Cuisine: American
Beet Salad with Everything (Bagel) Spice Mix and (Easy) Tahini Dressing by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
It has been many years since I last roasted a beet. They ‘spoke’ to me at my weekly Farmer’s Market: I answered and bought a couple of pounds. (Cooking tip: pick out beets of roughly the same size for even cooking.) I roasted them in a covered heavy pot in the oven with just a bit of water in the bottom of the pan. And I peeled them as soon as they were just cool enough to handle. About the ‘Everything Spice’ Mix…… I really like this condiment, but I find that it needs extra toasted sesame seeds to smooth out the flavors when used in a salad. This is an easy fix: just toast a few tablespoons of sesame seeds in a sauté pan on the stovetop until lightly toasted and just fragrant, then mix the toasted seeds with the Everything Spice mix. I used the mix as a garnish for the roasted beet salad and I put extra spice mix on top of scrambled eggs.
Stout-Braised Pulled Pork Sandwich
I was asked to ‘create something BBQ’ to tease the (slowly) approaching summer dining season. And, I have never (!) made pulled pork, so …….
The recipe requires a few logical steps: a spice rub for the pork, a ‘bed’ of sauteed vegetables to flavor the braising broth, Stout for the braising liquid, a long slow braise in the oven and then a couple of finishing steps. The cooled pork is shredded, excess fat is removed, and the braising liquid is cooled and defatted. It is then pureed in the blender to become the finishing (aka BBQ) sauce for the pulled pork. I made sandwiches using toasted brioche rolls and a red cabbage coleslaw to for crunch and contrast. And did I mention it? I used pitted prunes in the braise for sweetness and texture AND as a great counterpoint to the natural bitterness of the Stout.
Peas & Pancetta with Radish Salad by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
I created this dish to bring to a friend’s house for a Spring brunch. It’s versatile: it can be served alongside lamb, ham, salmon or any number of egg dishes. It can be made ahead and/or served at room temperature. And if fresh peas are still elusive at your market, frozen peas will do just fine.
Chocolate Mousse Parfaits by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
I am not sure that this recipe is ‘politically correct ‘at the moment, given the cost of eggs…..but I wanted to make a chocolate mousse, and I wanted a recipe that used cooked, not raw eggs.
Back 50 years ago when Julia Child was teasing the country with French Cuisine, salmonella was NOT a household name and chocolate mousse was made with both raw yolks and whites. And this was indeed how we made it at The Modern Gourmet, Madeleine Kamman’s French cooking school and eponymous restaurant in Newton Centre, MA.
And, it turns out, that what you don’t know might, just indeed, hurt you. And so, in 2025, I make chocolate mousse with a ‘Crème Anglaise’, a cooked egg yolk and cream custard, and NO raw egg whites. The finished mousse is not as ‘airy’ as the original French versions (my apologies, Madeleine and Julia), but it is ‘food safe’ and delicious.
IRISH AMERICAN SODA BREAD v.2.0* by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
Traditional Irish soda bread is made with whole wheat flour, currants, caraway seeds, buttermilk and baking soda to leaven the loaf. No butter, no sugar, no eggs in the original, rustic, true Irish loaf. It was intended as a no-nonsense quick loaf. My ‘Americanized’ version cuts a bit of butter into the dough to help produce a more tender crumb and adds a bit of sugar is for a touch of sweetness.
v.2.0* And now in my new 2.0 version, I am giving the recipe a few more ‘tweaks’ ( I cannot help it, I am a Chef, ‘tweaking’ is what we do.) I have increased the sugar, switched the currants to dried cranberries, swapped the caraway for fennel seeds, added orange zest and draped an orange confectioner’s glaze over the finished loaf. It will be a bit sweeter and a bit fancier and maybe a bit of sacrilege? (With apologies to my Irish ancestors.)
Warm Kale Pesto Pasta by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
There’s a big, wide world of uncooked kale recipes out there. And I readily admit to not liking raw kale, it’s way too chewy for me. I do however, both cook with and eat kale: I chiffonade it (thin slivers) and add it to soups, I sauté it with shallots or onions and make a frittata and am fond of thin slivers of kale added to my Italian-style green beans which I slow simmer in tomato sauce. I eat my kale cooked.
A couple of weeks ago, I started coming across multiple recipes for Kale Sauce Pasta and was curious. The recipes called for removing the kale from the stem and cooking it in in boiling salted water until tender. It was then drained and pureed with delicious ingredients, like parmigiana cheese and extra virgin olive oil. Most of the recipes were attributed to Josh McFadden, an Oregon Farm-to Table Chef and author Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables. In turn, he attributes his Kale Sauce Pasta recipe to the very famous River Café in London. And someday I will dig through my piled boxes of stored cookbooks and find the original inspiration (recipe), but until then…..
PUMPKIN CARAMEL FLAN by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
Our Foodie’s marketing and design Guru (just two of her many roles) asked me about Thanksgiving recipes a few weeks back and I had already been contemplating pumpkin pie. That led me down the path of thinking what my least favorite part of this revered dessert was… and it is the soggy crust holding the delicious pumpkin filling. Even the best made, most delicious,
shatteringly crisp crust appeals less to me than the filling. It was then a no-brainer to make a ‘pumpkin flan’ with a caramel base added for a touch of ‘fancy’ as my Thanksgiving recipe. This is a classic French ‘crème renversee’ in which the
bottom of the baking dish is coated in caramel and the pumpkin custard is poured over and baked in a water bath. When set and chilled the custard/flan is turned upside-down (reversed) onto a larger plate with the caramel having both been absorbed into the flan and forming a delicious sauce.
And here it is: Pumpkin Pie. No Crust. Just filling. Chilled. Creamy & Delicious.
Chocolate Chili Tacos by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
I made a pot of ground beef chili with the usual ingredients: green and jalapeno peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, a variety of spices and beans (red kidney & black beans). After simmering for about 30 minutes, I tasted it and thought a bit of dark chocolate would meld all these flavors together. And it worked!
Small chunks of dark chocolate (67-72% cacao), melted into the chili, pulled all the flavors together into one ‘happy-on-the-tongue’ melody. My batch of chili was rather thick after chilling it overnight, so I decided that it would make a great taco filling. But feel free to enjoy it as a ‘bowl of chili’, knowing that you may need to thin it out with a bit of broth or water upon re-heating. Also, I garnished with a small handful of Lesser Evil popcorn, for crunch and whimsy. (BTW, Lesser Evil, which we offer at Foodie’s is a fantastic-tasting popcorn!)
Watermelon Salad by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
Watermelon salad is a quintessential summer dish. And our sweet New England summer is flying by. So, make this dish pronto! Maybe it’s a Labor Day BBQ side dish?
This salad is bright, crunchy, sweet & salty - I served it with my once-a -summer-treat: grilled hot dogs! It was a perfect pairing.
One mostly sees watermelon salad recipes with feta cheese, but I used Halloumi cheese. It’s a salty cheese like feta but unlike feta it is a firm cheese and will keep its shape and not ‘bleed’ all over the watermelon. I made lemon vinaigrette with extra virgin olive oil, but feel free to use a light prepared dressing of your choice. (I suggest a vinaigrette-style dressing rather than a creamy dressing, so the colors of the salad remain vibrant.)
There are many ways to make this dish simpler to prepare. For example, we sell cut watermelon at Foodie’s in 1.25-1.5-pound containers - perfect amount for this recipe. And I also used Chatham Village brand Home-style Garden Herb croutons. They provide a crunch and are more neutral in flavor than Caesar-flavored croutons. They will add a crunch without adding another cheese flavor. (You could, of course, make your own toasted croutons.)
