I Love You More Than Food

Category: vegetables & hot greens

Halibut Belly with Ramp Vegetable Hash

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I made a pilgrimage to Rainbow Grocery over the weekend and scored some fiddlehead ferns, raw chocolate and among other things ramps. I spent most of the day thinking up how I should use said ingredients, with ramps and fiddleheads being new to my kitchen–I searched around and figured out the jist of what I intend to do (fish with ramps), but made my way to the grocery to pick up some fish to top it all off.

I was hunting for halibut cheeks, and while my fishmonger didn’t have any for me, he did offer up the halibut’s belly (he disappeared into a walk in fridge and came out with the collar of the fish, and proceeded to slice a beautiful filet off for me) and I did take 3 oz of it home for just $0.58. “Fish Scraps for Stock,” it was labeled. Thanks, fishmonger!

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Recipe: Halibut Belly with Ramp Vegetable Hash
10 minutes prep / 10 minutes cook
Serves 2

6 oz (for two) halibut belly or cheeks
12 thin spears of asparagus, chopped to 1/4 inch or less
2 oz pancetta, cubed
3 oz fresh cleaned ramps, sliced finely, greens set aside
1/2 C farro or other grain, cooked
1/2 C white wine

In a skillet at medium heat fry the pancetta. When browned, add the asparagus and cook until almost tender. Add the ramp whites, and salt, cook until slightly browned. Add farro and ramp greens, cook until wilted and hot.

Meanwhile, in a skillet at high heat, fry the salted & peppered halibut belly in a small amount of oil, turning when brown. If sticking, deglaze with white wine, and then flip over.

Assemble and enjoy!

Notes
– You can replace the farro with: wheat berries, wild rice, kamut, barley or other whole grain or omit it entirely
– You may substitute for the ramps: shallots, spring onions, or leeks
– If you omit the pancetta, be sure to add some olive or walnut oil

April 25, 2011
Heirloom Beans with Spinach & Pork Belly

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An easy weeknight meal, greens and beans make a healthy, nicely balanced snack or meal. You can always add more meat or greens to suit your taste & dietary needs.[/donotprint]

Vallarta Beans from Rancho Gordo (or other small-medium size firm bean)

2 Cups spinach per serving

1 inch cube smoked pancetta per serving, diced (can use regular pancetta too)

Prep the beans by soaking for 6-8 hours in room temperature water. Strain and put the beans in a large pot, cover with 3 inches of water and simmer for 1-2 hours; do not boil, do not let the pot run dry. Strain and you can reserve for up to a week in the refrigerator.Â Use 1/2 cup cooked beans per serving.

Fry the pancetta in a medium hot pan; when beginning to brown add the beans and cook until hot. Add the spinach and cook until wilted; serve.

April 10, 2011
Easy Sunday Brunch

No-stress Sunday Brunch

– Almond Beignets using Cafe du Monde mix and adding 1 tsp almond extract

– Baked eggs in dandelion greens & collards with nutmeg & cream (modified from smitten kitchen)

– Arugula salad with yogurt-citrus dressing, cara cara oranges, watermelon radish & ruby grapefruit

– Butternut squash-lentil hash with goat cheese (make ahead)

– Lots and lots of mimosas

– A bit of coffee to straighten up

January 18, 2011
White Lasagna with Kale, Sausage, & Sweet Potatoes

For the lasagna assembly:
1 pack no-boil lasagna sheets (GASP, a shortcut!)
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
2 lbs kale (mixed is OK), blanched, drained, and chopped finely
1 lb sweet italian sausage, no casing, pan fried and set aside
2 large leeks sliced thinly and cooked at medium low heat in fat from sausage

Bechamel sauce for white lasagna

8T butter
1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove fresh garlic
3 3/4 C milk
1 C chicken or vegetable stock
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 C marsala
1 C mixed grated cheese such as parmesan, pecorino, fontina, gruyere
salt & pepper

Melt the butter. Once it reduces spitting/bubbling, add flour and whisk, cooking for 3 minutes at medium heat. Slowly add the milk and the stock, raising heat to high. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until sauce coats the back of a spoon. Set aside to cool until warm to touch.

Once warm to touch, add the beaten eggs, 1/2 C marsala, 1/2 C of cheese and salt & pepper to taste.

Assemble the lasagna

Preheat oven to 375. Pour a thin layer of bechamel sauce on the bottom of your lasagna pan (preferably 8×10 or something similar/bigger), add two layers of lasagne sheets. Spread the sausage evenly, add salt & pepper, and cover with more sauce.

Add another 2 layers of lasagna sheets, next adding the kale. Top with salt & pepper, sauce, and more lasagna sheets.

Add a thin layer of leeks, and then as if making a gratin spread the sweet potato slices in a single overlapping layer.

Add more salt & pepper, sauce, and the final layer of lasagna sheets. Top with sauce and remaining cheese.Â Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour.

January 4, 2011
Birthday Dinner: Crab Bisque & Filet Mignon w/ Bernaise + Sweet Potato/Chard Gratin

I hosted 8 (including myself) for dinner on Friday to celebrate my gentleman’s birthday; it was lively all night, everybody got full and we washed about 25 wine glasses. We drank champagne, prosecco, sparkling wine from california; we drank mouvedre from Chateau Margene, cuvee from Beckmen, a roussane blend from Tablas Creek–we had delicious wine, and the food came out great.

Recipes to follow in the next day or two. I wish I’d taken a photo of the refuse after making the crab stock, it was a pretty mess in my backyard compost container.

December 13, 2010
St. Louis Style Cannelloni with Pork, Ricotta, & Chard

This recipe will feed about 4 people with a side dish or 3 hungry people without one. It helps to have a food processor available.

Filling
2/3 lb spicy or sweet Italian pork sausage, out of casing
3 cups chopped chard and/or spinach
1 cup ricotta cheese (preferably sheep’s ricotta)
1/2 yellow or white onion, diced

Cook the sausage in a medium high heat skillet in a little chunks, seperating with your fingers, until brown on one side. Add the onions, and cook until mostly tender. Add the chard/spinich, and cook briefly until wilted. Allow mixture to cool slightly in pan or in thin metal bowl, and if you have one, use a food processor to make the mixture more even/fine. Once cooled to room temperature or close to it, add the ricotta and stir until blended. Adjust seasoning.

Red Sauce
1 container chopped or strained tomatoes (I used a carton of POMI)
1 stick butter
1/2 onion, peeled and intact

Combine all ingredients in sauce pan and simmer until delicious. Add salt. About 30 minutes. Can make ahead.

White Sauce
1 T butter
2 T flour
1-2 cups milk
salt & pepper
1/2 tsp thyme or 2 tsp fresh thyme chopped

Melt the butter until the water content has fizzled off, add the flour and whisk, cooking about 1 min until slightly darker. Slowly add milk until you have a nice, somewhat thick consistency sauce. Set aside. You’ll be reheating this shortly and possibly adding more milk to pour over the cannelloni.

Pasta
2 eggs
00 white wheat flour if possible
0 semola / semolina flour

Use this recipe and roll out as thin as possible into sheets, cutting into strips about 10 inches long by 4 inches wide, roughly. It is ok if the sheets vary in size, so long as they’ll roll into a cannelloni giving it a few layers around. Boil water, add salt, and one at a time blanch the strips for 30 seconds or so, until they toughen up a bit. Remove, set on paper towels flat, not touching other pasta, in layers, to reserve for use.

Alternatively you can buy cannelloni tubes from the grocery or lasagna sheets without the ruffles.

Assembly

Put a thin layer of red sauce in your baking/casserole dish to prevent pasta from sticking to bottom. Roll several spoonfuls of filling into each pasta sheet, placing each closely against the next in the dish. Once finished, top with red sauce thoroughly, then white sauce. Top with grated parmesan or asiago, bake at 375 for 25 minutes until golden and beautiful on top.

December 3, 2010
Fried Chicken on Fresh Corn, English Peas, and Kale; Plum Ice Cream

Yesterday we had some new friends over for dinner, and I planned the menu while starving after my morning yoga class. I resurrected the tomato soup (tomato soup recipe) I always make (but haven’t for about a year), took a hint from a restaurant we went to recently and constructed a fried-chicken breast nuggets dish on fresh corn, English peas, and kale. I already had the peas and corn from my farm shipment and wanted to make sure they didn’t go to waste.

Fried Chicken Breast Nuggets on Kale, Fresh Corn, and Fresh English Peas

3 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 bunches kale
4 ears corn
1/2 lb fresh English peas in pods
Sunflower, avocado, or peanut oil enough to fry in a large, high sided skillet, about 2 cups or more
2 T butter

For Chicken Coating:
1 C flour, set aside

For Chicken Batter:
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 egg whites (can use whole eggs if you prefer)
1/2 cup milk

Frying the chicken:
Cut the breasts into a few different sized chunks in order for the chicken to cook evenly by being fried. None are larger than 1.5 inches thick, 2 inches long, 2 inches wide.

Heat oil at least 1 inch deep in a large high sided skillet; do not fill the skillet more than half way. It should be about 375 degrees; if you don’t have a thermometer (I don’t), test it with a bit of batter.

Generously salt & pepper two sides of the chicken pieces, and coat in flour. Dip into the egg mixture/batter, then back in the flour, placing within a few minutes into the hot oil.

I fried the chicken in 3 batches in a 10 inch skillet to not over crowd.

Chicken will become golden and firm when poked, flip it only once and remove and place on a rack or paper towels to drain. If desired, sprinkle with sea/kosher salt at this point.

The vegetables:
Ahead of time, wash and cut your kale–remove the thick stem, cut into 1 inch pieces. Boil some water, add salt when boiling and blanch the kale for a few minutes until deep green and tender. Drain and set aside.

Wash the corn and cut it off the cob, remove the peas from their shells.

While the oil for the chicken is heating, heat the butter in a skillet. When hot, add the corn and some salt, and continue stirring or flipping until 1/3 is golden/gaining color. Add the fresh peas and cook a few more minutes as the chicken finishes its last batch of frying.

Assemble by placing the hot corn mixture on the plate or bowl, adding the kale and topping with the fried chicken.

Plum Ice Cream:

A friend and coworker gave me some delicious, overly ripe plums last Wednesday, so I made plum preserves of the immediately with very little sugar so they retained their color and tartness; I left them in as large of chunks as was possible and canned up two small jars. They came into play when I decided to make a delicious, custard-y vanilla ice cream and swirl them in.

Adapted from David Lebovitz

3/4 Cup milk
1/2 Cup granulated sugar
2 T brown sugar
pinch salt
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 plump, full size vanilla bean
1/3 cup plum preserves

Heat the milk, salt, and sugars in a saucepan over low heat until sugars combine and milk is beginning to look granulated/clear. While milk is warming, scrape the vanilla bean seeds out of the pod and add it to the milk, and add the pod itself too.

Whisk lightly the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add warm milk to temper/warm the egg yolks. Once warmed, pour the egg yolks into the sauce pan with the milk and stir well as you do so to prevent coddling.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a spatula until custard is thick enough to coat the spatula. Strain the mixture into the cold heavy cream, wrinsing the vanilla bean pod and adding it back in again. Chill thoroughly and then follow your ice cream maker’s instructions, adding the preserves when the ice cream is fairly thickened, almost done.

Plum preserves recipe: Wash, then cut plums into halves or quarters if they are still very firm, place in a pot, cover with about 1/8th to 1/6th the volume in sugar, the juice of a lemon or lime or more for a great quantity, and bring to a boil; immediately reduce to a simmer for just a couple of minutes, turn off, and can.

July 25, 2010
Filet Mignon with Port Reduction & Golden Chard with Pancetta & Pears

This is a meal to be shared by two people, heavy on the greens, lighter on the wallet than would be otherwise. Last night we were both exhausted and wanted to eat at home (mostly for economical reasons) but I really wanted a great Friday night date dinner, so we grabbed a filet from Andronico’s (love/hate) as well as a bottle of Tablas Creek‘s (Sister winery to France’s ChÃ¢teau de Beaucastel) Cote de Tablas red rhone style and went to work at home..

1 filet mignon ~ .5 lb
1 large shallot
1/2 comice pear (or other pear)
1-2 T very cold butter
1/2 C ruby port or dry red wine – sherry would probably be OK too
1 bunch golden chard
1 slice pancetta, 1/4 inch thick
olive oil, salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Wash chard, cut stems away, slice stems into small peices and set aside, slice greens into large strips, set aside seperately. Dice the pancetta by unwinding it, and slicing it in half lengthwise, then cutting into bits on the short end. Place the pancetta & the chard stems into a hot nonstick skillet, adding salt & pepper.

Bring a small, high sided pan (oven safe) to just high heat, adding a few T of olive oil. Add the salt & peppered steak, allowing to color. Once colored, flip over. Once colored again, put the pan in the oven until desired doneness (4-8 minutes). Do not allow the olive oil to smoke while on the range.

Tossing the chard mixture frequently, once stems are nearly softened, add the pear in cubes. When the pear has colored, add the greens and cook until wilted and bright. Check seasoning and adjust.

Take your steak out of the oven and place it on a cutting board to rest, placing the pan with drippings back onto the range at high heat. Add your shallot, minced, and cook until translucent. Add salt & pepper, and the port/wine. Reduce until astringent alcohol smell is gone, take off the heat and sit 1 minute. Add very cold butter and stir vigorously until melted.

Slice steak and serve sauce over it with the greens on the side.

January 17, 2009