cubed stale or lightly toasted bread (I use French baguette)
2-3 large round tomatoes or 6 plum tomatoes, cut into wedges
½ to 1 small red onion, sliced as finely as possible
1 cup (combined) chopped fresh basil, cilantro, and dill

1. In a small bowl or screw-top jar, mix together the vinegar, oil, water, garlic, and salt and pepper.

2. Mix together tomatoes, onion, and herbs in a large bowl, add the dressing and bread cubes, and toss well. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes, then serve.

Serves: 3-4
Time: 20 minutes

FAVORITE FOOD BOOKS

• Jack Bishop: Pasta e Verdura* and Vegetables Every Day*

• Anthony Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential and A Cook’s Tour
  

• Laurie Colwin: Home Cooking* and More Home Cooking*

• David Kamp: The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation
  

• Barbara Kingsolver (with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver): Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

• David Lebovitz: The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments
  

• Susan Marks: Finding Betty Crocker

• Michael Pollen: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
  

• Julie Powell: Julie & Julia

• Ruth Reichl: Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me With Apples, and Garlic and Sapphires
  

• Adam D. Roberts: The Amateur Gourmet: How to Shop, Chop, and Table-Hop Like a Pro
  

• Laura Shapiro: Perfection Salad
  

• Nigel Slater: The Kitchen Diaries and Toast
  

• Jeffrey Steingarten: The Man Who Ate Everything and It Must Have Been Something I Ate
  

• Jane and Michael Stern: Two for the Road and Roadfood
  

• Calvin Trillin: The Tummy Trilogy* (American Fried, Alice, Let’s Eat, and Third Helpings), Feeding a Yen, and Travels With Alice

• Patricia Volk: Stuffed
  

• Carole Walter: Great Cookies*

• Molly Wizenberg: A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table
  

* = most favorite

FRESH CORN GRIDDLE CAKES WITH PARMESAN AND CHIVES

I’ve been obsessed with fresh corn this summer. Now that I’ve finally located the one vendor at my farmers’ market that sells the perfect, sweet white-and-yellow corn prevalent in Minnesota, rather than the plain white corn that is inexplicably dominant in California, I want to eat corn on the cob at least once a week, covered in butter and salt, or butter and salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper, or butter and this awesome spicy seasoning mixture I have a recipe for (remind me to post that, huh?), preferably accompanied by BLTs. I’ve also been gung-ho to try some new corn recipes. This one is from old reliable Jack Bishop, published in Vegetables Every Day. Except for grating the corn, which is a teeny bit of a pain (though it seemed much easier the second time I tried it than the first), it’s incredibly easy and comes together quickly. And the corn cakes taste delicious, a little bit savory, a little bit sweet, crisp outside and tender inside. They’re more like actual pancakes than my beloved zucchini fritters; I like them nearly as much and often contemplate making an entire fritter-based dinner that would feature both of them, but I think all that grating and frying might drive me bonkers. Jack says the corn cakes are “delicious with grilled fish or roast chicken. A tomato salad would round out the meal.” So far, we’ve been eating them as a main dish instead of a side dish, devouring two or three apiece with tomatoes on the side—either Stuffed Tomatoes Caprese or Italian Bread-and-Tomato Salad (which, holy cow, I haven’t posted that here? Well, recipe is forthcoming) works well. I’m thinking you could actually top the corn cakes with a fresh tomato salsa (tomato, olive oil, basil, maybe some onion or garlic), but then why mess with such a good and simple thing?

4 medium ears corn
1 large egg
¼ cup flour
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1. Remove the husks and silk from the corn. Grate the corn on the large holes of a box grater set over a large bowl until the cobs are clean, then discard the cobs. To the bowl of corn, add egg, flour, cheese, chives, salt, and pepper, and stir until the batter is smooth.

2. Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet. Fill a ¼-cup measuring cup with batter. Pour into the pan to form a round cake. Repeat using all the batter. (You should get about six cakes. You may have to cook them in two batches if your skillet isn’t big enough; if so, add a little more butter before cooking the second batch.). Cook over medium heat, turning once, until the cakes are a rich golden brown color on both sides, about 9 minutes. Serve immediately.

Serves: 2–6
Time: 20–30 minutes

SUMMER WHITE BEAN SOUP WITH FRESH TOMATO SALSA

Neither my busy schedule nor the unusually brutal Southern California temperatures (it reached 107 degrees in Pasadena the weekend before last) have diminished my gusto for cooking and eating…just my gusto for writing and posting about it, apparently. But the heat wave’s broken, I have some free time (well, freer, anyway, with my hostessing and bridesmaid’s duties behind me), and I’m turning over a new leaf. Here’s one of the fresh, summery, mercifully simple recipes the weather compelled me to try last week. It’s from a little paperback book called Favourite Recipes From Books for Cooks 1, 2, and 3, which A’s mom gave me (signed by one of the authors) for Christmas. She bought it on a trip to England (Books for Cooks is a store in London). I think its non-glossiness and lack of photos put me off for a while, because this is the first thing I’ve attempted from it. (Luckily, I did not need to rely on my shoddy understanding of the metric system, as the measurements were thoughtfully given in both sets of units. I’ve reprinted them American-style.)

As usual for me when I embark upon a new recipe, by the time I started cooking I’d forgotten how delicious the food initially sounded to me and had turned suspicious. I don’t completely like beans, after all, and beans plus pasta sounded like a lot of starch, and 4 cups of broth per 1 can beans (yes, I used the canned; boiling beans for 1½ hours would have been unbearable in triple-digit heat) sounded like it would make a really runny soup. But it turned out great—a bit thinner than what I think of when I think of bean soup, but who wants a thick, hearty soup after you’ve broken a sweat just chopping tomatoes? My microwave got so warm it temporarily burned out while I was defrosting my homemade frozen chicken broth, but aside from that everything came together quickly and easily, and it tasted delicious—savory, a little spicy, refreshing (I served it warm, but not hot): perfect for a hot evening. The tomatoes really make this dish, so use good ones; I favor a mix of heirlooms.

4 ripe tomatoes, diced
¼ red onion, finely chopped
5 tablespoons olive oil
A handful of basil leaves, cut into strips
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 cups hot chicken or vegetable stock
4 ounces (2/3 cup) dry cannellini beans (or other white beans), soaked overnight and simmered until tender (1 to 1½ hours), or 1 can (14 to 15 ounces) cannellini (or other white) beans, drained
3 ounces (1/2 cup) dried mezzi tubetti, ditalini, or other small pasta
grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. For the salsa, mix the tomato, red onion, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1 tablespoon basil together in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste, and set aside.

2. To make the soup, heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and the rest of the basil and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Pour in the stock, add the beans, bring to a boil, and simmer steadily for 15 minutes. Ladle out a cupful (or more) of the beans and their liquid, put into a food processor or blender, and puree until smooth. Stir back into the soup.

3. Add the pasta to the soup and simmer steadily until al dente. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Serve the soup hot or warm, topping each serving with a generous spoonful of the salsa. Finish with a swirl of olive oil and grated Parmesan, if you like.

Serves: 4
Time: 45 minutes

PAM’S MEXICAN FUDGE

This is not chocolate. It’s savory, not sweet—in fact it has nothing to do with actual fudge, except that it is, in its own way, just as rich and tasty. One of my friends’ moms used to make it for neighborhood parties when I was a kid, and I always remember the grownups talking about how sinfully delicious it was. I, of course, was way too picky then to eat any food that contained anything remotely resembling a green pepper, but once I grew older and my tastes normalized, I sampled Mexican Fudge a few times when my mom made it. (I remember one Christmas Eve when Mom, Dad, and I prepared it as part of a sumptuous spread for ourselves, then all came down with a cold/flu that rendered us far too sick to enjoy any of it.) My mother passed on the recipe to me, but it never occurred to me to make it until I was called upon to throw a wedding shower for my friends P&R. My fellow bridesmaid, J, and I decided to serve a nacho bar of sorts, with my black-bean salsa, the awesome farmers’-market Holy Guacamole, and other things that can be eaten with tortilla chips. I remembered Mexican Fudge, saw how simple and easy the recipe was, and, flying in the face of one of the cardinal rules of hostessing (never serve anything you haven’t made before), whipped up a batch with some trepidation. And…it was a huge hit. I could have eaten half the pan myself, if I hadn’t felt a grudging compunction to save some for the actual guests. (I should have doubled the recipe—I only did 1.5 times the quantity.) This stuff is good, and easy enough for a small child (with good oven-safety skills) to make. After all, it’s basically just a big pan of jalapeno-infused melted cheese, with just enough egg to bind it into solid form.

2 cups grated cheddar cheese
2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
3 eggs
½ cup hot green taco or enchilada sauce (I used bottled salsa verde from the Mexican-foods aisle of the grocery store)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the grated cheeses and place half the mixture in a 9x9 baking dish.
3. Combine the eggs and sauce and pour over the cheese. Spread the remaining cheese on top.
4. Bake for 30 minutes, cool slightly, and cut into 1-inch squares. Serve (warm or at room temperature) with tortilla chips.

BLACK BEAN SALSA

This recipe is from my college friend S’s mom. S used to make it when we lived together; I remember sitting and watching TV and eating it straight out of the bowl with spoons, like a salad. I quickly acquired the recipe and made it for myself as a summer meal when I lived alone; now that I live with A I don’t make it much, since he is prejudiced against raw black beans (and I sympathize with his prejudice, since I don’t like them much myself in any context besides this one). But if he tried this I think he would like it, because how can you not when tomatoes and garlic and cilantro and onions and delicious vinaigrette are involved? Anyway, I made this for a wedding shower on Saturday and it was light, tasty, and super-easy. We served it as a dip-like thing, with tortilla chips, but the next day I sat down in front of the TV and ate the leftovers out of a bowl with a big soup spoon, just like the old days.

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 small garlic cloves, minced
2 cans black beans
1 cup chopped green onions
6 to 8 Roma tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes, as shown above)
1/3 cup cilantro
1½ teaspoons cumin
salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine the first three ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Rinse and drain the black beans and add them to the bowl. Add chopped green onions. Peel, seed, and chop tomatoes and add them to the bowl. Remove stems from cilantro, chop, and add to mixture. Add cumin and salt and pepper to taste and mix well.
3. Serve with tortilla chips.

Makes 4 cups

SLOW-BROWNED CARROTS WITH BUTTER

I think this is from The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook, the one book by Jack Bishop I don’t own. I photocopied it ages ago and stuck it in the front pocket of my three-ring recipe binder with a bunch of other recipes I’ve been meaning to try, and there it sat. Although it sounded delicious, I kept chickening out—after all, I still think of myself as a cooked-carrot hater, though I’ve been eating them lo these many years. If I embrace cooked carrots, will green peppers be next? Perish the thought!

But then I needed a side dish to go with Italian-Style Meatloaf (yes, I made it again; told you it was good!) on a Sunday evening, and this seemed perfect. It even cooks on the stovetop for about the same amount of time that the meatloaf cooks in the oven. It was a cinch to make—barely needs your attention once you get it going—and it tasted great. Since Jack’s description is accurate, I’ll just quote him: “This dish is so basic—carrots, butter, and salt—that you may think, ‘Who needs a recipe?’ But slow-cooking the carrots in a little butter intensifies their flavor and makes them incredibly sweet.” Who could resist?

I didn’t try this with the Parmesan cheese, even though it sounded delicious. I wanted to be sure I was tasting the carrots on their own terms the first time around, and besides, meatloaf isn’t exactly light to begin with. Next time, though, I’m going for it. (Postscript from October 2008: I have never actually gotten around to trying these with the cheese. They're so very good on their own.)


By the way, now that the process of moving my archives from Diaryland to Blogspot is finally on the verge of completion, I promise more new posts in the next week.

5 large carrots (about 1¼ pounds)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Peel and cut the carrots on the bias into ¼-inch thick ovals. (Be sure to keep them thin—a few of my slices got too thick and didn’t become as tender as they should have. Also, if your carrots are organic and fairly tender, you can skip the peeling; I always do.)

2. Place the carrots and butter in a large skillet. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring often, until the carrots shrink and start to brown, 1¼ to 1½ hours.

3. Season with salt to taste, sprinkle with Parmesan if desired, and serve immediately.

Serves: 4 as a side dish
Time: 90 minutes

ITALIAN-STYLE MEATLOAF

Wow! I’ve never been that into meatloaf before—OK, I’ve never been into meatloaf at all before, and in fact the concept of a loaf of meat strikes me as both hilarious and disturbing. But when I saw this recipe in Cooking Light, it just sounded so good. Maybe I was iron-deficient that day, but I suddenly craved a big slice of spiced meat. And boy howdy, it tasted as good as it sounded. I always think of ground beef as somewhat dry and bland, but this recipe makes sure to keep it well-seasoned and moistened with tomato sauce, producing a juicy, flavorful meatloaf (even more flavorful the next day) that isn’t too dense and is still pretty lean. And could it be any easier to cook? Plus, you’ve got to love that kitchy ’50s housewife vibe you feel pulling a hot meatloaf out of the oven. (Especially if, like me, you happen to be wearing a retro cherry-printed apron at the time.) This is another recipe I can’t wait to make again.

Note: Usually I abhor garlic powder, because I love the real thing so incredibly much. But Cooking Light usually avoids the powdered stuff, too, so when this recipe called for it, I figured there must be some good reason to go along (also, I usually think it’s best to follow a recipe to the letter at least one time before I go making modifications). And I do think the garlic powder works better here. The garlic flavor gets subtly distributed throughout the entire mixture and melds with the other tastes, rather than just appearing in intense, isolated chunks. And really, it doesn’t pay to try to be too fancy when making one of the ultimate comfort foods.

1 and 1/2 pounds 92% lean ground beef
1 cup canned tomato sauce, divided
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 large egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine beef, 1/2 cup tomato sauce, and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Shape beef mixture into an 8-by-4-inch loaf on a broiler pan or baking sheet lined with tin foil and coated with a small amount of olive oil or cooking spray. Brush remaining 1/2 cup tomato sauce over top of meat loaf. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers 160 degrees. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes, then slice and serve.

Serves: 4-6
Time: 1 and 1/2 hours, mostly cooking time

CREAMY WHITE BEAN AND SAUSAGE SOUP

You'll notice that this white bean soup is not white. That's because I made it with Rancho Gordo Yellow Eye beans, which are mostly white but have tan spots. They are also quite delicious, and I actually prefer the golden hue they impart, even if it doesn't photograph terribly appetizingly.

I am so proud of myself for trying this and loving it, considering I don’t completely love beans. It’s a texture thing—they need to be as mashed-up as possible for me to accept them, and so far in my cooking career I’ve only reconciled myself with black beans (plus garbanzo beans, but only in the form of hummus). But when I saw this in an old magazine someone brought in to work (Bon Appetit, I think), it sounded so savory and comforting, full of ingredients I enjoy, a healthy and hearty winter meal...also, let’s face it, the word “creamy” gets me every time. Making it was a bit of a challenge—very simple, but working with dried beans, you have to be organized and start a few days in advance. On Monday morning before leaving for work, I set the beans out to soak. On Monday night, I cooked the beans (Step 2 of the recipe) and also made chicken broth. (Wow, did that make the apartment steamy-warm and delicious-smelling.) On Tuesday night, I made the actual soup. But you know what? It was worth it. It was awesome, exactly how I’d hoped it would be. Hooray for beans (or at least those properly pureed)!

A few notes: I used the Italian sausage. I didn’t buy any whipping cream, thinking I’d be healthy and just use milk instead, but the soup ended up creamy enough on its own, and just the perfect thickness already, so I didn’t want or need to add any more liquid. Thus, I’ve labeled the cream optional.

Postscript from April 2009: This time I used my new favorite sausage, Trader Joe's chicken andouille, a smoked, spicy, Cajun-style sausage (it has a firmer, more kielbasa-like texture, so I cut it into cubes instead of removing the casing and crumbling it). It was vastly superior to the Italian sausage I'd used before. If you can't find chorizo, I really recommend a good andouille--the spice and smokiness are wonderful with the beans, sort of like a really high-quality grown-up version of franks 'n' beans.

1 pound dried cannellini or Great Northern Beans (a generous 2 cups)
8 cups water
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3 garlic cloves: 1 smashed, 2 chopped
1 large fresh rosemary sprig
1 bay leaf
1 large onion, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
1 large carrot, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 large celery stalk, coarsely chopped (about 3/4 cup)
2 and 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme, divided
4 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 pound fresh chorizo or spicy Italian link sausages, casings removed
1/4 cup whipping cream or milk (optional)

1. Place beans in a large, heavy pot. Add enough water to pan to cover beans by 4 inches. Let beans soak overnight, covered, at room temperature.

2. Drain and rinse beans; return to same pot. Add 8 cups water, 1 tablespoon oil, smashed garlic clove, rosemary, and bay leaf. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover, and simmer until beans are tender, 60–90 minutes. Season to taste with salt. (Can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Cool slightly, cover, and chill.)

3. Drain beans, reserving cooking liquid. Discard rosemary sprig and bay leaf.

4. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, and celery. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute until vegetables are beginning to soften, about 10 minutes. Add chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon thyme; sauté 2 minutes. Add 2 cups reserved bean cooking liquid, 4 cups chicken broth, and beans. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered until vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Cool soup 10 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, sauté chorizo or Italian sausage in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through, breaking up lumps with back of spoon, about 5 minutes. Remove sausage from pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain.

6. Using a slotted spoon, remove 1 and 1/2 cups bean mixture from soup and reserve. Working in batches, puree remaining soup in a blender until smooth. Return pureed soup to pot and stir in reserved whole-bean mixture, remaining 1 and 1/2 teaspoons thyme, sausage, and cream or milk if desired. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves: 6
Time: 1 hour, plus 1 day and 90 minute prep

ASPARAGUS WITH GARLIC BREADCRUMBS AND LEMON VINAIGRETTE

Another one from Cooking Light. For some reason, it was described in the magazine as “Warm Asparagus Salad,” which...well, Merriam-Webster’s defines “salad” as “a dish of meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, fruits, or vegetables singly or in combination usually served cold with a dressing,” which is generic enough to makes it sound like salad is in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I think of salad as cold, and while this may have a vinaigrette, it’s just a side dish, in my view. Whatever it is, however, it happens to be wonderful. Asparagus and garlic and lemon is, to me, the happiest taste combination on earth, and this recipe executes it masterfully.

I made this as a side dish with another new Cooking Light recipe, which was for two-potato latkes, and which didn’t turn out at all as well as I’d hoped (to add insult to injury, it was extremely labor-intensive too). A liked the latkes fine, but I’m not planning to make them again and won’t post the recipe here, as it had a few major flaws. A ended up eating most of the latkes for dinner, while I polished off my own serving of asparagus plus most of his, meaning that I ate nearly a pound of the stuff. That is how good this dish, or salad, or whatever, is.

I can’t wait to make it again. The only thing I’ll do differently is make the breadcrumbs smaller—I took the word “coarsely” in the recipe a little too much to heart, and my food processor was not being cooperative (or maybe, now that I think about it, my bread, which wasn’t day-old, was too soft to break up properly?), and I ended up with pea-sized breadcrumbs that, when sprinkled atop the asparagus, just made it hard to eat. The topping and the asparagus didn’t blend; you’d pick up a spear of asparagus with your fork and all the breadcrumbs would fall off, and you’d have to take a bit of asparagus and then separately scoop up a mouthful of breadcrumbs...which I really have no problem with, but A found it daunting. I also found the cooking method for the asparagus a little strange—why couldn’t I just have steamed it in my steamer basket? A suggested we could roast the asparagus, which might be fun to try also. What the heck, I’ll try everything—I think I could eat this every day. And since asparagus is already available at the farmer's market here in California (where March is actually spring), I think I will.

2 ounces day-old French bread or other firm white bread, sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled and halved
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 medium shallot, peeled and minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup water
1 and 1/2 pounds asparagus

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Place bread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until toasted. Rub cut sides of garlic over both sides of each bread slice. Place bread in a food processor and pulse 10 times or until bread is coarsely ground into crumbs. Arrange breadcrumbs in a single layer on baking sheet and bake 5 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer breadcrumbs to a bowl and set aside.

3. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook 1-2 minutes or until butter is lightly browned, shaking pan occasionally; remove from heat. Drizzle butter over toasted breadcrumbs and toss well to coat.

4. Combine vinegar, oil, lemon rind and juice, shallot, salt, and pepper in a small bowl or screw-top jar. Stir well with a whisk (if in a bowl) or shake well (if in a jar) to combine.

5. Bring water to a boil in a large skillet. Snap off tough ends of asparagus and add asparagus to pan. Cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring constantly. Place asparagus on serving platter, drizzle with vinaigrette, and top with breadcrumb mixture.

Serves 2-6

POTATO, TOMATO, AND BASIL SOUP

I quit posting on Bookcook 8 months ago (eek), because I was dissatisfied with the site. My writing, while never meant to be any great work of art, had become perfunctory. (Apparently I’m not destined to be a food writer, because I can only think of so many words to use to describe a bowl of soup, one of which is “soupy.”) My yen to try new recipes had lulled. The Diaryland format was pretty clunky and ugly. The whole blog was user-unfriendly, what with my decision to write recipes in awkward first-person narrative format and the lack of any sort of categorization by type of recipe. I wasn’t sure anyone was even reading or trying the recipes I posted. Reader, I was bored.

Somewhere around Christmas (could it have been the three cookbooks, Cooking Light subscription, cookbook holder, kitchen timer, garlic-chile-pepper braid, and egg beater and spatula I received as gifts?) I got back into the cooking experimentation, and ever since have felt driven to try increasingly ambitious projects, record my adventures, and press my recipes upon others. I found a shiny new design at Blogspot. As I move my archives over, I’m re-editing the recipes to a simpler, more user-friendly format. I hope to eventually recommend some other good food blogs or recipe sites in my “Links” sidebar. I’d still like to figure out how I can classify my archives by type of recipe (soups, salads, pastas, etc.) instead of by date, but for now you’ll simply have to browse to find what you want. And I have a new crop of recipes to write about, beginning with this one, which I made on Sunday.

The recipe appeared in the L.A. Times Magazine, as a sidebar to a story about Siberian tomatoes. Normally I think the recipes in the L.A. Times Magazine are pretentious, fussy, and useless (OK, let’s face it, I sometimes think this about the entire magazine), so I was shocked to find one that (a) included only ingredients I’d heard of, (b) took less than an hour to make, and (c) actually sounded good. I was also pleased to find a potato soup recipe different from the ones I already have (potato-garlic, potato-leek, carrot-potato, etc.). And I was relieved to find one that didn’t call for chicken broth, because I don’t have any homemade in the freezer this week, and no chicken carcass with which to make more (yes, I suppose I could have bought some broth at the store, but what fun is that?). Best yet, the tomato and basil sounded so nice and springy, and believe it or not (you people living in the Snow Belt can feel free to hate me now; I know I would), it’s getting to be spring at the farmers’ market. Really. There’s asparagus and everything.

So, the soup: It was pretty easy, fresh-tasting, with a delicate flavor. I don’t think I actually used new potatoes (I bought tiny red ones, only to come home and read in Jack Bishop’s vegetable bible that “all new potatoes are small, but not all small potatoes are new,” and mine didn’t seem to have the thin skin he described), and I went with a normal onion because I wasn’t sure about “spring onions,” but the other ingredients were simple. I didn’t pass the soup through a food mill, because I didn’t have one, and when I started thinking about it, I wanted a smoother texture anyway, so I pureed it in a blender. I suppose the food mill (or the poor woman’s substitute, a fine sieve) would have removed the skins, but I like the little red flecks in the finished soup (and the skin is good for you). (Or, of course, you could just peel your potatoes.) Overall, in fact, it’s an intriguing-looking soup—a nice pink once you stir in the tomatoes, and then you garnish with the impressive bright-green swirl of basil puree. It looks a little like Christmas, though it tastes like summer.

Be forewarned, you might keep tasting the soup while you're cooking and thinking it seems a little..boring. Just wait until you add that basil puree--it zips up the flavor like you wouldn't believe.

4 tablespoons butter
5 cups water, divided
1 large white onion, peeled and finely chopped, or 2 bunches of spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped, about 2 and 1/2 cups
1 bay leaf
5 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
1 and 1/2 pounds new potatoes, washed (or peeled, if desired) and coarsely chopped
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
1 pound ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped, about 1 and 3/4 cups
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small bunch basil, leaves only
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter in a large soup pot with 2 cups water, and add the onion, bay leaf, and thyme. Simmer over low heat for a few minutes, then add potatoes and 1 teaspoon salt. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour in the rest of the water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat slightly and cook until potatoes are beginning to fall apart, about 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the tomatoes and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Saute, stirring often, until juices have evaporated and the tomatoes have thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Whisk together to form a semi-smooth sauce.

3. Pass the soup through a food mill (or puree it in a blender or food processor) and return it to the pot. Stir in the tomato sauce. (If the soup looks too thick, you can thin it with a little water, milk, or cream.)

4. Puree the basil, vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil in a food processor or blender. Garnish each serving of soup with a swirl of basil puree, plus extra salt and pepper to taste.

Serves: 5-6
Time: 40 minutes

CHICKEN SOUP WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES

One of the first recipes I’ve tried from my new Cooking Light subscription. The delectable-looking photo lured me in, plus in the last year or so I’ve realized how totally awesome roasted vegetables (asparagus, green beans, broccoli) can be. And the soup was good, but maybe not quite as good as I was expecting. Basically, I felt like it was a lot of work to go through for something that wasn’t (in my opinion) as tasty as my usual chicken-noodle soup recipe, and wasn’t even as different from it in flavor as I’d hoped. A, on the other hand, thought it was as good, or possibly even slightly better. I can see where he’s coming from—it’s a darker, richer, more substantial soup. The variety of vegetables was nice, and the flavor did get nicely caramelized and intensified by the roasting. I’ll give it another shot, but with the following modifications: (a) More broth. The soup turned out way too stew-like for my taste, almost like a really wet pasta dish. (b) A mix of white and dark meat for the chicken. I just think chicken breast, even the nice free-range organic stuff I’ve been buying lately, is too bland and feels chewy and dry to me, even when it’s been boiled in broth. (c) Maybe egg noodles instead of the rotini; they’d blend in better, make the soup feel less chunky.

I think my disappointment in the soup was compounded by the fact that I made what sounded like a delicious brown-butter soda bread with rosemary and black pepper as an accompaniment (I’m not sure where the recipe was from—some magazine I picked up at work; Bon Appetit, maybe>?), and...it was OK, but I’m starting to think maybe I just don’t like soda bread that much. The recipes always sound good to me (and so temptingly easy), and then I make them and say, “eh.” Hence, I’ll refrain from posting that recipe. It wasn’t even an interesting enough failure to write about.

But anyway, back to the perfectly nice, wintery chicken soup, which was, in retrospect, pretty easy to make—it may require a lot of time, but the directions are very simple.

Postscript, December 2009: Look at me, trying to put a brave face on the disappointment, all "I'll make it again!" I never made it again. I have a perfectly satisfactory chicken-noodle soup recipe already.

1 cup chopped carrot (cut into 1-inch cubes)
1 cup chopped onion (cut into 1-inch cubes)
1 cup coarsely chopped mushrooms
1 cup chopped celery (cut into 1-inch pieces)
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (cut into 1-inch pieces)
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup water (maybe more?)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 (14-ounce) cans fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth, or 7 cups homemade chicken broth (maybe more?)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (maybe use 1/2 pound breast and 1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, if you like dark meat)
2 cups uncooked rotini pasta (or possibly egg noodles)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Combine the carrot, onion, mushrooms, celery, and bell pepper on a large baking sheet or roasting pan, drizzle with oil, and stir well to coat. Bake for 50 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally.

3. After vegetables have cooked for 20 minutes, combine water, rosemary, salt, chicken broth, and garlic in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.

4. Add roasted vegetables to soup and simmer 30 minutes.

5. Bring soup to a boil; add pasta and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serves: 6-8
Time: 1 and 1/2 hours

BEEF STROGANOFF

I made this from an old Cooking Light issue I found at work, and it turned out so well, I asked for a subscription to the magazine for Christmas. This recipe was in the monthly section where readers write in with beloved but extremely unhealthy recipes, and the Cooking Light staff adapts them into healthier versions. While I’m suspicious of recipes that torturously bastardize perfectly good food just to make it diet-friendly (please, no margarine or low-fat cheese or carob chips for me—can’t I just eat more vegetables the rest of the time and have my full-fat treats in moderation?), this one doesn’t go overboard. It does ask for reduced-fat sour cream, which doesn’t bother me (maybe because I don’t really like sour cream anyway, or maybe because it’s blended into a sauce), but everything else is just normal and sensible. The recipe has less than half the fat and 30% fewer calories than the original, so yay, but it also tastes great—rich and flavorful. It’s really simple to make, too. I may be a booster for making homemade chicken broth, but please note that I did not make my own beef broth; I just don’t love beef enough to exert the effort. I bought good beef broth in a carton from Trader Joe’s, used 7 ounces, and froze the rest, which was great because I had it on hand to make this dish several more times in the future.

4 ounces reduced-fat sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound boneless sirloin steak, cut into 2-inch strips
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
7 ounces low-sodium beef broth
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I usually use more, sometimes even twice as much)
Chopped fresh parsley
4 cups cooked medium egg noodles (about 3 1/2 cups uncooked)

1. Combine the first three ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add beef; seal and shake to coat with flour mixture.

3. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; sauté 2 minutes or until tender. Add beef and flour mixture to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until beef is browned.

4. Gradually add broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add mushrooms; cover and cook 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender. Reduce heat to low; gradually stir in sour cream mixture. Cook, uncovered, 1 minute or until heated (do not boil). Stir in parsley. Serve over the egg noodles.

Serves: 4
Time: 45 minutes

CARROT AND CORIANDER SOUP

Sorry for the complete lack of postings lately. I'm still cooking as much as ever, but haven't tried too many new recipes. That said, I've just posted three other new entries, so check them out too.

My new pal J, with whom I've recently been doing some canning (strawberry jam, blood-orange marmalade, peaches), gave me this recipe with such enthusiastic recommendation, I had to give it a try, even though I already have a good carrot-potato soup recipe. And it may actually be better than my recipe, though as a trade-off, it's a little more complicated (not that it's at all hard, but there are more ingredients and a few extra steps). The coriander flavor is wonderful and the whole thing tastes nice and spring/summery somehow, the cilantro and celery adding an extra note of brightness. We ate it with salad and a bit of garlic bread and were well pleased. Also, we can see really well in the dark now.

1 pound carrots, preferably young and tender
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, sliced, plus 2-3 pale, leafy celery tops
2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock if you're a filthy carnivore like me)
2-3 teaspoons ground coriander (I used 2 because it seemed like so much, but think I'd use more next time)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (J notes, I use MUCH more; again being cautious, I used 2)
1 cup milk
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Trim the carrots (the recipe says you can peel them "if necessary," but I don't think it's ever really necessary), cut them into chunks, and set them aside. Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter (please note this carefully, because I initially put in all the butter and then had to quick try to scoop some out for later when I realized my mistake) in a heavy-bottomed soup kettle over low heat. Chop the onions, and, when the butter/oil is warm, add the onions to the pot. Sautee them for 3-4 minutes, until slightly softened but not browned.

2. Add the potatoes and celery to the onion in the pot and cook for a few minutes, then add the carrots. Sautee everything over low heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, and then cover the pot. Reduce the heat even further and steam the contents for about 10 minutes, stirring or shaking the pan occasionally to keep the vegetables from sticking to the bottom.<

3. Add the stock, bring the soup to a boil, and then turn the heat down to medium-low, partially cover the pot, and simmer it for 8-10 minutes, until the carrots and potato are tender.

4. While the soup is cooking, chop the celery tops (you should have about 1 tablespoon once they're chopped) and the cilantro. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, add the ground coriander, and friy it for about a minute, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat, add the celery and cilantro leaves, and fry for another rminute. Remove the pan from the heat and set it aside.

5. When the soup is fully cooked, puree it in batches in a food processor or blender until smooth, then return it to the kettle. Stir in the milk, the coriander mixture, and salt and pepper to taste, heat the soup gently for a few minutes, and then serve.

Serves: 4-6
Time: 45 minutes to an hour

BEST GARLIC BREAD EVER

I never really got the hang of garlic bread. I don't serve many side dishes at all, especially bread, and on the rare occasions when I made garlic bread I just put on some butter and garlic powder the way everyone does, even though I abhor the artificial taste of garlic powder in nearly every other circumstance. The result was never bad, but never really exciting either. A couple of months ago, when I hosted a small dinner party for friends to watch the finale of The Amazing Race, I thought some garlic bread might round out the meal of pesto salmon, asparagus, and brownies I'd planned, but I knew my usual dull and haphazard method wouldn't cut it. So I hastened to Allrecipes.com, found the top-rated garlic bread recipe, made it, and loved it. There is butter, there is real garlic, there is nice seasoning, and there is the secret ingredient, olive oil, which makes the mixture nice and spreadable and helps the bread get toasty and crispy. I could eat an entire meal of this, but it wouldn't be that healthy, so I try to save it for special occasions. It is, however, also easy enough to whip up a half- or quarter-recipe on the spur of the moment to accompany a simple soup or salad supper. By the way, the original recipe suggested that after the garlic bread has been broiled, you could sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top and put it back in the oven to melt and get golden brown, but that just seems too decadent. I'm afraid of how much I might love it.

1 large loaf Italian bread (ciabatta works well)
5 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the broiler.

2. Slice the loaf of bread in half the long way (so you have two pieces with long, flat tops). You want the bread to be as wide and soft as possible; a porous, bubbly bread like ciabatta will accept the butter better than a dense bread. (The first time I didn't plan well enough and had to use some baguette I had in the freezer--it didn't have much surface area for the topping and got too hard under the broiler, although it still tasted just fine.)

3. Mash all the other ingredients together in a small bowl with a fork, until you have a nice spreadable mixture. Spread this across the flat tops of the bread and place the bread directly on the oven rack under the broiler (or you can put it on a baking sheet first). Broil, watching the bread the entire time (things always broil much faster than I expect and I'm always burning them), until they are light brown and crisp on top. (We all have our desired degrees of toastiness--I still like the bread to be soft beneath a crisp crust, and the buttered portion to still be a bit yellow, just brown around the edges.)

4. Slice the bread and serve it.

Serves: 4-8, maybe?
Time: 5-10 minutes

PASTA WITH TOMATO, AVOCADO, AND OREGANO

Pasta and avocado? Doesn't that sound kind of weird? Trust me, it's delicious--a nice, easy, no-cook sauce for summer, with a lot of spicy-garlicky bite but then the citrusy freshness of lemon and the soft, creamy green blandness of avocado to cool it down. A doesn't love avocado, so I don't make this too often anymore (even though I try to tell him it's almost got the same ingredients as guacamole, somehow this doesn't inspire confidence in him when I add "...but on pasta!"). But I could feel summer a-comin' in and I wanted avocado, and because I Am The Cook I made it and he ate it. He claimed to like it, too. I loved it.

4 medium ripe tomatoes (about 1 and 1/2 pounds)
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh oregano leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1 pound penne pasta
1 medium avocado (about 1/2 pound)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Core the tomatoes into 1/2-inch cubes. Add these to a large bowl along with the garlic, oregano, oil, salt, and red pepper flakes, and toss everything together. Set this aside for about 20 minutes to allow the flavors to blend.

2. While the sauce marinates, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta.

3. While the pasta is cooking, peel the avocado and remove the pit, cut the flesh into 1/4-inch cubes, and toss them in a small bowl with the lemon juice and a little salt to taste.

4. When the pasta is al dente, drain it and toss it with the tomato sauce (this can be done in the bowl, if it's large enough, or in the pasta pot). Serve out the portions to serving dishes, then divide the avocado/lemon juice mixture evenly among the servings, arranging it festively atop the pasta.

Serves: 6
Time: 30-40 minutes

SPAGHETTI SAUCE

I realized I make pasta a lot, but I never make good old spaghetti. When I ended up with some leftover canned tomatoes in my refrigerator (Trader Joe's has the freshest-tasting canned tomatoes, but they only come in big 28-ounce cans), I decided to use them up by getting out my mom's recipe and giving it a shot. I made a few adaptations (added red pepper flakes, used fresh mushrooms instead of canned, tossed in an Italian sausage I found in the freezer) and voila! It was great. The best part is that this recipe makes a ton of sauce--I halved it and had more than enough to cover a pound of spaghetti, giving me 6 servings of food right then, plus an extra container of sauce to put in the freezer. If you make the full recipe, as my mom does, you'll have plenty of sauce to freeze and whip out later for quick and easy meals.

1 pound ground beef or turkey (if you like, use less beef and make up the remainder with Italian sausage removed from its casings)
1-2 onions, chopped
4 large cloves of garlic, chopped
8 ounces white or brown mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons fennel seed
12 ounces tomato paste
28 ounces canned chopped tomatoes, undrained
28 ounces canned plain tomato sauce
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 cup red wine (optional)
salt, pepper, and chopped fresh parsley to taste


1. Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. When it's hot, add the ground beef/Italian sausage, breaking the pieces up with the back of a spoon. When the meat begins to brown and release some liquid, add the chopped onion, the garlic, the mushrooms, the red pepper flakes, and the fennel and let everything cook until the meat is fully browned, the onion is soft and transparent, and the mushrooms are browned (their juices released and mostly evaporated).

2. Add the canned tomatoes--paste, chopped tomatoes, and sauce--and then, if necessary, enough water to make the sauce the desired consistency (probably about 1-2 cups). Added seasonings--the dried oregano and basil, and salt and pepper to taste, plus red wine if desired.

3. Stir everything together and let it simmer over low heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. (During this time, cook some spaghetti.) Throw in a handful of chopped fresh parsley, simmer a few more minutes, and then it's done.

Serves: um, a lot. This will cover at least 2 pounds of spaghetti. You can freeze any or all of it for later (the sauce alone, not the noodles), either in Ziplock bags or in Tupperware.
Time: 1 hour

BAKED TOMATOES STUFFED WITH PESTO AND MOZZARELLA

OK, this is basically just a shell of tomato wrapped around a big hunk of melted basil-flavored cheese. But it's also delicious, another fine offering from Jack Bishop's Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook. As Jack says, "These tomatoes may be served as an all-in-one summer luncheon or a light dinner. Add a salad...to complete the meal." We did so, and some bread as well. Our tomatoes were somewhat on the small side, though (I couldn't even fit all the filling into them), so we each ended up eating two, which was a little overwhelmingly cheesy. (And we're avid cheese lovers, mind you.) So I'm thinking these might work better (one apiece) as a side dish with some chicken or something. However you serve them, they're simple and darned good--like warm bruschetta! Or...inside-out pizza? Something tasty, anyway.

Postscript, December 2009: Apparently, too cheesy to make it into the regular rotation. I never made these again.

4 large, ripe but firm tomatoes (about 2 pounds)
1/2 cup pesto, preferably homemade
5 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1 and 1/4 cups)
1/3 cup plain fresh bread crumbs
salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut off and discard a 1/2-inch-thick slice from the top of each tomato, then use a small spoon to scoop out and discard the core and seeds, making sure to get rid of as much liquid as possible.

2. Mix together the pesto, cheese, bread crumbs, and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Use the small spoon to scoop some of the mixture into each tomato. Jack says, "[make] sure that the filling reaches into all the hollowed-out areas. Mound the filling a little above the top of each tomato and pat the filling gently to compact it." (Which I did, and which I think caused me overfill the tomatoes with cheese. I think I could have done with a little less filling, really, but would have to try again to be sure. Anyway, do whatever looks good to you.)

3. Place the tomatoes in a lightly greased baking dish just large enough to hold them (8x8), and bake until tomatoes are soft but not falling apart and cheese is bubbly and turning brown in spots, 25-30 minutes. Remove the tomatoes from the oven, let them cool for at least 15 minutes, then serve them. Jack says the tomatoes can be kept at room temperature for several hours, if you'd rather not serve them hot (I suppose that might be good in the summer).

Serves: 4 (or maybe 2 as a main dish, if your tomatoes are smallish)
Time: 1 hour

CUCUMBER RAITA

I hadn't made this recipe in eons, because I have several similar cucumber-yogurt-pita recipes that are a little jazzier: this one has seasoned beef, and another--hmm, perhaps I haven't made that one since starting this site--has an accompanying tomato-onion salad. But the thing was, we hadn't been to the farmers' market, so no nice fresh tomatoes for us. And I desperately wanted to make hummus, which, now that I'm no longer living the swingin' bachelor life, apparently does not constitute a meal in itself. Usually I pair hummus with fattoush, but...we had no tomatoes. So, I thought, cucumber salad! I can test the recipe and see whether I still need to keep it around! And it was pretty good, creamy and green with cucumber and herbs--would be especially nice and refreshing on a hot summer day. Granted, we didn't end up eating all the leftovers (I should have made a half recipe, for one thing), but I'm keeping the recipe around. I'm just a sucker for anything I can put in a pita, especially when it's this easy.

Postscript, December 2009: The beef version won out. Turns out I never really want just cucumber-yogurt sauce on its own, so this recipe is officially redundant.

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
3 scallions, including greens, chopped
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
2 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and minced
salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large glass bowl.

2. Chill the salad for 3 hours (you can skip this if you want to eat it right away, though the flavors will blend more with time; be forewarned, it will separate if you let it sit for a while, but giving it a good stir fixes it up again).

3. Serve with pita bread. You could dip the bread in and use it to scoop up the salad, but I prefer to spoon the raita into the pockets of the bread.

Makes: 6 cups (at least 6 servings as a meal; more as a side dish or appetizer)
Time: 20-30 minutes (plus 3 hours chilling time if desired)