Frozen red peppers, swiss chard, and orange zest.

Tonight's dinner was fantastic.  It tasted amazing. It was quick and easy to prepare.  Everyone, even my red pepper swiss chard hating daughter, loved it. 

For the record, her mouth is covered with balsamic, not chocolate.  Yet.

Last week our CSA provided red peppers and swiss chard they had picked and frozen last summer.  They looked beautiful in their vacuum sealed packages, but I haven't been quite sure what to do with them.  Tonight I decided to make pizza, and doubled the dough recipe.  I used half for the pizza and half for a play on cinnamon rolls, except for the filling I used coconut oil, orange zest, and chocolate chips.  And they exceeded my expectations  I'd actually rather eat them over pain au chocolat any day, and that's saying a lot. 

Pizza dough recipe (for a double batch)

4 c all purpose flour
3 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c warm water
2 pkgs yeast
6 T olive oil (which I think is actually 1/4 cup)

Dissolve the yeast in the water and let dissolve and proof.  Mix dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients.  Knead until smooth.  Cover with a towel and set in a warm-ish spot while you make the sauce.

For the sauce I warmed 3 T of olive oil in a saute pan.  I added three or four cloves of minced garlic and when fragrant added the frozen red peppers.  After they had defrosted and started to cook I added the frozen chard.  Once that defrosted I added a jar of Trader Joe's mushroom red sauce and let that simmer until thick and lovely. 

Once the dough has raised (risen?) punch it down and divide it in half.  Make the orange chocolate rolls first.  Roll out the dough into a rectangle and brush with 1 T or so of melted coconut oil.  Rub with 1 tsp of packed orange zest, 1/4 to 1/2 chocolate chips or shaved chocolate, and 1 T of sugar.  Roll up, cut into slices, place in greased baking dish, sprinkle with an additional tablespoon of sugar.  Cover with a towel and set aside.

For the pizza - place a cookie sheet in the oven at 425 degrees.  Roll out your remaining dough.  Sprinkle 1/4 c uncooked polenta on baking sheet (optional, but gives great texture and taste to the crust).  Place dough on polenta on heated cookie sheet, sprinkle with some kosher salt.  Spread sauce on top.  Bake until done, maybe 10 minutes?

Meanwhile.  Pour 1/3 to 1/2 c balsamic vinegar into a small pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and let balsamic reduce down until thick and syrupy.  Don't let it burn!  It happens fast so keep an close eye on it.  When pizza has finished drizzle the reduction all over it.  You can add crushed red pepper flakes for some heat.  Devour.  Even delicious cold.

 

Bake the orange chocolate rolls at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or so.  Eat warm.  You'll eat the entire pan in one sitting.  Trust me. 

Irish Soda Bread - two ways

One of the things I love most about our New Hampshire life is our CSA, which is actually in Vermont, but close enough that it is feasible for me to go pick up our weekly shipment of goods.  They do a locavore option, which provides local grains, breads, eggs, cream, butter, fruit, whatever is in season and available in addition to the veggies   I love that it is year round even though we live in a four season climate.  They also include produce from this past summer that they picked, washed and vacuum sealed and kept in their freezer.  We are eating well.

Our first week included:  frozen sweet corn, frozen chard, fresh spinach and radish and sunflower seed sprout mixture, potatoes, yellow onions, beets, carrots, napa cabbage, maple oat bread, steel cut oats, and local cheese.  The second week included:  frozen yellow beans, frozen red peppers, cipollini onions, potatoes, turnips, carrots, savoy cabbage, local all purpose flour, eggs, cream and Vermont apples.

 

I recently realized that my efforts to eat seasonally were way off mark when it came to dairy and eggs, and haven't purchased either in about two months, so being given both fresh cream and fresh eggs in our CSA felt like being given gold, and it took me a few days to decide how I wanted to use them.  I used half of the pint of cream and whipped it for desserts this past week - including a New Hampshire style bananas foster and apple crisp (with the apples that came in our CSA).  I decided that my favorite way to eat eggs is sunny side up in a bit of butter with buttered toast. 

I made butter from the remaining cream (amazing) and went to cook the eggs when I realized we were out of bread.  I made this bread in no time at all and it was delicious with the fresh butter and fried eggs.

Irish Soda Bread

makes 1 large loaf or 2 small loaves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

2 c all purpose flour 

2 c oat flour (I just put oats in my blender and grind it up until it is a flour)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 T sugar

2 c oat milk (or rice, almond, dairy, etc.)

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

optional:  1 small apple diced with 1 tsp cinnamon and an additional tablespoon of sugar

Mix vinegar with oat milk and set aside.  Mix dry ingredients. *At this point I divide my dry ingredients into two bowls to make one plain and one apple cinnamon round of bread.  Slowly add half of the milk (if making two rounds), stirring until moistened and then kneading gently into a ball of dough.  For the apple cinnamon round - stir in the cinnamon,t hen toss apples with flour mixture and add the liquid, stir and knead knead slightly and shape into a round.  Place the rounds on a baking stone or cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes for two loaves or up to 40 minutes for one loaf.  Eat immediately.

Squash

The end of our CSA subscription is marked each year by a large box of squash. I have done a pretty good job using it up or prepping it for future use.  We've roasted whole spaghetti squash in the oven and eaten it with a little butter, a drizzle of honey and salt and pepper.  I roasted pumpkins and made these muffins:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/orange_date_pumpkin_muffins.html

which are incredible and probably the most delicious muffins I have ever tasted.  The only change I made was to incorporate the walnuts into the batter rather than sprinkling them on top and I replaced the honey with maple syrup.  Mine were finished after 15 to 16 minutes in the oven. 

I peeled and chopped up a giant butternut squash and made a huge batch of these enchiladas:

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/roasted-enchiladas-with-tomatillo-sauce/.  I had leftover red peppers in my fridge and a bag of tomatillos from my neighbor's garden.  I also cooked up a large pot of pinto beans and mixed them into the squash filling. 

I roasted a butternut and 4 acorn squashes to use in soup recipes from William Sonoma Soup of the Day (which you must purchase if you haven't already) but I got the squashes mixed up and used them in the wrong soups.  One soup was sweet and one was savory and to my surprise (because I do love sugar) I ended up liking the savory soup more.  The sweet one was delicious, but the savory one was better.  So here's the recipe:

Acorn Squash Soup with Toasted Walnut Butter

4 acorn squashes, about 1 lb each
1 T unsalted butter
2 slices bacon, finely chopped (I used 3, because you can't have too much bacon)
1 large yellow onion chopped
6 c chicken broth (ended up having too much, would reduce to 4 next time and add more as needed)

1/4 c heavy cream
Large pinch of grated nutmeg
1/4 c fresh orange juice

Walnut Butter
1/4 c walnuts
2 tsp walnut oil (used coconut oil instead, canola would be fine too)
Large pinch of sugar
salt and pepper
2 T unsalted butter at room temperature

***I roasted all of my squash one night and then kept it in the fridge until ready to use which cut down on my prep time at dinner.

Preheat oven to 375 and lightly oil baking sheet.  Cut each squash in half and place cut side down on the baking sheet.  Bake until easily pierced with a knife, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle.  Scoop out seeds and discard, scoop out flesh and set aside until ready to use.

Toss walnuts with oil, sugar, salt and pepper to taste and spread out on baking sheet.  Toast until golden, about 5 to 7 minutes, and then remove from oven and when cool chop finely by hand or in a blender or food processor.  In a small bowl mash the walnuts with the butter (I just did this with my fingers) and spoon into plastic wrap and shape into a log, place in the fridge until dinnertime.  (I just stuck mine in a small bowl.)

In a large heavy pot melt the butter over medium heat, add the onion and bacon and saute until onion is soft, about 10 minutes.  Raise the heat to high and add the squash and broth and bring to a gentle boil.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, until the squash is very soft, about 30 minutes. 

Remove the soup from the heat and puree in a blender in smooth, working in batches. Return to pot over medium low heat and stir in the cream, nutmeg, orange juice and salt and pepper to taste.  Serve warm, garnished with slices of the walnut butter.

Apple and Blackberry Crisp

My brother complains there aren't enough photos on my blog.  There are two reasons for this, the first being that the light fixtures in my house tend to make everything photographed inside look yellow.  Not super appetizing.  The second reason is because we usually eat things as soon as they are made, and I don't think about photos until it is too late.  I'll try to work on this. 

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in the Mayo Clinic Cookbook for their summer fruit gratin.  I kind of made it up as I went a long so I'll do my best to estimate amounts.

This will make a 9x13 pan, which you can spray with cooking spray or butter if you'd like.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

4 to 6 apples, depending on the size, peeled and chopped
1 pkg frozen marionberries (I have tried many varieties of blackberries but the Stahlbush Farm Marionberries are by far my favorite)
1/2 to 1 tsp lemon zest
scant 1/4 c sugar (depends on the tartness of your apples and berries, taste and adjust to suit your preferences)
1 T all-purpose flour

Rub the zest into the sugar, mix with the flour, toss with the fruit and spread in an even layer in the pan.

For the topping:

1 c rolled oats
1/2 c sliced almonds (optional)
6 T all-purpose flour
1/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
4 T melted butter, canola oil, walnut oil or coconut oil
2 T honey

Combine all of the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, mix with hands until well blended and then crumble on top of the fruit.  Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until fruit is bubbling and topping is lightly browned. 

I served this with homemade caramel sauce, but it would be lovely with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Lazy Ratatouille

I've never eaten or made ratatouille from a recipe, but this is my lazy version and it is delicious.  Our CSA pickup included tomatoes, garlic, eggplant and squash so it seemed like the easiest thing to throw together for dinner tonight.  I intended to serve it with something, but instead just piled it in a bowl and devoured two servings with a single slice of toasted baguette.  I think the quality of this dish is completely dependent upon the quality of your veggies.  My veggie growers are awesome, hence my veggies are awesome.

1 (ish) Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 yellow squash, halved and sliced
1 eggplant, peeled, quartered and sliced
4 to 6 tomatoes, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Heave your olive oil in a large cast iron pot with a lid.  Add garlic and saute until just barely golden, add eggplant and squash and season with salt and saute until tender.  Add tomatoes, season again, and cover with lid and simmer for 10 to 20 minutes.  Remove lid, increase heat and boil off some of the liquid.  That's it.  Dinnertime.

The recipes that I have read included fresh basil or marjoram but I didn't have any on hand.  I thought about adding dried herbs but the taste was so good that I just served it with salt and pepper.

Layers of vegetable goodness.

I have been seriously considering closing this blog simply because it is getting increasingly more difficult to find time to type of my recipes.  But tonight's dinner creation deserves to be recorded for posterity.  It was delicious.  But be forewarned - you will dirty a lot of pots and pans.  There are several steps, but the entire meal took me about 45 minutes to prepare, and probably another 45 minutes to cleanup.  You can double the recipe easily.

Polenta Layer 

4 c milk (I used water mixed with powdered milk)
2 T butter (I used unsalted, so if you use salted you may need to decrease the amount of salt)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
scant 1 c polenta (because this is all I had, but if you double the recipe use 1 3/4 cups)

Bring milk, butter, salt and pepper to a boil.  Slowly add polenta while stirring constantly until it thickens.  Reduce heat and simmer until quite thick, stirring occasionally.  Pour into a greased baking dish and stick in the freezer for the next 10 to 15 minutes s that it firms up.

Marinara Sauce
***This is Jamie Oliver's recipe, using tomato sauce instead of canned tomatoes because that is all I had

1 T olive oil
2 to 3 cloves garlic
2 14 oz cans tomato sauce
1 large bunch fresh basil, about 1 1/2 to 2 cups packed basil leaves, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Gently heat olive oil, add minced garlic and saute until lightly golden.  Add tomato sauce, basil, salt and pepper.  Stir to combine and then reduce heat and simmer at least 20 minutes.  Adjust seasoning.

Roasted Zucchini
1 T olive oil
1 large zucchini
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cut off ends of zucchini, halve, and then slice 1/4" thick lengthwise.  You should have enough slices to fill a cookie sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast at 375 until tender and beginning to brown.

Swiss Chard layer
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems removed, leaves chopped
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 T olive oil
large pinch of salt
1/3 c heavy cream

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add onion and a bit of salt and saute until tender.  Add chard and continue to saute and when the chard just begins to lose the raw appearance add the cream, stir, cover pot with a lid, reduce heat and simmer until tender.  ***Creamed chard is the only way to go.  A minimal amount of cream, just 1 Tbs even, brings out a delicious sweetness.

To Assemble:
Spread the creamed chard/onion mixture over the polenta, add half of the tomato sauce and spread to cover.  Lay the roasted zucchini in a single layer and spread the remaining tomato sauce.  If you are making this all at once you can serve it immediately because the heat from all of the other components will warm the polenta.  I thought I would miss having cheese in this fake version of lasagna but the creaminess from the chard and polenta made me glad I hadn't added any cheese at all.  The flavor of this dish is seriously amazing.  And it was brought to you by what was left in my fridge and pantry today.  Enjoy.

Braised radishes. A lick the bottom of your bowl kind of dish.

Go buy radishes.  And then make this:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/braised-radishes-recipe/index.html.  We always get radishes as part of our CSA pick up and they always go to waste because try as I might, I just don't like them raw.  And I never thought of cooking them until I came across this recipe.  It is amazing.  We only had one bunch so I just halved the recipe.  They are amazing.