CSA Meals - Weeks 12 and 13

It's normal to make a big pot of soup when your air conditioning breaks at the end of July, right? The heat of the stove certainly doesn't increase the temperature of the kitchen and surrounding rooms to the point that you just want to leave your house.

I'm not sure making soup in the summer is a good idea even with functioning central air, but I had a significant number of vegetables to work with, and wasn't creative enough to think of another use for them. I chopped potatoes, scraped corn off cobs, cut ribbons of Tex's chard, sliced carrots, and minced garlic in preparation. 

To start, I sauteed the garlic in olive oil in my dutch oven, added the carrots and potatoes to brown them a bit, and then dumped in a mixture of chicken stock, water, and some diced tomatoes that were taking up freezer space. Rosemary, thyme, and a parmesan rind went into the broth to add some flavor, and I let everything simmer for a couple of hours. When I turned off the heat (to Davy's relief), I stirred in a can of rinsed cannellini beans, corn kernels, and the chard. 

The soup rested in the fridge over night, and on Sunday, I made a cross between gremolata and pesto by blending lemon zest, basil, garlic, and olive oil to add a little bit of freshness and citrusy tang.

What I should have made, instead of soup, was something like the Vietnamese chicken salad that we ate earlier in the week. I don't have the source of the recipe, but it includes chicken, napa cabbage, scallions, cilantro, and peanuts. I added grated carrots, and the dressing contains fish sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. It's quick, light, and especially satisfying served over rice noodles.

To go with the salad, we tested out the Padron pepper method I mentioned, and it worked beautifully. 

On average, about one in every ten pepper is supposed to be extremely hot, and the bunch that we got fit that standard. The few that were spicy hit me in a surprising rush of heat and saltiness, which only made me want to eat more.

Luckily, Amy had more Padrons available this week, and Davy and I made another round on Tuesday night. In the interest of not turning our kitchen into a room-sized oven, we ate Hungarian salami, a few cheeses from Caramont, and a makeshift bruschetta with yellow cherry tomatoes and basil marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I will admit to making pasta a few times, despite the unofficial stove ban, but all of our tomatoes were practically begging me to make fresh pasta sauces. There may have been a few tomato and feta sandwiches thrown in as well, which only require the brief, contained heat of a toaster oven.

We're leaving for the Outer Banks tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to bringing the rest of our share and using a kitchen to its fullest capacity without worrying about the temperature ramifications. Have a wonderful week!

CSA Meals - Week 6

Every recipe I've seen lately seems to have an emphasis on grilling or assembling without turning on the stove or oven. Luckily, I snuck in a roast chicken last week before the heat and humidity really hit. 

Tuesday, when I made the chicken, we enjoyed very fresh corn on the cob and raw green beans on the side. I used one of our spring onions in lieu of the ramps the recipe called for, and the liquid we spooned over our meat was pleasantly tangy.

I'll admit that making something like a roast chicken normally leads to a few days of kitchen laziness, and this time was no exception. The next few nights consisted of mac and cheese, leftover barbeque, sauteed kale, salad with feta and corn, and more chicken

Friday we ventured up 95 to celebrate another wonderful couple's wedding. We used some of the lettuce in our share for sandwiches to eat in the car, and snacked on cucumber slices dipped in hummus. The food at the wedding was, fortunately, much more interesting. We were treated to fruit and cheese, an antipasto platter, various passed hors d'oeuvres, fried chicken, paella, macaroni and cheese, sliders, a potato skin bar... and that was only the appetizer spread.

We finished the CSA week by combining the remaining chicken and produce in an enchilada casserole. I chopped a spring onion, turnips, and the two types of squashes in bite-sized pieces before seasoning them and roasting them.

After they came out of the oven, I mixed the vegetables with the chicken, and then alternated the filling with flour tortillas, grated cheddar cheese, and enchilada sauce.

You would never guess that there's a tortilla underneath the top layer of cheese, would you?

We ate the makeshift casserole with a garnish of lime juice and salad. It was a flavorful and satisfying hot meal, even in the onset of summer.

CSA Meals - Week 1

If you had to choose between a refrigerator and air conditioning, which would you pick? What about only having a refrigerator or internet?

Davy and I asked each other these types of questions after our fridge broke a few weeks ago and we had to shop for a new one. In the mean time, our chilled food supply was divided between Keith and Carrie's meat locker and two coolers in our living room. 

Sure, it's fun to think about replacing a major appliance, but it was also inconvenient to cycle through bags of ice and wonder whether or not the chutney needed to be thrown away. Ultimately, we cleared out several jars, bottles, and bags that had accumulated over nearly three years, and are still in the process of re-stocking. It was a cleansing experience, and one that reminded me how little it takes to put together meals when you have basic quality ingredients to work with.

This "simple is better" mindset was the perfect way to tackle the first of our CSA produce. We ate multiple salads with both homemade and store-bought dressing (Annie's Asian Sesame), but my favorite was the one we had the first night. I sliced some of our bright red strawberries, toasted/nearly burned some pine nuts, and tossed everything with little balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Amy's mesclun salad mix is earthy and peppery, which worked well with the berries' fruity sweetness. 
   

Along with the salad, I improvised with two recipes from How Sweet It Is to make chicken parm-ish tenders. 

We didn't have anything to dip them in, but they hit the spot with salad and roasted zucchini and squash sprinkled with grated parmesan.

On Wednesday, we celebrated a friend's birthday at Joe's Inn, and feasted off of my baked spaghetti leftovers with salad for dinner the next night.

The new refrigerator worked wonders on all of our greens, and the chard still looked fresh on Saturday. I chopped and softened half of an onion in a little olive oil, then added the chard stems to the pan.  

When everything was mostly cooked through, I stopped taking pictures, but some minced garlic, chard leaf ribbons and black beans completed the filling for cheesy lunch quesadillas on Saturday.

My parents were visiting on Mother's Day, and we had wonderful rockfish from Yellow Umbrella, which my dad graciously grilled. I made quinoa and a kale salad with feta and avocado for our side dishes. Again, no pictures, but the kale was tender and just as delicious when I ate it leftover for lunch a couple days later.

The only item left by Monday night was the baby pac choi, and it also held up nicely in our produce drawer.

I found a quick recipe for braised baby bok choy from Martha Stewart that required very little preparation and cooking. The stems retained a slight crunch, and the leaves absorbed the savory flavors from the soy sauce and chicken stock. The only change I made was to add a drizzle of sesame chili oil to give the pac choi an extra kick.

Since it had to happen, I guess I'm glad that our refrigerator stopped working when it did. It may have been a hassle to transfer and get rid of food, but it's made my approach to cooking much less complicated.

Pad See Ew

A few years ago, Davy and I went through an intense Thai takeout phase.  We lived within walking distance of four Thai restaurants, each of which emit tantalizing scents at all hours of the day, and we ordered food from our favorite place about once a week. We (I) still crave the spicy and fragrant food from Ginger Thai Taste, but don't go nearly as often as we used to.

My go to Thai dish is Pad See-Ew, and I came across a recipe for it a few months ago on Serious Eats.  When I was thinking about the ways to use the last bits of meat from a roast chicken, Pad See-Ew immediately came to mind.  

I gathered all of my ingredients in preparation,and chopped the chicken, broccoli and garlic.  

The broccoli went in first, since I didn't have to cook the chicken.

I added the other ingredients to heat them through, and voila!  Homemade Padd See-Ew.

My version was darker than the picture from the recipe, and I think I'd use a little less of the sauce mixture next time, or less dark soy sauce.  In general, I was very happy with this recipe, though I have a feeling it won't stop my desire for the occasional Thai takeout.     

Oscar Bites

I was hoping to add a crunchy, cheesy finger food to my repertoire when I found this recipe for "Baked Cous Cous Poppers."  They seemed like a healthier version of arancini (risotto balls), which are one of my favorite savory indulgences, and can also be customized with different cheeses, spices, and dipping sauces.  

The 1/2 cup of panko that was supposed to be sufficient to coat all of the balls disappeared rapidly as I tried to form the first three.  The cous cous wasn't staying together at all, and I ended adding most of the panko to the mix to help it bind.  That helped a little, and with wet hands, I managed to shape half of the mixture with panko on the outside, and half with regular breadcrumbs.

Not bad, right?  I thought a couple of them might fall apart while baking, but all I could do was laugh when I pulled both sheet pans out of the oven.  I kept the baked cous cous with the hope that I'd find a way to make use of it, but I haven't come up with anything yet. 

Thankfully I had a back up plan, and since I subbed cavatappi for macaroni, I didn't even need to go back to Kroger for ingredients for these macaroni and cheese "muffins."  They were sufficiently crisp on the top, and had a nice flavor from the cheddar and parmesan cheese I used, but I would have liked them to be a little creamier.  They do seem to stay together pretty well, which makes them a good option for party food.

These baked chicken meatballs, which I first saw on Smitten Kitchen, are one of my go to recipes for a party.  They get a great deal of flavor from smoky ham, which is a deviation from the pancetta in the original ingredient list, and tomato paste.

In an effort to have something green on the menu, I got two pounds of broccoli with which to make a salad.  The "Garlicky Sesame-Cured Broccoli Salad" wound up being a unexpected hit, and there wasn't nearly as much left at the end of the night as I'd hoped.  

Cumin seed, sesame oil, chili flakes and garlic are an earthy combination of seasonings for the broccoli. It's tossed in a little salt and vinegar to start the "curing", and then cooks down in the hot oil that's poured over top.  I'm always looking for alternate ways to make vegetables, and I would highly recommend trying this method while we wait out the end of winter.  It's much easier than fighting with a big bowl of cous cous.  

Recently Made

Looking through the pictures of food I've taken recently and the recipes I've been talking about, it occurred to me that I've been doing a good job of cooking and trying new things more frequently in the first few weeks of 2012.  Below are a few highlights and links to the new dishes I've made.  

The first two were technically put together on December 31, 2011, but the leftovers bridged the transition into the new year.  I wish I'd remembered to take pictures when everything was on display in pretty dishes, but we're stuck with the image of this awesome Asian Slaw in tupperware.

I loved all of the colors in this slaw, the crunch of the peanuts, and the abundance of edamame.  I'll eat just about anything with edamame.  The dressing was flavorful and coated the veggies lightly, and the leftovers retained the crunch from the first night we ate it.


For some reason, Gourmet Live's dairy-free chocolate layer cake recipe was especially enticing during the holiday season.  New Year's Eve was my excuse to make it, and though I didn't have quite enough corn syrup and the frosting was runnier than anticipated, the cake was incredibly moist, and the icing rich and chocolatey.  The "secret" dairy-free component is coconut milk, which I'd never worked with before, but it definitely gave everything a velvety texture, as seen below.

I'm blanking on where I first read about fromage fort, which is essentially a fancy-sounding way to use up the odds and ends occupying your cheese drawer, but it was a welcome alternative to cooking on a night that Davy wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to be in the kitchen.  


Based loosely on this method, I chopped the cheese, added some garlic and white wine, and let the food processor work its magic.  The fromage fort and slices of local bread, brushed with olive oil, all went under the broiler.

And no, this is not creme brulee. 

The cheese was warm and spreadable, just as I'd hoped, but the white wine flavor was a little bit sharper than I wanted.  I think next time I'd use less than 1/4 cup, or try sherry, which was suggested in different recipe.  I'm looking forward to making this again in the future as an alternative to using the cheese in sandwiches or eggs.  It's nice enough to serve to guests, and no one would ever know that it's made of neglected cheese pieces.


My original plan for the fromage fort dinner was pan-fried fish, and Davy and I were both glad that we didn't abandon it completely.  On the following evening, we assembled two breaded flounder filets using flour, egg, and panko, for a very quick meal.  This is especially good if the fish is extra fresh, and ours certainly tasted like it was - we didn't even need tartar sauce.

I also bought fresh fish, halibut this time, for a braised dish one of my friends  has been raving about.  I neglected to take pictures because I was so excited about how well it turned out, but I will say that it's pleasing both to the palate and the eyes.  We served it over whole wheat cous cous, but I'd love to try it over rice or pasta.  Using fresh tomatoes and basil made such a difference, and I'm guessing that it would have turned out even better when those ingredients are in season.  


My final offering is Bon Appetit's "Special Sunday Roast Chicken." It seemed like the perfect meal for a lazy Sunday, and its flavors were luxurious and healthy at the same time.  Instead of mustard greens, which weren't available at Ellwood Thompson's on Sunday, I purchased a large bunch of local chard, which held up nicely to the roasted root vegetables and chicken.  The picture below was an afterthought (literally taken after I'd already plated our food), but I think it represents the dish well.  It's served family style, and is intended to be nourishing and comforting.  Despite the fact that it looks like Davy and I ate nearly a whole chicken, that's not the case.  A lot of it was reserved because I knew it wouldn't fit on the platter.  
  

Here's to continuing to branch out and eat well in 2012! 

Market Mix-up and More Week 8

I blame the time change.  Last week we had a bit of a mishap and didn't get our share on Tuesday.  It's too dark to think!

Fortunately the Saint Stephen's indoor market, which is conveniently nearby, opened for the season on Wednesday.  I scored some crunchy Stayman apples, a fresh head of lettuce, and a dark, leafy bunch of kale.  

I needed something healthy to bring with the chicken and biscuits I delivered to Shannon (which was partially a plot to visit baby Paige), and I made them a simple salad with pistachios and feta.  

The kale was shredded and dressed to make another kale salad.  Lyndsey and I consumed it with our carbo-loading meal of chicken pesto meatballs and pasta the night before the half marathon.

Speaking of pasta, I made a new pasta dish earlier in the week with cabbage and speck (smoked prosciutto).  It was from The Splendid Table's weekly newsletter and a Mario Batali recipe, which are two extremely reliable culinary sources.  We weren't disappointed by this dish, and happily ate a few rounds of leftovers.

Adam and Darbi were gracious enough to save our share for us to pick up at the South of the James Market on Saturday.  We gave about half of it to my mother-in-law, a fellow veggie lover, since we're going out of town this weekend.  There were more delicious apples, sweet peppers, baby bok choy, two kinds of mustard greens, salad mix, a parsnip, and eggplant.  I bet none of you can guess what I chose to give away first.

Fall CSA - Weeks 2 and 3

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a stomach bug a couple weeks ago. Combined with attending several concerts last week, our CSA routine was considerably disrupted, and we didn't use any of our Week 2 produce until Week 3.  Luckily, I was still on my stay-in-the-kitchen-and-off-the-couch kick, so we ate just about everything.


On Monday I made Jacques Pepin's Quick-Roasted Chicken for the second time, and this time I had enough foresight to let the butcher remove the chicken's backbone.  I love this recipe because it really is quick enough for a weeknight, which makes anything extra satisfying.  We made roasted potatoes and a salad with pistachios to go with the chicken.  The salad mix from Week 2 was very crisp, and the leaves stayed fresh for longer than usual.


The next night, after going to the market, I made carbonara-like dish with the fresh pasta (spinach and plain fettuccine and black pepper linguine).  I sauteed the cremini mushrooms, removed them from the pan, and then cooked the yellow squash with garlic and chopped homemade bacon.  

I added sungold cherry tomatoes and pasta when the squash was done, and stirred in tempered egg yolks and parmesan to finish it off.  


Unfortunately, the fettuccine was overcooked, and the noodles clumped together when I stirred everything together.  It was still pleasant to eat, and was fine leftover, but I was disappointed since I'd gotten special ingredients from the market to make dinner.  


We ate raw wax beans on the side to finish off the bag from the previous week, and had our apples as mid-morning snacks the next day.  As in the past, they were far superior to any grocery store apple available.  


On Thursday I gave eggplant another chance in this recipe for Eggplant Tian. Kerry Saretsky, the author, describes it as "easy" and "awesome," but I'm not sure I'd agree with it being "easy."  The techniques are simple enough: slicing, marinating, broiling, baking, but it took several steps to complete the recipe, and took longer than I'd like for a work night.  

As you can see, I baked it in one dish instead of four.  I was very happy with the results, and had no problem eating a few rounds of the leftovers with generous dollops of pesto on top.  This is a great way to use up eggplant, and it's almost as comforting as lasagna.  We enjoyed it with bread and a salad with homegrown peppers and tomatoes.

We munched on our green beans raw and also included them in a Saturday morning veggie scramble.  The eggs were also mixed with sweet peppers, feta, and eggs for a delicious and filling brunch.  


That afternoon, in anticipation of a special dinner on Sunday, I julienned and pickled our daikon radish and a large carrot.  

The radish emitted an not-so-pleasant odor that lingered in our fridge and freezer for most of the weekend, but it did add a nice crunch to shrimp spring rolls.  Below are a few shots of Davy's spring rolling handiwork.  We served them with a peanut butter and hoisin dipping sauce.

We also made homemade chicken pho from a recipe we made in a cooking class, and I got so caught up in preparing and eating it that I didn't take any pictures.  It also deserves its own post, which hopefully I'll have the time for at some point, but it turned out well and was comforting on a chilly Sunday night.


Monday was our wedding anniversary, and I made a simple dinner since we're going to Portland, OR for a long weekend.  I prepared two recipes from The Best Recipes in the World, by Mark Bittman: sole meuniere (made with flounder) and a braised leek and rice dish (made with bok choy instead of leeks).  

Both were subtly flavored and allowed the quality of the ingredients to really shine through.

I'll be taking Week 4 off, but plan on some Portland posts for next week!