liv bites

I realized recently that I’ve written about a million posts on my dinner experiments, but almost none on my lunches. That’s, of course, because I’m always eating lunch at work — and meals just aren’t as much of a to-do when you’re enjoying them in front of a computer.

Still, I actually put a decent amount of thought and effort into the lunches I pack during the week. Nothing is more depressing than eating a PB&J when co-workers bring Indian food back into the office, and the smell of delicious curry wafts through the whole building. Also, I have a secret weapon when it comes to lunch-packing that’s been working for me for months.

It’s not rocket science. You start with a grain, add in a ton of veggies, and toss it in some cheese and dressing. But the trick is to make a big batch at the beginning of the week, and you can eat it everyday without much effort. I cook mine on Monday nights since my work provides lunch on Mondays, so I’m set for the rest of the week.

You’re probably wondering whether I get tired of these meals by the end of the week, and my honest answer is no. Sure, I’ve made a few sub-par batches that I had to suffer through on Friday, but for the most part, I look forward to every lunch. As long as you mix up the ingredients you’re using every week, this method is basically no-fail.

The example posted below is for a Mediterranean Quinoa Salad, but there are plenty of ways to mix it up. For grains, I like to alternate between quinoa, couscous and millet, and the veggies are a complete matter of preference. I usually have olives, capers and sundried tomatoes on hand, so those are easy to throw in. Then I’ll buy zucchini, asparagus, spinach or squash to add as well. The vinaigrette is almost always a mixture of oil, lemon juice/vinegar, honey and spices, and goat and feta cheese are my picks for extra flavor.

Pine nuts and almond slivers also make great additions, and they’ll help keep you full ’til dinner.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Ingredients (Makes 3 to 4 servings):

1.5 cups quinoa

1 medium cucumber, sliced

1 yellow pepper, sliced

1/2 cup sliced kalamata olives

1/2 cup canned artichoke hearts

1 can chickpeas

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 tbsp. olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. honey

Pepper to taste

Rinse and drain quinoa, then combine quinoa and 3 cups water in a pot. Bring to boil for 15 minutes, or until the water is absorbed. Turn off the stove and cover the pot for 5 minutes, then fluff quinoa with a fork.

In a large bowl or tupperware, mix cooked quinoa, veggies (cucumber, pepper, olives, artichokes, chickpeas and sundried tomatoes) and feta.

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, salt, cumin, honey and pepper. Drizzle dressing on the quinoa mixture and combine well. Tip: I like to put the lid on the tupperware and shake it all up!

Heirloom tomatoes might just be my favorite thing about living in California. 

My Assistant and Me

One of the biggest perks of living in San Francisco is being so close to all of the cool events that go down in wine country, which are typically as much about the food as they are the wine. And although my dad’s the one who’s actually a member of wine clubs, I’m often the family representative who actually gets to attend them. Props to sheer proximity!

Example: The winery Jessup Cellars in Napa hosted a cooking class for their club members this month, and my father generously offered to send my assistant and me. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity, not only because I got to cook in a kitchen five times the size of my own, but because the menu sounded sensational. And way over my head.

Halibut Ceviche with Compressed Pineapple Salsa; Tuna Poke on Tempura Nori with Chili Aioli

MENU:

Halibut Ceviche with Compressed Pineapple Salsa

Tuna Poke on Tempura Nori with Chili Aioli

Pork Tenderloin with Spatzle, Mustard Emulsion and Pumpkinseed Oil

New York Striploin with Ginger Rice Cake, Woodear Scallion Salad, Ponzu and Crispy Egg Yolk

Cornbread Olive Oil Cake with Balsamic Caramel, Strawberries and Coffee Foam

So my culinary education continues, little by little. This class was vastly different from the last one I took at Chef Joe’s Culinary Salon; it was held in a gorgeous B&B instead of a San Francisco storefront, the dishes were fancier and guests felt much more pampered up in Napa. Jessup wines were poured generously all night, and half of our class was part of a bachelorette party. Enough said.

The Cedar Gables Inn

The event took place in the kitchen of the Cedar Gables Inn, which was built in 1892. It’s currently run by a couple named Ken and Susie, who are living the good life better than anyone I’ve ever seen. Susie used to run her own culinary school before they bought the inn, but she loves cooking so much that she decided to host occasional classes at the Cedar Gables for guests. They invite renowned chefs from the area to demonstrate in classes, everyone takes home a copy of the recipes and it’s a fun night for all.

Our celebrity chef was Gary Penir, who, I learned, worked at Cyrus in Healdsburg when I ate there a few years ago. It’s one of those wildly expensive and decadent restaurants with 10-course meals, wine pairings and waiters who move in synchronicity. And it’s heavenly.

Penir is in his early 30s, and I couldn’t help admiring how relaxed he was the whole time, while a bunch of slightly tipsy amateurs tried to recreate his dishes — which we actually all ate at the dining room table together, after class. So understandably, major damage control had to be done, but he handled it with ease.

He’s very knowledgeable but unpretentious, and he patiently answered every question hurled at him (there were many; a few were relevant). He doesn’t work in restaurants anymore, but instead runs his own company, Cuisine GP. Penir included in our menu something he considers to be a “signature dish” of sorts since he discovered it with his buddies: a crispy egg yolk. Hint: You have to freeze the yolks to make this work.

New York Striploin with Ginger Rice Cake, Woodear Scallion Salad, Ponzu and Crispy Egg Yolk

My assistant and I were the youngest people in the class by at least a decade, but we were surprised by how much we enjoyed the company of our classmates. The atmosphere is definitely more “wine and dine” than Top Chef-style cutthroat, so naturally everyone was having a good time.

Typically in these sorts of settings, I shy away from being in charge of the main dishes. In our class with Chef Joe, I meekly agreed to oversee the soup, even though I really wanted to know the ins and outs of Boeuf Bourgignon. This time, I decided not to take the backseat, and my assistant and I pounced on the pork tenderloin dish. I’m not including any recipes here since they’re not my own, but trust that it was delicious in my totally unbiased opinion, and that it wasn’t difficult to make. Since pork tenderloin is pretty affordable in these parts, my assistant and I are looking forward to impressing our friends with this one.

Pork Tenderloin with Spatzle, Mustard Emulsion and Pumpkinseed Oil

And in the meantime, I’ll just be saving up money to buy an inn in Napa. No big deal.

Cornbread Olive Oil Cake with Balsamic Caramel, Strawberries and Coffee Foam

I recently went home to Jackson, Mississippi for a long weekend to celebrate a friend’s recent engagement, and I ate the whole time I was there.

Friday night we went to my favorite restaurant, Walkers, where no less than two desserts were shared. Saturday I picked fresh basil from my dad’s garden and made a caprese salad, enjoyed by the pool with a glass of rosé (mm). Sunday my assistant got his first taste of fresh boiled crawfish, my mom’s seafood gumbo and her famous chocolate praline bars. And then we sat on a plane for 6 hours.

Oddly, all of the Southern-style eating just had me wanting more when I landed back in not-so-sunny San Francisco (yes, it’s 55 degrees here). Enter Paula Deen for inspiration. I found this Pecan Coated Fish recipe, and I was sold — especially since I already had some pecans in my pantry.

Paula, bless her, isn’t known for her heart-friendly recipes, so I tweaked mine a bit to make it healthier. Served with a side of roasted sweet potatoes and sautéed spinach, it was the perfect meal to transition me back to the West Coast.

Pecan Crusted Cod with Remoulade Sauce

Ingredients (Serves 4):

2 cloves garlic

2 slices whole wheat bread, toasted

2 tbsp. flour

2/3 cup pecans

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. black pepper

2 eggs

4 filets of cod (about 2 lbs.), or any white, flaky fish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Chop garlic in a food processor until minced. Add toasted bread, flour, pecans, nutmeg and pepper, and puree until the mixture is soft and fine, but still a bit chunky. Transfer to a large plate.

Beat eggs in a medium-sized bowl. Dredge cod filets in the eggs, then place filets in pecan mixture, coating both sides thoroughly.

Place cod filets on a lightly greased baking sheet, and bake for about 12 minutes. Turn heat up to broil and bake for another 5 to 7 minutes, or until done (I check by sticking a fork in the thickest part of the filet and seeing if it flakes. If it does, it’s probably done).

Note: I turned the heat up at the end because I wanted the outside to get a nice brown, toasted texture. Toasting really brings out the flavors of the pecans, too.

Serve cod with remoulade sauce, recipe below.

Lightened-Up Remoulade Sauce

Ingredients (Makes about 1 cup):

2/3 cup plain yogurt

2 tbsp. mayonnaise

2 tbsp. dijon mustard

2 tbsp. olive oil

1.5 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp. capers

2 tbsp. chopped green onions

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp. brown sugar

Pinch of salt

Stir all ingredients together and serve. Many remoulade sauces call for puréeing all the ingredients in a food processor, but I wanted to preserve the chunks of capers and green onions — just a matter of preference.

My assistant and I just shelled out some cash to join Costco. It seems a little ridiculous since I live within a one-block walking distance of no less than three grocery stores (truly), but when I heard that I could buy a whole quart of Fage yogurt for $5, I was sold. I eat a lot of yogurt, and that stuff isn’t cheap.

However, I am cheap, which is why I decided to grab an enormous jar of kalamata olives while we were inching our way down the canned food aisle. I love stocking up on veggies like olives and sundried tomatoes because I know they won’t go bad before I have time to eat them.

With all of these olives in my possession, my mission became clear: tapenade.

As a dip, sandwich spread, sauce or topping, tapenade is impressively versatile. When I moved into my first post-college apartment in San Francisco and lived on pizza bagels, my sister taught me that I could use tapenade like pesto — toss it in some pasta and call it an easy weeknight meal. That’s what I did this week, topped with some leftover roasted cherry tomatoes and a little goat cheese for extra flavor.

And I still have about a hundred olives left to go.

Kalamata Olive Tapenade

Ingredients (Makes 1 cup):

2 cloves garlic

1 cup pitted kalamata olives

2 tbsp. capers

1 anchovy filet

1 tsp. balsamic vinegar

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. olive oil

Chop garlic in a food processor until chunks are very small. Add remaining ingredients except olive oil, and pulse until combined. Slowly add olive oil while food processor is on, and keep puréeing until you get your desired consistency.

I like some chunks, so I went easy on the olive oil and didn’t process for too long. If you want more of a paste texture, keep going.

My sister and I share many things: a sub-average body temperature, parents, and a love of new dresses. We also share an inexplicable fondness for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, which is hard to explain only because neither of us regularly enjoy white chocolate or macadamia nuts in any other context. In fact, I’ve developed kind of a snobbish attitude toward white chocolate in general, splurging on the 75% cocoa stuff at the grocery store instead. But something about these cookies tempts me stop every time, even if I’m at… Subway.

My poor sister is also studying non-stop for two months, gearing up to take the Colorado bar exam. So what better time to send her some study snacks? Note: Healthy eating and hitting the books are mutually exclusive.

The recipe I used is adapted from one by Joy the Baker, who adapted it from Betty Crocker. They are very sweet, very chunky and a little spicy, thanks to some nutmeg I threw in. And I haven’t been totally unselfish, because now my whole apartment smells like cookies.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Ingredients (Makes about 24 cookies):

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

1 egg

1/2 light brown sugar

1/2 white sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped

1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a sauce pan, melt the butter until it starts to brown (brown bits should form at the bottom of the pan). Pour butter into a large mixing bowl, and add egg, both sugars and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes until well-combined.

Add flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and beat again, just until the mixture forms a dough. Then, mix in macadamia nuts and chocolate chips.

Roll dough into 2-inch balls and space evenly on a cookie sheet with a couple of inches between cookies. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the edges begin to toast slightly. Let cool and enjoy!

While considering an easy, Sunday night dinner for two, I settled on lettuce wraps. My assistant and I made them a while back with success, which turned out to be just the confidence I needed to take the basic recipe to the next level — but this time, I was cooking for a girlfriend instead of for him. 

While we were eating, she joked that she could never make lettuce wraps for the man in her life, because he’d be like, “This isn’t dinner!?” It’s true that the wraps probably make a better appetizer and party food than main course. My dad has set up a DIY lettuce wrap station at some dinner parties he’s hosted, and they’re perfect for a buffet-style setting. But I like to think of them as a variation on an Asian chicken salad of sorts, except you get to eat it with your hands. 

Since salad should never be all of a weekend dinner, I made some green beans to serve on the side. The sesame touches weren’t something I was super familiar with, but I’ll definitely be preparing this five-minute dish again. 

Not pictured: Brownies for dessert. I can’t take credit for those, but they were the perfect end to my weekend. 

Lettuce Wraps with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients (Serves 4 as a main course, 6 to 8 as an appetizer):

1 clove garlic, minced

2 pounds ground chicken

3 tbsp. soy sauce

1 cup shredded carrots

1 cup chopped green onions

1 cup bean sprouts

1/2 cup chopped cashews

About 1.5 heads iceberg lettuce

Heat a bit of olive oil in a large frying pan and add garlic. Sauté for 1 to 2 minutes, then add chicken. Cook chicken until brown and crumbly, about 10 minutes on medium heat. Add soy sauce and mix to distribute evenly. Add carrots, onions, sprouts and cashews to pan and stir to combine. 

Place chicken mixture in 4 individual bowls. Carefully tear off lettuce leaves from head, trying not to break the “cups.” Spoon chicken into lettuce cups to serve, and top with Peanut Sauce (recipe below). 

Peanut Sauce

Ingredients (Makes 

5 tbsp. milk (I used skim, but any would work)

4 tbsp. creamy peanut butter

1 and 1/4 tsp. rice wine vinegar

1 and 1/4 tsp. honey

2 tsp. soy sauce

1 and 1/4 tsp. red curry paste

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Spoon onto lettuce wraps to serve. 

Sesame Green Beans with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients (Serves 4): 

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1.5 pounds green beans

1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. sesame oil

2 tbsp. sesame seeds

Salt

Soy sauce (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle tomatoes with olive oil and roast in oven for 16 minutes, or until slightly brown. 

Steam green beans for 3 minutes. Heat sesame oil in large frying pan and add green beans. Sauté for five minutes, then add sesame seeds.

Toss green beans with roasted tomatoes and sprinkle with salt. (You could also toss in soy sauce as well, but I stuck to just a sprinkle of salt because of all the soy sauce in the lettuce wraps.)

The first time I attempted the bacon and brussels sprouts combo, the sprouts were hardly cooked, but the bacon turned out more like bacon bits — fail. The second time, I introduced red wine into the mix and loved the result. But I got a little cocky about the small success and decided it’d be lovely over pasta. Verdict? Not so. All my hard work reducing the wine was completely lost among the noodles. But I’ve had this recipe on the back burner for a while, hoping to share some semblance of an edible side dish.

My favorite thing about this recipe is how interesting it is, without being pretentious. I used pancetta because that’s what my assistant bought at the store, but all-American bacon would probably be even better. It’s a great match with burgers or grilled steak (think upscale bar food), but I served it alongside grilled chicken and vegetable kabobs for an easy summer meal that tastes pretty decadent. Bacon tends to have that effect.

*Apologies for the less-than-stellar picture — dinner parties aren’t the best venue for photography!

Bacon Brussels Sprouts in Red Wine

Ingredients (Serves 4):

4 oz. bacon or pancetta

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 pound brown mushrooms, sliced

1 pound brussels sprouts

1/2 cup red wine, divided

1 tsp. salt

Pinch of pepper

Chop bacon and cook on medium high heat in large skillet for 5 minutes or until brown and done. Remove bacon from pan, leaving the oil in the skillet. Add olive oil and garlic, and reduce heat to medium.

Add mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes, until soft. Cut brussels sprouts in half, and add them to the pan. Sauté for another 10 minutes, so that veggies begin to brown. Reduce heat slightly, around medium-low. Add 1/4 cup of the wine, and simmer until liquid is mostly reduced (7 to 8 minutes). Add the remaining wine, and continue to simmer. Add salt and pepper, and stir.

Add bacon back into pan. Cook until liquid is reduced (9 to 10 minutes) and serve.

I was craving a burger a few nights ago, but I decided to buy ground lamb instead of beef to make things more interesting. With the lamb came the opportunity to turn an all-American classic into a Mediterranean meal, so I went with it. Except that I think hamburgers are actually originally German. Sigh.

I love ketchup and mustard just as much as the next girl (probably more — my mom keeps ketchup packets in her glove compartment) but the yogurt feta dressing I made a few months back seemed like the perfect way to Greek-ify my burger. A little bit of that, some caramelized onions and a few extra seasonings, and mission accomplished!

The result? My assistant is already asking when we can make them again. And I even baked some sweet potato fries on the side so I could get my ketchup fix.

Mediterranean Lamb Burgers

Ingredients (Serves 4):

About 1.5 pounds ground lamb (warning: this made some big burgers!)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp dried thyme

Pinch of pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. sugar

1.5 medium red onions

4 hamburger buns (I used whole wheat)

Yogurt Feta Dressing

In a large bowl, mix together lamb, garlic, cumin, thyme and pepper. Divide into four equal sections, and use hands to form into burger patty.

I used a grill pan to make these, so I heated up the pan for about 5 minutes, then added the meat on the pan. Cook for 4 minutes on one side, flip, and cook for 3 on the other side.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet, then add onions and sugar. Sautée for about 10 minutes or until brown.

Toast buns in oven or toaster. Serve burgers on buns, and top with onions and yogurt feta dressing.

My assistant sagely dubbed the following recipe — Homemade Pappardelle with Quail Ragu — “second-generation” pasta, because version one met a sad fate. But let me back up.

For my birthday this year, a very close family friend thoughtfully gave me a gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma. Since I can never afford anything there on my own but love lusting after adorable (and admittedly needless) baking pans, I was obviously thrilled and went immediately to the store to survey the selections. Thanks, Bill!

After nearly an hour of making the rounds at the three-story shop in Union Square with my assistant patiently in tow, I settled on something I’ve been wanting for a while: a pasta machine! Ever since my assistant’s mother gave me an Alice Waters cookbook from the 1980s dedicated solely to pasta- and pizza-making, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with the fresh stuff. The Ricotta Gnocchi was my first foray, but I was ready for real noodles this time around.

My machine, which I now love, has settings for linguine and fettucini, but I was feeling picky and really wanted pappardelle, which are the wider noodles (about 3/4-inch thick, officially). But the great thing about the pasta maker is that you can use it to flatten the dough thin, and then cut the noodles just how you want them. Yes, you can also do this with a rolling pin, but interestingly enough, that’s something that I do not have. Go figure.

Anyway, I spent much of Sunday flattening my dough and meticulously cutting the noodles, at which point I made my big mistake: I layered them all on a plate, uncooked. I know. It seems so obvious, looking back, that they’d all stick together and be completely unrecognizable as any sort of pasta, much less pappardelle.

After a mini-breakdown and much encouragement from my assistant, we wadded up all the once-perfect noodles and sent the dough through the machine again. And it was so worth it.

He shot the quail we used in this dish himself, so I like to think of this one as a truly artisanal dinner.

Homemade Pappardelle with Quail Ragu

This pasta recipe is adapted from the Alice Waters cookbook, Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza, & Calzone.

For the pappardelle (Makes 4 small/medium servings):

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

A bit of water

Pinch of salt and olive oil, for boiling

Combine flour and salt in a bowl. Whisk eggs together in a separate small bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour bowl, and pour in eggs. Working from the outside in, begin to combine flour mixture and eggs into a dough. Add water as needed (I’m reluctant to give an exact amount, because it depends on your flour and eggs. My advice is to err on the side of too little water, because you can always add more, and when the dough forms together and becomes sticky, you’ll know it’s right).

Knead dough for 10 to 15 minutes, cover, and let sit for 20 minutes.

Divide dough into 4 or 5 manageable sections, and roll into logs several inches long. I found that this helped me when using my pasta machine. Run dough through machine a few times, starting with the widest setting and ending with a thin one (I used the next-to-thinnest, if that makes sense).

Lay dough flat on floured surface and cut into noodles 3/4-inch to 1-inch thick. DO NOT LAYER!

Bring large pot of water to boil with a pinch of salt and olive oil, which keeps noodles from sticking together. Boil pasta for about 5 minutes, then drain.

For the ragu (Serves 4):

1 lb. quail, bones in

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 shallot, diced

2 medium yellow squash, unpeeled and roughly chopped

2 medium zucchini, unpeeled and roughly chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine

28 oz. canned San Marzano tomatoes in tomato sauce

1 tbsp. chopped rosemary

1 tsp. salt

Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add in quail. Boil for about 15

minutes, or until birds are cooked through. Remove from water and let cool.

Once cool, use your fingers to remove quail meat from bones and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil, and add in garlic and shallots. Sauté on medium heat for 5 minutes or until shallots begin to become fragrant and tender. Add in squash and zucchini, and sauté for another 10 minutes, until vegetables soften but do not brown.

Add wine to vegetable skillet. Use your hands to crush the tomatoes, and add them and all of their juice to the skillet, too. Add rosemary and salt. Stir. Turn heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add quail meat to sauce, cover again, and simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes. If the sauce looks thin, remove lid to let it reduce a bit. If it looks thick, add a touch of water.

Serve ragu over pasta, and top with parmesan if desired.