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Better late than never!

April 10, 2010 By 6 Comments

I finally bought a farm share! So hopefully this summer I will be full of recipes lovingly prepared with fresh, local produce. Because I CARE. And also, because I keep hearing about how awesome it is and I want to judge for myself. And maaaaybe because the one I chose also includes local honey and cheese. Just maybe.

Last weekend we had Easter dinner at my in-laws, with ham [my favorite; down with turkey! except dark meat!], mashed potatoes, green beans and the side dish I am about to show you in all its glory. Also, my husband and brother-in-law made a bet in which it was somehow determined the loser would have to help pay for a turducken. I forget the conditions of it, but I’m glad we’re finally going to have one so my husband stops yapping about it. He’s more susceptible to advertising than I am.

This side dish is really quite basic but it’s tasty and satisfying. It’s from allrecipes.com, which is an amazingly awesome source of recipes. Even if you don’t follow the recipes on there to the letter, there are a lot of great basic ideas. Plus, I love the fact that you can plug in ingredients you have on hand and it brings up recipe suggestions for you.

Maple Dill Carrots
1.5 lbs baby carrots
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 teaspoons fresh dill, chopped
1 tablespoon of flour, if necessary
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large pan over medium high heat. Add in the carrots and just enough water to cover them. Let the carrots cook for about 15 – 20 minutes or until fork tender; the water may be evaporated depending upon the thickness of your carrots. If the water isn’t evaporated, pour the excess off from the pan. Add in the butter, brown sugar and dill. Toss with the carrots and make sure they’re all evenly coated. Let that cook down for a bit, until the butter and sugar thicken into a glaze; use the flour to thicken up if necessary. Salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

I never realized how much I like dill until I made this recipe. It’s such a bright, clean flavor – somewhere between sweet and savory, that plays beautifully with the brown sugar. This really would go well with just about any meal.

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The weather outside is weather…

February 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

And what weather it is. Goddamn New England. I don’t understand why our weather is such absolute crap; cold one minute, warm-ish the next but only enough to melt some ice, then cold again to make more godforsaken ice. Jesus. I should probably stop being blasphemous, seeing as how it’s Ash Wednesday and my poor mother-in-law is probably horrified. Especially since this week’s blog is about a recipe she gave me.

As part of the delicious Christmas dinner she cooked for us, she made Venus de Milo soup. I had never heard of it before, but it’s one of my husband’s favorites. And since he is her favorite son, she made it for the holiday [note: I'm sure she loves both of her delightful sons equally]. It’s an extreme comfort food; a rich, meaty broth peppered with diced vegetables and pasta, topped with Parmesan cheese. How can you go wrong?

Not a lot of pictures for this one – you know how I feel about soup and it’s unattractiveness.

Venus de Milo Soup
1 pound ground beef or sirloin
48 oz chicken broth
1 pkg. onion soup mix
2 large ribs celery, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1/2 an onion, diced*
1/2 cup orzo
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt & pepper to taste
grated Parmesan cheese for topping
* this is not in the original recipe, but I can’t help adding unnecessary steps.

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, brown meat. Add in the Worcestershire sauce, celery, carrots and onions and let vegetables soften. Season with salt and pepper. Add in the onion soup mix and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 20 minutes. Add orzo, cook an additional 8 – 10 minutes. Season again with salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce if necessary. Serve immediately with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

That’s it; a bunch of simple ingredients, but they come together really well. I’ve also looked at various website and have seen other variations on this soup – different vegetables, adding in diced tomatoes, different broths, etc. There’s a million ways you can prepare this, but I’m pretty sure all of them are going to be tasty.

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Wait, who's in the Super Bowl again?

February 4, 2010 By 2 Comments

This post is brought to you by a dear Food Shenanigans friend, Tim Gager.

Super Bowl Party — it’s about friends and food. Some people like the commercials, some get into the game. And beer? That’s basic, Heineken? Pabst? It doesn’t matter much unless you’re Dennis Hopper:

For the past twenty years I’ve had a party for the Super Bowl, unless the Patriots (my team) are playing, then I go to other people’s parties so I don’t miss any of the game. My get-togethers started humbly with only beer and hard liquor. Years II to III, featured such treats as Jenos Pizza Rolls and Wieners in Wrappers. If I were old enough my party for the Jets-Colts would have looked like this:

I guarantee it.

But, damn, I’ve grown up. Invited this year is Michelle (writer of Food Shenanigans!) and her husband Dave along with six other people I love. I’ve already fantasized that after the party Michelle’ll just post “I quit, Tim’s too good” on her blog. Maybe she’ll say something nice after. [Ed. Note: This is certainly possible, but my ego likely won't allow it!]

This year here is the menu:

Robert Duvall’s Mother’s Crab Cakes.

Ingredients
1 pound crab meat, jumbo, lump or back-fin
2 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 small onion, grated
1/2 tablespoon mustard powder
18 Ritz crackers, crumbled
Directions
1. Combine all ingredients except the crackers. Add crackers crumbs in as close to sautéing as possible so that they crab cakes don’t get too moist from the other ingredients. Form into patties the size of hamburger patties.
2. Sauté in frying pan over medium-to-high heat in butter, 10 minutes per side. Make sure that it’s crispy outside but moist and juicy inside.
3. A simple tartar sauce to accompany the crab cakes can be made by mixing mayonnaise, grated onion and lemon juice.

These are the best crab cakes. I cannot order crab cakes out at any restaurants anymore because honestly, they are not as good as these. I also have a lot of really nice positive associations involving cooking these as a main course. (Yes, they got me laid). For a twist shake a few drips of chipotle tabasco in the tartar sauce.

Bacon-Wrapped Scallops with Timothy Gager’s crusty Twist

24 lg. sea scallops (about 2 lbs.)
12 slices bacon
Chopped Almonds
Seasoned pepper
Melted Butter

Rinse scallops with running cold water, pat dry with paper towels. Cut each bacon slice crosswise in half; wrap each half around a scallop, securing with a toothpick. Sprinkle scallops lightly with seasoned pepper. Chop almonds using a food processor or hit them with a hammer inside a zip-lock bag.

Preheat broiler. Place scallops on rack in broiling pan, with bacon facing the heating element. Broil 8 to 10 minutes until scallops turn opaque throughout, using tongs to turn scallops frequently so bacon will brown evenly on all sides. Submerge bacon wrapped scallops in butter and roll in almond pieces.

When I cook I know what ingredients go well together. Crusting the usual scallops wrapped in bacon is just enough extra care that people will say, “Oh, wow.” The scallops I’m going to use are fresh off the boat from Mitura Fishing Corporation. Fresh Scallops, no poisons or salt water baths which distributor of scallops use to plump them up. Only the best and freshest come from The Halina M [pictured on right].

Elizabeth Rawlin’s Lasagna for Idiots

Sauce

brown:
1 lb Italian sausage
4-5 cloves fresh garlic or about 1/3 cup minced from a jar
1 onion

add to:
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
3 8-oz cans tomato sauce
~2 tbsp oregano
~1 tbsp basil
2 bay leaves or about 2 tsp crushed
~1 tsp sugar
1 cup water
pepper

simmer for at least 2 hours uncovered

cheese filling:
16-oz tub ricotta
~1 tbsp oregano
~1 tsp salt
~2 tsp pepper

2 8-oz packages Sargento six-cheese Italian blend (or a whole lot of mozzarella and about a third as much parmesan)

1 pkg lasagna noodles (no-boil is the best)

layer:

sauce
noodles
ricotta
sauce
cheese
noodles
ricotta
sauce
cheese
noodles
ricotta
sauce
cheese

325 for 45 minutes uncovered; let stand 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Timothy Gager’s Meat or Vegetarian Chili

Half a Butternut Squash or One pound of ground beef and One pound of cooked steak
One can kidney beans drained
One large can of whole tomatoes
Two medium green peppers
Two medium to large onions
½ tablespoon of ground black pepper
¼ tablespoon of chili powder.

If using meat: Brown the meat, drain. Then add canned tomatoes, drained kidney beans, large chopped onions and peppers, cooked steak pepper and chili powder. Simmer for 90 minutes.

For vegetarian: don’t use or add the meat. Duh. Add the squash fifteen minutes before serving. If you add it too early it will break into tiny or become invisible and overwhelm the chili.

Timothy Gager is the author of eight books of fiction and poetry. He loves to cook and will often have multiple foodgasms. He lives on www.timothygager.com

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Nothing says fall like squash!

December 1, 2009 By 1 Comment

Especially squash stuffed with sausage.

Man, Kevin Smith is a terrible actor. I totally get the fact that he’s in his own movies – I mean, he’s the boss of them, right? But why is he in Live Free and Die Hard? Actually, now that I’m thinking of it, how is Justin Long a working actor?! Or, the better question is, why am I still watching this movie? I DON’T KNOW.

What I do know, is that this dinner was particularly tasty. I am big on stuffing things with other things [I won't even make the obvious joke], and I feel like squash and sausage is a combination that works incredibly well together. Clearly the rest of the internet agrees with me, as there were eleventy billion stuffed squash recipes that came up in my Google search. And which one did I go with, you ask? Well, none of them! Mostly because I printed out a recipe and left it on my desk at work that night.

This is a near impossible dish to ruin; you’re taking something that is delicious on its own [squash] and stuffing something else delicious [sausage] into it. I’m pretty sure that’s a recipe for success every time. Not only that, but the finished product is not only attractive, but it is essentially its own serving platter. I really can’t think of a way you can go wrong here. Unless you don’t make it.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Sausage

2 acorn squash, halved and seeded
1 lb sausage, cooked and crumbled (your choice; I used sweet Italian)
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, softened
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F. Coat the inside of each of the squash halves with butter, then season with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 – 40 minutes, or until tender.

While the squash is roasting, heat the oil in a pan and then add the diced onions. Cook slowly, on medium-low heat, until starting to caramelize. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant and then remove from heat. In a mixing bowl, combine the bread crumbs, the cooked and crumbled sausage, and onions and garlic with remaining oil. Add in the beaten egg, the seasonings, and cheddar cheese.

Pile all of that into each of the acorn halves. I’m not gonna lie, you’re going to have leftover stuffing. The smart thing to do would be to either increase the squash or scale back on the meat/panko ratios, but what I did was just cooked it in a separate pan so that husband could eat it later. Cook for an additional 20 minutes, until the stuffing is golden brown.

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Hot & Sour Soup … for the SOUL.

September 14, 2009 By 30 Comments

Why is it that only chicken soup is for your soul? I mean, this hot and sour soup is ten times better than any chicken soup I’ve had in recent memory. It’s got a great heat and tang to it, and it’s so warm and comforting. Plus, I made it when I was sick [I hate you, New England weather] two weeks ago and it cleared my sinuses like whoa.

Only a picture of the finished product, because I swear, there’s only so many diced/sliced/chopped vegetable pictures I can show you before I start feeling silly. Plus, as it turns out, bamboo shoots don’t photograph that well.

I only discovered my love of hot and sour about five or six years ago, when the husband took me to The Island Hopper when we were first dating and I was in the city visiting him. It was so good – velvety in a way that chicken noodle soup only wishes it was, ten thousand times more flavorful, and again with the sinus clearing. [Sorry, but it's true!]

The soup is also ridiculously easy to make and can easily be made on the stove top or in a slow cooker. The first time I made it was in the slow cooker, but last time was just a quick 45 minutes on the stove top.

Also, this is in no way a traditional hot and sour soup; it, like everything else I make, is a bastardized version of the original. The recipe has most of the traditional components, but isn’t quite the same.

Hot & Sour Soup:

4 cups chicken broth
1/2 pound of chicken, poached, then shredded
1/2 package of button mushrooms, sliced
1 small can bamboo shoots, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes to reduce bitterness, then cut into thin strips
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 – 2 teaspoons chili paste
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons fish sauce

Everything goes into the pot at once and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I wish I had complicated instructions, but I got nothin’. Now, the first time I made this soup, I used 1 teaspoon chili paste, and I thought it could have used more heat. With 2 teaspoons, the heat was nearly all you got when you first tasted the soup, so maybe start with 1.5 and go from there; for me, the 2 teaspoons was perfect, but the husband thought it was too hot and had to add more vinegar to his to balance it out. The fish sauce really adds a nice depth of flavor, plus it got it closer to the color I’m used to seeing in restaurant hot and sour soup.

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Gnocchi is a funny word.

September 5, 2009 By 1 Comment

All I’m saying, is that I hear about ten different pronunciations of it every time it comes up in conversation. Which, strangely, doesn’t happen often. I wonder why that is? Well, around these parts, it’s because the husband dislikes gnocchi immensely. I conveniently forgot that he disliked it when I made this dish. But, beggars can’t be choosers and all that; it’s not like he was going to get up and cook something.

Anyhoodle. [I'll have you know that I just stopped and stared at the screen and tried to decide a) if it's douchey to say anyhoodle, and b) if I cared enough to change it, and realized c) It is and I don't, but I do apparently feel the need to explain my every thought process to you.]

I like gnocchi well enough, but it’s one of those things that I rarely ever think about eating because there are so many other things I like better [see: onions, caramelized; eggs, poached; etc., etc.]. But I saw a package of the vacuum packed gnocchi when I was in Trader Joe’s last week and decided to give it a shot. In my head, I wanted to pan fry them in some pancetta fat and hope for the best. So when we were trying to figure out what to have for the lunch the other day, I decided to give it a shot.

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I got the gnocchi cooking in a big pot of salted water, then cooked some diced pancetta in another pan. Once the pancetta was done, I removed from the pan to crisp up, and left the fat in the pan. In another pan, with equal parts butter and olive oil (about a teaspoon each), I started cooking some diced onions, carrots, and garlic.

Once the gnocchi were done, I put them in the pan with the reserved pancetta fat along with some red pepper flakes, and let them crisp up on the outside and get all golden brown. Meanwhile, the onions were starting to just caramelize and the carrots were tender with still a little bite in them, so they were perfect. I added those to the pan with the gnocchi, added back in the pancetta to get it back up to temperature, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Then all of that went into a bowl with some fresh grated parmesan cheese.

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I liked this; I thought the sweetness of the onions and carrots worked well with the saltiness of the pancetta and the cheese, the pepper added some welcome heat, and the gnocchi having more texture and bite made it more appealing to me. The husband . . . not so much. He liked everything but the gnocchi. He’s so silly.

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Bacon makes everything better.

August 20, 2009 By 2 Comments

I’ve been looking for something different to make, and I stumbled across this recipe on the Food Network website. I figured I could slide it by the husband since it had bacon in it, and the dressing intrigued me. I was a bit concerned because there weren’t that many reviews, but the few that are on there are favorable.

So I came home from work tonight [TONIGHT! You are getting same day posting here, people!] with a mission to make this dish, along with some chicken breast that would of course be cooked in the leftover bacon drippings. As if you had to ask! I’m actually somewhat insulted that would even come into question.

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The first step is to cook the bacon, and I used six thick slices; the recipe only calls for four, but I knew that the husband would eat at least one slice while waiting for everything to be ready and I may have been tempted to as well [I resisted, though!]. Then once the bacon was nice and crisp, I reserved 2 tablespoons of the fat for the dressing, and let the rest stay in the pan for the chicken breast. The breasts were pounded [hee] somewhat thin, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic, and then just cooked in the pan until they had a nice sear on them and were fully cooked.

For the salad, I sliced a McIntosh apple and then put it in a big bowl along with a 10 oz bag of pre-washed baby spinach leaves from the grocery store. Then I diced the bacon and added that in there as well. The prep on this was really easy, and honestly, even without the dressing the salad looked pretty tasty.

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With the reserved bacon fat, I added 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar, 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard, and 1 teaspoon of sugar, along with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. That came to a boil, and then everything was pretty much ready. Add the dressing to the salad and toss to coat everything evenly.

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See? It looks great. The taste, however, was not quite as good. It was decent – I think the husband enjoyed it more than I did. I felt like there was too much mustard; next time I think I’d do half the amount of mustard and maybe some white wine, or something else? It needed more flavor, which I know sounds weird considering the ingredients. Part of me thinks maybe some garlic [because what isn't better with garlic?] or something to brighten the flavor. I don’t know! I’ll have to mess around with it next time.

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A happy steak is a well-cooked steak

June 28, 2009 By 3 Comments

Well, I suppose the happiest steak would be the one on a still breathing cow? But then I’d be unhappy, because I wouldn’t have had this awesome dinner. And I’m pretty sure my feelings trump the feelings of a farm animal. Also, vegans/vegetarians/etc, don’t hate. I love animals, I really do. I just love me some red meat as well.

But before we get to the goods, let’s have a Food Shenanigans moment of cooking safety. You see this plate? This is what happens when you put a styrofoam plate on a still hot burner. You probably shouldn’t do that. And if you do unthinkingly follow my poor example, you might want to hide it in the trash better than I did, so that maybe your husband [or wife] won’t find it. Of course, the burnt bits of styrofoam on the stove probably would have given me away eventually.

ANYWAY. On to the cooking. I had the best of intentions in following recipes for this dinner, but ended up just doing a mish-mash of the various recipes I had read.

First, I got the onions going, since they were going to take the longest. My goal had been to do an onion jam as a topping for the filet, but I couldn’t wait that long. So we ended up with delicious balsamic caramelized onions that were just short of the time and effort involved in becoming a jam. I sliced one vidalia onion and added it to a pan with 1 tablespoon of salted butter. They cooked over a low heat for about 20 minutes until they were a nice even brown, and then I added a few splashes of balsamic vinegar. Then they continued to cook another 20 minutes or so, basically right until the steak was ready to be served.

Next, I halved and then parboiled a package of brussels sprouts and in another pan started cooking 4 ounces of diced pancetta. After about three or four minutes, I removed the brussels sprouts from the water and drained them. The pancetta was likewise removed from the pan, and put on a plate to crisp up. At this point, the sprouts go in with the pancetta fat and a tablespoon of salted butter for good measure. The sprouts were cooked until they were nicely browned and starting to caramelize, and then the pancetta went back into the pan along with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

The best part of the meal, in a cruel twist of fate, was the easiest one to cook. I oiled the two steaks, put some Montreal steak seasoning on them, and then slapped them into the cast iron pan. They cooked about four minutes on each side, so my pan definitely wasn’t hot enough [I still need to experiment with it more], but I had my trusty meat thermometer out and cooked it to 120 degrees and then let it rest until it came up to 125.

Everything came out really well, and I was happy to have finally cooked a steak perfectly; I almost always ended up cooking it to more of a medium, than a medium rare, and it makes me sad. But not anymore! Now, I shall always have perfectly cooked meats. Also, because I’m a jerk, I sent this picture to co-workers last week to taunt them with its awesomeness:

 
Also, another indicator that the dinner came out really well? It’s husband approved! [He's eating noodles that I made for him along with everything else that are not posted because they're from a boxed mix.] Aww, isn’t he precious?

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Rambling Regarding Rhubarb

June 22, 2009 By 4 Comments

And cake. But who doesn’t like some late-night alliteration?

I got both strawberries and rhubarb in my farm share last week, so the logical thing to do with them seemed to be dessert. I’ve eaten strawberry rhubarb pie before, but had never seen raw rhubarb in person until this week. It’s so colorful!

As it turns out, I’m way too lazy to make a pie crust from scratch nine times out of ten (or more). And I’d already eaten strawberry rhubarb pie anyways. Time for something new: cake! Cake that doesn’t tempt me to use the octopus pan. Cake that works like a clafoutis or an apple charlotte; cake where you just pour batter over fruit and hope for the best… easy, tasty cake.

[Read more...]

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What is a scape, anyways?

June 19, 2009 By 2 Comments

So I came across the Boston Localvore site when I was looking for a farm share to join. They have a blog, too! They are a bit surly, but I love surly.

Yesterday, I read that they received a bunch of garlic scapes in their share and made pesto. Having never seen a garlic scape in person (and not really knowing what it was) I didn’t care too much and focused on the part where they made fun of Pete Wells for being a pansy and complaining about money (he’s an editor at the NYT).

On my way home today I passed a farmers’ market and, lo and behold, there were garlic scapes! And they were cheap. Take that, Pete Wells (even though I still like your writing).

A tangle of scapes

A tangle of scapes

They come all tangled like that. A garlic scape is the stem of a garlic plant before it flowers. Apparently they straighten up some and bloom, but we (people) usually eat them before that can happen.

Here’s a single, tangly scape.

I have to admit, I wasn’t too imaginative with these, as I was way too excited about the idea making a pesto from scratch. So I did what the localvore ladies did. It’s extremely easy.

1. Chop up scapes into bits an inch or so long.

2. Fight with the safety on your food processor.

3. Calm down and then process the bits into a chunky mixture.

4. Add grated Parmesan cheese and process some more.

5. Add olive oil and process after each addition until you like it.

6. Consume!

Optional: I stole this from the localvores as well. Fill an ice cube tray with the pesto and then freeze it. Garlic scapes are pretty much only available in late June or early July, so now I can have this pesto whenever I want, in neat individual-sized portions. Ta-da!

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