Balsamic Glaze with Maple and Lemon

 ...an amazing topping for salmon, chicken, roasted vegetables, fresh strawberries and more!

Balsamic vinegar is a ubiquitous kitchen staple, especially the affordable, supermarket condimento grade. But why settle for using it straight from the bottle? This recipe for a balsamic glaze adds a touch of maple and citrus, concentrating the flavors of an already complex, sweet/sour treat. While definitely not the authentic Modena or Reggio Emilia balsamic reduction, not barrel-aged for 12 to 25 years, the glaze does rate high marks for versatile deliciousness. And as a bonus, it only takes minutes to prepare. 

Recently the glaze was popular brushed on salmon fillets and drizzled atop grilled nectarine halves. Quick, easy and incredibly flavorful, this Balsamic Glaze with Maple and Lemon is a winner!  

Photo: Iron Skillet Salmon

Photo: Butter-basted Salmon Brushed with Balsamic Glaze

Maple, Balsamic and Lemon Glaze

1/4 cup lemon juice (or other citrus juice)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 Tablespoon olive oil

1. Combine the first 4 ingredients (lemon juice through garlic) in a small, heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Do NOT let it foam up and boil over.
2. Lower the heat enough to maintain a bubbling simmer and cook to reduce for roughly 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. As it cools the liquid will thicken; thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Not thick enough? give it a few more minutes on the heat.
3. Stir in the olive oil and you're ready to go.

Notes: 

• Grill or broil a salmon fillet or steak, brushing occasionally with the glaze as you cook. Avoid flareups! OR use as a finishing glaze immediately after you pull the fish from the grill or skillet.
• This should hold for several weeks in the fridge, but it never lasts that long in my galley. 
• See also the recipe and steps for my Balsamic Reduction.

Poppyseed Dressing

Today marks the official start to Summer 2017 and there's cause to celebrate; strawberries abound at our local farmers' markets and TV weathercasts predict warm, sunny days for the rest of this week. Weather forecasts aside, freshly picked berries can brighten any day with their distinctive floral aroma, and sweet/tangy bursts of flavor. No doubt about it, in-season strawberries sing "Summer!" and will brighten a variety of dishes. 

Strawberry/spinach salads rank high on my list of favorite June lunches. A recent salad bowl featured my version of Poppyseed Dressing, a trial-and-error experiment that I'll definitely make again. 

The same Poppyseed Dressing was delicious with a mixed bowl of fruit featuring strawberries (of course), plums, cantaloupe and grapes. The dressing highlighted the individual flavors of the fruits without masking or overpowering the various tastes.

More of the same sauced fruit won raves as a perfect waffle topper, along with a portion of cottage cheese. Forget the maple syrup and butter and pile your waffles with Poppyseed Dressing and fruit... really!

This dressing might not win any awards for appearance, but it does merit high marks for taste and versatility.

Poppyseed Salad Dressing

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar) 

1 teaspoon dry mustard (Coleman's)

1/4 cup mayonnaise (Best Foods)

1/2 cup canola oil (divided)

1 teaspoon dried mint

2 teaspoons poppyseeds

Blend together (with blender or a whisk and small bowl) the honey, vinegar, dry mustard, and mayonnaise. Add half of the oil in a very thin stream while blending or whisking. Check the consistency; add the remaining oil as desired to thicken slightly. Note: this will be a very loose dressing.

Stir in the mint and poppyseeds. Taste; add salt if desired (I don't). 

Blueberry Sauce and Swedish Pancakes

What's the difference between a Swedish pancake and a crepe? Not much, in my kitchen. Some quick online research yielded a comment that they are pancakes that "come in different languages". Hmmmmm, funny but not definitive. Both items are flat-not-puffy ultra thin pancakes, frequently rolled or folded around a filling. I typically make Swedish pancakes for breakfast or dessert with a sweet filling or sauce. Crepes have been a bit more versatile as tasty wrappers for either savory or sweet fillings. Not much of a difference, other than the addition or omission of sugar in the batter. No matter, we enjoy them both no matter what the label.

RL has a serious sweet tooth and relishes the sauce or filling more than the thin pancakes. He loves this tasty homemade blueberry sauce as a topping for pancakes, waffles, crepes, ice cream or just straight off the spoon. While huckleberries and lingonberries are flavorful alternatives, those berries aren't readily available even in season, so blueberries are my berry of choice. Seattle groceries stock 3-pound packages of frozen blueberries year around, so the home freezer always holds bags of berries when local berries are out of season. During late-summer cruising in SE Alaska we head for berry patches accessible from dinghy or kayak, or stay on high alert to avoid sharing the site with hungry bears. 

       

Blueberry Sauce aka Blueberry Syrup

1/2 cup sugar
Generous pinch of cinnamon

1-1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh)

1/3 cup water

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

grated zest of half a lemon (optional)

Grate a small lemon and set the zest aside. Juice the lemon (you will have extra), straining out the seeds.

Combine sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Add the berries and stir to mix.

Add the water and lemon juice and cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring occasionally. Avoid a hard boil or it may bubble up over the edge of the pan. Keep the sauce warm until ready to use, or reheat gently. Again, keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over. Add the lemon zest, if using, just before serving.

Swedish Pancakes

yield: 8-10 pancakes

2 eggs, beaten
1-1/8 cups milk
1 generous cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
grated zest of half a lemon

Use a medium bowl and combine eggs, milk, flour, sugar and salt. Beat by hand (or use a blender or mixer) until smooth and lump free. Add the melted butter and whisk or blend to incorporate. 

Heat a skillet (cast iron or non-stick) over medium-high heat. Use a ladle and pour 1/4-cup (2 oz) batter into the middle of the pan while tilting the pan to swirl the batter so it spreads out to coat the bottom (similar to making crepes). Cook until bubbles form and the bottom surface browns. Flip and cook to brown slightly on the second side. Add a line of blueberry syrup down the middle, plus any optional fillings, and keep warm in a very low heat oven Repeat with the remaining batter.

Serve 2 or 3 pancakes per plate on warmed plates and offer additional warmed Blueberry Syrup, jam or powdered sugar.


Other Swedish pancake or crepe recipes:
Apple Pie Swedish Pancakes 
Cinnamon Apple Crepes 
Crepes Milanese 
Herbed Sourdough Crepes (for Cannelloni or Enchiladas)
Mushroom-Filled Crepe Purses
Stacked Crepes (with Ginger Chicken Filling & Coconut Sauce) 

Spinach Dip with Artichokes, Cheese and Chiles

It all began with a well-traveled 1-pound bag of frozen spinach... seriously, well traveled. The label read "European Spinach" although it was packaged in China. I purchased it in British Columbia, stored it in the bottom freezer drawer throughout our 2000 nautical mile cruise in southeast Alaska, returned it to B.C. and finally thawed it out this week. Packaged in China? what was I thinking?! Likely I was in a last-minute provisioning rush and didn't pay attention to place of origin when purchasing. 

One pound is a lot of squishy, defrosted spinach; far too much of that healthy green vegetable to fill a dozen mushroom caps, stuff a few chicken breasts or even fold inside spanakopita. Spinach smoothies wouldn't be popular with RL for breakfast, neither would spinach quiche, spinach omelettes or a frittata. I searched the galley for inspiration, struggling to resist the temptation to quietly dispose of the bag and move on. Why had I even brought frozen spinach on board?!

A quick tour of the galley turned up a block of cream cheese, a smidgen of sour cream, a carton of Parmesan shreds, several green onions, one tall tin of artichoke hearts, a can of whole green chiles, one large lemon, a handful of garlic and a pocket-sized bottle of green Tabasco sauce. Aha! that old standby spinach dip... or a riff on my favorite Costco artichoke and jalapeno dip... or some combination of the two. I went with the combination impulse.

Layer most of the above items in the food processor, pulse to combine, taste and adjust. Let the machine do the work and focus on the taste testing. The fun came at the end when it was time to adjust the texture and play around with flavors. This version of spinach dip rated two thumbs up served cold with raw vegetables and crackers, but really drew raves after being heated in the microwave. YUM! 

Drat! I still had too much of a spinachy good thing for the two of us to enjoy as an appetizer snack. Fast forward to the next day (and my next post) when this versatile Spinach Dip morphed into Spinach Pesto Pasta. 

Spinach Dip with Artichokes, Cheese & Chiles

1 large 1-LB bag frozen spinach leaves, thawed
1 block cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise (or more sour cream)
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 bunch (6-8) green onions, green & white parts chopped
1 large can artichoke hearts, water drained & discarded
1 large can diced green chiles plus juices 
zest and juice of 1 large lemon
4 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
green Tabasco sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Toss everything into a large food processor bowl. Pulse repeatedly to incorporate; pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides.
Transfer to a heatproof serving container. Warm briefly in a microwave or heat in a 350 F oven until bubbly, about 20 minutes.  Or serve chilled or at room temperature. 

Pesto Tapenade... or Tapenade Pesto

Artichoke Pesto Tapenade in a Grilled Cheese Sandwich - SRC Reveal

Salty, savory bites are my favorites, no question about that, so those flavors were the drivers in my search for this month's Secret Recipe Club choice. I enjoyed browsing through nearly 4 years worth of Corina's posts at my assigned site, Searching for Spice, a UK blog packed chock full of sweet and savory items. Some sweets, like Rocky Road Squares, did tempt me, and I'll revisit them for the holidays. Corina's Cardamom and Pistachio Ice Cream sounded divine too, but this month I focused on her many savory recipes. Two fish preparations were strong contenders, one a Jamie Oliver recipe for white fish cooked with spinach, olives and tomatoes, and another for fish baked en papillote with olives and lemon. Olives drew my attention again in a tapenade. I sense a pattern there. Unable to decide between recipes for pesto and tapenade, I took the easy route and combined elements of both, adding a few extras along the way. It sounds a bit random, but it worked.   

What's the difference between pesto and tapenade? I Googled both terms and found the following at PoshGourmet:

Pesto [PEH-stoh] — This uncooked, herbal sauce comes from Genoa. Classic method is to combine crushed or chopped fresh basil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil. 

Tapenade [TA-puh-nahd; ta-pe-AHD] — This tasty thick paste comes from Provence. The ‘classic’ ingredients are capers, anchovies, ripe olives, olive oil, lemon juice, and seasonings. It is classified as a condiment.

First up was the tapenade, a chunky mix of green and black olives, capers, fresh basil, lemon zest and juice plus a lot of garlic. Anchovies are traditional, and I do love them in dressings and on pizza, but the saltiness of this mix was already over the top. So I skipped the anchovies and added a dollop of Dijon mustard and a sprinkling of dried Italian herbs instead.

  

After a few quick pulses in a food processor the tapenade was almost what I was looking for - tangy with a bit of a bite. More fresh basil, some toasted pine nuts, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts and a cloud of grated Parmesan cheese joined the party, followed by a few drizzles of olive oil. Mix. Taste. Smile. Adding those traditional pesto ingredients moved the flavors along to a brighter result, less of a one-note, overly-salty, olivey taste. Oh yes, this final combination was seriously delicious!

So what do I call this merging of recipes - pesto or tapenade? Is it a sauce or a condiment? Italian or French? My Artichoke Basil Olive Pesto Tapenade is definitely not a classic...  anything. Who cares?! It is deliciously habit-forming, an assertive, flavorful treat. Yesterday it starred as a quick and easy Pesto Tapenade Sauce for pasta at lunch. Delicioso!

Today it was a Tapenade Pesto Spread that lifted an ordinary grilled cheese sandwich to a whole new level. Scrumptious! 

Use Artichoke Pesto Tapenade to build a muffuletta sandwich, or top a cracker or liven up some crostini. Try it as a pizza topping or ... well, whatever, be adventurous and try it in your galley. 

Artichoke Pesto Tapenade

inspired by 2 recipes from Corina at SearchingforSpice

3 oz pitted green olives
5 oz pitted Kalamata olives
2 Tbs capers, drained & rinsed
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
zest and juice of 1 small lemon 
large handful of fresh basil, roughly torn or chopped
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted in skillet until fragrant
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained & roughly chopped
a generous pinch of dried Italian Seasoning (blend your favorites)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
2 - 3 Tbs olive oil (more or less as needed)

Place all ingredients except cheese and olive oil in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse in short bursts until the pieces are roughly the same size, adding olive oil as needed to hold the mix together. Stir in the cheese with a spoon or spatula. Be careful not to overprocess or you will end up with an olive paste, still tasty but really ugly.

Taste and adjust to suit your palate. 
Note: To sauce pasta you may want to add more olive oil to loosen it up, perhaps add some hot pasta water to the tossed pasta and tapenade if you like it even saucier. 

Spicy Italian Plum Jam

E-Z recipe with no peeling, no pectin

Spicy Italian could refer to some people I know, but hey!, I'm thinking jam here. It began with Monday's unplanned purchase of a box of nearly ripe Italian Prune Plums. This stone fruit is a handy snack all by itself, and it is a good addition to a breakfast smoothie, but a whole box?! What was I thinking? Hot weather and a warm kitchen brought every one of these treasures to ripe, ready-to-eat status by Tuesday. Now what?  Freeze them? maybe. Make coffee cake or bake in a crust for dessert? Nope, too hot to turn on the oven. Quick chutney or jam? Oh, yes please.

A gazillion versions of Plum Jam appeared all over the blogosphere this month, many with similar techniques and only slight variations in flavor. Quick jam is all about threes. Three ingredients: fresh fruit, sugar and a  flavoring. Three steps: macerate to extract the juices, cook down the liquids, ladle into jars.  Ready to experiment with several batches ranging from A to V, Anise to balsamic Vinegar. I began with 3 dried pods of star anise. 

Good choice! The licoricelike flavor of anise held its own as a subtle backnote against the not-overly-sweetened presence of Italian Plums.  We spread the jam on toast, on crackers, on jalapeno cheese scones. We paired it with Manchego cheese, feta and white cheddar. We plopped it on top of Asian fish cakes and grilled black cod. We added some to broiled peach halves... and we sampled more than I care to admit from a spoon. Yum to all the choices.

Today a second batch of jam incorporated 3 quarter-sized coins of fresh ginger in addition to the dried star anise. Ginger can be a potent ingredient, but not here. Three pieces of ginger didn't begin to impact the flavor. Not a problem, I just ended up with 1 1/2 more jars of tasty Plum Jam with Star Anise. 

Now the big decision is whether to make yet another batch flavored with star anise, or move on to another spicy choice? We might need another box of Italian Prune Plums while they are still in season. There are a still lot of tempting flavors to play with. 

Spicy Italian Plum Jam 

inspired by several online recipes, and canning tips from Marisa at FoodinJars. 

3 cups ripe Italian plums
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
3 whole star anise pods (my single choice for the first batch)
or try one or more of these, or your favorite flavoring  
   a sprig of fresh rosemary
   coins fresh ginger
   strips of lemon zest
   pink peppercorns
   Chinese Five Spice mix
   a drizzle or two of aged balsamic vinegar reduction
   plain or pickled jalapeños

Wash the Italian plums, chop into small, roughly 1/2-inch pieces, discarding the seeds. Place in a medium mixing bowl, sprinkle with the sugar and stir to mix. Add the anise (&/or other spices) and mix again . Let stand for at least one hour to pull out the juices which blend with the sugar and form a syrup (macerate).

Transfer all to a wide pan with sides high enough to contain the bubbles and splash when the mixture comes to a boil. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a steady, less energetic boil. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes after reaching the boiling point; stir frequently to prevent sticking and burning. (Caramelized sugar is tasty, burnt sugar is not!) Jam sets around 220 F, so use your candy thermometer and check it out as you go. No candy thermometer? then use the frozen plate test: drop a small dab of jam onto a small plate pulled from the freezer; wait a minute or two; if a surface skin begins to form, it's ready. If the jam is more like a runny sauce than a spreadable jam, cook it for another minute or two longer.

Remove and discard the anise (or any other solid seasonings). Pour into jars and move to a baking rack to cool. Add lids and pop into the fridge to hold... or you could finish by processing in a water bath to seal with canning lids.

My first batch produced enough jam to fill one and a half jars. We will definitely finish it all within the week so I didn't bother to process one small jar to hold in the pantry. As I experiment with different spices and flavorings, I'll probably begin to process small batches to hold for ourselves and to set aside as gifts.   

Bread and Butter Pickles, Quick & Easy

I leave pickle prep to the pros, to friends who excel at this tricky endeavor or turn to commercial brands that we like. Not so with pickled carrots, pickled asparagus, dilled beans, pickled peppers, even pickled eggs - they don’t count. Those are all easy, forgiving items that are hard to mess up, unlike real pickles made from cucumbers where it’s all about the crunch and the flavor that comes from sitting around for weeks or months… plus a little magic I think.

Life changed when I found Quick Pickles: easy recipes with bigflavor by Schlesinger, Willoughby and George. Their recommended pre-salting technique all but guarantees the requisite crunch, and the flavor of my very first batch of Bread-and-Butter Pickles convinced me that these three fellows are indeed Pickle Wizards.

The boat galley was short a few ingredients for the first try, turmeric for example, so I used a packaged pickling spice blend and added a mild yellow curry as a substitute for the turmeric. The resulting pickles were such a hit that this first small batch disappeared in less than a day. The three-step recipe is easy peasy:

1. Salt some sliced cukes and onions and chill for an hour or two.  
2. Prepare the brine on stovetop or in the microwave.
3. Pour the hot brine over the drained and rinsed pickles and let sit until cooled to room temperature.

That’s it, 1-2-3, pickle magic. It's just that easy.
  

Quick Bread and Butter Pickles 

(the test batch)

 Adapted from “Your Classic Bread-and-Butter Pickles”, in Quick Pickles by Schlesinger, Willoughby and George, 2001

6 small pickling cucumbers (less than 5 inches long)

1 medium Walla Walla sweet onion

1 tablespoon kosher or other coarse salt

2 tablespoons pickling spice

1 teaspoon curry powder (I used garam masala)

1 cup cider vinegar

3/4 cup brown sugar

Trim both ends of the cucumbers, peel the onion and cut both into ¾ inch rounds. Add the cukes and onions to a glass jar or non-reactive bowl; toss them with the salt, cover and hold in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours. Drain, rinse well and drain again, then set aside.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a microwaveable container and bring to a boil. Remove to stir and dissolve the brown sugar. Reheat to return to a boil, and then pour the liquid over the cucumbers and onions. The cucumbers should be covered or slightly afloat, if not add more heated vinegar and brown sugar using the same proportions.

Allow to cool to room temperature; then cover and refrigerate. Sample a few as soon as they are cool, but the authors note that the flavor will deepen if you let them sit overnight. (We couldn’t wait and consumed them all before 24 hours passed.) The book promises they will keep, covered and refrigerated, for a month or more. Betcha can't eat just one. (grin)