I heart boiled eggs

When you are at a loss for a quick and simple breakfast, snack or meal in general, nothing beats a soft-boiled egg with a sprinkle of fresh coursely ground pepper, sea salt or even a little truffle salt if you have it, and a little good bread or strips of bread (mouillettes or "soldiers") to dip into the yolk.

In a small saucepan, cook a few eggs in salted, boiling water for about 6 minutes.  Take them out and put them into a bowl of cold water to cool the eggs down enough to handle.  Some people shoot for 5 minutes, but I find that there is still a little bit of runny white, which I don't really like.  So somewhere from 5:30 to 6 minutes should be great.  If you're using x-large or jumbo eggs, do 6.  Medium to large eggs should be fine around 5:30.

Or cook the eggs for a few additional minutes for a perfect 8-minute egg, cool, peel, slice in half and spread a little mayo on each half and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and snipped chives if you have some - delicious, especially when the eggs are still a bit warm.

Toronto trip

Rick and I were recently in Toronto over Memorial Day weekend, and then I stayed on for a conference for work. We were so excited for good Vietnamese food, and just good Asian food in general.

And the Asian markets had great stuff - longans, and lychees and MANGOSTEENS!!

Mangosteens are one of those Southeast Asian fruits that were banned in the U.S. for a long time and they were just allowed in maybe two years ago. They are required to be treated and I'm not sure what they do to them, but they are often really hard and a little scary to cut open. But in Toronto, they are nice and soft and you can break them open with your fingers. If you've never had a mangosteen, try them if you ever come across them - they are so good! They are sweet and the smaller pieces you can typically just eat whole. The larger pieces will more often than not have a pit that you can spit out. They are one of the sweetest fruits out there and people go nuts over them.

Anyway, here are a few of the places we checked out in Toronto, which is a great food city!

Albacore tuna tacos

We love different variations on tacos, including fish tacos.  Here's a simple recipe for a few fillets of albacore tuna, or you can use some other fish, to make some delicious tacos with a cabbage slaw.  Sometimes I serve fish tacos with thinly sliced cabbage or romaine lettuce, and sometimes I make a simple cabbage slaw with lots of scallions, cilantro, and lime juice.

We used two wild albacore tuna fillets, which we had bought frozen at Trader Joe's.  After defrosting, we sliced each in half horizontally for four pieces so they would marinate and cook more quickly, as they were pretty thick, and then marinated it for about 20 minutes in 1/2 cup of my cumin lime honey dressing and a big pinch of salt.

Serve on corn tortillas (or try making your own - see my recipe here) with chopped cilantro, lime wedges, cabbage slaw, salsa verde, sliced scallions, pickled red onions and beans if you like.

May restaurants

This month, we had some friends in town here and there so hit up a few faves including Sushi Yasuda and Franny's.  We also went to three somewhat disappointing Italian restaurants, and then had an amazing meal in Minneapolis and some great Vietnamese food in Toronto.

Lentils, garlic scapes and vegetables with Moroccan spices

This dish was inspired by the ms'mem (sp?) bread we bought this morning from the Hot Bread Kitchen - a great bakery/nonprofit that works with women from different countries and backgrounds to bake breads from around the world and learn job skills - at the Fort Greene farmers market in our neighborhood.  It's very similar to roti canai in Malaysian food - a thin, layered, chewy crepe kind of bread.

I thought it'd be great to make some veggies with some Moroccan spices - cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, red pepper, paprika.  We bought some great garlic scapes, which I absolutely love, and carrots this morning so they were going into it.  Garlic scapes are the plant part of garlic when it's young and tender and has a mild garlic flavor - they have a young green bean kind of texture.  See my other post today about the Fort Greene farmer's market and  more information on garlic scapes.

I decided to cook up some lentils to add some protein, and then diced a zucchini and half an onion.  I sauteed all the vegetables together, added the tomatoes, lentils, spices, a little water to thin it out a bit and let everything simmer for a few minutes.  I served the lentils and vegetables with the ms'mem bread heated up for a few minutes in my cast iron pan, and then a side of diced cucumbers mixed with some Greek yogurt.  So good!  And if you want this vegan, omit the side of yogurt.

Saturday mornings at the Fort Greene farmers market

We love our neighborhood, Fort Greene, Brooklyn!  There's a farmers market across the street from us in the park every Saturday all-year round. It's small but great, even in the winter.  You can buy eggs, fresh fish, kimchi, apples, Red Jacket Orchards fruits and fruit juices, Ronnybrook milk and dairy products, breads and other baked treats, cheeses, free range meats and duck, and of course, different types of produce during the growing season.

I haven't posted much lately as I've been traveling a ton over the last few weeks for both work and to visit family.  I got home from DC last night and today, it was time to buy a bunch of groceries, clean the apartment and get back on track with cooking and eating at home and eating healthier :)

Early summer produce is starting to make its way and this morning we bought eggs, garlic scapes, sugar snap peas, carrots, beets, strawberries and breads from Hot Bread Kitchen, which is a recent addition to the market.  If you haven't heard of Hot Bread Kitchen yet, they are a great bakery/nonprofit that works with women in New York City that have come from around the world to cook breads from their countries and backgrounds while also teaching job and entrepreneurship skills.  The products are carried by different stores around New York and we were excited to see them at the market this morning.  We picked up some focaccia with garlic scapes and feta, and some ms'mem bread, a Moroccan flatbread or crepe-like bread that kind of like roti canai in Malaysian food - it's thin, made up of layers, and chewy.  It was delicious!  We were too late for the tortillas, but next week we'll go earlier to nab some.

If you've never had garlic scapes, give them a try sometime.  Garlic scapes are the plant part of garlic and are harvested when they are young and tender.  Texture-wise, they are kind of like young, tender green beans.  They have a mild garlic flavor that is really nice.  You can throw garlic scapes into almost anything like stir-fries or soups, and are also a nice addition to some homemade hummus or white bean dip.  When we got home from the market, I made a great dish of lentils, garlic scapes, onions, carrots, zucchini and tomatoes with some Moroccan spices - try it here.

So,  after being on the road and eating out so much over the last few weeks,  I am ready to do some cooking at home again!

Whole wheat linguine with clams

Pasta and clams - always delicious!  This is a classic pasta dish with clams in a garlic, white wine, butter, lemon, chili flakes, and parsley.  We made it with whole wheat linguine to make it a little healthier, and actually didn't use too much butter. The clams released a fair amount of liquid to make the sauce so we didn't feel like we really needed it.

You can also serve this by taking the clams out of the shells before serving, as pictured to the left.

We used littleneck clams and bought two dozen for the two of us.  If you like a lot of clams, feel free to increase the number of clams you use.  See the recipe for notes on cleaning and handling the clams when you get them home.

For the wine, we used a little sauvignon blanc but you can use whatever you prefer - something a little drier and not too sweet.  This makes a simple, light and delicious dinner that goes well with the rest of that bottle of wine you opened to make the sauce!