Sparks in the Kitchen - Rilegato

Katy Sparks grew up in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. She attended the cooking school at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, and had her early training in that city at Al Forno before moving to Seattle. She later worked at the celebrated Quilted Giraffe in New York before opening Quilty’s in SoHo. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Andrea Strong is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, New York magazine, New York Post, Time Out New York, Real Simple, Food & Wine, and Gourmet. She is the author of The Strong Buzz, a weekly blog (www.thestrongbuzz.com) devoted to New York City’s restaurant and food scene. She lives in Manhattan.

Grandma Sparks's Maryland Crab Cakes
 
My grandmother, who lived her entire life just outside Baltimore, was a great cook, and these crab cakes were mainly responsible for burnishing her culinary reputation. You will be forgiven, dear reader, for thinking that the Sparks clan is obsessed with mayonnaise. And you may be right—so many of my family's culinary treasures use this humble but essential ingredient. We're a little particular about it too—unless you are willing to make your own, only Hellman's (not Hellman's Light—the real thing) will do. These crab cakes also depend on finding the freshest lump crabmeat.
 
Ingredients:
1 pound fresh lump crabmeat, picked over gently for any stray shells or cartilage
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Colman's dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 slices fresh bread, crusts removed, diced into very small cubes
Butter, for sautéing
 
Serves 6 (makes about 8-12 small cakes)
 
Carefully mix all of the crab cake ingredients together in a large bowl. Don't break up the crabmeat; big cunks are so much more satisfying to eat. When your crab cake batter is thoroughly mixed, let it rest for several hours in the refrigerator—this allows the bread cubes to soak up the moisture from the crab so they won't fall apart in the pan.

Shape your cakes into any size you wish—large ones for lunch, or tiny ones for hors d'oeuvres.When you're ready to serve them, heat a nonstick or heavy-bottomed skillet, add a generous amount of butter, and sauté the cakes over medium heat until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.
 
Weighing your options: We serve our crab cakes with just a squeeze of lemon, but for a more assertive and modern accompaniment, you can pair them with Smoked Chile and Caper Remoulade (pg. 271); it will give them a nice kick.
Goat Cheese Quesadillas with Smoked Salmon and Kumquat Relish
 
I have hijacked this essentially Mexican dish to allow for multicultural flavor combinations. It is so easy and satisfying to sandwich any number of good cheeses between two crispy sheets of tortilla. (Tortillas, by the way, keep very well in the freezer). The quesadilla is a great vehicle for using up bits of cheese in your fridge as well as cooked leftovers like shrimp, chicken, beans, mushrooms—wherever your imagination takes you. Add a salsa and you have an impressive first course, or a light lunch.

This quesadilla is a fun and tasty one, and I have listed several others for you to try below as well. But I encourage you to create your own, enlisting the kids to help you.
 
Ingredients:
Eight 6-inch flour tortillas
12 ounces creamy goat cheese
1/2 small red onion, minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
 
For the kumquat relish:
1 dozen kumquats, sliced into rings with seeds removed
1/4 fresh green chile, minced
1 small bunch cilantro leaves, minced
 
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 pound smoked salmon, cut into 24 small pieces
2 ounces salmon roe or caviar or per your preference and budget
 
Serves 6
 
Trim the tortillas, going around the edge of an inverted bowl (it should just fit inside the outer edge of the tortillas) with a sharp knire; this makes a neater presentation. Spread 4 of the tortillas out on a work surface, and divide the goat cheese among them. Scatter the minced red onion over the cheese, season lightly with salt and pepper, and press the remaining 4 tortillas firmly over each bottom tortilla. Wrap the quesadillas with wax paper between them. They can be stored in the fridge at this point for a day or two.
 
Make the relish: Combine the kumquats, chile, and cilantro in a small bowl, and stir gently.
 
Cook the quesadillas: Heat an 8-inch nonstick pan or heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Coat the pan with a film of vegetable oil, and when it gets hot, add a teaspoon of butter; when it sizzles, add a quesadilla (see Chef's Trick). Using a spatula, peek at the underside periodically--you are looking for a golden brown color; this should take about 2 minutes. When the tortilla is brown, carefully turn the quesadilla over, tilting the skillet at 45 degrees, to prevent a "splashdown" of oil when the quesadilla hits the pan again; then brown the second side. Remove from the pan and drain on a paper towel. Cook the remaining quesadillas, adding more butter and oil as necessary. Keep the cooked ones warm in a 200 degree F oven, or simply assemble the garnishes and eat them as quickly as they come out of the skillet.
To serve, cut each quesadilla into sixths with a very sharp knife or pizza wheel, and place a s lice of smoked salmon on each piece. Top the salmpon with a spoonful of the kumquat relish and a dab of the caviar.
 
Weighing your options: The basic technique explained above is the same for all these recipes. One cautionary note: Keep the amount of filling to a reasonable level. Too much will make a soggy quesadilla, which is not a good quesadilla. The italicized ingredients are garnishes for toppings the cooked quesadillas, and recipes for them are found in the Dressings, Pickles, and Relishes chapter.
· cooked shrimp or lobster with feta, hummus and Tomato and Citrus Salsa
· roasted wild mushrooms with ricotta cheese and a drizzle of Red Chile Oil
· aged cheddar and Monterey Jack with pickled jalapeños and Tomato, Basil, and Caper Salsa
· Taleggio cheese with Dried Fig and Almond Chutney
 
Chef's Trick: Butter tends to burn and turn bitter when cooking at a high temperature. To prevent this, fry in a combination of vegetable oil and butter—what we call in the business "fortifying." The vegetable oil raises the smoking point of the butter an gives you that rich buttery flavor without the burn.
Spiced Lamb Meatballs in Eggplant "Leaves"
 
I have the good fortune to belong to a member-owned and operated food coop here in Brooklyn. It's a unique places that dabbles in delicacies like smoked salmon and duck liver—all from creatures raised organically and sustainably. I occasionally run across a shipment of ground lamb from the Catskills region of New York State, and I snap some right up. I love Middle Eastern spices with ground lamb, so I season it heartily and shape it into small meatballs that I broil and wrap in thin slices of roasted eggplant. The wrapped meatballs are then topped with a piquant pomegranate and coriander yogurt sauce and popped into the waiting mouths of my family. I've found these meatballs good to serve as cocktail hors d'oeuvres—the eggplant leaves make them easy finger food.
 
Ingredients:
For the lamb meatballs:
1 1/2 pounds ground lamb (if you can't find ground lamb, you can buy lamb shoulder to grind at home)
3 ounces French feta (French feta is milder than Greek, and I prefer it in this recipe)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 scallions, minced (white and a little of green part, too)
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
2 teaspoons ground cumin seed
2 jalapeños, minced, or 1 serrano chile, minced
Hearty pinch chopped cilantro
Blend of salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg to taste (1 teaspoon to start)
Olive oil, for sautéing test piece of meatball
 
For the eggplant "leaves":
2 Japanese or Asian eggplants, or 1 large purple eggplant
Olive Oil as needed for roasting
Salt and pepper
 
For the yogurt sauce:
Seeds of 1 pomegranate, or a scattering of finely diced tomato if pomegranates are not in season
1 cup whole-milk yogurt, preferably Greek because it's so thick and rich
3 tablespoons minced cilantro, plus a few whole sprigs for garnishing
Salt and pepper
 
Serves 6
 
Prepare the meatballs:
Fold together the ground lamb, feta, garlic, scallions, ginger, coriander, cumin, chiles, cilantro, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a bowl. Let flavors develop by resting the meat in the fridge while you roast the eggplant and make the yogurt sauce.

When ready to broil the meatballs, pinch off a small pice of the lamb mixture and sauté it in a drop or two of olive oil. Thi is the only way to taste for seasoning. Cook the pinch of lamb mixture until just pink inside and taste. Then add more salt and pepper if needed. Once you have seasoned the meat, shape it out into 24-36 small meatballs.
 
Make the eggplant "leaves:"
Preheat the broiler. I use a plastic Japanese mandoine to cut the eggplant into very thin, 1/8-inch slices, but a steady hand and a sharp knife will do the trick too. Once you have sliced the eggplant thin, cut the slices into roughly 1 1/2 inches wide by 5 inches long. This size will allow for shrinkage when the eggplant cooks, and the slice will wrap nicely around the small meatballs. Brush each eggplant strip lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast under the broiler on the second shelf from the top to avoid burning the thin slices. When the eggplant is browned and tender, it's ready. Let it cool before handling.
 
Make the yogurt sauce:
Remove the seeds from the pomegranate: I do this by cutting the fruit in half and plucking the seeds out from between the papery white membranes. Don't wear anything that you mind having speckled with pink dots of pomegranate juice! Stir together the yogurt, the cilantro, and half the pomegranate seeds in a bowl. Reserve the rest of the seeds to garnish the plates or platter with.
 
Broil the meatballs: Place the meatballs on a baking sheet in the oven, on the second shelf down from the top—if you put the meatballs too close to...