Shakshuka for Two

Serve on a Bed of Spinach with Crusty Bread

Recipe by Robin

Shakshuka! A fun word to say, and a delightful dish from North Africa that satisfies at both brunch and supper.  It starts with a thick whole-tomato sauce, chunky with onions and bell pepper, lightly spiced (or not so lightly—your choice) with exotic Middle Eastern flavors. Next, eggs are poached directly in the sauce and topped with green herbs. For extra color and veggie-power, I serve shakshuka on a bed of steamed spinach or julienned steamed zucchini. Traditionally it’s accompanied by hearty homemade white bread for scooping up the yummy sauce.

Pumpkin Soufflé or Winter Squash Soufflé

Brilliant Use of Leftover Pumpkin

Recipe from The Classic Zucchini Cookbook

For the past year I’ve been obsessed with soufflés. After the classic cheese soufflé, the golden delicious apple soufflé, and my recently posted acorn squash soufflé, I have one more recipe to explore, this time with leftover Winter Luxury pumpkin from Argentine beef stew in a pumpkin, pureed and frozen.  Any kind of cooked, pureed winter squash, or even canned pumpkin, will suit the recipe. It’s that late winter/early spring time of year, when I’m using up the rest of the winter squashes from last year’s farmers’ markets. Alas, I’m recycling the same old soup and baked squash recipes. This recipe can the antidote to baked squash ennui.

New Orleans Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

Bread and Bourbon Classic

Recipe by Susie M.

Absolutely the best ever. Even the exquisite Commander’s Palace and Brennan’s restaurants can’t compete in the bread pudding arena. My Auntie Ann’s concoction comes close, but lacks the New Orleans bourbon sauce. My friend Susie brings this pudding to an annual New Years’ Day party and it always disappears quickly, despite numerous dessert contributions and large amounts of seafood stew. When I inquired, she said that the recipe is from a New Orleans greeting card that she purchased years ago, and generously shared a photocopy. It’s a perfect treat for Mardi Gras—next Tuesday, March 6 this year.

Acorn Squash Soufflé

Serve Warm, Room Temp, or Chilled

Recipe adapted from Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen

This last of a trio of soufflé recipes from an upstate New York monastery cookbook is perhaps my favorite, though it barely surpasses the classic cheese soufflé in deliciousness, and the apple soufflé is easier to prepare. This is a dessert soufflé, taking advantage of acorn squash’s natural sweetness, enhanced by small amounts of maple syrup and sugar. The cookbook suggests serving it warm, but it’s also good at room temperature, and IMHO even better chilled, like a light pumpkin-ish pudding infused with the unique flavor of acorn squash.

Escarole and Poached Egg Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Hearty Dinner Salad

Recipe adapted from Magazine Clipping

How do you turn a side salad into a satisfying dinner salad? Start with a somewhat larger bed of greens, then add a substantial quantity of topping ingredients, especially protein and carb-rich veggies. Then increase the quantity of dressing accordingly. In this case, I increased the amount of tomatoes, peas, and eggs. Rodoni Farms is still selling fresh English peas at the Farmers’ Market, which make the salad all the more healthful and delicious than the frozen peas in the original recipe. This is the perfect salad for that short period of time when the last of the peas’ season converges with the first of the tomatoes’.

Cheese Soufflé

Six Sumptuous Slices

Recipe adapted from Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen

Cheese! Does anyone in the USA not love it? I recently read that Americans consume most of their cheese on pizza. Yet a soufflé is a more effective and delicious cheese vehicle, delivering straight-on cheesey flavor with no distracting dough or veggies. Eggs lend a velvety texture to the dish, while adding protein to the mix. And despite looking complicated, soufflés are quite straightforward to make if you remember three things: Be patient making the roux; keep stirring and use low heat. Cool the roux before adding the egg yolks to it. And beat the egg whites thoroughly before folding them in. Voila! Cheese soufflé!

Dauphin Easy Apple Soufflé

Try it with Cream, or Not

Recipe adapted from Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen

I’m on an apple roll this season. After spiced poached apples, old school apple cake, and pear crisp with apples substituted for pears, I’m taking it to the next level with a more esoteric recipe. From an upstate New York monastery, it's Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Loutourette's Dauphin Easy Apple Soufflé. Dauphin was the dynastic title  of the French heirs apparent during the 14^th-19^th centuries. It also translates to dolphin. What exactly Dauphin has to do with the apple soufflé remains a monastic mystery.

Baked Tunisian Eggah

Eggah! A Fantastic Way to Eat Your Veggies

Recipe from Mediterranean Light

Eggah! I made it because I love saying it, and because bell peppers and tomatoes will soon be out of season. Tunisian eggah is technically an oxymoron, since eggah is an Egyptian dish, and the closest dish in Tunisia is called tagine (and is quite different that tagines from other Arabic countries). It’s called kuku in Iran, and Ej’jah in other places. It’s similar to Spain’s omelette, except it’s packed with festive red and green veggies rather than potatoes, and spiced up with cumin, cinnamon, and other lovely aromatics. It’s similar to a frittata, but thicker and more fragrant.

Polish Egg Salad: Salatka z Jaj

Egg Salad, Polish Style

Recipe Adapted from Polish Cooking

Growing up in a Polish family in a small New England town full of other Poles, I took Polish cuisine for granted. My grandmother and her sisters working together for days to make hundreds of pierogies or scores of nut rolls and poppyseed rolls, my mom whipping up galumkis (stuffed cabbage), my Bopcha’s freshly-made chrusciki (angel wings), potluck tables laden with egg, potato, and beet dishes; these were my world. How soon after we moved away recipes and traditions were forgotten as the cooks aged and died. But memories live on, as I seek to recreate and record these recipes from the past. A new thrift store cookbook and a surplus of Easter eggs inspired me to delve into my Polish cooking heritage.

Popover Pancake with Strawberry Sauce

Easy to Make and Fun to Serve

Recipes by Philippa and Mom

As the years go by, I appreciate my cousins more and more. Most are far away but remain close to my heart. A few years back, after a 30-year hiatus, I visited my cousin/godfather Dick, and Philippa, his wife of nearly 50 years, in Pennsylvania. Both had inspired my early study of music by their interest and by their own musicianship. Amongst the catching up, Philippa whipped up the most amazing meals, including a light and airy popover pancake for breakfast one morning. She assured me that it was easy to make. It didn’t seem possible that its puffy, soufflé like proportions could be easily duplicated. But surprisingly this impressive dish takes little time and effort and uses few ingredients.

Asparagus, Bacon, Roasted Pepper, and Sausage Strata

"Loaded" Strata

Recipe by Robin

Ten or more years ago I was served strata at an Easter brunch. It was so beautiful and yummy that I’ve wanted to make one ever since. The process of preparing all of the strata layers, assembling them in order, and pouring the egg mixture in was appealing. But the idea of refrigerating it for 10 hours to allow the bread to soak up the eggs and milk—that means planning—seemed daunting. But spring inspires new activities, especially when I see tender young asparagus on sale. I might get used to eating brunch at home weekends instead of going out…maybe.

Deviled Eggs

Easter Eggs Becoming Deviled Eggs

Recipe by Robin

Got Easter eggs? My husband and I had 26 left over after my natural egg dyeing experiments this year. Unless you’re Cool Hand Luke, that’s too many eggs to eat in a few days. Enter Daev’s perfectly-timed birthday potluck. Deviled eggs are one of the US’s most popular appetizers, and full of good nutrition. Web MD states that eggs are high-protein, vitamin-rich “powerhouses of disease fighting nutrients.” True that mayonnaise adds some fat, but the quantity per egg half is low. Try a low-fat mayonnaise to cut it down even more.

Natural Egg Dyes Recipes and Tips

Easter Egg Experiment Results

Methods by Staff of Life and Robin

For many years I’ve wanted to color Easter eggs with natural vegetable dyes. I’d heard that preparation is more work and takes longer than dropping a few tablets into a cup. I’d heard that the colors are more subtle and that eggs take longer to dye. I’d heard that results are not predictable. All that is true. Still, the act of making dyes from common seasonal vegetables, with all of its unpredictability, is a fun and intriguing science, provided that you and yours can allow some time to play with it.

Eggs Florentine or Eggs Benedict

Bright Winter Brunch or Supper

Recipe by Robin and the Boston Cooking School Cookbook

When I reported in our January menus post that January is National Egg Month, I should have “examined” my source more carefully. According to the American Egg Board, May is Egg Month. Nevertheless, I spent the month of January coming up with a recipe to honor the humble egg. The carrot soufflé that sounded so good was an utter failure. Then I remembered the first fancy dish I ever made: Eggs Benedict. I’ve never been a ham fan, so I substitute spinach (officially called Eggs Florentine). I’ve included a ham option in my recipe. Key to a great Benedict (or Florentine) is perfect old school Hollandaise sauce. You’d never know that at certain restaurants, where they serve thin gray salty sauce, dyed-orange white sauce, or even melted Swiss cheese on Benedicts. That’s just wrong.