This is a lovely, light vegetarian supper. The preparation is simple because, quite frankly, the meatiness of the mushrooms against the cool, delicate greens and the mellowness of good cheese cannot be bested.
I have made cauliflower every which way: I’ve blanched it, sautéed, boiled it, mashed it, deep-fried it, and eaten it raw. Until I read about it on eGullet.org, though, I never knew I could roast it. This recipe really brings out the richness of the cauliflower and matches it perfectly with the robustness of the spices. I use my fennel rub along with a few other spices. If you have sea salt, it works really well with this recipe. The cauliflower tends to shrink when roasted, so one head of cauliflower is about right for 2 servings.
Over my girls’ coop, a sign reads: team quiche. That’s because each of my three original hens would lay an egg a day, and three eggs are exactly what my favorite recipe calls for. Quiche is easy to make, great to share, and keeps well in the fridge. It tastes just as good heated up in the oven the next day. You can customize it, adding whatever you prefer. If your add-ins include breakfast meats such as bacon or sausage, make sure they’re precooked before mixing them with the other ingredients.
One of my cousins was married to a Kashmiri gentleman, and for the period when he was working at the United Nations in New York he had brought along a manservant. My cousin let me have him once a week to cook and clean. His repertoire was limited—he could only cook dishes he had learned from my cousin, such as this simple Kashmiri staple, which we loved. Soon he was making it week after week, and it remains one of our favorites. In Kashmir, collard-type greens and rice are eaten as commonly as beans and rice in Central America, the season for them lasting from spring (when the greens are tender) until the snows start to fall in early winter (when the greens get coarser).
This sauce, without the mint, holds for 2 days in the fridge, but should be used at room temperature. The mint goes in at the last moment to keep its bright green color and fresh taste.
I adore the deceptive plainness of gingerbread. It is definitively unfancy, and yet the flavor is so rich, and its deep-toned tang so subtle. Here the tang is a little more emphatic, as sour cream and licorice-evocative Guinness give heady lift, but still this is — for all the treacly sugar and pungent spices — gentle and cozy-making, though almost alarmingly addictive.
So much easier than apple pie and so much lighter, this tart will not be overkill after a celebration meal. It’s not the same-old, same-old apple pie. The tart’s rosemary leaves and lemon sugar (the trick of rubbing shredded rind into sugar) flavoring the apple slices, then a finish of cinnamon and olive oil sets it far apart from the usual. The best part is that because the tart’s so thin and crisp-crusted, you can bake it a day ahead and lightly warm the tart in the oven before serving.
Lighter than yams, easily done ahead and good hot or tepid, roasted sweet squash turns almost candy-like in the oven.
Anything you can serve at room temperature is a gift when you’re taking on a big menu. These beans shine at room temperature and could be done a day in advance. They will hold at room temperature about 2 hours; after that, chill them.
My father uses the microwave. Working with about 5 chestnuts at a time, he slits each chestnut almost all the way around its circumference, leaving the shell connected in one spot (there is a black dot on the chestnut that he uses as the hinge). Then he lays the nuts on a plate and microwaves them on high power for 40 seconds. The shells pop open like clams. He wets his fingers in cold water and pulls off the shells before the chestnuts cool. Repeat until all the chestnuts are peeled. The fresh ones really are better than the jarred, and he says it takes him only 15 minutes to do a pound.