Dim Sum Sunday - Spring Vegetables

For my spring vegetable dishes I chose to use Asparagus and Artichokes, both of which are in plentiful supply. I turned to Alice Water's Chez Panisse Vegetables for my Artichoke recipe.

Artichokes Baked with Anchovy Stuffing
4 large artichokes
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3 onions
6 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 sprigs thyme
1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup pitted niçoise olives
Stuffing:
Zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 salt-packed anchovies
1-1/3 cups toasted bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
Splash of white wine
Extra-virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
A few sprigs thyme
Parsley
Pare the artichokes down to their hearts and scoop out the chokes with a spoon. Drop the hearts into water acidulated with lemon juice (or rub them with a little olive oil) to prevent them from discoloring. Set aside.
Peel the onions and garlic and slice very thin. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan, add the onions, garlic, and sprigs of thyme, and cook slowly for 10 minutes, until the onions have softened. Add about 1/4 cup of the white wine and cook 2 minutes more. Season to taste. Reserve about 1/4 cup of this onion mixture and set aside. Spread the rest of the onion mixture in a small, nonreactive baking dish large enough to hold the artichokes. Scatter the olives over the onions. Preheat the oven to 375° F.
To make the stuffing, grate the zest from the lemon; chop the parsley; and rinse, fillet, and chop the anchovies. Mix together with the reserved onion mixture and the bread crumbs.
Stuff each artichoke with one quarter of this mixture and place the artichokes stuffed side down on the bed of onions and olives in the baking dish. Season generously with salt and pepper. Splash a little white wine over them and drizzle with olive oil and a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Strew with a few sprigs of thyme, cover the artichokes with parchment paper, and cover the baking dish tightly with foil. Bake for 60 to 90 minutes, until the artichokes can be easily pierced with a knife.
Serves 4. I added a little pancetta to the top but frankly this recipe did not make me want to repeat this effort. The stuffing seemed uninspiring and the artichoke itself was bland.The Asparagus, on the other hand, was much more successful. This month's Cook's Country, sister magazine to Cook's Illustrated, has a recipe for Broiled Asparagus with Mustard Vinaigrette that I highly recommend. Nothing could be easier than broiling asparagus.The last component to my Sunday dinner was Ina Garten's Roasted Shrimp Salad. Ina is one of the few chefs on the Food Network I enjoy and it's recipes like this make me want to tune into her show. The freshness of the orange zest really pops with the roasted shrimp. Pairing the zesty asparagus with the creaminess of the shrimp salad was a nice contrast. Two winners out of three's not bad.

DimSum Sunday ~ Spring Vegetables

Java's Sunday Supper

This is a simple pasta dish made with fresh asparagus, heirloom tomatoes, olives, basil, pignoli and shaved Pecorino Romano cheese. It's dressed with a fruity extra virgin olive oil to allow all of the fresh flavors of Spring to shine.

Next week's theme: Build A Better Burger (don't forget the sides)!!

Next Sunday's theme...

...Spring Vegetables!

Food Porn...in motion!

We have been noticing an...interesting trend in food advertising, i.e. "The Racy Food Commercial", and would like to explore some of our favorites with you...let's begin, shall we?

We start with a celebrity well known to the Karmic Kitchen - Padma Lakshmi. We admire her for ability to jam large quantities of food into her mouth over and over again. There is no one on (or off) Top Chef that eats more food than Padma, as she demonstrates this Hardee's commercial. If only Padma would get married again. We might have "Real Housewives of New Delhi".

Paris Hilton. Washing a car. In a bathing suit. Doesn't do anything for me, but then again I'm not a pre-pubescent boy. At least she's not speaking.

I'm not sure what's funnier about this, a talking grill or a talking male grill saying to a male cook "Put it in me Scott". The best part? Trying to figure out exactly what poor Scott burned!

For all of you who find the Burger King King freaky as all get out, check out his singing and dancing the "Square Butt Rap". Why rap? Why Sponge Bob Square Pants? Why Burger King? I have no answers. Actually I'm afraid of the answers.

Last but not least, our absolute favorite. It defies commentary.

DimSum Sunday - Easter

Java's Roast Leg of Lamb
With Garlic, Rosemary & Anchovies

You can find the recipe here

Shamu's Lamb Shanks with Guinness

You can find the recipe here.

Happy Easter to all of our wonderful readers!

The next DimSum Sunday theme...

We look forward to sharing
"Easter Dinner"
with all who wish to participate!

Dim Sum Sunday - Tofu

Shamu's Sunday Supper

I knew it was going to be a challenging Dim Sum Sunday when Java threw down the Tofu gauntlet. Tofu is not exactly popular here in the meaty Midwest. However a challenge is a challenge. I decided to let someone else cook this week and that someone would be the very able chefs at my favorite Chinese restaurant, Bo Lings.
Weekends at Bo Lings are very popular since it's one of the few places in town to serve Dim Sum. There were a couple of tofu dim sum dishes I was planning to get but would they also have my personal favorite dish, Fried Tofu with Shrimp Sauce?

I was in luck. Deep fried tofu in a light sauce studded with shrimp and peas. Paired with the nuttier organic brown rice you have a light, delicious dish.
Accompanying my fried tofu is the stuffed tofu dim sum dish. A piece of tofu is stuffed with shrimp paste and then steamed. Since tofu has so little flavor of it's own it makes a perfect canvas for other ingredients such as shrimp.Rounding out this simple meal was tofu in coconut milk. Again light and very simple yet wonderfully delicious.
While tofu might not be as popular as bbq or Sweet and Sour Pork here in Kansas City, it's slowly working it's way into Kansas City's culinary consciousness as an excellent alternative for protein and calcium. Tofu, it's what's for dinner.

Java's Sunday Supper

The Java Junkie does loves her tofu. Despite a rough week her inner chef pulled through to give us a very simple white miso soup with tofu, wakame, scallions and white beech mushrooms. I love this kind of soup especially when I've got a cold. It makes me feel good just looking at it.

She kicks up the flavor of her next dish, Tofu Stir Fry with Spicy Schezuan Sauce with emphasis on spicy. The tofu and bok choi are quickly braised in a sauce made of Sirachi, soy, and oyster sauce and liberally laced with chilis. More vegetables are added and quickly fried. Served on a bed of white rice, it looks delicious with it's snow peas and peppers and spicy enough to clear out the sinuses. A wonderfully spicy Sunday dinner.

Next Week: Easter Dinner

Maggie T. Nutcracker

Is it wrong that I want one of these?

Dim Sum Sunday - Pasta

Java's Sunday Supper
Gnocchi di Patate with Chicken Livers and Mushrooms
The (nearly obscured, sorry) gnocchi in this dish is topped with a lovely caramelized "ragout" of livers, mushrooms, shallots, sage and thyme...

Shamu's Sunday Supper

This Sunday I went with old favorite recipe, Rigatoni with a Sauce of Lamb and Pine Nuts. Lisa Yockelson, a writer with many cookbooks under her belt, contributed this recipe to the Washington Post food section back in 1995. Ms. Yockelson is best known for her baking cookbooks but with this recipe she proved that she's not just a baker. I love this pasta recipe for it's bold flavors. The flavor of lamb is distinctive by itself but pairing it up with the feta and toasted pine nuts is not for the faint of tongue. The only change I've made is the choice of pasta, using the radiatori but frankly any pasta with ridges that can hold a chunky sauce will work. I find it to be a hearty and deeply satisfying dish.

Shamu's Bonus Dessert courtesy of the Java Junkie

After we had posted our dinner pictures, I asked Java this question - If she were making dessert for my Sunday pasta supper, what would it be? "Let me check my pantry" was her reply. A couple of hours later, this lovely coconut chocolate chip semifreddo arrived!

Next weeks theme: Tofu

Food Porn Extrordinaire

Stephen Hamilton is the artist responsible for the photography that graced the walls of the Top Chef contestant's living space. We hope to have an interview with him soon, but in the meantime, we invite you to check out his portfolio. You won't be disappointed!

(Our thanks to Judith at Stephen Hamilton Photography for the stunning photo!)

Next Sunday's theme is...

PASTA!!!

Photo courtesy of "Life In Italy"

DimSum Sunday - Shellfishalicious!!

Java's Sunday Supper

I wanted to do something simple and rustic this week; with shellfish as the main ingredient, my first thought was shrimp. The fish section of the market had some nice mussels, so I grabbed some of those as well, and headed home. Sadly, I made a poor decision on my way - I stopped for a bottle of wine. When I arrived at home, I found my poor little mussels had smothered in their paper wrapper. A return trip to the store and a latte later, I started my supper...

This is a two pan dish - one for the pasta and one for the "sauce". There really isn't a recipe per se. It's kind of a theme and variation on cioppino, with a "whatever fits" attitude. This particular version consists simply of olive oil, three cloves of garlic, half of a shallot, two hot Italian sausages, a small can of San Marzano tomatoes and some dry white wine. Once the sausage, garlic and shallot were lightly browned in the olive oil, I added the tomatoes and white wine and brought the mixture to a simmer. I then tossed in a pound of mussels and a few torn basil leaves. When the mussels began to open, I added a half a pound of shrimp, some more torn basil leaves, and Italian parsley. This was served over linguine, drizzled with more oil, and accompanied by some crusty rosemary bread and the wine that was left. The process works well with most any shellfish (I've used clams, crab, scallops and lobster tails in the past) as well as firm white fish. Easy peasy, and delicious!

Shamu's Sunday Supper

When you grow up on the Maryland side of the Washington DC metro area, you learn quickly to appreciate the Blue Crab. I cut my snarky baby teeth on the state slogan, Maryland is for Crabs (developed soon after neighboring Virginia came up with the lame Virginia is for Lovers slogan). But Blue Crab is not readily available in my neck of the prairie so I decided to see what the Asian market had in the way of crustaceans this weekend. Having recently returned from a trip to Seattle and enjoyed a wide variety of crustaceans, I was going through a bit of a withdrawal. Imagine my happiness at seeing fresh Dungeness Crab. While my fat selection was icing down in a cooler I pointed my little car home.

My recipe this week had more to do with the weather than anything else. Spring is slowly easing winter from the prairie. Buds are starting to pop and birds are yanking twigs from my gutter to make their nests. The grill itch hit me hard. Grilled Dungeness it would be. I started out with Emeril Lagasse's recipe for grilled crab but adapted it for my own tastes. Which meant bypassing the red pepper flakes, using lime instead of lemon, cilantro instead of parsley and addition of some incredible shellfish stock I made with crab shells to the grilling butter. This recipe is incredibly simple. Grill your cooked and cleaned crab on a piece of aluminum foil swimming in the butter sauce.

This is some serious crab flavor. The grilling adds an amazing smoky depth to the sweetness of the crab. But be forewarned, this is a level 5 messy meal. Cracking crabs is never for the fussy but crabs grilled in a garlic butter sauce? Wear a shirt that's already stained and have plenty of paper towels on hand but by all means, get your Crab on.

It's Almost Time!

For another Dim Sum Sunday. Show us your Shellfish and Crustaceans and we'll show you ours.

Next Sunday's theme: "Pasta"