Category Archives: Snacks and Apps

Colorful Vegetables with White Dip

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I love a picnic.  And we spent yesterday evening at the best picnic of the year.It was a party with friends and friends-of-friends, all in white at a waterfront park in Seattle.  The location was a secret until late afternoon, then the text messages flew, the final arrangements were made, and we began to descend upon the appointed destination.  White balloons fluttered at the park’s entrance, white lights lit the path to the water, and soon long tables were set with white linens and plates, flowers and candles.  Feasts were laid out.  The guests, of course, wore white.  A band kept time to the festivities and after dark descended, hundreds of white sparklers lit the air.  A very nice picnic indeed.

Luckily our friends are excellent cooks and we ate very well.  (They are great photographers, too; you can see my friend Knox’s photos from last year here and my friend Tara’s photos from last night here.)  There were meats and cheeses and chutneys and quince paste and three kinds of pickles.  There were salads in a palette of brilliant hues: beets with oranges and pistachios, roasted cauliflower and chickpeas, salmon nestled into greens, plums on a bed of grilled kale with ricotta, a saffron coucous with raisins.  There was a fancy cake.  And, in a nod to the party’s white theme, I brought vegetables with this dip.I also brought it because it’s so good.  It’s a savory, moreish way to eat your vegetables.  It’s perfect with green beans but I couldn’t resist adding blanched carrots and crisp radishes to the plate as well.  The more color the better, I say, at least on my plate.

Colorful Vegetables with White Dip (adapted from Gourmet): Okay, yes, the secret ingredient here is a can of anchovies.  Brave them, try them, even if you’re skeptical.  This is a gentle introduction for nonbelievers.

Drain and rinse a 2-oz. can of anchovies and dump them in a small pot with 2 big cloves of minced garlic, 2 Tbsp. water, and 2 Tbsp. sour cream (I used low fat).  Simmer for 10 minutes over low heat, stirring often.  Transfer the resulting anchovy-garlic paste to a food processor with another 1 c. sour cream and 1/3 c. mayonnaise and blend until smooth.  Optional: add 1-2 Tbsp. lemon juice.  (I like it both ways, with and without the lemon.)  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Chill at least an hour before serving with blanched green beans or other blanched or raw vegetables.

Roasted Tomato and Eggplant Tart

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Still wondering what to bring to that Labor Day picnic?  Not only is this tart flavorful and attractive, it also hides a pound of eggplant.  And who doesn’t have a pound of eggplant to hide at this time of year?I mean, I’ll just go ahead and admit it: sometimes the most popular way to serve eggplant is hidden.  Eggplant?  What eggplant?  My oldest daughter gave this dish an enthusiastic review and said it tasted like pizza.  Continue reading →

Zucchini Bread with Rye, Basil, and Mint

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Welcome to Emmy Cooks!  You can see some of my favorite recent recipes by clicking the “My Favorite Recipes” category on the sidebar (here are June, July, and August).  If you like what you see here, you can sign up on the sidebar to receive a daily recipe by email, or follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

It took me all summer to get around to making zucchini bread.  I don’t have a go-to recipe, and I wasn’t feeling inspired.  I didn’t want spices.  I didn’t want nuts.  I didn’t want chocolate.

I wanted this, although I didn’t know it yet.  Butter, infused with basil and mint, so flavorful and delicious that I almost canned the baking idea in favor of just tossing that butter with shredded zucchini.  (I’ll be doing that too, you can be sure.)  The subtle tang of rye.  A little sugar, but not so much that you couldn’t still slather a slice in raspberry jam.  And we have.  Oh, we have. Continue reading →

Zucchini Fritters

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The challenge with zucchini at this time of year, I find, is how to wrangle overgrown clubs of squash into something that you actually want to eat.  With all due respect to the lovely Mollie Katzen (to whom much respect is due), this is not the season for stuffed “Zuccanoes.”My answer to the annual giant zucchini quandary usually involves my food processor.  Grating zucchini is therapeutic, first off; literally cutting the squash down to size shows it who’s boss and lets it see that you are not intimidated.  Continue reading →

Fava and Ricotta Bruschetta

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I know I said that I find the task of preparing fava beans to be overly fussy, but I’ve found a way that makes it easy.  Graciously agree to let a girlfriend come over on a Saturday to make lunch together, and hope that she arrives with a bright little bowl of favas that have already been shucked, boiled, and individually peeled.  (Thanks, girlfriend!)  If she goes on to introduce you to a gorgeous recipe like this one, that’s just icing on the cake.

This is the second fava recipe I’ve posted on this site and both of them are for bruschetta.  (The other bruschetta topping is a rich fava and arugula pesto.)  Is this a coincidence?  I think not.  Continue reading →

Beet Chips

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Welcome to Emmy Cooks!  You can see some of my favorite recent recipes by clicking the “My Favorite Recipes” category on the sidebar (here are April, May, and June).  If you like what you see here, you can sign up on the sidebar to receive a daily recipe by email and to follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook or Twitter.

During my first pregnancy, I had an occasional craving for citrus.  Grapefruit, oranges, pomelos, lemons, limes, anything.  During my second pregnancy, nothing.  And during my third pregnancy, I had no cravings, but one aversion: beets.

Other vegetables were okay: I would happily have eaten butternut squash tacos with chipotle and feta or a pound-of-greens frittata.  Those risotto-stuffed chard leaves were popular in my kitchen that year, and a simple arugula salad was just my speed (the arugula comes up in the garden by itself on years when I’m neglectful; what could be easier?).

But beets!  Woe!  I used to love beets!  Roasted with walnuts and blue cheese.  Grated beet salads with honey-ginger or lemony dressings.  Beets steamed with their greens and swathed in oil and vinegar.  Goodbye, beets.  Even after my baby was born they seemed a little too…sweet, too meaty.  Too beet-y.  So last year I dutifully piled the beets into my crisper as they arrived from my CSA.  I cooked the greens and packed the roots tighter and tighter into the left-hand drawer.  Finally, in the dead of winter, I cleaned out the drawer and composted them all.  Sorry, beets.

This year I am taking a more reasonable approach.  I’m planning to make all my beets into beet chips.  They’re crispy and salty and, while they’re still sweet, they’re a world away from the roasted beets that I once loved.  They’re a nice change of pace, and they’ll help free up some space in my fridge this summer. Continue reading Beet Chips (click for recipe)

Maple Granola with Almonds and Coconut

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Happy weekend! It’s felt like the weekend here for a few days, honestly, with family in town and a bonus baby in the house (my nephew!) and the kind of lazy schedule that made me feel accomplished the day we all got out on our bikes/scooters/strollers and rode two whole blocks.  (Not impressed?  You try getting out of the house with four kids when the oldest is five.)

And now we get to cap that off with the real weekend.  I, for one, am celebrating with one more foray in my effort to become the web’s preeminent source of granola recipes.  (Ok, not really, but there are a lot of granola recipes on this website: that deliciously sugary olive oil granola, Heidi Swanson’s delicate and buttery granola with orange zest, currants, and walnuts, an oil-free crunchy hippie orange and almond granola, and my old standby with dried cherries).  And now, maybe, my new standby–this weekend, anyway–a nearly equal proportion of oats to seeds and nuts, maple syrup and olive oil for sweet and crunch, and a serious spoonful of salt that makes it all just right.

This recipe roughly follows the Seattle-based Marge Granola formula as it appeared on The Kitchn’s website, so if you lack the time or inclination to make your own granola you can just click that link above to order some seriously tasty granola from Megan (who also, by the way, writes the lovely blog A Sweet Spoonful–see you over there!).  But I imagine that if you are reading this blog you are, or aspire to be, a granola-making type, so let’s do it.  Continue reading Maple Granola with Almonds and Coconut (click for recipe)

Parsley Pesto Toasts with Radishes

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I love to cook.  The rhythm of chopping, the aroma dancing up from the pan, the colors and flavors and textures of food transformed by heat and human ingenuity.

I also love to not cook.  The ease of a salad fresh from the garden, a handful-of-this-handful-of-that pesto, a plum I pick from the tree and eat outside.

This flavorful recipe is not-cooking cooking.  It takes less than 5 minutes (including the pesto) and can be lunch or a snack for one, or you can make a platter of these pretty little toasts to serve at your garden party.  Invite me!

You do need a nice hearty bread, thinly sliced and toasted (you could rub it with olive oil first, sure, but I didn’t).  The pesto recipe is mostly parsley, so heap it on there.  Top with lots of thinly-sliced radishes for crunch and zing, and anoint your toast generously with flaky salt.If you’re in more of a cooking kind of mood today, allow me instead suggest these “green tartine” radish top toasts.  Can’t decide?  You could always make both together for a top-to-tail radish tasting.

Tzatziki

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There was great enthusiasm around here about the prospect of an Emmy Cooks bloopers reel, so today, for your enjoyment, I present a dish that didn’t turn out so well.

To be clear, I love the tzatziki recipe I’ve given you below–you can’t really go wrong with herbed yogurt sauces in my book.  Remember that cilantro yogurt sauce (and are you still making it as often as I am)?  The basil yogurt sauce?  This, finally, is the classic: yogurt and dill, with cucumber for crunch.  And it’s great. But I made the tzatziki as one component of an apparently ill-conceived riff on Eggs Benedict, which ended up not as great as it should have been.  It was good, but….  It was whole grain toast topped with silky sauteed chard, a poached egg, and this lemony-garlicky tzatziki, but it needed a little something more.  A drizzle of spicy butter?  A generous crumble of smoked salmon?  You tell me if you try.  I’ve already picked out a recipe from Ottolenghi’s Plenty for the next time I try an eggs-and-yogurt combination.

Unfortunately, I made this breakfast for my sister, thinking it would be a special send-off meal after two so-nice weeks together.  I was sad to say goodbye to her, but what a luxury to have so much time together when we live in different cities.  Thank you for coming, sis, and for all the fun and help!  Next time I will play it safe and express my breakfast-time appreciation with chocolate waffles instead.The consolation prize is having a bowl of the tzatziki in my fridge to enjoy in the coming week.

Continue reading Tzatziki (click for recipe)

Fava Bean and Arugula Crostini

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I love many vegetables.  Most vegetables, even.  But I do not love fava beans.

Sure, they’re the color of springtime.  And at their best, they do taste like something that color green should taste.  But they are so much work.  (Every year around this time, someone acts like it’s a new idea to grill whole fava beans, but that can’t really work.  Does that really work?)

So I only cook fava beans when they appear in my CSA box.  One or two pounds can be manageable if you have half an hour to kill: string the pods and pull them open, push out the beans with your thumb, simmer them for a few minutes, drain and run them under cold water, then peel the bean-skin from each and every individual bean.

Then see if you find yourself admiring the fava’s color and flavor, or if you find yourself vowing to just steam some broccoli next time.  If you forget your vow and find yourself with another pound of favas, though, this recipe is one of my favorites.

Continue reading Fava Bean and Arugula Crostini (click for recipe)