key lime pie

This is the simplest pie ever created. It's perfect for anyone who loves the juxtaposition of sweet with sour. If you've only had those horribly sweet, green-tinted monstrosities available at the supermarket, make this recipe. Trust me. If fresh key limes are not available (chances are they're not), a perfectly acceptable substitute is bottled key lime juice (Nelly & Joe's brand is particularly good).

5 egg yolks
4 oz. key lime juice
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
9 inch graham cracker crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the first three ingredients together and pour them into the fourth. Bake for 15 minutes. Pie will still jiggle when you take it out, but will firm up when it cools.

Allow it to cool to room temperature on the counter before chilling it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Serve unadorned or with whipped cream and grated lime zest if you're feeling adventurous and artsy.

chili mac worth eating

Here again, quality of ingredients is the key to producing a worthwhile final product.

1 lb. ground beef
3 TB olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
2-4 TB chili powder*
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 c. low-sodium chicken broth (or water if broth is not on hand)
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
1 cup elbow macaroni

In a 4 quart saucepan on medium-high heat, brown the ground beef in 2 TB of olive oil. Drain in a colander and set aside.

Add the diced onion and the additional TB of oil to the saucepan. Saute for approximately 5 minutes or until softened and slightly brown. Add 2 TB of chili powder to the onions and toss through, allowing the spices in the chili powder to toast and bloom.

Pour in the entire contents of the can of tomatoes along with the water. Add salt, cayenne, and up to 2 TB more chili powder to taste. Simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes.

Turn the heat to medium-high and add the dried macaroni to the simmering chili. Cook for 10 minutes more or until macaroni are cooked to desired doneness.

Serve with any of the following:

• shredded cheddar cheese
• chopped onion or scallion
• sour cream
• fresh salsa
  
• hot sauce

* Be sure to use a really good chili powder -- you are making chili, aren't you? I buy mine from The Spice House, a spice retailer in Chicago. You can order all kinds of spices directly from them online. My preference is to buy the regular chili powder and add extra heat with cayenne as I am cooking. It gives me more flexibility and I don't have to have two jars of chili powder in my pantry.

By the way, cooking the chili powder in two ways (toasting with oil and then adding directly with the liquid) develops a more interesting flavor profile in this dish. The toasted chili powder is more mellow, with deeper, more complex flavors. The chili powder added to the liquid brings a fresher, brighter flavor to the dish. The combination helps to deliver maximum flavor with minimum effort.

simplicity is key

You can't define zen. It is, by definition, beyond words. Zen Master Osho has tried to help people understand by saying it is "laughter born out of silence." So how does one make his kitchen a "zen kitchen?" There isn't a real answer to that question -- but I think that it boils down to simplicity.

Simple foods, seasoned simply, prepared simply. The result is a finished product that transcends the sum of its parts. And yes, I have laughed at how such simple things can be brought together to be so mysteriously complex, spiritually fulfilling, and wholly delicious.

baked potatoes

Restaurant baked potatoes are typically horrible. They're either stale, having been cooked in advance or wrapped in foil (why?) and gummy.

These are not, however, difficult to make at home. Follow these easy steps and you'll never settle for anything less than a perfect baked potato.

1. Start with Idaho Russet potatoes and figure one medium potato per person. Try to make sure that they are all about the same size. Wash them and pat dry.
2. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
3. Prick the skins of each potato with a fork several times, coat with olive oil, and generously sprinkle all sides with kosher salt. Place directly on the middle rack of the pre-heated oven and bake for 1 hour. Serve immediately.

Some suggestions for success:

• DO NOT WRAP BAKED POTATOES IN FOIL. The foil will trap steam inside and will make your potatoes gummy instead of fluffy.
• Time the rest of your meal appropriately. These are best served within minutes of being removed from the oven. The longer they sit, the more the steam inside of them turns back into water and begins to gelatinize the starches in the potato -- hello again, gummy potatoes!
• Baked potatoes can be cooked in a hotter oven (if you are roasting a chicken at 450 for instance), but will develop a heartier, thicker skin if you do.
• You can also bake sweet potatoes this way. Be sure to place sweet potatoes on a sheet pan or a piece of foil as they will ooze some sugary liquid as they cook which makes a mess of your oven (trust me). The salted skins are a nice complement to the sweet flesh inside.
  

perfect coffee cake

I made 6 different recipes, trying my best to find the perfect formula for this most elusive of baked goods. Everyone has has or her own favorite way of making coffee cake -- some use sour cream, some have crunchy/nutty toppings, while some are light and fluffy. Each of these variations has its place in a kitchen, just not mine.

I usually go to the folks at Cooks Illustrated for my initial attempt at a recipe. They walk you through their thought process as they develop their master recipe. Unfortunately, I don't always agree with their opinions as to what is "best." (Their recipes are always good, mind you -- just not always my ideal.) Their coffee cake recipe left me with a hard, crunchy topping. Tasty, but not my idea of classic coffee cake.

Next I went to Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe from The Cake Bible. It was light and fluffy - not what I was looking for. I attribute this to her use of cake flour, which tends to yield such a result.

After a couple more attempts (King Arthur Flour's Baking Companion among others), I realized that I needed to work backwards in order to find a recipe I liked. My perfect coffee cake would be moist, richly spiced, and have a nutty/crumbly topping. Saving you the agony of going through my thought process in developing this recipe, I will share it with you now.

Topping

1 cup all purpose flour (4.6 oz by weight)
1 cup light brown sugar (7 oz by weight)
1/2 cup unsalted butter (4 oz or 1 stick)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup pecans, ground
1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Cake

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (8 oz or 2 sticks)
3/4 cup light brown sugar (5.3 oz)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3.5 oz)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour (9.2 oz)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 325.

Combine all ingredients for topping except chopped pecans in a food processor and pulse 6-10 times, until crumbly. Add chopped pecans and mix thoroughly. Alternatively, all ingredients could be worked together by hand in a large mixing bowl.

Cream butter, sugars, and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl until smooth and fluffy. If your eggs are cold, run them under hot water for a few seconds to take the chill out of them. Add eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each.

In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add dry mixture to creamed butter in three additions, making certain to scrape down the bowl after each.

Add milk and vanilla, mixing until just combined.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 9 x 13 baking pan. The batter is thick and will need to be spread out evenly. Sprinkle all of the crumb topping evenly onto the batter. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until cake tester inserted into middle of the cake comes out clean.

lemon garlic veggies

This isn't so much a recipe as it is a technique for cooking any green vegetable. It is a two-stage method that serves to set the bright green color of fresh vegetables and then infuse them with a huge punch of flavor.

Fill a 4 qt pot about 3/4 full and add 1 TB table salt and bring to a boil. Once the water is at a full, rolling boil add the vegetable of your choice (broccoli, string beans, asparagus, etc.) and set a timer for 4 minutes.

While the vegetables are cooking, finely chop 2 cloves of garlic and pre-heat a saute pan over medium-high with about 2 TB olive oil. If the oil begins to smoke at all, remove the pan from the heat for a few seconds.

As soon as the timer goes off, strain the vegetables in a colander. Next, add the garlic to the pre-heated pan and immediately add the strained vegetables. Toss for a minute, turn off the heat, and finish with a squeeze of half a lemon and salt/pepper to taste. Toss to coat and serve.

ginger glazed carrots

These are sweet and spicy -- perfect as a side with roast beef, chicken, or turkey.

1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced on a bias
12 oz can ginger ale (preferably a Jamaican brand -- stronger ginger flavor)
1 TB unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
3 TB brown sugar
3 TB dark rum

In a large skillet, combine the carrots, ginger ale, butter, and salt. Cook over medium-high heat until it reaches a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the liquid is almost fully evaporated and slightly syrupy (8-10 minutes).

Turn heat back up to medium-high and add brown sugar and rum, tossing with carrots until the sugar has melted and the rum has evaporated completely.

Enjoy!