Add a dash of nigella seeds to sweet potato chickpea dip

Admit, we all like to snack. My husband, especially so. He loves potato chips, tortilla chips, cookies and chocolates (well I like some of those things, too, though not on his frequency). Fortunately for him he has a speedy metabolism.

To counteract his snacks that sit around the house, I find myself nibbling on salads, hard-boiled eggs and raw vegetables. And because I work at home, I tend to nibble quite a bit instead of stopping to make myself lunch.(Bad, I know.)

But it’s winter and I remember an acupuncturist I knew long ago said not to eat raw vegetables and salads during the winter but to eat more root vegetables.

So I asked acupuncture goddess Jill Blakeway of Yinova Center, who is an absolute dear, the reason for this. (If you live in New York and need an acupuncturist, she’s the one to visit!)

Jill said that “Root veggies draw their energy from the earth and so are considered particularly nourishing and warming in the winter while salad veggies are cooling and draw their energy from the sun making them more suited to the summer.”

During these cold months instead of nibbling on raw vegetables, or worse, junk food like chips, I sometimes make this sweet potato/chickpea dip that I adapted from a recipe I saw in Oprah Magazine a while ago. I even make my own pita bread.

I’ve come to believe that homemade snacks are the best and if my refrigerator is stocked with a few great dips, I’m ready for a day of hunkering and writing.

What’s your favorite homemade snack food? Share it with us on Facebook.

Sweet potato and chickpea dip

Ingredients
1 medium sweet potato, scrubbed
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 small clove garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus a dash more for drizzling
fresh ground pepper, to taste
nigella seeds, to taste (optional)

Make the dip
Preheat oven to 425°. Prick sweet potato several times with a fork. Place on a cookie sheet and roast until flesh is tender, about 50 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Combine chickpeas, garlic, cayenne pepper and salt in large bowl. Mix with an immersion blender until smooth. Scoop out sweet potato flesh, and add, mixing for another minute. Slowly add olive oil and mix until combined.

Transfer to a serving bowl. Grind pepper over dip and drizzle with extra olive oil. Sprinkle with nigella seeds (optional).

And if you’d like to make your own flatbread (I highly suggest it; you’ll never buy store-bought again!) you can read this rather old article with flatbread flatbread recipe in Dean & Deluca.

I love egg rolls. Okay, they’re fried and all but that’s okay once in a while. And I’m always a sucker for unique ingredients like galangal, which is in the ginger family and often used in Southeast Asian dishes.

These egg rolls are served at Spice Market, which is still going strong in the Meatpacking District. Read about Spice Market’s Chef Anthony Ricco in my Q&A with him in Haute Living.

Enjoy!

Ingredients
½ tbsp. garlic, minced

4 oz. butter, cut into 1” cubes

1 lb oyster mushroom, stemmed, sliced ½” thick

¾ lbs. shitake mushroom, stemmed, sliced ½” thick

¼ green thai chili, minced
Salt to taste

1½ Tbsp. lemon zest

1 Tbsp.young ginger, peeled

1 Tbsp. chervil, picked and freshly chopped

1 pack spring roll wrappers

Make the filling
Add butter and garlic in a sauté pan and cook over medium high heat, stirring until butter is foamy and garlic is fragrant. Add mushrooms and chili, sprinkle with the salt and stir well. Cook, covered over medium heat until mushrooms have released their juice and are soft and glazed. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Spread into a pan and cool in the freezer, mixing well every 10 minutes until very cold. Put 3 Tbs of mix into wrappers and brush well with egg yolk.

Galangal Emulsion

Ingredients
1 oz. galangal, peeled and chopped

3 Tbs lime juice 

3 Tbs rice vinegar 

6 Tbs tarragon, picked

1 egg yolk 

4 oz. grape seed oil
Salt, to taste

Make the emulsion
In the blender purée galangal with lime juice, vinegar and salt until smooth. Cool over ice. Return to blender add egg yolks and drizzle in oil to emulsify, then add tarragon and puree until smooth and green. Pass through a sieve or mesh, pushing for total extraction.

To serve
8 pc Mushroom rolls

8 pc Boston lettuce cups

4 oz Galangal emulsion

Directions
Fry as needed in a 375-400 degree fryer until golden brown. Remove with slotted spoon. Blot well on paper towels and season with salt and white pepper. Put 2 rolls and 2 Boston lettuce cups per plate, divide galangal among four sauce cups and serve.

I sprinkle nigella seeds, but that's optional: you can use whatever spices you like, or none at all.

I’m usually all for quick recipes, but this one, which takes a few hours, is so worth it. Once you taste this flatbread out of the oven, you will never want store-bought again.

Flatbread
Makes 4 pieces

Ingredients
1 ½ cups warm water
½ teaspoon active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon nigella seeds (optional)

Make the Bread
Mix water and yeast in a large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes. Gradually pour in 2 cups of the flour and stir to combine. Stir for about 1 minute to form a sponge. Let stand, covered (I use a kitchen towel), for an hour and a half.

Oil a bowl with olive oil. When the hour and a half has passed, place the sponge in the bowl of a stand mixer. Use the dough hook on medium speed. Add the salt and oil, then add the flour, slowly, to form the dough. Remove from bowl and knead together. Place in the oiled bowl and let rise, about 3 hours. Divide dough into 4 balls, let rise again for ½ hour, and then roll out as desired. Grill in a pre-heated griddle pan or cook in a frying pan for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Sprinkle dough with desired amount of nigella seeds or whatever spices you like.

Julieta Ballesteros, the chef of hotspot taqueria Los Feliz

On a recent visit to Los Feliz, I enjoyed, among other things (like some very tasty margaritas!) a sampling of Julieta Ballesteros’ ceviche.

Here she shares her recipe for the Robalo ceviche. It’s an easy dish to make at home. And if you want to find out more about Los Feliz, check out my interview with Rob Shamlian on Hauteliving.com

Ceviche, perfect with one of Los Feliz's many tequilas

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups fresh sea bass fillet, no bones; cut into 1/2” cubes
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 chopped plum tomatoes
1/2 of red onion, chopped
1/4 of a bunch of cilantro, chopped
Salt and white pepper to taste

Make the ceviche
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Toss and let it chill for 5 minutes. (If you don’t have access to the freshest fish, it’s best to let marinate for 2 hours.) Serve with a chili rim in a martini glass and garnish with fresh avocado.

Chorizo adds a ton of flavor to so many dishes, especially ones that include garlic and tomatoes.

I love the combination of clams and chorizo. Here, a sultry rendition that pairs well with a spicy red wine and some grilled bread. You can easily serve this as an appetizer or as a main course with salad.

For the recipe, visit my post on Dean & DeLuca.

Melissa d'Arabian, the winner of Top Chef and host of Ten Dollar Dinners

A couple of weeks ago I attended an event at a dreamy West Village townhouse in which the Grain Foods Foundation and Melissa d’Arabian launched The Bread Art Project, which benefits the Share Our Strength® Foundation. The Bread Art Project was created to increase awareness of the growing hunger problem in the U.S.

From now until June 30th, you can visit The Bread Art Project, and for every bread project you create (it’s free and fun!), $1 will be donated to Share Our Strength, which is dedicated to making sure no child goes hungry.

Try it…it easy and fun and it’s for a wonderful cause.

Here is a child-friendly recipe developed by Melissa d’Arabian for the Grain Foods Foundation, which believes that “staples like bread and grains provide many essential nutrients our bodies need to stay healthy.”

White Bean Bruschetta

Ingredients
1 baguette, sliced thinly along the bias
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 white onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 t dried basil
1 t dried oregano
3/4 cup canned navy beans, rinsed and drained
2 tomatoes, cored and cubed
2 T balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt and pepper
Olive oil for drizzling

Make the bruschetta
For the bread, slice the baguette on the diagonal into thin slices (about 12 for a baguette). In a large sauté pan, heat 1 T of the olive oil and 1 T of the unsalted butter on medium heat. Place the bread slices in the pan and cook on medium high heat until sizzling and golden. Just before flipping the bread, add an additional tablespoon of olive oil and butter to the pan. Flip the bread and cook second side until golden.

For the topping, cook the onions and 2 T of the olive oil over medium heat in a medium sauté pan until the onions are very soft, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic, basil and oregano and cook another minute or two, until fragrant. Add the beans and continue cooking for another five minutes on low heat and season with salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes and turn off the heat,
allowing tomatoes just to take on the warmth of the pan without cooking. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar into the pan and gently stir.

To serve, scoop heaping spoonfuls of the tomato-bean mixture onto the grilled bread, sprinkle with kosher salt, and drizzle with additional olive oil.

Yield: 4 servings, 3 slices each
Prep time: 15 minutes
Ease of preparation: Easy

For more information, visit Go with the Grain.

Chipotle peppers are one of my favorite Mexican ingredients

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. When I was pregnant, my daughter’s due date was May 5th. I was hoping she born on this day because it seemed like a festive day to be born. But two years ago she arrived with much surprise and fanfare 3 1/2 weeks early, and now her birthday is all the reason we need to celebrate.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, here is my recipe for chipotle salsa, as featured on Dean and Deluca’s Gourmet Food blog.

I recently discovered annatto seeds (I love cooking with unusual ingredients) and made a spice rub for grilling shrimp. They were so delicious I made them twice in one week!

Find my recipe on The Gourmet Food Blog at Dean & DeLuca.

You can find olives and other goodies here.

Tapenade is one of those items I love having in my refrigerator for snack time. Because I work at home, it just makes sense to have dips and things around for quick lunches. And it’s so incredibly easy to make. What’s funny is that years ago I detested olives. That is until I tasted tapenade. So I guess my love of olives happened backwards.

I add some red pepper flakes to my version because I love a bit of spice.

Ingredients
20 pitted Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp rinsed, drained, and chopped capers
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp anchovy paste
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Freshly-ground black pepper

Make tapenade
In a small bowl, mix olives, capers, lemon juice, olive oil, anchovy paste, and pepper. Mix well. Refrigerate and eat within a week or so. Serve with crackers, bread or as a spread on sandwiches.

One of my favorite New York stores for olives (and cheese and pistachios, and lots of other goodies):
Sahadi Importing Company/187 Atlantic Ave/Brooklyn/718-624-4550

The girl who likes spice

We were eating Indian food one night in the East Village. The papadum was quite spicy, but not for her. She munched on it like it was some ordinary biscuit made for a toddler, washing it down with a mango lassi. So I decided to make papadum at home. Goodbye dry, tasteless organic wheat crackers. Hello, papadum!

Ingredients
6 cups of lentil flour
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
Vegetable oil for frying

Make the pappadum
Mix flour, pepper, cumin and salt. Add water and knead the dough until smooth. Add some water, depending on the flour. Split the dough into 10-15 balls and roll out one ball at a time to a very thin round layer on a slightly oiled surface. Dry the papadums in the oven on a cookie sheet for an hour at 175 degrees. Remove from oven then fry briefly in a pan until crispy, but not browned.