vegetarian – Page 5 – Sue's Seasonal Palate

March 24, 2016 Spinach and Roasted Garlic Hummus

When I am looking for a snack, hummus is a healthy choice I feel good about adding to my shopping cart. But the truth is, it’s takes just minutes to make my own, and it’s healthier (no additives), tastier and cheaper too. The word hummus in Arabic means chickpea so strictly speaking, hummus is the term for a chickpea dip. Hummus bi tahini means chickpeas with tahini, a paste of ground sesame seeds. Whether you add tahini or not, a basic hummus includes garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and salt.

One of my favorite food memories is a chickpea soup Joe made for me one Valentine’s Day. I absolutely love the sweet nutty flavor of freshly cooked chickpeas and in a perfect world I would always use them when I make hummus. However, dried chickpeas need to be soaked overnight, drained the next day and cooked for 1-3 hours, depending on freshness. I don’t always have time for that and the delayed gratification it requires.

However if you have the time, substitute one half the quantity of dried beans for the canned. The standard 15 ounce can of chickpeas drained is about 9 ounces or 1 ½ cups of beans. This translates into 4.5 ounces of dried beans or ¾ cup. Many cooks add a pinch of baking soda to tenderize dried beans to both the soaking and cooking water. The United States dried bean council (of course there’s one!) points out that it destroys part of the thiamine (aka vitamin B 1), making the amino acids less digestible and negatively affects the nutritional value. I’ll leave that heavy decision up to you.

A basic hummus recipe is easy and delicious and just the jumping off point for countless variations. I have previously shared a beet hummus recipe, this time I added fresh spinach and roasted garlic to the recipe.

If you are not already roasting garlic cloves, you should. It takes more time to get your oven up to temperature than in does to get this kitchen staple together. The first time I roasted garlic I winged it but I am pleased to say my uninformed guess was pretty much on target. This is the basic recipe; cut about the top quarter off each head of garlic with a sharp knife to expose all the cloves. Slowly pour olive oil over each head, letting it soak into and around the cloves. Wrap the prepared heads of garlic in foil and bake in a 425°F oven. Start checking the garlic at the 45 minute mark. The finished cloves should be soft, golden and slightly protruding from the skins. I always roast more than what I need, it will keep in the fridge for about a week, that is if it lasts that long. You can also freeze roasted garlic for several months.

Everything goes into the food processor or blender, except the reserved chickpea liquid. I added three cloves of roasted garlic to my basic hummus recipe, along with three loosely packed cups of spinach leaves. I added a half teaspoon each of some appropriate dried herbs, cumin, for it’s smoky flavor, smoked paprika also brings smokiness and a little heat. Sumac is the herb you may not be familiar with, it has a fruity astringent taste, milder than a lemon. I shared more background on it in this post. It is readily available from several of the herb and spice mail order sights.

Add the additional bean liquid to get it completely smooth and holds it’s shape. Taste and add more salt if needed. Transfer mixture into a serving dish. Garnish with a dash of olive oil and a sprinkle of smoked paprika. Serve at room temperature.

Spinach and Roasted Garlic Hummus

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

1-15 ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas) drained and liquid reserved
3-4 c spinach leaves, large stems removed
1/3 c tahini
3 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
3-4 cloves roasted garlic, or to your taste
½ t salt, and more to taste
1 t each cumin, sumac and smoked paprika
1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
A dusting of smoked paprika for the topping

Directions

Add all the ingredients to your food processor or blender. Pulse, adding additional bean liquid as needed to get the hummus completely smooth.
Taste and add salt if desired.
Scoop into a serving bowl and sprinkle top with smoked paprika and a little olive oil if desired.
Serve with the dippers of your choice.

February 16, 2016 Shaved Fennel and Arugula Salad with Blood Oranges and Walnuts

This simple salad unites two of winter’s best produce offerings, fennel and blood oranges. I added some peppery arugula, tossed them with a blood orange dressing with toasted fennel seed and topped it with toasted walnuts.

In the world of vegetables, poor fennel doesn’t get the attention that it truly deserves. Originally an Italian import, it’s readily found in any well stocked grocery store, usually keeping company near the radishes and lettuces. It’s full of nutrients like vitamin C, potassium and fiber with a texture that is crisp like celery and a flavor is mildly anisey. Fennel is available year round but it’s peak season is fall and winter.

I propose the reason for fennel negligence is twofold. One, many cooks aren’t sure what parts are usable and two, they are not sure how to cut it up. That’s easy to clarify, when shopping for fennel choose small to medium plump bulbs always with the stalks and feathery greenery still attached. To prepare for cooking, cut off the stalks and the feathery foliage. Remove any outside ribs that appear tough or damaged. Slice the trimmed fennel bulb crosswise thinly with a knife or mandoline for raw preparations or cut vertically into larger pieces for grilling or roasting. The stalks can be as a bed for cooking whole fish or stuffed in a chicken before roasting. The stalks could also be used as a component in chicken or vegetarian stock. The feathery fronds make an attractive edible garnish. I use raw fennel quite often in our winter salads and I also like fennel quartered either roasted or grilled. Grilling caramelizes fennel and enhances the flavor.

Blood oranges are readily available now and I like to use them as much as I can during their December to March season The red blush of the blood orange’s skin hints at what’s inside. The magenta flesh color is due to the presence of anthocyanins, the pigment that makes blueberries blue, cherries red and eggplants purple. Blood orange’s flavor is tart-sweet with just a hint of berry.

This is a very easy salad to make. Shave the fennel crosswise very thinly with a mandoline or sharp knife. Always use the finger guard with the mandoline, I learned the hard way on a new, very sharp mandoline a few years ago, when I was shaving fennel come to think of it. Cut the peel and pith from the orange, again using your sharpest knife and cut crosswise into rounds. The crispy fennel and peppery arugula are combined with a blood orange and toasted fennel seed vinaigrette. Add the blood orange sections and toss again. Top with toasted walnut pieces and fennel fronds.

Shaved Fennel and Arugula Salad with Blood Oranges and Walnuts

Serves four

Ingredients for the salad

1 medium fennel, top trimmed off and fronds reserved
4 blood oranges
6-7 c baby arugula
¼c toasted chopped walnuts

Ingredients for the dressing

l blood orange
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T minced shallot
1 t honey
½t fennel seed
1 t salt
½c extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions for the dressing

Juice the orange, you should have about ¼ cup.
In a dry skillet, lightly toast the fennel seeds until fragrant. Cool slightly and crush with a mortar and pestle.
Stir all the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Reserve.

Directions for the salad

Slice fennel very thinly crosswise with a mandoline or a very sharp knife, stopping before you get to the core. You should have 1½ to 2 cups.
Using a very sharp knife, cut the peel and white pith from the oranges. Slice crosswise into thin rounds.
In a large bowl add fennel and arugula and toss to combine. Whisk the dressing together to recombine. Add some of the dressing to the arugula and fennel and toss lightly. Season with salt and pepper. Add the blood orange sections and toss gently. Divide among the salad plates and top each portion with fennel fronds and walnuts. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

February 6, 2016 Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Orange and Tarragon

The produce department of a well stocked supermarket is a happy place for me. I love looking at neat rows of perfect produce with automatic misters that always seem to turn on the minute I reach in to pick out my choice. I look for new vegetables I have read about in food magazines. Kale sprouts? Not in local stores yet. I am inspired to try that new recipe, create a new salad. I bemoan the high cost of tiny bunches of fresh herbs and swear that I will ask Joe to pot up more to use in the winter season. In our gardening “off season” I can even find local lettuces and greens grown in indoor greenhouses not far from where I live.

About a month ago I discovered one of my favorite vegetables was missing from it’s place of prominence on the shelves. Cauliflower, usually placed near it’s cousin broccoli was all but missing in action. When I did find it, it was banished to a corner at the very end of the produce aisle. There was only a very sparse offering and the heads were probably half the size of those from local farms available just a few months ago. And the price? These tiny heads were selling at $5.99 a piece, I could easily pass that up.

After a little research, I learned that the problem was due to the changing weather and rainfall patterns from a strong El Nino in the primary areas where it is grown, California’s Imperial Valley and near Yuma Arizona. The combination of cauliflower’s current status as most favored vegetable (sorry kale!) and the recent shortage led to it’s conspicuous absence.

Several weeks have passed and the price is coming down a bit so I have currently suspended my moratorium on cauliflower. This salad, roasted curried cauliflower with orange and tarragon in the latest issue of Fine Cooking was the inspiration for my return.

Florets of cauliflower and thinly sliced shallots are tossed with curry powder, olive oil, salt and pepper. Since they can vary in heat quite a bit, I chose a sweet curry powder from Penzey’s. Curry powders are are a blend of spices, thirteen in this case, including turmeric, coriander, cumin and ginger, just to name a few. You can also make your own curry blend according to your tastes. The cauliflower and shallots are spread out on a large baking sheet and roasted until the vegetables are tender and browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Watch carefully, since I was using convection heat I reduced the temperature from 450°F to 425°F. I also stir the cauliflower around at about the halfway point to insure even browning.

While the vegetables are roasting, prepare the orange segments, I discuss how to do it here. Unlike cauliflower, oranges and all citrus are plentiful and priced well this time of year. If you don’t want to try your hand at supreming, substitute Mandarin orange segments, not the ones packed in syrup, of course!

The vinaigrette is composed of rice vinegar, Dijon mustard, orange juice and extra virgin olive oil. Fresh tarragon brings a “licoricey” flavor to the dressing but if the expense of a small container of fresh tarragon bothers you as much as it does me, skip it or add a little dried. Toss the cooled vegetables along with the orange segments, almonds, currants and mache. I used a mache “blend” from Organic Girl that includes mache rosettes, baby red and green chard and tango lettuce. It’s a good quality product for non garden months. You could also choose baby arugula or any salad blend.

We loved the salad and finished it in one sitting. The flavors and textures all contrast very nicely. I added a little crumbled soft goat cheese to our salads, some chickpeas or finely chopped fennel would also be an interesting addition. This could also double as a vegetarian main dish and would be great for a buffet.

Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Orange and Tarragon

Serves four (or two very hungry people)

1 large head cauliflower cut into 1″ florets (about 8 cups)
1 c thinly sliced shallots
1½t curry powder
7 T extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 large oranges (I used Cara Cara)
1 T rice vinegar
2 t Dijon mustard
2-3 T chopped fresh tarragon
1/3 c coarsely chopped tamari almonds or toasted slivered almonds
¼c dried currants
5-6 c mâche or baby arugula

Directions

Position a rack in the center of the oven to 450°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil.
Toss the cauliflower and shallots with the curry powder, 2 T oil, salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roast until the vegetables are tender and browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool.
Slice the ends of the oranges so they rest flat on a cutting board, cut off the peel and the pith. Working over a bowl, cut the orange segments free from the membranes, letting them fall into the bowl. Squeeze the juice out of the membranes into a small bowl.
In another small bowl, whisk the vinegar and the mustard. Slowly whisk in the remaining 5 T oil. Whisk in 3 T of the orange juice and the tarragon. Season to taste.
Add the cauliflower, almonds and currants to the orange segments and toss with enough vinaigrette to coat well. Add the mache and toss again. Drizzle with remaining vinaigrette and serve.

Cauliflower tossed with curry powder. The orange color comes from the turmeric.

January 30, 2016 Spinach, Blood Orange and Bean Salad with Sprouts

The February issue of Bon Appetit includes a nine page (ten if you count the colorful illustration on the first page) article devoted to beans. The title, “Cool Beans” brings a smile to my face because it was an often used expression of a dear friend of mine.

“Cool Beans” includes a four step method on how to cook dried beans from scratch, a pictorial of some of the prettiest beans I have ever seen, available by mail order only and they even address the, ahem, gas issue. There are recipes for cassoulets, pastas, stews and chilis. What caught my attention however was a bean salad; blood orange and mixed bean salad with sprouts. Since I wanted to make the salad for that evening, I needed to forgo the soaking and the next day slow cooking. So I did the next best, and most practical thing, I used a can of cannellini beans, Goya is my brand of choice. If you use canned beans, rinse and drain them well. A large can of cannellini beans will give you 1 1/2 cups of beans as opposed to the 2 cups in the original recipe.

The salad comes together very quickly. Blood orange segments, readily available this time of year enhance the salad with beautiful garnet red color and deep sweet orange flavor with just a little bit of raspberry tartness. Celery slices, underused in salads (at least by me) and broccoli sprouts give a crisp contrast. Fennel would be an interesting substitution for celery. The dressing is a very simple vinaigrette, lime juice, sherry vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and a small Thai chili. Our rather large supply of frozen chilis pack as much heat as any fresh one. My additions to the original recipe were baby spinach leaves and toasted almonds for crunch. Top the salad with some cilantro or parsley leaves. This salad probably could serve four but we ate it in one sitting as a side dish.

The origin of the expression “cool beans”? A Cheech and Chong movie? The 80’s sitcom Full House? There doesn’t seem to be a true concensus. What I do know is that it’s time to place an order for some heirloom beans so I can make this delcious salad again.

Spinach, Blood Orange and Bean Salad with Sprouts

Serves four

For the vinaigrette

Ingredients

2T fresh lime juice
2t Sherry or red wine vinegar
¼c extra virgin olive oil
1 small Thai chili, thinly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Whisk ingredients together in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Set aside.

For the salad

Ingredients

6c baby spinach leaves
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and well drained or fresh cooked beans
3 blood or navel oranges
1c celery stalks, sliced thinly on the diagonal
½c radish or broccoli sprouts
¼c toasted almond slivers
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Add beans to vinaigrette and toss to coat, let sit for 10 minutes for flavors to blend.
Remove peel and pith with a small, very sharp knife from 3 blood or navel oranges. Cut crosswise into ¼” thick rounds.
Add the spinach, orange sections, celery slices and sprouts to the bowl with beans and toss. Season with salt and pepper.
Top with additional sprouts, cilantro leaves and toasted almonds.

DSC_6772a — The borlotti beans we grow in the garden are very pretty. Unfortunately they lose their mottled color when cooked.

November 27, 2015 Roasted Beet Salad with Beet Pesto, Goat Cheese and Hazelnuts

At the end of September we took a week long trip to Denver Colorado. Part of the time was fun, visiting Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Denver Arboretum. Part of the time was study, well at least for Joe, he was attending the Family Medicine Experience, gaining CME (continuing medical education) in anticipation of the boards he took last week. All of the week was fun for me, I visited a local winery and a teahouse, went to Red Rocks, toured the Coors brewing facility (free samples) and went to a Mexican cooking demonstration at a Denver restaurant.

One of my main jobs in anticipation of any trip we take is to choose the restaurants we will enjoy that week. I take my responsibility seriously, and it took some arduous research to find the best restaurants. This was not our first trip to Denver, previous trips included dinners at the then trendy Rattlesnake Club, now closed and The Fort, a restaurant that serves “new foods of the old west”. On a more recent trip in 2004, we were one of the first to dine at the newly opened Frasca Food and Wine, now considered by many to be one of the best restaurants in the country. So the pressure was on.

I skip over the ads at the top of the search engine, any restaurant can call themselves “the best” and Trip Advisor is okay but sometimes a family friendly or a breakfast only spot can be at the top of the list. I prefer to look at the reviews of the local city magazine when I do this type of research, for that I turned to 5280 magazine which refers to Denver’s mile high altitude and their yearly ranking of the 25 best restaurants. I skipped over the restaurants that weren’t in Denver (sorry Frasca!) also steakhouses and sushi bars because I didn’t think they would provide enough of the local flavor. I read the reviews, perused the menus and looked for where they were in proximity to our hotel, we didn’t necessarily want to be driving all night to get to our destination.

I discovered there are a surprising amount of restaurants whose names include the word “and “, Stoic and Genuine, Beast and Bottle, Colt and Grey were all restaurants we ate at. That doesn’t include Work and Class, Olive and Finch, Hutch and Spoon. Definitely a trend.

Another trend, and one we definitely approve of, is the number of farm to table restaurants. Although we had enjoyable experiences at all of the restaurants we dined at, the one that really reminded us of eating at home was Root Down, an award winning “field to fork” restaurant, housed in what was once a circa 1953 gas station. Every course was thoroughly enjoyed and documented with a photo on the IPad. One of our favorites was a dish that Joe had, a roasted baby beet salad. The beets, both red and golden were served on a bed of arugula with goat cheese and toasted hazelnuts. There was a dollop of beet pesto (!) and the dressing was a basil vinaigrette artfully drizzed in circles on the plate.

Now, the job would be interpreting the dish at home. The beet harvest in the Kipp garden was over so my beets came from the farmers market (red) and the supermarket (golden).Since I was using greens from our garden greenhouse I had a varied selection to choose from, spinach, leaf lettuces, claytonia, upland cress and yes, some arugula. The cheese varied in the Instagram pictures I saw, sometimes it was a slice of a creamy goat cheese, other times it was crumbles of chevre. The cheese on the salad at Root Down was from Broken Shovel Farm, a local supplier. I used a chevre from Giggling Goat Dairy, a supplier I became familiar with this summer at our local farmers market. I stayed with toasted hazelnuts, but I think walnuts would work just as well.

Beet pesto was new for me and at first I wasn’t quite sure what qualified this as a pesto. It is usually a sauce that combines an herb, most often basil, with nuts, olive oil and cheese. The definition of the word that pesto originates from is pestare which means to pound or to crush, so it does qualify as a pesto. I combined cooked beets, a dash of red apple balsamic, toasted unsalted sunflower seeds, a little lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. It turned into a delcious vibrant magenta sauce that would be great as a dip, tossed with pasta or as a sandwich spread.
I changed the vinaigrette to accompany the salad from basil, not in season now and not my first choice with beets to a tarragon vinaigrette. The anisy tarragon contrasts beautifully with the natural sweetness of the beets.

Roasted Beet Salad with Beet Pesto, Goat Cheese and Hazelnuts

For the Roasted Beets

Ingredients

1½ lb. each red and golden beets

Directions

Preheat oven to 425°F. Wrap beets in foil packets, separating by color. Place on a baking sheet; bake until beets are slightly soft to the touch, 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on their size. Cool beets in packets, then rub off skins (use a paring knife for tough spots).

DSC_5086a — Ingredients for the beet pesto.

For the Beet Pesto

Ingredients

1c cooked, roughly chopped red beets
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3c roasted unsalted sunflower seeds
2T tarragon leaves
1T apple balsamic vinegar
1T lemon juice
1/4c extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

For the Vinaigrette

Ingredients

¼c apple vinaigrette or a white balsamic
½c roughly chopped red beets
1t honey
1/3c extra virgin olive oil
2T tarragon leaves

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a small food processor and process until well combined

Assembling the Salad

Ingredients

6-8 c Baby arugula- I used a combination of greens from our greenhouse that included arugula
½c toasted chopped hazelnuts
4oz crumbled goat cheese
Roughly chopped roasted red and golden beets (from the first step)
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Add arugula to salad plates. Top with goat cheese, hazelnuts and chopped beets.
Add a dollop of beet pesto to the plate
Serve vinaigrette on the side.
Add a grind of black pepper to each salad as desired.

October 31, 2015 Homemade Hot Pepper Sauces

Last weeks plunge into the deep freeze meant it was time for one final harvest of hot peppers. With a formula that worked and an abundant source of peppers the challenge was to make a few hot sauces using the same method as the sriracha sauce from a few weeks ago. I first tried the NuMex Suave Orange peppers and several days later using green and red pasilla peppers and green poblano peppers. The jars fermented on the back kitchen countertop for about a week. I wasn’t sure what the results would be so my expectations weren’t very high.

To finish, I followed the same procedure for each variety, transferring the chopped chilis to the food processor, adding enough (1/3 to 1/2cup) white vinegar to puree until smooth. I carefully washed out the processor between peppers to keep each type as pure as possible. I strained the mixture through the medium disc of the food mill to eliminate any seeds. I think it’s easier than the mesh strainer and gives the finished product a little texture.

Now for some taste testing. The Numex Suave Orange has the flavor nuances of the habanero that are usually missed because the heat dominates. The sauce has a citrusy flavor with hints of orange and lemon and finishes with a little heat. The green pasilla flavor reminds me of green bell pepper and has a touch of moderate heat. The green poblano has an initial hint of sweetness and finishes with more heat than the green pasilla. I especially like the red pasilla sauce. The color is a deep dark red and the flavor is rich and full but not too hot. I think it would be the perfect addition to a chili recipe.

DSC_4858a — The habanero peppers on the left measure a tongue burning 100,000 to 300,000 on the Scoville scale while the Numex Suave Orange on the right are a very mild 800!

Adding peppers and garlic to the food processor.

October 25, 2015 Broccoli Leek Soup with Fresh Ginger

The fall crop of broccoli is making it’s appearance in our farmers market and I love making broccoli soup now that the cooler weather is upon us. This time I combined it with leeks and shallots from our own harvest and one of the more unique offerings at our local farmers market, freshly harvested ginger.

This ginger is younger than the ginger you buy at the grocery store. The skin is a yellowish beige with pink and purple markings. The flavor is milder and the flesh is delicate and juicy, not fibrous. This is the ginger commonly used in pickled ginger. You can substitute fresh ginger in any recipe, but because of it’s milder flavor, you will need to use more.

Ginger from the grocery store that has sprouted can be planted but there is no guarantee if it will be disease and pest free. Our local farm, Blooming Glen Farm buys rhizomes from certified organic farms in Hawaii. They start their plants in the spring and grow them in conditions that are similar to the warm temperatures the plants are accustomed to in Hawaii. The rhizomes are ready for harvest by mid October. A bit pricey, 18.99 a pound, but a nice splurge this time of year. I’m going to hold a few aside for Joe to plant so we can have our own ginger next fall. This soup comes together very quickly and the frizzled leeks that top it are very easy to do and add a nice textural contrast.

Broccoli Leek Soup with Fresh Ginger

Makes about 6 cups

Ingredients

2-3 T olive oil
¼c chopped shallots
1T finely chopped fresh ginger
3 large leeks, sliced, white and light green parts only
1 large head of broccoli, cut into florets
4-5c chicken or vegetable stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Frizzled leeks as garnish-see recipe following

DSC_4970a — Fresh ginger from the farmers market.

DSC_2854a — Part of the fall leek harvest.

Directions

Add olive oil to a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Stir in the chopped shallots and ginger and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for an additional 2 minutes.
Add the broccoli florets and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Add stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30-40 minutes.
Puree the soup in batches in a blender. Add additional stock if the soup is too thick.
Season to taste with salt and pepper
Garnish soup with frizzled leeks.

Frizzled Leeks

Ingredients

1 leek, trimmed
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Cut leek in half lengthwise and rinse away any grit. Slice thinly and pat dry to insure the oil will not splatter.
In a small skillet over medium heat, warm ¼ inch olive oil. Add a handful of leeks and fry until golden brown, about a minute or so. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Repeat with remaining leeks.

October 13, 2015 End of Summer Green Gazpacho

Summer was officially over several weeks ago and the first touch of frost was on our lawn Sunday. That doesn’t mean the garden is giving up yet. There are still some tomatoes, peppers, both sweet and hot, eggplants and herbs ready for the picking.The tomatoes may not be the prettiest, but they are certainly the sweetest. Joe has planted a large crop of spinach and salad greens in the garden greenhouse that we will enjoy for several months to come. After a week of indulging in Denver’s finest cuisine it was time to get back on the healthy eating track. What better way to use some of these ingredients than in a cold refreshing green gazpacho?

Gazpacho by definititon is a liquid salad that originated from the southern Spanish region of Andalusia. The name possibly originated from the Latin word “caspa” meaning fragments, alluding to the small pieces in gazpacho. You can make this as chunky or as smooth as you choose. I love the addition of avocados in our nightly salad with dinner and had a few extra ripe ones to give this soup a creamy texture. I used the bounty of our garden and the addition of a cucumber for it’s crisp sweetness. Give this soup several hours to chill and the flavors to blend.

Substitutions are permitted, watercress for the spinach, that will bring a spicy kick to the soup. Cilantro can sub for the basil, add a touch of Tabasco if you don’t have a fresh hot pepper, I would be happy to share. I always stock up on vinegars at The Tubby Olive and used their Alfoos Mango in my soup, love them in our vinaigrettes too. If you don’t have a fruit vinegar, use white wine vinegar and a touch of honey. A little chopped cucumber as garnish gives a little crunch and since our nasturtiums are still in bloom I couldn’t resist adding a few for their vibrant color and spiciness.

A new crop of spinach in the garden greenhouse is ready for harvest.

End of Summer Green Gazpacho

Makes about 4 cups

2 medium tomatoes or 12-15 small tomatoes
3-4 small cucumbers peeled and cut into chunks
1 avocado, flesh cut into large chunks
½c basil leaves
½c flat leafed parsley leaves
½ to 1 whole hot pepper, jalapeno or serrano
1 sweet pepper, seeded, stemmed and cut into chunks
2c packed baby spinach leaves
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2-3T fruity balsamic vinegar (I used Mango from Tubby Olive)
Cold water to blend
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Water as needed
1T extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Reserve ½ cup cucumber chunks and chop finely.
Combine the tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, basil, hot pepper and sweet pepper, spinach, garlic and balsamic vinegar with cold water as needed in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Process until smooth adding more water as necessary to achieve a smooth texture. Taste and season with salt, pepper and more vinegar if desired.
Refrigerate until cold, pour into bowls and garnish with cucumber chunks.

October 8, 2015 Homemade Sriracha Sauce

Over the years I have made my share of homemade condiments. Joe’s ability to produce an abundant harvest from our garden often has me looking for ways to preserve some of that bounty for the fall and winter months. I have made my own ketchup, chili sauce and tomato paste from the tomatoes in our garden. Not to mention homemade mustard, jams, chutneys and preserved lemons. In fact the first cookbook that Joe ever bought me, even before we were married was Better Than Store Bought, a classic to this day for the DIY cook.

The latest to be added to my homemade list is sriracha. As long time fans of Thai cuisine, sriracha has been on our food radar since the early eighties. We love the spicy, garlicky, slightly sweet sauce that was a table condiment at our local Thai restaurant. Back then I would have to travel to local Asian markets to find the thick red sauce that came in a squeeze bottle with a green cap and a rooster on the label. We, and obviously many others, were definitely on to something, over the years the popularity of sriracha has grown by leaps and bounds. Now it can be found in supermarkets everywhere and sriracha flavors products as diverse as popcorn, potato chips, beer and lip balm.

It was first produced in the United States by a Vietnamese immigrant, David Tran, who was unable to find a hot sauce he liked. He developed and named his sauce after one that he tasted in the Thai southern coastal city of Si Racha, where it was made for dishes served at local seafood restaurants. The success of Mr. Tran’s company Huy Fong Foods, named for the boat that brought him to the United States, is legend. Since 1980 sales of sriracha have increased by 20% a year without paid advertising. Unlike other hot sauces, sriracha is made with fresh chilies, Tran says this is what separates sriracha from the competition. So with a large crop of hot peppers in many varieties, I set out to make my own version of sriracha. I looked at quite a few recipes, some promising sriracha in twenty minutes, that might be fine for some, but I knew that fermentation is one of the steps that makes sriracha unique and since I had the time and an abundant supply of peppers, why take any shortcuts? I chose a recipe from Serious Eats, a blog that is dedicated to “definitive recipes, hard core food science, trailblazing techniques and innovative guides to essential food and drink anywhere and everywhere.” Sounds good to me.

My first consideration was the variety of pepper to use. The Serious Eats recipe used red jalapenos but in one of the reader comments I learned that serranos were the original peppers Huy Fong used to make sriracha until the late nineties. The change to jalapenos was due to production costs. Since I had more than enough serranos, I chose them for my recipe. Since the serrano pepper is hotter than the jalapeno you may want to adjust your recipe accordingly, I didn’t. The peppers are left whole with the stems are snipped with the crown remaining. This brings a floral component to the finished product. As with all hot pepper recipes, take the usual precautions, wear rubber gloves when making the recipe, don’t rub your eyes, and so on. The recipe is very simple with very little handling of the product, peppers, peeled garlic cloves, brown sugar and salt are pulsed to a fine texture in a blender or food processor.

The mixture is transferred to a clean jar, covered and sits at room temperature. I checked the mixture daily to check for little bubbles forming at the bottom of the jar, indicating fermentation. The recipe indicated that the fermentation would begin in 3-5 days, my peppers only began to ferment after 7 days. I will attribute that to the freshness of my peppers. Since my peppers were picked the day I tried the recipe, they were days fresher than any hot pepper purchased in a grocery store. My fermentation was complete in 10 days. I carefully transfered the chopped chili mixture to the bowl of a food processor, my blender is too small, added the distilled white vinegar and pureed it until smooth. The recipe suggests transferring the mixture to a mesh strainer over a medium saucepan and using a rubber spatula to push the pulp through. I wasn’t getting a thick enough consistency so I transferred the peppers to the food mill with a medium disc which gave me a product that resembled sriracha, though a bit more chunky. The mixture is placed in a saucepan, brought to a boil, then simmered until the sauce clings to the back of a spoon, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer sauce to clean jars and store in the refrigerator for up to six months.

I am very pleased with the consistency of my sriracha, the food mill made that part of the process much easier than the strainer. Since we have other varieties of hot peppers I may try the same recipe with different peppers.

Sriracha Sauce

Recipe slightly adapted from Serious Eats

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs red jalapeños (or serranos), stems snipped off, leaving green tops intact
6 cloves garlic, peeled
4 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

Directions

Place peppers, garlic, sugar, and salt in bowl of a food processor fitting with steel blade. Pulse until chilies are very finely chopped, stopping to scrap sides of bowl as necessary. Transfer mixture to a clean jar, cover, and let sit at room temperature.
Check jar each day for fermentation, when little bubbles start forming at bottom of jar, about 3-5 days. Stir contents each day, continuing to let ferment until chilies are no longer rising in volume, an additional 2-3 days.
Transfer chilies to jar of a blender or food processor, add in white vinegar, and puree until completely smooth, 1-3 minutes. Transfer to a mesh strainer set atop of a medium saucepan. Strain mixture into saucepan, using a rubber spatula to push trough as much pulp as possible, only seeded and larger pieces of chilies should remain in strainer. I found that a food mill with the medium disc made this easier.
Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until sauce thickens and clings to a spoon, 5 or 10 minutes. Transfer to an airtight container and store in refrigerator for up to 6 months.

Pureed peppers, garlic, brown sugar and kosher salt ready to be fermented.

The food mill gave me the consistency that I was looking for.

My finished product was thick even before cooking.

September 14, 2015 Mixed Beans with Peanuts, Ginger and Lime

This is another bean salad from Jerusalem born, London based chef and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi, this time with a decidedly Asian twist. An assortment of fresh green and yellow beans are tossed in a dressing that includes two ingredients that would have seemed exotic and difficult to access ten years ago, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. Our love for Thai cooking was the reason we started growing them many years ago but with increased demand they have gone mainstream and now are readily available to the home cook.

Lemongrass is a tall tropical grass native to South and Southeastern Asia. Our lemongrass plant grows happily outdoors from June to late September forming a tall bushy plant, about 3 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Since it is only hardy in zones 9-10, which translates to south Florida, Joe digs the plant out, cuts it back severely and it winters indoors. There it’s only predator is our Golden Retriever Cody, who likes to nibble on the leaves when he thinks no one is looking. Lemongrasss has long sharp pale green leaves at the top and a brownish pink bulbous portion at the stem end. It has a mild citrus flavor with a floral aroma. If you don’t grow your own, the best lemongrass (and the cheapest too) is found in Asian markets. To use, cut off the woody tops with a chef’s knife and peel off the first tough layer of the bulb end. Now it is ready to slice into rounds or as in this recipe, grated with a microplane.

Our Kaffir lime trees are also summer visitors to the garden. The leaf of the kaffir lime tree has a sweet citrusy fragrance and is a key ingredient in Thai cooking. Kaffir lime leaves are not to be confused with the leaves from a standard lime tree. The leaf of the kaffir lime looks like a double spade. It is thick and glossy on top with a matte underside and a tough spine in the middle. When using in recipes they can either be used whole, seasoning a soup or stew or chopped very finely, as in this salad. If you are chopping it up, remove the spine first. Fresh and dried leaves are available, only use fresh leaves in this salad.

Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a rolling boil. Cook each type of bean you are using separately, the thin filet beans will only take about 2 minutes, larger beans take longer. I use a large chopstick to make sure all the beans are submerged in the water and I removed the beans as the batches were done with a Chinese strainer or spider as it is also known. This allows you to remove more beans with one scoop. Transfer the cooked beans to a bowl filled with ice water. Cool, drain and pat dry so the beans will absorb more of the dressing.

Next, the shallot is cooked until tender and the aromatics, ginger, lemongrass, garlic and coriander, are added. Transfer the shallot mixture to a large bowl that will be large enough to toss the beans. I wasn’t quite sure why you would need to sauté the already roasted peanuts, but they pick up the residual flavor from the shallot mixture and take on a toasty fragrance. Kaffir lime leaves, lime zest and juice, sugar, salt and oil are whisked into the shallot mixture. The kaffir lime leaves must be fresh and must be sliced as thinly as possible in this salad. If you don’t have access to them, don’t let that stop you from making this recipe, just add a little more regular lime peel and juice. The final step is to add the beans, toasted peanuts and cilantro to the large bowl, toss the beans in the dressing and season everything again with salt and pepper. The final dish is garnished with chopped peanuts and more cilantro.

Lemongrass plant does very well in the garden in summer but will be brought in before the first frost.

Kaffir lime tree with double spaded leaves.

Mixed Beans with Peanuts, Ginger and Lime

from Bon Appetit

Serves six

Ingredients

2lb. assorted snap beans, green, wax, filet, Romano etc.
½t kosher salt plus additional
5T olive oil, divided
1/3c finely chopped shallot
1 1″ piece ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 lemongrass stalk, tough outer layers removed, finely grated on a Microplane
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
½t ground coriander
Freshly ground black pepper
1/3c roasted salted peanuts
3 kaffir lime leaves, very finely chopped
1t finely grated lime zest
3T fresh lime juice
¼t sugar
1/3c packed cilantro leaves with tender stems, plus more for serving

Directions

Working in batches by type, cook beans in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp tender, 4-5 minutes per batch. Transfer with a strainer to a large bowl of ice water. Cool, drain and pat dry.
Heat 1T oil in a small skillet over medium heat and cook shallot, stirring occasionally under tender, about 3 minutes. Add ginger, lemongrass, garlic and coriander and cook until very fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer to a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Heat 1T oil in same skillet over medium high. Cook peanuts, tossing often until golden brown and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer to paper towels; let cool, then coarsely chop. Set aside 1T peanut for final presentation.
Whisk kaffir lime leaves, lime zest, lime juice, sugar, ½t salt and remaining 3T oil into shallot mixture. Add beans, remaining peanuts, and 1/3c cilantro and toss to coat; season with salt and pepper. Serve topped with more cilantro and reserved peanuts.