Green garlic guacamole

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Call me crazy, but I like my guacamole smooth and simple. My favorite guacamole recipe belongs to my younger son Weston. He makes it slowly, delicately, painstakingly at the kitchen counter, gradually adding fresh lemon juice, sea salt and pepper. Sometimes it takes him half an hour to get the balance of rich avocado and sharp acid just to his liking. I get impatient and try to hurry him so I can get dinner on the table, but he ignores me. And then he eats the whole bowl, so I can't complain. Avocado, after all, is a superfood, and I do like his crystal-clear skin and shiny hair.

Sometimes I want a little more personality in my guacamole, though, which is why I made this version with fresh green garlic for some friends a few weeks ago. Green garlic, which looks like an overgrown scallion, is the young garlic plant, harvested before the bulb swells and hardens. You use the whole thing, green leaves and all. It's milder than bulb garlic, but it's still definitely garlic. A stalk of that, a few beautiful ripe California avocados, a bunch of cilantro, lemon, salt. Whip it in the food processor and it turns out almost fluffy. 

Chips are fine, but I've taken to serving guacamole with thinly sliced rounds of daikon radish lately. The cool, crisp radish and the creamy avocado like each other a lot. And it's a guilt-free cocktail snack that won't ruin your appetite for whatever's next.

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Green garlic guacamole

by Erika Penzer Kerekes June-28-2011

Make this unusual avocado dip in the spring when green garlic turns up in farmers' markets.

Ingredients

• 1 large stalk green garlic, washed carefully and chopped (use the whole thing)
• flesh of 3 ripe avocados
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Put all ingredients in the food processor. Whizz until smooth. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Serve with chips or raw vegetables.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 1 mins Total time: 6 mins Yield: approximately 3 cups

Caramelized apricot jam

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Caramelized apricot jam.

Also known as "This is what happens when you're working at home and you get an unexpected conference call" apricot jam.

My home office is at the other end of the house from the kitchen. I didn't see or smell the jam boiling over until it was too late. I salvaged what I could.

On the up side, the jam had an unusual, deep, beautiful color (russet? auburn?). I had never seen apricot jam like this. And the flavor was complex, almost a little smoky, unlike any other apricot jam I'd tasted. I've discovered that this caramelized apricot jam pairs beautifully with almond butter, and it's fabulous with a ripe brie - the slightly burnt sugars give it some really unusual overtones.

On the down side, it took a week of soaking, several wads of steel wool, and the elbow grease of three people to get the pot and the stove clean. 

Great jam. I highly recommend it. But prepare yourself for the cleanup.

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Caramelized apricot jam

by Erika Penzer Kerekes June-26-2011

Even absent-minded cooks can make good jam. It's not burned. It's caramelized.

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh apricots, pitted and chopped
• 2 cups granulated sugar

Instructions

In a heavy saucepan, combine the apricots and the sugar, and stir to combine. Let the fruit sit an hour at room temperature, stirring once or twice to redistribute the sugar. The sugar will draw the juices out of the fruit and create a syrup.Put the pot over medium heat and bring the apricot mixture to a boil. Turn down the heat and continue to cook at a simmer about 1 hour, or until the jam has turned a deep rust color and you can feel some burned bits sticking to the bottom of the pan when you draw a spoon through it. Let the jam cool a bit, then transfer it to a clean jar or plastic container. Store in the refrigerator and use within 1 month. As soon as you remove the jam from the saucepan, soak the pan in hot water. You may have to soak it for a few days. You'll definitely need some steel wool to get rid of all the burned-on bits.

Details

Prep time: 1 hour Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 2 hour Yield: 2 pints

Black radish chips

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Once a month a group of food bloggers gets together in Los Angeles. We call ourselves FBLA (Food Bloggers Los Angeles - okay, we're not super creative) and usually meet at someone's house. We gab, ask each other for advice, and then settle into a circle to talk about a specific topic: how to boost our traffic, food photography tips, how to work with PR people, how to translate food blogging into making money, etc.

We do potluck, and we bring our cameras. Everyone makes something from his or her blog, and everyone else takes pictures of it. It's a great chance to write about someone else's food for a change, and we always have lots of interesting flavors on the table.

Last month Nancy Eisman, who writes the blog Adventures with Nancy Rose, brought a few cases of exotic produce from Melissa's, the gourmet produce distributor she works with. Each of us took a little of this, a little of that. I was fascinated by the black radishes, which I'd never seen before. Sliced raw, it tasted more like a turnip than a radish. Truthfully, it was a little too strong and woody for me.

But after the food bloggers left I did a little research and discovered that black radishes are a) popular in Russia and France, b) often grated raw and mixed into salads or yogurt, or b) cooked. I particularly liked the slice-thinly-and-roast treatment I found on Chocolate and Zucchini, a food blog I read regularly (mostly because she's French - that gives her a lot of food cred with me). A bit of olive oil, a little while in a hot oven, and these black radish chips were out of this world. And beautiful to look at, too - black edges, white flesh, beautiful wagon-wheel pattern.

Most root vegetables work well with this method, including beets, turnips, parsnips, carrots and kohlrabi. Don't overdo the oil and be generous with the salt.

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Black radish chips

by Erika Penzer Kerekes June-24-2011

Black radishes have a strong, turnip-like flavor that lends lots of character to these oven-roasted chips. Look for black radishes in gourmet produce shops.

Ingredients

• 1 pound black radishes
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.Scrub the black radishes well, then slice them thinly (a mandoline works best). Toss them in a bowl with the olive oil and salt so that all the slices are coated. Spread the radish slices in a single layer on two baking sheets.Bake the radish chips about 20 minutes, until they are brown in spots and getting dry and crisp. Remove from the baking sheets and sprinkle on more salt if desired. Serve immediately.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 4 servings

Sour cherry pie smoothie

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I am in love with my little Magic Bullet blender. It's easy to clean. It has a very small footprint, which means it lives neatly on my counter nestled next to the mini-chopper and the coffee grinder. It holds just enough for one or two servings - portion control! And did I mention it's easy to clean?

On the down side, it's not the most powerful blender in the world. But for a smoothie, really, how powerful does it have to be? I'm not looking to liquefy the world, just a little overripe fruit. It works for me.

I know most people like yogurt in smoothies, that creamy-smooth-tangy background behind the fruit. Personally, I prefer the cleaner taste of juice-based smoothies. (I make an exception for banana chocolate "milkshake" smoothies, which take the concept of creamy-smooth to another level entirely.)

Can it still be called a smoothie without milk or yogurt? Should it be called a juicie or a blendie or a fruitie? Whatever. You need a little liquid to get things going.

My liquid of choice these days is Cherries by Nature's tart cherry juice concentrate. It's thick like syrup, with no added sugar. It tastes like cherry pie. And that's how this smoothie got its name. Is there actually pie in that glass? No, of course not. But with a few tablespoons of this concentrated tart cherry juice in the blender with sweet cherries, peach and watermelon, you think "cherry pie" with every sip.

Thanks to Cherries by Nature for the free sample of tart cherry juice concentrate. The Magic Bullet endorsement is entirely unsolicited and uncompensated.

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Sour cherry pie smoothie

by Erika Kerekes June-21-2011

Summer fruits with a splash of sour cherry juice concentrate - you'll swear you're drinking cherry pie.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fresh peach, diced (no need to peel)
• 1 cup fresh seedless watermelon, diced
• 1/2 cup fresh cherries, pitted and halved
• 3 Tbsp Cherries by Nature tart cherry juice concentrate
• 2 tsp honey (optional)

Instructions

Add all ingredients to your blender and push the button. Divide between two glasses. Serve immediately.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: Total time: 5 mins Yield: 2 servings

Berry cherry jam for Father's Day

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All three of the fathers in my life love jam.

Father #1: My dad, who's been gone two and a half years. He had a sweet tooth. He liked lowbrow jam: grape jelly and orange marmalade, preferably from the little rectangular containers at the diner where he and I often ate Sunday breakfast. On the Sundays he was on call for his pediatric practice, he'd go to his office early to read the throat cultures and see the handful of sick kids whose parents wanted peace of mind before Monday morning. I went along to play with the typewriter, spin around on the twirly chairs at the front desk, and answer the phones. ("My daddy - I mean, Dr. Penzer - is on another call at the moment," I'd say gravely. "May I take a message?") On the way home we'd stop at the diner, where he always ordered a toasted corn muffin. It came split in half and glistening with butter from the griddle. He'd peel back the filmy cover of two containers of grape jelly and scoop the wiggly purple stuff out with the point of his knife. Yellow corn muffin, purple jelly: the colors of my young Sundays.

Father #2: My father-in-law, who eats jam with glee. My "other mother" brings healthy steel-cut oatmeal and ground flaxseed with her when they visit to make sure their days start out right. My "other father" happily (if dutifully) eats his bowl of oats and raisins, carefully scraping around the edges with his spoon until it's gone. Breakfast is over - but then, if he spies interesting jam in the refrigerator and if I've remembered to buy or make decent bread, he brings both to the table with some butter and has "dessert." He dips a spoon into the jar, spreads a thick layer on a small piece of bread, smiles as he chews. And then he licks the spoon clean. And licks it again. Runs a finger around the plate to get the stray drops and crumbs. He smiles. Bread and jam: a simple pleasure to start the day.

Father #3: My wonderful husband, father to our two wonderful fathers-to-be. Michael likes jam in oatmeal. He likes oatmeal with jam so much that he eats it both in the morning and as an evening snack. Michael likes thin, soupy oatmeal, nothing like his parents' thick steel-cut oats. Michael's oatmeal is nearly liquid. He makes a pot every few days. He's swooned over my experiments with quince jam, loquat jam, yellow cherry jam. He dislikes strawberry jam, apricot jam, and jam with seeds, although I didn't know that last bit until I made this berry cherry jam. No blackberries next time. Oatmeal with jam: Michael's midnight snack. No wonder his blood pressure is so low.

Berries and cherries are in full swing in the summer. I make a small batch of this jam every week or two and keep it in the refrigerator. When the cherries are done, berries alone work well too. Use any combination you like. As you can see in the photo above, I prefer a loose-set jam without added pectin - it mixes more easily into Michael's oatmeal and makes a better pancake topping. Adding a few long strips of lemon peel adds natural pectin, but it will still be thinner than commercial jam.

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Berry cherry jam

by Erika Penzer Kerekes June-19-2011

I make small batches of this delicious jam throughout the summer when berries and cherries are plentiful. Use any combination of fresh berries you prefer.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound fresh cherries, halved and pitted
• 1 pound fresh berries, any combination (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or blackberries - strawberries should be hulled and sliced)
• 2 cups granulated sugar (less if your berries are very sweet)
• 1 lemon

Instructions

In a large heavy saucepan, combine the cherries, berries and sugar. Let sit about 20 minutes. The fruit will release some of its liquid.With a paring knife or vegetable peeler, peel the skin off the lemon in large strips, taking some of the white pith as you cut. Add the lemon strips to the fruit and sugar.Bring the fruit mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Watch the pot carefully, because I can tell you from personal experience that when a pot of jam boils over, it makes a huge mess. Trust me - you don't want to deal with this mess. As soon as the jam boils, turn down the heat to medium-low. You want to keep the jam bubbling vigorously, but you definitely want to keep it in the pot.Cook the jam, stirring every few minutes, about 30 minutes. It will still look pretty thin, but don't worry - the jam will thicken some (not a lot) as it cools. This is runny jam. You can cook it longer and get more of the water out of it to make a thicker jam, but you'll lose some of the fresh fruit taste. Up to you. While the jam is cooking, wash an old jar and its lid in hot, soapy water. This is refrigerator jam, not meant for long-term storage, so as long as the jar is clean you're fine. No need to worry about boiling or pressure cooking or such.Ladle the hot jam into the clean jar. Wipe the rim of the jar clean and screw on the lid. Let the jar of jam sit on your counter until it's cool, then refrigerate. Use within a month.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: approximately 2 pints