Leftovers That Became a Tradition

Dinner started as tofu with a dipping sauce and Millet with Summer Vegetables (p. 239) from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen Cookbook. The next day, it turned out to be something spectacular. So wonderful that our six-year-old asked what date it was.

"August 2nd."
"OK. So, every August 2nd we are going to eat this."
"You only want to eat this once a year?"
"Oh, yes! Every year on August 2nd we should celebrate and eat this."
Tradi-TIOOOOOON! Tra-DI-tion!

Here's what we did. It's a bit different than the recipe, but has the same idea.

Dinner One, Millet Pilaf:
Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes 1.5 cups washed millet in 3 cups water with salt.
Dice or chop 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 cloves garlic and sautee. Add kernels from 3 ears corn, and 2 cups chopped zucchini. When the vegetables are slightly cooked, just warmed through, add millet, a bit of olive oil, too much dill, scallions, parsley, salt and pepper. Serves 4 for 2-3 meals.

Dinner Two, Better-than-Pizza:
Brown ground meat, add millet pilaf and a can of drained, diced tomatoes. When warmed through, top with mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes, and green scallions. Broil until the cheese starts to brown. Deeelish! We still have leftovers from dinner one, and will be making dinner two again as soon as we purchase more mozzarella!

Kale chips.

In our CSA this week, we got 3 bags of fruit & veg. First thoughts? What are we going to do with all of this kale that we're not going to do with all this Swiss chard??

My sister once recommended making kale chips. So, I gave that a try. They were delicious & crunchy & a little salty! All things that I like. The only drawback is that the stalk is still a little chewy after drying.

Here's what I did:

Lay kale on a sheet pan & spray with olive oil/Pam. Sprinkle a little salt over the kale. Bake in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes.

& voila! You have kale chips. Yummy, nutritious, & good for hand-to-mouth repetitions while watching TV/baseball.

Edit: I was just advised to try Indian spices with these. My friend Jaime makes them all of the time!!

Spring meal: White pizza with ramps & strawberry salad.

From our CSA this week, we received more flavorful salad greens, mustard greens, 2 pints of strawberries, & a bunch of radishes. We hadn't even finished our first set of salad greens yet! Plus, we've had 3 weeks of strawberries. PLUS! We've still have copious amounts of ramps & scallions. What to do!!

So, tonight I made a white pizza with ramps & a strawberry salad. It was a very nice balanced meal. PLUS!! We had a nice white wine with the meal.

Nice.

Just a warning - don't be afraid of the number of ramps. Ramps are much mellower than garlic or scallions/leeks. Don't fear the ramps!


Here's the basic recipe:

White pizza with ramps
10 ramps
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 or 3/4 cup shredded Italian cheese (we used Sargento's reduced fat Italian blend)
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
2-3 tablespoons dried basil (or a handful of fresh basil)
1-2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tomato, diced
1 pizza crust

So, I did a dirty, clever trick with the tomato. I purchased an heirloom tomato from the crappy Giant near me (not the super nice Giant). Mostly, heirloom tomatoes have tons of tomato flavor, which is indicated by their scent & their minimal travel time. However, I screwed up & chose a random heirloom without a good scent that traveled from Canada. After I chopped the tomato, I sprinkled it with a very small amount of sugar & a ton of basil. Then, it tasted more tomatoey. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than tasting like water.

Basically, the pizza crust is topped with ricotta cheese, then 1/2 of the ramps, the seasonings, then the tomatoes, then the shredded cheese. (Jeff says that you can cook all of the ramps in the pizza. I liked a few of them raw on top. But taste a raw ramp & choose your own adventure!) Sprinkle the top with the parmesan. Also, I brushed the exposed crust with some olive oil & sprinkled with some parmesan.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Top the pizza with the rest of the ramps & (if you're feeling feisty, some fresh arugula leaves).

Enjoy with a nice white wine, such as a 2007 Cascina del Pozzo Arneis Roero (Italian white table wine - cheap!). Also, make a nice green salad & top with sliced strawberries & balsamic vinaigrette.

AWESOME!! & very Spring-y!


Aside: Ramps are SUPER ULTRA good pan-fried with potatoes. Just add the ramps near the end of the cooking. Nice onion/garlic flavor with potatoes - very good!!

Berry Crisp

Note: This week from the CSA, I got a 12 oz jar of wing sauce, a quart of strawberries, MANY ramps, a big bag of strange lettuces (e.g. spicy, flowering, purple, green, etc), & a spice container. The following recipe uses the strawberries, but we found that ramps do very well with pan-fried potatoes.

I read EatingWell's Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp, but I haven't seen any rhubarb at the Farmer's Market yet. Instead, I made a strawberry cherry crisp & modified the recipe a bit.

Keri's Strawberry Cherry Crisp

Filling:
1 lemon
1 pint of strawberries, cored & sliced
10 oz. bag frozen cherries
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour or corn starch (I used Jules' Gluten-free flour)

Crisp:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (I used Jules' Gluten-free flour)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon canola oil
1-3 tablespoon juice

Preheat oven to 375°F. Toss together fruit, sugar, and 2 tablespoons of flour/corn starch in a large bowl. Juice lemon over fruit mixture. Then, zest 1/2 of the lemon over fruit mixture. Transfer the mixture to a shallow 1 1/2-quart baking dish or deep-dish 9-inch pie plate, pressing down on the fruit to form an even layer.

To make crumble topping: Combine oats, 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, butter and oil in a bowl; work the ingredients together with a fork or your fingers until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the juice until the mixture is evenly moistened.

Distribute the topping mixture evenly over the fruit. Bake until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden, 35 to 40 minutes.

DELICIOUS! 5/5 stars!!

Ramp pesto.

Behold, my first CSA delivery. Pardon the mess in the picture. It was hard to get everything in the picture! What you see is:

2 strawberry plants (June bearing, I believe)
10 very large scallions
2 bunches ramps
1 large jar of homemade pasta sauce
1 small jar of peach jam
1 small basil plant
1 small parsley plant

First thing that I thought of - What the heck do I do with RAMPS? My first attempt - mixed into a salmon souffle - did not yield a ramptastic meal. It was good, but it didn't highlight the ramps enough.

Tonight, I made ramp pesto. It was great! 4 out of 5 stars!

Ramp pesto
1 bunch ramps
2/3 cup parmiggiano-reggiano cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
4 oz pinenuts
large bunch parsley

Process everything in a food processor.

I cubed 1 large, flavorful heirloom tomato, zested 1/2 lemon, chopped cooked chicken, sprinkled a little crushed red pepper, & put that over my pasta with pesto. It was delicious!

The ramps added a very nice garlic flavor without being overbearing. Most pestos start with a nice garlic flavor & feel like a kick in the teeth after 4 bites. This was a nice mellow flavor that slightly intensified by the end.

If you make it, I hope you enjoy!!

First try: Ravioli

Keri here again with a recipe using my brand new pasta maker! I haven't seen gluten-free raviolis yet... Plus, I doubt that they'll ever have pumpkin, butternut squash, or more creative fillings until many years in the future. This year, the man surprised me with a pasta maker to allow me to create pirogies, raviolis, flavored pastas, etc. Let the creativity begin!

We figured that I'd start with something rather basic for my first ravioli recipe. Now, I want to warn you: This isn't an amazing recipe. It's a first try at making homemade ravioli. It was pretty good, but there's room for improvement.

Firstly, the ravioli filling needs to be almost overwhelmingly flavorful. It needs to be able to stand up to the pasta dough - even though the dough is rolled thin.

Secondly, the dough needed to be rolled with a rolling pin prior to going through the pasta maker. Otherwise, the pasta maker couldn't catch the dough.

After that preface, here are my recipes:

Gluten-free pasta dough

I used Mario Batali's Fresh Pasta recipe as a base. For those of you not doing a gluten-free pasta, feel free to use his instead of mine.

4 eggs
3 1/2 cups Jules' Gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup water (more or less)

Mound the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour, add the eggs. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well. As you incorporate the eggs, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape.

Start kneading the dough with both hands, primarily using the palms of your hands. If the dough has trouble coming together, add 1/4 cup water. Keep adding water until it becomes a cohesive mass. Gluten-free flour tends to be thirsty, but be sparing after the first 1/4 cup of water. If you overdo it, the pasta maker will shred the dough into little pieces. (Hint: If this happens - just add a little more flour, knead again, & re-roll.)

Remove the dough from the board and scrape up any left over dry bits. Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Continue to knead for another 3 minutes, remembering to dust your board with flour when necessary. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes at room temperature. (Hint: Keep most of the dough wrapped until needed.)

Roll 1/4 of the dough with rolling pin until 1/4-1/8 inch thin. Feed through pasta roller at largest setting. Then, feed through pasta roller at the ravioli setting. Cut sheet into large rounds. Add a very small dollop of ravioli into the center of a round. Wet the outer edge of the round. Top with another round & press down gently to seal. You can use a fork to flute the edges if you're feeling crafty. (Hint: If the dough tears, use a dough "band-aid." Wet a small bit of dough, & gently press into the tear. Boiling the pasta makes most of these look fairly normal. Plus, there's sauce, right??)

When done with the prep work, boil the raviolis until they float. Top with sauce, & Done!!


Ravioli filling
1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
8 leaves fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons olive tapenade (optional)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Cook pork on stove top until browned. Remove from heat, & place pork into large mixing bowl. Add ricotta, basil, seasoning, & tapenade. Taste. Add salt & pepper. Add more flavorings as needed. If you need, add other/more seasonings - Remember: It should be almost overwhelmingly flavorful.

Sauce

1/4 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
1/4 cup diced roasted red peppers plus 1 teaspoon liquid from jar
2 tablespoons finely chopped sundried tomatoes plus 1 tablespoon oil from jar
3 leaves fresh basil, chopped

Mix all ingredients. Taste. Add salt/pepper. Done!

Food & Wine Steak with Herb Nut Salsa

Tonight, the man & I had steak with an herb nut salsa. The recipe came with our Food & Wine Adventurer Club wine shipment.

Aside: Food & Wine introduced two wine clubs last Fall/Winter: a collector edition & an adventurer edition. They ship us 6 bottles with a recipe booklet that pairs each wine with a primary recipe (& 3 alternates). Some wineries also do the same, which is pretty awesome.

The wine was really good for a cheapy wine, & it paired really well with the recipe. Good job, Food & Wine!!

Wine: Domaine de Baumard - Logis de la Giraudière - 2005. Fancy name for a red table wine... but it is really nice. Don't pay over $20 for it. Rating: 3.5/5

Recipe: Hanger Steak with Herb Nut Salsa Rating: 3.5/5

The salsa was salty herby goodness - So, I made very simple sides: roasted potatoes & onions with very little salt & some pepper and halved grape tomatoes with leftover herbs, basil, & shallot. Both cleansed the palate nicely after bites of the steak/salsa & sips of the wine. We made a few minor modifications: no tarragon, no chervil, anchovy paste in lieu of anchovies, less oil.

Also, ignore the recipe's note about 12 minutes for toasting the hazelnuts. Toast until fragrant, & don't wander away. Otherwise, it's a mad dash to open the door, turn on the fan, & cover the smoke detector.

Overall, the dish was very good together. We will probably make this again when the vegetable & herb garden is in full force. I recommend the wine & recipe together as a semi-fancy meal.