Easy Recipes

Sometimes it takes a summer heat wave to remember how delicious the simplest things can be. A cold gin and tonic. Lying in the backyard looking up at the stars. A bowl of vanilla ice cream with fresh blackberries. Poached eggs and garlicky yogurt.

I know, I know. On the surface, a meal of eggs and yogurt sounds kind of basic, unexciting (if not downright unappleaing). But in truth, its phenomenal. The yogurt is tangy and savory, a perfect pillow for a runny poached egg. Topped with a drizzle of red pepper-infused oil and scooped up with some crusty bread, its pretty near perfect.

This classic Turkish combination takes many forms — sometimes theres dried mint or sage leaves, or melted butter substitutes for the olive oil. Ill scoop it up with some toasted flatbread, a baguette, or the random ends of Russian rye from the freezer. Its quick enough for a quick weeknight supper, or too-hot-to-cook summer afternoon. As with any pared-down recipe, it helps to start with quality ingredients. But with the right building blocks (flavorful chiles, farm-fresh eggs and good bread), and the right Turkish inspiration, simplicity can be oh so delicious.


Çılbır (Poached Eggs on Garlicky Yogurt)

adapted from several traditional recipes
serves 2

garlicky yogurt:
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 garlic clove, pressed
salt

seasoned oil:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon flavorful-but-not-hot red pepper (Aleppo or Marash are particularly nice), or a hefty pinch smoked paprika

4 eggs

crusty bread for eating

optional additions:
chopped fresh tomatoes
a handful of olives
steamed or sauteed greens

To make the yogurt sauce: In a bowl, mix together the yogurt, garlic, and salt to taste. Set aside.

To make the seasoned oil: Pour the olive oil and pepper in a saucepan, and gently heat over a medium-low flame until the oil just warms and takes on color from the pepper (you dont want to overheat and darken things). Turn off and let sit.

Poach the eggs — there are numerous tutorials on this, but Im fond of slipping a cracked egg into a whirlpool of barely-simmering water with a splash of vinegar, and simmering until just barely set.

To assemble: Lay down a bed of the garlicky yogurt on a plate, and ladle two poached eggs on top. Add whatever additions you favor, then top with a sprinkling of salt and a good amount of the seasoned oil. Serve with crusty bread for dipping.

The beginning of fall feels like a series of doors closing: no more lazy sunlit evenings, no more bicycling without gloves, no more waking up to a warm house. I just taught a visiting European friend the phrase "picnic weather," only to have to cancel tonights picnic after the rain started. The Portland skies have been dark lately, and the adjustment can be pretty rough. But after mourning summers departure, you remember the lovely things about fall. Toasty fireplaces, for one. And this cake.

This is no springtime dessert. The cake is rich with ground nuts, and topped with boozy poached pears. The recipe was originally adapted by the lovely Travelers Lunchbox blog, which took Italys Piedmont tradition of poached pears and nut-rich cakes, and combined them into one dessert. Im a big fan of such one-pan ventures. The cake is buttery and sweet, and nubby with ground nuts. But then its topped with pears that have been poached in wine and sugar, and brushed with a syrup reduced from the same. I first made this last year, for no real occasion, and we felt sort of reckless with our good fortune as we cut thick slices to have for a snack.

Like the Plum Custard Tart, this is a dessert that ranks high on the prettiness scale. But unlike the tart, these jewel-like fruits arent resting on a bed of trembling custard. Theyre on a much heartier landing pad of nut-filled cake. To fortify you for the cold autumn nights ahead.


Piedmontese Nut Cake with Wine-Poached Pears

adapted from The Travelers Lunchboxs Piedmontese Hazelnut, Pear and Marsala Cake (I felt compelled to rename it, as my version was missing two of the three titular ingredients), initially adapted from the Piedmontese Hazelnut Cake in Michele Scicolones 1,0000 Italian Recipes

If youre aching to make this cake, but your pears are a bit under-ripe, dont worry -- theyll soften in the poaching liquid, and will be tender and flavorful by the time theyre out of the oven.

For the Pears:

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup Marsala (or other sweet fortified wine, such as Port or Madeira)
1 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 medium pears, peeled, halved and cored

For the Cake:

1 1/2 cups finely ground hazelnuts (traditional) or almonds (also good)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9-inch pan (a springform is nice if you have it, but anything will work).

Combine the sugar, wines, water, vanilla and pears in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, and then reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, until the pears just begin to get translucent, and are tender when pierced with a fork (about 30 minutes). Remove pears from the poaching liquid, and set aside to cool. Continue simmering the poaching liquid to reduce (more on that later).

In a large bowl, sift together the nut meal, flour, baking powder, and salt. If the nut meal isnt ground finely, you can either sift through a larger amount of nut meal to yield 1 1/2 finely-ground cups, or leave as is for a more rustic cake. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, mix well. Fold in the dry ingredient mixture, stirring until just combined. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Place the poached pears, cut side down, on top of the cake in a pretty pattern. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven.

While the cake is baking, continue simmering the poaching liquid until it has reduced to about 1/2 cup (it will be thick and syrupy, and the color will have darkened). When the cake is out of the oven, brush it with this syrup, covering both the cake and the pears. Wait a moment for the syrup to be absorbed, and then repeat. Serve warm or at room temperature.

A few weeks ago, I was trying to help a friend come up with some quick and easy dinner plans. She was swamped at work, her husband was out of town, and her two young kids needed the usual amount of attention. I asked what shed been cooking lately. She listed a handful of dishes, nothing fancy but certainly nothing to sniff at. Also, she admitted with some level of embarrassment, theyd been having a lot of breakfast for dinner.

There always seems be some shame in having breakfast for dinner. Every time someone scrambles up an egg, or plops some pancake batter on the griddle, theres an accompanying feeling of not being a Proper Adult. PAs clearly know the difference between breakfast and dinner, and feed their family the appropriate meal for the hour (and also never, say, get past-due notices for their forgotten health insurance co-pays). But I argue that we should let go of those prejudices. Pancakes, eggs and the like make wonderful dinners. As long as you do them up right.

As Ive mentioned before, Im a big fan of poaching eggs in a sauce. They absorb flavor, the whole mess is deliciously fun to sweep up with a piece of bread (or tuck inside or tortilla), and, most importantly, its just really easy. This dish is no exception. Taking inspiration from a blog post I read a few months back, I cooked up a saucy saute of onions, fresh tomatoes, grated summer squash, and fresh basil. Then I made a few divots, cracked in some eggs, and covered and cooked til they were set to my liking. Add a slice of crusty flatbread, and its perfect. A delicious, one-pot, near insta-meal, with a healthy helping of vegetables. Wheres the shame in that? Breakfast for dinner, you do not disappoint.

And, if breakfast for dinner isnt your thing, I present an article I wrote on the flip side: dinner for breakfast. You can check it out in The Oregonian.


Eggs Poached in Summer Squash Saute

inspired by The Kitchn, but tweaked to my taste/groceries
serves 2

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped in a fine dice
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 summer squash, grated on the coarse holes of a grater
1 handful fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper
4 eggs
crusty bread or flatbread, for serving

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over a medium heat. Add the onions and a sprinkling of salt, and cook until softened but not colored, ~7 minutes. Add the garlic, and cook for a few more minutes. Add the tomatoes, squash and basil, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break down and get saucy, and the squash is tender, ~10 minutes. The mixture should give off a lot of liquid, which is what you want (it will absorb/cook off when you cook the eggs). Add salt and pepper to taste. Make 4 divots in the mixture with the back of a spoon, and crack an egg into each divot. Cover, and let cook until the eggs are set to your liking. Top the eggs with a bit of additional salt and pepper, and serve with bread.

Salmon and cucumber seems like a combination from a long time ago. Im not sure if I come by this opinion from my own personal history, or obsessive reading of old cookbooks (its hard to tease apart the two sometimes). Regardless, it pulls up thoughts of gelatin-set salmon molds, of cucumber slices made to look like fish scales, and other tropes that were the height of luncheon catering some twenty-five years past. But I clearly need to readjust my thinking. Because poached salmon with cucumber sauce is a timeless combination. Its what I had for dinner last night, and last week as well. And what I should be having once a week every summer.

The inspiration for this particular incarnation of the classic comes from the always-in-style Julia Child. And it couldnt be simpler. Salmon is slipped into a barely-simmering bath of water, where it manages to delicately set without overcooking (and, thanks to a generous helping of salt and vinegar, doesnt wash out but instead gains even more flavor). And then it is served with a cool, slippery sauce (if you could even call it that) of sour cream, Greek yogurt, cucumbers and dill. Pair it with a simple summer salad (I went with arugula, peaches and corn), maybe a chunk of leftover bread for sopping up the plate, and youve got a summer meal thats just about perfect. Timeless, even.


Poached Salmon with Cucumber Sauce

inspired by Julia Childs The Way to Cook
serves 4

Cucumber Sauce:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (not nonfat)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon vinegar (cider or sherry work well)
1 cucumber, chopped in a 1/4-inch dice
~2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

1 pound salmon, cut into 4 slices
salt and white vinegar (see below)

To make the cucumber sauce: In a bowl, stir together the sour cream, Greek yogurt, sugar, salt and vinegar until well combined. Taste, and adjust as needed. Stir in the cucumber and dill, and set aside to chill while you prepare the salmon.

To prepare the salmon: Pour water into a very deep-walled saucepan, or wide-bottomed pot, to a depth of three inches. For every quart of water this requires, add 2 teaspoons coarse salt, and 3 tablespoons vinegar. Bring to a boil, then slip in the salmon, and adjust the heat so that it is just barely about to simmer. Cook at this level until done, meaning it has a bit of internal firmness, and is thinking about flaking but not quite there yet — the exact time will vary depending upon the thickness of your fish, but start checking before 5 minutes are up. Remove with a slotted spoon (no need to rinse off), let drain a moment, and serve with cucumber sauce.