I may just be the poster child for liking just about any vegetable just about any way, but I found another simple easy root vegetable preparation for our winter root vegetable bounty the other day. I wanted to get out of the mashed rutabaga rut, even though I love them that way.
If mashing them like potatoes worked, I decided to see if boiling them like potatoes worked too. One of our potato salad standbys in this house is just to boil potatoes, then toss the potato cubes with olive oil and salt, and we also do something similar with celeriac, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. (and salt of course. Maybe I should title this post "fat and salt" too.) Before boiling, I peeled and cubed the rutabaga, then boiled long enough to be tender but not falling apart, tossed with a little bit of vinegar, olive oil, and salt.
Rutabaga salad
2 lb rutabaga, peeled and cubed
1 tsp dill seed
1-2 tbsp olive oil
about 1/2 tsp salt, to taste
1-2 tsp red wine vinegar
Boil rutabagas in salted water with dill seed until tender (15 or 20 minutes worked for us.) Drain, then toss with olive oil, salt, and vinegar and serve. Can be served room temperature as a salad to accompany sandwiches, or warm to accompany other warm food.
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Warm Food
I'd be exaggerating if I called this an inspired seasonal recipe using vegetables that go wonderfully together and are likely to come in your farmshare box this month.
Actually, what happened is that I wanted to do something with the fennel other than cut it up and serve it over salad. Fennel is seasonal right now. It came in our box this week, and I like it, but I've never actually tried to cook it before.
So I browsed through some of my cookbooks and found a recipe that sounded great, for braised fennel and celeriac. Celeriac, or celery root, is not at all seasonal right now. It's a late fall root vegetable that stores well over the winter in a root cellar.
Well, my squirrel tendencies and our winter storage share came to the rescue - I was saving that last celeriac, the last item remaining item from our winter share, in the vegetable drawer. I kept telling myself that it was small and I'd work on using it up when we seemed like we might run of room to put away the share one of these weeks.
So I was able to combine celeriac and fennel in this recipe, adapted from Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food. Sometimes, things that aren't in season together and seem to have very different styles make a surprisingly wonderful pairing!
Braised Celery and Fennel with Lemon
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp light vegetable oil
1 small celeriac, about 1/2 lb, peeled and cut into ¾-inch cubes
1 medium fennel head, cut in half, then in thick slices
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp sugar
Salt and black pepper
In a wide pan with a cover, fry the garlic in the oil till lightly colored. Add the celeriac and fennel, and add water to barely cover. Add the lemon juice, sugar, and a little salt and pepper, and simmer with the lid on, stirring occasionally, for 1/2 hour. Then take the lid off, increase the heat and reduce the liquid to a thick sauce.
You could serve this as a cold salad mixed with parsley, but since it was wet and rainy and we felt like warm food, we served it warm, over some quinoa that I cooked in the rice cooker with 3 parts water and 1 part pineapple juice. The slight sweetness that the juice added to the quinoa was just right with the celeriac and fennel over the top.
Actually, what happened is that I wanted to do something with the fennel other than cut it up and serve it over salad. Fennel is seasonal right now. It came in our box this week, and I like it, but I've never actually tried to cook it before.
So I browsed through some of my cookbooks and found a recipe that sounded great, for braised fennel and celeriac. Celeriac, or celery root, is not at all seasonal right now. It's a late fall root vegetable that stores well over the winter in a root cellar.
Well, my squirrel tendencies and our winter storage share came to the rescue - I was saving that last celeriac, the last item remaining item from our winter share, in the vegetable drawer. I kept telling myself that it was small and I'd work on using it up when we seemed like we might run of room to put away the share one of these weeks.
So I was able to combine celeriac and fennel in this recipe, adapted from Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food. Sometimes, things that aren't in season together and seem to have very different styles make a surprisingly wonderful pairing!
Braised Celery and Fennel with Lemon
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp light vegetable oil
1 small celeriac, about 1/2 lb, peeled and cut into ¾-inch cubes
1 medium fennel head, cut in half, then in thick slices
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp sugar
Salt and black pepper
In a wide pan with a cover, fry the garlic in the oil till lightly colored. Add the celeriac and fennel, and add water to barely cover. Add the lemon juice, sugar, and a little salt and pepper, and simmer with the lid on, stirring occasionally, for 1/2 hour. Then take the lid off, increase the heat and reduce the liquid to a thick sauce.
You could serve this as a cold salad mixed with parsley, but since it was wet and rainy and we felt like warm food, we served it warm, over some quinoa that I cooked in the rice cooker with 3 parts water and 1 part pineapple juice. The slight sweetness that the juice added to the quinoa was just right with the celeriac and fennel over the top.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Cold Food
Some of this food did require a bit of cooking, but after a week of avoiding any use of flame in the kitchen I was going crazy. Also, I think I may have acclamated to the heat a bit.
In the end we wound up with a meal we could stand to eat in the 88 degree dining room.
Last night's menu:
Bread (I do not recommend baking your own bread when it's hot out, but guess who did?)
Hummus (from a friend who had too much), doctored with lemon juice and chopped basil that came from our farm.
Garlic scape pesto, leftover in the fridge. I'm surprised I haven't tried this before this year! Recipe below.
Raw kale salad. I made a batch of this last night when it was also too hot to cook, but last night I couldn't come up with something else to accompany it so we had takeout chicken fingers.
Raw turnip and apple salad. I've been hoarding these because I love them so much despite having plenty of other food in the CSA box that needs cooking, and today I realized I'd better start using them even if it's not always for sauteed turnips. So today one large turnip went into this salad. Recipe below.
Beet Tzatziki. A creamy salad with cooked, grated beets, garlic, lemon, dill, and yogurt. This one involves boiling water for a while but it's so worth it. Recipe below.
Beet Tzatziki
Inspired by Sofra restaurant, adapted from Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, by Ana Sortun, based on this adaptation.
3 baby beets
3 tiny cloves pressed garlic
juice of about 1 lemon
Salt
1/4 cup sour cream plus 1/4 cup regular yogurt (take the thick part, if you can, instead of blending the liquid back in) This substituted for Greek yogurt, which is what I've used before.
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon schopped fresh dill
Black pepper
Mix, taste, and leave covered in the refrigerator at least 1 hour before eating.
Raw Turnip and Apple Salad
based on Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables
1 peeled, grated granny smith apple
1 peeled, grated Hakurei turnip
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4c raisins
2 tsp chopped fennel fronds
salt and pepper to taste
Mix, taste, and leave covered in the refrigerator at least 1 hour before eating.
Garlic Scape Pesto
10-12 garlic scapes, chopped into 1" pieces
1/4 cup ground almonds
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
In a food processor, combine scapes, almonds, cheese and some of the olive oil. Blend until combined. Add remaining olive oil, scraping sides occasionally. Eat, or store in a jar in the fridge (or freezer, supposedly, but I haven't tried that yet.)
In the end we wound up with a meal we could stand to eat in the 88 degree dining room.
Last night's menu:
Bread (I do not recommend baking your own bread when it's hot out, but guess who did?)
Hummus (from a friend who had too much), doctored with lemon juice and chopped basil that came from our farm.
Garlic scape pesto, leftover in the fridge. I'm surprised I haven't tried this before this year! Recipe below.
Raw kale salad. I made a batch of this last night when it was also too hot to cook, but last night I couldn't come up with something else to accompany it so we had takeout chicken fingers.
Raw turnip and apple salad. I've been hoarding these because I love them so much despite having plenty of other food in the CSA box that needs cooking, and today I realized I'd better start using them even if it's not always for sauteed turnips. So today one large turnip went into this salad. Recipe below.
Beet Tzatziki. A creamy salad with cooked, grated beets, garlic, lemon, dill, and yogurt. This one involves boiling water for a while but it's so worth it. Recipe below.
Beet Tzatziki
Inspired by Sofra restaurant, adapted from Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, by Ana Sortun, based on this adaptation.
3 baby beets
3 tiny cloves pressed garlic
juice of about 1 lemon
Salt
1/4 cup sour cream plus 1/4 cup regular yogurt (take the thick part, if you can, instead of blending the liquid back in) This substituted for Greek yogurt, which is what I've used before.
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon schopped fresh dill
Black pepper
Mix, taste, and leave covered in the refrigerator at least 1 hour before eating.
Raw Turnip and Apple Salad
based on Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables
1 peeled, grated granny smith apple
1 peeled, grated Hakurei turnip
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4c raisins
2 tsp chopped fennel fronds
salt and pepper to taste
Mix, taste, and leave covered in the refrigerator at least 1 hour before eating.
Garlic Scape Pesto
10-12 garlic scapes, chopped into 1" pieces
1/4 cup ground almonds
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
In a food processor, combine scapes, almonds, cheese and some of the olive oil. Blend until combined. Add remaining olive oil, scraping sides occasionally. Eat, or store in a jar in the fridge (or freezer, supposedly, but I haven't tried that yet.)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
adventures with cabbage
We got a giant head of napa cabbage two weeks ago, and then before it was finished we got another one last week. So I've been on a quest to use up the cabbage creatively that ended up in a recipe I'm pretty happy with.
the basics:
for every 4 cups of sliced napa cabbage
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp plain vegetable oil (we use safflower, but you could use canola, sunflower, etc.)
I don't usually measure while I'm making salad dressings, so taste this and feel free adjust a little to taste - more sugar if it's too sweet, more soy sauce if it's not salty enough, more sesame oil if you can't taste it, etc.
the rest:
Add whatever else inspires you (or whatever else you've got too much of in the fridge!) to the salad. Last night's version had some sliced sugar snap peas, some shredded arugula, and some scallions. If you want to make it a main dish, you could add the protein of your choice and more vegetables with a little more density than cabbage and leafy greens.
Which brings me to another tip - in addition to finding simple recipes you like with a vegetable you have a lot of, sharing it with friends is a great way to use more of it before it gets a little repetitive on your table. Last night's cabbage salad went to a potluck dinner. We've got about 2 servings left, and it keeps well enough that they should work for tonight's dinner.
the basics:
for every 4 cups of sliced napa cabbage
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp plain vegetable oil (we use safflower, but you could use canola, sunflower, etc.)
I don't usually measure while I'm making salad dressings, so taste this and feel free adjust a little to taste - more sugar if it's too sweet, more soy sauce if it's not salty enough, more sesame oil if you can't taste it, etc.
the rest:
Add whatever else inspires you (or whatever else you've got too much of in the fridge!) to the salad. Last night's version had some sliced sugar snap peas, some shredded arugula, and some scallions. If you want to make it a main dish, you could add the protein of your choice and more vegetables with a little more density than cabbage and leafy greens.
Which brings me to another tip - in addition to finding simple recipes you like with a vegetable you have a lot of, sharing it with friends is a great way to use more of it before it gets a little repetitive on your table. Last night's cabbage salad went to a potluck dinner. We've got about 2 servings left, and it keeps well enough that they should work for tonight's dinner.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Fresh Spring Rolls, or Anything But Salad
At our CSA farm, it's the season for Chinese cabbage. Apparently this crop does well in their soil and microclimate, because I seem to remember getting HUGE heads in the past and this year is no different.
Chinese cabbage is good in stir fries (too hot) or salads (getting a bit boring, working our way through the 2nd large head). I even managed to distribute some of it to my daughter's preschool class, doing a visiting "show and tell" where we guessed all the vegetables in the CSA box, and passed things around to touch, smell, and observe. It was a big hit at snacktime that morning! But we still have plenty left.
So today I remembered another hot-weather meal that's great for cabbage and for a hot day - fresh spring rolls. These are the kind you might have tried at a Vietnamese restaurant, in a translucent wrapper with lots of fresh vegetables and perhaps some shrimp or chicken inside, a few mint or basil leaves, and a dipping sauce or two.
You'll probably need to go to an Asian supermarket to get the rice paper wrappers, but it's well worth it for a hot weather meal that can be adapted to anyone's tastes and requires little to no cooking. The wrappers look like this:
To cook them, you can just microwave some water until it's hot but not too hot to stick your hands in, and pour into a shallow bowl. You dip one wrapper in until it feels soft, then carefully pull it out and spread on a plate.
Then, for fillings, you'll want shredded cabbage, maybe some slices of leftover meat or some little sticks of tofu, shredded carrot or thinly sliced scallion, cucumber, anything that strikes your fancy! We used some leftover deli turkey, scallions, and quick sauteed matchtsticks of zucchini and hakurei turnip as well as the cabbage.
The dipping sauces are something else you might find at the Asian Market or you can mix up yourself: vinegar and sugar and fish sauce, black bean paste and vinegar, peanut butter thinned out with water and vinegar, etc.
Chinese cabbage is good in stir fries (too hot) or salads (getting a bit boring, working our way through the 2nd large head). I even managed to distribute some of it to my daughter's preschool class, doing a visiting "show and tell" where we guessed all the vegetables in the CSA box, and passed things around to touch, smell, and observe. It was a big hit at snacktime that morning! But we still have plenty left.
So today I remembered another hot-weather meal that's great for cabbage and for a hot day - fresh spring rolls. These are the kind you might have tried at a Vietnamese restaurant, in a translucent wrapper with lots of fresh vegetables and perhaps some shrimp or chicken inside, a few mint or basil leaves, and a dipping sauce or two.
You'll probably need to go to an Asian supermarket to get the rice paper wrappers, but it's well worth it for a hot weather meal that can be adapted to anyone's tastes and requires little to no cooking. The wrappers look like this:
To cook them, you can just microwave some water until it's hot but not too hot to stick your hands in, and pour into a shallow bowl. You dip one wrapper in until it feels soft, then carefully pull it out and spread on a plate.
Then, for fillings, you'll want shredded cabbage, maybe some slices of leftover meat or some little sticks of tofu, shredded carrot or thinly sliced scallion, cucumber, anything that strikes your fancy! We used some leftover deli turkey, scallions, and quick sauteed matchtsticks of zucchini and hakurei turnip as well as the cabbage.
The dipping sauces are something else you might find at the Asian Market or you can mix up yourself: vinegar and sugar and fish sauce, black bean paste and vinegar, peanut butter thinned out with water and vinegar, etc.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Turnip, turnip...
The Hakurei turnip seems to be a favorite vegetable of CSAs and farmers' markets in Massachusetts. It's a small, mild variety that can be planted early and is ready to harvest in the very beginnings of the season. I first heard of it and saw one when I got our first farmshare box from Brookfield back in 2002 or 2003 - since then I've started noticing them at farmers markets and hearing about them in other folks' CSA boxes as well. Eat them raw, like radishes, they say. Well, okay - you can. They're good, and so are radishes, a little spicy, crunchy, and definitely spring-y. And this time of year, I have plenty of both for our raw crunchy sharp eating needs!
Thanks to Brookfield, I also discovered that I love fall turnips. Sliced thin, sauteed in butter, maybe with some parsley or a little black papper - totally simple and delicious. The bite goes away, the butter makes them tender and delicious, and they're even a great side to cook a bunch of and serve with a few different meals as the week goes on.
Last year's brainstorm : spring turnips are still, well, turnips. If I don't want to eat them crunchy and raw, I can sautee them in butter too! They taste at least as good as the fall ones (possibly even better), and they give me something substantial to cook when the majority of what I'm getting is greens. So if you've got turnips too, I encourage you to give sauteeing a try.
Sauteed Spring Turnips
1 bunch Hakurei turnips
2 Tb butter
salt and pepper to taste
chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Wash and slice the turnips. They don't need peeling.
Heat the butter in a skillet, add the turnips, and sautee over medium-high heat until they are tender. (I didn't time this, but it's probably 5-10 minutes.)
Add salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle on parsley if you want. Enjoy!
Thanks to Brookfield, I also discovered that I love fall turnips. Sliced thin, sauteed in butter, maybe with some parsley or a little black papper - totally simple and delicious. The bite goes away, the butter makes them tender and delicious, and they're even a great side to cook a bunch of and serve with a few different meals as the week goes on.
Last year's brainstorm : spring turnips are still, well, turnips. If I don't want to eat them crunchy and raw, I can sautee them in butter too! They taste at least as good as the fall ones (possibly even better), and they give me something substantial to cook when the majority of what I'm getting is greens. So if you've got turnips too, I encourage you to give sauteeing a try.
Sauteed Spring Turnips
1 bunch Hakurei turnips
2 Tb butter
salt and pepper to taste
chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Wash and slice the turnips. They don't need peeling.
Heat the butter in a skillet, add the turnips, and sautee over medium-high heat until they are tender. (I didn't time this, but it's probably 5-10 minutes.)
Add salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle on parsley if you want. Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
pretty in pink
Before rhubarb season in Massachusetts completely passes us by, I though I'd better do *something* with the bunch I picked up at the farmers market. It was in my fridge for almost 2 weeks in the crisper drawer and still just fine!
Browsing for a recipe for something other than pie, I came up with a simple jam recipe that sounded like it would work for a few small jars. The recipe called for 1 lb of rhubarb and the picture showed a lovely pink jam - but as I saw when I cut up my rhubarb, I got some stalks that were rosy on the outside and quite green on the inside. Problem solved: I still have a bag of frozen, locally grown cranberries in the freezer, which would add some tart fruit and perk up the color of the jam. The recipe also called for candied ginger, and I had frozen ginger - another locally grown find last fall.
Rhubarb-Cranberry-Ginger Jam
1 bunch rhubarb, about 3/4lb, chopped into 1/2" pieces
fresh or frozen raw cranberries, about 1/4 lb
1/2 c sugar
1-2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp water (I just let a little the ice that had accumulated on the cranberries melt.)
The other project in the picture is one of our two loaves of molasses-wheat bread. There was one local ingredient there - the whole wheat flour was grown and milled at Four Star Farms in Northfield, MA. Nothing new there, except that my daughter, reading Little House in the Big Woods expressed amazement that they had made bread without bread machines. I pointed out that that didn't have to be so different even though we live in modern times, and chose this loaf to knead by hand and bake. We kneaded it before dinner, it rose during dinner, we shaped it after dinner and it went into the pans for its 2nd rising, and it was just coming out of the oven at her bedtime.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
single-jar pickling
Canning and pickling can be a great idea when you're faced with a bounty of some particular crop from your CSA, or find a great deal on a large quantity of something, or just want to make sure you're supplied with pickles you made yourself all year round.
But if you like the taste of pickled vegetables or homemade jam, there's no reason to limit yourself to doing it as a big project.
We've used up all of our homemade cucumber pickles (note to self: buy a few more jars worth of pickles this summer!) and the smaller batch of pickled beets I made last fall too. But we still had a few beets in the refrigerator drawer from our last winter CSA pickup. So before we get our first CSA box this week, I mixed up a quick jar of pickled beets to empty out the drawer a bit and to have more cold vegetable options as we head into the warmer season.
The recipe is simple, and no do for a quart of liquid and 4 beets than it would be for several gallons of liquid and a lot more beets. Honestly, with beets I think it's easier to make one jar than more since each jar you fill requires peeling and slicing enough beets to go inside!
easy pickled beets
But if you like the taste of pickled vegetables or homemade jam, there's no reason to limit yourself to doing it as a big project.
We've used up all of our homemade cucumber pickles (note to self: buy a few more jars worth of pickles this summer!) and the smaller batch of pickled beets I made last fall too. But we still had a few beets in the refrigerator drawer from our last winter CSA pickup. So before we get our first CSA box this week, I mixed up a quick jar of pickled beets to empty out the drawer a bit and to have more cold vegetable options as we head into the warmer season.
The recipe is simple, and no do for a quart of liquid and 4 beets than it would be for several gallons of liquid and a lot more beets. Honestly, with beets I think it's easier to make one jar than more since each jar you fill requires peeling and slicing enough beets to go inside!
easy pickled beets
(makes 1 quart size canning jar)
4-6 medium beets, cooked until tender, peeled, and sliced
1 crushed garlic clove
1 tsp caraway seeds
Sterilize the jar in boiling water (I actually skip this step when I'm making a small batch that will not be stored in the pantry forever... but please don't use me as your food safety authority!) Put the sliced beets directly into the jar as you slice them. Add the garlic and caraway seeds directly into the jar.
For the pickling liquid:
6 dl (or 2.5 cups) red wine vinegar
1.5 dl (or 5/8 cup) water
60 grams sugar (a quarter cup plus a teaspoon will do, if you don't have a kitchen scale)
22 grams salt (about 3.5 teaspoons)
Heat the liquid with the sugar and salt until the are dissolved and the water comes to a boil. Then pour the water directly into the jar, cover, and let cool. The beets should be ready to eat after pickling at room temperature for a few weeks.
Store in the refrigerator after you open the jar.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Salad days
The leafy greens are leafing and greening all over Massachusetts. June seems to me to be both a blessing and a curse - I'm thrilled to finally have fresh tasty greens that didn't have to come out of my freezer or be shipped to me, and salads are gloriously easy to prepare, but eventually I'm going to tire of eating my greens the same way all the time.
I can't exactly explain why "more, different, salad" makes me so excited when I'm facing the prospect of a month of salad with dinner every day. Maybe it's just that the greens I've eaten all winter have tended to be what I've frozen last summer and fall. Or maybe I should have been buying more hardy greens in winter and doing this then - but better late than never, I suppose.
Joining my lettuce based salad lineup this year is :
Shredded kale salad
Put the kale in a bowl, add the salt, garlic, and vinegar/lemon juice, toss thoroughly, and let sit for at least 30 minutes. This step will tenderize the kale.
Then add the olive oil and toss together, adjust seasoning to taste.
I can't exactly explain why "more, different, salad" makes me so excited when I'm facing the prospect of a month of salad with dinner every day. Maybe it's just that the greens I've eaten all winter have tended to be what I've frozen last summer and fall. Or maybe I should have been buying more hardy greens in winter and doing this then - but better late than never, I suppose.
Joining my lettuce based salad lineup this year is :
Shredded kale salad
- 1 bunch kale, sliced into thin shreds or ribbons (you can even leave the center rib in where it's not 1/2" thick)
- 2-3 tbsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- 1-2 cloves crushed garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Put the kale in a bowl, add the salt, garlic, and vinegar/lemon juice, toss thoroughly, and let sit for at least 30 minutes. This step will tenderize the kale.
Then add the olive oil and toss together, adjust seasoning to taste.
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