All posts by Marlena Spieler

Its ramp season, so you’ll forgive me if I disappear into the forest on any given day (on EVERY given day) and come home with a big handful. They are oniony, garlicky, and FREE! As fresh as springtime, a very garlicky smeling springtime.

So in my informal add them to everything way, which is what I happily do when something is in such lavish abundance, I’ve added them to today’s feta cheese omelet–because added chunks of feta cheese to beaten eggs and frying it flat in olive oil is the starting point for any of a zillion wonderful omelet/fritattas. By itself its great, don’t get me wrong, but adding other things makes it even greater: potatoes, spinach, herbs, sausage, and so forth. This time I was adding ramps and toasted cumin breadcrumbls and sprinkling it all with Szechuan and black peppercorn roasted salt.

This is how it came about.

Anyhow, lets start with the crumbs: actually lets start with shopping today. if you’re buying good bread, the kind in a whole crusty loaf, preferably whole-grainish, you need to buy a little bit too much.

Leftover stale bread is awesome and wonderful and could fill a whole books worth of recipes. But today I just want to talk to you about crumbs.

When you look around your kitchen and your eye light on a chunk of stale bread, using either your quick-whiz food processor or ordinary hand grater especially the kind that is shaped somewhat like a box with a handle on top, grate (using the large holes) the stale bread up into crumbs.

With these crumbs you can do so many wonderful things. I leave them in a cool dry place to further stale or i lightly toast them in the oven.

TOASTED CRUMBS WITH CUMIN SEEDS
A chunk of stale bread
somewhere in the vicinity of 1/2 to 1 teaspoons cumin seeds depending on how much bread you have
Using a food processor; cut the bread into smallish pieces and whirl off and on, until it forms crumbs, preferably uneven ones. if you are using a hand grater, preferably one shaped like a box, grate the bread (crusts included) in the large holes. Sometimes the softer parts come off in larger chunks and i find that this texture is wonderful and varied and a delight when you come across the uneven-ness.
In a heavy frying pan or wok, throw in a small amount of olive oil–a drizzle depending upon the size of the pan, over medium or low-medium heat, then add the cumin seeds; the seeds will toast and sizzle very quickly–do not let them burn! Remove from the pan, and to the hot pan with its small amount of cumin-scented oil add the breadcrumbs. Toss over medium heat for a few minutes until they turn golden and crisp and fragrant. Return cumin seeds and toss together. If you like, you can add a pinch of salt to the mixture. Set aside to use as you like.

Segue moment with TWO DISHES: the thing about food postings and having wonderful ingredients on hand, is that you can look around your kitchen and realize: oh god if i put this together with THAT, it could be wonderful. In fact, i’m beginning to think of it as Accidental Genius. And I MIGHT devote a posting a month to Accidental Genius recipes/ideas. But thats getting away with myself: the thing is that with those crumbs: here are a few things you can do with them. There will be more, many many more, but I just made the crumbs a few days ago and so far–we’ve not even gotten to the omelet yet–so far i’ve tossed them into sauteed cauliflower and shallots with spaetzel and it was wonderful. and I’ve also sprinkled them generously, very generously, into a salad: strips of cucucumber, sliced radishes, diced tomato, sliced red onion, preserved lemon….i think that was it. In fact there were black olives in it but it didn’t do anything really for the salad, next time i leave em out though i probably would include red an/or green pepper. Anyhow, toss it together, a little cider vinegar, a little evoo, a little chopped garlic. Then before serving spoon in lots of the crumbs with cumin. Lush!

So back to the story: there i am, making my coffee, stumbling around the kitchen thinking about Brunch this being a Saturday, then I flash on the crumbs (leftover from last nights dinner) and think: hmmmm what would these crumbs be brilliant in. Last night’scaulfilower with spaetzel and olive-oil sauteed shallots, tossing lots of roasted rye crumbs and cumin seeds into the mix at the end. It was amazing and even though making spaetzel is a bit messy and a tiny bit time consuming, I think any stubby pasta or any pasta at all would be wonderful cooked like this. And I have to say that if you find yourself up in the middle of the night having a little nosh, and your 3 Jack Russells happen to wake up because they just KNOW you are eating something, they will love a tiny bit of the cauliflower too.

Brief segue: a million years ago in my happy-hippie-era, first husband, first cookbook life, I and a group of chums drobe a VW camper from Amsterdam throughout Europe. We ended up in Crete, rolling off the ferry because the van was so knackered it couldn’t drive any longer. My first hours in what would turn out to be a six month or so stay was, therefore, spent with an auto-mechanic. The van needed a lot of work, a whole mornings worth, so the mechanic took us somewhere–was it a cafe? was it his mother’s house? i don’t remember. What i remember was this: a feta cheese omelet that would travel with me throughout the rest of my life.

I add this, I add that, and even if I don’t add anything, good Greek feta cheese, beaten eggs, cooked in extra virgin olive oil until its edges are browned then flipped over, is one of the most delicious best friends to travel through life with. I don’t have the van any longer, and i don’t have even the husband any longer, but i do have this omelet.

So this morning as I was making coffee and thinking: hmmmmm wonderful crumbs what shall i put them in? I was also–every the multi-tasker–simultaneously thinking: hmmmmmm look at those wonderful fresh ramps, I must do something with them.

In the past I have put salami, potatoes, all sorts of vegetables like spinach, or leeks or zucchini, into this omelet, and herbs running the spectrum of tarragon and dill to oregano and chives, even Thai basil. I have a wonderful recipe in my book Yummy Potatoes published by Chronicle Books.

In any event: lightbulb flashes in my mind as I’m sipping coffee perusing my kitchen. There are the crumbs, and oooooh yes there is a bowl of ramps I picked in the forest yesterday. The resulting omelet was luscious, perfectly delicious or should i say deliciously perfect this spring day: my Greek motor mechanic’s feta cheese omelet with handfuls of coarsely chopped raw ramp leaves, diced feta cheese (greek, both sheeps and goats milk) and a sprinkling of the toasted cumin crumbs. cooked in olive oil of course. And a handful of those toasted crumbs and cumin seeds at the end.

Okay ookay: you’d think that the crumbs and cumin would be the secret ingredient, but nooooo….there was also another secret ingredient involved: the roasted szechuan-blackpepper-salt mixture I made during the week. Since its OMG wonderful in surprisingly and mysteriously nearly everything, I’m going to give you the recipe right here:

ROASTED SZECHUAN AND BLACK PEPPERCORNS WITH SEA SALT
About 2 tablespoons each: szechuan peppercorns, black peppercorns, and coarse sea salt
In a heavy dry (ie ungreased) frying pan lightly roast the szechuan peppercorns until they slightly lighten in colour or you can sniff a fragrance ever so lightly: to me it is the lemony edge of fragrance that comes through but it may well be different for you. When the peppercorns reach this state push them to one side or remove from the pan and add the black peppercorns and salt. Toast together a further few minutes until they just seem that little bit toasted. I go by feel as the difference in Szechuan peppercorns is strong, the difference in the black pepper and salt a bit more subtle.

When they are all toasted, leave them to cool. You can keep them like this in a jar, and take out a few spoonfuls at a time to crush and use. I suggest this.But if you prefer to crush more at one time, do them all and keep the pounded mixture in a jar ready to use.

Oh, okay, pounding it, crushing it, a teensy little detail i seem to have left out. Until NOW.

Get yourself a nice sized mortar and pestle. I like stone or marble. If for any reason you don’t feel like using it right away-i too have been intimidated by such things, just get one and keep it on your windowsill. One of these days you’ll be ready.

So place a tablespoon or two of the mixture into the bowl, or the mortar, and using the pestle, pound up and down on the peppercorn mixture and salt. When it starts to get crushed a bit but is still very very coarse, you can use the pestle with more of a grinding motion until the mixture is the xoncistency and texture you wish. I like something between very coarse and almost fine, so that each bite has variety of pepperish (and salty) flavour.

FETA CHEESE AND RAMPS FLAT OMELET WITH WHOLE WHEAT-RYE CRUMBS AND CUMIN SEEDS, SZECHUAN/BLACK ROASTED SALT-PEPPER
In case I haven’t mentioned the reason for adding the crumbs, its this: the crumbs add substance and heft to the omelet and help keep it from being too runny or thin. Often Italian fritattas have crumbs added for the same reason.
Serves 2: halve it to serve one, or make a big one and adjust it accordingly. Flipping it is the hard part, i recommend a non stick frying pan and turning it over using a plate on top and inverting it. If you don’t have crumbs, this is delicious without it too; ditto for the pepper-salt mixture.

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or as needed
3-4 eggs beaten lightly with a few spoonfuls of milk or water
Handful of young ramp leaves, sliced thinly crosswise or similar oniony greens (wild garlic is wonderful, or even ordinary storebought scallion leaves
4-6 oz/ 125-15 g Greek feta cheese, cut into large dice/small chunks
2-3 tablespoons toasted crumbs with cumin seeds (recipe above)
Sprinkling of Szechuan/black peppercorn crushed with sea salt (recipe above)

Heat a non stick frying pan large enough to hold the mixture but not so large it will be crepe thin; when it is smoking just a little bit, ie hot enough to cook and sizzle the eggs, add the olive oil.
Into your bowl of eggs add the ramps and feta cheese, then pour into the pan, evenly distributing the cheese and ramps throughout the surface of the eggs and pan. Adjust the heat so that it sizzles and browns but does not burn.
While the eggs are still runny-ish, sprinkle the crumbs and cumin over the top.
Turn the omelet over when the eggs are no longer so runny that they will run away from the omelet. Place a plate on top of the omelet, then flip it over, return the pan to the heat, and flip over the plate with the omelet so that the second side cooks. Alternatively you could place it under the broiler/grill.

Eat right away, when lightly browned on both sides, sprinkled with the roasted Szechuan-black peppercorn salt, to taste.

Its my birthday, and as birthdays go, its a bit of a low one. I’m not out there in the world having fun, going places, seeing friends; I’m recuperating from being ill. And I’m in the backwoods of my very own place of exile, Waterlooville. Husband is out working on a project. I’m home, as usual, pretty much stranded in suburbia. But thankfully I have the dogs, and the forest for ramp-gathering later today, and……Thank God for Facebook because the world is filled with wonderful people and they are there, ready to listen to me kvetch (which i’ve done quite a bit of over the years).

It is, just one little kvetch, okay? quite ironic that i have friends all over the world, when my life in Waterlooville is quite friendless. But before you get the drift that i’m sinking into the depths of dispair, which well, there is no getting away from it, I am, this posting is about lifting that birthday depression and the expectations. With potato salad.

You know how birthdays are: you want something special; a day out; a treat; a manicure or a hair cut, an array of tiny plants for the garden, a visit to a Polish shop to buy pickles. I ain’t getting any of those. but over there on facebook: warm loving wishes from all over the world: wonderful. I skyped with my daughter and grandbaby in New York which put a smile on my face. If it hadn’t been for cancer this year I would have been there now, as I usually/often am or try to be. And my Jack Russells are not letting me mope. They never do. They have no room in their lives for moping and are a bit severe with me that way: if i have time to mope, i have time to take them walkies. Its obvious.

So i trotted downstairs into the kitchen, thinking that since i’m not doing anything special for my birthday i may as well do the dishes because even if its my birthday, well, i am the chief washer upper. And lasts nights dishes are waiting for me.

Then along the way something magical happened. As I was passing the kitchen table en route to the sink, I found a potato!

A boiled potato, medium sized, that I had put aside from dinner last night, thinking I would do something with it today.

And then I also remembered a few other things: how gorgeous charming all-about vegetable-goodness food writer Celia Brooks of Borough Market tours fame http://www.celiabrooks.com/ made a sesame dip for vegetables one night a zillion years ago and because it is utterly brilliant, genius, and so delicious i want to close my eyes and feel the happiness within, I have been making it ever since. But this time, instead of serving it with crudities I thought: that potato. That potato.

Because I’ve been a bit mad about potatoes and seeds in the last few years. I’m not sure why, but as I was relearning to taste after my head injury, putting together widely different ingredients to trigger sense-abilities, seeds just seemed to gravitate towards potatoes in my kitchen. Maybe one day I was eating an everything bagel, wetting my finger and dipping them into the salty seed mixture, then nibbling them until the bottom of the bag was empty….

When I was out of bagels I started doing it with potatoes. All sorts of seeds, and potato dishes, so it wasn’t unreasonable that this morning, when faced with that lone boiled potato and a bowl of freshly toasted sesame seeds, and the memory of Celia’s party…..I made potato salad.

And from the first forkful: EVERYTHING CHANGED. Not only was it delicous, it reminded me of happy trips to Japan, and my past Bay Area life of taste diversity, and I thought of how happy my daughter was dipping into the dressing, and I thought about how my grandmother used to boil a pot of potatoes and Sunday and do things with them all through the following week, and I thought about all these things as I took bite after happy bite. The world was such a different place when i finished my plateful than when I started. A better place. Goodess and happy returned to my being.

So of course: I’m offering it up as my birthday prezzie to YOU. Those creamy-textured boiled spuds, tangy yogurt, rich mayo, with crunchy seeds and a hit of salty soy-umami: so good. Its the least I can do. I want YOU to be happy too!

I made one portion, using one potato. You can do the same if you wish. For a larger portion, increase the amounts proportionally. In the recipe below I’m allowing for four portions.

Celia Brooks-Inspired Japanese Potato Salad
Serves about 4
6 medium-sized all purpose potatoes, boiled whole in their skins until just tender, or double the amount of smaller creamers or new potatoes
4 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, extra for sprinkling
4 tablespoons mayonaise
4 tablespoons Greek yogurt, sour cream, or ordinary yogurt (though it will be runnier and tangier if you use ordinary)
1-2 teaspoons all purpose soy sauce
To serve: I garnished it with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and some julienned carrot, for colour and served it atop a bed of ramps; if ramps aren’t in season, use butter lettuce leaves. And don’t leave the garnish, the lettuce is delicious the the dressing.

Combine the diced potato with the sesame seeds, mayonaise, and yogurt. Mix gently but do not let the potatoes mash. Add the soy sauce to taste; the dressing will turn brownish beige at first, then lift to a creamy beige-y colour.

Mount onto a bed of ramps or lettuce leaves, sprinkle with sesame seeds and julienned carrots. Eat right away or chill until ready to serve.

When you’ve got chile oil, and i’m going to have to figure out what to do, have you scroll down? or move the recipe right here where it will be more usesful, anyhow, when you have that wonderful delicous full of tantalizingly tongue-numbing Szechuan peppercorns, crushed preserved black beans, spices and oils: this chile oil that gives such utterly delicious taste to so many things…..when you’ve got chile oil: you can look around your kitchen or your garden, and think: what am i going to brighten up: a salad? a stir-dry? braised meat or a steamed fish?

Yesterday as I looked at my radishes and carrots, I was thinking: a light little pickle Vietnamese style of always great, but I’ve been doing that alot lately using the traditional daikon. My new radishes were small round red ones. And also: I was tired of shredded, julienning and spiralizing (truth in advertising: i seem to have misplaced my spiralizer, so until i do….), I thought: why not cut the radishes and carrots into coin, and instead of just doing sweet-salt-vinegar, why not throw some multi-faceted chile oil at it and see what happens.

The result: Oh God Good!

I’ve kept the recipe loose, and you’ll have to taste as you go along. The ingredients just need to be treated that way. For one thing: you might like chile oil more (though unlikely) or less (very possible) than I do. Or you might like your pickley vegetable salad sweeter, or less so. you might like to just make a big double or triple batch and keep them for up to two weeks letting them pickle one day at a time.

Radish and Chile Coins in Szechuan Dressing
Serves 2 as part of a starter, or if it is a side pickle-condiment-course, serves at 4-ish
1 medium large carrot, peeled and cut into thin coins
1 or 2 bunches radishes, cut into thin coins
1 clove garlic, chopped
1-2 tablespoons white wine or rice wine vinegar
1-2 tablespoons water
About 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon or more to taste, salt
About 2 tablespoons chile oil plus a bit of the solids at the bottom of the jar
1/2 teaspoon toasted lightly crushed Szechuan peppercorns, OR 1 teaspoon mixture ordinary peppercorns, sea salt, and Szechuan peppercorns, roasted together, and light crushed.

Mix it all together, Let sit about an hour before you serve. The radishes will turn a bit pink and soften slightly, as well the carrots, as they do in the photo that I snapped, above. But they are so delicious you might have a hard time stopping once you start. Noshing that is. We had a little bit last night with dinner, and then I finished them for breakfast.

I confess: with Matzo brei if you must know.

Tomorrow: we’re making cucumber salad. With the chile oil. I have a feeling I’ll want leftovers of this for breakfast too!

A good rarebit or rabbit, for they both mean the same thing: a mixture of cheese and something else spread on toast, and have nothing whatsoever to do with small fluffy hopping animals. There are all sorts of rarebits you can make: but really, since its a British “dish” (often known as “Welsh Rarebit/Rabbit–the word rarebit self-descriptive, and the word rabbit referring to a poor mans rabbit, ie no rabbit at all, just cheese), you should use British cheese. At this moment I have to mention Welsh cheeses are amazing. Not necessary in THIS dish, but they ARE necessary in your life! So if/when you have a chance, be sure to seek out Welsh cheeses. Especially goats cheese. Okay, back to our regular programming…..

I like a combination of strong, mature Cheddar plus seomthing else that is languishing in my fridge. Here I used Leicestershire or was it Double Gloustershire? You might want to add a bit of Stilton too or even goat. The point is: rich, mild, and delicious with the oniony ramps.

The toast is a crucial decision when it comes to a rarebit: “English” muffin (just plain muffin if you happen to live in England) is good; sour whole grain bread is great too, like a pain levain sort of thing. Here I used a dense, sour Polish rye, hand-sliced relatively thinly, and toasted before meeting the cheese. That way you get a great crunch from crisply toasted rye, as you bite through that layer of melted cheese and the austerity of the rye bread balances beautifu with the rich melty layer. Its almost like a ballet of tastes and textures all in one little open-faced sandwich; or two, if you eat them both.

Usually a rarebit/rabbit is made by melting the cheese/s with a small amount of beer; but i find that wine or even cider is good instead. Or, as in this rarebit/rabbit, no liquid at all, and instead just chop up the cheeses, chop up the ramps, and mix em together with a little mayo, Polish mustard, and garlic. The garlic brings out the allium-ness of the tamps.

I sprinkled a little hot paprika on top before broiling, but i think it was just that I was feeling the need to balance my red and green: If you don’t sprinkle with paprika, add a droplet or two of Tabasco or other pepper sauce.

Ramp Rarebit
Per person if you’re eating two, serves two if you’re more abstemious and not quite so greedy as I was this morning
About 3 ounces in total: Mature Cheddar, Double Gloustershire, Leicstershire, or other cheeses as delicious (ie whatever you have on hand), diced small or coarsely chopped
Big handful ramps, coarsely chopped
1-2 tablespoons mayonaise
2 teaspoons mild French Dijon type mustard or a mildish but full flavoured mustard from Poland
Either 1/2 clove garlic, chopped or several sprinkles dried garlic powder/granules
2 slices relatively thinly sliced dense rye bread or two halves English muffin
In a bowl combine the cheeses with the ramps, mayonasie, mustard, and garlic or garlic powder. Mix well.
Broil the bread of muffin on one side until light brown then turn over and broil/toast the second side.
Remove from the heat and divide up the mixture, heaping half on each slice of toast. Back under the broiler and broil until the cheese melts.
Eat right away.

Weirdly, I’m introducing my Pesach rosemary matzo by talking about Christmas. Christmas, you see, was where I fell in love with Carta di Musica, the thin crisp paper-like bread of Sardinia.

It was a number of years ago and I was spending Christmas with my friend, Antonietta. We–hubs and I–were arriving Christmas Eve, leaving the day after Boxing Day. There were no trains these days–Christmas in the UK isn’t just one day, its a string of days with so many businesses and transportations shut down that we were invited to settle in with Antonietta and her family, eat and drink, watch movies and open prezzies. While not EVERTHING closes the way it once did–you couldn’t even get a pint of milk for tea for days after the 25th–still, offices shut down, little business is done, and mostly you hang out. If you have family you might spend time with them, if you are a Christmas “orphan” that is, no family, you hang with friends. (These days I hang with my dogs, but then I celebrate each and every festival with them; they are very festive pooches).

Scrolling back the years, though, we spent Christmas with Antonietta who may have lived in the UK for decades but so Italian you think about bringing your passport when you go visit. In true Italian Christmas style her offerings were lavish: piles of beautiful cured meats, bowls of olives, plates of seafood, vegetable tarts, a turkey scented with truffle. She made risotto. There were cheeses. And in British style we ate, and then noshed on leftovers for the next few days. And each time we thought about a nosh, Antonietta said: “Wait! Lets have some carta di musica to go with it!”

She would take several rounds of the paper-thin flatbreads that look much like the parchment upon which music is traditionally written, pop them individually into a very hot oven to toast golden for a few minutes then drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with fresh rosemary then coarse salt. When all the sheets were done she piled them onto a plate and we ate them with whatever was left from Christmas dinner. At the end of our several day visit there was still leftover turkey, prosciutto, vegetable tarts, leftover everything in fact. Except carta di musica; there wasn’t a sheet left.

I was thinking of this the past week of Pesach, the holiday when Jews are commanded to forgo leavened bread and eat only unleavened, ie matzo. Many get tired of matzo after a few days; even those who normally love matzo reach the very end of their tolerance, let alone love. The Jews I know who “keep Pesach” that is, eat no levened bread but only matzo, among other things, usually need to take a little break when the holiday is over. For many, its awhile before matzo starts looking appealing again. But for myself? I just keep looking for new ways to eat matzo.

And today, it still being Pesach albeit the last stretch, I was thinking of tasty things to do with matzo until bread was back on the scene. Suddenly I remembered that Christmas with Antonietta and a lightbulb went off in my head–why not toast matzo, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt and rosemary, just like with carta di musica!

Crisp Toasted Matzo with Rosemary, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt.
Per person
Serve with a glass of wine and a bowl of olives.

1 sheet of matzo
About 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
About 2 teaspoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
Several large pinches coarse or flaked sea salt

Break the matzo up into cracker sized pieces, 6 to 8 per sheet.
Place on a baking sheet under a hot broiler and lightly toast until golden light brown, first on one side, then on the second.
Immediately transfer the toasted matzo to a plate, drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with the rosemary and salt, then serve.