Culinary Therapy

Cooking is like many things in life. You start of with an idea of what you want to accomplish, then make a plan to get there. Sometimes the work goes smoothly, and other times you have to improvise or even create something completely new on the fly in order to realize your vision. Most of all, your outcome is better when it's the result of a collaboration with others who bring their own strengths and perspectives to the table to balance yours.

That's probably why I enjoy cooking with my dear friend Leah Jacobs so much. We're a lot alike, but also different enough that our skills complement each other. So every time I get to visit her in Seattle, we use our love of food and the strength of our friendship as an excuse to cook together. It's part food and part therapy, at least for me.

Leah and I have an unspoken deal about how things work in her kitchen. She's the brains of the operation (recipe finder, shopping list maker, and ingredient measurer extraordinaire) and I'm the brawn (chopper, mixer and dish washer). OK, that's not totally true -- Leah washes dishes too. But I digress.

The Brains of the operation hard at work...

I also get to steal all the great recipes she finds, which is worth the sweat equity I put in. Plus I get to eat fabulous meals with great company!

On my most recent trip to Seattle, we cooked up another winning combination for dinner, so I have FOUR recipes to share! This blog post is gonna be a long one because I don't have links to most of the recipes -- but I promise it will be YUMMY!

Menu

Fig, Prosciutto and Mascarpone Bruschetta With Grilled Baguette

Tequila Marinated Grilled Skirt Steak

Italian Bread Salad (aka Panzanella)

Berry Cheese Torte

Fig, Prosciutto and Mascarpone Bruschetta With Grilled Baguette

• 1 baguette sliced into 1/2" thick pieces
• 1 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1 tablespoon olive oil plus extra for baguette
• 3/4 cup chopped figs
• 4 ounces prosciutto sliced into thin pieces
• 1 shallot minced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
•  Salt and pepper 

1) Heat grill or grill pan. Brush sliced baguette with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill bread until marks appear (about 2 minutes). Leah and I actually toasted the bread in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes and it worked just as well.

2) In a saute pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Saute shallot for 2 minutes. Add prosciutto and cook until meat starts to crisp (about 4 minutes). Add figs and garlic and cook 2 more minutes, then add vinegar and honey and season with salt and pepper to taste.

3) Divide mascarpone cheese and spread over grilled baguette slices. Top with fig/prosciutto mix and serve.

So pretty, super tasty, and SO EASY! The hardest part is the chopping -- especially the figs because they're pretty sticky! And there was not one morsel left so it's a crowd pleaser.


Italian Bread Salad (Panzanella)

I knew this had to be good since it was a Cooks Illustrated recipe. It certainly didn't disappoint, although Leah and I made a few minor adjustments.

• 6 cups rustic Italian or French bread , cut or torn into 1-inch pieces (1/2 to 1 pound)
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes , cored, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 cucumber , peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced thin
• 1 shallot, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1) Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Toss bread pieces with 2 tablespoons oil and ¼ teaspoon salt; arrange bread in single layer on rimmed baking sheet. Toast bread pieces until just starting to turn light golden, 15 to 20 minutes, stirring halfway through. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

2) Gently toss tomatoes and ½ teaspoon salt in large bowl. Transfer to colander and set over bowl; set aside to drain for 15 minutes, tossing occasionally.  So you'll notice in the ingredients is says to seed and core the tomatoes. We bought these lovely little plum tomatoes so we'd have an easier time cutting them into one inch pieces, but it took forever to seed and core them, and not much additional juice drained out of the tomatoes after the 15 minutes were up. If I had to do it over, I'd use regular tomatoes, not seed and core them so that the juice around the seeds could run out, and then run it through a sieve to remove the seeds.

3) Whisk remaining 6 tablespoons oil, vinegar, and ¼ teaspoon pepper into reserved tomato juices. Add bread pieces, toss to coat, and let stand for 10 minutes, tossing occasionally.

4) Add tomatoes, cucumber, shallot, and basil to bowl with bread pieces and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately. We goofed here too and realized we didn't have an extra shallot, so we used a small amount of thinly sliced red onion and it worked just as well.

It's the perfect salad for summer. No dressing needed, very light and a colorful addition to any plate. It also disappeared.


Tequila Marinated Grilled Flank Steak

• 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (approximately 8 large limes)
• 1/2 cup clear tequila
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• 1 bunch roughly chopped cilantro, leaves and stems included
• 1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 Serrano pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 1/2-2 pounds flank steak

I knew this recipe was a guaranteed winner. Anytime you get to marinate meat in alcohol, it's a fun day in the kitchen. We also used skirt steak instead of flank steak and it worked just as well. Leah spent quite a bit of time chatting up the meat choice with the butcher so she knows the difference between the two. I personally have no clue. In my world, meat is meat and it's ALL good. Here's how you make it.

1) Combine all ingredients in s resealable plastic gallon bag. Confession time: Leah and I used bottled lime juice. Normally we're up to the task of fresh squeezing, but the limes we found at the store were TINY and it would have taken forever! We chose a shortcut so we could have time for a cocktail -- so sue us. Add the steak and let marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours. Remove and let marinate at room temperature another 30-45 minutes.

2) Prepare grill to medium-high heat. Remove steak from marinade, reserving marinade. Put marinade in a small sauce pot and bring to a boil, then strain and reserve.

3) Place steak on the grill. Cook for 4 minutes, turn 180 degrees and cook for 3 minutes more (to create cross grill marks). Flip over and finish cooking for 3-5 minutes, depending on doneness. Remove from grill and move to cutting board and let rest, lightly covered, for 5 minutes. Slice against grain and serve immediately with reserved marinade.

Now THAT is some tasty meat!

Berry Cheese Torte

This recipe was my contribution to the party. Leah was looking for something sweet that didn't have chocolate, and I had found this going through my recipe stash. It's published online, so I'm going to save myself some typing on this already long post and just link it for you, then follow it with some photos and notes.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Berry-Cheese-Torte

So this is basically a fruit tart with a revised take on the typical graham cracker crust using vanilla wafers and ginger snaps instead of graham crackers. Major yummy! But the crust was the first issue I had with the recipe.

 It says to use a 9" springform pan, but the amount of crust mix was not enough to cover the pan AND go 1 1/2 inches up the side. If the crust portion of the recipe was doubled it would have worked. The other option would be to use a 8" pan.

As luck would have it, Leah's kitchen has this great little tool called a tamper so I was able to get the crust to work per the recipe, but with a lot more effort than expected. But after it baked, I was still a little worried because the crust wasn't sticking together along the sides of the pan.

We didn't have enough time to redo it, so we went with it, figuring the gelatin in the fruit portion of the recipe would help hold it together. Or the cream cheese filling part. All the pieces of this puzzle would come together somehow.

Speaking of gelatin, that brings me to the second issue with the recipe. You dissolve gelatin in grape juice, then heat it. It says that it should then set up in 45 minutes in the fridge, but it took at least twice that long. A couple of notes on the recipe site mentioned the same thing, so I know it wasn't just us. Next time, I'd probably try heating the grape juice before adding the gelatin so it would dissolve faster and hopefully activate better.

We really shouldn't have worried, because the finished product turned out just fine -- and was a tasty as we hoped!

HUGE thanks to Leah for yet another one-of-a-kind amateur test kitchen experience resulting in an amazing meal! Try any of these recipes and I promise you'll get raves.

Now go cook something, will ya?