NEW FOOD BLOG STARTING JUNE 7th, 2010

 

     June 6th (2010) was the first day of the Logan Square farmer's market this season.  This is where we (Devin and I) pick up our box of organic vegetables through our CSA (community supported agriculture) with Radical Root Farm , weekly and for the next 20 weeks.  We were members last season, loved it, and couldn't think not doing it again.  As much as I love food, I don't spend nearly enough time in the soil.  I was able to go out to Radical Root Farm last week for a half day of farming in exchange for about 10 heirloom tomato plants and a bunch of celery plants to put into the ground at home.  This experience gave me even more respect and appreciation for our incredibly hard working organic vegetable farmers.

     I have decided to start this new blog documenting my experience with this seasons vegetables from the csa and all things farmer's market and other local food sources (because we can) with recipes including successful culinary adventures, failed experiments, and really simple, can't lose, preparations.  Surely, there will be other foods involved.  We like foods like citrus fruits, olive oil, and avocados (to name a few) way too much.  Also, alot of these recipes are most likely going to include some ingredient that was left over from some other dish from the day or two before.  I love it when this happens.  So, the recipes might be vague, but they should be loose any way. I will most likely accidentally leave some things out.

 

 

June 7th

Well our csa actually starts next week, we did go to the market where Radical Root (Alex and Allison) were there selling some of the early harvests of the season and mostly sold out by the time we walked up around 1pm after breakfast.  This is good.  We got a nice, big bag of mixed, spicy greens including Red Giant Mustard, Mizuna, Red Russian Kale, Arugula and Tatsoi!.  This certain kind of heat is actually one of the green things that I wouldn't necessarily prefer to eat raw.  I know that in Punjabi, these kind of greens grow everywhere and are the featured  ingredient in there main dish, sarson ka sagg, which involves cooking the greens for a long time.  This, as in radishes, really mellows out the heat and turns it almost sweet.  Here's what I came up with. 

 

 Spicy mixed greens in Chili con carne sauce

The night before, I made Mexican style chili con carne with a couple pork chops we got from Mint Creek Farm. This involves simmering pork chops in a simple chili sauce from dried ancho and guajillo chilies that are toasted, soaked and blended with garlic, a little onion, and water for about 2 to 3 hours.  There was some left over chili sauce. 

 

about a pound mixed spicy greens

chopped half small onion

chopped carrot

1/2 cup chili sauce

 

 Saute onions and carrots with salt in a medium pot.  When soft, fill the pot with greens and about a half cup of chili sauce.  Add about a cup or two of water. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to simmer for about a half hour or longer.  Alot of the water liquid should have reduced, but you can have it as soupy as you like.  Add more salt if necessary. 

 

  Roasted Potatoes with fresh Sorrel and Marjoram

We also bought some sorrel and marjoram from Vera at Videnovich farms.  A rain delay stop in at Dill Pickle on the way home set us up with a bag of potatoes for 50 cents because they had tiny eyes.  This was going to be perfect for the herbs.

1/4 cup sorrel, fine chop

1/4 cup marjoram, fine chop

3 to 4 medium sized russet potatoes (or any kind), peeled and large dice

 2 tblspns olive oil (0r more)

1 tblspn Lemon juice (or more)

1 small clove garlic, fine chop

 salt

 

Boil the peeled potatoes for 5 minutes. Drain and roast in a 350 oven with some oil for about 30-45 minutes.  You're not looking for a crispy crust, because you want these potatoes to absorb the fresh herb dressing.  Toss gently in a bowl containing the rest of the ingredients. 

 
The broiled asparagus with parmesan and black pepper was great, too.

 

June 9th

I made it to the Green City Market this morning as everyone was just about through
packing up.  My favorite farm at that market, Green Acres , still had something for me,
though.  I left with two giant bunches of kale (different varieties) and a whole bag full of
fresh, unshelled peas.  (Jaques Pepin would be so happy).  This is the perfect time to share
my favorite recipe to date.  While you can get kale pretty much all year round, this is the
time of year where it is in abundance locally.  Over the last few years, experimenting with
raw vegan cuisine, the most important thing I have taken away is to eat lots of greens
everyday.  This is something I make just about everyday with variations.

Raw Kale Salad

1 bunch kale (any variety)
about 1/4 tspn or less salt
1-2 tblspns acid (lemon, lime, vinegar, etc)
1 tblspn fat (avocado, oil oil, flax oil)
optional: spices, herbs, garlic

Strip kale leaves from the stem.  Discard the stem or keep them for later (their good peeled
and steamed).  Wash the leaves and chop roughly but evenly.  (Some flatter kale, like lacinado or dinosaur kale, is especially easy, because once you take the leaves off the stem, you can stack the leaves, roll, slice and chop).                              

Put the chopped kale in a salad bowl and sprinkle with salt.  Massage (or "rub-a-dub" as I like to say) with your hands until the kale is wilted and water is coming out when you squeeze it.  Add the acid and massage for a couple seconds.  Now, add the fat.  If you are using avocado, which is my favorite, use about 1/4 of the avocado and mash it right into the kale with your hands until it is totally mixed.  That's it.

Optional variations:  If you are using herbs and spices, add them with the salt. The most important this is to not add the fat before the kale is wilted. 

I never really liked a pea until I had fresh peas out of the pod.  They really don’t need to be cooked, but it’s nice to throw them in a hot pan for just a minute until the pea casing wrinkles slightly.  I wanted to, as with every other “premium” ingredient, feature these peas fairly simply by combining them with just enough bonus ingredients as to not take away from their texture and flavor. 

Fresh Peas on Quinoa

1 cup shelled peas
1 tblspn butter
1 tbspn chopped sorrel
salt
parmesan reggiano cheese

½ cup quinoa
1 cup water
1 tspn lemon zest, finely chopped
1 tblspn fresh terragon


Combine quinoa and water. Bring to a boil, then cover and cook on low for about 5 minutes.  Turn off heat.  It will be cooked in about 15-20 minutes, like rice.  Uncover and let sit.  It can be just warm for this.  Add terragon, lemon zest, and a bit of salt.  Heat a skillet on medium-high heat.  Add butter.  When it melts, add the peas and cook for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat, sprinkle with plenty of salt, sorrel, and parmesan cheese. 
On a plate, spoon on a shallow pad of quinoa and top with peas. 


With the kale salad and the fresh pea/quinoa dishes, dinner was completed with one other super simple dish of french green lentils and roasted cauliflower. On a recent trip to L.A., I stopped in the Spice Station.  After sticking my face in just about every sample jar of spices, chilies, salts, teas, and other dried, powdered flavor explosions, I decided on a few items that I’ve since been experimenting with: long black peppercorns, marash chili flakes, aloo pepper (red chili powder), dried whole black limes, urfa biber (a dark red-black Turkish chili sundried on the plant during the day and wrapped tightly at night to sweat.), hing, and red zahtar.  I thought I would bring a few of these together here with the cauliflower and lentils.

 

Spiced Roasted Cauliflower with French Green Lentils

 

½ head small medium cauliflower, broken into substantial pieces

1-2 tblsnps olive oil

3 long black peppercorns

1 tspn fennel seeds

1-2 tspns urfa biber

1 tspn course salt

1 cup dried french green lentils (These lentils hold their texture very well when cooked)

Bring lentils slowly to a boil in about 3 cups water.  Lower heat and cover slightly until the lentils are tender and the water is gone. 

Meanwhile, crush the peppercorns, fennel seed, and urfa biber with the salt in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder.  Thoroughly coat the cauliflower pieces with spices and olive oil.  Roast in a 350 over for about 30 minutes, give or take 10 minutes.  Stir the roasted, well seasoned and spiced cauliflower into the unseasoned lentils.  The lentils should pick up just enough of the salt and spices to balance. 

 

Oh, right.  And there was one other thing I made first.  Instead of going out front when I heard the elote guy honk his food cart horn as he was making his way up Sawyer ave.  (if you live in a highly Mexican populated area, you know of what I speak.)  The eloteros, besides serving the classic corn on the cob with mayonnaise, chili, and aged cheese,  sometimes make pepinos (cucumbers), another super simple Mexican street food, a perfect, light snack for summer.  I realized I had all the ingredients having just picked up a fresh cucumber from the Dill Pickle co-op.  I also used some of the new flavors I got at the spice station, just because.

 

Mexican street style Pepinos with a Middle Eastern twist

1 cucumber, half peeled and sliced thin

salt

chili powder (I used a combo of aloo and ancho)

lime juice (except I only had lemon)

red zahtar, a middle eastern dried thyme/sesame seed kind of thing (my variation)

Spread the cucumber slices evenly on a large plate.  Sprinkle with salt, then lime, then chili powder, then red zahtar.

 

 

 

What can I add less of to give more clarity?

 

 

June 14

Yesterday was the beginning of our csa for the season.  It’s such a great feeling to walk 5 blocks up the street to the Logan Square farmer’s market and pick up a big box of the freshest possible food from the nicest possible farmer’s (Alex and Allison at Radical Root Farm ) who grow the food a mere hour away in Grays Lake, IL.  Being spring, our box is looking very green, good.  I’m just starting to dig into into it.  As much as I can enjoy getting really involved with a recipe, this food is begging for simplicity.  It’s easy to throw together a “stir fry” of sorts or make a hot pot of mixed vegetables, or something, and when all the individual ingredients are of high quality (or not), it will probably taste really good.  With this special food, I am really just interested, for the most part, in featuring one item at a time in each dish as to really appreciate it’s flavors and textures.  Along with a few items that had resting patiently in the pantry, I came up with the following 3 dishes for dinner:


Hakerei turnips with the greens

1 bunch small turnips with their greens
half small onion, diced
2 small dates, pitted
a pinch of chili flakes
a few sprigs of thyme
1 or two stalks of green garlic greens (tops), cut in half of thirds
olive oil
salt
little squeeze of lemon

Separate the greens from the turnips. 
Turnips: wash and cut into thick slices.  Toss them in a little olive oil and salt along with the garlic greens and thyme.  In a small roasting pan, line the bottom with the garlic greens and thyme.  Put the turnips on top and lightly cover with foil.  Roast at 350 until they are done, about 20-30 minutes (or less).  You can take the foil off after a while if you want. 
Greens: In a sauce pan, sautee onion and chili in a litter olive oil and salt very slowly until the onions are melty, but not caramelized.  Add the chopped dates, the greens, and a little more olive oil. (I might have used raisins, but only had dates.  This proved to be a Good move). Cover and cook on low until the greens are really tender.  Depending on how you like them, this could be 2 minutes or 15 minutes.  Spoon the greens and turnips onto a plate, side by side.  In the sauce pan, combine roasty turnip juices with greens juices.  Add a little olive oil (or butter, I guess) and lemon juice. Maybe a little salt will be needed.  Stir the sauce briefly and spoon over the turnips and around the plate.  It was nice that the sauce wasn’t emulsified, because it made nice little, green drops with oily centers.  It’s hard to describe, but looked (and tasted) very nice.



This was most definitely and experiment.  I wanted to make spelt tortillas, but I didn’t have any kind of flours in the kitchen except a little potato starch flour in the fridge.  So I just went for it.  This is what happened.  This recipe might have vague measurements, as usual.

Bruschetta  of baked quinoa and flax seed crackers with green garlic guac and garlic-lemon sardines

1/2 cup quinoa, ground in a spice grinder
1/4 cup brown flax seeds, ground in a spice grinder
2 tblspns potato starch flour
1 tspn salt
water

avocado
green garlic
lime juice
salt
canned sardines marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic

Crackers:  Combine quinoa, flax seed, and potato starch flours with salt and mix well.  Add enough warm tap water to make a very thick batter.  Wait 5 minutes and add a bit more water to get the same, thick consistency as before.  When baking in the summer, I use the toaster over, for obvious reasons.  Oil the toaster oven tray with some something rather neutral, like safflower or canola oil.  With a rubber spatula, smooth out the batter onto the oiled tray and brush the top with more oil.  Bake this in a 350 oven until just browned and mostly crispy.  Let cool and cut into rectangles (or however it crumbles ).

Guac: Press a whole, small head of fresh, green garlic through a garlic press. (Or you can finely minces and strain it.) Somehow, blend the garlic with an avocado, some salt, and a tiny squeeze of lime juice (or lemon). This can be smooth or chunky. Add something else...

The sardines have been marinating in oil, lemon, and garlic....

Spread some avocado on the crackers and top with the sardines.





While I don’t find butter (or some kind of yellow tub thing) to be an obvious staple, we did get a high quality, local butter from Castle Rock, so why not enjoy it while it lasts.  Evidentally, the way to eat a breakfast radishes is to dip them, raw into room temperature butter and sprinkle with sea salt.  I love the simplicity of this farm dish, but again, I am not yet Crazy about the raw radish/mustardy heat that some raw greens and veggies have.  So I  came up with a slight twist on the classic and paired it with a really sharp cheddar I came across at the market to balance the clean heat of the radish.  The slight cooking of the radish makes it pretty sweet.

 

French Breakfast radishes

Butter
radishes, trimmed and halved (save the greens for later...)
sea salt and black pepper

very sharp, white cheddar cheese
fresh terragon


In a hot skillet, heat butter until just frothy.  Saute the radishes, cut side down, for about 3 minutes.  Then, toss radishes in the hot pan for another 2 minutes.  Sprinkle with salt and refrigerate for an hour or longer.  Serve on a plate with a little fresh terragon,  aside a thick slice of cheddar, a pinch of of salt and pepper, and a small pad of room temp. butter. 

 

 

JUNE 21st

Yesterday was our second csa box from Radical Root .  Though today is the summer solstice, spring green things are still bountiful.  Along with all the leafy greens, lettuces, beets, cruciferous delights, and green garlic scapes, there was a nice bunch of cilantro. This is really nothing like the “grocery variety.”

Interested in even more fresh herbs, I visited Temple Farms (where we usually get our eggs) for oregano, and Vidanovich Farms for sage.  (I had come across some parsley a few days before from the Pickle ).  If you’ve been to a Chicago area farmer’s market, you may have come across the Herbally Yours guy, who grows all his own herbs, chillies, and other aromatics to make his own, seemingly endless variety of flavored vinegars.  A couple favorites of mine are the dill and the terragon vinegars.  A couple nights ago, at a very musically rewarding gig I have been doing lately, I was given a quite substantial bag of green oak leaf lettuce from my piano player/foodie friend, Jo Ann Daugherty (which she grew).  With all these greens, it was obvious that salads were going to be a common occurrence throughout the next week.  It’s great to have these limitations.
 

Herbed Vinaigrette for any salad or cruditee

 

3 tablespoons olive oil
½ tablespoon dill vinegar
½ tablespoon terragon vinegar
½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 of a small avocado, mashed
1 (or more) teaspoons sage
1 (or more) teaspoons cilantro
1 (or more) teaspoons parley
1 (or more) teaspoons oregano
about 1 foot of garlic scapes, cut into small pieces
about 1 teaspoon salt
about ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
*more herbs

 

In a mortar and pestle (or dicing and scraping on a cutting board with a big knife), grind garlic scapes and peppercorns with salt until pasty.  Finely chop the fresh herbs and grind with the paste.  Whisk the paste with the vinegars, oil, and avocado until totally emulsified. (The avocado makes this easy and creamy).  Toss the salad at the last minute. 





Lately, at the Pickle co-op, they’ve had bags of about 15 waxy yellow and purple potatoes for 50 cents because of the eyes they are starting to grow.  Naturally, these ended up in the kitchen.  I’ve found one of the best (and easiest) ways to eat these are simply cut in half length wise (un-peeled) and roasted on a hot oiled skillet in the oven until they form a crust.  The length wise cut creates the most surface area to caramelize.  I’ve been doing this as I write and have just finished making a nice, thick dipping sauce for these beauties.



Roasted Potatoes with green garlic scape/pumpkin seed “dip”
this “dip” is good for vegetable, cooked or raw

Small waxy potatoes, washed well and cut in half, lengthwise (un-peeled)

about ½ cup hulled (green) pumpkin seeds (you can get these in bulk)
½ medium onion
½ teaspoon coriander seeds, freshly ground
2 tblspns cilantro (coriander leaf)
1 bunch green garlic scapes (about 10 foot long pieces)
salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1-2 tblspns oil


Preheat the oven (preferably a toaster oven) to 375. (Now start making the dressing)

 Get the pan hot.  When the potatoes are washed and halved, oil the pan and place potatoes cut side down.  Don’t touch this for atleast 30 minutes or until the potato halves have formed a crust and are easily flipped.  You shouldn't have to scrape them off the pan.  They should be golden browned.  Roast skin side down for another 10-20 minutes.  They should be crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.  Skins a cracklin’.  Sprinkle with salt.

Sautee the onion with the coriander seeds on low heat in the oil for about 30 minutes or until it’s starting to caremelize.  I suppose you can caremelize them alot, like a serious hot dog joint.

In a dry skillet, toast the pumpkin seeds on medium heat.  When the 1st seed pops, toss the seeds in the skillet continuously until they are all mostly browned, but not burned.  It should sound pretty high pitched, like a Motown tambourine.  Grind the seeds in a spice/coffee grinder.

In a food processor, combine onions, raw garlic scapes, pumpkin seed powder, about a teaspoon of salt, lemon juice, vinegar, and cilantro.   

 

 

June 28th

During half time of one of the world cup games I’ve been watching ( I can't remember which one, it's a blur), I decided to kill time and make a pasta dough for a late lunch.  The dough takes only a matter of minutes to make.  It just needs time to rest.  The hard part is later, so I was just willing to see what was going to happen.  I thought of pasta, because there were some left over egg yolks (Temple Farms ) from an delightful and interesting peach angle food cake a few days prior that Devin made.  Instead of making another sweet, eggy dish like creme brulee or some custard, I thought of the Southern Italians who will often make fresh pasta with only the yolk (no white).  I had only whole grain spelt flour.  While it’s really no substitute for durum or semolina when it comes to “real” pasta, it does have a decent amount of gluten which is mostly necessary to make pasta, plus this is what I was dealing with, so why not.  

Looking to the recent csa box, I pulled out a nice bunch of beautiful rainbow chard.  While it’s totally good eaten raw, I’ve been into cooking this green, stems and all.  It just tastes better to me for some reason lately.  When it comes to pasta, having parmesan reggiano is almost certainly a must. Well, we only had cheddar cheese (a good one), but that’s no good for pasta.  It tends to get all stringly and clumpy instead of bringing the sauce together on the pasta. I had walnuts in the cupboard, so I went with those. This is what happened.  I stand by it...



Fresh Spelt Tagliatelle w/ Rainbow Chard and Walnut Sauce  (actually, the spelt is not fresh, but the pasta is)

 

3/4 cup spelt flour
about 4 egg yolks
salt

 

 ½ onion, diced
1 bunch rainbow chard, stems and leaves separated and chopped
about 1/3 cup walnuts
a pinch of cinnamon
black pepper
zest of a small lemon, finely diced.
Fresh oregano, parsley, and sage, finely chopped

For the pasta, work the egg yolks into the flour with a pinch of salt.  You shouldn’t need any water. In fact, don’t use any.  If the dough isn’t coming together add more egg.  Kneed the dough for few minutes and let rest for atleast a hour under a damp cloth or in plastic wrap at room temp.

...Cut the dough in half and roll out on a floured surface until it’s as this as you can get it into a rectangle.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, just evenly flat.  Use more flour so nothing sticks.
Gently roll the rectangle into a cylinder and make thin slices with a knife to make the pasta into the classic tagliatelle (or linguine) shape.  Gently open up the pasta a make into a litter birds nest tossing with a bit more flour.  Do this with the other half of the dough. Bring a pot of water to boil.  Add a generous amount of salt. 

For the sauce, In a pot, saute the onion and chard with a little salt.  Leave the lid on.  It's more about wilting these two items. 

Meanwhile, chop the walnuts finely.  Take half of them an grind in a spice grinder.  (Mine had a bit of Ceylon cinnamon in it, hence, the pinch).  This should make a paste due to the high fat content of the walnuts.

Drop the pasta into the boiling water and add the walnut paste to the greens and onions. 
After about 1 minute or less, the pasta is done. Add a little of the pasta water to the greens and stir to dissolve the walnut paste.  The starch water is what really makes the sauce come together. Add the fresh cracked black pepper and lemon zest. Now, add the pasta to the sauce with the rest of the chopped walnuts, a little olive oil, and a little more salt to taste. Mix gently but thoroughly. 
Eat it right away.
 

 

 

JUNE 29th

If you’ve ever had Ethiopian food and are interested in What you are eating (If you’re reading this you might be), you’ve thought about the thin, crepe like bread, injera, which is eaten with all the stews.  Injera is a flat bread that is made from fermented teff.  Teff flour is a whole grain flour made from the “smallest grain in the world,” teff.  Having the experience with fermenting foods such as saurkraut, kimchi, kombucha, and other grains, I finely went for the injera.  After making a starter out of teff flour, water, and yeast (fermenting it for about 5 days), I continued with the traditional Ethiopian recipe ( that I found ) by adding more flour, some salt, and a bit more water, and making the injera like a crepe. By the way, most Ethiopian restaurants in this country use a lot of wheat flour in making injera.  That’s fine with me, since I thought the sour flavor was a bit too overwhelming, but still interesting delicious.  After (mostly) enjoying the injera for breakfast along with some gently steamed chard, kale, and herbs, I found myself with atleast a cup of fermented teff starter left over. 

I’ve been experimenting with different flours in making tortillas.  Again, spelt is what is available in the pantry.  I decided to combine the traditional, Mexican style flour tortilla recipe with some of ingredients I have immediately been dealing with; spelt and fermented teff flours. 

The night before, we were at a going away party for good friends, Charlie and Holly, who are moving to Oakland, CA tomorrow.  They were getting rid of just about everything except instruments and cats.  We left with a few pantry items, including a bag of black beans.  Tostadas were in order. 

Beans on injera/spelt tostadas....just needs a nice, fresh topping.  I looked to the csa .  Call it a salad, salsa, or condiment. Either way, this is a really nice raw veggie dish perfectly good on it's own.  I used a bit of tangy jalapeno/lime hot sauce from a local producer, Co-op hot sauce , that I got at the farmer’s market recently. 

 

Spelt-Injera Tostadas with Black Beans and Raw Summer Solstice Salad

Beans:

1 pound black beans (this makes way more than you need.  Stay tuned for leftover bean adventures)
½ onion, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
a few epazote or culantro leaves
1 tblspn salt
1 bulb fresh green garlic, crushed
(dried and/or fresh herbs)

Soak beans overnight.  Drain and rinse.  Cover with plenty of water and slowly bring to a boil.  Add the onion, bay leaves and epazote leaves. Simmer for about 1 hour or until beans are tender.
When tender, add cider vinegar and salt. This drastically slows the softening of the beans.  Continue to simmer for a bit. (It’s best if you let the beans cool completely in pot and reheat. The texture is superb this way).   

When ready, reheat some of the beans (about 2 cups) with the crushed garlic and herbs.  Add some salt if necessary.  Mash the beans a little until they can be spread. 



Salad (Salsa):

4 long fennel stems, fronds removed
1 small carrot
1 green onion
1-2 feet of garlic scapes
about 1/4 cup (or less) raw almonds
parsley
sage
dill
lemon and/or lime juice
salt
olive oil
(jalapeno/lime hot sauce)
ancho and guajillo chilli powder

Finely chop the 1st 8 ingredients and combine with some salt.  Massage this until water starts coming out. (This is the secret to speed up the marination process).  Add some lemon and/or lime juice and olive oil to your liking with a couple teaspoons of hot sauce (if you want).


Tostadas:

1/4 cup teff Injera starter* (this needs 5 days)
http://chefinyou.com/2010/02/ethiopian-injera-recipe/
1 cup spelt flour
2 tblspns palm oil (vegetable lard)
salt


For the tortillas, combine the spelt flour with palm oil.  Mix this until the fat is combined with the flour.  Mix in a pinch of salt.  Add the teff injera starter.  Mix until the dough comes together.  Use a bit of hot tap water if necessary.  It should be soft yet workable.  Roll of small, walnut size balls of dough and let rest until a damp towel for about a couple of hours or so before making the tortillas.  Because of the teff starter, the dough balls should ferment a bit and rise slightly.  Good.

 Heat an ungreased skillet on medium-high.  Roll out tortillas very thin using a bit more flour. Cook on the skillet, one at a time, flipping only once when tortilla starts to bubble (about 30 seconds each side).  Keep the cooked tortillas together in a dish towel until they are all done.

To finish: 
Spread some of the beans on the tortillas and top with the salad. Sprinkle with a little ancho chilli powder  Open your face to this open-face. 

 

 

JUNE 30th

This was kind of a quick dinner I started on a whim a few hours prior before going to work on some music with my good friend, Michael Caskey, last night.  By the time we finished and walked in the garden a bit, I was eager to get going on whatever was to become of the spelt/flax pizza dough rising patiently on the counter.  Maybe just a little thoughtfulness ahead of time makes it really easy to make a seemingly complicated meal come together in no time (fun time).  While a “real” pizza dough might be carefully measured, I believe the measurements can be “felt out,” if you are familiar with pizza making.  It’s nice, as long as you’re not running a restaurant, to have be a bit different every time, hence, the vague recipe.  The kohlrabi was from Temple Farms , while the scapes, snow peas, and green onions were from the Radical Root csa .  I found some sage in my parents backyard.
...more adventures in spelt...


Spelt/Flax pizza with sardines, kohlrabi, garlic scapes, snow peas, green onions, and crispy sage

Dough:
about 1 ½ cups spelt flour
about 1/4 cup ground brown flax seeds
1/4 cup warm water
a few pinches of yeast
a pinch of salt.
Olive oil

Toppings:
I can sardines in tomato sauce
1 kohlrabi bulb, sliced and steamed
about 1-2 feet garlic scapes, finely chopped
a hand full of snow peas in the pod (they should be tender), stem and strings removed, finely chopped
1 large green onion, finely chopped
a handful of sage leave, crisped in hot oil in a skillet.  (These are fragile)
a little cheese if you want (I used a sharp white chedder, but only a few slices across the top when the pizza was done)
olive oil
salt/pepper

For the dough/crust:
Sprinkle the yeast into the warm water and let sit for about 10 minutes.  In a large bowl, combine flour with ground flax seed and salt.  Add the water to bring into a dough.  Kneed this for a few minutes and rub with a little olive oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let it rise for about 1-2 hours.

Preheat an over to 450 with a cast iron griddle or pizza stone in the oven. 

Meanwhile, get your toppings together:
Take out the sardines and break them apart with your fingers.  Reserve the sauce they were in.
Combine all of the other ingredients besides the fried sage leaves and cheese with some salt, pepper, and olive oil.

For the crust, Roll out the dough with a little more flour OR open the oven and stretch the dough across the entire pan. (This is what I did.  I was hungry).  Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  If it’s pretty thick (because your pan is small) cook this for about 5 minutes before putting the toppings on.  (I suppose you could even flip it).
Brush the top of the pizza with the sardine can sauce and a bit more olive oil.  Spread the rest of the toppings over the top including the fish.  Put little slices of cheese and sage leaves here and there.  Use more herbs if you want.  Bake this until it looks like pizza.   

 

 

JULY 6th

I came home tonight having just played some real, modern jazz at Smoke Daddy.  This weekly jazz gig has been happening, some how, for almost 20 years now; the torch being passed in same way or another.  I have had the pleasure of playing this gig consistently, irregularly for 10 of those years.  Having had a rare supper outing in Chinatown this late afternoon, I was pretty hungry by the time I got home.  A couple days ago, we went out to The Farm (Radical Root ) to pick up our csa box because 1) there was no market because of the 4th and 2) we were going to be out of town at a wedding.  I made, for the first time, a Welsh rarebit inspired, late night snack with some radical root ingredients along with a fresh baguette from Coq Au Vin we picked up from the Pickle earlier this evening.  I was pleasantly surprised.  While there are surely much more involved rarebit recipes (that should probably include some kind of beer), this completely hit the spot.  This was really all about the quickness and ease of this dish with great ingredients on hand.  The proportions are really loose, again...Also, this serves 1 or 2 people.  Double and quadruple the recipe for more people.

 

Quick Rarebit with String Beans and Baguette toasts

 

10 string beans (green and purple), chopped into thirds

1/4 cup chopped sharp “white” cheddar cheese
1-2 tblspns dijon mustard
1 tspn lemon juice
½ teaspoon freshly ground fennel seed and black pepper
2 tspns summer savory, finely diced
2 inches garlic scapes, finely diced and ground
1 tsbpn salt

baguette slices

In a pot, bring about a cup of water to a boil.  Add the string beans.  Place a strainer inside the pot over the beans.  In a ramekin or small bowl that will fit in the strainer in the pot, add the rest of the ingredients (besides the bread) and place inside the strainer.  Cover the pot with a lid.  By the time the beans are just tender, the rarebit should be pretty melty (about 5 minutes).  Meanwhile, toast the bread.  Add a tiny bit of the string bean water and whisk the sauce.  Add the string beans.  Serve the rarebit with green beans on the toast.  Tang.
 

 

JULY 21st

 

I made it to the market on Sunday (Logan Square) just in time to grab the csa box of treasures and stop by the Temple Farms stand across the way for a few things before a rain storm came whisking in with a fury.  Walking home (with the food) in the rain was refreshing.  I needed a good wetting.  So I bought a Chicken from Temple along with a dozen eggs.  When I buy meat, I like to get it from the best source possible and honor it by using All of it.  Along with some of the vegetables from Radical Root , here are a few dishes that came about. 

 

1^st – fennel seed and sage roasted whole chicken on the grill over potatoes and carrots with grilled zuccini

1 small/medium chicken, clean and dry

about 2  teaspoons or more of each: fennel seed, black pepper, coriander seed, and salt, freshly ground

5-7 medium red potatoes cut in half

5 whole carrots

a bunch of sage leaves

½ of a lemon

½ of an onion

2 zuccini, halved long ways

 

a cast iron skillet

charcoal/wood burning grill

 

Get the coals going on one side of the grill.  Oil the skillet and place the potatoes cut side down.  Fill in the gaps with the carrots. Top every potato with sage leaves. Sprinkle with a little salt. Put the lemon and some sage leaves inside the chicken followed by the onion to “plug the hole.” (You can put more stuff in there, too, if you want.) Rub the chicken with the spice rub. Use more if you think you need to.  Tuck the wings under the chicken so they don’t burn.  Very loosely cover (or tent) the skillet with foil.  When the coals are ready, smooth them out keeping them on one side.  Put the skillet with the goods on the other side for in-direct grilling.  (I really did this because it was way to hot to have the oven on and it wouldn’t fit in the toaster over.) Make sure the top and bottom holes of the grill are open.  Place the lid on the grill making sure to leave about an inch open for air.  This keeps the fire going and the smoke and heat in the grill.  In 20 minutes, turn the skillet so the other side is closer to the fire. Now, brush the chicken with the juices that are collecting in the pan.  You can also use butter or oil if you don’t have enough or if the potatoes have already soaked it all up. Remove the foil and brush periodically.  In another 20-25 minutes, the chicken should about done.  Check it with a thermometer.  It should be at about 150 (contrary to some some sources that say 180. If you got your chicken for a very local and clean source, you have Far less to worry about).  The temp should go up about 10 degrees while it rests.  Remove the pan from grill.  While the chicken is resting, brush the zuccini with pan juices and grill them for a couple minutes on each side directly over the coals. 

Carve it, enjoy, and save all of the bones…

 

 

2 – chicken broth

 

Place the chicken bones in a medium sized pot with half an onion, a carrot, a piece of celery, and a bay leaf. If your chicken came with innards, use the neck and gizzards (use the liver for something else).  Cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer for a few hours.  Strain the broth and let in cool in the pot.  With a couple forks and/or your fingers, remove ALL the rest of the meat from the chicken bones and reserve this for the next dish…  Skim off the fat on the surface of the broth.  You have chicken broth for anything you wish to use it for.

 

 

3 – broth with a side of yolk

 

Once, while in some small Polish town, I had a very simple dish.  It requires the freshest eggs and a good chicken broth.  Basically, serve a bowl of broth next to a barely cooked egg yolk in a separate, tiny dish. (I used soy sauce dishes).  To gently heat the egg yolk, I separated them for the whites by cracking them into a bowl and gently lifting out the yolk with my hand.  Save the whites for omelets or a soufflé. (I made a honey/chili soufflé).  I lined my little bamboo steamer with some outer cabbage leaves and topped them with the egg yolk and steamed them until they were right about to turn that yellow color that orangeish yolks turn when they cook. This takes about 1 minute.

Basically, you take a little of the yolk with a little of the broth in each spoonful.  How often do you find yourself eating the chicken and the egg at the same time?

 

 

 4 – stuffed green peppers with chicken, quinoa, and zuccini.

 

2 large green peppers

about ¾ cup quinoa

about ½ cup diced chicken (reserved from the roasted chicken)

1 zuccini, diced

1 large green onion with a bulb

 

*If you make this stuffing a day ahead, it will be even better.

Combine quinoa with 1 ½ cups broth (or water).  Bring to a boil, cover, and turn off the heat.  Let this sit for about 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.  Don’t over cook it.  Meanwhile, carefully cut off the tops of the peppers cutting fairly close to and around the stem. Keep the stem cap.  Remove most of the seeds and ribs without breaking the pepper.  You can steam the peppers for 5-10 minutes if you want. 

In a skillet, quickly sauté the onions and zuccini in a little oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Add this to the cooked quinoa along with the chopped chicken.  Make sure this has enough salt. Stuff the peppers and cap them.  Roast this in a hot oven or grill until the peppers are nice are roasty with some blackened spot.  Drizzle a little olive oil over the peppers with some more sea salt and black pepper. 

 

 

 5 - Ratatouille w/ baguette

 

This, I made exclusively with vegetables from our csa along with herbs from our garden and the last of the chicken broth (except for a little olive oil and sea salt). It's come along way by now.  I feel you should never make ratatouille with anything but garden/farm fresh vegetables. While often great and sometimes preferable in some foods, canned tomatoes (even fire roasted) won’t do this dish justice.  This should taste differently every time you make it because of the inevitable variation of ingredient ratios and varieties of veggies.  I like to make it pretty soupy as opposed to a more stewy or roasty. Plus, I still had a couple cups of broth that I really wanted to use.  You really don’t need to add any kind of broth or water for this.  There is enough water in it already and it will definitely still be delicious.    Here is one, one of a kind possibility.

 

1 medium sized eggplant, thinly sliced into rounds with the skin

3 tomatoes, rough chopped

1 large summer squash (I’m not sure if this is a zuccini or not), thinly sliced into rounds

1 large green onion, finely diced

1 clove of garlic, diced

a small branch of rosemary

a small handful of fresh basil, terragon, and parsley, roughly chopped

1-2 cups chicken broth

olive oil

sea salt and pepper

 

*slice the eggplant right before you cook it or in will start to turn brown.

 In a medium pot, sauté the onion and rosemary branch for a couple minutes.  Add the garlic and some salt.  In a minute, add the eggplant and summer squash. Saute for another minute and cover with broth.  Add more water if you want, but wait and see how much the veggies let go. Cover and simmer for about 10-20 minutes or until the eggplant is really soft.  Chop the tomatoes and add them to the pot with the herbs.  Let this sit off the heat with the lid on for a few minutes.  Taste for seasoning (salt).  Ladle into deep bowls (not wide, shallow bowls that allow soups to get cold too quickly).  Top each bowl with olive oil and black pepper.  Serve it with some toasted baguette.  Cook au vin has the best and can be found at Dill Pickle .  A couple nice accompaniments are Dijon mustard, cornichons, and cheese.  So French…

 

 

 

July 23

 

This morning, featuring the last couple items left from this and last weeks csa , along with the last of a big, beautiful watermelon we’ve chipping away at for about a week from the Pickle , and the last 2 eggs from Temple ,  I came up with a simple, one pot breakfast dish to enjoy with the watermelon (and coffee, of course).  It’s really simple and is all about the timing.

 

string beans and cabbage with eggs, herbs, cheese, and toasted pumpkin seeds.  + watermelon

 

2 big handfuls of string beans (green, purple, yellow), broken into thirds, halves, or whole, depending on the size.

1 small head of cabbage (this one was cone shaped), thickly sliced and/or chopped

2 eggs

a couple two-tree tablespoons grated, metlty, white cheese

½ teaspoon dried herbs like thyme, rosemary, lavender, ground

½ teaspoon fennel seeds, ground

½ teaspoon black pepper, ground

salt

fresh parsley and dill, finely chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup raw hulled (green) pumpkin seeds

watermelon

 

In a pot, bring about ¾ cup water to boil.  Add the beans and cabbage along with the spices, dried herbs, and some salt.  Meanwhile, in a medium heat skillet, dry toast the pumpkin seeds tossing them around until they pop and are golden brown.  Once the first one pops, don't take your eyes off these.  They burn easily.  Cook the beans and cabbage with the lid on for about 5-10 minutes or until the beans are almost the way you like them. Crack the eggs in the pot and cover for another couple minutes until the whites are just about cooked.  Remove from heat and add the fresh herbs, cheese, a bit more salt, and olive oil.  Stir. The little bit of left over water (broth at this point), mixed with the easy egg and cheese should make a nice sauce.  Spoon this into bowls and top with the toasted pumpkin seeds.  Eat along side a couple thick slices of watermelon. 

 

 

 

It was one of those pantry inspired dinners.  There’s always some kind of pea or bean waiting patiently for just the right moment.  One of my favorite legumes is what is often called the French green lentil .  It’s a beautiful, round, little dinosaur egg that ends up turning brown when cooked.  It holds it’s shape better than any other lentil and is best eaten while featuring it’s natural texture as opposed to blended into a soup or stew.  These lentils are really more like eating caviar.  I made the following recipe along with a fresh red sweet corn risotto and fresh figs, but this is what really stood out to me.  It won’t really be the same with any other lentil.

 

 

‘warm’ French green lentil salad

 

1 cup dried French green lentils

½ small onion

1 carrot

1 small rib of celery

(the French have a name for these 3 veggies)

 

dressing:

1 tblspn Dijon mustard

1 tblspn cider vinegar

2 tblspns olive oil

1 tblspn fresh parsley, finely chopped

about 1 tspn sea salt, finely ground

black pepper

 

sour cream

chives

 

 Bring about 2 cups water to a boil with the lentils; no salt.  Meanwhile, sauté the onion, carrot, and celery with a little salt until soft.  Add this to the lentils.  Simmer with the lid mostly on for about 30-45 minutes or until the lentils soft while still holding their shape.  If there is water left over, strain the lentil and vegetables and save the broth for something else or drink it right away.  While the lentils are cooking, make the dressing by combining the ingredients and whisking.  Dijon is a natural emulsifier.  Toss the cooked lentils in the dressing.  Top with a little sour cream and chives or green onion.