Eating Green Gate

The Raw and the Cooked... Salad

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:23:08 -0500

Everyone loves high-summer produce, and as such this was one of my favorite shares of the season, with the cantaloupe, the corn, the tomatoes… None of this stuff really needs to be prepared, per se. I don’t recommend eating the corn raw, of course. What I mean is, you don’t need a recipe to enjoy these things. Which leads me to… um, a recipe.

The Italians are legendary for understanding the fundamental summer vegetable rule of simplicity. So I bring you a Sicilian recipe that is suspiciously similar in character to my last post—The Salad—but has a totally different flavor due to the predominance of the roasted onions and capers. It’s like a tossed antipasto, if you will, but it works as a meal. I was supposed to wait and make this for an Independence Day picnic this weekend, but it called to me, so I made it tonight.

Serves 6 or more

1 pound sweet onions
¾ pound red bliss (or other red) potatoes (2 to 6 potatoes, depending on size)
½ pound fresh green beans
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil or as needed
½ tsp. coarse sea salt or kosher salt or to taste
½ cup black olives, pitted
3 tbsp. small capers, drained
1 or 2 fresh ripe tomatoes (about ½ pound), cored and cut in wedges
a handful of tiny Green Gate orange cherry tomatoes, to taste
1 or 2 heads of Bibb or other green leaf lettuce (about 3/4 pound)
A few basil leaves, torn
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

The cooked:
Peel and trim the onions and slice into rounds, about ¾-inch thick. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle salt lightly on both sides. Lay the onions on a baking sheet and roast in a pre-heated 375° oven for 20-35 minutes, turning once, until slightly softened and nicely caramelized on the flat sides and edges. Cool then separate the rounds into thick rings.

Meanwhile, drop the potatoes, whole with skin on, into a pot with plenty of water. Bring to a gentle boil and cook just until a sharp knife blade slides through the potatoes—don’t let them get mushy. Extract the potatoes and cut them into wedges, about 1-1/2 inches thick. Trim the ends of the green beans and, when the potatoes are out of the boiling water, drop the beans in and cook until al dente, 4 minutes or so. Scoop them from the pot with a spider and drop the beans into very icy water, to set the color. Once chilled, drain and dry the beans and cut or tear them in 2-inch lengths.

The raw:
Slice the big tomatoes in wedges about the same size as the potatoes. Separate, rinse, and spin dry the lettuce leaves.

Put everything in the bowl except the lettuce: onions, potatoes, beans, olives, capers, basil and both kinds of tomatoes. (I like to use a large bowl with a tight-fitting lid, so I can shake it to toss.) Sprinkle over the remaining salt and freshly ground pepper, drizzle over the rest of the olive oil and the red wine vinegar, and tumble the vegetables to coat them with dressing.

Scatter the lettuce on top, tearing the larger leaves in two, then toss the greens with the vegetables gently but continuously for about a minute (or shake in your covered bowl), to distribute the dressing evenly. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if you like, and toss again.

Serve immediately—always including some of the heavier goodies that drop to the bottom of the bowl and hide under the lettuce.

Adapted from Lidia’s Italy by Lidia Bastianich.

Cannellini and Macaroni Salad with Grilled Tomatoes, Basil, and Olives a.k.a. The Salad

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:41:00 -0500

Around our house, this is called The Salad. It’s so good, it’s singular. It’s a glorious use of tomatoes (even if they’ve gone a little wrinkly) and if you can get past the herb-chopping, it’s easy. The recipe below divides the recipe into two parts—a pasta salad and a bean salad—which makes for a beautiful presentation. However for a regular weeknight meal, we tend to just mix the whole thing up in one bowl. (I mean, seriously, we don’t need a platter. We are not that fancy.) Also, I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually fire up the grill just for tomatoes. Halving them and throwing them on a rimmed baking sheet under the broiler (cut-side-down, drizzled with some olive oil) for 12-15 minutes does the trick, and leaves you with lots of good juices.

When we made this tonight for the first time this season, P. said wistfully into his bowl, “I missed you, The Salad!”

Ingredients:

1.5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1.5 cups small elbow macaroni (about 6 ounces—whole wheat pasta works well in this even if you are a skeptic about whole wheat pasta)
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 15-ounce can cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained
1/2 cup chopped red onion (I caution you: more than this is overwhelming)
1/4 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives or other brine-cured olives
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
8 oz. fresh mozzarella, diced -or- packaged in those cute pearl or cherry-tomato-sized balls

How to:

If grilling your tomatoes, prepare grill (medium-high heat). Drizzle 1/2 tablespoon oil over cut side of tomatoes; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill tomatoes, cut side up, until skin begins to char, about 2 minutes; turn over and grill, cut side down, just until heated through, about 1 minute. Alternatively, prepare by broiler method as above.

Cool + cut tomatoes into 1-inch pieces—I like my tomato chunks kinda big and, um, rustic. Yeah, let’s go with rustic rather than lazily-not-very-well-chopped.

Cook macaroni in large saucepan of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain well. Transfer macaroni to large bowl; cool. Mix in grilled tomatoes and any accumulated juices, 2 tablespoons vinegar, basil, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer salad to large platter (or, if you’re not feeling fancy, just pile the rest of the ingredients from the next paragraph in this same bowl…).

Mix beans, onion, olives, parsley, remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and 1 tablespoon vinegar in medium bowl. Season lightly with salt and pepper—the olives will be quite salty so be careful not to overdo it. Spoon bean salad over center of macaroni salad and serve.

Adapted from Epicurious, which for some reason doesn’t put cheese in this salad, something I find to be a criminal missed opportunity.

Ribollita, a.k.a. Season-Defying Tuscan Soup

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:24:00 -0500

If, like me, you are still harboring what seems to be a fridge full of cabbage, fear not. This soup cashed in another hoarded head, as well as some beautiful chard that had been allowed to wilt a bit, some potatoes, and one of the bay leaves from the branch of them I was excited to pick up at the farm last Tuesday. If you’ve still got garlic and onion from the farm, or carrots that are a little past their prime, here is your soupy salvation.

This soup involves a bunch of chopping and a bit of inactive time (while it’s on the stove), but at the end you’ve got about 8 generous servings of a hearty soup that’s a million times better than the sum of its parts. This dish comes from Mario Batali, who swears (in his cookbook Molto Italiano) that it’s as good at room temperature in summer as it is hot in the winter—and after fixing it last night, I have to agree.

Ingredients:

1 can cannellini or Great Northern beans
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 sweet yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced and well-rinsed
2 carrots, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 celery stalks, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced, plus 1 whole garlic clove
2 three-inch sprigs fresh thyme, leaves pulled off the stem and stem discarded
1 4-inch sprig rosemary, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1 bunch rainbow chard, roughly chopped
3-4 small blue or white potatoes, peels on, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/2 pound chopped white cabbage, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
6 or so cups water
8 (1/2-inch) slices Italian peasant bread, or however many = a slice for each bowl
Salt (it can accept a lot) and freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

How to:

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onion, leek, carrot, celery, potatoes, sliced garlic, and herbs. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, 5-10 minutes. (Don’t worry if they’re still quite firm at this point—it simmers for long enough that the vegetables will have ample time to tender up.) Add the chard and cabbage and cook until the cabbage has softened and the flavors have blended, about 10 minutes. Salt and pepper, to taste. Add the tomato paste, and stir until the tomato paste is well distributed throughout the vegetable mixture. Add the beans.

Cover the bean and vegetable mixture with water by 2 inches, and let simmer until the flavors are well blended, about 30 minutes more. When the soup is close to being done, brush or spray your bread slices (enough for each bowl of soup you plan to serve) with olive oil, then toast or grill the bread until browned. Cut the remaining whole garlic clove in half, and rub the toasted bread with the cut end of the garlic.

Serve the soup hot in warmed bowls with the garlic bruschetta dunked alongside. Garnish with a sprinkling of Parmigiano, to taste.

Adapted from Mario Batali.

White Pizza with Squash and Tarragon

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:35:00 -0500

We liked this so much, we made it twice in one week (and still didn’t make much of a dent in our squash collection). I can’t overstate how integral the tarragon is to this recipe—don’t skip it. Or the shallots. In fact, get ye to some yeast and make this ASAP!

The recipe is modified from the original to omit fresh fennel and brie (the fennel because it’s not fresh at Green Gate right now and the brie because, frankly, it just sounds like a strange concept to me on top of the mozz…)—check out the link to the original below if those are ingredients you’d like to add back in.

Ingredients:

1/2 recipe of pizza dough (below) or use your favorite dough recipe, or 2 10-ounce tubes refrigerated pizza dough
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
1 1/3 cups (packed) grated mozzarella cheese or 10 oz. sliced fresh mozzarella
2 small zucchini or other summer squash, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons minced shallot

How to:

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 425°F. Roll dough into four 7- to 9-inch rounds. Transfer rounds to an oiled baking sheet or a pizza stone. Brush 1 tablespoon oil over each round; sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon tarragon. Top with vegetables and mozzarella. Brush rounds with remaining oil. Sprinkle with shallot, salt, and pepper. Bake until cheese is bubbling, about 14 minutes. Cut each into 6 wedges, or just eat the whole dang thing out of hand—it’s that good.

Adapted from Bon Appétit.

Pizza Dough

This dough has a more developed flavor than most because it starts with a sponge you let ferment overnight. It’s a good idea to make a bunch at one time when you have the leisure and freeze it. As a result, please note that this recipe makes TWICE the amount you’ll need for the pizza recipe above.

Ingredients:

Sponge:

1 cup lukewarm water (110°F to 115°F)
1 envelope active dry yeast, divided
1 cup all purpose flour, divided

Dough:

1 1/2 cups lukewarm (110°F to 115°F) water
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 envelope active dry yeast
6 cups (or more) all purpose flour
Olive oil
Yellow cornmeal

For sponge:
Place 1 cup lukewarm water in large bowl of heavy-duty mixer. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon yeast (reserve remaining yeast for dough) and 1/4 teaspoon flour over water. Let stand until yeast dissolves and mixture looks spongy, about 4 minutes. Add remaining flour and whisk until smooth; scrape down sides of bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let sponge rest at room temperature in draft-free area overnight (about 12 hours; sponge will look bubbly).

For dough:
Add 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 envelope yeast, and reserved remaining yeast to sponge, then add 6 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, beating with dough hook to blend after each addition. Continue to beat until dough is smooth, comes cleanly away from sides of bowl, and is only slightly sticky to touch, scraping down bowl occasionally, about 5 minutes. If dough is very sticky, beat in more flour, 1/4 cupful at a time. Scrape dough onto floured surface; knead into smooth ball.

Brush inside of large bowl with oil. Add dough; turn to coat with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; chill 6 hours, kneading dough down when doubled (after 2 hours).

About 1.5 hours before baking, dust 2 baking sheets with flour. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead gently; shape into 16-inch log. Cut into 8 equal pieces. Knead each piece into smooth ball. Arrange 4 balls of dough on each sheet. Cover loosely with kitchen towels and let rise until almost doubled, 1 to 1.25 hours. If freezing some of your dough, punch it down and freeze it at this point.

If using pizza stone, place in oven.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees for 45 minutes. Working with 1 dough ball at a time, dust dough with flour. Press into 5-inch round, then gently stretch and roll out to 7- to 9-inch round.

If using a pizza stone, sprinkle pizza peel or rimless baking sheet with cornmeal. If not using pizza stone, sprinkle large baking sheet with cornmeal. Place dough round on cornmeal; brush lightly with oil. Top as desired. Slide pizza onto stone or place pizza on baking sheet into oven.

Bake pizza until sauce is bubbling and crust is crisp and brown, lifting edge of pizza to check underside, about 14 minutes.

Adaped from Epicurious. Photo from Gazy Brothers Farm in Oxford, CT.

Garlicky Summer Squash-Strand Spaghetti

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:43:00 -0500

Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite recipe blogs, is the provenance of this satisfying recipe perfect for the variety of summer squash you inevitably took home from Green Gate this week. (Five pounds of squash seemed totally reasonable as I was carrying it away from the farm stand…)

We were planning on having a salad alongside this dish, but once it was finished we realized it’s kind of a salad and a pasta in one, since the zucchini (or whatever long summer squash you choose) stays so crisp and colorful. Don’t skimp on the garlic here. We didn’t try the accompanying basil oil last night, as we had a need for speed, but will make up a batch to have on hand for next time. Which, considering the amount of squash in our fridge, might be soon.

Make sure to check out the optional basil oil recipe at the end!

Garlicky Summer Squash-Strand Spaghetti

Serves 4 hungry people

Ingredients:

3/4 pound spaghetti, capellini, spaghettini, or other strand pasta
3/4 pound zucchini and/or other summer squash, ideally the long, tube-shaped varieties rather than the squat, round ones like patty pans
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus a small piece for grating over the top
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Add the pasta and cook until al dente according to package instructions.

While the water comes to a boil and the pasta cooks, cut the zucchini with the fine julienne cutter on a mandoline. If you do not have one, cut by hand into the longest, finest julienne you can—this does not need to be perfect, but part of the fun of this dish is that the zucchini and the pasta are all matchy-matchy. Season with salt and pepper.

If your zucchini is very finely cut, it does not need to be cooked. Otherwise, place in a colander, suspend over the pasta pot, cover the pot, and steam the zucchini until still slightly crunchy, about 2 minutes.

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the garlic and saute briefly until light brown. Add the red pepper flakes. Quickly mix in the basil and remove from the heat. When the pasta is al dente, drain through a colander, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Pour the pasta into the skillet; add the zucchini, the garlic mixture, and 1/2 cup of the cheese, as well as 1-2 tablespoons of the optional basil oil (recipe below). Toss well, adding cooking water as needed to make a smooth sauce. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as needed. Grate about 2 tablespoons Parmesan over the top and serve at once.

Basil Oil

Makes 1.3 cups
Use 4 cups packed leaves to 2 cups olive oil, or, of course, halve at will

In a blender, puree the basil and oil until completely smooth. Put the mixture in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer over moderate heat. Simmer for 45 seconds, then pour through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. Don’t press on the mixture, but you can tap the strainer against your hand to get the oil to drip through faster. If you’re totally OCD, you can then strain the oil one more time through a coffee filter, but whatever. Note: Fresh herb oils are better to toss into pasta at the end rather than cook with, so the oil keeps its fresh, uncooked taste.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Cucumber Dill Salad

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:31:00 -0500

My good friends D. and A. and I went peach-picking at Psencik Peach Farm in Fredericksburg one day in June a few years ago. We drove in A.’s red pickup truck in straw hats and plaid shirts and rolled up jeans; D. even wore overalls. The peaches were perfect—nearly impossible not to eat directly, illegally, off the tree—and the hot weather and cool conversation were equally enjoyable. Is it strange, then, that what I remember most distinctly is a cucumber salad that came in one of my girlfriend’s picnic baskets? It was store-bought, at that—from Whole Foods—but it was exactly what I wanted on that hot day in the orchard. (We’re going back this weekend!)

Ingredients:

3 medium cucumbers, peeled (if desired) and very thinly sliced (good excuse to use your mandoline, if you have one)
1 small white onion, very thinly sliced 2 teaspoons sea salt, more to taste
2 tablespoons white or red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh (or 1 teaspoon dried) dill

How to:

Toss cucumber and onion slices in a large colander with 2 teaspoons sea salt. Place colander over a bowl to catch draining liquid and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. The cucumbers will shrink considerably as the salt releases their moisture.

Rinse cucumbers and onions under cold running water to rinse off salt. Drain thoroughly. Toss drained cucumber and onion with vinegar, dill and a pinch of salt, if desired. Cover and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours more until ready to serve. Or eat immediately, straight from the serving bowl, if it’s been a long day at work and this is the salad you’ve been waiting for since this time last summer…

Adapted from Whole Foods.

Napa Cabbage and Sesame Seed Slaw

Mon, 24 May 2010 17:14:00 -0500

This is a good-lookin’ mayo-free cole slaw that you might consider bringing to one of those holiday barbecues this coming weekend. Just don’t everybody bring this same salad to Skip’s birthday party!

Serves 8

Wasabi Dressing:

2 teaspoons wasabi powder (available at Asian markets, specialty stores and many large supermarkets)
1 tablespoon water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup peanut oil (other neutral oil would work)
1 tablespoon honey
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Slaw:

1 large head Napa cabbage, finely shredded
2 large carrots, peeled and finely shredded, or sliced in rounds if you accidentally have the wrong blade on the food processor… oops.
4 green onions (white bulb and 3 inches of green), finely sliced on the bias (yep, that’s what the original recipe says… I would add “or whatever” to that)
1 cup finely sliced snow peas (strings removed and sliced on the bias) (optional—especially for me because I’m not a fan)
Wasabi dressing (recipe above)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, toasted
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds, toasted (this is the ideal, but just use 2 T of whatever you’ve got)

Combine the wasabi powder and water in a small bowl. Whisk in the garlic, ginger, lime juice, vinegar, oil and honey, and season with salt and pepper. Combine the cabbage, carrots, green onions and snow peas (if using) in a large bowl. Add the dressing and coat well. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

Adapted from Bobby Flay’s Boy Meets Grill, as heard on NPR in August, 2007, and linked from Smitten Kitchen. Don’t you just love the internet?

Grilled Blue Potato and Summer Squash Salad with Herb-Lemon Vinaigrette

Thu, 20 May 2010 19:50:00 -0500

And just like that, I’m inspired again. Please, if there is a god, let me be inspired for a turnip dish next. Any ideas? Submit them! I ate this delectable-looking item, which truly was as good as it looked, next to a piece of grilled amberjack.

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced shallot
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons chopped fresh marjoram or parsley or basil
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1/4 cup plus 2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 pound small blue potatoes (such as the ones in this week’s share), unpeeled, sliced to 1/2 inch thick the long way
1 pound assorted summer squash, cut on diagonal into 1/3-inch-thick slices
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch-wide strips (optional)

Whisk lemon juice, shallot, 1 tablespoon of your chosen herb, and lemon peel in small bowl. Gradually whisk in 1/4 cup oil. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper.

Prepare grill (medium heat). Place potato slices in large saucepan; add enough cold salted water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until almost tender, about 4 minutes. Drain. Transfer potatoes to large bowl. Add squash and bell pepper (if using) in the same bowl as the potatoes; add 2 teaspoons of your herb du jour and 2-3 tablespoons oil (I thought 3 was a bit greasy). Sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat.

Arrange potatoes in single layer on the grill or in a grill basket, if that’s your thing. Grill until tender, 5 minutes per side. Grill squash and bell pepper (if using) until tender, turning occasionally, 10 minutes. Transfer squash and potatoes to bowl. Cut bell pepper into 1-inch pieces; add to vegetables. Add vinaigrette; toss. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature (I’m going with warm!).

Adapted from Epicurious.

Pasta with Caramelized Onions, a Fried Egg, and (optional) Bacon

Thu, 20 May 2010 19:36:18 -0500

Serves 2

2 bacon slices or Fakin’ Bacon, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
12 ounces spaghetti or linguine
2 large eggs
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

If using real bacon, sauté it in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to paper towels and chop or crumble when cool. Or, cook Fakin’ Bacon according to package instructions and then chop or crumble.

Add 3/4 of your oil (or use 1 tablespoon bacon drippings) and return to medium heat. Add onions; sauté until deep golden brown, about 20 minutes. Stir in crushed red pepper. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat; cover to keep warm.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid in bowl. Return pasta to pot; add onions. Cover to keep warm.

Heat remaining oil in large skillet over medium heat. Crack eggs into skillet; fry until whites are set but yolks are still soft, about 4 minutes. Add cheese and bacon to pasta; place an egg on top (you can toss to shred the egg if you like). Add pasta cooking liquid to moisten if desired. Season with salt and pepper; serve.

Adapted from Epicurious.

Nothing's Cooking

Thu, 20 May 2010 19:34:36 -0500

The only problem with a blog dedicated to what you cook with your CSA produce is that some weeks do not lend themselves to cooking. This past week has been one like that—not that it’s been a bad week, by any means. It’s been one filled with visiting family, lots of swimming, more beer than any one one person really needs to drink, good live music, and some hard work interspersed. Somewhere in there, we threw some Gulf shrimp on the grill.

That’s not to say we haven’t been enjoying the CSA bounty. We just haven’t been cooking anything we’d call inspiring—after a while, a salad is just a salad, even if the lettuce and arugula are the best you’ve ever had. Sauteing your baby Swiss chard in garlic is not new.

Tuesday we went out to see Besnard Lakes, a band from Montreal, at the Mohawk. We needed something satisfying and quick. I had been especially excited about the slicing onions in our share earlier in the day—see above for what we did with them.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Wed, 12 May 2010 15:34:00 -0500

I was really skeptical about this one. I had sent P. on an internet wild goose chase for new and interesting scape concoctions—i.e. something other than “chop it up and throw it in whatever else you’re cooking”—and I definitely shrugged loudly when I saw the recipe. However, this is a really bright and versatile little pesto that is totally worth your scapes. We had it on pasta, but as the source recipe notes, it could also be a spread, an omelet filling, a burger topping, etc.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup coarsely chopped garlic scapes
1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts (we used walnuts this time)
Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
3/4 teaspoon salt
Liberal grinds of black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano cheese

How to:

Lightly toast the pine nuts in a small, dry pan over very low heat, until just starting to brown, about 2-3 minutes (this can also be done in the toaster oven, but be vigilant because they’ll burn before you know it). Let cool for a few minutes. Combine the scapes, pine nuts, lemon juice and zest, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Pulse about 20 times, until fairly well combined. Pour in the olive oil slowly through the feed tube while the motor is running. When emulsified, remove to a bowl and stir in the grated cheese.

Adapted from Umami Girl.

Indian Cabbage Two Ways

Wed, 12 May 2010 15:21:00 -0500

I am in love with India’s Vegetarian Cooking - a Regional Guide by Monisha Bharadwaj. After buying the book (which our excellent friend Christine Craven recommended), we made an extremely enjoyable $18 trip to the Indian grocery on Lamar just north of Rundberg for some specialty items. We have cooked about a third of the recipes in it so far—and have literally never failed. Granted, we have not attempted to feed our home-cooked Indian food to anyone else, let alone our Indian friends. Yet. But we really like the flavors we’ve been able to usher out of some common ingredients. They taste enough like ones we have had in Indian restaurants and homes that we feel… smug.

Because many of us are likely hoarding Green Gate cabbages in our crisper drawers, here are two options for simple, delicious Indian dishes with cabbage as the main idea. This first recipe is a dish from the Indian state of Gujarat, and the second—um, I can’t remember right now and don’t have the book in front of me. But I’ll report back. Both of these can be served with rice—Basmati is the traditional, but any rice will do.

Gujarati Cabbage and Peas Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

2 fresh green chili peppers (like jalapeno or serrano)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons safflower oil (or other neutral vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
pinch asafoetida (you can skip this if you don’t have it, but if you can track some down it really makes a difference)
1 tbsp tumeric
10-11 ounces cabbage, finely shredded
5-6 ounces fresh or frozen peas
salt
2 tablespoons grated coconut (unsweetened!)

How to:
Pulse ginger and chili peppers to a paste in a food processor or with an immersion blender—or mash them together with a mortar and pestle.

Heat oil in a heavy skillet. Add mustard seeds. When they begin to pop, add cumin seeds, asafoetida and chili pepper/ginger paste and stir for a few seconds. Add tumeric powder, then immediately add cabbage and peas at once. Season with salt. Cook, stirring, until the cabbage starts to turn translucent. Add a few tablespoons of water, reduce heat and cook the water off. Sprinkle with coconut and serve.

Cabbage with Five Spices and Ginger

OK, so this one involves a spice mixture called panch phoron that you’ll probably need to pick up on a pilgrimage to the Indian grocery—you could make it yourself, but a couple of its integral spices are ones you’d also need to pick up at the Indian grocery, so yeah, this becomes a little circular. It contains equal amounts of cumin seeds, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, black mustard seeds, and nigella seeds. In a pinch, grind some cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and black mustard seeds (all of which you can get at the H-E-B) in your spice or coffee grinder.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
2 teaspoon grated or finely minced ginger
4 dried red chili peppers soaked in water and drained
3 tablespoon safflower oil (or other neutral vegetable oil)
1 large onion, finely sliced
10-11 ounces cabbage, shredded or finely sliced
salt
2 tablespoons panch phoron (see above) or some semblance of it

How to:
Process mustard seeds, ginger and drained chili peppers in a food processor with 5 tablespoons of water to make a fine paste.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy skillet and add onion. Fry until golden, then add the cabbage. Stir-fry until just translucent and sprinkle in the spice mixture and salt. Add 4 tbsp of water and cook uncovered until cabbage is tender but not mushy. Remove the mixture from the pan and reserve in a bowl.

Heat remaining oil (1 tablespoon) in the pan and add panch phoron. When it crackles, you know it’s done—pour the oil and seeds over the reserved cabbage. Toss well and serve.

Coming soon...

Wed, 05 May 2010 15:09:00 -0500

An experiment with grilled turnips!

Grilled kebabs with homemade seitan and summer squash!

Mexican pile with spicy summer squash!

Bubble and Squeak

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:54:00 -0500

I admit it, this is basically cabbage and potatoes sauteed in a lot of butter. You kind of can’t go wrong with that, unless you’re trying not to eat so much fat, in which case you might want to skip this one. The folklore is that the British call it Bubble and Squeak because of how it behaves while it’s cooking. (It does do those things, but there are those who have other ideas about the name’s provenance.)

If you are crazy (I am!), you can make your own butter for this. Check out this old piece in the New York Times for details. You can also email Deborah Freeman (deborahcfreeman at yahoo dot com) to take part in the Green Gate dairy coop, which would make this butter thing even better.

Ingredients:

1 lb potatoes, peeled (if desired) and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter or 3 tablespoons butter, 3 olive oil
1 lb green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

How to:

Cover potatoes with cold salted water by 1 inch and bring to a boil, then boil, uncovered, until tender when pierced with a sharp knife. Drain.

Heat butter (or butter and oil) in a 10-inch heavy nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté cabbage with salt and pepper, stirring frequently, until tender, about 5 minutes.

Add potatoes, mashing and stirring them into cabbage while leaving some lumps and pressing to form a cake. Cook, without stirring, until underside is crusty and golden, about 10 minutes.

This recipe makes one big, skillet-sized cake that you cut apart—I have also seen this done as individual cabbage and potato pancakes, which are pretty cute. To do that, saute the cabbage and mash the potatoes separately in 2 tablespoons of butter each, cool completely, mix together in a bowl, form into approximately 1/4 cup patties, and fry in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.

Adapted from Epicurious.

Spanish Potato Omelette

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:08:00 -0500

This is a standby recipe for me. So when I realized I had brought home 2 1/2 lbs of beautiful potatoes (grown without irrigation, I learned!), some onions, and some garlic, along with some Green Gate eggs (which I didn’t drop on the floor this week) this was an obvious choice. With an arugula salad.

One summer back in the ’90s, the boyfriend of a roommate of mine lived with us for a couple of months. He was that roommate who spends all day smoking pot and eating your food while you are slaving away at your first full-time job after college, buttering his toast by clutching the stick of butter in his hand and rubbing it on the bread, then putting it back in the fridge covered in fingerprints and crumbs, and telling you you’re a sucker for buying renters’ insurance and that you must just “believe in disaster.” (Oh wait, you’ve never lived with that guy?) I’m sure he’s a fine young man now. Lots of people are jerks at 21, right? (Right…?)

Anyway, so that roommate’s boyfriend’s mother happens to be a journalist and award-winning cookbook author—an expert in Spanish cooking, Janet Mendel. I learned how to make this first by watching the boyfriend, then by watching my roommate (his then girlfriend), and then by following Janet Mendel’s recipe in Traditional Spanish Cooking. This is my own version. It’s not perfectly traditional, by any stretch, but you’ll recognize it if you’ve eaten the dish in a tapas place in Spain.

Spanish Potato Omelette aka Tortilla de Patatas aka Tortilla Española

2 1/3 lb. potatoes, chopped into 1 inch dice
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium or 2 small onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or put through a press
7-9 eggs (7 if they’re large, 8 if they’re medium-sized, 9 if they’re small)
1 1/2 tablespoons salt

You’ll need two nonstick skillets (cast iron works as long as it’s super well seasoned, but if you’re a nonstick user, this is the day). In one, heat 1/4 cup olive oil; in the other, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil.

In the 1 tablespoon oil, fry the chopped onion with the three cloves minced garlic over medium heat until translucent (not brown, although a little brown tastes delicious, just not traditional).

In the 1/4 cup oil, fry the potatoes on medium heat until fork-tender. More cooked is better than less, but don’t let these get brown or crisp like french fries, you want them to remain pale. Don’t stir too much or they get starchy, but also don’t let the bottom ones burn. It’s tricky. This usually takes about 20 minutes—at the end, throw the cooked onions and garlic into the potatoes, stir, and cook together for a couple minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat 8-9 eggs until uniform in color, add a teaspoon and a half of salt, and lots of black pepper (to taste—I like a lot). Add the potato/onion mixture to the bowl with the eggs and stir to coat. Add a little more oil to the bottom of the deeper of your two skillets if it’s gotten dry (or spray with oil if you’re into that), heat it back up to medium, and then add the whole egg/potato/kitten-kaboodle to the skillet. Even out the top with a rubber spatula. Keep the heat on medium, unless it starts to smell like the eggs are browning too much on the bottom, in which case reduce a little.

Basically, this is where the tough get going. Once the eggs start to set, you want to pretty much constantly shake the skillet so the tortilla kinda revolves around in the pan and nothing sticks. At the same time, you want to use a rubber spatula to start pulling the eggs away from the sides of the pan and shaping the top edge like a frisbee, nice and rounded. So you’re shaking and you’re rounding, and the eggs are setting. Then it gets really exciting. Don’t be scared:

When the center is still undercooked but not sloshy, sort of a custardy consistency, I like to put on two oven mitts. Get out a plate that’s big enough to comfortably cover the pan, and turn it upside down over the pan. Then deftly flip the thing over so the tortilla is on the plate with the skillet covering it. Put the skillet back on the burner, and then ever-so-gently s-l-i-d-e the tortilla back into the pan, pushing any mushy undercooked parts into the pan as well as you can.

This takes practice. You may want a spotter who will push the thing into the pan while you hold the plate or vice versa. I do the flipping bit over the sink out of habit, although I have never had a real casualty. Sometimes if the inside is a little less done, you’ll leave some egg/potato on the plate, but that’s ok.

Then you cook it for about 5-10 more minutes over low heat to cook the other side (you may want to test that it’s cooked all the way through), and it’s done! And it’s beautiful and delicious and perfect, and an extremely impressive thing to, say, make for brunch for your in-laws, if you’re me. You could even halve this recipe if you have a smaller sized skillet.

Kale and Fried Shallot Quiche with Goat Cheese

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:36:00 -0500

What to do when life hands you two cartons of fresh Green Gate Farms eggs and you proceed to drop them both on your tiled kitchen floor? Salvage what you can and make quiche! While cursing a lot.

Luckily, not all my eggs were broken—only nine of the 24 were damaged. I was able to save six that had cracked, and used five of the yolks and most of the whites for this quiche. As a result, it was a very rich custard. I threw in some roasted red and Anaheim peppers, but in retrospect what they added in color and flavor they took away in wateriness that sogged up the filling. A seeded, chopped red chile pepper thrown in with the shallots would have been better, so that’s what I’ll recommend. I happen to like some heat with my greens—this could also be omitted.

The beautiful Tuscan kale from this week’s share is the main event—make sure to cook it thoroughly or it’ll be super tough to cut through your quiche slices, let alone bite into them. You all know the trick for removing any tough stems from kale and other greens, right? Place the leaf stem—fibrous side up—with the stem farthest from you. Place your non-dominant hand palm down on the leaf with the stem between your index and middle fingers. With your other hand, grab the stem and pull it toward you, ripping it away from the tender part of the leaf, while holding down the leaf with your other hand. This is a very satisfying thing.

Shallots are this quiche’s secret weapon. You only need two or three (although an all-shallot quiche doesn’t sound entirely bad to me) so it’s not too much of a pain to peel them.

I know this is supposed to be about the vegetables, but the crust here was a real selling point—eating it makes me want to give up on sad, crustless frittatas forever. I know I have ragged on Mollie Katzen a bit, but her all-butter crust recipe is unstoppable. It does tend to slump a LOT because of its high fat content, which makes for a demoralizing pastry experience. Rather than blind baking as usual, as I did here to mixed results, I recommend forming the crust over the outside of a pan and baking it upside down. I have done this with some success in the past, but forgot this time. You could also bake right-side-up with another pie pan laid inside, on top of the crust, but I cannot warranty this method.

Filling

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large or 3 medium shallots, peeled and sliced thinly
1 small red chile pepper, seeded and chopped (optional)
1 bunch Tuscan kale, chopped coarsely and rinsed (with some water still clinging)
large pinch red pepper flakes (omit if using the chile pepper!)
4 eggs (plus one to two extra yolks if you’re feeling some extra richness or happen to have dropped $10 worth of eggs on the floor)
1.75-2 cups milk (more yolks = more milk) or half & half or cream if you’re inclined
1/4 tsp. salt and black or white pepper to taste
4 oz. soft goat cheese

How to:

First, make your crust as directed below and blind bake using the method of your choice for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. You can leave the oven on.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the shallots and red chile pepper, if using, until the shallots are nicely browned. (I like mine pretty well done, but this is a matter of taste.) Add the kale, stir for a moment to mix with the other ingredients, then reduce heat to medium and cover until the kale is wilted. Stir, uncovered, until kale is tender. If using red pepper flakes, add these now.

While the kale is cooking, beat the eggs, milk, salt and pepper with a whisk. With a fork, mash the goat cheese into the egg-milk mixture.

Spoon the vegetables into the pre-baked crust in an even layer. Pour the egg mixture over the filling. Bake for 45 minutes or until set (make sure it’s not jiggling in the center). Cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

Crust
Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
Up to 3 tablespoons cold water, milk, or buttermilk

How to:

Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Cut the butter into slices, add to the processor, and buzz several times, until the mixture is uniform and resembles coarse meal. (If you don’t have a food processor, use a pastry cutter or 2 forks instead.)

Continue to process in quick spurts as you add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time. As soon as the dough adheres to itself when pinched, stop adding water and turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Gather it gently into a ball.

Roll the dough into a circle 11 inches or so in diameter (slightly bigger than a I 0-inch round). Lift the dough and ease it into a 9-inch pie pan, nudging it gently into the corners. Form a generous, even edge all the way around the sides. If you’re not going to use the crust right away, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze it until use.

Crust recipe from Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Café by Mollie Katzen.

Beet Green and Garlic Scape Ragù

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:43:00 -0500

I get inordinately excited when I have the opportunity to use more than one CSA vegetable in a single dish. (Go ahead, say it, I have no life.) ~~This is going to be delicious—I plan to make it this week.~~ Made it tonight and it was saucier than I expected, so I’ve changed the name from the original. I have made some alterations in the process here since the initial post, but all the ingredients are the same.

1 bunch beet greens + stems, chopped (not too fine)
2-4 garlic scapes, chopped as in photo below
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 c chopped toasted walnuts or pine nuts
your favorite pasta (angel hair or pappardelle would be excellent—I used some handmade orecchiette from P.’s latest New York trip)
1-15 oz can diced tomatoes (or 2 chopped roma tomatoes if you can find any worth eating)
Parmesan cheese, grated or shaved

Cook pasta according to package directions. Heat skillet over medium low heat.

Add oil and saute scapes until crisp-tender. Add tomatoes (don’t drain), stirring, then cook down for 5-10 minutes. Add greens to the sauce and stir ‘til they wilt, about 3 minutes.

Add salt and pepper, then nuts. Toss sauce with the drained pasta. Top each serving with Parmesan cheese.

Adapted from Jamies-Recipes.com.

Kohlrabi Puree

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:40:00 -0500

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when a vegetable that’s been cultivated in the U.S. since the 1800s but never quite caught on rears its purple head once again, stumping even the most ardent vegetable fan. Here’s another idea for it—reminds me of a fantastic cauliflower dish I got addicted to over the winter, but that is not the matter at hand. This would be great as a comfortable mash to set a protein on top of (trout or chicken breast, for instance). I can also see this being good as a rough mash, if you do the pureeing step with a potato masher instead and add the mushrooms afterward.

Ingredients:

4 kohlrabi bulbs with leaves
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 ounces mushrooms, quartered (these can be omitted if desired)
3 Tablespoons cream (or milk, chicken stock, olive oil, or water)
salt and pepper to taste

Trim the kohlrabi bulbs, peeling them if the skins seem tough. Rinse the leaves (discarding any that are yellow) pat them dry, and coarsely chop. Set aside. Cut the bulbs into 1-inch chunks.

Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil, and add the kohlrabi chunks. Reduce the heat and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add the onion and sauté over medium-low heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, another 1 to 2 minutes. Do not let garlic brown.

Add the mushrooms and the reserved kohlrabi leaves to the skillet. Cover, and cook 5 minutes. Then uncover, and cook, stirring, until all the liquid has evaporated, 3 minutes. Set the skillet aside.

Drain the kohlrabi chunks and place them in the bowl of a food processor (or use an immersion blender). Add the mushroom mixture and all the remaining ingredients. Purée until smooth.

Transfer the purée to a saucepan and reheat over low heat, stirring, 2 minutes.

Adapted, or really pretty much stolen wholesale, from Farmgirl Fare. Painting by Sharon Lynn Williams.

Creamy Kohlrabi

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:31:00 -0500

Catherine and Jetson, fabulous former farmer interns at Green Gate, brought this to our house last Easter, and I fell in love. It’s kind of like a gratin, and brings out the sweet, earthy flavor of the kohlrabi, which is more like broccoli than is intuitive from its looks.

Ingredients:

1-2 kohlrabi
1 head broccoli (cauliflower would also be good, or omit)
2 tablespoons butter
3 sprigs dill: chop 2 sprigs, and save 1 as a garnish

Cream sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon flour
1.5 cups cream (and/or milk for a lighter sauce)
salt and pepper

How to:

Cut the leaves from the kohlrabi, and save them for another dish (they cook up like kale). Peel the kohlrabi bulbs, quarter them, and slice thinly. Chop the broccoli stem and florets into small pieces. Sauté the kohlrabi slices in butter until they begin to brown, then add the broccoli. Salt lightly. Stir occasionally until kohlrabi is lightly browned.

Cover and continue cooking until kohlrabi and broccoli are tender. Add dill when almost done sautéing.

To make the cream sauce, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and stir constantly about 2-3 minutes until the flour and oil are evenly mixed. Let cool slightly, then whisk in the cream and/or milk over low heat.

Whisk constantly until the sauce thickens and comes to a simmer. Add a pinch of salt and a couple pinches of pepper.

Over low heat, pour the cream sauce over the sautéed kohlrabi and broccoli, stir in, and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with fresh dill if you like.

Photo from Chefklink.

Beet Vinaigrette Homage, Avec Carrots

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:02:00 -0500

Finally amassed the right ingredients to ~~rip off~~ pay homage to the East Side Show Room’s spring salad. I bought my beets from outside the farm, but anyone who’s part of a CSA in Central Texas knows this can always be reprised. The beet vinaigrette/blue cheese combo is an old standby that the carrots help to update.

Ingredients:

Dressing:

1 medium-large fresh beet, trimmed and scrubbed
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Salad:

Salad greens of your choice
Roasted Carrots
Nuts (walnuts or almonds are good)
1 oz blue cheese (Texan if you can) per serving

How to:

Wrap beet in foil and bake at 400° for 35 minutes or until tender; cool 15 minutes, then slip off the skin if desired (although not necessary to do so).

In a food processor or blender, process beet, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper in a until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides.

You can pour the mixture through a wire-mesh strainer into a bowl, discarding the solids, but I chose to shake my salad ingredients (minus the carrots) with the still-thick dressing in a covered plastic container to good effect. Then I plated with the carrots relaxing on top.

Adapted from Southern Living, photo from Berroco Design Studio.