• 27Jun

    Pepto Pink but Magically Delicious

    Being a junkie for greens runs in my family, and my mother’s new garden plot has been churning out prodigious quantities this year – lacinato kale and rainbow chard, particularly. However, one thing that she does that drives me bonkers is that she trims and only eats the leafy bits – she wastes those lovely crunchy stems (ditto with beets, radishes and carrots – she never uses the greens)!! I’ve taken tons home from family dinners to use myself. I usually crisp-fry them or just add to other greens I’m making, but recently stumbled across this fantastic idea over on the Food52 blog – chard stem hummus! Helping my mom cook the other night I couldn’t help but secretly smile as I berated her for again ‘wasting’ the lovely chard stems and beet greens (we made a raw chard salad with fresh lemon and crispy onions, roasted beets, and prosciutto-wrapped halibut). I was taking all those lovelies home, and I had plans for them.

    Being me, of course, I couldn’t possibly follow the recipe exactly. I used:20150627_122124

    • 100 grams chopped chard stems
    • 100 grams chopped beet stems
    • 2oz (1/4 cup) tahini
    • 2oz (1/4 cup) olive oil
    • 2 tbs. fresh lime juice
    • 4 cloves garlic

    First, I washed and chopped the stems, and threw them in a pot of about 4 cups boiling water, to which I also added a tablespoon of salt and half cup vinegar (doing this adds a bit of flavor and improves the texture of the greens for blending). While boiling, I smashed and peeled the garlic, and measured everything else into my blender. After 15 minutes, my stems were soft, and I strained them into the blender, adding about a tablespoon of the liquid to pull in more flavor. I blended it until not-exactly-smooth to yield the comedically pink condiment you see at right.

    How’s it taste, you ask? It’s good. Really good.  Can-I-fit-my-whole-head-in-the-blender-to-lick-it-clean? good. And that’s just the ‘base’ version – I’ve played with is a bit, adding sumac, cayenne, cumin, and in one attempt flax seeds, all of which can dramatically change the flavor to fit whatever dish you’re pairing with the hummus.

    Enjoy!

    – MAW

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  • 18May

    Lemongrass-Sunchoke Soup: It’s Almost-Summer!

    The farmers markets have started up again, and I am (as usual) ecstatic. Wandering through last week, I saw a big pile of sunchokes (a.k.a. Jerusalem artichokes, which doesn’t sound as nice) next to a bunch of lovely golden beets. I immediately remembered that I had a lemongrass stalk sitting in my fridge lonely for a home, and a scheme was hatched.
    You’ll need:

    • 1 large leek
    • About a pound of sunchokes
    • About 2 tbs. finely chopped (use a blander if you’ve got one) lemongrass
    • 2 cups stock (I used water with vegeta, herbs de provence, celery
    • salt, white pepper, and fish sauce)
    • 1 cup water (I boosted mine with about a 1/2 tsp of Bragg’s)
    • 1/4 cup heavy cream (plus more to taste)
    • 2 tbs butter
    • 1 tbs olive oil
    • 1 tsp truffle oil
    • Fresh ground pepper
    • Tiny pinch of nutmeg
    • Garnish with sumac, if you like.
    • Golden beets (optional)

    Caramelize the thinly sliced leeks in the butter and olive oil (about 20 mins on med-low heat), then stir in the lemongrass. Add scrubbed sunchokes, cut into 1″ or so chunks,as well as your stock and water. Bring to a low boil, then back off the heat to medium (or, preferably, med-low), and simmer until the sunchokes are fork-tender (but not mushy). This takes at least 20 minutes – longer if you use lower heat (which I recommend). Somewhere in this time, stir in the nutmeg (to taste) and truffle oil.

    Remove from heat and blend (I used my nifty immersion blender, but a regular one will do fine). If you have a china cap, it might be nice to make the soup an even texture, but I kinda like the roughness of a puree. Finally, stir in the cream and add pepper (salt too, if you must). Serve, topped with a sprinkle of sumac.

    The result is delicious. Adding the lemongrass really brightens up the dish, and makes the nutty sunchokes stand out even more, I think. As good as it was the first night, piping hot, I may have liked it even better cold.

    Temperature is only one possible variation here. The first (and best, but only on the hot soup) is where the beets come in. Scrub and slice your beets very (very!) thin, and toss them in the over at about 350 until they crisp up. Then, toss them with a tiny bit of olive oil and sea salt, and they make a really pretty topping for the soup, adding a nice crunch as well.

    For future versions, I may try roasting the sunchokes beforehand to give it an earthier, sweeter flavor. I think this also would be a great accompaniment to a braised pork shoulder or short rib.

    Enjoy!!!

    –MAW

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  • 08Jul

    Summer Basil (Fried) Grapefruit


    It’s hot, but we’re still hungry, even if long evenings over a hot stove are less appealing these days. This lovely summer oddity is actually more like a template than actual recipe – you can swap around all the ingredients and how you prepare them. The frying here is quick, and only requires one pan, but you can just as easily do this raw or on the grill if you infuse your oil with herbs and mix it with a little vinegar for a dressing/grill marinade.

    My most recent version included:

    A few handfuls of fresh basil
    A couple of fresh chives
    One grapefruit
    Olive oil

    Peel fruit and cut into quarters. Quickly fry the chives in some olive oil, then add some basil leaves and, immediately thereafter, the grapefruit. After a couple of minutes, use your fingers (tongs if you’re a wuss) to flip the grapefruit sections onto a different side, and add a few more basil leaves on top. After another couple minutes, flip again. Repeat if you have more flat sides on your fruit. You probably shouldn’t. When they’re done, serve with more fresh basil leaves as a garnish. Delicious!

    Like I said, you can do this raw or on the grill. You can also swap the herbs around. I have used mint instead of basil (especially in a raw version), or actual onion instead of chives, etc. Go play!

    – MAW

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  • 21Jul

    Summer Treat: Mamey

    Mamey1
    Before they appeared at my farmer’s market recently, I’d never seen a mamey in the US. Having had (and loved) them in other places, of course I had to buy one and see what I could make of it.

    The times I’ve had mamey before it was usually in or on ice cream, or part of some elaborate fruit plate concoction. I had no intention of attempting to make ice cream, and I didn’t have any at home either. A fruit concoction was tempting, but living alone I knew that would lead to too much leftover growing tasteless in the fridge. And, it being Tuesday, an impromptu dinner party was unlikely. So it was to be a single-serving affair.

    For those who’ve never had this amazing fruit: it looks like a small, gray football, and has gorgeous orange-pink flesh and a seed that’s toxic and wonderful for making insecticide. It tastes…like mamey. I’d almost describe it as a milder papaya, vaguely pumpkin-flavored with a hint of coconut, but that wouldn’t help anyone even if it was accurate. Trust me, it’s delicious. (But also trust: don’t eat the seed, or even the flesh that’s right next to it just to be safe…you don’t want to know what it does.)

    I decided to could make something quick, delicious, and just weird enough to make me happy. What did I do? I cut up the mamey, sprinkled it with lime juice (not very much), and added sichuan peppers. Sweet, hot, and flavorful, this was a winning dessert that might even qualify as a healthy pre-gym snack.

    -MAW

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