Monday, January 10, 2011
Pineapple and Squashes
So squash grows in the winter. Really well. So well that we got 5 squashes in our CSA a few weeks ago. We made lots of squash dishes, and then there were still 2 left. I decided to make the squash casserole from Vegetables Every Day. It has Indian flavors, and the squash is baked in coconut milk. It was really good--the squash was soft and sweet and with a little cilantro on top, very delicious. If we made it again, I might add a little heat since it wasn't really spicy.
Along with this, I made sauteed pineapple from a Vietnamese cookbook we have. I have made it before, but since the recipe calls for fish sauce, the last time I made it, I used vegetarian mushroom sauce. This time, we had found vegetarian fish sauce at a Vietnamese grocery in Santa Ana and so we used vegetarian fish sauce. Wow, it smelled like fish. I didn't really like cooking it 'cause it didn't smell good, but it ended up tasting yummy. Added cilantro to it too, and it was tasty. But I think it tasted better last time I made it. Mushroom sauce ftw.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
German Butterballs with Carrot Puree and Rhubarb Short Ribs
Clintonhillbilly here. We made a list today of all of the meals we plan to make this week and all of the ingredients we needed to buy. Then we went to the farmer's market in Mar Vista on our way to a friend's house for brunch and got as much as we could there, and the Duchess stopped by Ralph's later for the rest. The thing about cooking so much is that the kitchen gets so messy every day! Maybe we are making too many things? Well, I am planning to enter a short rib recipe contest this week on food52.com, so I picked up some bone-in short ribs at the farmer's market. I've only cooked short ribs once before, in a slow cooker, and they were okay but not great. I made up a recipe for a rhubarb barbecue sauce awhile back, so I turned that sauce into a braising liquid by adding more red wine and vegetable broth. I browned the ribs in a cast iron skillet and then poured in my sauce with a sprig of rosemary and some celery, carrots and garlic. It came out very well! But the short ribs were mostly fat as it turned out.
The Duchess roasted some German butterball potatoes we got at the farmer's market, and they were delicious! They really do taste buttery, even more intensely so than Yukon Golds. She topped them with a carrot puree she made a few days ago involving cumin, chickpeas, yogurt, and honey, and it was excellent.
Our attempts at yuca chips with our newly purchased mandoline didn't end up so well-- lesson learned, when you have paper thin slices you have to watch them much more carefully to make sure they don't burn.
We had a little salad of a spicy greens mix from the farmer's market with chopped apple, sliced red onion, and olive oil and malt vinegar that was a nice snack while we were cooking everything else. I really like malt vinegar on salad, and I think it goes especially well with apples.
Finally, the Duchess made a green curry chicken recipe with tofu by Aarti of Aarti Party on Food Network. It was surprisingly bland. The original was with chicken, but still, I don't think that would have made the difference between a good and bad recipe. Our spices are old though, and I'm sure it would have been better if we ground them fresh. And maybe the onion was too big/powerful? She also made a pomegranate-cucumber raita to go with it with Greek yogurt which was quite nice.
Recipe of the day: Braised Short Ribs with Rhubarb Wine Sauce
Sauce:
A few small stalks rhubarb
1/2 cup coffee
1 1/2 cup red wine
1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp yellow mustard
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp cloves
2 tbsp ancho chili powder
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp salt
several grinds fresh black pepper
sprig of rosemary
Ribs:
2 short ribs
1/2 red onion, cut into large chunks
4 garlic cloves
1 celery stalk with leaves
The quantities of ingredients are approximate because I kept adding things as I went along. Originally I had less wine and broth, but the cloves were a bit overwhelming so I added more until it tasted right. Also, the ketchup I used was unsweetened, so if you have sweetened ketchup you may want to add sugar more sparingly.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cook rhubarb with a little water and half the sugar until soft and mush, then mash up with a fork. Add all other sauce ingredients and bring to a boil, then simmer for about twenty minutes.
Brown ribs in a cast iron skillet. With a properly seasoned cast iron skillet, oil is not necessary. Pour off some of the rendered fat, then add onion, garlic, and celery. Pour sauce over ribs and vegetables, and cover with foil. Place in the oven for twenty minutes, then loosen foil and turn heat down to 325 degrees. Leave it in here for at least an hour, until the meat is super-tender and can easily be pulled off the bone with a fork.
To serve, take out the ribs and spoon a little sauce over them on the plate. It's a pretty rich dish, and it went well with potatoes, but I also think it would go well with rice.
The Duchess roasted some German butterball potatoes we got at the farmer's market, and they were delicious! They really do taste buttery, even more intensely so than Yukon Golds. She topped them with a carrot puree she made a few days ago involving cumin, chickpeas, yogurt, and honey, and it was excellent.
Our attempts at yuca chips with our newly purchased mandoline didn't end up so well-- lesson learned, when you have paper thin slices you have to watch them much more carefully to make sure they don't burn.
We had a little salad of a spicy greens mix from the farmer's market with chopped apple, sliced red onion, and olive oil and malt vinegar that was a nice snack while we were cooking everything else. I really like malt vinegar on salad, and I think it goes especially well with apples.
Finally, the Duchess made a green curry chicken recipe with tofu by Aarti of Aarti Party on Food Network. It was surprisingly bland. The original was with chicken, but still, I don't think that would have made the difference between a good and bad recipe. Our spices are old though, and I'm sure it would have been better if we ground them fresh. And maybe the onion was too big/powerful? She also made a pomegranate-cucumber raita to go with it with Greek yogurt which was quite nice.
Recipe of the day: Braised Short Ribs with Rhubarb Wine Sauce
Sauce:
A few small stalks rhubarb
1/2 cup coffee
1 1/2 cup red wine
1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp yellow mustard
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp cloves
2 tbsp ancho chili powder
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp salt
several grinds fresh black pepper
sprig of rosemary
Ribs:
2 short ribs
1/2 red onion, cut into large chunks
4 garlic cloves
1 celery stalk with leaves
The quantities of ingredients are approximate because I kept adding things as I went along. Originally I had less wine and broth, but the cloves were a bit overwhelming so I added more until it tasted right. Also, the ketchup I used was unsweetened, so if you have sweetened ketchup you may want to add sugar more sparingly.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cook rhubarb with a little water and half the sugar until soft and mush, then mash up with a fork. Add all other sauce ingredients and bring to a boil, then simmer for about twenty minutes.
Brown ribs in a cast iron skillet. With a properly seasoned cast iron skillet, oil is not necessary. Pour off some of the rendered fat, then add onion, garlic, and celery. Pour sauce over ribs and vegetables, and cover with foil. Place in the oven for twenty minutes, then loosen foil and turn heat down to 325 degrees. Leave it in here for at least an hour, until the meat is super-tender and can easily be pulled off the bone with a fork.
To serve, take out the ribs and spoon a little sauce over them on the plate. It's a pretty rich dish, and it went well with potatoes, but I also think it would go well with rice.
Purple Gnocchi!
Yes, our Gnocchi is purple. This is because they are made with purple yam. The purple yam is traditionally used in Asian sweets, and so is, well, sweet. But they also have a similar texture and flavor to sweet potatoes, so we thought, why not--let's make gnocchi.
We used the carrot-whole wheat gnocchi recipe from the Food Matters cookbook by Mark Bittman, just subbing the yam for the carrot. Things like gnocchi kind of intimidate me, since there are so many steps, and a lot of it involves kneading and rolling. But I swallowed my fear and made it!
Something that is interesting about purple yams is that they don't turn the water purple; they turn it a strange blue color!
After boiling the yams, kneading them with flour, and then rolling them out into ropes and cutting them into cute little gnocchi shapes, we let them rest for 30 minutes.
Then it was time for boiling them! After only 4 minutes, they were finished. I served mine with oil that had been sauteed with rosemary and spinach. My lovely partner had hers with the pork bolognese that she made. That sauce too was chock full of veggies, including our CSA carrots.
So far so good--we ate lots of veggies, and used up some of the carrots and rosemary from the CSA!
We used the carrot-whole wheat gnocchi recipe from the Food Matters cookbook by Mark Bittman, just subbing the yam for the carrot. Things like gnocchi kind of intimidate me, since there are so many steps, and a lot of it involves kneading and rolling. But I swallowed my fear and made it!
Something that is interesting about purple yams is that they don't turn the water purple; they turn it a strange blue color!
After boiling the yams, kneading them with flour, and then rolling them out into ropes and cutting them into cute little gnocchi shapes, we let them rest for 30 minutes.
Then it was time for boiling them! After only 4 minutes, they were finished. I served mine with oil that had been sauteed with rosemary and spinach. My lovely partner had hers with the pork bolognese that she made. That sauce too was chock full of veggies, including our CSA carrots.
So far so good--we ate lots of veggies, and used up some of the carrots and rosemary from the CSA!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
January 1, 2011
Clintonhillbiilly here. The CSA is on holiday, but we still have two nter squashes left from our delivery two weeks ago, which included delicata, acorn, and butternut squashes. Squash schnitzel has been the star of our plate and pasilla-glazed squash chunks the meat of our tacos. We have had enough butternut squash for the whole winter already, but this seasonal cooking business is going to require us to be creative and keep on eating squash till Tierra Miguel stops putting it in our CSA box. We've encountered similar quantities of dill and carrots, which have ended up in borscht, slaw, and creamy carrot puree.
Today, all we have left from our last CSA delivery are two acorn squashes and a lot of fresh rosemary. We chipped away at some of the rosemary yesterday by making a rosemary aioli which we had on whole wheat sourdough with marinated, baked tofu. Rosemary is such a strong flavor, I don't think we can just chop it up and toss it on whatever like we do with basil and cilantro. Or can we?
Our refrigerator contains a few odds and ends that will help us come up with tonight's meal. A purple yam we picked up at a Vietnamese market in Santa Ana on our way back from John Wayne airport, a few remaining CSA carrots, and onions, garlic, and celery. We also picked up some organic rainbow chard from a little market called Two Bits that just opened around the corner. Finally, I've defrosted a half pound of ground pork from the Whole Foods butcher counter.
Ever since hearing the special on ragout on Good Food, I've been itching to make a long-simmered sauce. My plan is to sautee garlic, onions, celery, and ground pork, add red wine and canned tomatoes, throw in some ground herbs and seasonings, and simmer for a couple of hours. I'm thinking purple yam and rosemary gnocchi will use up some of our pesky rosemary, and if squash and russets go with rosemary, purple yams should too, right? I'll sautee some chard with lemon juice and olive oil to round out the vegetable quotient, and maybe make a romanesco sauce for my lovely vegetarian wife.
Today, all we have left from our last CSA delivery are two acorn squashes and a lot of fresh rosemary. We chipped away at some of the rosemary yesterday by making a rosemary aioli which we had on whole wheat sourdough with marinated, baked tofu. Rosemary is such a strong flavor, I don't think we can just chop it up and toss it on whatever like we do with basil and cilantro. Or can we?
Our refrigerator contains a few odds and ends that will help us come up with tonight's meal. A purple yam we picked up at a Vietnamese market in Santa Ana on our way back from John Wayne airport, a few remaining CSA carrots, and onions, garlic, and celery. We also picked up some organic rainbow chard from a little market called Two Bits that just opened around the corner. Finally, I've defrosted a half pound of ground pork from the Whole Foods butcher counter.
Ever since hearing the special on ragout on Good Food, I've been itching to make a long-simmered sauce. My plan is to sautee garlic, onions, celery, and ground pork, add red wine and canned tomatoes, throw in some ground herbs and seasonings, and simmer for a couple of hours. I'm thinking purple yam and rosemary gnocchi will use up some of our pesky rosemary, and if squash and russets go with rosemary, purple yams should too, right? I'll sautee some chard with lemon juice and olive oil to round out the vegetable quotient, and maybe make a romanesco sauce for my lovely vegetarian wife.
Welcome, 2011!
It's 2011. Clintonhillbilly is 31, and the Duchess of Squirrel is 29. It's time step it up! We have been trying for years to improve our eating habits, but we are easily seduced by artisanal cocktails and scrumptious small-plates. We live smack in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, which is nothing short of a cocktail lover's heaven. Within steps from our apartment are cocktails with canteloupe foam, candied bacon, hot and sweet pepper infused vodka, organic strawberries, and dozens more ingredients mixed with precision with top shelf spirits. As far as food goes, it is difficult to pass up fresh pasta, coffee rubbed pork tenderloin, corn flan with squash blossom sauce, and Peruvian ceviche. And that's just the high end stuff. We are also a hop, skip, and a jump from authentic New York pizza (we lived in NYC for several years, so we know!), ramen houses, French dip sandwiches and our favorite breakfast, Salvadorean plantanos fritos con frijoles y crema. Surrounded by such compelling flavors, it has been difficult to convince ourselves to stay home and cook for ourselves. But this year, we are committing to two things: local produce, and home cooking. This blog chronicles our mission to eat every single vegetable and fruit that comes in our CSA box from Tierra Miguel farms each week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)