This Weekend (backyard or in the wild)
20 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Entrees, Party Food Tags: aluminum foil, barbeque, campfire food, camping food, cookout, foilie, grill out, scallops, seafood, white fish
Scallops. Middle Eastern Couscous. Lemon. Cranberries. Fire.
Yum! But how does it all work?
Tin foil packages, which we’ll call “foilies” – it rolls off your tongue better, and sounds incredibly kid-friendly, which it is. Sadly, this was new to me – I know, I’ve gone through my whole life without foilies! Thanks to my coworkers Jen & Genie, however, foilies have come into my life and campfire cooking will forever be more exciting.
Genie’s a recipe whiz and deserves all the credit for how divine this one is! She invented more great recipes for foilies and pudgie pies (sweet or savory sandwiches cooked in a pie iron over the fire) that’ll all be in our upcoming Summer Catalyst, out late next month – can’t wait!
If you are camping, this is the ideal food to prep in advance if you’re taking cold packs along. Build a fire and it’s instant, and wayyy better – incomparable, really – than a can of beans or a variety pack of granola bars. Sheesh, incomparable isn’t a strong enough word!
This is really fabulous – make it.
Scallops or White Fish with Cranberry Almond Couscous
Genie Maybanks
4 large sheets heavy-duty foil
1 T. smoked paprika
1 t. crushed red pepper flakes (reduce if desired)
1 c. uncooked Middle Eastern (large) couscous
¼ c. sliced green onion
½ c. sliced almonds
½ c. dried cranberries
salt & pepper
2 T. chopped fresh parsley (optional)
1 can (10 1/2 oz.) chicken broth or 1 T. bullion plus 1 1/2 c. water
1 lb. scallops or 4 white fish fillets
4 T. melted butter, margarine, olive oil, or walnut oil
1 lemon, peel sliced off, thinly sliced, seeds removed
(For simpler version, simply use fish, couscous, bullion, 3 T. dried dill or 2-3 T. dried chives, dried cranberries, oil, and lemon slices)
COMBINE first 8 ingredients. Stir in half of the chicken broth.
CENTER ¼ of the mixture on each sheet of foil, with the dull side toward food. Top with scallops or fish, butter or oil, and lemon slices.
FOLD up foil sides partway, add remaining chicken broth to each, and seal the packets, leaving room for heat circulation inside.
GRILL 8 to 10 minutes in covered grill or on campfire until fish is cooked through.
White Steak
27 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Entrees, Sides Tags: cabbage family plants, cauliflower, delicate flavor, food as art, sear, simplicity, vegetarian, vegetarian steak, white food, white steak
I’m a fan of simplicity.
The thing about simplicity is, if it’s not appreciated for its beauty,
it’s called ‘boring.’
I would say that cauliflower is under-appreciated.
It’s white – the color of simplicity, if a non-color word can be assigned a color. Its flavor is delicate. Like simple, ‘delicate,’ when not appreciated for its beauty, can also be called ‘boring.’
I’m sure you’re following. Here’s a recipe to appreciate the delicacy of cauliflower’s flavor, and how naturally gorgeous it is. (When I worked on the farm and walked the fields, I was eternally amazed by the beautiful, lush, cabbage-family plants, leaves curling up to hide the small, growing heads, only one apiece. To boot, it can be hard to grow – it needs a long growing season, so if fall comes too soon, no cauliflower – just a big leafy plant).
As for simplicity, this recipe has under five ingredients to keep that flavor clear.
If you’d like to explore the simplicity of cauliflower in a soup form that I’m curious about (also in about five ingredients), try this one - and let me know how it turns out!
Cauliflower Steaks + Puree
Adapted from Epicurious
2 servings
a 1 1/2-lb. head of cauliflower
1 1/2 c.water
1 c. whole milk
2 T. vegetable oil plus additional for brushing
parsley to garnish (optional)
Preheat oven to 250°F. With a heavy, sharp knife, cut two 1-inch-thick slices of cauliflower, starting at top center of cauliflower head and cutting through stem end. Set cauliflower steaks aside.
Cut up remaining cauliflower into florets and medium pieces, to measure 3 cups. Combine with water and milk in a medium saucepan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bring to boil and cook until cauliflower is very tender, about 10 minutes.
Strain, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Spread florets on large rimmed baking sheet and bake 10 minutes, until slightly dry.
Transfer florets to blender and add reserved 1 cup cooking liquid. Puree until smooth and return to saucepan. Increase oven temperature to 350°F.
Heat vegetable oil in large, heavy, ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.
Brush cauliflower steaks with additional oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add cauliflower steaks to skillet and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until tender, about 10 minutes.
Rewarm cauliflower puree over medium heat, then divide between 2 plates and top each with a cauliflower steak.
Like this:
Summer’s End Lasagna
30 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Entrees Tags: dinner for a crowd, fresh tomato sauce, fresh tomatoes, Italian, lasagna, ricotta, sausage
I’m not sure about you, but I always want something celebratory for the first and last of each season, and by season, I mean food season. So the first zucchini is exciting, and the last batch of basil pesto as well.
Right now I’m mentally preparing for the departure of summer tomatoes, though – fingers crossed – maybe that frost’ll hold off a little bit longer.
I’ve been diligently freezing my tomatoes to use this winter, so really I shouldn’t be hung up on this “last of” thing – thanks to my deep freeze, I can have summer tomatoes in January!
I don’t think I’ve told you how I process tomatoes, and for that I apologize! I love my method because, well, it’s easy. Summertime is a busybusy time for me, and I personally am not keen on the idea of feeling slavish in a hot kitchen over a steaming vat of canning jars. Others may be more Rosie-the-Riveter-canners than I, but I – at the moment – am pleased as punch with my freezer.
Here’s my method:
get tomatoes
wash them
chop them up
put them in freezer bags
put them in the freezer
Put my feet up. Okay, so I didn’t actually do a lot of that, but I really should. Next year.
Frozen in bags, they’re ready to be defrosted and made into tomato sauce, soup, chili, what have you. Obviously you don’t want to put frozen tomatoes in your salad or straight on your sandwich, but you wouldn’t want to do that with a canned one either. Frozen tomatoes are more nutritious than either canned (since canning involves cooking) or those scary anemic winter “fresh” tomatoes. Rest assured, they’re delicious in January.
Allie’s Lasagna
I like to make it with a very loose tomato sauce (water-heavy, i.e. from fresh tomatoes) and raw lasagna noodles. A loose sauce will serve to cook the noodles, so you don’t have to. This is a point of contention for some, and I used to be in the I-must-cook-my-noodles-first camp, but I’ve since come to the other side. It’s all about the thickness of the sauce, and it’s so much easier you’ll want to make lasagna more often. Oh, and you don’t need “no cook” lasagna noodles for this method; I always like the normal Bionaturae organic lasagna.
Make the tomato sauce first and let it simmer while you make everything else:
Heat olive oil over medium heat, saute onion until just softening, add garlic and a sprig of basil to flavor the oil and stir until fragrant and onions are soft. If anything’s stuck at this point, adding the juicy tomatoes will de-glaze the pan, so add those tomatoes, stir, scraping the pan, and bring to a simmer, adding another couple chopped up sprigs of basil and seasoning with salt and pepper.
I like to finish tomato sauce with a drizzle of olive oil as well, for its fresh taste. Let it simmer while preparing the rest, but before assembling the lasagna, season to taste and err on the salty side, as you’re seasoning the lasagna noodles with this sauce and pasta absorbs salt when cooking and tastes better for it.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
Remove sausages from their casings and break them up in a cold saute pan. Turn the heat onto medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until mostly but not entirely cooked. Push the sausage to the edges of the pan, but don’t drain it unless there’s really a lot of fat. Add the mushrooms to the middle of the pan and saute for several minutes. No other fat’s necessary and now those will be some truly delicious mushrooms.
Assemble the lasagna – usually I do about three layers of noodles, making sure they have lots of contact with the sauce:
Sauce the bottom of a 9×12 pan, then lay out a layer of lasagna noodles, and space around them is just fine.
Put a bit more sauce on top of the noodles. Dot/spread with ricotta and sprinkle with sausage/mushrooms, then top with another layer of noodles. Put a layer of sauce on top of the noodles, dot with ricotta, then put your handfuls of spinach right on top. Again, noodles, sauce, ricotta, and more sausage/mushrooms if there’s more of them.
Repeat until the pan is full to about the top, making sure there’s plenty extra sauce around the noodles to cook them. Sprinkle with mozzarella and a bit more Parmesan.
Cover with foil. Unfortunately it will stick to the top – I don’t know a solution for this. If you do, please leave me a comment!
…
Bake for about an hour, until sauce is bubbling to the top and a knife inserted into it tells you that the noodles are cooked. Remove the foil, scraping the cheese off it with a spatula, and turn the broiler onto low. Broil until browning and it looks DELICIOUS.
Remove from the oven and let stand for about 10 minutes, if you can wait. As it cools, it’ll set up more. Enjoy!
