I have been meaning to share this recipe for whipped feta since the inception of http://eat-drink-garden.com. Kim Schiffer shared this recipe with me years ago, and it has been in rotation as one of my favorite dips ever since. We laugh that it is the “Montecito” version of pimento cheese and practically everyone who tries it wants the recipe.
Because my summer garden is fruiting in full force, I have tons of heirloom green beans, tomatoes, and carrots, along with eggplant and zucchini for roasting, at my disposal. Pretty much any vegetable, bread, or cracker will make a fantastic vehicle for this lip-smacking dip. It’s so simple to make; I honestly just toss all of the ingredients in a food processor and serve.
It also lasts about a week in the fridge, so if you know you’re going to be doing a lot of entertaining this Labor Day weekend, you can make as much of it as you think you’ll need, store it, and keep serving it all weekend long. This is easy and tasty entertaining at its best!
Ingredients
10–12 ounces feta cheese (I like Israeli feta because it’s so creamy)
4 piquillo peppers, drained
1 tablespoon dried Aleppo pepper *
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
Juice of half a lemon
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, blend all ingredients for a good 3 minutes, incorporating any stragglers by scraping the bowl of the mixer with a rubbers spatula.
This ensures the dip is super creamy. Taste for seasoning and spice level, store in the fridge or serve. If you store it in the fridge, bring it to room temp and give it a good mix before serving.
* You can substitute sweet paprika if you can’t find Aleppo. I buy Aleppo at the European Market on 4422 Hollister Ave., Santa Barbara, CA.
The other day, I received a panicked email from my girlfriend, Hollye:
Hi Val,
So, I invited a couple of people from out of town for a BBQ tomorrow and it has turned into 13 people. I have no help. UGH!!!!!!!! … & I am coming down with a cold. Yuck!
You are so amazingly talented and do this type of thing all the time … do you have any ideas about what I could cook? Also, do you know any helpers who might be available?
Xoxo Hollye
My reply:
Hi!
We can totally do this!
Questions:
Are there any food allergies or known dislikes? Do you want to do a buffet or sit-down dinner? Are kids invited? What are their ages? What time does it start?
If you’d like, I can come over in the morning and we can do some prep together (flowers, food prep, table, etc.). I have a date with AJ and the girls at the beach so I’m all yours until 12:30.
I do have great helpers; call Amy and Katie at 6TwisTs (805-570-2632).
Kiss —Val
The truth is, sometimes entertaining sneaks up on you. I am sure that we would all love our gatherings to be super organized and planned way in advance with every detail thoughtfully mulled over and refined. Way more often than not, though, we procrastinate a bit, think of great ideas but never put them on paper, or the stuff of life (kids, husband, work, exercising, Mad Men — do you think my husband will get upset that he got second bill over the kids?) causes us to be last minute entertainers. But, with a little practice, some helpful tips, and one or two good friends, last minute entertaining can be simple, and even fun. So when the thought of 15 hungry people showing up at your door feels too overwhelming, just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and remind yourself that you really can do this.
When I received Hollye’s email, I was actually really excited to help her out. I have been in Hollye’s shoes so many times, that through a lot (and I mean a lot) of trial and error, I feel like I have developed a pretty decent system for taking the stress out of last minute entertaining. It always feels good to know that you can truly help a friend, and I was eager to dive into party planning with Hollye.
For me, it’s the “nuts and bolts” that often escape my notice — wipe down the table, light the candles (and make sure there are fresh bars of soap in the bathrooms), set the table without forgetting the salt and pepper, etc. To combat my forgetfulness, I have created a party-planning checklist that I can consult to ward off last minute brain lapses. I print out the recipes I am going to use that day, and attach them to my checklist so that I have everything in one place. This way, things don’t get lost in the pre-party shuffle.Also, I always make sure to have a notebook (or some kind of writing surface) on hand to scribble down incidentals, last minute ideas, or any other to-do list item, big or small.
When I arrived at Hollye’s on Saturday morning, we made a game plan based on the menu we had created the night before over email. One thing to remember when planning a party menu is you don’t have to go crazy with a ton of food. Just make good choices based on what’s fresh, what you can prepare easily in advance, and always try to cover your basic food groups, keeping in mind a sense of the season (as in, don’t serve a heavy steak and potatoes dish when it is hotter than Hades). When writing out the menu I always note the number of guests and a breakdown of kids and adults. I list drink ideas for both kids and adults, followed by the menu and the arrival time of the guests. I try to do as much prep work ahead of time as possible in order to make the actual cooking less stressful.
Following our plan, we took out all of the serving dishes we planned to use that day and arranged them on the kitchen counter. To remind myself of what goes where, one entertaining “tip” is to label each platter and serving utensil with its corresponding dish. This ensures that nothing gets forgotten.
I arrived at Hollye’s beautiful home at 10:30 a.m. and was there until about 12:15 p.m. We had so much fun prepping food, chatting and setting the table that the time just seemed to fly by. Helping friends like this is a great way to visit while accomplishing something constructive too. While Hollye arranged the tables (one for the kids and two placed together for the adults), I got to have some fun in her gorgeous garden by cutting sweet, simple white daisies for the beautiful antique vases she laid out for the table.
So, what menu did we eventually devise? Because Hollye was with me at Maili’s cooking class a few weeks back, she knew she wanted to make Maili’s Orzo Salad, so we used that dish as a starting point for our menu. To accompany the salad, we slow roasted salmon, a great dish (stay tuned) to make in advance, and we also did mini buffalo burgers for big and little kids, alike — Trader Joe’s has adorable mini buns, which are fun for this type of thing.
For the adults, we added a simple green salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and radishes, and for the kids, we chopped some extra veggies and arranged some carrots on a platter with a tasty dip — an appealing veggie option. My final task before heading off to the beach with my family was to mix up the flat bread recipe and get it rising on the counter (I just use my pizza dough recipe for this). When it was time to start cooking, all Hollye had to do was roll out thedough and grill it on her outdoor BBQ with a little EVOO and a sprinkling of Zaatar*.
*Zaatar is a Middle Eastern blend of sumac, sesame seeds, and dried herbs. While the sumac adds salty tanginess the toasted sesame seeds add a yummy nuttiness. I buy it at our local European Market, but you can also find it at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Zaatar-Roasted-Sesame-Seeds-Salt-Natural/dp/B001H8KHRA) or if you’re in Santa Barbara, at the International Deli & Market on 4422 Hollister Ave.
Just as I was leaving, Hollye was starting to whip up a fantastic French dessert, a flaugnarde (don’t ask me how to pronounce that correctly), and she kindly agreed to share the recipe. It’s absolutely delicious and perfect for entertaining: a total crowd pleaser that is seasonal, tasty, and nearly effortless to make. It’s basically a clafouti, but classic clafoutis are always made with cherries. Just call it a flaugnarde and you can use virtually any other fruit — those crazy Frenchies! I recently made it with my little kitchen helpers using a mix of farmers market strawberries and blueberries, but feel free to use whatever fruit you have on hand. Most people dust it with confectioners sugar but I felt it was sweet enough already and simply dolloped a little crème fraiche on top of each serving. Its texture is fantastic — a little crispy, a little chewy, a little gooey and so yummy. Thanks, Hollye!
Finley’s Flaugnarde
½ cup of butter (one stick)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1–2 tsp vanilla
2 cups fruit
Preheat oven to 350 and gather your ingredients. When the oven comes up to temperature, place the stick of butter in a 1.5 quart baking dish and slide it in the oven.
While the butter is melting, mix the next 6 ingredients (everything but the fruit).
After the butter has completely melted, remove the baking dish from the oven and pour in your mixture — don’t stir.
Then add two cups of sliced fruit and again, don’t stir.
Bake for 50 minutes to one hour and serve warm.
Great served as is, or with a dollop of crème fraiche.
This week, I plopped myself in the middle of my office to tackle the stacks and stacks of recipes that I have saved over the years. Let me tell you, this was an all day affair. I went through every single loose recipe that I have saved since college!
Each food-stained recipe held a different memory. All of the girls-night dinners, wedding showers, babies, and birthdays from over the years seemed to pop into my mind as vividly as the day they happened.
As I lost myself in remembering these events, I also managed to sort the recipes into piles: breakfast, appetizers, main courses, salads, soups, sides; eggs, pastas, risottos; beef, fish, fowl and vegetarian; cakes, frozen treats, wine dinner desserts, and cookies.
Soon enough, all of my old memories were stored safely in plastic cover sheets, hole punched, and laid to rest in their new homes: well-organized, labeled binders.
That is, all except for one. One recipe found its way to our dinner table that night. The Mario Batali recipe for rigatoni and meatballs that I had clipped from an issue of Martha Stewart Magazine years ago happens to serve four — the perfect family meal.
After looking at recipes all day, I was starving! So, pressed for time, I skipped the specialty markets, zipped over to our neighborhood Vons for some ingredients, and began cooking. Deskwork could wait until after the girls were tucked in … I was ready to get into the kitchen!
I made a garden salad to accompany our meatballs and also cut up some extra garden veggies for the girls to eat. They call it a salad, but it usually means a bowl filled with raw veggies minus the dressing and the lettuce. It’s an easy way for me to prepare one side dish that satisfies two palates.
This meatball recipe turned out to be a HUGE success. It was simple to make and so delicious that my family devoured the entire meal in silence, barely taking time between bites to breathe (which, between me and my two lively, talkative girls, is extremely rare). Every ingredient seemed to bloom in a perfect combination of delightful flavors. So, as I sipped Barolo and polished off my last satisfied bite, I made a mental note to not let this recipe get stuck in the back of my new binder but to keep it very much alive in the form of a weekly dinner staple.
Rigatoni and Meatballs
Serves 4
½ pound ground beef
½ pound ground pork
¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped (I left this out for the girls, but no doubt the parsley would add a nice splash of green to the dish)
¼ cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
2 large eggs
6 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs**
¼ cup milk
1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt, plus more for seasoning
**Note: The best way I’ve found to make fresh breadcrumbs is to use a cheese grater to grate a ciabatta roll or loaf. I hardly ever use dried breadcrumbs. One, fresh just tastes better, and two, since fresh breadcrumbs are fluffier than dried, you can actually use a smaller portion, but still get the same volume for your recipe. Fewer calories + fresh, fluffy deliciousness = a win-win in my book!
1. In a large bowl, combine ground beef and pork, parsley (if you use it), Parmesan, eggs, breadcrumbs, milk, and salt. Form into 1 ½ inch balls — golf ball size.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a 6-quart sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add half the meatballs: cook, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tablespoon oil and meatballs.
3. Add white wine to same pan; deglaze by stirring up browned bits from bottom with a wooden spoon. Reduce wine by half, about 1 minute. Add tomato sauce and meatballs; bring to a simmer. Reduce to medium-low; cook, un-covered, 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper. Using a slotted spoon, transfer meatballs to a serving dish. Toss pasta in sauce; serve in a separate dish. Enjoy!
A quick stroll through my garden — this Summer we are enjoying many varieties of tomatoes, stone fruit, herbs and greens, and anxiously awaiting arrival of eggplant, corn, yellow heirloom bell peppers and more!
