I simply love the site sardine society. It is fully dedicated to the noble, cheap and widely available canned sardine, and all-things canned-sardine related. What a great way to honor these humble, delicious and prolific fish.

patê de sardinha AKA sardine paté

Sardines have a wonderful flavor, are inexpensive and are a rich source of protein. Yet they always seem to struggle under the “canned fish” stigma: too smelly, too fishy, too unrefined, etc. Well, that’s too bad. And rather silly, too. I eat them straight from the can with pleasure all the time. Cooking with them is also marvelous. And don’t even get me started about fresh sardines! Out of this world!

Marcia, a friend of mine back when I lived in Brazil, used to make this patê de sardinha often. She and her husband bought a house and chunk of land in a remote, scenic area nearby a recently constructed damn in the State of São Paulo. They invited friends over to spend weekends and help with the up-keep of the place. In return we had a nice place to stay and a chance to escape from the city during the summer. Since we always got there late and hungry, Marcia always made her sardine paté to tide us over until dinner. We would enjoy it with French bread and lots of cold Brazilian beer. Delish.

patê de sardinha AKA sardine paté

1 can oil packed sardines, drained
4 tbsp finely chopped white onion
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp black pepper
Few drops of hot sauce (sriracha)
3 tbsp vegenaise
½ tsp French mustard
2 tbsp ketchup
Juice of ½ lime
Bread slices

Put all ingredients (except bread) in a bowl and mash with a fork until relatively smooth, cover and refrigerate for about half an hour. Transfer paté to a serving bowl. Eat with any bread of your preference.

I was determined to find a cheap deviled egg platter at a thrift shop in the Mission District of San Francisco this past weekend to present my mother-in-law’s deviled eggs. We went to three or four stores and couldn’t find any (though we made out with vintage shirts.) I was disappointed because I don’t see these dishes very often at regular stores anymore. How could I display the deviled eggs cutely and in the manner in which they deserve?

Lynda’s deviled eggs

I know that you can cut a bit of the bottom of each half egg off so they could lay flat on the serving tray but that was not part of the original recipe… And who does that anyway?

Fortunately, we didn’t give up and “like they always say” our patience was rewarded. Later that afternoon while shopping at the Ferry Building we found the perfect dish for sale at Sur La Table! Success! And it was selling at a discount price of just $5.99! Plus it looks like a big egg. Wowza!

We spent Christmas Day at Steven’s parents this year. His mother, Lynda, made tons of delicious dishes, both savory and sweet. Thank you! I brought few of her recipes back home and will be producing them for weirdcombinations. Obviously, this is one of them. These deviled eggs are to die for and extremely simple to make. I know its artery clogging but so good!

One thing I just realized is that in Brazil Worcestershire sauce is called molho Inglês, or English Sauce, and I never connected the two names together until now. I did modify it by using vegenaise rather than mayonnaise.

Lynda’s deviled eggs

6 large organic eggs
1 tsp yellow mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Few drops of Sriracha sauce
¼ cup vegenaise
Sweet paprika

To cook your eggs to perfection, remove eggs from the fridge about an hour before boiling just to bring them to room temperature. Put eggs in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Cover with water, place on stove at high temperature, bring to a boil, turn it off, remove pan from heat. Cover and let it rest for 17 minutes. Scoop eggs out of water, rinse in cold water, remove shells. Cut eggs lengthwise in halves.

Gently remove yolks and place in a bowl, allow it to cool down if still warm. Add mustard, vegenaise, Worcestershire and sriracha sauces. Using a stick blender, blend until smooth. Fill each egg white with the spicy yolk paste. Place in deviled egg dish. Sprinkle with paprika and serve.

Sometimes I like being told what to do—not too often mind you, so don’t get the wrong idea! But once in a while when I’m lacking the proper kitchen inspiration, it is nice to get helpful instruction. That happened the other day with this eggplant recipe. We were having a group of friends over and needed some sort of appetizer. Hegui whipped out Yotam Ottolenghi and was on a roll. I had nothing. So sad! Fortunately he had enough enthusiasm for the both of us. He “suggested” that I try the “burnt eggplant with tahini” recipe from Plenty. Well, yum!

roasted eggplant with tahini and pomegranate party dip

Sort of like babaganoush on steroids, this has the exciting addition of pomegranate molasses, which I’d not had before. It is so delightfully tart. Mmmm. That plus cherry tomatoes and sliced cucumber with a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds for garnish really make this recipe pop. Part salad, part dip, and very festive looking; you’ll be happy that you spouse demanded that you make this one.

roasted eggplant with tahini and pomegranate party dip

1 large Italian eggplant
1/3 cup tahini
2 tsp pomegranate molasses
juice from half a lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 tbsp chopped Italian parsley
Salt and black pepper to taste
12 cherry tomatoes in halves
half an English cucumber, cut in quarters the long way then sliced thinly
½ cup pomegranate seeds
olive oil to finish

Roast whole eggplant on grill at highest temperature for about thirty minutes, turning occasionally, until it shrinks. Remove from heat, let cool then peel. Discard skin and stem. Tear flesh with a fork. It will have some residual juice (or at least mine did). Use this instead of water to thin the dish.

Add tahini, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, salt and black pepper to eggplant. Mix thoroughly. Fold in cherry tomatoes and cucumber. Place in a serving dish. Garnish with pomegranate seeds and a drizzle of olive oil.

Serve with bread or crackers as an appetizer or as a side.

umma paste ingredients

I fell in love with this Korean cookbook, The Kimchi Chronicles by Marja Vongerichten, while perusing a book shop at The Japan Center in SF recently. I adore kimchi and the book has a whole variety of recipes for them, and for banchans, those tapas style Korean side dishes. I can’t wait to try them all. I’ve made a couple delicious vegetarian kimchis before: look here, and here.

The Kimchi Chronicles has other great recipes too, including amazing sauces and pastes, many perfectly adaptable to our pescatarian diet, just like this umma paste.

Umma is a Korean style chili garlic paste. The word, “umma” is the phonetic equivalent of “mother” in Korean. So umma paste translates into mother paste. She uses this paste ubiquitously and liberally on her dishes. I made a large batch and used it in several things: first in her Korean Bouillabaisse, then on sushi rolls and finally as a flavorful spread on toast topped with a fried egg. All were delicious.

Umma paste has a uniquely bold earthy, salty, sweet, sour, spicy, umami, garlicky, funky (in a good way) flavor, which I think defines a lot of what Korean cuisine is about. This is a new addition to my top favorite hot sauces: chili garlic sauce, sriracha and harissa.

I forgot to take a decent picture of the umma paste!  Darn it.  The one that I do have is so blurry that it looks like an abstract painting in a moving car.  As such, it is bound to make you dizzy so I’ve left it out of the article.  Instead, I put a pic of the ingredients, which are quite colorful. The paste is a very deep red color and was quite thick.    

umma paste

4 large garlic cloves
3 tbsp gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder)
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
3 tbsp sake

Throw everything in the food processor and whiz it until all turns into a smooth puree. Scoop it out into a bowl. Use as needed.

We got the Korean ingredients at Kukje Supermarket.

Pão-com-ovo, or egg sandwich, was one of my favorites when I was growing up: so simple and delicious. I think it had to do with the eggs coming from happy hens, freely roaming around my mother’s backyard, feeding not only on grains, but all the other stuff chickens like to eat. What do you think? I believe that how the chicken is treated makes a difference in the quality of the eggs produced.

sunny-side up quail eggs and cannellini bean spread on rustic toast

For this simplest of country fare, the egg was just fried sunny-side up, in a cast iron pan with some oil, salt and pepper, then lovingly placed on a big fat slice of rustic bread. These country eggs had unbelievable flavor and a pumpkin-orange colored yolk that was out of this world. It was fun getting messy after the first bite, with the yolk leaking all over the bread and my finger tips and arms and everything. Peasant food rocks! Here I am reminiscing about food and childhood again.

Alas we try not to eat a lot of eggs these days because of the cholesterol content*, but last week I couldn’t resist the little tray of organic quail eggs staring at me at the supermarket. So here’s a version of my childhood favorite, pão-com-ovo. I’ve added the Tuscan style bean spread to make the dish more substantial, for a full meal.

sunny-side up eggs are so cheery, sort of like sunflowers

sunny-side up quail eggs and cannellini bean spread on rustic toast

3 cups cooked cannellini beans with some of their juices
4 cloves garlic (3 minced and 1 for rubbing on bread slices)
Kosher salt
Black pepper
6 thick slices of ciabatta bread, cut diagonally
Olive oil
6 quail eggs
Good extra virgin olive oil for fishing

Heat up 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan, add minced garlic and let it sizzle for a minute. Add beans with some of the liquid, salt and pepper, then bring to a boil. Remove from heat, transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside and keep warm.

Position rack of your oven close to the grill, and broil bread slices on both sides, about 2-3 minutes on each. Remove from oven, rub garlic clove on both sides.

Add a few drops of olive oil to a non-stick pan. Break a quail egg in and fry on medium temperature sunny side up. Remove from the pan and repeat with the rest.

Arrange bread slices on a platter, spread about a dollop of bean paste over each slice, top with a quail egg, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over it all and voilá!

You can serve this as warm appetizer or main course with a side of leafy salad or tomatoes. This goes well with a hearty and bold red wine.

*As for the cholesterol, quail egg is not too bad if you can eat just one. Quail has only 76mg cholesterol, which is 25% of the recommended intake. Compare to chicken, at 213mg or 70%. Duck egg has 619mg or 206%; turkey, 737mg, or 246%; goose, a whopping 1227mg, or 409%. I looked for ostrich but couldn’t find the info on that grandest of edible egg.

Data from recipe tips.

Hegui and I first tried tostones in Miami Beach. This was at least ten years ago! Too long. We’ve a friend in Florida who was dating this lovely Cuban man at the time. Aside from being marvelously good-natured and pleasant company, Luis also happened to be an incredible chef. He cooked for us our entire visit, and every dish was astounding. I was most amazed by his fried plantain appetizer, tostones. He served them with two toppings: one a thick green salsa with cilantro and avocado chunks; the second, some kind of tomato-based red sauce with shrimp. I was so enchanted with this dish on our visit, that I actually bought the little wooden implement to press the plantain pieces into shape for tostones.

tostones with shrimp, poblano pepper and heirloom tomato salsa

Of course, this was the first time I ever used the device, more than a decade later. Better late than never, I guess.

I think that the plantains are supposed to be fairly green to get the crisp potato-like texture and flavor. Ours were relatively ripe. They turned a lovely golden color and became quite sweet, but didn’t crisp up at all. Not like I recall from Luis’ kitchen though very tasty nevertheless.

tostones with shrimp, poblano pepper and heirloom tomato salsa

two plantains
1 cup large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 cups chopped heirloom tomatoes
½ onion, finely chopped
½ poblano, ribs and seeds removed, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp cilantro, roughly chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste
Vegetable oil for frying
Lime wedges for garnish

my plantains

Peel plantains and cut into about one inch long rounds. Fry on medium high heat until they begin to color, about five minutes. Remove to a plate covered in paper towels. Let cool then gently press into round disks.

first round of frying the plantains

plantains after the first frying

Return to oil and fry on higher heat to crisp them. Remove from oil to plate covered with paper towels. Sprinkle with salt.

pressing the plantains into the right shape for the second frying

To make sauce, add olive oil to a skillet on high heat. Once it starts to smoke, add onion and poblano. Sauté until onions become translucent. Add garlic. Sauté for about a minute more. Add shrimp and cook until they just turn pink. Add tomato, salt and black pepper to taste. Toss in cilantro and remove from heat. You just want the tomatoes to warm up, but not lose their shape.

To serve, place tostones on a large platter. Top with shrimp, poblano, tomato salsa. Garnish with lime wedges.

Bajjis, bhajis or pakoras are Indian vegetable fritters I adore. They sort of remind me of the type of vegetable/rice fritters my mother used to occasionally make when I was a kid. She called them bolinhos de arroz, or rice balls. It was a creative way of using leftover rice. There was never waste at home and that was a good thing.

red and white onion bajiis

To make her bolinhos de arroz she would mix flour, baking powder, mild spices, eggs, water, left over rice, grated zucchini or chayote and just fry and serve them as an appetizer or side dish. I thought it was such a treat when she made it! But when you grow up and develop a taste for bold flavors then you replace bolinhos de arroz with bajiis.

You can make bajiis with peppers, eggplant, potatoes, or cauliflower; but my favorite ones have onions.

Here’s a simple recipe with a Brazilian-Indian approach.

red and white onion bajiis

1 medium sized white onion, thinly sliced in half-moon shape
2 medium sized red onions, thinly sliced in half-moon shape
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup chick pea flour
1½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper powder
1 tsp kosher salt
2 large organic eggs, lightly beaten
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ bunch cilantro, chopped
3-4 tbsp cold water
Neutral oil such as canola for frying

Mix cilantro, sliced red and white onions together. Set aside.

Fill a skillet with about ½ inch of oil; bring oil temperature to high.

Meanwhile whisk flours, black and cayenne peppers, salt, cumin and turmeric powders together. Incorporate egg and water to make a thick batter. If too thick add a bit more of water. Fold in onions. Drop spoons full of batter into hot oil and fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove and drain on paper towels. Serve warm.

Labneh is sort of a Lebanese version of sour cream or perhaps a very creamy cream cheese. Joumana uses it to great effect on her food blog. Look here, here and here for some excellent ideas. Hegui was so inspired that he bought a large container of labneh, mostly to snack on, it seems. I used it with this quick bread as I thought the tanginess would complement the pumpkin and herbs. You can use it like sour cream in most recipes that call for it. I wonder how Polish sour soup would taste with labneh? Mmmm.

savory pumpkin bread with garden herbs and labneh

This recipe comes from cooks.com, though I’ve modified it a bit. Aside from adding dollops of labneh, I used a bit less sugar, soy milk instead of cow’s milk, and more randomly mixed in herbs from our community garden plot. In mine, I used chives, mint and sage. You can add basil and cilantro, too. I thought about Italian parsley but decided that it would overpower everything else. Next time, I intend to top the loaves with jalapeño slices for a bit of heat.

my container of labneh, here spelled labne

savory pumpkin bread with garden herbs and labneh

2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
½ cup soy milk
1 cup mashed pumpkin (here it was kabocha)
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp mixed fresh herbs
1 tsp per mini-loaf labneh

Preheat oven to 350F.

Beat eggs then mix in liquid ingredients, pumpkin and herbs. In another bowl, blend dry ingredients. Then mix into wet. I used disposable mini-loaf pans to reduce mess. If you use a regular baking dish, grease liberally. Add batter to mini-loafs just over half full. Dollop labneh in center of each mini-loaf. Bake about 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I used to make this recipe from Mollie Katzen’s Enchanted Broccoli Forest all the time about twenty years ago. The book was new then, and I was new in the kitchen. It seemed terribly ambitious and impressive. I was always so pleased with myself!

whole wheat calzones with parsley mint pesto, provolone and mozzarella

It’s funny how I feel now, preparing this after such a long hiatus. The recipe seems kind of easy now. I really like the filling, which I’ve modified here. Mollie suggests basil pesto with ricotta or provolone and tomato. Hegui doesn’t care for ricotta, and we have a superabundance of parsley and mint from our community garden. I’m not that sure about the dough.

I followed the original recipe here to the letter. And in fact, it is exactly how I remember it from the late 1980’s. The thing is, it is a bit tough: tough to kneed and hard in the mouth. Somehow I long for a more fluffy, foccacia-like crust. Plus, more often than not, my calzones burst open while baking. It always makes a mess! Whether this is due to the recipe or my modest skills, I don’t know. This does not alter the delightful flavor in any way. Nevertheless, I believe they’re supposed to stay closed. Perhaps I should use less filling?

Well, I have to say that the dough absorbs the olive oil marvelously well. I had a leftover calzone for lunch a few days later, soaked through with oil and pesto, and it was truly sublime.

whole wheat calzones with parsley mint pesto, provolone and mozzarella

For the dough:

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
¼ cup corn meal
1½ tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
½ packet dry active yeast
1 cup warm water
Olive oil

For the filling:

1 clove garlic
1 large punch parsley
2 sprigs mint, leaves only
¼ to ½ cup olive oil
Juice of one lemon
Black pepper to taste
1 tsp salt
¼ cup walnuts
¼ cup parmesan
3 Roma tomatoes, in slices
1/3 cup provolone, shredded
1/3 cup mozzarella, shredded

To prepare dough:

Mix sugar, water and yeast in a bowl and stir. Let rest about five to ten minutes. In another bowl, blend flours, corn meal and salt together. Gradually work into liquid until forms a thick dough.

Pour onto counter and kneed about five minutes. Shape into a ball.

Pour some olive oil into a large bowl. Roll dough ball in oil, cover and let rise about 90 minutes in a warm place.

stuffing the clazone

folding calzone closed, crimping the edges and piercing holes on top

To prepare filling:

In a food processor, blend garlic, parsley, mint leaves, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and black pepper until it forms a paste. Add more olive oil if too thick. Process in walnuts then parmesan. Set aside.

To assemble calzones:

Pre-heat oven to 425F.

Press dough into a round disk and cut into six equal pieces. Roll each into a ball. Flatten each smaller ball by hand then with a rolling pin to about ¼ inch thickness.

Fill with some parsley mint pesto, some of the two cheeses and top with two tomato slices. Pull one end of dough over filling onto edge of other. Press edges closed with the blunt end of a fork or spoon. Mollie writes that the finished calzones look like UFOs, which is sort of true. Pierce with a fork to allow steam to escape and avoid unwanted oven explosions.

Place each on a baking tray. When all calzones are formed, bake about 20 minutes until crust is firm and golden brown. Let cool about 15 or 20 minutes then enjoy with leafy salad and red wine, of course.

welcome, Summer!

This dish comes from a very specialized cookbook I bought last time I was in Brazil: 1000 recipes for salt cod. I know, amazing!

salt codfish croquettes AKA croquete de bacalhau

I was excited when I bought the book and remain so. I don’t cook many of those recipes as they are a bit naughty and decadent, full of rich sauces with cream, butter, eggs, sometimes deep fried and so on. I try to hold back on this type of cooking for a special treat. Well, Easter weekend seemed the perfect occasion to splurge.

Croquete de bacalhau is a typical fried finger food (generically called salgadinhos in Portuguese) that you might find in Brazilian bakeries. Actually it is just one of many. Others come with meat, fish fresh, palm hearts, potatoes or cheese—and sometimes in combinations of these ingredients. The bakeries in Rio de Janeiro are especially fun to visit since you can try several kinds of salgadinho and order perfectly ripe tropical fruit juice, squeezed to order right in front of you, made from things like mango, papaya, various citrus, or pineapple, all at once, for almost nothing. That is worth doing, and often!

view of Sugar Loaf from Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro

some tropical fruit for sale at a market in São Paulo

I think that I must have been channeling Rio when I made these the other day. Steven and I have had such marvelous trips there. Perhaps the springtime weather we’ve lately been enjoying is stimulating my wanderlust and taste buds.

The book calls for potato in the dough, but we didn’t have any, so I used cassava root instead. (Isn’t it weird we had cassava root at home but no potatoes?) So you can use potato or cassava (I bought mine peeled and frozen at a little market in the Mission. It is pretty common in stores that sell a lot of Caribbean or Latino foods, so if you have trouble finding it, you might try there.)

salt codfish croquettes AKA croquete de bacalhau

1 cup of tomato sauce (I made my own—see below. Prepared would work, too.)
1½ cups salt cod
3 tbsp chopped onion
3 tbsp chopped parsley
Black pepper to taste
1 cup mashed cooked cassava
1 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten and slightly salted
1½ cups fine bread crumbs
Canola and olive oil for frying

For tomato sauce:

5 fresh tomatoes
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
3 tbsp olive oil
pinch dried oregano and basil
salt and pepper to taste

To prepare the tomato sauce:

Cut woody tips off tomatoes then slice them in half. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to a pan. Place tomato halves in, cover and let cook until skins begin to curl. Remove from heat. With the help of tongs, remove peels and discard them. Transfer tomatoes to a bowl, wipe pan off. Simply make sauce by sautéing garlic in olive oil, add tomato and remaining ingredients. Raise temperature to boil then lower heat to simmer, partially covered for about 20 minutes.

To prepare croquettes:

Soak salt codfish over night, changing water about 3 times to remove salt.

Bring a pot of fresh water to a boil. Drop cod fish in it. Immediately remove from heat and let poach for about 10 minutes. Remove fish from cooking water and let cool. Remove skin, bones if any, then cut into small chunks. Set aside.

Sauté onion in olive oil until translucent, then add codfish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for a couple of minutes longer. Add tomato sauce. Stir and bring to boil then reduce to simmer. Adjust flavors. It should be slightly salty. Add mashed cassava, flour and parsley. Mix to incorporate. It will turn into thick dough. Remove from heat and let cool until easily handled.

rolling croquette in breadcrumbs

formed croquettes ready for frying

Split dough into two equal pieces. Wet your hands with olive oil and roll each piece into a ¾ inch diameter tube or log. Cut pieces and roughly shape them into coquettes.

Roll each croquette in breadcrumbs, then in egg wash, and back again in breadcrumbs. Repeat process with remaining croquettes.

Fill a small cooking pan (8 inch in diameter) with about an inch of oil. Use about 3 parts canola to 1 part olive oil. Heat oil on high. Drop 3 to 4 croquettes in at a time and fry until golden brown. Remove to a paper towel to drain. Repeat process with remaining. Serve warm with hot sauce. Enjoy your salgadinhos!