The tortillas were started first, actually using frozen dough balls from the freezer.  We just microwaved them for 30 seconds and let them sit out while preparing everything else.  The balls were still cold, but not frozen, when we rolled them out and it actually worked very well.  Unfortunately, we haven’t posted on our homemade tortillas yet, but we’ve started making them more frequently, simply following recipes like this.

Meanwhile, I started the “salsa” with a little marinade base:

Next I cut up the fresh ingredients and tossed them into the marinade:

I wanted small pieces, but strips seemed more appropriate than dice, so I used the mandoline and some chopping to get 1-2″ julienned strips of the squash and cucumber.  I diced the pepper and basil.  Interestingly, I used the basil mostly because we had lots around this week, but it turned out to be a really nice flavor in the mixture. I would definitely use basil again, but in its absence I would still try to add some fresh herbs—they add a brightness to the veggies.  All of this was mixed together and let sit while the tortillas were cooked and the other ingredients prepared.

We heated up some leftover white bean “pate” and pulled out some lettuce, sour cream, and green hot sauce to turn these into tacos.  Our tortillas were a bit big for traditional tacos, and I think that they wouldn’t have been so messy as smaller tacos, but they were still tasty and refreshing.  The beans added a hint of richness, and this could be an interesting place for black bean “pate”, but definitely not work the effort to make just for this.  These tacos would work fine without any beans, too.  The filling was really nice and refreshing, and could definitely be modified to accommodate other raw veggies like bell peppers, carrots, or even something like fennel.  As I mentioned before, the fresh herbs seemed really important, too — we’re looking forward to trying this recipe again with next week’s CSA cilantro.

Well it’s definitely lettuce season again.  The CSA has been supplying us with about three heads a week, and well, there are only so many salads a person can eat.  So, we were inspired to try something new…lettuce soup. Even after reading though several recipes and many rave reviews, it was still hard to imagine exactly what we were in for.  We hedged our bets by making some white bean “pate” spread to have with our CSA escarole and fresh bread, alongside.  Even with the successful soup, this stole all our attention.  Please try it!

The “pate” started last night with some freshly cooked canellini beans and this inspiration from the Times.  We prettymuch followed the recipe, but without the carrot and just using lime juice and white pepper to season it.  It baked up beautifully and we stored it in the fridge overnight as recommended.  Even last night it was already super tasty!

ib also started some Bittman-recipe bread last night which did its first rise in the fridge overnight  (giving it a little more time to rise than our last attempt).  Each time we make it, it gets better!  Maybe sometime we’ll even post a whole recipe with photos…

The escarole was prepared just with a quick sautee.

We started by sauteing the scapes and red pepper flakes and then added the escarole to cook just until it started to wilt (it will keep cooking a little in the bowl, too).  Here we should have–and intended to–add some citrus, but we forgot.  This was then served on slices of fresh baguette, smeared with “pate”, and topped with some of this escarole mix.  For some of them we even tried adding some parmesan cheese.  This combination of flavors and textures really blew me away, and yet I think there might still be room for improvement.  I might try adding some anchovies to the escarole mix, or maybe spreading the beans and escarole on crackers to lighten it up a bit (when we don’t have fresh bread around, of course).  No matter what, there’s a lot of room to play here, and I suspect that it’s also hard to screw this one up.

For the lettuce soup, we looked over several different recipes before landing on a version of a potage.  It seems like most of these soups use peas, but we decided to stick with lettuce as the green flavor of our soup.  Our recipe ended up something like this:

These were cooked together in the bottom of a stock pot until the onions were translucent.

The water and potato were added and brought to a boil.  We let the potatoes cook for about ten minutes before adding the lettuce and spinach.  The whole thing then cooked another ten minutes until the lettuce was very soft.  At this point, we pureed the soup with our immersion blender.  It left some green specs, so if that bothers you, pull out some of the broth before pureeing and add it back after the potatoes and lettuce puree smoothly.  Finally, time to make it french…

Add the soup, cup by cup, to the beaten eggs, slowly increasing their temperature.  After a few cups, add this mixture back into the soup and heat the whole thing just until boiling.  It should cause the soup to thicken slightly and really richen the flavors.  At this point, you can adjust the seasonings to taste.  If desired (and I recommend it) let the soup cool to room temperature before eating.  (I actually added an ice cube to mine to bring down the temperature and didn’t even notice any problems with that diluting it too much or anything.)

Serve the soup with parmesan cheese or greek yogurt.  And alongside our escarole crudites, this meal was deliciously fresh and green!  These are the meals when we really appreciate our CSA share for inspiring our creativity.

Our reference recipe came from 101 Cookbooks. dsd had made it with gnocchi before, but I just made it over some good orecchiette. For the pesto, I began by pitting lots of olives.  dsd prefers these fresh green olives for their bright flavor, but they do come with pits, ones that have grown quite attached to their olives. The pitting was tougher than I expected at first, but within a few minutes I got the hang of the knife-smash olive pitting trick: place an olive on a cutting board, place your knife on top of it (knife’s side touching the olive), and sharply hit the knife into the olive. Nine times out of ten, the pit mostly breaks free. It also helps to wipe your knife regularly — it gets really slippery! But in the end, you get some lovely chunks of olive meat on your cutting board. You can marvel at them for a minute or two, though soon they’ll be puréed.

As you’re finishing up with the olives, you can heat 1 tbsp olive oil in your skillet over medium high heat, and toss in 3 cloves garlic and 1 large yellow onion, both chopped. Once these are softened (a few minutes), you’re almost done. Add about 3/4 cup vegetable broth (I used a Better than Bouillon mix, as usual) and 1/3 cup heavy cream, and bring back to a simmer. Remove from heat, add the olives, let cool a little, then hand-blend the sauce into a nice pesto. Add some lemon if you’d like, toss with your pasta, and enjoy!  This pesto was less thick than the last time dsd made it, but both were good — just keep in mind that you can adjust the amount of liquid depending on what you’re in the mood for (and the thicker pesto is maybe a little less camera shy, too).

As I mentioned, I also had my first bread success alongside this recipe. I wanted to make bread, but didn’t have much time, so I took Bittman’s fastest bread recipe, and hurried it up even more. I started with 14 oz all-purpose flour, 2 tsp yeast, and 1 tsp salt, and mixed those together. I then added 1 cup warm water, and mixed it in; then I added 1/4 cup olive oil and mixed that in.

I shaped the dough into a baguette-like long loaf, wrapped it in parchment paper, and let it sit on the part of the stove that gets hot when the oven’s on. (I also started preheating the oven to 425 °F.) About half an hour later, I brushed the loaf with water, and slid it onto our baking stone. This was also the first time I had a spray bottle around, so in addition to brushing the loaf with water, I also sprayed a bunch of water into the oven — it was fun. After 15 minutes of baking, I turned the heat down to 350 °F, and baked another 30 minutes or so. At that point, it was definitely done! The crust turned out firm but not “crusty.” The crumb wasn’t fantastic, but it was certainly edible — more so than my previous attempts. And it was great for picking up every last drop of olive pesto!

Then a base was  prepared from a can of tomato sauce, a small diced onion, a little serrano pepper, and a bunch of Indian spices.  I used a tablespoon or two of fresh ground cumin, coriander, and mustard seed (black for some heat), as well as about a tablespoon each of tumeric and garam masala.  This cooked together until the onions were soft, adding some water to keep the mixture saucy.

For the greens, we used a big bag of spinach and a bunch of mustard greens (hence the saag part), all chopped pretty finely.  They were mixed into the sauce until wilted.  Then the heat was turned off and the paneer was mixed in well to try to absorb any remaining liquid.  In the end it needed more seasoning (maybe more spice from the beginning next time), but I added more garam masala and a dash of cayanne, as well as a good pinch of salt.  The greens were fully wilted, but they still tasted fresh, and we had lots of paneer to give the dish a hearty flavor, too.

For the roti, we mixed together 2C flour with 4 tsp oil and then with 3/4 C warm water, and let the dough sit while we started the saag paneer.  Then it was divided into 12 balls, and each were rolled out into an ~6″ circle.  They were fried in a small fry pan with a little ghee added each time, flipping a few times, just as we had done for the aloo paratha.  They turned out very nice, but some of the ones cooked on too high heat became a bit crispy, so beware.

Eating the saag paneer with the roti was perfect to sop up all of the juicy flavors.  We didn’t even miss having rice or other dishes.  And with the big bag of spinach and all of the paneer, this recipe easily feeds four.

For the biscuits, we followed the recipe, except for substituting the buttermilk for lowfat milk and a scoop of sour cream.  The recipe called for 3/4 C chopped ramps, and this turned out to be 10-15 ramps, but provided a robust ramp flavor in the biscuits, and a beautiful color from the green leaves.  The dough was quite sticky and I just prepared them as drop biscuits, still adding the egg wash and crushed coriander which contributed wonderfully to the look, but probably not too much to the flavor.

Meanwhile, we started the soup by heating up 4 C vegetable stock and 4 C water.  We added a scoop of Better than Bullion to flavor the water, but in our experience this soup doesn’t need a very rich stock base because much of the flavor ends up coming from the eggs and lemons anyway.  We added some garlic and a bit of chopped onion, as much to use them up as to flavor the stock, but I don’t think it hurt anything.  Once it was boiling nicely, we added 1/2 C basmati rice to cook until tender.  Then I used 7 eggs (minus however much I used for egg wash for the biscuits), beaten well, and added 1 squeezed lemon.  The only step of making this soup that requires any attention is the tempering of the eggs — simply, add broth slowly into the egg mixture to raise the temperature of the eggs.  This allows the eggs to cook slowly in the broth as a thickener rather than quickly in fibers, like they would in egg-drop soup.   We added another half of a lemon and some salt and pepper, but otherwise the soup stands on its own, rich and creamy, with just a slight tang from the lemon.

We rounded this out with some fresh market salad — mixed lettuce greens and sprouts with a bit of oil and balsamic vinegar and a few shavings of parmesan on top.  The sprouts were a mixture of sprouting beans and radish sprouts.

All told, this meal came together well, but the ramp biscuits really stole the show.  We will have to find more opportunities to make these…or maybe even freeze some to pull out in the fall?  And the avgolemono soup will remain a standard recipe of ours, so easy it only requires enough planning to have some lemons on hand.

We’ve been cooking with a lot of Indian inspiration lately.  After some enlightening cooking with ps and bm, I was keen to show off my new skills at making aloo paratha (potato filled flatbread).  And now we can’t stop making it!  Today, dinner inspiration started with some urad dal (black lentils) I had cooked previously and potatoes that heard it was spring and weren’t going to last in the veggie box much longer.  The urad dal turned out to be the perfect start to dal makhani, and this left us with potatoes screaming to become aloo paratha — the two came together for a delightful dinner.

With previously cooked (or simply canned) beans, dal makhani turns out to be surprisingly simple.  I think it was done before we’d even cooked the potatoes.  We started with a few coriander seeds and a good teaspoon of cumin seeds roasting in the dry pan, left until they started to brown.  Then we added a tablespoon of butter and some minced garlic, and before this got too brown, we added about two cups of crushed tomatoes.  This cooked together for a while and already smelled and tasted delicious.  Then we added the urad dal (just under two cups) and kidney beans (about half a cup, just under half of a 15oz can).  We mashed these with a fork as they heated up, until the tomatoes thickened and only occasional whole beans were left.  Then we seasoned with salt, garam masala, a little cayanne, some galangal (like ginger; we should have added this earlier with the garlic), and some ground feungreek.  Fenugreek seeds were called for in one recipe, so I thought I’d give it a try, and it turned out to add a really nice subtle-sweet flavor that rounded out the dal — I’d recommend it in the future.  We let this simmer on low while we pulled everything else together and added just a dash of cream at the end when we took it off the stove.

Meanwhile, we started the aloo paratha dough as ps taught me: To one cup lukewarm water, add flour slowly, mixing it well, until a dough forms.  Keep adding flour just until the dough is no longer sticky and then add some oil and salt (about a teaspoon of each).  Mix it together well and add flour if needed to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.  Divide this dough into balls smaller than a fist (we got 8 this time).

For the potato filling, we’ve actually been pretty lazy and have been microwaving the potatoes.  While we didn’t do it this time, I’d recommend peeling the potatoes in the future because the peels add a competing texture inside the bread.  We mashed the potatoes very well with a potato masher and added a bunch of spices.  I don’t know how ps makes her filling, but it should end up with a good kick to it.  We added garam masala, ground cumin seeds and red pepper flakes, tumeric, salt, some cayanne, and a hint of hot curry.   It’s not perfect yet, but it’s getting there.  And I’ve learned that you can’t skimp on the salt in Indian food — it really makes a difference.

To fill the paratha, form one ball into a cup in your palm and fill this with potato filling (at least as much as the original dough ball).  Pull the edges of the cup over the filling and press them together to seal the opening.  Place this side down on a lightly floured surface and roll out the ball gently into an ~8 inch circle.  Melt a small amount of butter (or better, if you have it: ghee) in a frying pan and cook the aloo paratha on both sides (it’s okay to flip frequently).  Once both sides have browned, you’ve successfully made aloo paratha!

With a little basmati rice, this meal came together nicely, and I thought that the dal and paratha complemented each other well.  The dal was slightly sweet, while the paratha was spicy and added nice texture.  Since we made the paratha dough with some whole wheat flour, it was pretty dense, and in the future (at least with other rich foods like dal), I would probably make a more white-flour based dough.  And considering how quickly this came together, the dal (or both) might be showing up more frequently on our dinner table.

After scouring several recipes, I determined that these proportions are pretty consistent, though this recipe is on the low end of the sugar spectrum.  It is also most prevalent to not bake these at all, though one recipe claimed that a slow bake in a 200oC oven adds depth…or just turns it into creme brulee?  I liked simply filling the ramekins and chilling them, and they set well just like that.

The biggest difference I noticed was when it came time to caramelize the tops.  Of course, the standard for crema catalana is to use a salamander (hot iron) to quickly scorch the tops; however, I tried to use a creme brulee torch.  Because the custards are not baked, they’re a lot more moist, causing the sugar topping to quickly dissolve and making it quite tricky to get a good caramel layer on top.  With enough patience I could get them all to caramelize well, but next time I would sprinkle the sugar just as I get to torching that ramekin, or even that half of the ramekin.

My recipe: (inspired by several sources including this, this, this, and this)

1 L (just shy of 4.5 C) whole milk

1 3″ cinnamon stick

1 vanilla bean, insides scraped out

4 sections of lemon peel

These ingredients were combined, throwing in the vanilla bean pod as well, and heated until boiling.  We let cool for a long time.

8 egg yolks (1/2 C)

7 T sugar

2 T cornstarch mixed together

These were mixed together while the milk cooled.  The milk was reheated and some was slowly added to the yolk mix, not getting it warm enough to cook the yolks but warming the yolks slightly.  This mixture could then be added to the rest of the hot milk and heated until thick, coating a wooden spoon.

In my hands, this filled 7 ramekins, 4 ~1 C and 3 that were a little larger.  They were chilled in the fridge overnight, but an hour or two should do.

Just before serving, caramelize the tops.  As mentioned above, take care to add the sugar just before torching so that the sugar doesn’t dissolve, otherwise use a salamander or broiler.

Unfortunately, there’s no photo evidence…I guess we’ll just have to make them again sometime!

Our winter obsession with beets has continued.  ib‘s Russian influence must be rubbing off…we just can’t get enough!  After some discussion about  new things to try with beets, and with a pinch of silliness, we landed on an idea that we actually really wanted to try: beetballs. Yes — spaghetti and beetballs.

We weren’t really interested in making a meat-substitute, but we were excited about the combination (yet separation) of flavors.  And I love the bold red color of beets, but not always after they bleed pink juices all over the pasta, so beetballs sounded like a clever way to concentrate the “mess” as well.  We also had to consider the pasta sauce for a while, as we wanted something to flavor and coat the noodles without distracting from the beets.  Oil-based or cream-based sauces seemed to be the way to go, but we decided to start simple with just some oil and sauteed leeks, leaving the pizzaz to the beetballs.

The biggest mystery was how we were actually going to create a tasty beet mixture that would be stable through ball-rolling and pan frying. (It could even work to bake the beetballs as one does Swedish meatballs, but for now we simply fried them.)  We decided that beans would be a good addition and considered canellini beans, chickpeas, and even lentils, but settled on chickpeas.  After puréeing beets in our food processor (really an attachment for a hand mixer, but it worked just fine for us), we mixed them in different ratios with puréed chickpeas, egg, breadcrumbs, ground flax, and spices.  We seasoned them mostly with paprika, salt, and pepper.  Then we rolled them into ping-pong sized balls and fried them until lightly golden on the outside.

The meal was very simple, but the beets stood up well in their star role and created an interesting new texture and theme.  Unfortunately, we weren’t very scientific about recording our beetball mix composition, but we also haven’t fully agreed on the best ratio of ingredients.  I think ib preferred a more chickpea-heavy flavor and texture, while I preferred to let the beets stand on their own, held together as much by the breadcrumbs and flax as the bean purée.  We both agreed that the breadcrumbs added a nice texture and we’d make sure that they’re in the mix in the future.  Now it might be time to try out other beans and maybe some quinoa or other ingredients to beef up our beetballs.

There’s nothing better than a casual plan to make dinner with friends that turns into a creative and fantastic meal! We were inspired by se‘s need for pre-race carbs, my random suggestion to use squash puree, and our friends’ spaetzle-maker.

We decided to put the squash puree right into the spaetzle. se mixed them up, using eggs, squash puree, and flour, with no need for extra water; then, he showed us that we have to dip the spaetzle-maker directly into the boiling water.

We made the sauce starting with caramelized onions, then we sauteed mushrooms, and finally added in some chopped spinach and hazelnuts just before taking it off the heat. We rounded out the sauce with a little white wine and a bunch of cream and tossed it together with the spaetzle. After mixing it together, I realized the sauce would have coated the noodles well even with less cream, but as bm says, “when do you ever have too much cream?” Unfortunately, the spaetzle didn’t take on a very noticeable squash flavor, but I did think that they had a really nice texture. Maybe if we roasted the squash next time we could concentrate the flavor?

The spaetzle soaked up the sauce nicely and the touch of spinach provided beautiful color to the dish. The hazelnuts provided a key richness to the sauce that worked very nicely with the hint of squash flavor. We topped the dish with just a touch of parmesan (pecorino would also be good, adding a little more saltiness) and nutmeg. What a great way to pack in the veggies and create a satisfying pasta dish at the same time!

I could invent some sort of rationale for having made this meal—minimalism, balance, a focus on good ingredients—but, honestly, I just came across the recipe and found it irresistible.  I was sold on smoked salmon and al dente pasta.  Pulling this salad together, flavor-wise, proved challenging, but ultimately rewarding, once we hit the right balance.

I began by shredding 4 oz smoked salmon, leaving a luxurious smudge of salmon oils on the cutting board.  The next ingredients (¼ cup scallions, ½ cup celery) I chopped separately, since they’re ones that dsd doesn’t always like; but in the end, we tossed them all in, along with ½ cup green bell pepper and a little olive oil (and the pasta, 1 lb rigatoni, which had been cooked until al dente, then cooled under a stream of water).  We also tossed in two hard-boiled eggs, because we had them, and it sounded fun.  The first round of this salad used about 2 tbsp mayonnaise, a lot of dill, and not quite enough salt and pepper; the slightly more oil-based salad was fun, but it tasted a little flat.  Adding a little more mayonnaise, salt, and pepper really pulled the salad together dramatically.  This gave us enough for dinner and two lovely lunches; I ate mine straight out of the ‘fridge, and loved every bite.