Author: Merigold

Veggie

Guacamole

The avocado is native to… Mexico! The growing season peaks in the summer but avocados are prevalent year-round (PSA: this post is NOT local). Then there is the less-desirable, much larger Florida avocado, which is less preferable for guacamole due to its high water content.

The avocado has an extremely high fat content with about 20g of fat per cup. But it’s the good kind of fat (yes, there is a good kind). We actually really need healthy fats in our diet which is why I am not high on low-fat or non-fat things. When you eat fat, eat real fat (e.g., avocados, nuts, coconut, yogurt, cheese) and when you’re going to eat sugar, eat real sugar (e.g., fruit, honey, maple syrup).

High in fiber, potassium, and vitamins, avocados are super nutritious. Honestly, most of the fat in a snack of chips and guac is in the chips… Which is why I recommend serving guacamole with carrot sticks and cucumbers. You’ve probably all heard my healthy living rule of thumb by now: if you do nothing else, don’t eat anything that comes in a package. Easy rule to follow, right? I’m convinced it’s the single best thing someone can do for themselves, followed closely by eliminating soda, juices, and flavored waters.

Now let’s talk about avocado skin and… skin. Avocado is a skin food. It is the single best moisturizer and face mask money can buy. It probably sounds crazy but… you’ve got to try this, if for no other reason than to turn your face green and provide some entertainment value to your cohabitant. Turn the leftover avocado skins inside out and smear the remaining pulp onto a clean, dry face. Massage the pulp into your skin until your face adopts a green-ish hue. Let sit for 10 minutes, gently remove with warm water, and pat your face dry. And just like that… baby face. Another solution to face or body moisturizer is to buy straight cold-pressed avocado oil in the grocery store and use it similar to coconut oil. Avocado oil can be a bit heavy, so use it sparingly.

Finally, it is no secret I am a fan of bowls. Bowl diets. Weeknight bowls. Themed bowls. Guacamole (or just plain avocado) is the perfect and necessary addition to a Mexican-themed bowl. Simply put, avocado is one of those hearty fruits that can stand on its own as a main course… like a sweet potato, a russet potato, or a Portobello mushroom. It is incredible how little the body actually needs to sustain itself (especially when we consider the portions restaurants deliver). It is also incredible how much protein we actually consume. To avoid giving an unsolicited lecture, I’ll simply head nod to Michael Pollan. Depending on your level of interest and amount of free time, here are three resources that make the case for altering the Western notion that a large piece of meat has to appear as the centerpiece of every plate:

For those with 15 seconds: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” – Michael Pollan
For those with 15 minutes: Unhappy Meals, Michael Pollan for NY Times
For those with 15 hours: In Defense of Food (also, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire).’

what you need

1 ripe avocado

Juice from 1/2 lime

1 small tomato, finely diced

1/4 sweet onion, finely diced

1/2 jalapeño pepper, finely diced

Fresh cilantro leaves

(optional) 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard

(optional) 2-3 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese (I use about 1/4 of a half goat cheese brick)

Salt, pepper, and cumin to taste

For serving: corn chips (I like salted blue corn chips), carrot sticks, and cucumber slices

how to make it

Cut avocado in half and remove pit. In a ripe avocado, the pit should come out easily when tapped with the blade of a sharp knife and twisted. Spoon avocado pulp into small mixing bowl and mash with a fork to desired consistency (I like to leave mine a little chunky). (Save the skins!)

Add lime juice, chopped cilantro leaves, salt, pepper, cumin, and mustard, and stir until just combined.

Add goat cheese, mashing it gently with a fork and combining with avocado mixture until little white pieces are still visible.

Finally, mix in tomato, onion, and jalapeño pepper.

Top with: pomegranate seeds or bacon pieces or more cilantro leaves.

Serve with: blue corn chips, carrot sticks, and cucumber slices.

Tags avocado, bowl, chips, condiment, Dan Barber, dip, Florida, goat cheese, guacamole, health, latin, lime, mexican, Michael Pollan, nutrition, sauce, skin, summer, vegan, vegetarian, weeknight

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Empanadas

argentinian empanada recipe authentic argentine oneandahalfslices

Argentinian Empanadas

Empanadas are a staple in cultura latina. There are many varieties but a recipe for specifically Argentinian empanadas is difficult to find – especially in English and out of the metric system. Often served as an appetizer, empanadas are hearty little handpies that can suffice as a meal alone and their flexible filling options (savory or sweet) make them perfect for just about any occasion. Make them in bulk and stick them in the freezer for quick weeknight meals, snacks, or lazy Sundays. So here is the elusive no-one-writes-this-shit-down family recipe.

what you need

1-1 1/2 pounds “vacio” (skirt steak, flank steak, fajita meat)

2 Spanish or yellow onions

1 red bell pepper

~1/2 cup green onions

3 eggs, hard boiled and peeled

2 packages (24 total) frozen empanada “masas” (dough rounds)

3 tablespoons butter or shortening

1 packet of “Condimento para Empanadas” (25g/~1oz)

Extra cumin and paprika to taste

1 egg, beaten, for egg wash

Salt to taste

(optional) 1/2 cup green olives, minced

(optional variation) 1/2 cup raisins + 1 tablespoon sugar

Notes on non-traditional ingredients: If you don’t have a good latin grocery nearby, not to worry. There are workarounds.

For the dough rounds, no, I do not make my own, opting instead for the La Salteña Hojaldrada empanada dough. Most Targets carry it. You can use just about any frozen empanada dough, though my preference is that it be some form of “hojaldre” or “puff pastry.” It makes the empanadas flakier whereas many Central American empanadas are made with more traditional textured and sweeter dough.

If you can’t find the pre-mixed Alicante brand Condimento para Empanadas spices, you can easily make it yourself! The mix contains: sweet Hungarian paprika (“pimenton”), nutmeg, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and crushed chili peppers. Double up on the sweet paprika. Note that traditional empanadas are not spicy so you always want to use sweet pepper varietals, not spicy ones (though you could go ahead and make them spicy if that’s your thing…).

how to make it

Pre-heat oven to 400 and set dough rounds out well in advance to come to room temperature. If the dough is still frozen, it will not fold well, but be careful not to let it get too warm as it will tear and be sticky.

Prepare the meat. Assuming the cut of meat you have purchased is thin, you should be able to roll it tightly two or three times over in a cylindrical shape. Slice thin rolls off the end of the cylinder with a sharp knife, going back over the meat to thinly dice any long strings or chunks. You are aiming for 1/8″ chunks of meat. This may seem a little annoying when ground beef is readily available, but much of the empanada’s flavor comes from the type of meat used.

Prepare the vegetables. Hard boil, cool, and dice two eggs and set aside in a small bowl. Finely dice the bell peppers, onion, and green onion.

Cook. Brown all meat in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell peppers, and cook over medium heat until onions become translucent. Add the spice packet, salt, butter or shortening, and olives (if using), mixing well. Cook another ~10 minutes. Turn off the stove but leave the mixture on the heat, mixing in the green onions as the final step. The mixture should be well combined with just a little excess juice from the butter+spices. Taste to adjust spice content, noting that the spices and salt will intensify over time, especially if freezing.

Roll. Now open up your dough rounds and get ready. You’re also going to want to have a small bowl of room temperature water on hand. Take a dough round off the top and hold it flat in your left hand. With your right hand, spoon ~2 tablespoons of the meat mixture into the middle of the dough, careful not to overfill. Place 2-3 small pieces of egg on top.

Quickly dip your finger in water and trace the inside edge of the dough round. With your right hand, pull the bottom half of the dough up over the top half to form a half moon as shown in the video. Then pinch both sides of the half moon together all the way around. You should now be holding a half moon shape in your left hand with the straight edge on the bottom near your wrist.

Starting at the bottom right, take the corner of the pinched dough and fold it up using your right pointer finger and thumb, pinching to seal. Repeat this all around the crest of the half moon. You can form tighter or looser folds depending on the aesthetic you want. The last fold will produce a little tail of dough, which you should tuck under to the backside of the half moon, pinching well to seal in the filling.

If the dough is tearing or becoming sticky, place it in the fridge for half an hour or the freezer for 10 minutes to cool back down.

Bake. When all the empanadas are folded, lay them out on a baking sheet on tinfoil and brush the tops with a beaten egg wash (not necessary but it makes them extra shiny and browned). Bake on 400 for 20 minutes or until golden and serve hot.

If you want to make your empanadas in bulk as I do (3-4 dozen at a time), you will want to store them in an airtight container in the freezer separated by parchment paper. If not separated, the dough will stick together and chip when broken apart, leaving holes in your empanadas.

Variations! Empanadas come in many shapes and sizes, with some Central American empanadas containing ingredients such as potatoes and peas. The recipe above is for traditional Argentinian empanadas, often called “salada” (salty), “picante” (spicy), or “salteñas” (originally from Salta). They are the traditional counterpart to the “dulces” (sweet) which are made without egg or olive, and with raisins and sugar (I know it sounds odd, but they are REALLY good). I frequently separate out some of the mixture after adding the spices, and add in the raisins and sugar to make both types at once.

Other variations include: “jamón y queso” (ham and a soft, white cheese), “humita” or “choclo” (corn, red pepper, green onion, and soft white cheese), “roquefort” (blue cheese), and “árabes” (arab empanadas are triangular in shape, made with more common dough than puff pastry, and contain ground beef, red bell pepper, and a lot of paprika; they are eaten by biting off the top triangular corner and squeezing the juice of a lemon wedge down into the empanada).

Then, of course, this recipe can be used to make Pumpkin Pasties! The pumpkin-filled sweet pasties are best served with a side of freshly whipped cream.

I spent a good portion of my adolescent and young adult life in Argentina – specifically, Córdoba. Situated in the middle of the country considerably north of the capital, Buenos Aires, and slightly east of the Andes mountains. Those mountains not only divide Argentina and Chile, but they also host the tallest mountain in the Americas “Aconcagua” and serve as the breeding grounds for both Argentina and Chile’s most coveted wines.

As a child, I attended school and spent the weekends riding horses with my parents in the Argentinian countryside. At some point, my father taught me to play cards and pool (we had a Gin Rummy game that lasted over a decade). I picked up the language, developed a love of red wine and red meat, and internalized a lot of the musical history. From these experiences, though, came two very important things: patriotism and curiosity. The first, an unwavering appreciation for the United States – with all the freedom, variety, and opportunity it provides for its citizens. The second, an uncontained hunger – call it a lust – for the “otherness;” to me, the “extranjero.”

These early years set the tone for 30+ countries in travels throughout my late teens and twenties. It is the reason this food blog is filled with curries, dahls, böreği, tagines, and couscous, alongside the more familiar lasagna, chocolate chip cookies, and chili. But it is also part of the reason why this blog is predominantly local.

Argentina will always be a special place for me. Half of my childhood occurred there – half of my growing up and half of my cooking experimentations (let’s talk about the time I made four dozen chocolate chip cookies with furniture polish in lieu of cooking spray because I couldn’t read the label… or the time I made an entire lasagna with ground coconut instead of parmesan cheese). Argentina gave me a lot of knowledge, a lot of exploration, a lot of friendship, and a lot of drive – but it also gave me an undying love of travel along with the undying love of my own soil. Thank you to my nephew who, at the wise age of 20, visited this past summer and taught me to cook the taste of my childhood – the elusive no-one-writes-this-shit-down family recipe.

Tags appetizer, argentina, beef, dough, eggs, latin, minced, raisins

Veggie

Dahl (Indian Lentil Stew)

Red Lentil Dahl with Spinach

Dahl is an understatement of a dish. Pitch “lentils and spinach cooked until mushy” to most people and you’re unlikely to garner much enthusiasm. But this dish… this dish… is a healthy, satisfying, vegan, weeknight game changer. It is rich and hearty, and I am pretty sure you could top crispy, sea-salted naan with Pennzoil and I’d eat it. The curry spices are not as prominent as in most Indian dishes so the flavors are subtle and the lemon keeps it fresh. So pull out your favorite style of lentil and give this one a try.

what you need

1 tablespoon sunflower oil or ghee

1 1/2 cups red lentils (I have tried with yellow, french, white… all good, but red are the best IMO).

1 can diced tomatoes

2 shallots or 3/4 yellow onion, diced

fresh ginger root, minced

2-3 cups raw spinach

juice from half a lemon

fresh cilantro

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 hot chili pepper, minced

Spices: turmeric, cloves, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, cardamom, cloves, cumin, mustard seeds, or some sort of garam masala mix

Naan, basmati rice

how to make it

Rinse lentils until water runs clearly through them, then cook for ~15-20 minutes over medium heat in 4 cups of water. As the lentils cook, add salt and a generous amount of turmeric. You want the lentils to break down and become quite thick.

While the lentils simmer, heat the ghee or oil in a large pan. Add onions or shallots and cook ~3 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and ginger root and cook for ~2 minutes more.

Spice. Remove from heat and add your personal blend of spices, stirring to coat everything in the pan. Toasting the spices in this way releases their flavors, but you want to take care never to burn the spices over high heat, should your dish take on a bitter quality. You can be generous with turmeric, but should be sparing with cloves, cumin, and ginger, all of which can overpower in large quantities.

Return to heat and add the can of tomatoes, stirring well. The lentils should be completely collapsed by now and all the water evaporated from the pot. Pour the lentils into the pan with the tomatoes and simmer for ~10-20 minutes, taking care not to let the dahl stick to the bottom of the pan.

When ready, add lemon juice and the spinach, stirring and folding so the spinach becomes submerged in the dahl. Cook at least 5-10 minutes more until the spinach is fully integrated. Serve over basmati rice and with naan with a garnish of cilantro.

A note on naan: most any storebought naan will do. Lay it out on a pan, cut it into slivers, and sprinkle with a good olive oil, sea salt, and pepper, and place under broiler until crispy. Really takes this dish to the next level.

Tags curry, dahl, ethnic, fall, indian, lentils, naan, soup, spicy, spinach, stew, vegan, vegetarian, weeknight, winter

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Indispensable Chili

chili soup stew recipe oneandahalfslices

Indispensable Chili

Chili is one of those things. There are chili cookoffs and chili arguments. There is chicken chili, vegan chili, white bean chili, and endless competition for the single spiciest chili ever to exist. While I appreciate a good office-party chili cookoff as much as the next, to me, chili is one of those sacred things that just should not be fucked with. Like cheeseburgers. Like cheesecake. Don’t try to make it fancy. Just make it good. So, here, basic, indispensable, chili.

what you need

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds ground beef, bison, or pork sausage

2-3 cans beans of choice (chili, kidney, pinto… I like a mixture)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 large, sweet or yellow onion

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1-3 green or red chili peppers

1 bottle beer (lager, ale, of witbier… the lighter the better for this recipe)

1 cup dark coffee

1/4 cup 100% cocoa powder

Cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt, black pepper

how to make it

Place meat, onions, and garlic in Dutch oven or soup pot on stove over medium heat. Chip up meat and brown thoroughly. Dice the chili peppers and place into pot along with bottle of beer, cup of coffee, cocoa powder, and spices, stirring thoroughly.

On spices, you want a little cumin, a lot of chili powder, and oregano, salt, and pepper to taste. Cumin is powerful and can turn a dish bitter if added in large quantity.

Simmer chili base on low heat for ~20 minutes to allow the base to cook into the meat. Add tomatoes and beans and cook for another ~30 minutes. Chili gets better the longer it sits on the stove, so feel free to turn off the burner, secure the lid, and let it rest for a while.

Serve topped with a dollop of 0% fat Greek Yogurt, a solid shred of good cheddar cheese (good cheddar cheese is always white, never yellow), a sprinkle of chives or parsley, and a side of corn chips.

A Note On Ingredients

Every year I make several New Years resolutions. One professional, one fitness-related, and one culinary resolution.

2017 was the year of the cacao nib.

In 2017, the culinary New Years resolution was to learn the culinary history of the cacao nib by way of cooking, of course, and in celebration of my favorite movie, Chocolat. After much reading and many a history lesson, a molé sauce cookoff with my mother, and the devising of the ultimate hot chocolate recipe, I arrived at a simple yet powerful rule of thumb:

Chili in chocolate and chocolate in chili.

These two ingredients are soul mates; chili is Calvin to the chocolate-y Hobbes. Good chocolate, hot or otherwise, always has a dash of chili pepper or straight up cayenne. And good chili should have 100% cocoa powder (among other things) to deepen its flavor and add to its base. This recipe uses cacao, coffee, and beer to create its rich flavor profile. Choosing a high-quality chocolate is key. I look to Guittard (American), Lindt (Swiss), Godiva (American/Turkish), Noi Sirius (Icelandic), or Girardelli (Swiss/American). Regardless of brand, the lower the cacao percentage in chocolate, the more milk/sugar/additives it has, so best to go with the darkest cocoa available (over 60% is desirable).

Tags beans, chili, fall, ground beef, soup, stew, winter

Sweet

Medovik (Honey Cake)

Medovik - Russian Honey Cake

First off, while I am not Russian in the slightest, I am an avid lover of honey, molasses, maple syrup, and most things stickily sweet (See Moravian Spice Birds). I also favor both cookies and pie over cake, so the fact that this cake is comprised of multiple cookies is a plus. Russian Honey Cake is … delicate. Its flavor is gentle; mildly tangy and mildly sweet. And its form gives way to a slightly haphazard layering that gives this cake an artistry that the traditional vanilla-with-chocolate-frosting simply does not have. While it is best made over a 24-36 hour period, it also keeps much longer than most cakes, and gets better with each day that it rests in the fridge. Without further ado, I give you Medovik.

what you need

1/2 cup local, fresh honey

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 – 4 cups flour

A healthy supply of parchment paper

> > > Filling

2 cups plain Greek yogurt

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2-4 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup honey

> > Backstory,

or “Why This Russian Cake Has A Snake On Top.”

Clubs. I have never been a big “club” person (referring both to rage-y modern-day college brothels and organized groups for social exchange around a shared interest). Yet here I am, 30 years old, a member of a club.

I am joined together with a group (alright, three) esteemed women who have all had to endure a modern hardship of the highest degree:

a snake… in the house.

In the year that would not end (2020), all three of us somehow ended up with one snake varietal or another in our living rooms (also, on the stairs, on the dining room table, pretty much everywhere a snake should never be). From garden snakes to black racers, snakes of all sizes (4 inches to 4 feet) penetrated the otherwise sanctimonious confines of our respective homes and left us each, in turn, sleepless, squirmy, and unable to cross the room without ALL the lights on for several weeks.

We held our inaugural Snake Sisters meeting in my little kitchen nook on the 12^th day of October on a particularly gloomy Virginian day. In a brazenly delicious show of solidarity, and to represent the suffering we each been forced to endure, I set out to make a “snake cake,” which somehow became a Russian Honey Cake with a grahammed-up stencil snake on top.

Of course, you are free to use whatever stencil you want… it is my deepest hope that someday we will live in a world where snake cakes are no longer required to uplift the weary. And when that day comes, I will simply tell everyone that this cake opens the Chamber of Secrets if you speak to it in Parseltongue.

how to make it

Make cookies. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar, honey, and butter over medium heat until it darkens and bubbles slightly (~ 5 minutes). Remove from heat and let cool slightly while beating the three eggs. This part is tricky. You need to incorporate the eggs into the honey mixture slowly, otherwise the eggs will scramble. One tiny pour at a time and continuous whisking will do the trick. Stir in flour, salt, and vanilla. This dough is going to be stiff… super stiff. You may need to add flour if the dough isn’t coming together enough to handle.

Once you can handle the dough, divide it into 8 hunks (yes, “hunks,” technical term). On a piece of parchment paper, roll out each hunk into an 8 or 9 inch round, flouring as you go. The round will be thin… super thin. Place an 8 or 9 inch plate on the dough and cut out the cookie with a sharp knife, saving the little fringe bits as well (you will need these for the topping). Bake each cookie until the edges begin to darken, ~7-8 minutes. After you bake each cookie, bake the fringe bits until crispy, ~5 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely. Note: you can make these cookies the day before if convenient.

Make filling. Beat the heavy whipping cream to medium peaks and sweeten slightly with sugar. Mix honey together with Greek yogurt, then fold in whipping cream.

Make cake. Prepare your cake plate with little wedges of parchment paper (wedges, not one whole piece). When the cake is complete, you can pull each wedge out from underneath the cake leaving a spotless cake plate for presentation. Place a dollop of filling in the center of all pieces of parchment and place a cookie on top. Working iteratively, place dollops of filling on the top of each cookie, spreading the filling out to 75% of each cookie before placing another cookie on top.

When all 8 cookies are in place, spread filling generously on the top, then whatever is left on the sides (you likely won’t cover all of the brown cookie on the sides. It’s okay. This cake looks good messy).

Decorate cake. Grind the cooked crispy bits from the sides of the cookies into a crumble. Sprinkle over cake in desired pattern or use a stencil (see notes below). If the filling begins to separate or becomes runny, simply place the cake in the fridge for an hour or so to harden up. I left the cake in the fridge overnight before decorating it. Ideally, it will sit in the fridge for several hours before consumption so the filling will have ample opportunity to soften the cookies.

Adjustments: Some recipes call for an all sour cream filling sweetened with condensed milk. Some recipes call for sour cream be mixed with whipping cream. To me, the idea of sweetening a honey cake with condensed milk doesn’t sit well, so honey it is. As for the cream, I favor whipped cream as a topping and, wherever possible (most places, it turns out), Greek yogurt as a substitute for sour cream or heavier cream products. 0% Greek yogurt has a clean, tangy flavor and is pure protein. Also, the condensed milk option gets messy quickly owing to the extra liquidity the condensed milk introduces. You are free to play with the filling.

Tags cake, dessert, graham, honey, layers, Russia, sweet

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Essential Bolognese Sauce

Post author By Merigold
Post date October 21, 2020
16 Comments on Essential Bolognese Sauce

spaghetti Bolognese recipe pasta oneandahalfslices

The Essential Bolognese

From Rome to Buenos Aires, pasta – specifically, spaghetti and meat sauce – hits different in other countries. This Bolognese sauce is as authentic as they come, with a counterintuitive yet elegantly simple sauce-making process that will ensure you never touch another jar of Classico. It is meaty, salty, and carries richness made possible only through the simplest yet most flavorful of vegetables – carrot and celery.

For absolute best flavor possible, serve over fresh egg-based pasta (Virginia local shoutout to Dal Grano in Mclean, VA for the absolute best handmade pasta). It is better the next day and freezes incredibly well, so make a double batch and throw some in the freezer for later. Adapted from Marcella Hazan at NY Times.

what you need

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 celery stalks, finely diced

2 medium carrots, finely diced

1 pound ground beef (or bison, or half beef half pork)

1 cup milk

1 cup white wine

2 small cans diced Italian plum tomatoes

fresh egg noodle pasta

salt, black pepper, fennel, oregano, nutmeg

1 parmesan cheese rind

parmesan cheese, finely grated

how to make it

Place oil, butter, and diced onion in Dutch oven or large sauté pan and sauté until onions are translucent. Add carrots, celery, and garlic, and sauté another 2 minutes.

Add meat, salt, pepper, and herbs. Chip up the meat and cook until brown. Add milk and a dash of nutmeg, cover, and simmer on lowest possible heat until the milk has disappeared (~30 minutes). After the milk has been absorbed, add the white wine and simmer until it disappears (another 30 minutes).

Lastly, add the tomatoes and the cheese rind, and cook on lowest heat for at least an hour – long enough for the meat to break down thoroughly. Add splashes of water as required to keep the sauce from burning but at the end, all of the liquid should be gone. Taste and adjust for salt.

Spoon sauce over cooked and drained pasta, and top with finely grated parmesan cheese. Or use in my Authoritative Lasagna recipe!

Cooking Note: the method here may seem strange, but what you are going for is to cook flavor into the meat and completely break down the vegetables. First, you are asking the meat to absorb milk. Then, white wine. And then you make the sauce by adding the tomatoes. The sauce gets flavored with additional seasoning from this point and the cheese rind.

While we’re on the subject of Italian food, let’s talk about olive oil. Last year, my mom and I went to Greece. That same year, a friend and I toured Rome and middle Italy (the inspiration, honestly, for finally getting this recipe right). In both places, I sampled olives in large quantity and came to the same conclusion: I do not like them (despite their prominence in the food of my inherited heritage: empanadas). Olive oil, on the other hand, is nectar of the Gods. Olive oil plus salt, pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes, fresh baguette, and a bottle of Brunello are makings for my favorite evening.

Okay, but olive oil.

In Greece, we toured an olive farm and olive oil manufacturer and learned all the WRONG ways we had been purchasing and consuming olive oil. I think there is this general notion that we should all buy “extra virgin” olive oil for daily consumption but, beyond that, we don’t have any real knowledge of what makes one olive oil better than another. Turns out there is another phrase, in addition to “extra virgin” we should look for on our olive oil labels: “obtained exclusively from mechanical processes.”

‘What an odd phrase,’ you might think. And you’d be right. But it turns out that 99% of the world’s olive oil is derived from primarily chemical processes (ick). If the olive oil is derived from nothing more than a mechanical press (which is what we would all think, right?), it will say so, explicitly, on the label.

Finally, the last form of certification that your olive oil is legit is the International Olive Council’s (IOC) official seal (pictured below). Since most of the good olive oil in the US is imported (save perhaps in California), you can also look for the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO/DPO) seal for the country of origin, e.g. Spain, Italy, Greece.

Tags bolognese, Greece, ground beef, italian, Italy, olive oil, parmesan, pasta, sauce, spaghetti

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Viking Lentil Stew

lentil sausage stew soup recipe oneandahalfslices

Viking Stew

It turns out raiding, forging 8th century alliances, and carving out new territory in the Saxon kingdoms really works up an appetite. It is definitely time to make Viking Stew. If there is crisp in the air, you want this stew. You want two bowls of it. And you want it with parmesan cheese on top. It is the most flavor-rich, complex soup I have ever tasted. It leaves you full, warm, and longing to make another pot. The secret is in the quality of the sausage.

what you need

1/8 cup olive oil

1 pound loose sausage of choice, hand rolled into small meatballs (I prefer Spring House Farm’s loose sage, nutmeg, or spicy sausage, but Whole Foods loose sage sausage will do just fine)

1 sweet onion

4 celery stalks

4 small-medium carrots

2 cloves garlic

1 cup French lentils

1 can crushed tomatoes

6 cups water

1 Bay leaf

2-6 cups (2 bunches) thin-cut chard of choice (swiss, rainbow, green)

Red pepper flakes, black pepper, salt, oregano, thyme, to taste

finely grated parmesan cheese, to top

how to make it

Heat olive oil on stovetop in Dutch oven or large soup pot. Brown meatballs until they begin to cook through. Add onions, carrot, and celery (diced), garlic (minced), salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, oregano, and thyme and cook until onions are translucent.

Once meat and veggies become fragrant, add lentils and stir until well-coated. Add crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, and water, and simmer covered on low heat for about 45 minutes-1 hour, or until lentils are tender.

Add spices to taste and chard (two bunches of chard is going to look like a TON, but it will cook down). Continue to simmer until chard is cooked through, about another 10-15 minutes.

Top with finely grated parmesan cheese (trust me, do not skip the parm; you’ll regret it).

Adjustments: Adjust water volume to make this more or less stew-like. You can also add an extra can of tomatoes if you like your stew extra tomato-y. Sometimes I like to throw in 1/2 cup of barley along with the lentils to stretch this soup a bit further. And, of course, the red pepper is optional (for spiciness) and chard can be substituted for any hearty green, like mustards or kale.

It turns out claiming new territory and building a Viking settlement in the Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia really works up an appetite. I’ve been hard at work in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, battle axe hardened by great elk antlers and wolf claws, and I decided it was time to make Viking Stew.

Viking Stew is a cold weather tradition in this house – one that gets exercised almost weekly in the Winter months. Frosty videogames also come with the season. When virtual snow falls in Mel’s living room, it’s a sign of the times (see Frostpunk and The Long Dark for other wintertime favorites).

But Vikings. They are fascinating.

Beyond the History channel’s Vikings, which had enough historical accuracy to be credible, Netflix’s The Last Kingdom, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and the award-winning Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, we are not lacking for Viking lore in mainstream media. Vikings had a fascinating culture which drew on Norse mythology as strongly as The Lord of the Rings and Wagner’s Der Ring Des Nibelung. The word “Viking,” itself, is a verb, meaning to adventure, explore, or raid. They were an intense, vivid, unabashed folk whose arrival in Wessex in the 8^th century drove the land in its evolution to becoming the modern-day England. Their reverence for the Gods and intense warfighting strategies (ghosted in 8^th and 9^th century tafl games such as hneftafl) gave them the reputation for being ruthless, heartless conquerors of foreign lands and slaughterers of Christian peoples. But the essence of the Viking culture was to take to the seas, create foreign settlements abroad, and, above all, live and die with honor worthy of the Norse Gods and, ultimately, a seat in Valhalla.

It is a beautiful, unique culture in the history of humankind. And it has absolutely nothing to do with this soup other than this hearty meal is the type of sustenance modern-day pop culture might associate with Vikings. Vikings subsisted primarily on fish, lamb, grains, and ale. Pictured below are two of my Viking alter-egos – extra points for in-game photography skills.

Eivor

Senua

Tags chard, fall, lentils, one pot meal, parmesan, sausage, soup, stew, winter