Sara Moulton | Chef, Cookbook Author, Television Personality

Julia Child, A Legacy of Teaching the Joy of Food

Sara Moulton — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:07:40 +0000

I was recently interviewed by Michele Kayal of the Associated Press for an article honoring the memory of Julia Child on her 100th Birthday. You can read the story on salon.com right here.

Orzo and Basmati Pilaf with Spring Vegetable Ragout

Sara Moulton — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:26:42 +0000

Orzo is a rice-shaped pasta from Italy. Basmati is a fragrant Indian long-grain rice with a wonderful nutty taste. The two of them combine to make a great side dish, but you can top it with anything and turn it into a main dish. Here we’ve chosen asparagus, mushrooms, and either lima beans or fava beans. By the way, some of the American versions of basmati would work well here too. Texmati is one that’s pretty widely available.

Makes 4 servings

Hands-on time: 25 minutes with fava beans, 15 minutes with lima beans

Total preparation time: 35 minutes with fava beans, 25 minutes with lima beans

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 small onion, finely chopped (1/2 cup)

1 garlic clove, minced

3/4 cup basmati rice

1/2 cup orzo

2 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

1 pound asparagus

Kosher salt

1/2 pound, mushrooms, preferably morels, well cleaned and halved or quartered if large

1 cup blanched, peeled fava beans or frozen baby lima beans, defrosted

1 1/2 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, grated (about 1/2 cup)

Freshly milled black pepper

Truffle oil, optional

Melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute; add the rice and orzo and cook, stirring, until all the grains are coated with butter, about 2 minutes. Add 2 cups broth; bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, then turn it down to a simmer. Cover very tightly and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

While the orzo is cooking, trim the ends off the asparagus and peel the bottom half if the asparagus stem is thicker than 1/3 inch. Bring a large skillet of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the asparagus and cook for 2 to 4 minutes or until just tender. Drain, pat dry, and cut into 1/2-inch lengths.

Empty and dry the skillet; melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until all the liquid the mushrooms give off has evaporated. Add the remaining 1/2 cup broth and the beans and cook for 3 minutes. Add the asparagus and cook until the mixture is just heated through. Stir in half the cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste. To serve, divide the pilaf among 4 bowls; top with the vegetable ragout and remaining cheese. Drizzle with truffle oil, if desired.

Check out my interview in LSA Magazine

Sara Moulton — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:46:25 +0000

I was recently interviewed for an article in the latest edition of LSA Magazine, the Alumni Publication of my alma mater, The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan. You can read the article, Dinner With Sara, at LSA. Here are the featured recipes:

Roasted Salmon with Hot Mustard Cracker Topping

Makes 4 Servings

Hands-On Time: 10 Minutes

Total Preparation Time: 20 Minutes

1/3 cup sour cream, low fat or full fat yogurt (I like the Greek-style)
1 1/2 teaspoons prepared English mustard (preferably Colman’s)
1/2 teaspoon packed light brown sugar
35 to 40 wasabi rice crackers (Kame is a good brand)
Four 6-ounce pieces center-cut salmon fillet, skin removed
Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine the sour cream, mustard and brown sugar. Coarsely crush the rice crackers (about 1 cup). Season the salmon on all sides with salt. Arrange the pieces in one layer in a shallow baking pan, skinned side down. Spread the top of each piece with the sour cream mixture and top with some of the crushed crackers. Bake the salmon for 10 to 12 minutes, or until barely cooked through, and serve right away.

Sautéed Shredded Spicy Carrots

1 pound medium carrots

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes or to taste

Kosher salt
Squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice

Peel and coarsely grate the carrots, preferably using the grating disk of a food processor. Heat the oil with the butter in a large skillet over high heat until the butter is foamy. Add the carrots; turn down the heat to medium high, and sauté the carrots, stirring frequently, until they are just tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the hot pepper flakes and salt to taste.

Edamame Mash

Makes 4 servings

Hands-on Time: 10 minutes
Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Kosher salt

4 cups fresh, peeled Edamame or one 16-ounce bag frozen

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the edamame and cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until very soft. (Note: This is longer than the package directions tell you to cook them, but they need to be very soft in this recipe to be mashed.)

Drain the edamame and transfer to a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Add the buttermilk, butter and salt and pepper to taste and puree until you reach the desired consistency. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and heat just until hot.

Chocolate Bits Pudding

Sara Moulton — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:33:38 +0000

On a shelf in the kitchen at my parents’ old farmhouse in Northern Massachusetts are metal file boxes filled with recipes written by my grandmother Ruth Moulton. I plucked this gem from one of those boxes. Using regular old chocolate chips, Ruth somehow concocted a very dense essence of chocolate pudding. Kids of all ages will love it, but I recommend serving it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream as a counterpoint to all that chocolate intensity.

6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch table salt

3 large eggs

Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for garnish

Serves 4Set a metal bowl over a pan of simmering, not boiling water. Combine the chocolate and milk in the bowl and heat until the chocolate is melted. Whisk in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Regulate the heat so that the water stays at a constant slow simmer. Cook the pudding, stirring often, until thick and an instant read thermometer reaches 160ºF, 5 to 10 minutes. Pour into four 1/2-cup ramekins and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours. The pudding can be made up to 2 days in advance. Top with a dollop of whipped cream just before serving.

Mexican Chicken Salad

Sara Moulton — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:31:55 +0000

This is my favorite kind of salad because it has so many ingredients—and each with a different texture, from the creamy avocado to the crispy homemade tortilla chips. I have cheated here by using leftover or rotisserie chicken. It would work just as well with leftover pork, shrimp, or beef. And if you really want to speed up the recipe, here’s another cheat: Swap store-bought tortilla chips for the homemade kind.

Makes 4 to 6 Servings

Hands-on Time 15 minutes

Total preparation time 25 minutes

1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon chili powder

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Kosher salt

Four 6- or 7-inch corn tortillas

1/2 cup packed, rinsed, and dried fresh cilantro leaves

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 chipotle in adobo sauce, finely chopped, plus 1 tablespoon adobo sauce*

1 teaspoon sugar

Freshly ground black pepper

1 small head Romaine lettuce, rinsed, dried, and torn into bite-size pieces (about 4 cups)

2 cups shredded or cubed cooked chicken

1 Hass avocado, cut into cubes

One 14 1/2- or 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained

3 large plum tomatoes, chopped

4 ounces crumbled queso fresco or soft goat (about 1/2 cup) or coarsely grated Monterey Jack cheese (about 1 cup)

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Stir together 1 1/2 tablespoons of the oil, the chili powder, cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Brush one side of each tortilla with the mixture and cut each tortilla into 12 wedges. Arrange the wedges in one layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake them for 10 to 12 minutes or until crisp.

Puree the remaining 1/2 cup oil, the cilantro, lime juice, chipotle and adobo sauce, and sugar in a blender; add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the cilantro dressing to a large bowl. Add the romaine, chicken, avocado, black beans, tomatoes, and cheese to the cilantro dressing and toss well. Divide the mixture among 4 bowls; top each with some of the tortilla chips.

*You can freeze the remaining chipotles in an ice cube tray (preferably metal, because plastic might pick up the heat from the chiles). Put one chipotle into each slot with a little sauce, let them freeze completely, then pop out the cubes and put them into a resealable plastic bag.

Artichokes: How do you cook artichokes?

Sara Moulton — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:37:51 +0000

Fred recently e-mailed the Kitchen Shrink to ask , “How do you cook artichokes?” I have been asked that so frequently that I included my favorite way in Sara Moulton Cooks at Home. I always steam whole artichokes rather than boil them. They lose some flavor and get watery when you boil them. Place a steamer basket in a large soup pot with a lid. Add 1 inch of water to the pot. Cut the stems off the artichokes so they sit evenly and set the stems aside. Pull off and discard any small discolored bottom leaves. If you wish, you can trim off the tips of the leaves but it isn’t really necessary as the thorns become soft when cooked. You can spread the leaves and scrape out the fuzzy purple “choke” before cooking or cool the artichokes slightly after cooking and do it then. Place the artichokes pointed side up in the steamer and steam over low heat until the leaves pull off easily, 40 to 45 minutes. About 15 minutes before you think the artichokes are tender, peel the reserved stems and add them to the steamer. Serve all with melted butter. Because artichokes are so sweet and so much fun to eat, kids are likely to give them a try and forget they are a vegetable.

Spring Spaetzle

Sara Moulton — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:57:32 +0000

Soon after I started making spaetzle as a side dish at home on a regular basis, it occurred to me that you could dress up and sauce this German pasta much as you would any other fresh pasta—an inspiration that automatically promoted spaetzle from a side dish to an entrée. This recipe takes advantage of ingredients available in the spring—asparagus, peas, and fresh herbs—but I want to encourage you to take the basic spaetzle recipe and run with it. Toss it with a tomato sauce, sausage, and freshly grated cheese, combine it with wild mushrooms, whatever. The possibilities are endless. A wonderful comfort food, spaetzle is the perfect backdrop to any sauce. The right tool for making spaetzle is a spaetzle maker. This specialized but inexpensive tool consists of two parts—a flat metal grater that sits across the top of a pot of boiling water ad a cup into which you pour the batter. If you don’t have a spaetzle maker, you can pour your batter through a colander with coarse holes.

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 pound medium asparagus

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Additional kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock, preferably homemade

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 cup blanched fresh or thawed frozen peas

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs, such as chives, parsley, dill, tarragon, or a combination

Serves 4 as a main course, or 6 as an appetizer

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Combine the flour, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl and stir well. Whisk together the eggs and 2/3 cup water and add to the flour mixture, beating until just smooth. The mixture should be the consistency of thick pancake batter. If too thick, whisk in 2 to 3 tablespoons more water. Set the batter aside.

Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Break off the tough ends of the asparagus and discard. Peel the stalks and arrange in one flat layer over the bottom of a roasting pan or baking sheet. Drizzle on the oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast on the middle rack of the oven until just tender, about 10 minutes. Cool and cut into 1 inch pieces.

Pour the chicken stock into a large skillet and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil until reduced by half. Pour in the cream, bring back to a boil, and reduce again by half. Reduce the heat to low.

Working in batches, drop the batter through the spaetzle maker into the boiling water. Simmer until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain but do not rinse.

Stir 1/2 cup of the Parmigiano-Reggiano, the spaetzle, the peas, and the asparagus into the skillet holding the cream. Add the herbs and season with salt and pepper. Stir until the spaetzle has absorbed some of the sauce and warmed through, about 5 minutes. Serve in individual warmed bowls sprinkled with the remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Join me in Austin, Texas on Monday, July 9!

Sara Moulton — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:45:06 +0000

On Monday, July 9, I will be returning to Lake Austin Spa to give a demonstration for registered guests as part of Lake Austin’s Culinary Experience. I hope to see you there. For more information on the event, go to Lake Austin Culinary Experience or call 800-847-5637.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Gingered Biscuit Topping

Sara Moulton — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:05:20 +0000

Technically a vegetable, rhubarb is so darn tart that it’s usually paired with a sweeter buddy, like the strawberry, in an effort to temper its tang. Try to find field-grown rhubarb. Darker in color, it has a much shorter season than the hothouse variety (late winter to early summer) but is more flavorful. In England rhubarb is often paired with ginger, so for a surprise crunch, I added some crystallized ginger to the biscuit topping of this springtime dessert from Sara Moulton Cooks at Home.

Serves 6

For the cobbler:

2 pints strawberries, rinsed and quartered

1 pound rhubarb, 4 to 5 large stalks, peeled and cut into 1-inch-thick slices

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1/8 teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into slivers

For the topping:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1/4 cup very finely chopped crystallized ginger

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup buttermilk, plus more for brushing

To prepare the cobbler, place the strawberries and rhubarb in a large, heavy saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons sugar. Stir over high heat until the sugar has started to dissolve, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until the fruit has exuded some of its liquid, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the fruit and all liquid with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, the flour, lemon zest, and salt. Cool slightly, pour into a lightly buttered 2-quart baking dish, and dot with slivers of butter.

To make the topping, preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Use a pastry blender or your fingertips to mix in the ginger and to cut in the butter until the mixture resembles the texture of small peas. Quickly stir in the buttermilk to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a well-floured work surface, knead into a ball, and roll out to a thickness of about 1/2 inch. Use a 3-inch cookie cutter (or wide-mouth jar or glass) to cut out 4 biscuits. Gather the trimmings and roll out again. Cut out 2 more biscuits.

Arrange the biscuits snugly over the fruit. Brush lightly with additional buttermilk, sprinkle with sugar, and bake until the cobbler is bubbly and the biscuits are golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Three Citrus Flan

Sara Moulton — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:52:56 +0000

This delicious make-ahead dessert is perfect for entertaining. I learned the recipe from my pal Sandy Gluck when I was her sous chef at the Café New Amsterdam in New York’s West Village in the early eighties. We’d met in 1977, both of us fresh out of cooking school, both of us winners of a scholarship from Les Dames D’Escoffier, a national association dedicated to the advancement of women in the field. The scholarship was supposed to send us on a gastronomic cruise to Italy. The plans changed, and we ended up on the maiden voyage of a jazz cruise to Cuba that featured much better music than food. We sailed with Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, and Earl ‘Fatha” Hines and their bands and attended a great jazz concert in Havana. Sandy and I became fast friends on board that ship. I spent the next four years working in restaurants in Boston, and when I returned to New York in 1981, jobless, Sandy took me in. The Café New Amsterdam was a small restaurant on West Fourth Street where Sandy, as chef, was making beautiful food based on fresh local ingredients. Her citrus flan was one of my favorite desserts.

1 lemon

1 lime

1 orange

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

Pinch table saltRemove the rinds from the lemon, lime, and orange and cut away the bitter white pith. (Reserve the flesh for another use.) Combine the rind with 1 tablespoon sugar in a food processor. Process until finely ground, 20 to 30 seconds.

Pour the milk and cream into a large saucepan. Add the ground rind and the vanilla bean. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook until bubbles form around the edge. Remove the saucepan from the heat, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make a caramel syrup by spreading 1/2 cup sugar in the bottom of a heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat until the sugar starts to melt, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir gently so that the sugar melts evenly. Cook, watching carefully to prevent burning, until the sugar turns dark, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully pour into four 1 cup custard ups or ramekins. Immediately turn to coat the base and sides evenly with the hot caramel. Set aside.

Strain the cream and milk mixture into a large bowl. Discard the rind and scrape the seeds from the vanilla beans into the strained milk and cream (Rinse and dry the scraped beans and reserve for another use).

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a baking pan large enough to hold the ramekins snugly with a clean kitchen towel and bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. (The towel will prevent the ramekins from hitting the pan as they bake.) Beat the eggs and yolks with the salt in a large bowl until blended. Whisk in the remaining 1/3 cup sugar. Stir in the milk and cream. Stir briefly to mix and pour into the caramel-lined cups. Arrange the filled ramekins on the towel in the pan. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and carefully pour in enough of the boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the pan. Bake until the custard is just set in the center, 35 to 40 minutes.Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 6 hours or overnight. Just before serving, run a knife around the edge of the custard and unmold onto individual plates. The caramel will have made a sauce for the flan.

National Harbor Wine and Food Festival

Sara Moulton — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 01:33:12 +0000

Join me on May 5th and 6th for the Fifth Annual Wine and Food Festival at the National Harbor Waterfront on the Potomac in Washington, DC. The event offers VIP Admission from noon to 6pm and General Admission from 1 pm to 6 pm. My demonstration will be on The Cooking Stage at 2:30 pm on both the 5th and 6th. For more information and to order tickets, go to National Harbor Wine and Food.

Herbs: Substituting fresh for dried herbs

Sara Moulton — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:14:53 +0000

Callie e-mailed the Kitchen Shrink to ask, “I am growing my own herbs this Spring and want to use them in all my recipes! However, most recipes call for dried herbs. Is the measurement of dried herbs the same for fresh herbs or should I uses less since the herb is fresh and more pronounced than the dried version? Actually it is just the opposite. Herbs are reduced in size when dehydrated so you need less dried than fresh. In Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners, I note that “1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs equals 1 teaspoon dried herbs” and suggest that since chopping reduces the volume of fresh herbs, it is important to always chop them before measuring when the ingredient list calls for chopped.

Hope you’ll catch me on the Heritage Radio Network!

Sara Moulton — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:44:42 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to appear on Michael Harlan Turkell’s Heritage Radio Network show, The Food Seen. Michael is a freelance photographer and a photo editor of Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan magazines. You can hear the whole thing at The Food Seen Episode 95.

Jelly Egg Cookies

Sara Moulton — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:21:03 +0000

Each spring I get requests for my Jelly Egg Cookie recipe; it is a perfect showcase for fresh unsweetened coconut and a good make-ahead dessert for Easter. Add some raisins and forget the jelly eggs and they are a good lunchbox treat all year round.

1/2 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 cups quick cooking rolled oats
1 1/4 cups unsweetened coconut
108 assorted small jelly eggs

Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.

Combine the butter, brown sugar and white sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together onto a piece of parchment. Add to the butter mixture, beating just until combined. Stir in the rolled oats and coconut.

Shape the dough into 36 balls with moistened hands. Arrange 2 inches apart on the greased baking sheets. Flatten slightly and press 3 jelly eggs into the top of each.

Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Makes 36 cookies

Reinventing Seder: A celebration of spring and freedom at Balaboosta

Sara Moulton — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:11:09 +0000

If you don’t already have Seder plans you might want to check this out. On Saturday, April 7, at NYC’s Balaboosta Restaurant (214 Mulberry Street), three women chefs, originally from different parts of the world, will share the kitchen to create a very unique dinner for the Second Seder of Passover. Argentinian Alex Raij, Mexican Fany Gerson, and Israeli Einat Admony (pictured) take a new look at Seder traditions in a menu that includes “Gefilte wannabe,” Persian Gondi Soup, and Pistachio Meringue Cake with Passion Fruit Cream paired with a selection of Israeli wines. The meal, including beverages, will be $110; tickets go on sale Thursday, March 29 at 212-966-7366. For more information go to Balaboosta.

http://balaboostanyc.com/