Ham Sandwich Indicted!

With almost every issue of Bon Appetit or Saveur that I get, there's always at least one recipe that catches my eye and holds on with an obsessive make-me-right-now quality that doesn't abate until I, in fact, drop all other plans I may have had and set to work.  Last month's Bon Appetit had an article on grilled lobster paella , and before I even finished the story I was already mentally calculating what ingredients I had in my pantry.  I managed to hold off on firing up the grill until a Friday evening, when I was able to wrangle up some friends to come eat it all.  The great thing about paella--especially on the grill--is that you can prep everything before hand, and just add to the pans while you sip cocktails on the patio with your guests.  It doesn't require a great deal of careful attention, in fact, you eventually want to stop touching the paella altogether and let the rice at the bottom of the dish crisp up and caramelize into th...

Right now you're probably saying one of two things: 1) what the hell is kohlrabi? or 2) a slaw of random root vegetables? Meh...I'll pass.  But I strongly encourage you to read on, before you miss out on a lovely and refreshing summer slaw. Kohlrabi is a member of the cabbage family, and comes in a variety of colors.  It has a rather alien-looking appearance, with the leaves shooting off and up the sides of the bulb. (Both the bulb and the leaves are edible.)  Smaller kohlrabi have a mild crunch reminicient of cabbage, but the bulbs get woody as they get bigger. These particular kohlrabi came from the wonderful folks at Wayward Seed Farm . Adam and Jaime's CSA is always interesting, as they cultivate heirloom vegetables that encourage you to try something new and different ...you're not just going to get lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers from them. (Full confession: I spent a morning on the back of a tractor, planting these kohlrabi at the Wayward Seed Farm wh...

In last week's Wayward Seed CSA share, I received about a pound of unshelled English peas.  After freeing them from their pods, I was left with a bowlful of tiny, beautiful, bright green orbs and decided that since there  were so few of them, I needed to really showcase their flavor.   I remembered that Chef John Dornback of  Basi Italia had offered a pea puree appetizer at the Taste of Dine Originals event, and decided to use that dish as inspiration.  They had served the lightly mashed peas on a single-serving spoon topped with shaved Parmesan.   Since I had just purchased a baguette from Omega Bakery at the North Market (not-so shameless plug: Go there! Get their bread! It's amazing!), I decided throw together a pea and Parmesan "hummus" to spread on said bread. Twenty minutes later, I had a party-worthy appetizer that looked and tasted of early summer.  The sweetness of the peas is balanced by the salty ...