INGREDIENTS:

METHOD:

Put the vinegar into a non-reactive bowl, and add the shallot, thyme, and salt and pepper. Macerate while you cut the kohlrabi. Cut the kohlrabi into ¼ inch batons, or  slice them in half from top to bottom and then slice into 1/8^th inch half-moons. Add the horseradish to the vinegar, whisking to mix in well. Whisk the vinegar mixture, then add a ½ cup of the dairy of your choice, whisking to mix well. Add another ¼ cup of dairy and whisk in. Taste by dipping a piece of kohlrabi in and trying it. The dressing should be creamy, but not cloying, and the vinegar should be enough to cut the richness of the dairy product. The horseradish should be a definite presence with the kohlrabi and dairy just mitigating the heat. If the dressing seems to be quite tart, add a couple pinches of sugar at a time and whisk in until you get the right balance. When the dressing is right, add some to the cut kohlrabi and toss to cover all the kohlrabi with dressing.  Allow the salad to rest at least 10 minutes for the flavors to marry. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Serves: 4, at least

Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen

Blueberries are in the heather family, and the hybrid that works best in California seems to be the Southern Highbush type, which is a low- chill plant adapted to mild winters and warmer summers. California berries are firmer, crisper, and sweeter due to more sunshine. Fruiting times will vary by altitude and latitude, and around here the season runs mid-April through August. Apparently, one of the keys to getting bushes to produce more fruit is to grow different varieties. This helps the plants to produce more berries, and also ensures a steady supply over a longer season.

Almost all recipes I have seen use blueberries as a dessert or sweet. As always, I like to play with norms by taking items from the sweet side of the kitchen and using it in the savory side. I enjoy the deep flavor of blueberries and their subtle sweetness in stuffings and as a sauce for things like duck, or pork chops. I think mushrooms pair up wonderfully with blueberries as well, and so combine them in a couple dishes as well. They are also good in cole slaw! That’s not to say I don’t enjoy them tossed into my granola or pancakes, nor would I turn down blueberry scones or buckle, but I do want you to think of blueberries as a savory as well.

When selecting blueberries, know that they usually have a bloom on them that looks like frost. This is fine and actually helps protect the berry. Look for berries that have taut skin, are dark colored, and pull any that are damaged, mushy, or moldy. Size is not necessarily an indicator of flavor. I keep mine in the refrigerator in a plastic tub lined with paper towels on top and bottom with a tight fitting lid, and I try to eat them within 4 days. If you find yourself with a surfeit of blues, lay them on a flat pan and freeze them. Freezing them flat keeps them from forming big clumps and allows you to take out only what you need. Once frozen, transfer to a zipper bag and suck out the air before freezing. Do not wash the berries before freezing as this will make the berries mushy.

No two ways around it, blueberries are good for you; they are high in manganese (14%), B6 (8%), C (12%), K (18%), and have 2.4 grams of dietary fiber per cup. They are fairly low-cal as well with 84 calories per cup. They are lower on the glycemic index at 40, so this makes them better for you if you are watching your sugar intake. There are a lot of current studies showing them to be beneficial for anything from cognitive issues in older people to being good for cardio-vascular health and fighting cancer as they are loaded with anti-oxidants (They are near the top in anti-oxidant levels and activity).

So remember this, not only are blueberries really good, they are indeed good for you.

INGREDIENTS:
4-6 medium zucchini, washed and ends trimmed (If you have different colors, even better!)
2 spring onions, top removed and saved for another use, halved through the root, and finely sliced along the length
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra Virgin olive oil as needed
½ tablespoon fresh marjoram or oregano, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pea sized bits and kept very cold
1/3 cup water

METHOD:
Using the medium comb of you Ben-Riner or mandolin, slice the squash into long strips.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, film the pan with oil. When the oil is very hot, add the onion strips. Toss to coat with oil and sauté until the onions are coloring and soften.

Spread onions around the pan bottom. If the pan seems dry, add enough oil to just film the pan, then make sure the oil is hot. Add the squash strips and toss to coat with the oil and mix in the onions. Turn up the heat to high. Keep the squash moving so it does not burn. Sprinkle with the herbs and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the squash is limp and looks like pasta. Remove the pan contents to a serving dish.

Get out the butter bits and put near the stove..

Turn the heat to medium. Add a little oil to the pan and then add the garlic. Stir, being sure to keep the garlic from burning. When the garlic is aromatic and turns translucent, add the water. Scrape the inside of the pan to get any bits that might be stuck to the pan bottom. Start adding a few of the butter bits at a time, swirling the pan so the butter melts smoothly and evenly. Continue to add the butter, a  few bits at a time, swirling the pan to prevent the butter from breaking down. When all the butter has been added, you should have a nice emulsified butter “sauce” in the pan bottom. If it is still watery, you might need to use a little more butter as the sauce should look like a butter sauce, not water with butter in it. Add the vegetables back to the pan, toss to coat with the sauce, and serve hot.

Chef’s Notes:
If you wish, you could add a tablespoon of lemon juice and/or white wine to the water for the sauce base. Don’t go overboard as the flavor of the squash is subtle. In the sauce, you could use a little cream if you wish-2-4 tablespoons-instead of butter, and that would go quite nicely with lemon juice. If you have some blanched fava beans on hand, you could add a cup with the onions and mix them in, or sauté them separately and toss them on at the end with some romano cheese as a “sauce” to the “pasta”. Other herbs to use that go well are mint, flat leaf parsley, or sage. For sage, I would fry the leaves in the oil at the start of the dish, then remove them to a paper towel so they drain and get crisp. Scatter them over the squash at service. You could use this technique for the squash and make a “faux-lognese” sauce using ground mushrooms instead of meat for the tomato sauce. If you wish to get fancy, make the dish and let it cool a little in a large non-reactive bowl. Then, use a long-tined roast fork to gather up some of the “pasta” and twirl the fork with one hand while cupping the strands with the other. Twirl and form a ball of “noodles”. Set the noodle ball on an oven proof dish, and when they are all made and you are ready to serve, put them into a preheated oven to get hot, then use a spatula to move them from the oven to the plate. Serves: 4
Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen

INGREDIENTS:
½ white onion, peeled and cut into ¼ inch dice
½ pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned and cut into ¼ inch dice
1 rib celery, wash and cut into ¼ inch dice
¼ cup roasted and peeled hazelnuts, or roasted almonds, finely chopped
1 cup bread crumbs, homemade if possible
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
½ tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Neutral flavored oil as needed
2/3rds of a cup of blueberries, smaller ones preferably
-Optional-
1 teaspoon powdered porcini

METHOD:
Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, film the pan bottom well with oil and heat up. When hot, add onion to the pan and stir to coat with oil. Cook until onion is translucent. Add the mushrooms to the pan, stir to coat with the oil. Cook the mushrooms, stirring to avoid scorching them, until they are tender. If you are using the porcini powder option, sprinkle the porcini powder over the mushrooms once they are tender, and toss to mix in well. Cook a little longer until you can smell the porcini powder aroma coming up from the pan. Add the celery and cook until translucent. Season vegetables with salt and pepper.

While the vegetables cook, add the bread crumbs to a large non-reactive bowl, and drizzle with a little oil, around 1 tablespoon or less. Toss the crumbs with your fingers, being sure to oil all the crumbs. If the crumbs seem a little dry, add a little bit of oil at a time. The crumbs should just be coated, but not “wet”. Sprinkle evenly with the herbs, and season with salt and pepper. When the vegetables are tender, transfer them to the bread crumbs and toss to mix well. Taste for seasoning, and adjust if needed. Gently fold in the blueberries, and toss to distribute evenly. Taste again for balance and adjust as needed.

Use this for stuffing thick cut pork chops, chicken breasts, duck breasts, or a pork loin roulade that has been basted with a honey, balsamic vinegar, and rosemary reduction.

Chef’s Notes:
The porcini powder option is to add more depth of flavor to the stuffing. The mushroom powder flavor serves to amplify the deeper mushroom flavors as well as the berry flavors while acting as a foil to the top notes of the berries. For an added dimension, try sautéing a couple slices of pancetta, cut thick- 1/8^th to ¼ inch thick- and diced the same first thing, then removing the cooked pancetta before proceeding with the recipe. Toss the pancetta with the breadcrumbs when you add the berries.

Yield: This should be enough to stuff 4 pork chops or poultry breast, or a single 2 to 3 pound pork roast.

Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen

INGREDIENTS:
2-3 cups young shelled fava beans
2 spring onions, bulb only, sliced thinly into rings and quick pickled**
2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, stacked, rolled, and sliced very finely (This is called a “chiffonade” in restaurants.)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small pinch thyme
1-2 cups arugula (“wild” preferably) cleaned and trimmed into bite sized bits
Salt and pepper to taste
8 whisper thin slices of prosciutto or deli Virginia ham

METHOD:
Put the lemon juice into a non-reactive bowl and sprinkle a little salt, pepper, and the thyme into the lemon juice and let macerate 5 minutes or so. Slowly, in a thin stream, whisk in the olive oil to form an emulsion. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, and salt the water with a couple tablespoons of salt. Have a bowl large enough to hold the favas in filled with ice water handy.

Blanch the favas for around 90-120 seconds. If they are small, they should be just cooked through. Check one after 60 seconds to see if this is the right time frame. You want the favas to be just cooked through. When they are just done, drain and transfer to the ice water to arrest the cooking and quick chill them.

If you do not have them in the refrigerator, make the quick pickled onions now (see recipe). While the onions wilt and pickle, peel the fava beans.

When the beans are peeled, dress them with a little dressing and toss them to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Drain the pickled onions well, and toss in with the favas. Toss to coat with dressing. Add the arugula, toss to coat and mix well with the vegetables. Taste for seasoning, and add more salt and pepper or dressing if needed, but remember you will be adding the prosciutto which is salty. If the balance is right, sprinkle with the mint chiffonade, give a gentle toss and plate on four plates.

At this point, there are several options: Drape two slices of prosciutto over each salad, tear or cut the prosciutto into strips and drape it or mix it in with the mint, or go the cheese route. For fresh Romano, use a vegetable peeler to scrape paper thin shards of cheese over the salad.   For fricco, place fricco over the salad and serve right away.

Chef’s Notes:
*Fricco are a lacey cheese “cracker” or tuile (recipe here).
** If you wish, you could skip the quick pickling and just use the onion raw, but be sure to slice it really finely, or halve the onion and slice finely along the length of the onion (This is a “Lyonnaise cut”). You could also use just the tops of the onions, slicing very finely on a steep diagonal, which would be milder than raw onions and quicker than pickling.

This salad would work quite well as a bed for just grilled salmon, but I would leave off any cheese, and I would not use the Virginia ham although I could see possibly using prosciutto. I could definitely see taking a Meyer lemon and halving it lengthwise then slicing it into paper thin half-moons and toss them into the salad before putting the salmon on top.

Serves: 4

Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen

INGREDIENTS:
½ cup water
½ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon nuoc mam
a few stems (maybe 5) fresh cilantro

METHOD:
Put everything but the cilantro into a jar twice the volume of the ingredients, and shake like mad until the sugar disappears. Add the cilantro and shake with some vigor for 30 seconds or so. Allow the rest 10-15 minutes, then use.

Chef’s Notes:
This dressing is excellent on noodles of various sorts. Typically, this dressing could add chili paste or fresh chilis if you wish to heat it up a little. You could add a couple drops of toasted sesame oil for a popular flavor, if you wish, but go easy. For a “vinaigrette” style dressing, use a neutral flavored oil such as grapeseed oil, and only make the dressing with a 1:1 ration, or 2:1 at the most. Add the oil to the jar and shake like hell, and use the dressing right away, or be prepared to shake it every time you want to use the dressing.

Makes: Around 1 cup

Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen

METHOD:
Heat the oven to 400°F. Rub a 10-inch gratin dish with the peeled garlic clove so you can see the oils on the inside of the dish. Wait for the oils to dry and lightly oil the inside of the dish. Heat a pan over medium heat and film with oil. When hot, add the chard stems and cook until they are starting to color. Add the garlic and cook until it is softening and fragrant. Add the whites of the onions and the minced cilantro stem and sauté until tender. Sprinkle with half the spices and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine, then transfer the vegetables to the gratin dish. Sprinkle with half the cheese.

Add the chard leaves to the pan and cook to wilt. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a colander and let drain.  Once drained, combine with the remaining cheese (less the 2 tablespoons) and layer on top of the vegetables.

Lightly oil the bread crumbs-just enough so you know they are no longer dry-and add the remaining spices. Toss with your fingers to mix in the spices. Add in the sliced tops from the green onions and toss to mix in. Season with a little salt and pepper and sprinkle over the gratin. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of cheese and place in the oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the gratin is heated through and the cheese melts and the bread crumbs turn golden. Allow to cool just enough to set a little and serve.

Chef’s Notes:
You could skip the cheese if you wish with no deleterious effects. You might try using oregano and thyme for herbs instead of spices, or even combine the both.

Serves: 4

Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen

INGREDIENTS:
1 pound of shrimp, peeled and deveined (21-25s or 26-30s)
3-4 heads mei quin choi, tail trimmed and quartered lengthwise
½ bunch scallions, green tops and white bottoms separated, both sliced thinly on a long diagonal (Slice the greens as thinly as you can)
¾ pound snap-peas, stems trimmed, peas sliced in half diagonally if larger
1 green garlic, green top discarded, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly across
1 tablespoon ginger root, peeled and finely minced
¼ cup shaoxing (Chinese cooking wine) or dry sherry, or dry white wine
2 tablespoons ground bean sauce, or use miso (any color you prefer as long as it is smooth) thinned with a littler water to form a paste that will just pour like thick ketchup.
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup vegetable stock or water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cold water
2 tablespoons cilantro leaf, snipped using scissors
Grapeseed or other neutral flavored high heat tolerant oil, as needed

METHOD:
Mix the cornstarch and water together, stirring to mix well. This is called a “slurry” in restaurant kitchens. Heat a wok or 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When pan is hot, add enough oil to liberally film the pan bottom. When the oil is very hot-when the first wisps of smoke show-, add the shrimp, giving the pan a shake to coat the shrimp with oil. Cook, until the shrimp are just cooked through, around 5 minutes. To check, break one in half and look to see that it is opaque all the way through. When the shrimp are cooked, use a spider or slotted spoon to remove the shrimp to a serving bowl, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible.

If the pan is fairly dry, add enough oil to lightly film the pan, and get the oil hot. Add the mei quin, cut surfaces in contact with the pan bottom, and cook to brown the mei quin in spots, tossing to prevent burning as needed. When the mei quin has picked up a little color and is becoming tender-about 5 minutes, add the white parts of the scallions. Toss and cook 30 seconds or so. Add the sugar snap peas and cook just long enough to heat them up. Use a spider or slotted spoon and transfer the vegetables to the same vessel as the shrimp, leaving behind as much oil as possible.

Film the pan lightly with oil if dry and heat up. Add the ginger and garlic, and stir until fragrant. Add the wine and stir. When it is reduced by half, add the ground nut paste or miso mixture, the sugar, and the stock.  Stir really well to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook 30 seconds. While the liquid boils, stir up the slurry so it is well mixed and pourable. After the liquid has boiled 30 seconds, drizzle in the slurry, stirring all the while to avoid lumps. Boil, stirring, until the liquid thickens.

Add the shrimp and vegetables to the pan, toss to coat and heat through. If the sauce thins a little from the liquid in the bowl, cook a little to thicken it with the slurry. Transfer everything to the serving dish and scatter with the green onion tops and cilantro. Serve hot.

Chef’s Notes:
The dish is just fine without the shrimp, or you could add tofu instead. As to the miso-various colors of miso taste differently. Ground bean paste tastes like a mix of light with some dark miso added. Use whatever flavor you wish, but I think a really dark red miso would over-power the vegetables. I would serve this dish on a bed of ramen noodles or maybe rice.

Serves: 4

Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen