Steak and Caprese Toasts

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For when all you want to eat during the summer is caprese made from fresh garden grown tomatoes, but you need some protein too.

I don’t normally serve toast for dinner. I try to cook up a “real” meal for Spouse and I in the evenings but I must say that this toast recipe is definitely dinner status. Maybe it was a little overkill to use such a nice cut of steak for toast, but it tasted really good so I have no regrets. I also didn’t want the risk of us biting into the toasts, and having fatty bits dragging too much steak along with the bite because we couldn’t cut through cleanly with our teeth.

There are a few phases to making these but the good news is that it all gets done in the same cast iron pan. And in the end, you’ll have a world of flavor—tender steak with richness from the butter it was seared in, crunch and carbs from the toast, creaminess from burrata, fresh herbaceousness from basil, and brightness from burst tomatoes tossed in a quick vinaigrette. ⁣

How to Make Steak and Caprese Toast

Ingredients

8 oz tenderloin or filet mignon steak, at room temp
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 slices of good bread
lots of olive oil
1 tbsp salted butter
10 oz cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp honey
2 tsp white wine vinegar
8 oz burrata
fresh basil leaves

Procedure

Generously season steak with salt and pepper.

Heat a cast iron skillet on medium high. Generously drizzle olive oil. Fry bread in the olive oil on both sides until golden, then remove and set aside.

Add butter to the skillet and then add the steak. For medium rare, cook steak undisturbed for ~3 minutes on each side. Transfer steak to a grooved cutting board to rest for at least 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, followed by the cherry tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and garlic. Let tomatoes char on one side before turning. Cook tomatoes until they start to burst, about 4–5 minutes total. Shut off heat.

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl. Spoon in the charred tomatoes and mix gently to combine.

Slice the steak thinly.

Assemble the toasts. First, divide the burrata among them, then the steak. Then spoon some of the tomato mixture over each. Garnish with the basil leaves.

For more toast inspiration, check out all the posts with the “toast post” tag here.

Baguette au Brie with Roasted Tomatoes

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In Berkeley, California, my college town, there is the cutest little Provençal restaurant called La Note where baguette au brie is on the menu. I have many fond memories of eating at La Note, one of those places choc-a-bloc with mismatched wood chairs and vintage French mixing bowls, mugs, and salt and pepper shakers that you would expect to find in some grandma’s country cottage. It was too expensive for us to eat there as poor college students so I never went while I was in school at UC Berkeley. And it is one of those places that draws crowds and over an hour’s long waitlist for their weekend brunch. So, there was only a very specific window of my life when I could have eaten at La Note—one where I was old enough to afford a cute brunch treat but young enough to have the patience to wait that long for a table—and sadly, that window has now passed, in favor of my current curmudgeonly state.

But when I did eat there for brunch, my go-to choice was the baguette au brie and I would never skimp on the buy-up to add roasted tomatoes. I remember the tomatoes being very simply done, maybe not even the most flavorful and just a quick blister with a little sprinkle of herbes de provence. But somehow that combo of the crusty baguette, that rich creamy brie, and the juicy tomatoes translated to perfection in its simplicity when all chewed together in my mouth.

A sad early attempt at food photography, circa late 2013.

What’s nice about such a simple yet perfect combination is that it can easily be replicated at home! I’ve been doing as much for years but now I finally have some nice photos to show for it. I’m also sharing one of my earliest attempts at taking food photography seriously, above, and I hope you can see some improvement has been made since then. Incidentally, that old photo from 2013 was taken with a real DSLR camera, whereas the hero photo on this post was taken with my iPhone (as is my modus operandi these days)—proof, I hope, that it’s not about the equipment when it comes to taking a good food photo. (If you are interested in hearing more about how I shoot professionally on an iPhone now, check out my interview on the My Food Lens podcast here.)

Anyway, about this recipe. Obviously not a “recipe” recipe because toasty bread based meals like these are, I believe, so much more about what feels like the right amounts (or the amounts that fit) verses exact measurements. Just use a good French baguette, the creamiest European style butter, and your favorite brie. For the roasted tomatoes, mine are probably much more time consuming that what they did at La Note, but it shows in the amount of flavor that they will bring if you use my technique—found here.

How to Make Baguette au Brie with Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients

1 French baguette, halved lengthwise
brie, sliced somewhat thinly
European style salted butter, softened
roasted tomatoes (see recipe here)
fresh herbs, such as thyme or oregano (optional)
cracked black pepper (optional)

Procedure

Slice baguette halves into desired lengths. Generously spread butter over the cut surfaces. Arrange an even layer of brie slices on top. Place on a baking sheet and put under the broiler; watch carefully and broil until the brie just begins to melt.

Immediately place slices of roasted tomato on top of the melted brie. If desired, garnish with fresh herbs and finish off with pepper.

For more toast inspiration, check out all the posts with the “toast post” tag here.

Recipe: Lap Cheong and Scallion Stuffed Cheesy Bread

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I wanted to test this idea of stuffing focaccia with cheese for another project and I decided to try it out with one of my favorite ingredient combos. To be honest, I can’t think of an exact traditional dish that combines lap cheong (sweet Chinese sausage), scallions, and cheese but they do make me think of the smells of a Taiwanese bakery where you can find hot dog buns, scallion buns, and the like.

Lap cheong can be found at any Asian market. This low sodium option from Kam Yen Jan is my favorite one to get. The casing is very thin and I like to peel it off and crumble the sausage by hand for more organically shaped pieces, but you could also just slice it up. It is a fatty, slightly sweet, and intense savory flavor that tends to be used in moderation in Chinese dishes. But this recipe is not about moderation!

I shared a photo of this in my Instagram stories and got a lot of reactions to it, but I don’t think the photo is quite insta-worthy so I am just going to share the recipe here.

How to Make Lap Cheong & Scallion Stuffed Cheesy Bread

Ingredients

2/3 cup warm water*
1 tsp honey
1 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/8 cup olive oil plus extra for drizzling
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3 lap cheong (sweet Chinese sausages)
1 cup grated fontina cheese (or mozzarella or white cheddar)
1 bunch scallions, chopped

* I have found that hot water from my tap works well for blooming yeast.

Procedure

In the bowl of your stand mixer, gently combine water, honey, and yeast. Allow the yeast to “bloom” for 5–10 minutes in a warm place until there is a fine foam on top.

Fit your stand mixer with the dough hook. Set the mixer to low speed and gradually add 1 3/4 cups flour, then 1/8 cup olive oil and salt. Turn up the speed of the mixer to medium-low and allow the dough to be kneaded for 4 minutes. If the dough has not pulled away from the sides of the bowl, add an additional 1 tablespoon of flour. Continue to knead for 1–2 minutes. Dough should be sticky but you should be able to easily remove it from the dough hook.

Scrape the dough out of the bowl and form a ball. Generously coat the inside of the bowl with olive oil. Roll the ball of dough around in the olive oil until coated. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm spot to proof for 60 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.

In the meantime, remove the casing from the lap cheong and crumble into small pieces. Cook on medium heat in a small skillet until just heated through. Drain away excess rendered fat.

When the dough has had its first rest, gently fold in three-quarters of the chopped scallions and divide the dough in half. Coat the inside of a 10-inch cast iron skillet with olive oil. Use your fingers to gently press down half of the dough into the skillet, forming an even layer. Press the other half of the dough onto a large plate, to roughly the same size as the skillet. Cover both halves and let rest for another 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place a rack one-third from the top of your oven and preheat to 400°F.

Press the relaxed dough in the skillet so it fully covers the bottom. Sprinkle the sausage on top and then roughly two-thirds of the cheese spread in an even layer. Top with the other half of the dough and pinch to seal the edges together. Dimple the surface of the dough with your fingers, drizzle generously with olive oil, and top with the remaining cheese and scallions.

Bake for 25–28 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. For neater bread sticks, allow to cool slightly before slicing—or, if you don’t care about that and live for danger, cut immediately and enjoy the skin-scalding gooeyness.

Recipe: Tomato Soup with Pepperoni and Cheese Toast Tops

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So we all know that the very best part of French onion soup is the bread and cheese topper that goes over the soup: that delicious gratinated crostini that forms a lid for you to push through to get to the rest of the contents of the bowl, where the top is covered in a very generous layer of melted cheese and the underside is soaked through with the cozy, soul-warming broth. I learned a new word as I was researching for this recipe, and that word was gratinated—which, according to ol’ Merriam and Webster means “to cook with a covering of buttered crumbs or grated cheese until a crust or crisp surface forms”. Well, why can’t other soups have gratinated toasts as blankets to keep them warm?

They obviously, surely, can and may—and I thought there was no more deserving soup than a simple tomato one. We all already know that tomato soup pairs perfectly with toasted bread and melted cheese, seeing as a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup has long had a honorary place in the Culinary Couples Hall of Fame. So I decided to take this union to the next level by taking my trusty, amazingly easy tomato soup recipe and give it a melted cheese toastie top. But then my mind went to how tomato soup is basically like a brothy tomato sauce, and how tomato sauce + bread + melted cheese = pizza toast, and how pepperoni and cheese is the ultimate pizza combo…and that is how we ended up here: tomato soup with pepperoni and cheese toast tops.

And it is every bit as good as you might dream it would be.

Some notes about the ingredients for my tomato soup with pepperoni and cheese toppers:

• The base of this recipe is whole peeled canned tomatoes. There are a lot of varieties out there and I have found quite a vast difference in salt content and the natural sweetness of the tomatoes. Therefore, this recipe has lots of notes about tasting along the way and seasoning according to your tastes. You might also notice that whole peeled canned tomatoes sometimes come in purée and other times come in a thin liquid. You will want to add more liquid to the soup if you are using ones that come with a thick purée. Do they really have to be San Marzano style? No. But it is typically what I look for because…just because.

• My go-to way of seasoning any tomato-based sauce or soup is with fish sauce. Trust me on this one. There is something about the acidity of the tomatoes and the salty, funky fish sauce umami that works so well for bringing out the best of tomato flavor. I promise that it won’t actually taste like fish, but instead like tomatoes that have been cooked with love and with some sort of flavorsome mystery ingredient. I am a diehard fan of the Three Crabs brand of fish sauce, by the way.

• Check the size of your bread. You will want something that can lie flat against the surface of the soup inside the soup crock, so that it forms a nice topper over the soup without the edges getting burned. You will also want something nice and crusty, so that it doesn’t completely disintegrate the moment it is placed on top of the soup. You’ll be toasting it first, and then putting it on top of the soup, and then melting the cheese over it under the broiler.

• Use the type of cheese that works for you but make sure it’s freshly grated. Any semi-hard white block cheese should work well for this; I used a young gouda but you could go with mozzarella or pay homage to the French onion soup inspiration with gruyere. Any cheese you associate with melting. But be sure to grate it yourself instead of using the pre-grated stuff in order to get a nice cohesive consistency.

• And finally, how do I turn pepperoni into those iconic, inviting little cups of grease? I get a whole stick of pepperoni in natural casing and slice it myself. This article on Serious Eats goes into detail about what type of pepperoni gets cuppy when cooked. I used Boar’s Head Natural Casing Traditional Pepperoni and it has always served me well. (Shoutout to my friend Peggy for pointing me in the right direction on this.)

That all being said, this recipe is so dang flexible. Skip the pepperoni if you want. Use a few tiny baguette slices instead of one slice of toast covering the whole top. Use a damn boxed tomato soup if you really must. At the end of the day you are talking about tomatoes, bread, cheese, and some fire magic to melt it all together, and (as long as you are being safe about that fire bit) you’re gonna end up with something good.

How to Make Tomato Soup with Pepperoni & Cheese Toast Tops

Ingredients for Soup

1/4 cup butter
1 medium sweet onion, peeled and cut into wedges
6–8 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 28-oz can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes*
1–2 tsp fish sauce
1–2 tsp sugar (optional)
cracked black pepper, to taste (optional)

Ingredients for Toast Toppers

2 small slices crusty bread**
1+ cup freshly grated cheese, such as young gouda, gruyere, monterey jack, or mozzarella
8–12 slices pepperoni with natural casing
herbs for garnish, such as basil, thyme, or oregano

*If using “tomatoes in purée”, see extra note in Procedure.
**Check that the bread slices fit within your soup crocks in order to form a “topper” over the soup

Procedure

In a medium dutch oven or pot, melt butter on medium-low heat. Add onions and sweat until they turn translucent and edges are beginning to caramelize. Add garlic, turn heat down to low, and stir regularly until garlic is fragrant and starts to turn golden. Add can of tomatoes.

Scrape up any bits stuck to the pot and carefully transfer contents of pot to a blender. Add 3/4 cup water (or, if using “tomatoes in purée” add 1 1/4 cup water). Blend until liquified, then pour back into pot.

Stir in 1 teaspoon of fish sauce. Check for seasoning. If soup tastes a bit weak in tomato flavor, add 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar.

Simmer uncovered on low, stirring occasionally, until soup is heated through and starts to bubble or simmer. Check for seasoning again and add additional fish sauce or sugar as needed. Season with black pepper if desired. Cover and keep warm.

Lightly toast slices of bread with your preferred method of toasting.

Spoon soup into 2 oven-safe soup crocks. Top each with a piece of toast. Divide cheese between the two toasts.

Position an oven rack so crocks can be close to the broiler flame. For easy transportation, place crocks on a sturdy sheet pan before positioning under broiler. Watch carefully while broiling. Broil until cheese just starts to melt, then top cheese toasts with pepperoni and continue to broil until cheese is completely melted and pepperoni has curled up to form cups. (Alternatively, you could follow these same steps using a kitchen blowtorch instead of a broiler if you make sure to move the torch around to distribute heat evenly.)

Remove soup crocks and garnish with fresh herbs before serving.

One last reminder about safety…I consider this recipe to be pretty easy but it does involve FIRE. Whether you choose to use your oven’s broiler setting or a blowtorch, keep a close watch on your precious soup toppers. Once the cheese starts to melt, you’ll be surprised how quickly it can die a charred death under an unsupervised broiler. Use oven-safe containers. Don’t let your bread catch on fire. Basically, you don’t want yourself or your culinary creation to end up like Andy:

Image via @foone on Twitter, from Apple’s Oregon Trail

Recipe: Turkey and Sun-Dried Tomato Stuffed Shells in Butternut Squash Sauce

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When the weather starts to cool, I feel this uncontrollable compulsion to buy and roast a butternut squash. I know it is totally basic but my brain feels like it has been hard-wired to crave fall squashes with their subtle natural sweetness once it finally starts to feel like fall in San Francisco. Luckily, butternut squash purée is so versatile! Roasted in the oven with a bit of good olive oil, salt, and pepper and then whizzed up in the blender with some boxed broth and nutmeg, it can then be used for so many different dishes just by tweaking the amount of liquid added. A thick purée makes for a lovely spread on toast, a slightly thinner one becomes wonderful fall pasta sauce, and an even thinner consistency gives you a nice butternut squash soup with just those six ingredients.

This year, for my first roasted butternut squash purée of the season, was the first time I incorporated real, freshly grated nutmeg into the mix. Instead of the ol’ spice jar of powdered nutmeg I’ve had in my cupboard for almost a decade, I reached for a real life nutmeg nut from Spice Tribe and it smelled so incredible as the fine shavings were released into the blender. A little bit goes a long way with nutmeg, but it is truly the secret ingredient that puts the fall vibes in the butternut squash purée, and using a high quality version really does make it feel like something special.

I think I have been making a butternut squash lasagna every fall for almost my whole adult life, but this year, I learned of the joys of stuffed pasta shells and I have clearly been missing out until now. I don’t know why but I am utterly fascinated by the concept of a pasta that is shaped just like a seashell being stuffed with loads of cheese, herbs, and other goodies. Whoever first came up with this idea was so creative! I know the classic way to do them is with a tomato sauce but I think that my butternut squash sauce is the perfect base for a fall version.

This version of stuffed shells has smooth butternut squash purée with a hint of nutmeg for the base, and they are filled to the brim with seasoned ground turkey, sun-dried tomatoes, ricotta, mozzarella, and a bunch of herbs reminiscent of a good Thanksgiving stuffing. You’ll be surprised how much filling one of these pasta shells can hold, and biting into one of these is quite a feast of flavor!

When I make savory fall dishes, I find myself reaching for Spice Tribe’s Masa Mole blend. It contains ancho chile, guajillo chile, cumin, cinnamon, garlic, onion, allspice, oregano, chipotle and I think of this blend of warming chile powders and spices as a savory equivalent to “pumpkin spice” when it comes to bringing out all the flavors that I want to enjoy with my fall vibes. I used it to season my ground turkey in this recipe, and it instantly transformed the mince into a cozy, flavorful base for my pasta shell filling.

The making of this hearty autumnal dish has the following stages:

• Roasting the butternut squash: I like to do this the night before since it is safer and easier to run things through the blender when they are cooled. Make sure to roast it until the edges get a little browned and caramelized. That’s what gives the sauce so much good flavor with so few ingredients.

• Making the sauce: Blending up all the roasted squash with freshly grated Spice Tribe Island Nutmeg and some boxed chicken broth transforms it into a smooth autumnal pasta sauce.

• Making the filling: Cooking up the ground turkey with some Spice Tribe Masa Mole seasoning blend brings warm spices and the flavor of smoky chilies into the mix. Lots of herbs help give this filling its robust flavors. The sun-dried tomatoes bring a nice little tartness to balance out the creamy cheeses.

• Stuffing the shells: Par-boiling the pasta shells and stuffing them with the turkey, sun-dried tomato, and cheese mixture is the most fun part (aside from eating, of course). Unlike with dumplings, there’s not a lot of downside to really packing the filling in there; I was amazed at how sturdy the shells were and how much I could cram in them.

• Baking until bubbly and melty: Giving the cheese some time in the oven to melt is what transforms this dish into a completely indulgent, gooey skillet of fall pasta goodness. This dish is not exactly light, but it is delicious!

How to Make Turkey & Sundried Tomato Stuffed Shells in Butternut Squash Sauce

Ingredients For the Sauce

about 2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and seeded
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp Spice Tribe Island Nutmeg, freshly grated
3/4 – 1 cup chicken broth

Ingredients For the Filling

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 small yellow onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
6 oz ground turkey
2 tsp Spice Tribe Masa Mole blend
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup ricotta, excess water drained
~ 1 tbsp thyme, leaves picked
1 tbsp sage, finely chopped
1 handful basil leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes*, chopped into 1/4” pieces
1 egg, beaten
1 cup mozzarella, freshly grated

Ingredients For the Stuffed Shells

18 jumbo pasta shells, plus extra for backup
3/4–1 cup mozzarella, freshly grated
~8 sage leaves
1 sprig thyme
cooking spray
fresh herbs for garnish, such as basil and oregano

*Look for sundried tomatoes that are packed in oil with minimal additives.

To make the butternut squash sauce, preheat the oven to 425°F. Cut butternut squash into chunks, about 10–12 pieces. Add squash pieces to a baking dish and add olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss until the pieces are evenly coated. Bake for 30 minutes, flip over squash pieces, and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until very tender. Allow to cool slightly. (Note: Squash can be roasted the night before.)

Transfer roasted butternut squash and any oil from the baking dish into a blender. Add nutmeg and 3/4 cup chicken broth and blend on high until smooth. Sauce should be similar in thickness to marinara sauce; if needed, add more broth and blend again. Set sauce aside. 

To make the filling, heat oil in a nonstick skillet on medium heat, then add onions. Start sautéing and turn heat down to low once onions start to brown. Continue to allow the onions to caramelize, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute, or until fragrant. Turn heat back up to medium and add turkey, salt, pepper, Spice Tribe Masa Mole blend, and brown sugar. Sauté mixture until turkey is just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and allow to cool slightly.

To the cooled turkey mixture, add ricotta cheese, chopped herbs, sundried tomatoes, and 1 cup mozzarella. Mix together, pour beaten egg on top, and mix thoroughly.

Boil pasta shells according to package instructions for stuffed shells.

Set oven to 385°F.

Add 1 1/2 cups of butternut squash sauce in an even layer to the bottom of a 10-inch cast iron skillet.

Scoop filling into pasta shells. (Be generous; you should be able to fit 1 to 1 1/2 heaping tablespoons in each.) Arrange filled pasta shells in the skillet. Top with remaining sauce, a thin layer of additional mozzarella, a few sage leaves, and a bit of thyme.

Spray a sheet of foil with cooking spray on one side to prevent the cheese from sticking and cover the skillet. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is melted and gooey. If desired, place under the broiler for 2–3 minutes to brown the top.

Garnish with fresh basil and oregano and enjoy.

Thank you so much to Spice Tribe for sponsoring this recipe! Check them out on Instagram here or visit their website to purchase high quality spices and unique small-batch spice blends.

Mini Pickle Galettes

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I love how every culture seems to have its own version of pickles but today we are going to be talking about the “kosher” dill pickle. These are the sour pickles made with small cucumbers, and with garlic and dill added to a salt brine, and according to Wikipedia they are so called because they originate from Jewish pickle makers in New York City (but they are not always actually Kosher). I am a big fan of this type of pickle, and have yet to really encounter an application of them that I did not like. For example, when I first learned about pickleback shots, my mind was blown… You mean it’s socially acceptable to just straight up drink the pickle brine??? Please count me in.

And then I found out about pickle pizza from this video on YouTube. There is a place in New York that started making pickle pizzas and by that, I mean they are really going all in with pretty much just pickles and cheese as the toppings. It sounded so interesting to me, and it inspired me think about what else I could make to celebrate such a beloved food. Pizza is awesome, but wouldn’t it be fun to take this humblest of ingredients (which was borne entirely out of the necessity of food preservation) and really celebrate its complexity of flavor by putting it in something a little fancy? I decided to make mini galettes because they are like somewhere between a pizza and a fancy pastry, and they are so easy to make with some storebought pie dough.

The filling of these galettes has three major components:

• Sauce: a garlic-infused béchamel that helps to serve as a creamy bridge between the pastry and the pickles. I think I saw some recipes for pickle pizzas online that used ranch, and ranch is obviously amazing with pickles, but I wanted to do something a little unexpected. I thought it would be kinda twisted to go for a French mother sauce and use it in a thing so radical as a pastry full of pickles. I went really heavy on the sauce in these and it gave them an almost alfredo-y vibe that complimented the brininess of the pickles really well, since thick creamy fatty things and tart things balance each other out.

• Cheese: I just used good ol’ shredded skim mozzarella here, inspired by the pickle pizza. Please grate your own because it will melt more smoothly than the packaged stuff.

• Pickle slices: You could go as much or as little as you want here. I like to buy these individually wrapped pickles by Oh Snap and keep them stashed in my fridge because they are a manageable size and I can cut them up however I like. I probably used about 1.5 of these 3-ounce pickles for my three mini galettes.

The result was something so balanced between creamy and briny. It felt like something that could be served at a cute cafe or brunch place but at the same time harkened to weird fair food. Just as I had hoped, these turned out to be a playful celebration of contrasts and breaking expectations. If you are a pickle fan, I hope my rough “recipe” is enough to help you give them a go.

(For other easy galette recipes, you can check out this everything but the bagel galette with cold smoked salmon, this scallion galette that is sort of my twist on scallion pancakes, and my fresh strawberry galette.)

Awkwardly Vague instructions for Mini Pickle Galettes

Ingredients

4 tbsp salted butter
garlic, minced, to taste
2 tbsp AP flour
milk
freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
1 sheet ready-made pie dough, room temp
~ 1 1/2 cups dry skim mozzarella cheese, freshly grated
1–2 small dill pickles, thinly sliced
1 egg, beaten
everything seasoning (optional)
fresh dill, for garnish

Procedure

To make the sauce, combine butter and garlic in a small saucepan set on low heat. Allow the butter to slowly melt and for the garlic to cook gently and infuse. Once the garlic is fragrant, turn up the heat to medium-low. When it starts to bubble, whisk in flour. Cook, mixing continuously until there is a slightly golden paste. Whisk in milk, 1/4 cup at a time, until the sauce is thick but no longer paste-like (the consistency should be thicker than a traditional béchamel). Whisk in pepper then set aside.

Preheat oven to 450°F. On a floured surface, divide the pie crust evenly into 3 pieces. Shape each piece into a round disk and then roll out into a thin circle, about 6–7 inches in diameter. Place each on a piece of parchment paper.

Fill each piece of pie dough: Spread a generous amount of sauce in the middle of one piece, leaving a 3/4–1-inch empty border all the way around. Fill the middle with cheese, lay on a layer of pickle slices, add a light sprinkle of cheese on top, and then add more pickle slices if desired.

Brush the border with some beaten egg and fold small sections over the filling to form a galette-style crust. Brush the pleated crust thoroughly with egg wash, making sure to get it in all the folds and crannies. If using, sprinkle everything seasoning all over the crust. Repeat with the remaining 2 pieces of pie dough.

Slide parchment papers and galettes onto baking trays and bake for 20 minutes on the middle rack, rotating once halfway.

Top with fresh dill for garnish.

Green Tomato and Chili Cheese Toast

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Green tomatoes are not easy to come by in my part of the country but I think they have such a great tart flavor. When I saw one in the pile of mixed tomatoes at the store, I snatched it up, but then it sat in my fridge for a while. It didn’t seem worth heating up a bunch of oil to make just one fried green tomato. I googled what else to do with a green tomato and saw lots of examples which pair pimento cheese with them. Apparently this combination is a common thing where fried green tomatoes are popular—I had no idea, but I can see why! They are delicious together!

What made things even more perfect is that I happened to have a cornmeal-crusted jalapeño and garlic loaf from my favorite local-ish bakery, Wild Flour Bread on hand. It was the perfect bread for this toast combo, but a nice slice of crusty sourdough or rye would taste amazing too.

I topped off the otherwise Southern-inspired combo with a chili oil fried egg because I couldn’t resist bringing some extra spice to the toast. You can learn how I made this fried egg in more detail here.

How to Make Green Tomato & Chili Cheese Toast

Ingredients

1 slice of bread, toasted
1/2 green tomato, thinly sliced
~1/4 cup pimento cheese
1 chili oil fried egg
red pepper flakes, to taste
dill, for garnish

Procedure

Generously spread pimento cheese over the toast (I used the one from Trader Joe’s). Top with a few thin slices of green tomato, and then with the fried egg. Sprinkle red pepper flakes over everything and garnish with fresh dill and/or dill flowers.

For more toast inspiration, check out all the posts with the “toast post” tag here.

Recipe: BLT Salad with Crispy Smashed Potatoes

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BLT sandwiches seem to be having a moment right now—I recently saw Kenji post one on Instagram and Munchies did a short video on Youtube. I mean, it makes sense for everyone to be wanting a BLT at this time because it is after all peak tomato season, a.k.a. THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! But for me, a little BLT sandwich is still not enough tomato. My obsession with the produce bounty of late summer is so strong, that it can only be satiated with an entire platter of tomatoes! And that, dear reader, is where the BLT Salad comes in.

Imagine a scenario where, instead of biting into your favorite ingredients of a BLT and having those precious sweet peak-season tomato juices running down your hands, a civilized fork allows you to assemble the perfect bite without the sticky mess. That is the beauty of the BLT Salad. I thought of doing this as a panzanella with nicely seasoned croutons to continue to honor the sandwich origins of this flavor combo, but I realized I was too proud of my smashed potatoes recipe to not want to share it with you all. And there is something about the creamy fluffiness of those potatoes that goes so well with the juicy tomatoes and the salty bacon. Hence, I now present to you my BLT salad with crispy smashed potatoes and, of course, burrata.

These crispy smashed potatoes are so good as part of a breakfast platter, as a side dish with whipped feta and herbs, and—obviously—as a way to bring heartiness to a salad. I use Spice Tribe’s Mama Manje Haitian-inspired seasoning blend whenever I make them, and these seasonings blooming in the oven as the potatoes roast makes my whole house smell so, so good. The blend was inspired by Spice Tribe founder Trent’s visit to Haiti with the non-profit Every Mother Counts, and is meant to capture a combination of the ingredients in epis, a foundational seasoning blend for Haitian cuisine, and the tea that is commonly drank by Haitians. To me, the combination of green bell pepper, onion, thyme, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, habanero, and star anise works so well as an all-purpose seasoning, and in addition to this smashed potatoes recipe, I have been using it whenever I want to imbue a dish with a complex blend of flavors and not have to think too much about it.

You can read more on the story behind Spice Tribe’s Mama Manje Haitian blend from Trent here. While working on this recipe, the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti was on my mind, as well as how much of a privilege it is for me to do things like recipe testing for my job. If I was going to be earning income from a product inspired by a humanitarian visit to Haiti, it felt important to me to pay it forward. I decided to donate 5% or my rate from this sponsored recipe to World Central Kitchen and Spice Tribe has kindly agreed to match my donation too. I chose this charity because it was founded by José Andrés—a chef that I respect and admire—in response to sending aid for the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, but they have since expanded their relief efforts globally. They are currently working to provide food to those experiencing homelessness as a result of Hurricane Ida, facilitate hot meals for refugee families fleeing Afghanistan, and mobilizing their already-well-established teams in Haiti to provide assistance in response to the recent earthquake. You can join me in donating to these efforts and read more about World Central Kitchen here.

Going back to the recipe, here is a bit about what you’ll need to bring it all together:

• bacon (the B): I used a center cut, thick cut bacon that was nice and meaty by bacon standards. The bacon gets crisped in the oven on the same tray as the smashed potatoes, so that rendered bacon fat is surely not going to waste as it spreads across the pan. I kept the bacon in big chunks because this is a big chunky salad! No gum stabbing bacon bits here.

• frisée “lettuce” (the L): I took some creative liberties here in representing the L in BLT by using frisée, which is technically not a lettuce but a type of chicory. Frisée (also known as curly endive) and other chicories work well in this salad because they are sturdy enough to not get sogged down by the juicy tomatoes or the warmth of the roasted smashed potatoes, and their slight bitterness is a nice contrast to the salty fatty bacon. But you could also use your choice of baby lettuce leaves.

• tomatoes (the T): I used a combination of heirloom tomatoes from the store and cherry tomatoes I grew myself in the backyard. Try to use the most flavorful tomatoes you can get your hands on because the whole point of the dish is to celebrate their gorgeous natural flavor. In the recipe, I suggest drizzling a little dressing over the salad platter and then adding more to taste, because you may or may not need more dressing depending on how flavorful your tomatoes are.

• mini potatoes: Instead of croutons, I opted to make crispy smashed potatoes to bring some heft and heartiness to this late summertime salad. I have found that creamer potatoes with thin skins and a waxy consistency work best for this. First I boil the little potatoes until they are almost breaking apart, then I gently smash them down on a baking pan with a fork to expose some of the soft, fluffy interior and create lots of craggy edges to crisp, then I roast them until the house smells amazing and those edges turn golden. Though there’s a multi-step process to making these, it’s well worth it.

• burrata: I couldn’t resist bringing a lusciously creamy element to this salad, much like how a BLT would not be complete without mayo. I opted for burrata because I am obsessed with how this softest of cheeses pairs with the tomatoes. But if you can’t find burrata, some fresh mozzarella would work great here too.

How to Make a BLT Salad with Crispy Smashed Potatoes

For the Smashed Potatoes

1 pound mini creamer potatoes
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt, divided
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/2 tsp Spice Tribe Mama Manje blend
4–6 strips center cut thick bacon

For the Dressing

2 tbsp fresh orange juice
4 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp Spice Tribe Mama Manje blend
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For the Salad

3–4 heirloom tomatoes, sliced
1 cup frisée or baby lettuce leaves
4 oz burrata or fresh mozzarella
cherry tomatoes (optional)
microgreens (optional)
kosher salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure

In a medium pot, combine potatoes with 6 cups of water,  or enough to completely cover the potatoes in 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Continue boiling potatoes until very soft and a fork pokes through with no resistance, about 20–25 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 450°F and make the dressing. Combine all dressing ingredients except olive oil in a bowl and whisk together until the honey dissolves. (Microwave for 10 seconds if needed to soften the honey.) Then, slowly whisk in the olive oil. Set dressing aside.

Drain boiled potatoes well and allow to cool slightly. Add to a large mixing bowl along with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and Spice Tribe Mama Manje blend. Toss until potatoes are evenly coated, then dump everything onto a large baking sheet. 

Move potatoes to the sides, then press each one gently with a fork until it cracks open and flattens sightly. Drizzle another 1 tablespoon olive oil over smashed potatoes. Place strips of bacon in the middle of the same baking sheet, in a single layer. 

Place baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for about 8 minutes, flip the bacon, then continue baking until the bacon is crisp, an additional 7–12 minutes (for 15–20 minutes total). Transfer bacon onto a plate to cool slightly (bacon will become a bit more crispy while cooling). Continue baking potatoes until the fluffy edges begin to turn golden brown, about 5–7 minutes more.

Break up bacon into bite-sized pieces. Arrange frisee or lettuce leaves, tomato slices, bacon, and crispy smashed potatoes on a serving platter as desired. Season tomatoes with salt and pepper to taste. Top with torn up pieces of burrata or mozzarella, and additional cherry tomatoes and microgreens (if using). Lightly drizzle some dressing over everything and serve the rest of the dressing on the side.

Thank you so much to Spice Tribe for sponsoring this recipe! Check them out on Instagram here or visit their website to purchase high quality spices and unique small-batch spice blends.

Recipe: Chicken Skewers with Seared Summer Fruit and Burrata

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It’s my favorite produce season of the year! I love every season for different reasons, but when it comes to the celebrating the joy of what’s actually IN season, harvest-wise, I get soooo excited for summer. All the stone fruits, berries, and especially getting to harvest the tomatoes in my backyard! I have been loading up on way too many peaches, nectarines, and apricots when I hit up the grocery store, but I just can’t help it when I see piles and piles of stone fruits in the produce aisle.

Fortunately, I have come to realize that stone fruits go so well in savory dishes. I am obsessed with the combination of fruit and burrata these days (and let’s be real—I’m obsessed with burrata every day) but stone fruits also go really well with chicken. If you are one of those people who is on the fence about mixing sweet and savory then I am hoping this recipe will sway you.

Lately my meals have been revolving around an idea for a salad I want to make, and then thinking about how to turn that salad idea into a more robust dinner for me and Spouse. When I started planning for this recipe, I knew I wanted to pair a stone fruit and burrata salad with some sort of chicken skewers. What I love about making chicken skewers is that if you cut up chicken thighs into little pieces, they are so nice and juicy and they are able to take on flavor so quickly just with a little seasoning—no need to plan ahead and marinade for a long amount of time beforehand.

I know that all of Spice Tribe’s travel-inspired seasoning blends are so good, so I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to use in my chicken skewers recipe. So one evening I did a little taste test where I cooked up 3 different chicken thighs, each one seasoned with just a little kosher salt and one of these blends: Mama Manje, Mombacho Cafe, and Marrakesh Sitar. Spouse and I tried tasting each one really carefully, but we honestly loved them all! When we really forced ourselves to nitpick, we concluded that the Mama Manje was the least exciting by a hair—tasty, but felt the most like a typical rotisserie chicken flavor; no wonder I have been reaching for it often as an all-purpose seasoning. Mombacho Cafe and Marrakesh Sitar were still completely tied—both had a depth of flavor that made the very simply-cooked chicken feel special. I ended up going with Marrakesh Sitar because Moroccan cuisine happens to have some gorgeous examples of sweet fruits getting incorporated in savory dishes.

This is often my thought process when coming up with a recipe. It’s about what ingredients and flavor combos I am excited to put together, but equally important is whether there is a story I can tell about the reason I put these things together. I have not been to Morocco and I am not the least bit knowledgable about the food there, but I have enjoyed whatever Moroccan food I have had access to. I love the preserved lemons, and I love the tagines that incorporate apricots and raisins into meaty stews. Thinking about Moroccan food really helped me flesh out my ideas for this recipe, and what I ended up with is a sort of fresh and quick version of the ingredients you might find in slow cooked Moroccan tagines. I added grapes to the salad as a counterpart to the raisins, as well as olives for a savory balance. I decided to use fresh mint for the dressing; even though mint appears most typically in Moroccan cuisine in the form of tea, using it as a fresh herb felt fitting for building on the theme.

The end result is a fantastic meal for weeknights when you want something quick and easy but still super fun to eat. If you can’t be bothered to skewer up the meats, you could just cook boneless chicken thighs whole—not as fun to eat but still incredibly tasty! I cooked everything on my big flat stovetop griddle, so there also wasn’t a ton of cleanup to do after, which is definitely another big perk of the way this recipe works. It is perfect for summer days when you want that grilling vibe without the hassle of firing up the grill, or when it is too hot to eat something heavy and you just want an excuse to eat a bunch of stone fruit.

How to Make Chicken Skewers with Seared Summer Fruit and Burrata

Ingredients for the Mint Dressing

1/2 tsp dried oregano, finely crushed
1 clove garlic, microplaned
1/4 tsp Spice Tribe Maras Chile Flakes
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Ingredients For the Chicken Skewers

2 large chicken thighs, deboned and cut into 1-inch chunks*
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp Spice Tribe Marrakesh Sitar blend
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for cooking
1 lemon, halved

Ingredients For the Salad

2 peaches or nectarines, cut into eighths
2 apricots, cut into halves or quarters
1/2 cup seedless grapes, halved
1/2 cup castelvetrano olives 
4 oz burrata
Fresh mint leaves, for garnish

* Feel free to use skin-on or skinless, according to preference. I used skin-on because I love crispy chicken skin!

Procedure

Begin preparing the mint dressing. In a heat-safe bowl, combine dried oregano, garlic, Spice Tribe Maras Chile Flakes, salt, and vinegar. Mix together and let stand for at least 15 minutes to allow the flavors to combine.

Prepare the chicken skewers. Combine chicken pieces, salt, Spice Tribe Marrakesh Sitar spice blend, and olive oil in a small bowl and mix so the chicken is evenly coated in the spices. Allow to rest for at least 5 minutes, then divide the chicken among 4 skewers.

In a small saucepan, heat olive oil for the dressing until it starts to ripple. Add the mint on top of the dressing mixture, and then carefully pour the hot oil on top of the mint. (There will be some splatter.) Stir dressing together and set aside.

On high, heat a griddle pan or a cast iron skillet large enough to accommodate the skewers. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into the pan and use tongs and a folded piece of paper towel to spread a thin layer of oil over the whole cooking surface. Turn heat down to medium-high and add the chicken skewers. Cook for about 12 minutes, rotating a quarter turn every 3 minutes; if necessary, place a pot lid or grill press on top of the skewers to weigh them down and ensure even contact with the cooking surface. (Chicken is cooked through if a toothpick is inserted and juices run clear.) Transfer cooked skewers to a plate, squeeze half the lemon over them, and cover tightly with foil to keep warm.

Add the peach/nectarine and apricot slices to the griddle cut side down. Sear until there is slight browning, then flip and lightly sear the other cut side.

Scatter the peach/nectarine and apricot slices on a platter, along with the grapes and olives. Tear burrata into a few chunks and add them to the platter. Add skewers. Drizzle mint dressing over everything and scatter fresh mint leaves for garnish. Cut the remaining lemon half into 2 pieces and serve with the platter.

Enjoy with flatbreads or couscous.

Thank you so much to Spice Tribe for sponsoring this recipe! Check them out on Instagram here or visit their website to purchase high quality spices and unique small-batch spice blends.

Recipe: Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Soft Pretzels

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I love jalapeño poppers and I love soft pretzels, so I thought, why not combine them into the ultimate stuffed gooey snack?

To my German friends and bretzen fans, sorry not sorry. These (like my pretzel buns which have the exact same dough base) have a texture which resembles something you’d more likely find at an American mall than an Oktoberfest tent. I like soft, fluffy doughy things. I also think the soft dough is necessary because you don’t want the molten cheese to simply squeeze out when you tear in to one of these babies.

I wasn’t going to share a recipe for these but then I posted a photo of the leftovers in my Insta stories and got multiple people asking me when the recipe is going to be out, so here we are. I fully admit that the process for rolling and stuffing the pretzels could use some visuals for better clarity; I will update this recipe the next time I make these with more illustrative aids. But I am hoping what I wrote below makes sense. You basically want to roll out the dough so that it is really tapered to a point on the ends, and much fatter in the middle—about a 1-inch diameter or even more. I often see recipes call for dough to be rolled into a “rope” or a “snake” but really you want these to resemble the shape of a long slug (minus the antennae, of course). You need enough volume in the middle two-thirds of your dough slug so you can roll it out flat, fill it with a line of filling, and pinch it closed. You don’t want the filling to leak out when boiling (though some melty spillage in the baking process is not a bad thing). You also don’t want the ends to be as fat as the middle because that will make it look clunky and awkward when you are twisting into a pretzel shape.

I have only tested it with crushed chicharrones for the coating, but I am quite confident it will work with regular panko. Next time I made these I will try it with panko to make sure the panko doesn’t brown too quickly, but in the meantime, just keep and eye on them as they are baking if you choose to go that route.

Finally, these are plenty cheesy and gooey on their own but if you want to dunk them in cheese sauce like I did, I will be the last to tell you that is not a good idea. I use this recipe from Serious Eats when I make cheese sauce.

How to Make Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Pretzels

(Makes 5 pretzels)

Ingredients for the Dough

3/4 cup warm water
1 tsp (slightly heaped) active dry yeast
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups AP flour, plus more for dusting
nonstick cooking spray

Jalapeño Popper Ingredients

5 oz cream cheese, softened
pickled jalapeños, chopped
~ 1 1/2 cups freshly grated mozzarella
crushed chicharrones or panko breadcrumbs

For the Water Bath

9 cups water
1/2 cup baking soda

Procedure

Combine warm water, yeast, and honey in the bowl of your stand mixer and stir gently. Allow yeast to bloom and foam up for 5 minutes.

Add butter, brown sugar, and salt, and stir together. Fit stand mixer with the dough hook and turn on to the lowest setting. Begin adding flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until a dough starts to come together. Use a rubber spatula to scrape everything together. If the dough is sticky, add a little bit more flour.

Turn the mixer to medium high and knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it feels smooth and bouncy. Turn the dough onto a clean worksurface and roll into a smooth ball. Grease the inside of the mixing bowl, and place the ball of dough back inside. Cover with a damp towel and allow to rest in a warm place for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, make the filling. Combine the cream cheese, pickled jalapeños, and mozzarella cheese into a homogenous mixture. (The amount of jalapeños and mozzarella cheese can be to your taste, but keep in mind it needs to fit inside the pretzels.) Set aside.

On a lightly-floured worksurface, divide the rested dough into 5 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Then roll each into a long slug-like shape that is fatter in the middle and tapers off on the ends. These should be about 20–22 inches in length.

Then, take one of your long tapered pieces of dough and, using a small, lightly-floured rolling pin, roll out the middle two-thirds of the dough. The midpoint should measure about 3–3.5 inches when it is rolled out. Spread roughly one-fifth of the cream cheese mixture in a line along this rolled out section of dough, leaving some dough exposed above and below. Then overlap the exposed edges together over the filling and pinch together tightly, making sure the filling is sealed in well. You should end up with a long dough slug again, that is similar in size and shape to when you started. Twist this into a pretzel shape. Set aside and repeat with the other dough slugs.

In a large pot, combine water and baking soda for water bath and bring to a boil. Preheat oven to 425°F. Line 1 or 2 large baking trays with parchment paper.

Place each pretzel in the boiling water bath for 10 seconds on each side, then place on the parchment-lined tray. (I find it easiest to put them in face-down in the water first, flip, and then lift up with a spatula.) Give plenty of space in between, as they will puff up as they bake.

Pack on the panko breadcrumbs or crushed chicharrones onto the wet dough. Brush with additional water from the water bath if necessary for more adhesion.

Bake for about 15 minutes in the middle rack of the oven. Eat them as soon as you can manage without burning your fingers!