Re: Using up the patio garden...

I like my tomatillo salsa (salsa verde for those of you out there)

8-10 fresh tomatillos (approx. 1 1lb)
1/2 onion (white works best)
2-3 serrano chiles
2-3 cloves garlic
lime juice, salt and pepper to taste

Roast the tomatillos and chiles under a broiler, about 10 minutes (turn over halfway through), making sure to reserve the liquid from the roasting. Dice the onion and either press or mince the garlic. Put it all together in a food processor (preferred) or blender and process to your desired texture. Add salt, pepper and lime juice to taste. This, too, stands up to a day or so of melding.
(loosely adapted from Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen)

-Joanna

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Michelle Bowman <ishellb@dishmail.net> wrote:

What to do, what to do, with all those tomatoes, banana peppers and soon to come red peppers? 

 

Duh.

 

Salsa, anyone?

 

Will be making a variation of the Mango Salsa recipe given to me by a friend.

 

·         1 chopped mango

·         1 chopped avocado

·         1 finely diced onion

·         1 handful of cilantro, send through the food processor (to taste. I find it a little overwhelming)

·         ½ of the juice of 1 lime

 

I've heard it works best to let this sit over night in the fridge, to allow the flavor to really come together.

 

I am a salsa newbie, so always looking for suggestions. Please share!

 

Michelle

Using up the patio garden...

What to do, what to do, with all those tomatoes, banana peppers and soon to come red peppers? 

 

Duh.

 

Salsa, anyone?

 

Will be making a variation of the Mango Salsa recipe given to me by a friend.

 

·         1 chopped mango

·         1 chopped avocado

·         1 finely diced onion

·         1 handful of cilantro, send through the food processor (to taste. I find it a little overwhelming)

·         ½ of the juice of 1 lime

 

I’ve heard it works best to let this sit over night in the fridge, to allow the flavor to really come together.

 

I am a salsa newbie, so always looking for suggestions. Please share!

 

Michelle

Green Beans, Sweet Potato and Bacon...

Wow. So delicious.

 

Growing up, my Mom would make a quick and easy (cheap) concoction out of fresh-picked green beans, cubed ham, and cubed potatoes. All of it would go into a pot, and boil. The ham had so much flavor, and seasoned the beans and potatoes to deliciousness.

 

This week’s CSA share was pretty diverse, but I was so excited to see green beans. I love them, but usually must make do with frozen. These, however, were fresh, and delicious. I haven’t bought a potato in months, but of course, I had sweet potatoes on hand. Why not give it a go? And bacon – not store bought either. But from a hog that my parents had purchased from our local friend and hog farmer, then butchered locally.

 

The result?

 

A delicious, sweet meal, that ensures the beans won’t go bad in my fridge, and another tasty way to make sweet potatoes.

 

I’m still working on making sure my CSA share doesn’t go to waste – it’s a learning process, for sure.

 

More to come.

 

Michelle

 

RECIPE (if you can call it that)

 

1 medium sized sweet potato, cubed

4-6 slices of bacon, chopped (ham is delicious as well!)

Green beans. This quantity is really more of whatever looks like the tastiest ratio.

 

Put all ingredients, including a little salt and pepper,  into a pot with about a cup of water. Set on low heat, and cover. Watch it for about a half hour, stirring occasionally. I had to eyeball the water quantity.

 

Enjoy!

Fabulous Friendy Waggs Shares a Beet Recipe

A little beet jem from my fabulous friend (from Philly!) Christine. I am hoping to find a yogurt substitute to try this baby out!!! Will keep you posted, of course.

 

 

Beet recipe:

 

3 or 4 large beets, trimmed and well scrubbed.

garlicy yogurt (1/4 cup)

fresh chives (1/8 cup)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon dill

 

1. Boil the beats in water until tender (about 30 minutes)

2. Drain and let cool.

3. Peel the beets. If you don't feel like it, that's okay.. you can eat the skin.

4. chop into bite size pieces

5. toss with garlicy yogurt, lemon juice, dill and chives.

6. serve chilled.

 

I made this a few days ago and it actually turned out pretty good!

 

Garlic Scape Pesto with Quinoa Pasta

Yes yes... its been almost 2 months since my last post. I think I might have gotten burned out on cooking (easy to do w/ a small kitchen, no dishwasher, and at times little patience). After sending a CSA recipe (which included the week's food offerings) to Miss Christine Waggener, she sent back a quick, easy, and delicious recipe for garlic scape pesto. Before I got sick, I didn't even know what a flippin' scape was, so that has been a tasty, educational experience. 

I opted to not include the Parmesan cheese, even though Woodman's does carry a tofu version. Also, I did not have the 1 cup of scapes the recipe calls for, so I did with what I had - and it was really amazing. I liked that I didn't have to go out and buy a bunch of stuff to make it, prep was simple, and it made my apartment smell (as Christine notes below) like baking lasagna.

I had been wanting to try quinoa pasta. I really am not a big fan of the quinoa flour (it has a rather strong smell which seems to stick around after baking w/ it). Brown rice gets to be a little old after awhile, so I am happy to report that the quinoa pasta I bought at the coop was really delicious and easier to make than some of the other gf pastas.

So... here you go.

Garlic Scape Pesto:

Preheat oven to 400

about 1 cup of chopped garlic scapes

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

olive oil

salt and pepper

tomato sauce (plain or jarred pasta sauce)

mozzarella cheese (1/4 - 1/2 cup optional) you could substitute tofu or dairy free cheese for this) - you can omit this if necessary

Optional: a little bit of thyme, oregano, basil, whatever else you would put in Italian food.

Throw the garlic scape, walnuts, parm cheese, salt and pepper into a food processor and process until smooth-ish. add the olive oil in a stream while its being processed (maybe about 1 - 2 tablespoons.

Take it out and put it in a small casserole dish. mix about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and the mozz cheese or tofu. you can add more or less to get the consistency that you want.

Bake it for about 40-50 minutes. take it out half-way through and mix it up. You want the garlic to cook thoroughly otherwise it will taste like a whole crapload of raw garlic.

The olive oil will sizzle and bubble a little in the oven so leave some room between the top of the dish and the pesto. Don't need to cover it though.

But no seriously, its pretty good, just put it on pasta like a sauce or rice or in a sandwich wrap. It makes a lot but you can freeze it for later. it smells like lasagna when its cooking.

If its still too garlicy you can add more tomato sauce later...

Mushroom Garlic Burgers

I bought a pound of 90/10 grass-fed hamburger at Willy Street a few days ago. Really didn’t have a plan for it at the time. But, needing to use up some mushrooms, these burgers were AMAZING.

•  1 medium glove of garlic, pressed or minced
• 6 (more or less) button mushroom caps
• GF soy sauce to taste
• 2 tablespoons GF bread crumbs (Glutinos is what I use)
• season salt (mine is Tastefully Simple)
• 1 lb 90/10 grass-fed hamburger

Taking the garlic and mushroom caps, I pulsed them on my food processor. Then, I added the soy sauce, bread crumbs and season salt. Adding this mixture to the hamburger, I kneaded all the ingredients together.

Onto the grill they went, to medium-rare perfection.

They were wonderful! I totally made this one up as I went, so I’m happy at how well they turned out. They were a great compliment to the grilled asparagus with lemon. Some swiss and a hamburger bun would have been nice, but certainly not necessary. In hindsight, I would have added onion to the mix, but maybe next time. J

Dessert was a few bites of the amazing rhubarb  sauce I got from the market this past Saturday.

Ciao for Now!

Micha

Christine's Favorite Asparagus Recipe...

As promised last week Detroit/Chicago/Philly Christine’s Fabulous Asparagus Recipe, on the grill.

Anyway - here's my favorite ASPARAGUS recipe.

like 1/2 pound asparagus fresh, cut the white ends off

olive oil (about 1 or 2 tbsp to your liking)

kosher salt and garlic powder (or combined garlic salt)

fresh ground pepper

lemon juice

heat oven to like 425 or so... (all my recipes are fly by the seat of your pants... and come from experimenting, so its not really an exact science)....

use a baking sheet and throw some tin foil down so your sheet doesn't get gooped up with olive oil

toss the asparagus in olive oil, however much you want... more will probably give you a sweeter/fattier flavor if you are craving those things

then toss with some lemon juice, maybe about 1 tbsp...

the sprinkle with the salt, garlic and pepper...

bake for about 20 minutes if you like them softer (which makes them less-veggie like)... or maybe 15 minutes if you like the more al dente. either way, you want to get them browned / maybe a little bit blackened so they take on that roasted/charcoaled flavor, which also brings out the sweetness in the veggies. the leafy tips should be crispy....