Bucatini with sweet peppers, onions, chard, beans & bacon in veg broth
Another weeknight pasta meal
Blog
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Rigatoni Pasta with Spicy Sausage & Chard
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Homemade pork sausage, chard, tomato paste/veg broth/creme fraiche sauce with rigatoni pasta.
Lots of pasta dishes lately, as they make for quick weeknight meals.[/donotprint]
Rigatoni Pasta with Spicy Sausage & Chard
This recipe is forgiving and many things can be substituted to accommodate what you already have around. I will try to provide some guidance.50 grams dry pasta per person (for entree size)
1/4 lb ground pork per person (or Italian sweet or spicy sausage, without casing)
1/2 C shallot, onion, or fennel per person, sliced in nice edible size pieces
2 cups raw greens per person (spinach, chard, kale, other braising green)
1-2 T tomato paste per person
1 C vegetable stock (or chicken, etc) per person
heavy cream or creme fraiche, about 1-2 T per personIf you are working with ground pork and not pre-seasoned sausage, season your sausage with what you have on hand: paprika, chili powder, chili flakes, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, salt, pepper and even rib rub. Mix well.
Boil water for the pasta and begin cooking the pasta. In a large skillet on high, cook the ground pork in chunks, separating bits with your hands and tossing into the pan; when all pork is in the pan, add the onions/fennel/shallot. When pork is browned on one side, stir vigorously and add enough stock to cover the bottom of the pan. Add tomato paste and stir to dissolve, add salt. Add greens to wilt, and as the pasta is finishing, add the cream or creme fraiche to taste. Serve in warmed bowls.
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Korean Tacos / Bulgogi Tacos on Seaweed
Inspired by Thursday Farmers Market @ The Ferry Building, I made these “tacos” in spirit of Namu‘s lunch stall.
These is loosely adapted from my mother’s bulgogi recipe–I’m not sure how she came up with it, whether from a recipe a friend gave her while we lived in Seoul or if her own interpretation from eating the real thing, but I’ve been using it as a beef marinade ever since and broke it out on skirt steak for these.
1 half pound or more skirt steak (I like grassfed/organic)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, grated
1/4 C whiskey
1/2 C soy sauce
3 T toasted sesame oil
1 T red pepper flakesMix marinade ingredients together with a whisk. Cut the skirt steak into 1/4 inch slices, and mix together. Marinate at least 1 hour at room temp or up to 2-3 days in the refrigerator.
Make some white rice, feel free to add one of those great Japanese seasoning packets with beans and cut your nori/seaweed.
In a skillet or wok, add some sesame oil and pan-fry the beef. Assemble and top with some sesame seeds and some gochujang (Korean hot sauce).
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Oven baked babyback ribs to fall off the bone all year long + mango slaw
I know it’s barbecue season and all, but the nice little disc that distributes the heat on my gas grill pretty much withered away to dust all of the sudden, and I’m grill-less unless I want to bother with the whole charcoal thing, which most of the time just takes way too much planning.
And so, after my latest grocery impulse buy–a rack of ribs–I had to come up with somethin’ new.
Oven Baked Ribs
1 rack (or more! hey! who’s to stop you) babyback pork ribs
For the spice rub:
1/4 C brown sugar
1 T paprika
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp berbere mix if you can get your hands on someMix it up and rub it on the ribs generously. Let sit overnight in the fridge with it on or at room temp at least 30 minutes.
Make a loose foil packet for the ribs and bake at 300 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.
When rib meat is pulled away from bone, dress top in bbq sauce (store bought in my case) and stick under the broiler meaty side up for a few minutes until bubbly and caramelized.
Mango Slaw
1/2 cucumber,seeded and sliced thinly
1/4 mango, julienned
1/4 jicama tuber, julienned
1/8th head red cabbage, sliced thinly
1/4 carrot, sliced thinly in wafers
2 radishes, quartered and sliced thinly
juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp walnut oil
1 tsp sushi vinegar or other vinegar
pinch saltWhisk together last 5 ingredients and add all other ingredients. This’ll be fine the next day too but I prefer it immediately.
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5 spice salmon & asian mixed vegetable salad
Thanks to P for the inspiration.
This dish is extremely quick to prepare if you have the right equipment (a mandolin or julienne tool) and 100% doable on a weekday. Took me about 15 minutes, healthy, tasty, and very presentable.
For the Salmon
1/3 lb salmon per person, fillet, non farmed
5 spice powder
berbere spice mixture or a bit of cayenne
saltSalt the salmon, let sit for a couple of minutes. Dust the fleshiest side of the salmon in five spice powder and then top with 1/3 as much berbere or cayenne or other similar mixture.
For the Asian Mixed Vegetable Salad
2 broccoli stalks, trimmed and peeled w/ veg peeler
2 radishes, quartered and sliced thinly
1/4 bulb fennel, shaved on mandolin
1/2 cucumber, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
4 leaves butter lettuce, roughly ripped into 1-2 inch squares or so
1 pink pluot, in 1/2 inch cubes
1 dark plumb, in 1/2 inch cubes
2T seasoned rice vinegar
1T walnut oil or other fragrant nut oil
1T sesame seeds or gomashi
salt to tasteJulienne broccoli stems (hopefully you have a mandolin type contraption to do this) and mix all ingredients together!
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Watermelon Rind Pickle Recipe & Their Applications
My mother loves using these as appetizers by wrapping bacon around them, tooth-picking them and cooking in the oven until crispy, salty, sweet.
They’re relatively annoying to find in local markets and for a variety of reasons I expect them to be better made at home–organic watermelon, spices hand carried back from India, quality control. In a market, a jar half this size will cost about $4-5.
Pickled Watermelon Rinds with Water Bath
These will keep at least a year assuming a seal is made upon canning.
Rind from an 8lb watermelon, peeled, flesh removed and cubed
Lots of kosher salt
Lots of water
2 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar, rice vinegar, or apple cider vinegar
4 cups sugar
1 T whole cloves
6 cinnamon sticks, 3 inches or so long
1-2 T star anise, whole
Optional: whole mace, tied in a cheesecloth bag (do not can it)Peel and chop your watermelon rind and place the pieces in a briny water overnight, up to 24 hours, at room temperature. You should use 3T kosher salt to every quart of water. Let it sit a few minutes then give it a stir to dissolve.
Drain the rind and put it in a large pan, such as a pasta pot. Fill with water, just covering the pieces. Simmer until becoming slightly translucent, about 40 minutes.
Drain again and set aside. Use the same pot to combine the vinegar and sugar. Bring to a boil, add the spices and the watermelon rind, reduce to a simmer and continue cooking about 20-30 more minutes, until all pieces are translucent.
Immediately transfer the rind pieces into clean mason jars or canning jars and have new lids ready and clean. Once the rind is distributed, pour the spices and spice syrup (less the mace packet in cheesecloth) in over the rind until about 1/4 inch from the top, covering the pieces.
Screw the lids on with moderate force and place into a large pot (maybe the same one, cleaned?) filled with warm/hot from the tap water, and bring it to a gentle boil. Once boiling, continue for 10 minutes, then turn off heat and leave until cool enough to handle.
If you force the jars to cool more quickly, they will likely crack or break. Within about an hour, all of the seals will probably sink to show that they are pasteurized and ready for storage. If they have not sunk by 24 hours later, you’ll need to repeat the water bath process.
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Caesar Salad dressing on little gem lettuce with white anchovies
Served with Zuni Cafe Zucchini Pickles and lettuce from our organic container garden.
I make this salad in several variations, the classic being with croutons, romaine lettuce anchovies and the dressing.
Here’s the recipe for homemade caesar salad dressing.
3 anchovies, minced finely
3 cloves garlic, minced finely
3 tsp capers, rinsed lightly and minced
1 T whole grain mustard
2 T apple cider vinegar or other salad vinegar
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 T olive oilOptional: 1 T creme fraiche, heavy cream, or sour cream; or, 1 coddled egg yolk
Whisk vigorously all ingredients together; will keep in the fridge up to 2 weeks in an airtight container such as a reused jar.
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Zuni Cafe Zucchini Pickles – Yeah, another blogger making them
You can find the recipe @ the LA Times or in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook.
Here’s a picture of the brine and a picture of the sliced and macerated zucchini before combining. These are very tasty, but they are refrigerator pickles so they last no more than 2 weeks. Wish there was a good way to preserve them but keep them crisp.
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Chevre Stuffed Fried Zucchini Blossoms
You could also use pumpkin blossoms for this recipe, so long as they are not too large/brittle/old.
I have finally figured out how to make my fried zucchini blossoms less oily, more light and all around prettier. The secret is really two things: 1) Thin batter. The texture of crepe batter. 2) Use something carbonated in the batter. Don’t settle for sake, wine, water. Use champagne, beer, sparkling water.
For the stuffing
1/3lb fresh goat cheese, such as Capricho di Cabra
3 T pepitas (uncooked, dried pumpkin seeds)
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp kosher saltBring goat cheese to room temperature, toast the pepitas lightly and mix everything together. Stuff the clean, dry zucchini blossoms with the mixture and fold the flowers closed on it. About a tablespoon per flower.
For the batter
1 C champagne, bubbly, beer, etc
3/4 cup tempura flour mix or 2/3 cup flour + some baking soda and saltMay need to adjust the batter ratio; start with the liquid in a bowl and add the flour mixture, gently mix with a fork, it should be somewhat lumpy and thin like crepe batter.
Fry!
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Seasonal Produce: Zucchini & Zucchini Blossoms; Kolokythokeftedes (Zucchini and Feta Balls)
A few days ago, I was browsing around Saveur for some ideas on using up excess zucchini, cucumber, etc from my farm shipment. They have a seasonal produce guide which provides brief descriptions of fruits/vegetables, such as how to pick good ones, typical uses, seasonality, etc.
And lo, I found a solution for not only the zucchini in my refrigerator, but the feta as well. I had purchased the feta a couple weeks ago in bulk from Oasis Food Market to use in a carrot-harissa salad, and did, but had lots of leftovers. So, kolokythokeftedes were made in my kitchen. And I stole the recipe here. I used dried mixed italian herbs and some additional oregano instead of fresh herbs.
I did make a different sauce:Â yogurt, smoked paprika, dill, salt.
The Ferry Building Farmer’s market was yesterday and I managed to sneak to it at lunchtime; I bought a couple of watermelons (they are delicious this year), basil, the last of the year’s english peas, a grassfed flank steak from Prather Ranch, and zucchini blossoms. A whole box of zucchini blossoms, for $3.
I fried them, but will be posting recipes in the coming days of them stuffed, fried with goat cheese, used in pastas, etc.
