Can I just love on beets for a minute? I know not everyone adores them the way I do, but everyone should be able to at least appreciate their beauty. The color and the texture are just stunning and when you combine golden and red beets, it’s almost too beautiful to eat. Blood oranges rock my world as well and when you combine the two, not only does it taste fabulous, but it’s like you’re eating a piece of art.

 It seems like I’ve been writing a lot about planning ahead lately and this recipe is another example of that. It’s quick and easy the night you make it if you remember to plan ahead and roast the beets earlier. Here’s how I do that: rinse your beets, trim the stems to about 1/2 inch and place them in an ovenproof container. Toss with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil, 1/2 tsp of salt and  a grind or two of fresh pepper. Cover tightly with foil,  place in a 400 degree oven and roast for 45 minutes to an hour until tender when pierced with a fork. The time depends greatly on the size of your beets to begin with.

Serves 4
15 minutes

4 beets (2 golden and red) peeled and sliced into bite size pieces
1 blood orange
2 handfuls fresh arugula
1/2 cup toasted walnuts

For the dressing:
2 tbsp fresh orange juice,  from a navel orange or another blood orange
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

-Prepare the blood orange by slicing off the top and bottom. Then set orange on a cutting board and carefully peel off the rind and pithy white part. Then lay orange on side and slice into 1/4 slices.
-Make dressing by combining everything but the olive oil. Then whisk in olive oil, taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
-Put beets and arugula in a bowl,  put in 3/4 of the dressing and toss gently to combine. Place oranges and walnuts on top, drizzle over the rest of the dressing and serve.

I love beans. Not the canned variety, but fresh homemade beans that have been soaked for a day then simmered quietly on your stove until nice and tender. When I travel, I often come back with bags of mysterious beans that I’ll never know the names of but that will still be delicious when soaked and cooked with herbs.

These beauties are cannellini beans that I soaked for a day, then forgot about on the stove until their smell reached me in the living room telling me they were done.  If you’ve never made your own beans,  I recommend giving it a try at least once. It just takes a little planning ahead and the small amount of effort is well worth the rewards. Here’s how I do it: 2 days ahead, rinse your dried beans of choice, then cover with water to at least 2 inches above the level of your beans. Add 1 tbsp of salt and leave to soak for at least 8 hours. The next day, rinse your beans, cover with water again in the same manner, add 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic, sage, bay leaves or other herbs of choice and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until beans are tender to bite, 1-2 hours depending on the freshness of the beans. All you have left to do is build your appetite for the following bean and sausage soup.
(I made a beet, blood orange salad to go with this which means roasting some beets when you soak those beans I was mentioning.  Just a little planning….)

Serves 6
About 1 hour, 35 minutes of that active time

6 tbsp butter
2 ounces diced bacon
1 large onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp thyme or rosemary leaves (chopped if rosemary)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups canned diced tomatoes (I like the Muir Glen fire roasted variety for this)
1 1/4 cups chicken stock
2 cans (14.5 oz each) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed or 2 cups dried cooked as described above
2 lbs cooked sausage, pork, chicken or turkey (I used hot Italian turkey sausage)
3-4 cups homemade breadcrumbs, roughly cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

-Put 1-2 tbsp olive oil in large skillet and cook sausages until nicely browned. Set aside. (I realized after I did this step, that it might be good to do this in the Dutch oven you’re going to make the soup in. Then just carry on with the recipe. I wanted to cook the sausages at the same time I began the soup, so it would take longer but maybe add more flavor to use one pot for all.)

-I also made my own breadcrumbs, which for me means taking some day old french bread or other similar style bread, cutting it into smallish pieces and whizzing in the food processor until it’s the size I want.

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Melt 2 tbsp butter in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until crisp.  Add onion and cook until tender and translucent.  Add garlic and thyme or rosemary, stir for 1 minute.  Add wine and cook for 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and cook until sauce is thickened.  Add stock and beans, bring to a simmer.  Add sausages. Put in oven and bake for 30 minutes

-Meanwhile, toast breadcrumbs in remaining 4 tbsp of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring until golden, 8-10 minutes.  Stir in parsley.  Season with coarse salt.
-Remove beans from oven and heat broiler.  Scatter breadcrumbs over top of sausage, bean mixture and broil 6 inches from heat source until top is deep golden brown, 1-2 minutes.

How many times have you bought special ingredients for a recipe, only to never use them again? I’m hoping I’m not the only cook to have extra bottles of this and that that haven’t seen the light of day since the recipe I got them for. I went to Japan several years back and loved the food. I loved the udon with a cute little quail’s egg that you broke into it, the sushi, even the smoked eel. I only had two food mishaps. One was when my host had me try sea urchin egg sushi, I’m sorry, but YUCK! And the other was when staying with a very kind family who was trying to make me feel at home.  They made me a fried egg but the only utensils on the table were chopsticks. Picture trying to cut an egg with chopsticks or trying to pick up the whole thing and nibble off a bite. Not very elegant or polite and talk about egg on your face! Anyway, long story short, when I returned, I filled my shelves with ingredients for Japanese food only to have them sit for months after my initial enthusiasm wore off. Not that I don’t love Japanese cuisine, because I do, it just didn’t end up feeling natural to me to eat it every day after I was home in my own element. Not to mention the years and years of practice it takes to make really good Japanese food which I was lacking.  Since then I’ve learned to be a little more thoughtful about entering into other types of cuisines. Which is why I love this recipe for green curry chicken. At one time, I cut out a recipe for green curry paste when I had visions of making my own homemade paste, but again, I’ve learned I’m more likely to spend my time making ravioli or a cake then homemade curry pastes. The bottled version is good enough for my purposes and my style of cooking. I get the Thai Kitchen version. The only other thing you need for this recipe that may be hard to find is kaffir lime leaves. I’ve found them at our local PCC and buy them when I see them because they will keep in the fridge forever. They dry up, but are still just as good.  The other specialty item is Thai basil, which again is hit or miss to find. You can substitute regular basil if needed. The flavor is best if you have at least one of these items, but the good news that once you get them, they keep until you make this dish again. And I promise it’s easy enough and you’ll like it enough to make it more than once so those specialty items won’t go to waste.

Serves 4
About 30 minutes

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size strips
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup chicken stock
8-10 ounces frozen or fresh green beans or 1 can bamboo shoots
1-2 tbsp green curry paste (more means spicier!)
2 tbsp canola or safflower oil
4 leaves dried or fresh kaffir lime leaves
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh Thai basil leaves, roughly chopped
(1 optional fresh chile pepper it you like it really hot!)

Heat oil in large saute pan. When hot, add curry paste and saute for 1-2 minutes.  Add coconut milk and simmer 5-10 minutes, until curry paste and coconut milk are well incorporated.  Add stock, chicken, fish sauce, sugar, salt, lime leaves and bamboo shoots or green beans.  Simmer until chicken and beans are cooked through and sauce is very slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.  Just before serving, add basil and chili peppers if desired. I also like to add a squeeze of fresh lime juice if you have them on hand.

I serve this with brown or white rice to soak up all the delicious sauce!

Did I mention we have a lot of family and friends’ birthdays in February? Did I also mention that when you like to cook, people often ask you to cook for them? Especially when it’s their birthday? And they like cake? This means that I’ve spent a lot of weekend time lately baking. I’m not complaining; I’m quite honestly honored and flattered when people request baked things from me. It just means that this week, I was feeling a little lazy about my menu. Some weeks are like that, but you still need to eat. So, I went with a few easy dishes I’ve cooked before, but at least  I got it done. So here you go. Happy cooking this Valentine’s Week!

Monday-No cooking, we had a guest chef whose recipe may be coming later if I can talk her into it.
Tuesday-Green curry chicken with brown rice and broccolini
Wednesday-Sausage and white bean soup and a beet salad
Thursday-Pasta bolognese with Caesar salad

I’ve said before that I love poaching eggs. This recipe lets me get my French cooking groove on and you get to poach eggs in red wine! They turn purple! How cool and weird is that? It also has one of my favorite trios of French cooking-bacon, baby onions and mushrooms.  It comes from Anne Willan’s Cooking with Wine and can be made for brunch, but I love it for dinner. It’s not a dish to make in a hurry, but you can make it all ahead and reheat for serving. I served it with roasted fingerling potatoes which I used to soak up every last bit of this delicious sauce. You use a whole bottle of red wine, but I sneak a glass for drinking while I cook this. Who can cook French food without a glass of wine in hand? Or at least, who wants to?

Serves 4
About 1 hour, 30 minutes

8 fresh eggs
1 bottle fruity red wine
2 cups chicken stock
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
a bouquet garni of thyme sprigs, parsley stems and a bay leaf
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
salt and pepper

For the garnish:
2 tbsp butter
1/4 lb mushrooms, sliced
1/4 lb piece of bacon, diced
10-16 baby onions, peeled

For the croutes:
8 slices of white bread, 1/4 inch thick
oil for frying

For thickening the sauce:
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
2 tbsp flour

-To poach the eggs, bring the wine and stock to a vigorous boil in a large shallow pan.  Break four eggs, one by one, into the places where the liquid is bubbling so the bubbles spin the eggs. Lower the heat and poach the eggs for 3-4 minutes until the yolks are fairly firm but still soft to the touch.  Lift out the eggs with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels.  Poach the remaining eggs in the same way and set the eggs aside. Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bouquet garni and peppercorns to the poaching liquid and simmer until it’s concentrated and reduced by half, about 20-25 minutes.

-Meanwhile, cook the garnish. Melt half the butter in a medium saucepan and when it foams, add the mushrooms and saute until lightly browned, 3-5 minutes. Remove mushrooms from pan, add the remaining butter and when it foams, add the bacon and fry until browned and beginning to crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Add the baby onions and brown on all sides until tender, shaking the pan and turning them often, 10-15 minutes. Drain off all the fat and return the mushrooms and bacon to the pan.  Set aside.

-Make the croutes. Using a round or oval cutter, cut the bread into 8 shapes just larger than a poached egg.  Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a frying pan over medium heat.  Working in batches, fry the croutes until browned on both sides, 1-2 minutes per side.  Drain on paper towels and set aside.

-To thicken the sauce, use a fork to work the softened butter into the flour until you have a soft paste.  Whisk this kneaded butter, a small piece at a time, into the simmering wine mixture until it becomes thick enough to lightly coat a spoon-you may not use all of the paste.  Strain the sauce over the garnish of mushroom, baby onions and bacon, pressing on the vegetables in the sauce to extract all the liquid and flavor.  Bring the sauce to a boil, taste and adjust the seasoning.

-To serve, reheat the eggs by immersing them in hot water for 1 minute or by putting the eggs and the croutes in a 300 degree oven for 3-5 minutes to reheat while finishing the sauce.  Then put 2 croutes on each plate, top with 1 poached egg on each croute and spoon sauce with garnish over all.

-To make ahead, poach the eggs up to a day in advance, keeping them in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator.  Store the sauce and garnish also in the refrigerator.  The croutes will be fine if kept tightly wrapped, then warmed in a low oven.

So do we celebrate this holiday for the chocolate or the love? I’m not sure which, but both are worthy of the attention in my opinion. In this week’s menu posting, I shared a few ideas for meals, now here are a few desserts that you might like…either because you want to pamper your loved one(s) or yourself!

The huckleberry tart from Macrina Bakery is delicious and more of a crowd pleaser if you’re celebrating with a group and I’d also recommend the Italian chocolate torte for a more than two of you meal.  The item I would make for my romantic dinner with my sweetie, would be a chocolate pot de creme. This is the one pictured above and here’s the recipe for 2. This version is from Martha Stewart and I have to be honest, I haven’t made her version. But mine is for 8 and unless you want lots of leftovers, give hers a try. I think we can trust her, not with our money, but probably with our chocolate.

Serves 2
25 minutes active time, 5 hours to refrigerate

3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp instant espresso powder or real espresso
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp sugar

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Bring 1/2 cup pluse 2 tbsp of cream, the espresso and vanilla to a simmer.  Pour over chocolate in a medium bowl.  Let sit for 3 minutes and then whisk until smooth.
-In another medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, sugar, and a pinch of coarse salt.  Add warm chocolate mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly.  Strain custard through a fine sieve into a 2 cup glass measuring cup.  let cool completely, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.
-Place 2 teacups or ramekins in the center of a baking dish.  Divide custard between cups and fill pan with enough boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the teacups.  Cover tightly with foil; poke several holes in foil.  Bake until custard is set around edges but wobbly in center, about 25 minutes.
-Remove cups from water bath and let cool on a wire rack for 1 hour.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.  Before serving, whisk remaining 2 tbsp cream to soft peks and dollop over pots de creme.

This is a quick, delicious and exotic meal that makes any weeknight a little bit special. The flavors are fresh and the hardest part is cleaning the prawns, which you can solve by buying frozen ones. I’m not usually a frozen food fan, but every now and again it has its place and it works well here. Add some brown rice and a vegetable or salad and you have a great meal in 30 minutes or so. The garam masala is crucial to this dish, but can be found at PCC or Whole Foods.

Serves 4
30 minutes

For the prawns:
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1  2″ piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup water
1 lb frozen or fresh shrimp, tails off and deveined
sea salt
3-4 tbsp safflower oil
10 oz frozen cut green beans
1 large shallot, sliced thinly
1 small fresh green chile, such as serrano, finely chopped (seeded and deveined if you want less heat)
1 tbsp garam masala (our local PCC has it in bulk)
1 1/4 cups coconut milk

For the chutney:
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup fresh cilantro
1 small seeded fresh green chile, such as serrano
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 fresh lime

To make prawns:
-Pulse garlic, ginger and water into a past in a blender or small food processor.  Season shrimp with salt.
-Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Add 1 tbsp oil, let warm for 1 minute. Cook shrimp until they are not longer translucent and are nice and pink, 2-3 minutes.  Remove from pan to a plate and set aside.  Reduce heat to medium and 2 tbsp of oil to pan.  Cook beans 3-4 minutes until cooked through and transfer to a plate.
-Add 1 tbsp of oil to the pan if needed. Cook shallot and chile for 1 minute or until starting to soften.  Add garlic paste and garam masala.  Cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Add coconut milk and 1 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 minute. Add shrimp and cook for 1 minute. Add the cooked beans and cook for another minute or so until all is warmed through. Serve immediately with generous spoonfuls of chutney.

To make the chutney: Put all ingredients, except the lime, into the bowl of a small food processor and pulse until combined and paste like. Remove to bowl and squeeze the lime over the chutney. Serve with prawns.

This is one of my most special desserts. Mainly because its main ingredient is so special. Huckleberries. If you’re from around here (Seattle), your version may be different than mine. I get these beauties from Montana where my grandma lives. I go every summer and after a nice long visit with my grandma and her brothers about where the best berries are that year, I head up to the woods and start trying to fill my buckets. These berries have an earthy flavor different from any store-bought berry you can find. Part of the magic is all the memories that go along with them for me. My grandma is the first person who ever showed me a huckleberry, along with many other plants and flowers and she deserves her very own posting at a later date. Suffice it to say, that when I brought these berries back and found this recipe in the Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook, it became an instant favorite around here. I made this latest one for my dear friend’s birthday, having saved just the right amount of berries in the freezer for her February birthday request. If you aren’t lucky enough to have huckleberries around, blueberries should do fine and they’re in the stores right now.

Serves 6-8
About 3 hours, about 1 hour active time
Special equipment needed: 10 inch tart pan with removable bottom and a small blowtorch

3 cups fresh or frozen huckleberries
1 recipe sweet almond dough (following) at room temperature
1 1/2 cups creme fraiche
3 eggs
1/2 cup + 1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

-Clean huckleberries if needed. If frozen, let thaw and drain on paper towels to air dry.

-Using your fingers, press the sweet almond dough into a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.  Form an even crust, about 1/8 inch thick, over the bottom and all the way up the sides of the pan.  It’s important that the crust be the same thickness on the bottom and the sides.  Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Line the chilled tart shell with a piece of parchment paper and fill with dreid beans or baking weights.  Bake on center rack of oven for 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Carefully remove the paper and beans and set aside to cool.  Leave the oven on.

-Combine creme fraiche, eggs 1/2 cup of sugar and vanilla extract in a medium stainless steel bowl.  Mix well with a whisk until eggs are fully incorporated.  Place bowl on top of a saucepan filled with 2 inches of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not come in contact with the water.  It’s important that the water be just simmering or it might scorch the ingredients.  Stir constantly with a rubber spatula until the mixture is warmed through, approximately 95 degrees on a candy thermometer.  This usually takes me about 5 minutes or so.

-Place the cooled tart shell on a rimmed baking sheet and scatter the huckleberries evenly across the bottom of the shell.  Pour the warmed custard over the berries, filling the shell to just below the top. (I always have some custard left, so last time I put a few berries in a ramekin and poured the leftover custard in, then baked with the tart. It needed about 5 minutes longer in the oven to set, but was delicious! And since the crust has nuts in it, it was perfect for my guest with a nut allergy.)  Place baking sheet on center rack of oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until tart is just set.  Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

-Combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cinnamon and nutmeg. Sprinkle evenly over the tart.  Using a small blowtorch, carefully caramelize the surface of the tart.  The sugar will turn a deep, golden brown.  If you don’t have a blowtorch, place the tart under a preheated broiler and turn frequently until the surface of the tart is evenly browned.  Serve immediately.
(I’ve also made this tart a day ahead, kept it at room temperature and then caramelized the sugar and spices right before serving.)

Sweet Almond Dough
(For 1 10-inch tart)

1/4 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Spread almonds on a baking sheet and toast in oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool, then finely grind in a food processor.  Measure out 2 tablespoons of ground almonds and set aside. Save the rest for another day and another tart.

-Combine 2 tablespoons of the ground almonds, sugar and flour in a medium bowl and mix with a wooden spoon.  In a separate bowl, mix together vanilla, almond extract and melted butter.  Add butter mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until coarse and crumbly, using your hands to break up any large lumps.  The finished dough will stick together when squeezed between your thumb and forefinger.
-At this point, the dough is ready for the above recipe. Or you can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator for 1-2 days or freeze for up to a month. Be sure and bring dough to room temperature before using.

Valentine’s Day is on its way! We have lots of February birthdays around here so we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day in a big way by mutual consent, but it did get me thinking of some nice 2 person meals that I’d like to share with you this week in case you’re in planning mode for next Tuesday. There are two here that I think would be nice for a Valentine’s Day dinner and I’m actually thinking ahead enough to post them this week so any readers out there could prepare. One of them is prawns Marsala, which is a fresh, exotic and fairly quick meal that would be easy to make after a busy day, but still special enough to make someone feel loved. The other one is if you want to get your cooking groove on and have some time. It’s oefs en meurette. What could be sexier than French food on Valentine’s Day? And it involves red wine, bacon and mushrooms, mmmmm. And poached eggs. Am I the only one who thinks poached eggs are sexy? Maybe, but they really are. So follow along this week and hopefully you’ll find one of these inspires you to cook for your sweetie on Tuesday. There, I’ve done my part, now the candles are up to you.

Monday-I hosted for the neighbors so cooked for lots which means I doubled all these recipes except the tart-chicken marbella, orzo, sweet potatoes with bacon and huckleberry-creme fraiche tart
Tuesday-prawns masala and rice
Wednesday- Off to book club, so no cooking for me
Thursday-oefs en meurette with roasted potatoes

This is a great weeknight meal with a little pizazz to make it special. Plus, I love poaching eggs. I’m not sure why, but it feels like magic to drop a runny egg into simmering water and have it form into something lovely you can eat.  The other great thing about this meal is that you don’t need any sides because this has it all-greens, protein and a starch. I usually make this for two of us and have one potato cake left over for my lunch, so I’ve said it serves 2-3.

Serves 2-3
Takes about an hour to prepare, most of that active

4-5 Yukon gold potatoes (about 1 pound), halved
1 lb Italian sausages removed from their cases
1/2 small yellow onion, minced
1 large egg
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
3-4 cups (3-5 ounces) baby spinach or arugula, cleaned
4-6 poached eggs
2 teaspoons white vinegar
Horseradish-Mustard vinaigrette (recipe follows)

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender. While potatoes cook, brown the sausage, breaking into smallish pieces with a wooden spoon until completely cooked through and set aside. When potatoes are cooked, drain and mash-the potatoes don’t have to be smooth.

2. In a large bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, 1 cup of the sausage, the onion, egg, flour and parsley.  Stir to combine thoroughly.  Season with 1 tsp salt and a few grinds of pepper and combine.

3. Form the potato mixture into 4 cakes about 3 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick and refrigerate for about 15 minutes. (This is when I make the dressing and get the greens ready.)

4.  Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  When nice and hot, add the potato cakes, reduce the heat to medium and cook about 3 minutes per side, until golden brown and crispy.  Place in oven to keep warm.

5. Make the poached eggs by filling a large, high sided skillet with water about 2 inches deep and bring to a boil. Add the vinegar (the vinegar helps the egg whites set) and a pinch of sea salt and reduce the heat to keep the water at a simmer.  Add the eggs one at a time, carefully opening the egg right over the simmering water and gently dropping them in. Poach for 2-3 minutes, until the whites set and a thin, translucent film forms over the yolks. Use a slotted spoon to remove the eggs from the water and drain on a paper towel.

6. Toss the greens with 1/4 cup of the dressing and divide evenly among your plates. Set a potato cake on top of each bed of greens and top with 1 or 2 poached eggs and about 1/4 cup of the remaining sausage.  Drizzle each serving with the remaining dressing and serve immediately.

Horseradish-mustard vinaigrette
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 small shallot, minced
1 tbsp prepared horseradish
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp sea salt and a few grinds of freshly ground pepper

1. In a small bowl or a jar with a tight fitting lid, combine the ingredients and whisk or shake until well combined. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.