I Love You More Than Food

Author: Caroline

  • BBQ’d Rosemary Chicken with Apple Rainbow Chard

    BBQ’d Rosemary Chicken with Apple Rainbow Chard

    For the BBQ:
    2 air chilled skinless chicken breasts (or whatever)
    3 large stalks fresh tender rosemary, washed
    balsamic vinegar
    olive oil
    salt & pepper

    Mince the rosemary, trim the chicken, mix the ingredients together and marinade at least 1 hour. BBQ on medium high heat, removing when just barely cooked through. Let rest 2 minutes before slicing.

    For the Chard:
    1 bunch mixed chard (I used red & white), stalks chopped and leaves chiffonade
    1/4-1/2 red bell pepper, diced
    1 small or medium apple, cubed
    salt & pepper, olive oil

    Sautee chard stalks in olive oil, salt,  pepper at medium heat.  until starting to be tender. Add the bell pepper, cooking a few minutes. When all is tender, reduce heat to medium low and add the leaves and apples, cook until well wilted.

  • BBQ’d Cilantro-Garlic Blue Gulf Shrimp + Asparagus Orzo

    BBQ’d Cilantro-Garlic Blue Gulf Shrimp + Asparagus Orzo

    Proportion for each serving of 6 shrimp:
    2T minced garlic
    3T olive oil
    2T lemon/lime juice
    1T minced cilantro
    salt & pepper

    Clean your shrimp by removing the vein which runs along the outer curve (this is its intestinal tract and its contents are gritty and gross to eat–so cut with a small knife along the top ridge, and then rinse under water to ensure it’s all gone, agitating with your fingers if necessary), then discard the shell or reserve to make some other project of yours.

    Adjust the ingredients above as you see fit, but this is a good starting point. Marinade the shrimp for 30 min-2 hr. More than that and the citrus will start cooking them significantly and you’ll end up with oily ceviche.

    Grill on high heat, turning towards the end of cooking so that you char a bit on one side. Watch them, they don’t take long. Serve with fresh lime.

    1/2 pack Eduardo’s Orzo (my favorite blue and clear packaged San Francisco stuff)
    Several stems asparagus
    red onion
    olive oil
    salt & pepper
    1/2 lemon

    Boil the orzo in salted water until tender. Meanwhile, lightly sautee (do not make soft) minced red onion in olive oil, salt, pepper. Add asparagus and cook at medium heat until soft and brightly colored. Add the cooked orzo, turning heat up. Adjust seasoning and add the juice of the lemon to taste.

  • Shallots, Bacon & Shrimp

    Shallots, Bacon & Shrimp

    This is pretty straight forward and is all about the farm fresh shallots I got in my last shipment, some quality pork belly, and some excellent blue mexican shrimp. For good measure I made some very, very simple farm carrots and asparagus.

  • 3 Impressive Crostinis: Carrot-Kaboucha, Beet Green & Red Onion, Artichoke & Bacon

    3 Impressive Crostinis: Carrot-Kaboucha, Beet Green & Red Onion, Artichoke & Bacon

    Carrot-Kaboucha Crostini
    4 large, fresh spring carrots
    1/2 kaboucha squash (1-1.5lb), roasted with olive oil at 350 until soft
    sesame seeds (or toasted sesame & salt mixture)
    2 T butter
    salt & pepper
    macadamia oil
    water

    You will need a food processor. Cut roughly your carrots and sautee with salt & pepper in 1T butter until soft and bright. Place into food processor. Add 1/2 C water and then 1/4 C water at a time as needed, and puree. Add 1-3 T macadamia oil to taste. Add 1 T sesame seed to taste. Blend and puree. Add liquid as needed keeping it as minimal as possible while achieving the smoothness. When smooth, add the kaboucha squash, and puree, adding water as needed. Adjust seasoning, add 1 T butter and puree, and you’re done.

    Beet Greens & Red Onion Crostini
    Optional: Add sheeps milk in a shaved slice on top, over the warm mixture.
    Greens and Stems from 2-3 fresh red beets, cleaned and seperated
    1 T butter
    1 large red onion
    2 T fresh parsley, minced
    salt & pepper

    In a non stick pan, sautee finely chopped beet stems until softened. Add thinly chopped red onion and sautee until soft. Add medium to fine chopped beet greens and cook until wilted and bright. Take off heat and add parsley. Serve with sheetps milk cheese (like pecorino) on top if you like.

    Artichoke & Bacon Crostini
    4 small to medium artichokes
    1/4-1/3 lb thick cut bacon (thick is important in this one)
    1/3 C sour cream
    3 T grated Parmesan or other grating cheese

    I used previously grilled artichokes for this, but you can use fresh ones. If you are using fresh ones, clean & trim the artichokes, and steam/simmer until tender. Remove the hearts and chop coursely but smaller than bite size.

    My artichokes were not fully cooked (hence why they survived the aftermath of the grill–I didn’t blanch them long enough before), so I removed the hearts, chopped them, and added them to a sautee pan with some water and steamed them for a bit.

    Add your artichokes to a pan and turn the heat to medium high. Add a touch of water and let it evaporate after a while. Add pepper. When water is evaporated, add bacon (cut it into small strips first). The thickness of the bacon is important in order to contrast with the artichoke size. Fry the artichokes with the bacon until all is colored and bacon is crispy. Remove with tons and place on paper towels and allow to drain a bit.

    Finely grate the cheese and mix it with the sour cream. Slowly incorporate the artichokes and bacon (after draining). It should be thoroughly coated without an excess of sour cream.

  • Quinoa with Asian Flank Steak, Bok Choy, Mushrooms & Ginger

    Quinoa with Asian Flank Steak, Bok Choy, Mushrooms & Ginger

    Quinoa
    1 C quinoa
    1 1/4 C water

    Wash quinoa with fine mesh strainer, then combine water and quinoa in a pan. Bring to boil, reduce to light simmer and add lid, cooking about 15 minutes until fluffy but not sticky.

    Asian Flank Steak (“Bulgogi light”)
    1.5 lb flank steak
    olive oil
    soy sauce
    whiskey or other spirit (tawny port, brandy, etc)
    6-10 garlic cloves
    crushed red pepper
    salt & pepper

    Combine enough of the above ingredients to cover the flank steak. Marinade at least 30 minutes, and up to 1.5 days. Toss it onto the grill and cook until medium, medium well. Cut counter-grain.

    Ginger Sesame Bok Choy & Mushrooms
    3-4 heads baby bok choy
    1 C mushrooms
    1 tsp ginger powder (to taste)
    salt & pepper
    toasted sesame-salt mixture
    butter

    In 1 T butter, heated and water gone, sautee sliced mushrooms until colored. Add ground sesame mixture generously, then additional pepper and touch of salt. Add ginger powder sprinkling as to not clump. Add bok choy stems, sliced moderate thinly. Cook until softened, add green part of bok choy. Cook until brightened, serve.

    Serves 3-4

    We had it with a cheap Cote du Rhone.

  • Dutch Baked Apple Pancake

    Dutch Baked Apple Pancake

    In the tradition of what American’s mispercieve as French souffle, this baked pancake could also be called domestically “souffle” though internationally I’d argue it’s not.

    I received a set of Penzey’s spices from my mother some time ago and have been slowly making my way through the spices. Since that time, they’ve sent me catalogs, which I am mostly uninterested in and ought to call and have myself removed as I do with everything else–but back to the point, this one had a recipe that looked good.

    As an aside, they carry much the same quality and even often from the same suppliers as The Spice House in Chicago, and in fact, the families behind each are closely related (brothers) and it’s some sort of feud that causes them to have seperate and competing businesses. I’d recommend either for a variety of reasons, for online ordering.

    Back to the point: There was an eye catching recipe for an apple pancake using their “cinnamon sugar” mixture (it’s the lazy man’s mixtures that turn me off from Penzey’s as a serious cook), and I do have a ton of apples left from my Farm Fresh to You shipment, so I figured hey, why not?

    I used half the recipe but the full amount of milk, and made a few adjustments such as making my own cinnamon heavy “cinnamon sugar”, using more vanilla extract than required, and per usual using organic free range blah blah everything. It does taste better to do so, though, most of the time if not for anything else but the care and quality put into it vs mass produce. Half the recipe served 2 of us with nothing else for breakfast, I think this would be a great brunch dish to have a small slice of.

    I baked it in a springform pan as we all know about my limited space and I haven’t room to stock both a pie pan and a springform.

    Instead of syrup as the recipe suggests, I’d top it with powdered sugar.

  • Broccoli Soup with Lemon Cream (adapted from Orangette)

    Broccoli Soup with Lemon Cream (adapted from Orangette)

    Adapting a recipe from Orangette, I wanted to use up a few things from last week’s produce shipment in a soup and created this broccoli soup.

    1 lb broccoli
    1 qt stock (I use low sodium chicken stock in the paper containers, ideally would make it myself)
    1/2 preserved lemon (can sub fresh lemon, check Orangette’s recipe)
    1 red onion
    sour cream
    garlic
    Parmesan & Parmesan rind
    butter
    olive oil
    salt & pepper

    Wash & chop coursley your broccoli. Meanwhile, heat in a soup pot 1T butter and 1T olive oil. Dice your red onion roughly. Add the red onion to the medium heated oil.

    When translucent but not caramelized, add the garlic (5 cloves roughly), cooking for 2 minutes. Add the broccoli, parmesan rind, and the stock.  Bring to heavy simmer, reduce to light simmer, partially cover.

    Clean & chop your chives, and finely mince additional garlic (2-4 cloves). Mix sour cream with chives, garlic, and several T of finely grated parmesan, with a twist of salt & pepper. Mince finely some preserved lemon (I made preserved meyer lemons in salt & lemon juice very simply this past fall, and this was the first time I had the delight of using them). Use a generous amount but check the taste as you add.

    When broccoli is cooked through but not gray, use a blender or food processor to puree the soup in batches not overloading the device. Mix in roughly half the sour cream mixture, and serve with a bit on top.

  • Sweet Pea Greens

    Sweet Pea Greens

  • Roasted Indian Potatoes & Roots

    Roasted Indian Potatoes & Roots

    We needed a side dish so I sliced and blanched fingerlings & peruvian potatoes, adding fresh carrot chunks towards the end, then tossed them in Chaat Masala spice mixture (dried mango, etc) with some salt & pepper, olive oil, lemon juice. They went under the broiler until they had a light crust.

  • JP Seafood: Hamachi & Grouper on the Grill with Artichokes

    JP Seafood: Hamachi & Grouper on the Grill with Artichokes

    Last weekend I went to visit my favorite fishmonger and life enthusiast Joey at JP Seafood. He sent me home with some gorgeous grouper filet and a beautiful cut of hamachi (yellowfin, sushi grade).

    I am no sushi chef so I threw them both on the grill with very little fuss and cut up some lemons. The grouper was flavorful and buttery, the hamachi was butter soft and deserved a nice salad with a miso dressing or a glaze which I didn’t manage to put together.

    I cut the artichokes I received in my produce shipment a week or two before, blanched them well in boiling water, sliced them in half and threw them on the grill too. I made some skewers of red onion (also from the shipment) and red bell pepper as well as some mushrooms and we made a feast, celebrating the return of grill season.