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minxyWell, flist, I am Spring cleaning today in Summer. It is a grand tradition with me that I do not clean because I ought, rather I clean because now I have time and energy, and wow it's dirty, so I shall clean mightily. (Yea, verily) My porch is now spider and wintercoat free! And I magically generated a huge amount of trash. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?
Also, my family is about to descend upon me.
Since so many family members (immediate, aunts, cousins of the first and second variety, as well as God-children and friends-who-might-as-well-be-family are all coming for a few days each over a week's time,) are about to arrive, I'm planning foods. Around vegans, gluten-free, Crohn's disease, vegetarians, low-salt/heart healthy, kids of various ages and a tree-nut allergy etc. In a small town where eating out is not going to be much of an option a lot of the time. Fortunately, they aren't all going to be here at the same time (limits are normal; a bazillion limits at once is very challenging).
So, given my CSA harvest season, and the fact that I apparently promised Kres some recipes so long ago that neither of us are entirely sure what recipes were requested at this point, I give you:
Food I am making these days.
My parameters are: a bumper crop of kale and lettuce at the CSA due to the hot weather. My own lack of imagination when it comes to cabbage and kohlrabi/sputnik, and the most epic carrots ever from the CSA. You have never tasted carrots so sweet, they should be the central dish for more meals, I tell you what. Potatoes and beets have shown up in the last week or so.
The soup I'm pretty sure Kres wanted the recipe for:
Roasted Carrot Soup with Ginger (or, the best soup ever, but it has a lot of ingredients)
Works for vegetarians, tree-nut allergy, Crohns. Limitations: is spicy, is not gluten-free unless you skip the roux, is not vegan unless you skip the roux and the honey (molasses sub?)
2 ½ lbs. cleaned carrots 10 T. butter, melted
5 garlic cloves, peeled 2/3 c. flour
1 T. dark sesame oil 3 T. chopped fresh ginger
4 T. vegetable oil 1 T. sweet hot chili sauce
½ med. onion, finely chopped 1 tsp. Asian hot chili sauce
4 celery stalks, finely chopped ¼ c. honey
1 cup carrot or V8 juice 1 tsp. (or so) smooth peanut butter
1 – 1 ½ c. coconut milk 1 T. rice vinegar
8 c. vegetable broth salt, pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss the carrots, garlic cloves, sesame oil and 2 T. vegetable oil in a shallow roasting pan. Roast for 1-1 ½ hours, until very soft, stirring every 30 minutes (this can be done the day before serving). Puree until smooth (food processor/blender/wand blender).
In a large soup pot, heat the remaining oil and sauté the onion and celery until tender. Add juice, coconut milk and broth and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, make a roux by stirring together the melted butter and flour until smooth (you can do this in a pan on the stove to brown the roux if you like). Whisk the roux into the boiling soup until smooth. Add sauces, honey, peanut butter and vinegar and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer about 30 minutes; add salt and pepper.
Optionally, serve with: sour cream, peanuts, or julienned basil. (secret to Kres--I think this is the orange-colored spicy soup, I can't think of what it might be otherwise. The green leaves are a mystery, though, unless we had herbs mixed in, which my Mom may have done...)
Fritatta with kohlrabi, kale and shallots
Diets: vegetarian, low salt, gluten-free, Crohns
Cook the shallots and kohlrabi (diced like a potato) over medium heat in a seasoned cast-iron skillet. When they are browned and delicious-smelling, toss chopped kale in until the kale is dark(er) green and slightly wilted. Whisk together ~5 eggs (depending on the size of your skillet) with a little cream or water and salt, then pour over. Mixing slightly if needed to distribute the egg mixture. Shift to a 350 degree oven, cook for 15 minutes, or until the egg is fluffy and set in the middle.
I think I prefer kohlrabi to potatoes in fritatta now; the brighter flavor keeps the dish light and fresh, where potatoes can weigh it down more. Om nom nom.
Colcannon (new potatoes, cabbage or kale)
Diets: vegetarian, gluten-free, Crohns, kid-friendly
Boil potatoes in salted water for 20-30 minutes, or until very soft. Decant the water carefully. Return the potatoes to the pot with ~5 tablespoons butter, salt/pepper to taste, and 1/4-1/2 cup cream. MASH.
In a separate skillet, saute sliced shallots in butter or oil until brown. Add in sliced cabbage or finely chopped kale (or both! Live dangerously) and saute until soft (a few minutes for the kale, longer for cabbage).
Mix together the cabbage and potatoes, season to taste, and serve. I love to serve this with sausage, but that definitely makes it not-vegetarian.
Salted beets with horseradish from Bon Appetit:
I love this dish. As a result of this dish, I love beets too (beets scared me when I was little; I thought they would stain my insides and that they were too sweet for dinner and not sweet enough for desert.)
Diets: Vegetarian, gluten-free,
Beets:
* 2 cups coarse kosher salt
* 5 tablespoons prepared horseradish
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
* 1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel
* 3 large unpeeled beets (each about 8 ounces), trimmed, scrubbed
Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix coarse salt, horseradish, thyme, and orange peel in medium bowl. Place three 3-tablespoon mounds of salt mixture on small rimmed baking sheet, spacing apart. Top each salt mound with 1 beet, then cover all beets with remaining salt mixture, pressing very firmly with hands and forming crust around each beet, covering completely.
Roast beets 1 3/4 hours. Remove from oven; crack salt crusts open and remove beets. (Can be made ages ahead of time and stored in the freezer.) Peel beets; cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange beet slices on platter. Serve with horseradish crème fraîche.
Mix together horseradish crème fraîche (can be done a day ahead):
* 1 cup crème fraîche (8 ounces)
* 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
* 2 teaspoons Sherry wine vinegar
(season to taste)
The lettuce bonanza has not been a problem for me, since I'll eat it by the ton with some olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper. Also I blanch and store kale and various other dark leafy greens and they make me ridiculously happy in the long winter (so they are never wasted.) That said, all suggestions are gratefully received: especially if foods can be made ahead when it's not too hot and then served at leisure.
Now I think I must do some laundry. Anon, fellow foodies!
Also, my family is about to descend upon me.
Since so many family members (immediate, aunts, cousins of the first and second variety, as well as God-children and friends-who-might-as-well-be-family are all coming for a few days each over a week's time,) are about to arrive, I'm planning foods. Around vegans, gluten-free, Crohn's disease, vegetarians, low-salt/heart healthy, kids of various ages and a tree-nut allergy etc. In a small town where eating out is not going to be much of an option a lot of the time. Fortunately, they aren't all going to be here at the same time (limits are normal; a bazillion limits at once is very challenging).
So, given my CSA harvest season, and the fact that I apparently promised Kres some recipes so long ago that neither of us are entirely sure what recipes were requested at this point, I give you:
Food I am making these days.
My parameters are: a bumper crop of kale and lettuce at the CSA due to the hot weather. My own lack of imagination when it comes to cabbage and kohlrabi/sputnik, and the most epic carrots ever from the CSA. You have never tasted carrots so sweet, they should be the central dish for more meals, I tell you what. Potatoes and beets have shown up in the last week or so.
The soup I'm pretty sure Kres wanted the recipe for:
Roasted Carrot Soup with Ginger (or, the best soup ever, but it has a lot of ingredients)
Works for vegetarians, tree-nut allergy, Crohns. Limitations: is spicy, is not gluten-free unless you skip the roux, is not vegan unless you skip the roux and the honey (molasses sub?)
2 ½ lbs. cleaned carrots 10 T. butter, melted
5 garlic cloves, peeled 2/3 c. flour
1 T. dark sesame oil 3 T. chopped fresh ginger
4 T. vegetable oil 1 T. sweet hot chili sauce
½ med. onion, finely chopped 1 tsp. Asian hot chili sauce
4 celery stalks, finely chopped ¼ c. honey
1 cup carrot or V8 juice 1 tsp. (or so) smooth peanut butter
1 – 1 ½ c. coconut milk 1 T. rice vinegar
8 c. vegetable broth salt, pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss the carrots, garlic cloves, sesame oil and 2 T. vegetable oil in a shallow roasting pan. Roast for 1-1 ½ hours, until very soft, stirring every 30 minutes (this can be done the day before serving). Puree until smooth (food processor/blender/wand blender).
In a large soup pot, heat the remaining oil and sauté the onion and celery until tender. Add juice, coconut milk and broth and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, make a roux by stirring together the melted butter and flour until smooth (you can do this in a pan on the stove to brown the roux if you like). Whisk the roux into the boiling soup until smooth. Add sauces, honey, peanut butter and vinegar and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer about 30 minutes; add salt and pepper.
Optionally, serve with: sour cream, peanuts, or julienned basil. (secret to Kres--I think this is the orange-colored spicy soup, I can't think of what it might be otherwise. The green leaves are a mystery, though, unless we had herbs mixed in, which my Mom may have done...)
Fritatta with kohlrabi, kale and shallots
Diets: vegetarian, low salt, gluten-free, Crohns
Cook the shallots and kohlrabi (diced like a potato) over medium heat in a seasoned cast-iron skillet. When they are browned and delicious-smelling, toss chopped kale in until the kale is dark(er) green and slightly wilted. Whisk together ~5 eggs (depending on the size of your skillet) with a little cream or water and salt, then pour over. Mixing slightly if needed to distribute the egg mixture. Shift to a 350 degree oven, cook for 15 minutes, or until the egg is fluffy and set in the middle.
I think I prefer kohlrabi to potatoes in fritatta now; the brighter flavor keeps the dish light and fresh, where potatoes can weigh it down more. Om nom nom.
Colcannon (new potatoes, cabbage or kale)
Diets: vegetarian, gluten-free, Crohns, kid-friendly
Boil potatoes in salted water for 20-30 minutes, or until very soft. Decant the water carefully. Return the potatoes to the pot with ~5 tablespoons butter, salt/pepper to taste, and 1/4-1/2 cup cream. MASH.
In a separate skillet, saute sliced shallots in butter or oil until brown. Add in sliced cabbage or finely chopped kale (or both! Live dangerously) and saute until soft (a few minutes for the kale, longer for cabbage).
Mix together the cabbage and potatoes, season to taste, and serve. I love to serve this with sausage, but that definitely makes it not-vegetarian.
Salted beets with horseradish from Bon Appetit:
I love this dish. As a result of this dish, I love beets too (beets scared me when I was little; I thought they would stain my insides and that they were too sweet for dinner and not sweet enough for desert.)
Diets: Vegetarian, gluten-free,
Beets:
* 2 cups coarse kosher salt
* 5 tablespoons prepared horseradish
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
* 1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel
* 3 large unpeeled beets (each about 8 ounces), trimmed, scrubbed
Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix coarse salt, horseradish, thyme, and orange peel in medium bowl. Place three 3-tablespoon mounds of salt mixture on small rimmed baking sheet, spacing apart. Top each salt mound with 1 beet, then cover all beets with remaining salt mixture, pressing very firmly with hands and forming crust around each beet, covering completely.
Roast beets 1 3/4 hours. Remove from oven; crack salt crusts open and remove beets. (Can be made ages ahead of time and stored in the freezer.) Peel beets; cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange beet slices on platter. Serve with horseradish crème fraîche.
Mix together horseradish crème fraîche (can be done a day ahead):
* 1 cup crème fraîche (8 ounces)
* 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
* 2 teaspoons Sherry wine vinegar
(season to taste)
The lettuce bonanza has not been a problem for me, since I'll eat it by the ton with some olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper. Also I blanch and store kale and various other dark leafy greens and they make me ridiculously happy in the long winter (so they are never wasted.) That said, all suggestions are gratefully received: especially if foods can be made ahead when it's not too hot and then served at leisure.
Now I think I must do some laundry. Anon, fellow foodies!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-18 08:07 pm (UTC)I'm hoping to get my hands on the recipe for my local co-op's chickpea and kale salad soon, because OMG GOOD!
Field Roast makes an outstanding "grain meat" Italian sausage. Would be good with the Colcannon for your vegetarians, but not for the gluten-frees.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-22 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 03:21 pm (UTC)i hear you've got beets and cabbage?
no subject
Date: 2010-07-22 12:34 am (UTC)