Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
last night's delicious "quick" dinner from the farm!
scott, adam, and i were talking at the market about how much fun it is to cook from the farm, but how sometimes a "quick" meal is needed, due to our busy schedules and the like. scott has an amazing solar oven, which i'd love to know more about, and adam praised the crockpot.
inspired by the idea of a "quick" meal from "slow" food:) i decided to give an under 30-minute dinner a try with what we got from the farm yesterday:
basil (1 cup, chopped)
1 zucchini (cubed)
1 squash (cubed)
2 new potatoes (cubed and blanched)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tiny red onions, chopped
1 tbl. olive oil
i put put the olive oil and garlic in an iron skillet and let that go for about 1 minute and then added the rest of the stuff and let it cook down for about 10 minutes. the flavors were amazing and it was a simple dish. total cook time from prep-->table: 30 minutes
as a side dish, i took that amazing red kale and sauteed it with olive oil, garlic, and 1/4 cup veggie stock and 1 tsp. sugar, and then topped it with toasted almonds.
one thing i can't love enough is how eatin' from the farm has gotten me out of regular food ruts, has caused me to be creative with cooking, and as a result, has gotten us into eating healthier foods. it is a win-win situation. not to mention how fun it is to have this relationship with adam and darbi and to support their farm while meeting other farm-share folks and trading recipes. nice.
inspired by the idea of a "quick" meal from "slow" food:) i decided to give an under 30-minute dinner a try with what we got from the farm yesterday:
basil (1 cup, chopped)
1 zucchini (cubed)
1 squash (cubed)
2 new potatoes (cubed and blanched)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tiny red onions, chopped
1 tbl. olive oil
i put put the olive oil and garlic in an iron skillet and let that go for about 1 minute and then added the rest of the stuff and let it cook down for about 10 minutes. the flavors were amazing and it was a simple dish. total cook time from prep-->table: 30 minutes
as a side dish, i took that amazing red kale and sauteed it with olive oil, garlic, and 1/4 cup veggie stock and 1 tsp. sugar, and then topped it with toasted almonds.
one thing i can't love enough is how eatin' from the farm has gotten me out of regular food ruts, has caused me to be creative with cooking, and as a result, has gotten us into eating healthier foods. it is a win-win situation. not to mention how fun it is to have this relationship with adam and darbi and to support their farm while meeting other farm-share folks and trading recipes. nice.
the ribs!
so, the peahean is braising w/ bacon, so i have to return that favor w/ a vegan "solution" to a popular conundrum about swiss chard. we love the chard. especially fresh out of the ground like it came yesterday at the market (thanks, adam!). when fresh, it has such a different flavor than the grocery store variety (less bitter, more complex in flavor). so, i usually eat it raw or "braise tha roof" with it. but i never know what to do with the stems (or "ribs"). i'm flirting with the idea of eating the entire vegetable, so i came across this idea somewhere (can't remember where) about turning swiss chard stems into a "cream" sauce for pasta and have modified it here to fit a vegan palate.
i stemmed the chard (and sauteed the chard in good ole garlic and olive oil w/ lemon juice and red pepper flakes for a side dish).
then, i took the stems and chopped them up. about a tbl. of margarine in the bottom of a saucepan with garlic and chopped basil to saute for about 1 minute. then, i added a little bit of tapioca flour and nutritional yeast to make a "paste" and then made the "cream" sauce by whisking in a little rice milk slowly until i got the consistency i wanted. s/p to taste, and voila! the sauteed chard actually tasted good on TOP of the pasta, so it wasn't a side dish after all. (top dish?) some toasted pine nuts make it extra sexy, but that kind of sexiness can get expensive.
of course the "cream" sauce can be done with butter, heavy cream and cheese, in the way that we make moo-cream sauces (reduce, reduce, reduce).
i stemmed the chard (and sauteed the chard in good ole garlic and olive oil w/ lemon juice and red pepper flakes for a side dish).
then, i took the stems and chopped them up. about a tbl. of margarine in the bottom of a saucepan with garlic and chopped basil to saute for about 1 minute. then, i added a little bit of tapioca flour and nutritional yeast to make a "paste" and then made the "cream" sauce by whisking in a little rice milk slowly until i got the consistency i wanted. s/p to taste, and voila! the sauteed chard actually tasted good on TOP of the pasta, so it wasn't a side dish after all. (top dish?) some toasted pine nuts make it extra sexy, but that kind of sexiness can get expensive.
of course the "cream" sauce can be done with butter, heavy cream and cheese, in the way that we make moo-cream sauces (reduce, reduce, reduce).
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Braise tha roof!
Aside from the potatoes, this week is a study in roughage: turnips, squash, green onions, basil, and LOTS of greens: mustard greens, kale, turnip greens (I think), and mesclun.
What's a man to do when presented with this much green? The answer: braise the hell out of it. For a man as busy as the Peahen (think: eBay auctions; writing Missed Connections for myself; shooting spitballs onto 6th St; etc.), it's an easy hour that solves a lot of problems:
TIME: 45 minutes - 1 hour, largely unattended
Start with olive oil, one big yellow onion and a quarter pound of bacon. Put it in a dutch oven or big pot with a lid. Heat the oil and drop in the onion and bacon. When the onion turns color, add chili (either powdered or whole), herbs, salt and pepper. Lower the heat a touch and cook 'til the bacon gets crispy and pull out the whole mess with a slotted spoon. Leave as much oil and rendered fat as possible in the pot.
Next, turn the heat back up (medium-hot) and dump in all the greens. Cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to caramelize (a.k.a. brown) a bit, maybe 5 minutes or so.
Dump in the onion/bacon/herb mixture. Add the liquid (I used a big, flat beer that I'd been saving for an occasion such as this). Once there's a boil going, turn down the heat to "simmer" or "low," whatever heat is low enough to keep a bit of bubbling going on.
Put the lid back on. Let it cook for 20-30 minutes, until everything reaches the tenderness you want.
Serve over grain, as it will be saucy. Refrigerate the rest.
BOOM. Peahen out.
What's a man to do when presented with this much green? The answer: braise the hell out of it. For a man as busy as the Peahen (think: eBay auctions; writing Missed Connections for myself; shooting spitballs onto 6th St; etc.), it's an easy hour that solves a lot of problems:
- it can be eaten all week (best on top of quinoa, barley, rice, etc.)
- it takes care of a lot of produce in one fell swoop
- it takes stuff that is on hand (or should be, unless I've fallen down on the job)
- it's amazingly easy
TIME: 45 minutes - 1 hour, largely unattended
- Olive oil
- 1/4 lb good bacon
- 1 onion, diced
- salt
- pepper
- 2 tbsp herbs (I used the fresh basil and some dried rosemary, but you can experiment here)
- 2 tsp chili (powder or whole)
- 2 cups liquid (stock, white wine, red wine, beer...or just plain water)
- mess of vegetables (greens, root, whatever--just chop up anything non-leafy into 2-inch chunks)
Start with olive oil, one big yellow onion and a quarter pound of bacon. Put it in a dutch oven or big pot with a lid. Heat the oil and drop in the onion and bacon. When the onion turns color, add chili (either powdered or whole), herbs, salt and pepper. Lower the heat a touch and cook 'til the bacon gets crispy and pull out the whole mess with a slotted spoon. Leave as much oil and rendered fat as possible in the pot.
Next, turn the heat back up (medium-hot) and dump in all the greens. Cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to caramelize (a.k.a. brown) a bit, maybe 5 minutes or so.
Dump in the onion/bacon/herb mixture. Add the liquid (I used a big, flat beer that I'd been saving for an occasion such as this). Once there's a boil going, turn down the heat to "simmer" or "low," whatever heat is low enough to keep a bit of bubbling going on.
Put the lid back on. Let it cook for 20-30 minutes, until everything reaches the tenderness you want.
Serve over grain, as it will be saucy. Refrigerate the rest.
BOOM. Peahen out.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Woohoo, potatoes!
Yesterday was an interesting day for the market, considering it dumped rain on poor Adam in the middle of things. That didn't stop him and FCF from bringing the goodness again this week! We got another slew of fabulous greens (collards, kale, mesclun mix, mustard, chard), some potatoes, baby leeks, and squashes.
I also got another bunch of basil because I can't get enough of that stuff and b/c I was feeling lazy, I made a quick dinner this time.
Pesto Potato Salad:
2(ish) lbs of new potatoes
1 tbl. balsamic vinegar
baby leeks (about 5 or 6), chopped
pesto
Pesto:
1 1/2 c. basil leaves
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
s/p to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
(process the basil, pine nuts, s/p, and garlic, then add the oil slowly until you get the consistency you want). I leave the cheese out of it :)
Quarter and boil the potatoes until tender and let cool. Then toss w/ the balsamic, baby leeks, and pesto. This is a great "garbage" salad because you can add sundried/sliced cherry tomatoes, olives, whatever. I served it up over some of the FCF's awesome mixed greens. The pesto is potent enough to handle just about anything.
I also braised the kale w/ onion, garlic, veggie stock, s/p, lemon juice and a little bit of sugar. The potato salad recipe serves about 4-6 folks as a side dish. Yum! liz
I also got another bunch of basil because I can't get enough of that stuff and b/c I was feeling lazy, I made a quick dinner this time.
Pesto Potato Salad:
2(ish) lbs of new potatoes
1 tbl. balsamic vinegar
baby leeks (about 5 or 6), chopped
pesto
Pesto:
1 1/2 c. basil leaves
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
s/p to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
(process the basil, pine nuts, s/p, and garlic, then add the oil slowly until you get the consistency you want). I leave the cheese out of it :)
Quarter and boil the potatoes until tender and let cool. Then toss w/ the balsamic, baby leeks, and pesto. This is a great "garbage" salad because you can add sundried/sliced cherry tomatoes, olives, whatever. I served it up over some of the FCF's awesome mixed greens. The pesto is potent enough to handle just about anything.
I also braised the kale w/ onion, garlic, veggie stock, s/p, lemon juice and a little bit of sugar. The potato salad recipe serves about 4-6 folks as a side dish. Yum! liz
Friday, June 5, 2009
Zucchini cakes, sauteed greens, and apple/turnip "slaw"
Zucchini Cakes (From "The Artful Vegan" by Eric Tucker, et. al.):
1 cup sliced red onion
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini (press the extra moisture out by wringing it in a cloth towel)
2 tbl. chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chickpea flour (I did 1/4 chickpea and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour)
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl (except the flour) and then add the flour slowly until you get the right consistency. Make patties (makes about 6-8 patties) and put them in the fridge for about an hour so they can gel up. Then, put a small amt. of oil in a skillet and when the oil is very hot, sear the cakes until they are crisp on each side (about 2 minutes or so on each side).
I got some red onion/fig marmalade (Joe's Market brand) and garnished the cakes w/ that. Mmmmm.
Sauteed Fertile Crescent Farm Greens!
For this part of the dish, I just chopped the tatsoi, mustard greens, and bok choy in a "chiffonade" style (tiny ribbons). I put about 1 tbl. of olive oil in a skillet w/ some chopped garlic, and a pinch of salt and let that start going for a second. Then, I added some chopped red pepper and waited for that to heat up (maybe 1 minute). I then tossed in the greens and turned the heat off (the greens cook super-quickly when chopped that way) and let it sit for about 1 minute and voila! served it up right after that.
Cold apple and turnip "slaw"
This is so easy to make, it's insane. Take three large turnips and 1 apple. Peel those suckers (eat the peels if you're feeling frisky or hungry) and then grate them. Toss the grated apples and turnips with 1 tbl. veggie oil, s/p to taste, 1 tbl. lemon juice, and about 1 tbl. chopped parsley. Some folks might want to add sugar, but I think the apples are plenty sweet. You only need a tiny amount of parsley or it will dominate the other flavors.
This was a delicious combo of savory and sweet, satisfying and light. All three dishes took about an hour to do (mostly b/c I was waiting for the zucchini cakes to firm up in the fridge).
1 cup sliced red onion
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini (press the extra moisture out by wringing it in a cloth towel)
2 tbl. chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chickpea flour (I did 1/4 chickpea and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour)
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl (except the flour) and then add the flour slowly until you get the right consistency. Make patties (makes about 6-8 patties) and put them in the fridge for about an hour so they can gel up. Then, put a small amt. of oil in a skillet and when the oil is very hot, sear the cakes until they are crisp on each side (about 2 minutes or so on each side).
I got some red onion/fig marmalade (Joe's Market brand) and garnished the cakes w/ that. Mmmmm.
Sauteed Fertile Crescent Farm Greens!
For this part of the dish, I just chopped the tatsoi, mustard greens, and bok choy in a "chiffonade" style (tiny ribbons). I put about 1 tbl. of olive oil in a skillet w/ some chopped garlic, and a pinch of salt and let that start going for a second. Then, I added some chopped red pepper and waited for that to heat up (maybe 1 minute). I then tossed in the greens and turned the heat off (the greens cook super-quickly when chopped that way) and let it sit for about 1 minute and voila! served it up right after that.
Cold apple and turnip "slaw"
This is so easy to make, it's insane. Take three large turnips and 1 apple. Peel those suckers (eat the peels if you're feeling frisky or hungry) and then grate them. Toss the grated apples and turnips with 1 tbl. veggie oil, s/p to taste, 1 tbl. lemon juice, and about 1 tbl. chopped parsley. Some folks might want to add sugar, but I think the apples are plenty sweet. You only need a tiny amount of parsley or it will dominate the other flavors.
This was a delicious combo of savory and sweet, satisfying and light. All three dishes took about an hour to do (mostly b/c I was waiting for the zucchini cakes to firm up in the fridge).
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
What we're doing...
There are three of us. We are friends and we teach together at VCU. We share a share (sounds weird) from Fertile Crescent Farm. We are blogging to share recipes that we use to cook what we get from the Farm, and about anything else that might cross our minds...
Week of June 1: What we got from the farm this week: basil, spicy crinkly cress, radishes, turnips, salad mix, garlic scapes, tatsoi, bok choy, mizuna, red russian kale, and zucchini.
So, after picking up this more than generous portion from the Byrd House Market yesterday and portioning out our share among the three of us, I got to work thinking about what to make for dinner. I have always loved kale, but I didn't have that much experience cooking it, so I figured this was a good time to try a good recipe. I went online and looked at a variety of recipes, and this one stood out to me as sounding quite good:
Savory Sweet Kale from All Recipes dot com: (I altered it a bit to make it vegan, subbing veggie stock for chicken stock--don't get me started about using animal stocks for perfectly good veggie dishes--ha, and I didn't use the sugar)
INGREDIENTS
Week of June 1: What we got from the farm this week: basil, spicy crinkly cress, radishes, turnips, salad mix, garlic scapes, tatsoi, bok choy, mizuna, red russian kale, and zucchini.
So, after picking up this more than generous portion from the Byrd House Market yesterday and portioning out our share among the three of us, I got to work thinking about what to make for dinner. I have always loved kale, but I didn't have that much experience cooking it, so I figured this was a good time to try a good recipe. I went online and looked at a variety of recipes, and this one stood out to me as sounding quite good:
Savory Sweet Kale from All Recipes dot com: (I altered it a bit to make it vegan, subbing veggie stock for chicken stock--don't get me started about using animal stocks for perfectly good veggie dishes--ha, and I didn't use the sugar)
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 4 teaspoons white sugar
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 4 cups stemmed, torn and rinsed kale
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion softens and turns translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the mustard, sugar, vinegar, and vegetable broth, and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the kale, cover, and cook 5 minutes until wilted.
2. Stir in the dried cranberries, and continue boiling, uncovered, until the liquid has reduced by about half, and the cranberries have softened, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with sliced almonds before serving.
This dish is light, slightly sweet, and it makes the kale tender and absolutely delicious! It's a perfect kale dish for those folks who are suspicious of green things. With the kale, I made polenta (following directions on the package, except I added chopped basil and those chopped garlic scapes from the Farm, along with a little rice milk). The garlicky polenta complemented the sweet kale quite nicely. I also mixed some of the tatsoi in with the salad mix , added chopped radishes, and topped it with a strawberry vinaigrette that I made from last week's strawberries that were starting to turn (I just pureed the remainder of the strawberries, pushed the puree through a sieve, and added a little grapeseed oil, white pepper, and salt).
This has been a fantastic experience for me so far because it's gotten me out of the grocery store rut, gotten me back in the kitchen, and making more foods from scratch. It also feels good to support our friends who own the farm and to eat local (and it's great to be able to WALK to get food--yay!). We also sat down and did the math last week, and our CSA share is saving us about 10 dollars a week because we don't have to buy grocery store produce (which is expensive if one buys organic at the grocery store). It's a little bit of money up front (to purchase the share all at once), but Fertile Crescent Farm has ways to make even that aspect more affordable.
1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion softens and turns translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the mustard, sugar, vinegar, and vegetable broth, and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the kale, cover, and cook 5 minutes until wilted.
2. Stir in the dried cranberries, and continue boiling, uncovered, until the liquid has reduced by about half, and the cranberries have softened, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with sliced almonds before serving.
This dish is light, slightly sweet, and it makes the kale tender and absolutely delicious! It's a perfect kale dish for those folks who are suspicious of green things. With the kale, I made polenta (following directions on the package, except I added chopped basil and those chopped garlic scapes from the Farm, along with a little rice milk). The garlicky polenta complemented the sweet kale quite nicely. I also mixed some of the tatsoi in with the salad mix , added chopped radishes, and topped it with a strawberry vinaigrette that I made from last week's strawberries that were starting to turn (I just pureed the remainder of the strawberries, pushed the puree through a sieve, and added a little grapeseed oil, white pepper, and salt).
This has been a fantastic experience for me so far because it's gotten me out of the grocery store rut, gotten me back in the kitchen, and making more foods from scratch. It also feels good to support our friends who own the farm and to eat local (and it's great to be able to WALK to get food--yay!). We also sat down and did the math last week, and our CSA share is saving us about 10 dollars a week because we don't have to buy grocery store produce (which is expensive if one buys organic at the grocery store). It's a little bit of money up front (to purchase the share all at once), but Fertile Crescent Farm has ways to make even that aspect more affordable.
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