lots and lots of roots - winter farm share ideas

So in addition to the beets accumulating in the bottom of the vegetable drawer, we got a whole bunch more roots this week. From left to right: beets, kohlrabi (technically not a root), carrots, sweet potatoes, celeriac, rutabaga, black radish. Sweet potatoes are always easy to use, and carrots (although I've noticed it's my most-common vegetable on the blog), but I needed to think about some of the others. After I put out a cry for help on Facebook, I got some good beet ideas. My friends must really like beets.

Ideas for cooking/using beets:

• Red Beet Piccata - a German recipe from my friend Philipp
• a lot of friends suggested pickled beets
• Biz's famous pink potato salad (Boil potatoes and chop into pieces, boil beets and chop into smaller pieces, chop pickles into the smallest pieces of them all! - and then add pickle juice and salt to taste)
• my sister reminds me: "Borscht, duh" (like this one from Jessica)
• beet with grapefruit and goat cheese salad (Brooke)
• shredded beet salad with feta (Katie G.) and pears and mint (Ben)
• beet chocolate cake (Kim) - here's a recipe for beet cupcakes I might have to try
• Then there's always red flannel hash...

What I made so far:
Deborah Madison's root vegetable ragout with a wild rice "pancake" topping (photo right) - I've made this recipe before: it's a deep vegetable casserole with a delicious crunchy topping. This time around, I used carrot, beet and rutabaga in this one, grated in seconds in the food processor (although the rest of the recipe does take a good 45 minutes to assemble).

Also beet potato salad (thanks Biz for the inspiration!)

Also beet veggie burgers - thanks to Abby for this recipe tip from The Kitchn

Any other great ideas? Roots? Anyone else ready for spring? :)

Jessica's sweet potato chickpea peanut stew - an easy winter meal

This recipe (from my friend Jessica) comes together so fast, is made in one pot (or crock pot), requires little chopping, and brings together delicious flavors. A real winner I keep making over and over since she first shared it with me. If you have some ginger, garlic, and a sweet potato on hand, you can probably make this with stuff you have in your pantry.

• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or about 2 cups from frozen)
• 1 sweet potato, cubed (I used 2)
• 1 1/2 t. curry powder
• 1/2-3/4 t. garam masala (depending on how spicy you like it)
• 1 t. cumin
• 1 T. minced ginger
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 14 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes, in juice
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 2 c. vegetable stock (or 1 if using crock pot)
• 2 T. natural peanut butter
• 1/2 c. red lentils, drained and rinsed (can substitute quinoa, if desired)

Combine everything in a soup pot, bring to a boil, let boil for about 15-20 minutes, then put on low and simmer for about 1 hr. It's finished when the potatoes are nice and tender (and falling apart). If you have a crock pot, turn it on high for an hour, and then let it cook on low for 2-3 hours (or low 4 hours).

basic cheese quiche

So in our weekly farm share we're also now getting 12 eggs a week. I've actually never made quiche before in my life...so I decided to start now. I didn't go all the way though...I used a packaged crust. I just didn't feel like making pastry, and I don't have a tart pan or pie weights, and I need to stop buying kitchen stuff. So, there. That's my justification. :) And it was good, even with the store-bought crust. And easy. It's good hot, straight out of the oven, and also good cold leftover the next day or two. It probably won't last longer than that. I am going to make another one in the next couple of days with the second crust...

ingredients:
5 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk (I used 2%, whole is recommended)
4 ounces Gruyère, 4 oz sharp-cheddar cheese*
salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

*Of course 100% Gruyère, or another Swiss-style cheese would be good, but that's what I had in the fridge, plus Gruyère is so pricey and this way I can save half the chunk for another quiche :) But feel free to improvise on the cheese mixture.

1. In a bowl, whisk eggs, cream, and milk until blended. Stir in salt and pepper, and cheese. 

2. Put egg mixture in pre-baked pastry, spread evenly. Sprinkle with nutmeg. 

3. Bake about 30 minutes, until top is brown and puffed. Shake quiche to test if done: you don't want the middle to be uncooked. (Or test with a knife or toothpick)

Variations:

Quiche Lorraine: with bacon (cut bacon into thick slices, and pre-cook until crisp. Drain on paper towel and add on top of pastry before the egg mixture)

Quiche alsacienne: with onions (Cut an onion in quarters, and then slice paper-thin, saute with butter to caramelize, add to pastry before egg mixture).
FYI: The above mixture just fit in a 9-inch "deep" pie crust, so if you are adding onions, you might need to reduce the egg mixture a bit so it all fits.

Recipe adapted from Quiche au fromage recipe from Epicurious

sweet potato macaroni and cheese

I didn't get a photo of this dish since we made it at night and mac and cheese does not photograph well... However, it is worth posting the recipe because of how easy it was, and good. The leftovers also re-heated well. The recipe is adapted from Eating Well, Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese. I found their recipe made way too much sauce, so we ended up making an extra cup of noodles, which evened things out. The recipe below is adjusted for that. If you want to make a smaller batch, you could make 2 cups of the pasta, and reduce milk to 1 cup. Eating Well notes that the "bright orange color tricks your eyes into thinking this healthy macaroni and cheese recipe is loaded with cheese, but there’s actually only about half as much cheese as compared to a traditional recipe." So there you go, healthy, and winter comfort. And most macaroni dishes require baking the whole dish to set, but this one you just pop under the broiler. And it was creamy and delicious. If you have a baked sweet potato already, this comes together in under 30 minutes.

photo from Eating Well

ingredients: 
3 cups whole-wheat elbow noodles
1-2 medium sweet potatoes (depending on how large - there's room for error here)

2 cups milk (nonfat or 2%, whatever you have on hand)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 1/4 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons coarse dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs (homemade are best*)
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

(optional: 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed)

*Jessica taught me how to make breadcrumbs with the days-old bread rinds: pulse in food processor and store in freezer. 

get ready:

cookie sheet with foil

big pot for boiling noodles

saucepan for making cheese sauce

greased lasagne pan

1. Roast the sweet potatoes in the oven (wrapped in foil or on foil sheet, at 400 for about 45 mins) until soft when pierced through. (While you're doing this, you might want to make a few for the rest of the week.) This can be done in advance. 

2. Cook noodles according to package directions, about 7-9 minutes, and then drain and set aside. 

3. Whisk flour, milk, garlic in a saucepan. Heat until steaming but don't let it burn or boil. When sweet potato is cool, scoop out and add to milk mixture and puree using an immersion blender (or do it all in the blender). Be careful because it's a bit thick and splashes. Add cheese, mustard, salt and pepper and stir until combined. (And add peas if you wish.) Combine with the noodles, mix everything, and then pour into a greased lasagne-sized glass baking dish. 

4. In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs and olive oil, and mix. Sprinkle on top of macaroni. Put under the broiler until crispy, 1-2 minutes. (Always watch the broiler!)

brussels sprouts pancakes with shrimp and scallions

Okay, this is another variation of the very good okonomiyaki recipe on Food52 (which I have also posted on the blog before, here). It's just a super tasty and quick snack, and I wanted to re-post. I didn't have cabbage on hand, so I used shaved brussels sprouts and they were delicious! Also instead of the mayo sauce I just used a squeeze of sriracha.

a snack for 2 (makes about 6 pancakes):
2 large eggs

1/2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 T flour
1 cup shaved brussels sprouts (use mandoline)
3-4 scallions, sliced thin
3/4 cup shrimp, chopped
sesame seeds for garnish
vegetable oil for frying
sriracha for serving

1. Whisk together eggs, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and flour in a bowl.
2. Shave brussels sprouts very fine/thin on a mandolin or with a knife. Chop shrimp. Fold into the egg mixture.
3. Heat a thin layer of vegetable oil in a non-stick pan. Add the pancakes (a little smaller than saucer-sized) cook until brown, flip.
4. Serve with sriracha and sesame seeds  (or a mix: mayo-soy-sriracha)

butternut squash galette with carmelized onions and fontina

 photos by Stella Chen

My friend Stella and I continued our cooking "lessons" this week, and this time she came to my place to learn some new recipes, "Western style." We made the butternut squash galette from Smitten Kitchen (the cookbook version, which is only slightly different), and a kale salad with shaved brussels sprouts (one of my favorites). And she brought her fancy camera over, so for the first time I have blog photos not taken on my camera phone. :) It was a really nice meal, and the crispy kale salad was a perfect pair for the rich galette - which had the warm winter flavors of squash, onion, sage, and fontina cheese. Delicious! Deb Perelman's dough recipe is pretty easy, too, although I somehow found we ended up with a bit more dough than we needed, and the crust was a bit too thick. But all in all, a great recipe and I want to try further variations with other vegetable fillings. 

PINK! (beet carrot apple radish salad with orange dressing)

This is a perfect Valentine's salad. :) It's very simple, but sometimes in the winter you just need some color on your plate and some raw veggies. I grated 2 carrots, 1 beautiful chioggia beet (the candy-striped kind), 1 radish, and 1 apple. I added a simple dressing of the juice of 2 clementines plus some olive oil. 

This is great served on top of an open-faced sandwich, either with plain cream cheese, or some of the butternut squash spread I made earlier this week. 

deliciously addictive butternut squash dip (with tahini)

Oh, what would I do without my Ottolenghi cookbooks? The only problem now that I have all three is that when I think of a recipe and want to make it, I sometimes have to open more than one book before I find it... This one is from Jerusalem, also posted here on the Guardian website. Even at its most basic, without the date syrup or garnish, this is totally delicious. Spread it on toast for a light breakfast or lunch, or eat with chips or vegetables as a snack. I had it for lunch on Wasa crisps, with a beet-carrot-apple salad. Which I ended up putting on top of the crisps as well, and it was totally delicious. Add some color to your winter meals!

I made about half this recipe with some leftover squash I had. It made about 2 cups, so unless you're having a party, you might want to consider halving the recipe. Next time I might also try roasting the garlic with the squash.

ingredients:
1 very large butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
3 T tahini paste
1/2 cup Greek yoghurt
2 small garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

garnish:
1 tsp mixed black and white sesame seeds (or just white, if you don't have black)
also suggested:
1½ tsp date syrup
2 tbsp chopped cilantro

tangy lentil potato salad with cornichons and capers

This salad might not look like much - it's brown food - but it tastes amazing. So SO good. I am eating the second-day leftovers right now and they are even better. The dressing is full of diced cornichons and capers, which blend in perfectly with the green lentils and so each bite is a tangy, salty surprise. It also takes just about 30 minutes to make, a pretty quick and easy recipe, and great to take for lunch.

ingredients:
2 shallots
1 bay leaf
1 cup Puy (French) lentils
Salt and pepper
1 pound potatoes (fingerling or small)
2 T red wine vinegar
1 to 2 garlic cloves
1 T Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp capers, roughly chopped
2 T cornichons, roughly chopped
1 to 2 scallions, thinly sliced

I followed the recipe on Smitten Kitchen pretty closely, so I'll just send you there if you want to make it. The only thing I would change is that it felt like a bit too many lentils for the amount of potatoes. I ended up taking out about 3/4 cup for another use.  Also, it says to serve warm, but I think it's also very good at room temperature and makes for a good packed lunch (although then you might want to reduce the garlic slightly).

From our winter farm share: shallots, potatoes

lime cardamom applesauce in the slow cooker

My friend Nina inspired me to make applesauce in the slow cooker, which is super easy. We just got a bunch of apples from our farm share and I wanted to try some new variation. (Mid-winter apples are not the best...starting to get a bit mealy.) This variation, with cardamom and lime, was tangy and delicious.

ingredients:
4 apples
3 cardamom pods
1 piece star anis (or cinnamon)
juice of 1 lime
optional: sweeten with a bit of maple syrup

peel apples and add to slow cooker with juice of 1 lime, 1/2 cup water, 3 cardamom pods and 1 piece star anis. Cook on High about 2 hours, or until apples are soft. Remove cardamom pods and anis, then mash with a potato masher until desired consistency. (Or blend in blender if you want it really smooth.)

quick grated kohlrabi carrot salad with dijon vinaigrette

I don't think I've introduced my new friend yet... my Cuisinart. It was a birthday present from Michael, and is everything I always wanted and more. We actually even watched the DVD that came with it. :) So we've already made hummus, pizza dough (so easy!), grated potatoes for latkes...and much more. The grating feature is amazing. Here is a simple and delicious salad that takes mere minutes with the help of the food processor. And with veggies from our weekly farm share (carrots + kohlrabi).

ingredients:
1 medium kohlrabi
3 medium carrots

dressing: 
olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, dijon mustard, salt and pepper

Peel the carrots and kohlrabi (kohlrabi is best peeled with a knife - it has a tough skin). Push through the grater attachment on the food processor (or grate by hand). Mix dressing and combine everything.

holiday side dishes: cranberry-chipotle sweet potatoes

I have my friend Anne to thank for this tip. She has a fun habit of cooking her way through issues of Cooking Light magazine and then saving the good recipes in a binder. I like the idea, but I don't think I could ever be that methodical. Instead I accumulate cookbooks and then cook mostly from the internet. :) Anyways, this is one gem she passed along to me, a recipe by Mark Bittman. Super festive looking, and delicious. Make these for a holiday feast, or just to spice up your winter plate.

ginger-coconut scones

The base for this scone recipe comes from King Arthur Flour, and then I added in coconut and candied ginger. It made a really nice scone.

ingredients:
2 3/4 cups AP flour (326 g)*
1/2 - 1/3 cup sugar (50-67 g)* depending on how sweet you like it
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup cold butter (113 g)*
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or the flavoring of your choice
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup half and half or milk (113-152g)**
1/2 cup toasted coconut
1/3 cup candied ginger, chopped

*the gram equivalents are from the King Arthur Flour website
** the difference here depends on how humid it is, if it's dry, winter, use more liquid, if it's humid, use less

1. First whisk together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder)

2. Cut the butter into cubes with a knife, then add to flour mixture until the butter is coarsely mixed in. (With a fork or a pastry cutter - it's ok to still have some chunks of butter)

3. Add in coconut and ginger
4. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients (eggs, vanilla, half and half or milk)

5. Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir until moist and holds together. Form into a rough circle. With this amount of dough you can either make 8 big scones, or 12 mini-scones. If you want to make big ones, make a rough circle with the dough, and with a sharp knife or dough cutter, cut into 8 pieces. For smaller scones, divide the dough into two, and form two circles (about 5-6 inches wide, about 3/4-inch thick). Cut each into 6 pieces. 

6. Place scones on a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

7. To make your scones pretty, brush with egg yolk or milk (I used coconut milk), and sprinkle with extra sugar if you want. 

8. At this point - put the scones in the freezer for 30 minutes and preheat the oven to 425 F. The freezing step helps keep the scones lighter/flakier.

9. Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes, until starting to turn golden brown.

cucumber salad with ginger-garlic dressing (and a fall picnic)

This afternoon we went to a nearby apple orchard just north of Providence. We were hoping to be able to pick apples, but they said their season was over - a bit disappointing, especially since so many of the trees there still had apples! They had a harvest festival going on though, so there were lots of families and kids, which was fun to see. And a burlap maze, and pumpkins, lots of mums and fall flowers. We brought a picnic along, so we camped out in the orchard and enjoyed the sun and some good food. I made the barley salad with cherries and pecans (which really is good), and a cucumber salad (recipe below). Philipp made this beautiful apple cake, almost tart-like with raisins and almonds. And we had fresh fruit and good cheese...and the weather could not have been more perfect. A great way to get out of the city and celebrate fall for a bit.

Recipe: Cucumber salad with ginger-garlic dressing

this is another one from Ottolenghi's Plenty - such a good cookbook!

ingredients:

2 large (or 4 small) cucumbers, peeled, cut lengthwise in half, and then sliced thin

1 small red oinion, shaved thin

1 1/2 inch ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, pressed

toasted sesame seeds (about 2 T)

cilantro (about 1/3 cup)

dressing: 2 T rice vinegar, 2 T olive oil, 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp sesame oil

Mix the dressing, and put the onions in it to soak for about 1 hour. Peel and cut the cucumbers (I used a mandolin for the onions and cucumbers - makes this salad super fast and easy). Add the garlic and ginger to the onions/dressing, and mix well. Then add everything else and mix everything. Let it sit at least 10 minutes before serving so all the flavors soak in. 

eggplant, tempeh and sweet potato roasted with maple glaze

This is a recipe from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day, which I have made a few times and really enjoyed each time. I feel like I'm on a race this week to use vegetables - either before they go bad or before we get the next CSA installment (on Thursday already!) and we start drowning in vegetables. It's good. This is the best part of the CSA. You have to try new things, have to cook and eat more vegetables. This felt like a bit of a fall/winter dish, but it was a crisp 60-something degrees outside today, and I had eggplant to cook. :)

I love the colors when chopping everything for this dish. The eggplant is such a beautiful purple color, it always makes me a little sad how it turns brown when it cooks.

ingredients:
1-2 eggplant (I used 2 of these long skinny Chinese eggplant)
8 oz package of tempeh
1 sweet potato
zest of 1 lemon
glaze: mix together 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup maple syrup, some red pepper flakes, and 2-3 cloves pressed garlic (depending on how garlicky you want it...), salt and pepper
garnish: cilantro, plus feta (non-vegan version)

instructions: Preheat oven to 350. Cut the tempeh and sweet potato into 1/2-inch cubes, and the eggplant slightly larger (it cooks faster), about 1-inch cubes. Toss with lemon zest and about 2/3 of the glaze. Roast in the oven about 45-50 minutes, stirring halfway through. When all vegetables are soft, toss with the rest of the glaze and add some cilantro and feta.

This makes a great packed lunch!

This is me playing around on the internet... :)

mung bean tomato soup with kale

This is another recipe from Anna Thomas's Love Soup - a great cookbook. I had some mung beans in the pantry left over from making this amazing salad. Also, I found out that this little Indian spice shop in Providence sells the dried beans in bulk, so I was thinking about what else I could use them in when I came across this recipe in the "summer soups" section of Thomas's cookbook. She cooks them down so that they partially disintegrate, thickening the soup.

best soba noodles yet (with red cabbage, zucchini and radish)

I thought about also calling this post "I finally mastered cooking tofu!" But it's about much more than just the tofu. Look at those colors. :) I was pretty proud of this bowl of lunch deliciousness. The tofu is a pretty funny story though. I have made tofu before and I could never seem to get it crispy (my friend Jessica is super good at this). Turns out it's pretty easy to google "fried tofu" and have the internet come to your aid. As I understand it, the biggest thing is just getting out most of the moisture. So I put the block of extra firm tofu on a plate with some paper towels, put a plate on top, and then put the heaviest thing in my kitchen on top of that: my cast iron le Creuset. It seemed pretty balanced, so I went for a quick run. When I came back, the paper towels were soaked and there was water even dripping over onto the counter. So I guess that's a pretty good technique to press the water out. Then I put some coconut oil in the pan and fried the tofu (leaving it a good 6-8 minutes to brown) and it turned out great. I did have to do two batches though, and on the second batch the oil was starting to get pretty hot and smoke a little bit... and I set off our fire alarm. Turns out it doesn't only beep, but a woman's voice yells "FIRE! FIRE!" Seriously! I've never heard of that before. I was a little scared someone from the building was going to burst in and see what was going on, but I managed to circulate some air and the thing stopped. A bit dramatic, when probably 99% of the time when the alarm goes off it's not FIRE, but due to cooking. (Right?!)

Back to the noodles. Soba noodles are a great go-to recipe to use up whatever vegetables you have left in the drawer. You can use carrots, cabbage, cucumber, whatever. In my case it happened to be red cabbage, zucchini, green onion and radish, which made a really beautiful combination. And they pack really well for lunch. The raw vegetables made it nice and crunchy and the tahini dressing was perfect sweet-salty.

ingredients (for 2):
soba noodles
1 package extra-firm tofu
3-4 green onions
1/2 - 1/3 head of red cabbage, finely sliced (mandolin)
2-3 radishes, finely sliced (mandolin)
1/2 zucchini, julienne cut (I love my julienne peeler!)

for dressing:
tahini (about 1/4 cup)
olive oil (1 tsp)
rice vinegar (1 T)
soy sauce (just a dash)
maple syrup (1-2 tsp)
grated ginger (about 1/2 inch)
optional: garlic, sesame oil

1. Make noodles according to package and rinse with cool water.

2. Mix dressing. I just kept tasting it until it had the right sweetness/tanginess. Sorry I didn't get exact measurements. You could also make a peanut dressing, or something with sesame. There are lots of good recipes out there.

3. Make tofu: Press/drain tofu between paper towels for 30 minutes. Cut into 1/2 inch slices. Fry on medium heat with vegetable oil or coconut oil, do not disturb while it fries 6-7 minutes. Season with salt + pepper while in the pan. You can see it start to brown and the brown creep up the sides. Then you know it's time to flip. The other side will only take 4-5 minutes. Just keep an eye on it. Remove to a cutting board and slice.

4. Cut all vegetables and mix everything together. Top with tofu, cilantro and/or nuts if you have them. Enjoy!