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Category: Recipes

  • Daikon and Carrot Quick Pickle

    I love pickled daikon. I put it on everything. Pickled daikon and carrots are usually associated with Bahn mi sandwiches, but why save this yummy pickle for just Bahn mi?

    It can dress up any kind of sandwich, this is just a fried egg in a pita. Use it in rice or noodle dishes or any roast meat or vegetable dish. I like it on fish tacos or in tortilla wraps. Think of using it like you would sauerkraut or coleslaw. Like sauerkraut or coleslaw, it brings a fresh crunchy funky element to a meal.

    Speaking of funky, it has to be said that pickled daikon’s are a little stinky. Not too bad like say, kimchi. They won’t stink up your refrigerator. When you open the jar step away for a minute and let the smell dissipate, it just takes a couple seconds.

    OK, back to the recipe. This just takes a few minutes to make. The hardest part is cutting up the vegetables. You can cut the vegetables as small or big as you like. You can use a knife, I like to use my mandolin to make thin slabs then I slice the slabs into small julienne slices with a knife. You could use your food processor and shred them small.

    To make about a quart of pickles you will need;

    • 4 cups total of daikon and carrots. It doesn’t matter the proportions.
    • 1 cup water
    • 1/2 cup vinegar either rice or white
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 1 Tablespoon salt

    Combine carrots, radish, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.

    Using your hands, massage salt and sugar into vegetables until dissolved.

    Add water and rice vinegar. Pack vegetables into a quart-sized mason jar with a tight lid. You can eat the pickles right away but they are better after a day or so. They will keep in the refrigerator for at least a month. They get a little limp after a week but they are still really good.

    This is one of those things when you make it once you want to always have it in your refrigerator. You’ll find more and more uses for it.

    Mo

     

  • Root Vegetables Gratin

    I love making vegetable gratins. You can layer flavors with different vegetables and liquids of your choosing and they meld into something magical. You can use all one type of vegetable and one type of liquid, or mix up any combination of vegetables and liquids that you like for your own unique dish.

    Cooking something ‘au gratin’ is a generic term that means; baked or broiled in a shallow dish. I’m pretty sure too there is an assumption that there will be a crunchy crust on top.

    I like to make this root vegetable gratin at least one or two days before I am serving it, which works out great for Holiday meals. If you make it ahead and cook it until it is ‘just done’, let it cool and then refrigerate it until the day you are serving it the gratin will have time to soak up a lot of the liquid and plump the vegetables with all that goodness.

    You can make it the day you are serving it. It will be delicious but it will be more soupy than if it is left to sort itself out in a refrigerator for a day or two. The added bonus of making it ahead is that you have a beautiful dish already made that just needs to be heated up, leaving you free for other things.

    Basic vegetable gratin ingredients and method.

    • Olive oil
    • 1 or 2 onions, leeks and or fennel sliced thin about 2 cups
    • 3 pounds total root vegetables potatoes, celery root, rutabagas, carrots, turnips peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
    • 2 1/2 – 3 cups total of any or all of cream (see note below), milk, chicken or vegetable stock. I start with 2 1/2 cups of liquid and add more when the I put everything in the casserole dish if I need more.
    • 1-2 cups grated gruyere cheese (optional)
    • 2 – 3 tablespoons minced fresh herbs like thyme, sage or oregano (optional)
    • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
    • 2 cups coarse fresh breadcrumbs or panko (optional) mixed with 2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter or oil. I didn’t use any this time, my vegetables will be crunchy on top and soft inside the casserole.

    Method-Heat your oven to 375°F. Butter a deep baking dish that will hold all your vegetables. A 9 X 13 dish is usually big enough for this amount of vegetables. I used an 9 X 9 inch dish that is pretty deep. You can adjust the amount of vegetables and liquid to whatever size pan you have. This is a very forgiving method of cooking.

    Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large deep sauté pan over medium heat and add the onions and fennel if using. Cook until they are tender, about 10 minutes.

    When the onions and fennel (if you are using it) are tender, in the largest bowl you own, combine the onion mixture with the other vegetables and 2 1/2 cups of whatever liquid you are using with about 1 scant tablespoon kosher salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper.

    Mix it up really well, I use my hands. The vegetables stick together so separate them and let the liquid and cheese and onions make friends with all the root vegetables.

    Pour mixture into a buttered dish and sort of organize it and smoosh it down a little. Now decide if you need more liquid. The liquid should be just below the vegetables. Add more if you need to.

    If you are using breadcrumbs, mix them with butter or oil until evenly coated and distribute evenly over the top of the dish. I didn’t use breadcrumbs this time.

    Bake 1 1/2 to 2 hours uncovered (I like to put any casserole on a baking tray incase anything spills over in the oven, you decide if you need to do that or not),  check the vegetables to make sure they are really tender when stabbed with a small knife and the top is browned and bubbly. Over done is better than underdone. This is just done at this point I would cook it another 1/2 hour if I was serving it right away or turn on the broiler and brown it up more. But this is fine for finishing later.

    If you are serving it out of the oven let it set for 15 minutes at room temperature and serve hot. If you are making this for serving later, cover it and put it in the refrigerator.

    On the day you are eating the gratin pull it out of the refrigerator at least one hour before you put it in the oven. Putting a cold ceramic or glass dish in a hot oven isn’t a good idea. Preheat the oven to 375F  and reheat it until it is brown to your liking. This picture is taken while the gratin was in the oven, the oven light makes it look yellow.

    I took the picture of the gratin just out of the oven, then we all stood around and ate most of the crunchy top vegetables on top before dinner :-)

    Note– Like I said, gratins are very forgiving. You can use all cream and have a very luxurious dish. I love using all cream with potatoes and celeriac. It makes a gorgeous holiday side dish . You can use all stock and have a light dish highlighting all the vegetables. Today I used a little cream, like 1/2 cup and the rest milk. If I needed more liquid I was going to make some vegetable stock from the bouillon base and top it off. I didn’t need it though and to be honest; I wanted to use up the milk to make room in the refrigerator for other stuff otherwise I probably would have used some stock.

  • Winter Minestrone Soup

    This is one of those ‘clean out your vegetable drawer’ meals and a testament to the adage that what grows together tastes great together.

    I accidentally deleted the photo of the vegetables I used to make this before I chopped them up. It kind of doesn’t matter because you can use any of your CSA vegetables you have and a few pantry items you probably have too. You need 4 to 5 cups of cut up vegetables. I had lots of leeks, celery, parsnips, carrots, kale and a kohlrabi. Celery root, onions, potatoes, rutabagas and any leafy greens would work too.

    I peeled and cut vegetables until I had 4 cups and then I added the kale to make a heaping 5ish cups of vegetables.

    Winter Minestrone Soup

    • 4 to 5 cups winter vegetables washed and chopped into bite size pieces
    • 1 1/2 to 2 cups navy or cannellini beans and broth if homemade. 1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed if you are using canned beans.
    • 1 15 oz can of tomatoes and their juice. I canned my tomatoes, that is why they are in a jar. Store bought is fine.
    • 2 cups of water
    • optional 1/2 cup pasta
    • Croutons, parmesan cheese and olive oil for garnish

    In a large pot heat a few tablespoons of oil and add all the vegetables, except leafy greens, and a few pinches of salt. Cook for about 5 minutes.

    Add one cup of water and let that simmer for about 10 minutes and the vegetables are about 1/2 way cooked-tender but not all the way soft.

    Add the tomatoes, leafy greens if you are using them and beans.

    Stir and decide if you need more water. I added another cup of water.

    If you are adding the pasta, bring the soup to a low boil and add the pasta now and cook until it is done.

    Taste and see if it needs any salt and add a few good grinds of pepper.

    That’s it. This is a quick satisfying meal loaded with tons of CSA goodness and love.

    I like to serve this topped with croutons, parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. Hearty and delicious.

    Have a great week.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Brothy Simmered Beans

    I love making beans from scratch. Canned beans are ok, fine even for some things but slow simmered homemade beans are just so much better.

    It’s all about the broth with homemade. Canned bean water is not good-ever.

    There are probably as many ways to cook beans as there are bean varieties. I make pinto beans in my pressure cooker because I almost always want to mash them into refried beans and I find the pressure cooker cooks them quickly and just fine but I end up with broken beans, which I don’t mind for refried beans.

    I like to slow simmer beans on the stove when I want a rich broth and intact beans. That is what I am making today.

    To make delicious beans  you don’t need much more than beans and salt and maybe an onion. I added a few more ingredients because I had them from our CSA share this week.

    One pound of beans makes about 6 cups of cooked beans. Cooked beans keep in the refrigerator for at least a week and can be used to make so many quick meals like greens and beans or quick soups, or make some toast and spoon some beans and broth on it, add an egg! If you don’t think you will use all of them in a week or so freeze them, they freeze beautifully.

    Soak or not to soak beans? I soak if I remember, I just cook the beans a little longer if I didn’t remember to soak them. The beans I am cooking today were soaked for about 6 hours.

    After soaking your beans you want to drain the soaking water and start with fresh water. There is a protein called lectin on the skin of legumes, lectin is why some people can’t digest beans very well. Lectin is water soluble and you want to get rid of it, so rinse and drain your soaked beans. You can read more about it here if you want. If you didn’t soak them just rinse them really well.

    I used;

    • 1 pound of cannellini beans, you can use any type you like.
    • 1 onion-a large carrot-a couple stalks of celery-a few garlic cloves.
    • Optional-parmesan rinds (adds great flavor) olive oil
    • Salt

    Now put your beans in a large pot and cover them in fresh water and bring that to a low boil for about 10 to 15 minutes. The beans will foam, I don’t know why but they all do.

    Skim off the foam and add your vegetables and parmesan rids if you are using them.  I added a couple of bay leaves too.

    How long it takes to cook beans is anyone’s guess. It depends on how old the beans are, how big they are and probably other things. It takes as long as it takes, I’d say usually 1 to 3 hours. Leave them on low making sure to check that the beans are always covered with an inch or two of water. Add more hot water as needed.

    After an hour of simmering I add a couple of teaspoons of salt and some olive oil. The beans are just starting to get soft. I am guessing these will need an other hour or two. I added more hot water and I’ll just leave them simmering and check back in an hour or so.

    OK. It’s been another hour and they are almost done. The parmesan rinds have melted and you can see the beans are much bigger and the vegetables are breaking down. At this point taste a couple beans. These are really soft and just a little ‘grainy’. “Grainy’ tells me they are just about done. They are done when the beans are creamy not grainy. I’ll leave these another 1/2 hour.  The broth is so so good.

    Now I have beautiful beans and broth for several meals. I’ll start with just beans and broth.

    I hope you are enjoying your winter vegetables. I know I am.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Mashed Root Vegetables

    In the Fall when vegetables like rutabagas, parsnips, purple top turnips, and celery root (aka celeriac) start showing up in our CSA share it’s the first time some people have seen these and of course they want to know what to do with them. I always say the same thing; anything you can do with a potato you can do with any root vegetable and, they are all interchangeable. Not only are they interchangeable they are so interesting and delicious together, mix and match any and all you have.  Baked, mashed, roasted, au gratin, scalloped, and grilled you can do it all with any of them.

    Today I was making some mashed potatoes and I had some parsnips, celery root, carrots and a rutabaga so I am making a mixed root vegetable mash instead of just plain mashed potatoes.

    Peel and cut up whatever vegetables you are using. I didn’t peel my potatoes or carrots but I did peel everything else.

    Put the peeled and diced vegetables in some salted water.  Bring that to a low boil and cook until the vegetables are very tender. I cooked mine about for about 25 minutes. I added some pepper and herbs too. Celery root floats, weird huh?

    Drain the cooked vegetables and fish out any herbs if you added them.

    I was making this for a simple weeknight meal so I wanted to keep it light so I used milk and some olive oil. If I was making this for Christmas or Thanksgiving I would use heavy cream and lots of butter. The cream and butter make it fluffier.

    I just eyeball the amounts and err on the side of less because I can always add more.

    Milk and olive oil in the pan, oh, I rinsed out the pan.

    Add the veg back and mash and taste to see if you want more salt or olive oil or butter if you are using that.

    I like my mash a little lumpy. Keep mashing if you like yours lump free.

    That’s it. So easy and quick and deliciously earthy and complex compared to just plain mashed potatoes.

    So good. Enjoy your winter vegetables.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Braised Brussels Sprouts and Leeks

    I love braising vegetables. It is a simple mostly hands off preparation method.  My favorite part of braising vegetables is that you get a bonus sauce or glaze that elevates the dish beyond roasting or steaming.

    This dish is good hot or room temperature and travels perfectly so this would be a good vegetable dish to bring to a friends house for Hannukah or Thanksgiving, but it’s simple enough for a weeknight meal.

    Here is what you need.

    1 pound brussels sprouts
    1 tablespoon unsalted butter
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    Salt
    Freshly ground black pepper
    1/2 cup dry white wine-I used vermouth
    1 cup broth (chicken or vegetable)
    1/2 to 1 cup of leeks or shallots or onions
    2 tablespoons heavy cream-optional. I wasn’t going t use it then in the end I added a little.
    1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

    Those cubes on the dish are frozen chicken stock. I make and freeze it in small portions so I can use what I need. Use what you have.

    Wash trim and cut the Brussels sprouts in half and cut up your leek or onion.

    Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet with a medium heat. I used my biggest skillet, it’s 12 inches, put the Brussels sprouts cut side down in the pan, they all fit in my skillet. If yours is smaller you might need to do 2 batches to brown them.

    Let those brown and cook without moving them for about 5 minutes. Then add the leeks, wine, stock and salt and pepper and give it a stir and cover it and let is gently simmer for about 15 minutes.

    After 15 minutes they look like this. A lot of the liquid is magically absorbed and the sprouts are soft but still pretty firm, not crunchy.  You could stop here and they would be delicious.

    I scooped out my sprouts and was left with this much liquid. I added a little Dijon and just a splash of cream. You could use sour cream or butter, or nothing.

    I stirred that up and let it reduce just a little and added my sprouts back to mix it all up to get that sauce in all the nooks and crannies.

    We happened to be having cod and rice for dinner the night I made this, so we had this for our vegetable and you know what? It was unbelievably good. The strong flavors of the sprouts and mustard were perfect with the cod and rice and there was just enough sauce to not overwhelm the plate.

    Anyway….

    I have a couple other braising recipes here you might want to check out and this Brussels sprout salad recipe that I love too.

    Have a great week. I hope you are enjoying these great winter vegetables.

    Mo

     

     

     

  • Pumpkin Maple Muffins

    I roasted a pumpkin the other day to make some pumpkin soup and I had some leftover pumpkin puree so I thought I would make these muffins. They were so tasty and quick to pull together I thought I would share the recipe with you.

    This is a New York Times recipe, it calls for browning the butter, which I did and it does add a really nice toasty element that comes through loud and clear in the muffins. You can skip that step and just melt the butter and proceed with the  recipe, but I recommend taking the extra few minutes it takes to brown the butter.

    ½ cup/114 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter
    1 cup/145 grams all-purpose flour
    1 cup/140 grams whole-wheat flour
    2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
    2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
    1 teaspoon ground ginger
    ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
    ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
    1 ½ cups/355 grams pumpkin purée
    3 large eggs
    1 cup/200 grams light brown sugar
    ⅔ cup/150 milliliters maple syrup

    PREPARATION
    Step 1
    Heat oven to 350 degrees.
    Step 2
    Spray muffin molds with nonstick spray or line them with paper liners.
    Step 3
    Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling
    occasionally, until the butter has melted, foamed and started to brown,
    about 5 minutes. Use a whisk to scrape up any browned bits at the
    bottom of the pot. Remove from heat and set aside.
    Step 4
    In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda,
    salt, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric and nutmeg.

    Step 5
    In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar and maple
    syrup until totally smooth. Whisk in dry ingredients, followed by
    browned butter.


    Step 6
    Divide among prepared muffin tins and bake until the tops are puffed
    and spring back slightly when pressed, 20 to 25 minutes.

    I haven’t made muffins in ages and I’m so glad I did. These stayed fresh for 3 days. I think these would freeze really well if you wanted to keep them longer than a few days.

    Fall is in the air. It’s soup and muffin season.

    Have a great week.

    Mo

  • Winter Squash, Spinach and Broken Pasta Bake

    I saw this Yotam Ottolenghi recipe in the Guardian a while ago and was intrigued. You basically thinly slice or cube winter squash, add a few other ingredients, mix it and and bake. There is no roasting the squash first, no boiling the pasta. The one hitch in that recipe is it calls for fresh lasagna noodles. Thus the reason I hadn’t made it. I rarely make pasta from scratch.

    Then one of my favorite bloggers made a few user friendly changes to the original recipe. She used broken dried pasta, not fresh and different ratios of cheese and omitted the tomatoes. So I made it.

    I combined what I liked of the two recipes, as always using what I have. The result is a really easy dish that is more vegetable than pasta and is worthy of being on a holiday table.

    I used 1/2 this butternut squash and peeled and sliced it thin on a mandolin, you can use a knife and cut it thin or in chunks. It looks like cheese, it’s not. It’s butternut squash sliced thin.

    In hindsight I think I would use a kabocha or delicata squash next time so I didn’t have to peel it. I forgot to take a picture of the spinach I used, but there was about 1/2 a bag of spinach. You can use kale or chard if you like. I used the odds and ends of the cheese I had in the refrigerator.

    Preheat your oven to 350F and gather the ingredients.

    • 1 large egg
    • 1 cup (250 grams) ricotta
    • 1 cup (100 grams) finely grated parmesan, divided in half
    • 1 cup (85 grams) coarsely grated cheese I used aged cheddar and mozzarella
    • 1 1/4 cups (300 grams) water or two tomatoes, I used tomatoes
    • 2 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil
    • 1 1/2 – 2  teaspoons kosher salt, depending on how salty your cheese is
    • Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
    • Freshly ground black pepper
    • 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste-optional
    • 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced-I used a shallot
    • 2 tablespoons thinly-sliced sage leaves or 1 teaspoons chopped thyme leaves (optional)
    • 5 ounces (1/2 a bag) spinach or another green, roughly chopped
    • 1 1/4-pound (560-grams) butternut or another sturdy winter squash, peeled, seeded, sliced thin or 1 pound (455 grams) in prepared chunks, sliced thin
    • 8 ounces (225 grams) dried pasta (see Note), broken into pieces if large/long

    Mix the first 12 ingredients in a bowl

    Then the last 3 ingredients.

    Mix them together and put them in a casserole dish and sprinkle the rest of the parmesan cheese on top and cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.

    This is after one hour.

    Take the foil off and bake it another half hour until it is brown and crispy.

    Let it sit for a half hour or so before you cut it to let it set so it is easier to cut and get out of the casserole. There you go. Lovely side dish or vegetarian main dish.

    Well, this is it, week 23. Another CSA season in the books. Thanks for a great year. Maybe I’ll see some of you at the Winter CSA pickup, if not hopefully next year.

    Be well and happy.

    Mo

     

  • Celery Salad

    I love celery. I always, always have some in my refrigerator to add to just about every dish I make- salads, stir fry’s, soups, sandwich fillings…I love the crunchy slightly bitterness it adds to dishes.

    I also really like celery salads where celery is the main ingredient. I like crunchy salads like this as a side dish with soups, chili, egg dishes or just with some nice bread and cheese. Celery salads are a great addition to heavy holiday meals and travel and keep really well so they are great for potlucks.

    This is a clean out the refrigerator/use what you have type of dish for me usually. Today I had some celery, a watermelon radish, some blue cheese and walnuts. Almond and parmesan are one of my favorite combinations. Any cheese or nuts you have will do. You’ll probably want some sort of allium in your salad. I had some scallions that I used, any herbs are a nice addition too. I ended up adding some arugula. I had some walnut oil in my refrigerator and decided to use that. You can use any oil and any vinegar, don’t forget the salt and pepper! Whenever I am making an oil and vinegar based dressing I add just a little lemon. I find it balances out the one note tartness of the vinegar.

    You’ll want to wash and trim your celery. I use a really steep bias cut when I cut celery. That reduces the strings per bite and makes for more pleasant eating, I think.

    Cut up the rest of your salad ingredients.

    Put everything in a bowl.

    Dress it with some vinegar, oil and a squeeze of lemon and salt and pepper and mix it up.

    I use my clean hands.

    Now taste and adjust the seasonings and enjoy.

    If you have any leftover, celery salad makes the best avocado or cream cheese toast topping you’ve ever had.

     

    Have a great week. I am loving this Fall weather, see you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

  • Roasted Cauliflower

    Cauliflower is kind of like tofu and eggplant in the sense it is almost a blank slate. It soaks up any sauces or seasonings you add to it. You can blanch it or steam it (I love it steamed) or make it into a luscious creamy sauce.  Because it is really low in fiber it almost disappears when baked in a gratin or sauce.

    Roasted cauliflower should be barely browned with subtle crispy edges. It gets a slightly sweet-nutty flavor when it is roasted and is more firm than when it is steamed or braised in a sauce.  Roasted Cauliflower makes a simple versatile side dish as is  and is good either hot or room temperature.

    Let’s roast some cauliflower. Start by preheating your oven to 400F. If you don’t preheat the oven your cauliflower will steam and won’t brown so make sure your oven is all the way preheated.

    All you need is a cauliflower and some oil and salt.

    Wash your cauliflower and take off the dark green leaves.

    Turn it over and cut off the stem.

    Then cut out the core. Stick a paring knife on the side of the core at an angle and cut in a circle and the core will come right out.

    Now you can roast it whole. This makes a nice presentation for a fancy meal. Just put it on a sheet pan, (I like to use a baking mat or parchment paper so it doesn’t stick) in a preheated 400F oven and rub olive oil and salt on it and bake for 30-35 minutes until brown. This photo is showing it if I was going to roast it whole.

    Or you can break it into large chunks and roast it the same temperature and time. Try to keep the size of the chunks even to they cook evenly. I like to serve large chunks of roasted cauliflower like I would a roasted potato or with a rich sauce like hollandaise or Romesco.

    Here I’ve broken the cauliflower into small  florets and rubbed with salt and oil. Leave some room for air flow so the florets can brown. Small florets are nice in salads, a simple side dish, served with dips or my new favorite cauliflower tacos!

    Here it is done, about 35 minutes later.

    Simple and delicious.

    Have a great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo