Carnival squash & sage barley risotto with maple butter

Monday, November 17, 2014

If there’s a more Fall-spirited, festive, happy-making dish around, please fill me in.

Let’s talk about ingredients first, starting with this squash. (I know, I know, three straight weeks of squash…next week will be squash-free, promise).

The name “Carnival” really sums it up. This squash makes me want to throw on a party hat and blow on a plastic kazoo. Am I the only one?

Carnival squash is a heritage breed and can usually be found at your local farmer’s market. If you’re really lucky, lighting strikes, and you’re there on the right day, you can find them at Whole Foods. Especially around Thanksgiving when Whole Foods erupts into a massive delivery channel of straight-from-the-farm produce, from Winter greens to Winter squash, Garnet Yams, and everything in between.

The Carnival squash’s skin ranges from dark green to vivid orange, and the flesh is sweet and a little spicy. I’ve got to be careful about using the word “flesh” since my kids erroneously presumed that I was feeding them humans when we did our mystery food challenge last week. I assume that you won’t make the same mistake. We don’t eat humans in our house, and neither should you.

If you’ve been reading my posts, you’ll know that I have a habit of prepping ingredients right after I get home from the store. Prepped ingredients are far easier to incorporate into quick-fix meals, so I usually slice and roast squash with nothing but olive oil, salt and pepper, and then figure out how to use it at a later time.

Likewise with homemade stock. Whenever I’m at the store, I pick up a few extra pieces of bony/collagen-filled meat, which I make into stock that can either be refrigerated for a few days, or frozen. If you’ve ever wondered who that person is buying up those packages of chicken backs, lamb necks, or chunky pork bones – that would be me. They’re cheap, and the bones give your stock incredible body.

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Savory

Kid-approved recipes from The 52 New Foods Challenge Book

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

One of the interesting takeaways from our weekly efforts to try new foods is the fact that my kids prefer to eat foods in as close to their natural state as possible.

Carrots? Raw…

Squash like zucchini, yellow squash and pattypan? You guessed it.

Potatoes? Now that might be stretching it.

We’ve been able to try a host of new foods together simply by peeling and eating. Which on the one hand is great – introducing new foods into my kids’ diets has never been easier. But on the other hand, my adult palette is craving more mature foods…foods that actually have sauces, and garnishes.

I know that we’ll get there. One day we’ll sit down as a family and heap our plates full of lasagna or pearl barley risotto. I’ll be able to sauce, dip, smother and otherwise complicate food to my heart’s content.

Until then, we’ll move ahead in baby steps, which means connecting with my kids at their level: recognizing that meals with a more complex set of flavors can be intimidating, and developing recipes that are both easy for me and appealing to them. It’s hard to take rejection in the kitchen, so keeping things simple is always the goal. If they don’t like it, so be it, at least I haven’t spent a huge amount of time on the dish.

As part of my work in the food world over the past year and a half, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting others who are on a similar mission to eliminate (or at least reduce) kids’ pickiness at mealtimes.

And what a time to be picky! Our farmer’s markets have grown in size and stature, CSA delivery boxes have become the norm, and businesses offering home-delivery of artisanal food products are sprouting faster than asparagus in April.

This is a time to embrace food, to get back to our roots, and to teach our kids about the availability of beautiful, healthy foods that can both nourish and satisfy hungry bellies.

Today I’m introducing you to someone who I consider to be an ally in my effort to educate kids about healthy food.

Jennifer Tyler Lee is also a Mom and Entrepreneur who has written a book called The 52 New Foods Challenge.

After struggling with her own kids’ picky eating, she came to a similar conclusion: that by making things fun, and encouraging kids to eat a new food each week, she could encourage her kids to accept a healthier range of meal options.

While my blog focuses more on a weekly exploration of a single food independently, Jennifer offers a roadmap for exploring 52 new foods over the course of a year, and has some healthy recipe suggestions to help you along.

I loved reading through her book. Although I’m a voracious home cook, I admit that I still sometimes struggle with mealtime ideas for the kids. Grain salad with spicy Hatch chiles and radishes? Not a favorite of theirs. And they were not pleased to find me inserting lobster and tarragon into their mac ‘n cheese.

I thought that I’d take a cue from Jennifer and create some recipes at home inspired by the 52 New Foods Challenge book, yet still within the confines of my own food philosophy which is summed up by this: all food – even kid food – should appeal to the whole family, even if it means bringing the kids along for the ride.

In other words, I should want to dig into the meal just as much as they do.

Back to my earlier comment about sauces, given my kids’ reluctance to try them, I figured that I’d make a dish out of flavors that they recognize (e.g. carrots, pears, ketchup) along with a set of flavors that are completely new to them (e.g. ginger, soy sauce).

One of the foods on the list of 52 New Foods in Jennifer’s book is Asian pears. We tried Asian pears last year as part of our weekly mystery food challenge and the results were iffy. But with a little persistence, we’ve tried them a few more times (remember, repeating foods with kids is key) and they’ve become a family favorite. In fact we were recently at the Farmer’s market and picked up a basket of Asian pears. To my shock (and glee), my kids ate through the whole lot within the first few days. Scrambling over to Whole Foods to pick up an extra ingredient for the recipe shared in this post has never been so satisfying!

Pears are great for eating out of hand, for baking, and they cook down beautifully to lend a subtle sweetness to sauces for any kind of meat or vegetable dish.

Pears are often a key component in Asian cooking, so I thought that I’d create an Asian-style sauce with pears and use it to glaze tender baby back ribs.

I cook the ribs in the slow cooker – they require no browning at all, just a light seasoning, and then they cook until meltingly tender for 8-10 hours. It’s easy to start them the morning that you plan to serve them, but you can always cook them overnight. The sauce is made by blending pears with a few other vegetables and condiments (let the kids push the button, it always helps!) and then is used to baste the ribs in the oven before serving. If you have a little toaster-style oven on the counter, you can use this here too for the final glaze, depending on how many ribs you’re cooking.

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100 new foods

Parsnips

Thursday, October 16, 2014

I admit that it’s only been of late that I’ve fallen completely and madly in love with parsnips. I used to lump them in with other categories of root vegetables, namely turnips, celeriac, and other knobby specimens. Which take some getting used to if you’re unfamiliar with their earthy taste. But the second I sautéed some peeled and trimmed parsnips in a little bit of butter on the stove, I realized that they live in a category all their own. There’s a honeyed sweetness to parsnips that makes them a joy to cook – not only because they’re delicious, but also because they fill the kitchen with a scent so comforting and familiar, you’ll wonder why they’ve never been in the regular rotation. The kids’ response? More of what seems to be the usual these days.

ME: OK, What are these called? Does anyone know?

SAM: French fries?

ME: No, they’re not French fries

SAM: I’m gonna try.

ME: Want to smell it first?

SAM: Yes.

LAUREN: Don’t you dare spit it out. Handsome dudes don’t spit stuff out.

[chewing noises]

ME: Do you know what it’s called?

EMMA: No.

ME: It’s called parsnips.

EMMA: Eww.

ME: Did you smell it?

ME: It think they smell like honey. And so, to make it even taste a little bit more like honey, I cooked them with a tiny bit of honey and butter. Which I usually don’t do with mystery foods, but I thought I’d change things up a little. Want to try another, Sam?

SAM: BLAH!

ME: You don’t like it?

LAUREN: Drink your water cocktail. (aka sparkling water and apple juice)

ME: Yeah, drink your water cocktail.

LAUREN: What are you doing SAM?!

ME: He’s just going to get rid of it. He doesn’t want it. That’s fine.

SAM: BLAH!

ME: So nobody likes it?

EMMA: I like it.

ME: Did you try it too, Lauren?

LAUREN: I did.

ME: What do you think it tastes like?

LAUREN: It tastes Swedish.
continue reading

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CSA

Bialas Farms CSA: Week 15

Monday, October 6, 2014

I’m in a rut. A dark, dank, no light at the end of the tunnel rut, and it all starts and ends with tomatoes. Other than the token tomato soup that I shared with you last week, I’ve gotten lazy with my tomatoes. Tomato salad, tomato salad, sliced tomatoes and salt (!), tomato salad. These are the confessions of a local food addict.

Box contents:

Tomatoes
Acorn Squash
Zucchini
Assorted Peppers*
Beets
Spinach
Leeks
Carrots
Sweet Corn
Cippolini Onions

Tomato salad with shaved zucchini, corn and parsley

Tomato salad with beet green pesto vinaigrette, corn, arugula, and torn mozzarella

Tomato salad with steamed broccoli, arugula, corn, and lemon yogurt dressing with za’atar

It sounds so ungrateful, because what’s not to love about these gorgeous salads? But I’m over it. I need to branch out. Give me a tart, give me a quiche, give me a flaky buttery crostata. I picked up more tomatoes in my CSA box on Saturday: Mark my word, you will not be seeing any tomato salads next week. As beautiful, health-inducing, and waistline-friendly as they may be, it’s time to pack them up with the sundresses and stow them away until next year.

Although this may seem like stream of consciousness, edit-worthy and destined for the delete button, I’ve left it in here to prove one point: that just because I cook some elaborate meals for our family each week, I still struggle with what to make. I get stuck in old routines, I defer to the dish of least resistance. Come January when a fresh tomato is but a fleck in my distant memory I’ll be full of ideas. This week, I’m running on empty.

Joining a CSA is wildly fun, but you end up getting a set of vegetables that you might not otherwise be in the mood for. Which I guess is a blessing in disguise because it forces me out of my comfort zone, and into the cookbooks that I love to collect and don’t always have time to read. So stay tuned for next week where I’ll hopefully do some creative things with lettuce and tomatoes. That involve neither bacon nor bread.

Let’s talk about the first cookbook that I checked out in detail: David Chang’s “Momofuku”. I’ll be honest, Rodney gifted me this book a few years ago and it went directly to the cookbook shelf to collect dust. I did flip through it briefly and thought to myself: Konbu? Dashi? Not happening.

Although I pride myself in taking risks with ingredients like Chermoula and Black Tahini, when you nudge me East of the Mediterranean, I panic.

Maybe it has to do with that time when I summoned the nerve to walk into an authentic Japanese grocery store in Midtown, saw not a lick of printed English and fled without purchasing my intended bag of Shiro miso.

But on impulse last week, I was shopping for short ribs at Whole Foods’ meat counter and the pork belly was calling to me. I try to buy organic and hormone-free meats whenever I can, and Whole Food always has a great selection. With no intended recipe in my head, I came home and wondered…. “who knows how to cook pork belly?”

“David Chang, that’s who!”

My subconscious is intuitive when it comes to food.

Out came the Momofuku cookbook. I brushed off the dust and flipped through to page 50 for belly directions. An overnight dry brine, and then an hour-long crispy-skin inducing roast at 450 degrees followed by a long slow roast at 250.

I won’t indulge you with any specific descriptions of what happened next but it involved a trail of gleaming fat on my cheek and pieces of charred bacon wedged under my fingernails. Appetizing, I know. But have you ever seen a dog attack a piece of meat when she thinks that nobody is looking?

Fortunately I was able to save most of the belly for other purposes, namely this super delicious pork belly Banh Mi sandwich. I ate it for lunch and then served it to Rodney for dinner that night. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, which I took as a positive sign.

(that was mine from lunch)

(here was his from dinner right before the top layer smooshed everything down into one fantastic porky/salady mess of fabulousness)

To make the pork belly:

Sprinkle a 2-lb piece of pork belly all over with 2 tablespoons each of salt and sugar, cover and place in the fridge overnight. Nestle the belly in a roasting pan and heat in a high oven (450 degrees) and roast fat side up for an hour. Turn the heat down to 250 degrees, basting occasionally, and continue to cook for another 90 minutes. Let cool, then slice.

To make the pickled cabbage:

While the pork belly is roasting, take a quarter head of red cabbage, core, and then slice thinly. Toss the cabbage in a bowl with 1 tablespoon each of salt and sugar, and 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar. Let the cabbage pickle on the counter, tossing every once in a while.

To make the banh mi:

Split a French bread roll in half, and squeeze a little may on each side (I prefer to use Kewpie mayo, a Japanese brand, but use whatever you have on hand whether it’s Hellman’s or homemade). On one side layer the majority of your vegetable ingredients- the pickled cabbage, sliced cucumbers, shredded carrots, and torn cilantro. Season this side with a touch of salt. On the other side layer your sliced pork belly, sliced radishes, and daikon sprouts (or shredded daikon / more radishes if you don’t have the sprouts available). Season again with a touch of salt. Finish the sandwich by squeezing a touch of lime over the whole thing and adding a few drops of Chili Lime Cholula or Sriracha (even Tabasco will work). Enjoy the best dang sandwich you’ve ever made.

But I didn’t want to stop there because directly opposite the recipe for pork belly was a recipe for pork shoulder which he uses for all kinds of preparations, including ramen.

There was a time when I thought that ramen meant a Cup-o-soup full of dried noodles and super salty broth. Which wasn’t entirely unpleasant (notwithstanding the searing post-consumption MSG headache), but if you’ve had real deal ramen made with pork stock….there’s nothing like it.

The great thing about cooking pork shoulder is that you’re left with a) a mound of perfectly shredded pork meat for our soup and b) a gigantic dinosaur-looking bone which you can use to make the stock.

So that’s what I did – dry-brined the shoulder according to Chang’s directions, and then roasted it at a low temp for close to 8 hours. I used the bone to make a pork stock overnight in the slow cooker, and the next day made ramen. Which isn’t a true replicate of Momofuku’s ramen because I didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand (the konbu, the dried shitakes) but it was my version. Meaning to say a CSA vegetable-doctored Asian/Mediterranean hybrid that sounds weird but was really delicious. Feel free to add whatever vegetables that you have on hand, but my fridge was stocked with plenty of goods from my CSA box, along with some delicate daikon sprouts that I pick up weekly from my local market.

To make the make the pork shoulder for the ramen:

Sprinkle a 3-lb piece of bone-in pork shoulder all over with 2 tablespoons each of salt and sugar, cover and place in the fridge overnight. The next day, pour off any accumulated juices and nestle the meat in a roasting pan. Roast at 250 degrees for 6-8 hours (I found that it didn’t really matter- Because I couldn’t attend to it when it was done cooking, mine probably cooked for 9 hours and was just fine). Let cool slightly, then shred, saving the bone for the stock. Also, save any fat and juices that have accumulated in the bottom of the pan in a mason jar- they’ll help flavor the stock. You can add a tablespoon of water to the pan to help deglaze and remove the stubborn pieces. This will make FAR more pork than you need for the soup, so feel free to use for anything else that you want – enchiladas? tacos? stew?

To make the pork stock:

Place the pork bone into a slow cooker, and add some vegetables – I added a chopped onion, 2 carrots peeled and chopped, 2 chopped stalks of celery, 2 bay leaves, and 5 peppercorns. (This makes a more Mediterranean-flavored stock since I wanted to use a versatile stock for other uses as well). Add 2 quarts of water, and set the slow cooker to low, cooking for 8-12 hours or over night. When the stock is done, strain out the vegetables.

Pull the mason jar of congealed pork fat from the fridge (mmmm, congealed pork fat sounds delicious, doesn’t it?) and scoop off the light-colored fat from the top. You can keep it if you’d like for other purposes- roasting potatoes, etc. Then scoop out the darker brown porky bits that are at the bottom of the jar and stir this into the stock for added richness. If you’re going to use the stock just for ramen, add a few tablespoons of soy sauce for color and added flavor.

To make the ramen:

Assemble your ingredients: I used a combination of sliced radishes, sliced green onions, sliced red cabbage, and daikon sprouts. Make sure that your pork is warm, and have some extra soy sauce and Sriracha on hand.

Cook your noodles in a large pot of salted water. I like to use Somen noodles, but you can use anything you’d like. While the noodles are cooking, cook your eggs to perfectly soft-boiled consistency and follow chef Chang’s recommendations to the letter: bring a pot of water to boil, add your room temp eggs, and then cook for exactly 5 minutes, 10 seconds. I now swear by this method- the eggs come out perfectly cooked. Run under cold water and peel.

When the noodles are done, ladle them into a large, flat bowl, and top with your ingredients- the radishes, cabbage, sprouts, pork, warm shredded pork, and the soft-boiled egg, halved. Season to taste with additional soy sauce and Sriracha.

Now from one cookbook to another: Michael Symon’s “Carnivore”.

I was a Michael Symon fan long before he first appeared on the Food Network as Iron Chef Symon. Michael Ruhlman had written about Chef Symon’s eponymous restaurant “Lola” in the book “The Soul of a Chef”. Ruhlman’s portrayal of Chef Symon was nothing short of infectious, and despite never having been to Cleveland, I immediately developed a legitimate crush on the bald guy with a big laugh and even bigger food.

Michael Symon came out with the book “Carnivore” two years ago, and I bought it immediately, eager to check out his recipes at home. The book has never disappointed, and it was the first resource I checked for some short rib inspiration.

Short ribs are a favorite Fall food, and the temperature doesn’t have to dip more than a few degrees south of 70 before I break out the cast iron Dutch oven. I used Michael Symon’s recipe for red wine-braised veal short ribs, which I swapped for your standard full-grown beef variety and scaled back for a moderate 5 ribs and 1 bottle of wine. (his calls for 4 bottles!)

9 comments

CSA

Bialas Farms CSA: Week 14

Monday, September 29, 2014

Another vividly-hued box of produce arrived on my doorstep last week. Not quite on my doorstep – it’s a 15-minute drive to pick up my box in Ringwood but it’s always worth the effort.

Just take a look at what was in store…..

I took that picture for Edible Manhattan magazine whose Instagram feed I hosted last week. Edible is the place to find out about local eats; if you haven’t been reading the magazine, you can learn more about it here.

In this week’s box, Bialas Farms provided:

Tomatoes
Spaghetti Squash
Kirby Cucumbers
Red Peppers
Curly Kale
Russet Bakers
Green Beans
Garlic
Spinach
Lettuce

You know what comes first in these CSA posts….

It wouldn’t be a proper CSA post without kicking things off with some sort of salad. I just love eating a whole bunch of vegetables, piled on a plate and garnished with some torn pieces of fresh mozzarella.

In this dish we ate a mix of heirloom tomatoes, sliced Kirby cukes, corn (FYI I’m still using that microwave technique that I talked about it previous weeks), and blanched green beans. The softer herbs from my herb garden have sadly turned into spindly stick figures of their former selves and although I love rosemary for baking and roasting, I don’t love the woody herbs for salad-making. Maybe I’ll challenge myself next week to find some way to incorporate them into salads because I do love herbs on a salad like this; I missed them. But it was delicious nonetheless.

I had another salad later in the week which was kind of revolutionary in its simplicity. I usually stick to Italian, Greek and Middle-Eastern influences when I’m making my salads, but here I went with Spanish flavors. I sliced a large yellow heirloom and piled a big ball of torn burrata in the middle. Yes, I know it’s an Italian cheese, but stick with me for a moment.

I dusted the whole thing with smoked paprika, and scattered some smoked Maldon salt over the top. I drizzled the salad with a good Spanish olive oil and some aged Sherry vinegar. It was just enough of a flavor tweak to make my usual tomato + burrata cheese feel fresh and new. I’m already thinking of future iterations – fried bits of chorizo? Roasted smoked paprika chickpeas? Marcona almonds? A punchy aged Manchego? (and for the record, that’s ManchEGO, not ManchENGO, a common mistake that I made until a kindhearted soul corrected me a few years ago.)

Things got a little weird with this number, which is your standard tomato panzanella (bread salad) topped with some quick-pickled zucchini, peppers and corn.

Play with your salads. It’s safe, healthy, inexpensive, creative – what more can you ask of your vegetables right?

Another way to play: soups.

I know that half of the Internet is out there talking about the joy of Fall – the sweaters, the leaves, the Honeycrisp apples. Let me join this big lovefest by proclaiming that I, too, am smitten with the season. Let me tell you a little more about what I’ve been making in the soup department.

Faced with an abundance of heirloom tomatoes and feeling like I can’t stare another sliced raw tomato in the eye, I cooked them into submission and made this: Heirloom tomato bisque with Saint Andre waffled grilled cheese sandwiches on the side.

It was every ounce as decadent as it sounds, and I highly recommend that you give this combination a try. The Saint Andre oozes out of the sandwiches as they grill in the iron and you’re left with a sweet/tart/earthy soup with the best darn soldiers in the business.