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.

1 pork tenderloin
herbs de provence
olive oil
coarse sea salt
cracked pepper
1/4 C whiskey, brandy, or other liquor
1 bunch collard greens
deli/rustic mustard
dry mustard powder
cider vinegar
macadamia or olive oil
1/4 C walnuts
home made apple sauce or chunky store bought

Heat oven to 350. After trimming,coat tenderloin in olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and generous herbs de provence. Roast for 20-30 minutes or until firmed but not unresponsive to a squeeze with tongs. Add the liquor and put back in oven 5 more minutes.

While pork is roasting, in a large pan heat 2 T macadamia oil (olive oil if you must) to medium/medium low heat. Add to it 2-3 T mustard, plus 1-2 tsp mustard powder, salt, pepper, and 1-2 T cider vinegar.  Blend it together with a spoon or whisk, then add trimmed, cut, clean collards. Cook until tender, 15 minutes, reducing heat at end so as not to brown them. Add walnuts shortly before serving.

Serve on top of heated home made apple sauce (store bought if you must), in thin slices, with the collards.

Wine: A spicy red such as a tempranillo or other spanish or sicilian red would be great.

4 Peruvian Potatoes
3 large fingerling potatoes
1 medium yellow onion
2 eggs beaten
2 T salt
1 T fresh ground pepper
6-8 heaping T flour
1 tsp baking powder
vegetable oil
chives
creme fraiche
applesauce (store bought or recipe follows)

After washing, shred your potatoes and add to a bowl. Mince your onion, and add it to the bowl. Cover mixture with water and soak 10 minutes, then drain thoroughly.

Mix potatoes & onion with the eggs, adding salt, pepper, baking powder and 4 T of the flour. Mix and add flour as needed until you can see the mixture will stick together.

Heat oven to warm. In a nonstick pan, heat vegetable oil to medium high heat. Add heaping tablespoon full of batter and push flat, repeating without crowding the pan (in my 12 inch pan I put no more than 4 small pancakes at a time). Flip when it’s holding together well, cooking golden on both sides. Add more oil as is needed keeping just enough to give color/allow sizzling.

When cooked add to parchment lined baking sheet and keep warm in oven until serving. Serve with bowls of finely cut chives, sour cream or creme fraiche, and applesauce.

Spiced Home-made Apple Sauce

This recipe is forgiving and you may make a batch of any size with thoughtful adjustment. I used 8 or 10 apples of mixed varieties from my farm shipment.

minimum of 5 apples (don’t use all red, they don’t have enough pectin)
1-2 sticks cinnamon
4-10 cloves
2 T sugar – 1/3 C sugar
1 tsp – 3 tsp salt
Fresh grated nutmeg to taste

Peel and core your apples and add the cores & peels to a pan that will accomodate the apples eventually. Add water until almost covered. Add the cinnamon and cloves, and bring to a simmer, cooking until reduced and all soft (15-30 minutes). Strain. Keep the juice, discard the rest in your compost preferably.

Meanwhile, cube your apples. Add to the juice once you’ve made it, keeping the spices in. Cook at medium low heat or a slight simmer until softened, probably 1 hour. Stir in sugar, salt, nutmeg to taste. Put into clean or sterilized jars or containers. If canning, will keep for some months. If putting in a container to be used from refrigerator, will last up to 1 month. Throw out at first signs of changing taste, color, or visible molding.

Wine: We had the Peruvian potato pancakes with a delicious and inexpensive bottle of dry prosecco. Any apply, dry sparkling wine will be great and cleans the fat of the oil & creme fraiche out of the mouth.

1/4 bulb fennel
1 large radish
1/2 lb king crab
vanilla salt (recipe follows)
1 T bergamot olive oil

Dig the meat out of your king crab–it helps to have a thick wooden skewer handy to push stuff through. Shave the fennel into thin slices; if you have no way to do this, julienne it. Slice the radish very thinly (shave), alternately make a large julienne. In an empty spice jar, mix the pulp of one whole fresh vanilla bean with 1 T sea salt, shake vigorously to mix. Add plenty to taste, and toss it all with the bergamot olive oil. If you have no oil of this kind, use a small amount of regular, light, fruity olive oil or simply squeeze a bit of lime on it instead. I used double the crab in the above recipe but would suggest the amounts above as a better option.

Serves 2-4 as an appetizer

Wine: A yeasty bubbly without too much body (not the time for the Dom, people!), perhaps one from northern Italy (a prosecco, but make sure it’s a dry one; a spumante would be fine too–the difference, if you aren’t familiar, is that one is made carbonated by adding yeast and bottling int he Champagne method, and spumante is made as a “sparkling wine” is made).

4 center-cut lamb ribs
6 fingerling potatoes, halved
2 spring “new” carrots, washed well but not skinned
1/2 very small apple
1 T fresh thyme
salt & pepper
1 T butter
1/4 C soy sauce
2 clove garlic, minced
2 T good BBQ sauce

Mix the soy sauce, garlic, and BBQ, coat your lamb chops, and turn the oven to broil.

In a sautee pan, melt the butter at medium high heat, and add the potatoes cut side down, season generously with salt & pepper. Cook until golden, turn over. After 2-3 minutes, add the (medium thin chopped) carrots and thyme. Toss. At the same time, add the lamb to the oven about 6-8 inches from the broiler.  When carrots have brightened, turn the lamb chops over in the oven checking that they are not over cooked, and then add the apple to the potato mixture. Turn off the heat on the potato mixture.

After 1-3 minutes on the opposite side, lamb should be done. Assemble!

Wine: Great with a fuller merlot or a dry, earthy red.

1 red onion
1/2 head radicchio
1/2 head beet greens (can sub chard or chiffonade collards, don’t overdo it though)
salt & pepper
olive oil

Dice the red onion. Cut the radicchio into small squares. Chiffonade the beet greens. In a large sautee pan cook the red onion with the olive oil until translucent, adding plenty of salt & pepper, at high heat for 2 minutes and then to medium low heat until cooked through. Add the raddichio and cook 1-2 more minutes. Add the beat greens and cook until wilted. Adjust seasoning.

In a tart pan or by forming a galette, place the rolled and chilled crust, and fill with mixture. For color and tenderness, brush outside of dough with egg yolk & water mixture. Cook at 425 for 20-30 minutes until golden.

Touch it off with a bit of hard Italian cheese grated. I used something similar to Asiago but a little closer to Pecorino Romano.

Wine: A sicilian red, such as Nero D’avola, will have enough punk to stand up to the bitterness of the raddichio and greens.

1 lb brussel sprouts, washed and cut in half
1/2 pear, diced
1 inch peice fresh ginger, grated
2 T butter
1 T olive oil
salt & pepper

In a nonstick pan at medium high heat, melt the butter and then add the brusselsprouts cut side down. Cook until colored nicely on the bottom and the green has brightened andb ecome glossy, then add olive oil, ginger, and pears, turn heat to medium and stir. Add salt & pepper. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add 1/2 C water or just enough to cover sprouts halfway in pan. Cover and cook for ~ 10 minutes. Remove the lid, cook off excess water and serve.

Wine: A white blend such as a northern Italian white (Pinot Grigio blend, or dry Tocai blend) would balance nicely the sulfur of the cabbage without being intruding on the more delicate ginger flavor.

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 Château 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.

1 pork tenderloin, salted, peppered, pan seared & roasted in the oven
5 small carrots or 3 large ones, sliced in small, even rounds
2 small red onions, sliced in quarter strips
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 apple, in large cubes
1/4 C pumpkin seeds
1 lb Bok Choy
olive oil, salt, pepper

Roast your tenderloin while you make the other items (~ 350, I pan sear mine on high eat first on all sides).

Roast the onion, carrot, garlic, and apple in the oven after tossing lightly with olive oil, salt, & pepper. Roast for 40 minutes or until carmelized and shrunk.

Wash and chop the bok choy, separating the stalks from the leaves. In a large nonstick skillet, sautee the bok choy stalks on high heat, until softened. Add the pumpkin seeds and the green tops, cooking until brightened.

Roasted Fennel – an addition

1 bulb of fennel
olive oil, salt & pepper

Wash and slice the fennel into thin strips, but thick enough to hold together. Preheat oven to 350. Toss the fennel in olive oil, salt, pepper, place flat on a baking sheet and cook until golden. If you aren’t feeling a little lazy, flip them over halfway through.

Wine: A grenache or meritage with a base of grenache will bring out the earthy in the greens and the sweetness in the pork.

Israeli Couscous
Pan steamed dino kale
Roast Pork Tenderloin
Apricot-Whiskey Compote

Serves 3-4 with appetizer or for light meal; serves 2 very generously

For the tenderloin & compote:
1 small to medium pork tenderloin, silver removed
1/4 medium yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, thick slivers
1-2 tsp thyme
5-10 dried apricots, sliced
1/3 C whiskey or brandy
salt & pepper
olive oil

Preheat oven to 375. In a large oven safe pan, heat olive oil to medium high or high heat, without bringing to smoking point. Dress the pork tenderloin in salt & pepper, and sear on each side until golden. Shortly after beginning the pork, add the onion, garlic, thyme. Once pork is golden on all sides, add the apricot to the onion mixture and cook it all for 10-15 minutes depending on desired donenes (I prefer medium, medium well for pork tenderloin. It is the only cut of pork you can very safely cook less than 100% and not get sick).

Once pork is cooked to desired texture/flavor/temperature, remove it from the pan, and put the pan back on the stove. Deglaze the pan with the whiskey and let it all simmer together until the harsh alcohol smell is gone. You’re done when you let the pork rest a little and slice it up.

For the kale:
Using clean chunks of kale, a tsp of olive oil, and generous pepper (with some salt), dry sautee at medium heat in a nonstick pan, adding a few tablespoons of water towards the end to steam and soften the kale.

For the couscous:
1 C israeli couscous
2 T butter
1/4 C roasted, unsalted almonds
1 shallot, minced
1 cinnamon stick
2 medium bay leaves
1 1/4 C chicken stock (low sodium)
salt to taste

Melt the butter, adding the almonds when hot. Allow to cook for 1-2 minutes, until brightened (if has skin). Add the shallots and cook until golden. Add the couscous and allow to gain color, without burning (3-5 minutes), being sure to stir off and on through the whole process. Add the cinnamon stick and the bay leaves shortly after adding the couscous. Add some salt. Once couscous has colored, add the stock, bring to a boil, and steam/simmer low covered for about 10 minutes, until the couscous is still slippery but does not have a pool of liquid at the bottom. Voila!

Wine: Crazy as it sounds, I think a dry gewurztraminer would be great with the apricot-whiskey combo. Lazy Creek makes one for $26.

Great for breakfast or dessert served warm with ice cream, whipped cream, or custard. Makes four large personal apple galettes.

Use the recipe for crust on the Leek & Bacon Galette. These were so good my boyfriend actually thought it was dinner in its entirety (see the Napa Cabbage Salad I was busy making while these were baking!) and I had to steal the last one away from him to get a picture of the pastry inside. Can we say, “nom nom nom”?

For the crust:
1 1/2 C flour
1 stick butter
4-6 T ice cold water
Food processor would be handy

Heat your oven to 425. Cut your butter into cubes and place in freezer for 10-20 minutes to firm up.

In a food processor, combine butter cubes and flour in alternating layers so as not to loose butter on the sides of the processor. Pulse until combined and looking like bread crumbs. Put into a bowl, make a well with your hands, and add 1 T of ice cold water at a time, using as little water as possible (if you don’t, you will have hell rolling this out).

Once combined, form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and put in freezer or fridge depending when you intend to use it. Must chill at least 30 minutes, can be stored up to three days in fridge.

Half at a time (reserving other half in refrigerator), roll out on lightly floured surface to 1/3 inch thick, making sure to do this as quickly as possible so the crust is still cold. Try to make a rectangle so you can cut 5×5 inch squares out. Roll the rest out in the same way, cutting squares as you go, re rolling when necessary. If dough starts to feel room temp or too easily squished, put it back in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. The flakiness is dependent on this, so it’s important to take the time.

Place on sheet pan with parchment or silicon lining, and put the pan into the freezer if you plan to use it in the next half hour.

For the filling:
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 T cinnamon
2 apples, halved, cored, and thinly sliced

Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.

Keep the apple halves together so you can spread them evenly and they match each other in gradation. On each pastry square, sprinkle a bit of the cinnamon mixture. Add 1/2 an apple to each square, as shown in pictures. Sprinkle top generously with cinnamon mixture.

Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until golden and risen.

Wine: For dessert, try a late harvest white wine, or a french dessert wine like a relatively inexpensive Sauternes. If you choose to add almonds to this recipe, it would be great with Tokaj. For brunch, you could pair it with a dry champagne to cut the buttery crust on the palette, or a sparkling moscatto from Italy.