September 7, 2013 by Marios

Spaghetti with Garlic, Lemon, and Parsley

The day after our wedding, I began to lose my ability to smell and taste. It happened gradually but quickly. I first noticed that I was having a hard time smelling some of the more nuanced notes in food. At the same time, I started experiencing a phantom smell and taste. It had a strange herbal, slightly toasted quality and I began to smell it in everything. While in Iceland, everything had this strange taste. At first I thought it was a local herb they used in most of their food. We even asked a waitress about it but she had no idea what we were talking about. Steve and I started joking that it was the taste of lamb that was permeating everything, since lamb was so common in Iceland.

By the end of the trip, things had gotten worse. When we got back to New York I pretty much lost the ability to smell anything but the strongest odors and I could only taste strong and basic flavors: sweet, salty, bitter. Some things, like coffee, now tasted and smelled exclusively of that weird toasted herbal phantom flavor. It was obvious something was wrong.

There are times when not being able to smell can be a blessing (yes, I am talking about you, mister I-don’t-wear-deodorant-at-the-gym). But those times are very few. Not being able to taste or smell food was devastating for me. I was trying not to panic but it was hard not to. Beyond the loss of pleasure from food, I started to feel a strange kind of isolation from everything around me. Like I was living in a plastic bubble. I realized how much our sense of smell helps connect us to our surroundings, much like our sight and hearing.

A quick visit to Dr. Google was not very reassuring (is it ever?). There were lots of Greek words, like anosmia (complete loss of smell), parosmia (inability to correctly smell), and dysgeusia (distortion of sense of taste). The probable causes of my symptoms were many and some were very scary.

So, last Wednesday I went to a real doctor, an ENT. Within 5 minutes I was diagnosed. I had a “giant” (his word) polyp in each nostril which was blocking my olfactory nerves. Fortunately, nothing too serious. He recommended an aggressive treatment with Prednisone and antibiotics for a month, and Flonase “for the rest of my life” (his words again). Surgery would be the next step, if the polyps didn’t respond to the meds.

A quick visit to Dr. Google again (I know, I can’t resist) revealed that nasal polyps are common for people with chronic sinusitis and allergies (that would be me) and that they are especially common among men over the age of 40 (damn you 40s! You are so not the new 30s, no matter what anyone says).

I started the meds on Thursday morning. By Friday night, I was feeling much better. My sinuses were no longer clogged up and I was starting to smell and taste things again. Both Steve and I were immensely relieved. This spaghetti with garlic, lemon, and parsley is what I made and it was the first thing I was able to taste correctly in about 3 weeks. I’ve always liked this dish but on that night I thought it was the best thing I had ever tasted.

Spaghetti with Garlic, Lemon, and Parsley
Slightly adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook: More than 1000 recipes

Serves 4

1 lb spaghetti
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2-3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cook pasta in a 6-8 quart pot of boiling salted water (1 T salt for every 4 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain pasta.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a 12 inch heavy skillet over moderately low heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until garlic is golden, about 3 minutes.

Stir lemon zest into skillet, then stir in juice, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup reserved cooking water and bring to a simmer.

Toss pasta in sauce with parsley. Add more cooking water if pasta seems dry.

Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese on top.

August 17, 2013 by Marios

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

With out wedding taking place tomorrow, this week has been a whirlwind of activity. Friends and family started to arrive in New York last Sunday and throughout the week more and more people joined them. People have come from faraway places like France, Sweden, and Cyprus or Los Angeles, San Diego, and Indianapolis.

One of Steve’s colleagues, who recently got married, told him that one of the coolest and strangest things about your wedding is seeing all of your friends and family in one room at the same time. We’re already having that feeling ourselves. The fact that people have made the effort to take planes, trains, and cars to be here with us makes us feel happy and humbled and grateful.

We are so overwhelmed by all this that we almost forget that tomorrow we’ll be married. There is so much riding on that simple word “wedding.” There are the legal implications, the political issues, the social debates, the catering decisions, the flower choices. But in the end there’s really just this: a celebration. A reason to come together and acknowledge and share the love between two people with those who are important in their lives.

And at the end of this celebration is marriage. For all the ways to describe a marriage, a good and happy one, here’s one that already describes ours. A sunny Saturday morning, sitting at the table, still groggy from a good night’s sleep, ready to eat our lemon ricotta pancakes, and then go out, together, to make the day or own.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes – Very slightly adapted from Chow.com

Makes about 16 3.5 inch pancakes

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for coating the frying pan and serving
1 cup whole milk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine salt
3 large eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon packed finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
Powdered sugar, fruit, or maple syrup, for serving (optional)

1. Place butter and milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until butter has melted; remove from heat and let cool slightly.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt; set aside.

3. Place egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle ] in a quarter of the milk-butter mixture while whisking constantly (to temper the eggs), then whisk in the remaining milk-butter mixture until smooth.

4. Add the reserved flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined (do not overmix); set aside.

5. In a medium bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks. Halfway through whisking them, sprinkle in the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Using the rubber spatula, fold the whites into the reserved batter until just combined.

6. Gently fold the ricotta into the batter, being careful not to break down the texture of the cheese (the batter will be lumpy and streaked with ricotta); set aside.

7. Heat a large nonstick frying pan, griddle, or seasoned cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot, about 4 minutes. Test to see if the pan is hot enough by sprinkling a couple of drops of cold water in it: If the water bounces and sputters, the pan is ready to use.

8. Lightly coat the pan’s surface with butter, then use a 1/4-cup measure to scoop the batter into the pan. Cook until bubbles form on top of the pancakes, about 4 to 5 minutes. Flip and cook the other side until the bottoms are golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes more. Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve immediately with powdered sugar, fruit, butter, or maple syrup.

August 1, 2013 by Marios

Lentils with Onions and Smoked Fish

I was going through the recipes I’ve posted on this blog the other day and I realized that I probably should have called it “Better with Butter and Sugar” instead of “Better with Lemon.” Most of the recipes I’ve shared have been for things that are baked and sweet and buttery. It’s true, I do love to bake and I do have a really bad sweet tooth. But I also cook. Pretty much every day actually.

The problem is that most nights I cook without a recipe. I use what’s good right now and put together a quick dinner for us. So there isn’t always a recipe that I can share. Unless you want me to tell you about cooking a chicken breast on a grill pan and coating it with olive oil that was pressed with lemons when it’s done (which reminds me that I have to tell you about this olive oil that was pressed with lemons one of these days).

Anyway, this recipe isn’t sweet or buttery or baked. But it’s absolutely delicious. Lentils are kind of special to me because it was one of the only two legumes that I liked to eat as a kid. Granted, there were only four kinds of legumes available when I was growing up: white beans (liked them), dried fava beans (couldn’t stand them), and black eyed peas (hated them).

Don’t get me wrong. I ate almost everything as a kid but there were four things I couldn’t stand. The first were the two legumes mentioned above. The other two were plain cooked spinach (it still makes me gag, unless it’s smothered in cream and cheese and baked in phyllo dough) and tahini. Yes, tahini. I don’t know why but since I was a little kid, tahini made me want to throw up (I think I actually did a couple of times when I was little). Hating tahini for me was the equivalent of a kid growing up in America and hating ketchup. Or mayo. Tahini was everywhere and everyone loved it.

Anyway, my mom’s lentils have always been a dish I love. This is a variation that is slightly different than how she makes them. The final dish is a combination of earthiness, smoke, and tartness, rounded out by the sweetness of the onions. My mom never adds smoked fish when she makes them, but I discovered a few years ago by accident that it’s an amazing paring. Growing up, we always added vinegar to the lentils but I use lemon instead because it goes better with the smoked fish. However, if you make this dish without the fish, you should also go for the vinegar. Don’t ask why. It’s just better.

Lentils with Onions and Smoked Fish

Note: If you want to make this completely vegetarian you can use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock and omit the fish. If you don’t use the fish, substitute the lemon with 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, or more if you like the lentils tart.

1 cup of french lentils (7oz / 200g)
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups water
1 medium onion, diced (6-7oz / 180-200g)
1/4 cup olive oil (60ml)
One 3.25oz (92g) tin of smoked kippers, or any smoked fish you prefer, drained and broken into small pieces with a fork
juice of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon of salt

In a saucepan, add lentils, stock, and water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring once or twice. Raise the heat to medium low, uncover and continue to cook for another 8-10 minutes until the lentils are fully cooked.

While the lentils are cooking, prepare the onion. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened and have started to turn golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

When lentils are cooked, scrape the onions and all the olive oil into the lentils. Add the smoked kippers, the lemon juice, and the salt. Stir and serve immediately.

Serves 4 as an appetizer or 2 as a main dish.