Category Archives: Vegetarian

How To Pull Off Your Own DIY Wedding, Pt 2: The Food!

Posted on March 5, 2013 | 1 Comment

When I saw all the boring menus offered on most wedding catering websites, we immediately decided just to cater the whole thing ourselves.  Other blogs talk about self-catering your wedding like it’s an insanely difficult task, along the lines of building a rocket ship or performing open-heart surgery, but it’s really not hard at all if you plan it right.  For anyone that enjoys cooking and is having a smallish wedding, I think it’s perfectly feasible. The key to doing this successfully is that you don’t want to actually cook anything on your wedding day.  I made virtually everything in advance and then just had my mom keep an eye on the oven while it all reheated. (We were outside trying to see if the dogs would sit still for wedding portraits.  They wouldn’t). wedding dog portraitIf you decide to go the self-catering route, there are a few things that you need to think about while you’re menu planning:

1. Does the dish hold well in the refrigerator for a day or two?

It’s perfectly fine to cook things several days in advance from a food safety standpoint, but will you be sacrificing texture or flavor? Steamed rice will dry out in the fridge, spaghetti is basically impossible to reheat without a microwave, mashed potatoes turn into one solid lump.  It’s better to think more along the lines of casseroles, braises, stews, curries and the like.  You can always do a test batch in the months leading up to the wedding and then see how it lasts in the fridge. Since we were cooking for such a large range of diets for our wedding day, we decided to go italian with everything. It tends to be a good common ground that will make everyone happy, from carnivores to vegans.

2. Do you have enough fridge space?

We were cooking for 25 people. We have a pretty average sized fridge and it was totally full of saran wrapped casserole dishes.  We couldn’t have fit one more thing if we tried.  Beverages were out in the garage and in coolers to stay cold. By this logic, I would estimate 1 refrigerator per 25 people. (You definitely don’t want to make a bunch of food and then realize you don’t have anywhere to store it…)

3. Remember food safety.

Remember to properly refrigerate the food you cook in advance. Make sure to reheat it thoroughly on the day of the event. When you’re cooking in the days leading up to the event, make sure you arrange your fridge properly and put vegetables and cooked food higher up than raw meats, which should be at the bottom of the fridge (so you don’t end up getting chicken juice getting on your raw vegan appetizers).

4. Menu Planning:

As with all local cooking, it’s not a good idea to get too set on a specific thing.  I knew what I had in the pantry and the garden, so I had some ideas, but I also shopped at the farmers market the week before the cooking.

With all that in mind, here’s the menu we figured out, doing our best to highlight the local foods we have available in February:

Friday Dinner:

We didn’t bother with a rehearsal or a rehearsal dinner, but for Friday night, when we had some friends over to help set up the space for the ceremony the next day, we had big pots of vegan curries that are simple to make and can hold on low for hours and hours.

 

and for Saturday, the wedding day:

Breakfast, self-serve for all of the guests that stayed with us:

Appetizers:

  • Vegan Summer Rolls stuffed with local greens, served with Peanut Sauce
  • Crab Rangoon, made with local dungennes crab and spring onions
  • Local Cheese Plate

Dinner:

  • Lasagna with beef & pork ragu, made with our home canned tomato sauce
  • Stuffed shells with local chard, ricotta custard and black pepper chevre from my friends at Shamrock Artisan Cheese, topped with our tomato sauce.
  • Vegan Polenta Casserole with Mushroom Ragu (The link takes to to a similar recipe with a different filling. Same idea though).
  • Garden Salad with greens from Floodgate Farms and Lovin’ Mama Farms

Dessert:

  • Vegan Chocolate Cake with Vegan Buttercream Frosting

 

Since I can’t write a post this long and not share a recipe, I should probably tell you about my summer rolls and peanut sauce…. summer rolls with peanut sauceThis is such a great appetizer; they always make people super happy and taste great.  Plus, since it’s really mostly salad, your guests don’t end up eating a bunch of rich food right off the bad (….. because that means food comas and food comas don’t really make for a fun party).  Summer rolls are super labor intensive, but they can be made a day in advance as long as you cover each layer thoroughly with saran wrap.   My new sister-in-law and I rolled about 100 of them while we hung out together the day before the wedding and it really went pretty quick.

The Kitchn has an excellent post about wrapping summer rolls, so I’m not going to bother re-photographing everything they already did….

For the peanut sauce, I use an approximation of the following recipe. (I wanted to tell you an exact version, but I burned out the motor in my blender, so now I just have to estimate.  I’ve made it so many times that this should be really close, though.)

Peanut Sauce

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 2 c. freshly ground peanut butter, usually found in the bulk-food section of the grocery store
  • 1 red onion, roughly chopped
  • 1/2″ of peeled ginger root, roughly chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 2 or 3 hot peppers, depending on your heat preference (dried or fresh will both work)
  • 1/4 c. roughly chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1  c. orange juice
  • 2 tbs. soy sauce

Combine everything but the peanut butter in a blender.  Blend until smooth.  Add the peanut butter and blend again.* If the sauce is too thick for dipping, add some orange juice.  If it’s too thin and watery, add some more peanut butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  If it tastes too spicy, add some honey or sugar.  You can serve this immediately but it will hold in the fridge for several days.

*If you put in the peanut butter first, you’ll burn out motor in the blender.

Note: Next time I make peanut sauce, I’ll check the amounts on this recipe, but if someone else makes it first, please let me know how it goes.

 

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Posted in Vegetarian, Winter

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Kale Salad with Blood Oranges, Fennel and Olives

Posted on March 1, 2013 | 4 Comments

kale and orangesSomething about spring is making me crave salads.

(It makes me feel like a grownup to say I’m craving salads and that I’m totally not lying to sound cool, I really am craving salad). blood oranges

This particular salad isn’t necessarily anything all that amazing compared to, oh… fried chicken, but I did end up eating most of it by myself yesterday because the combination of oranges, olives and fennel was pretty damn good.

I guess you could say: if you’re the kind of person who likes raw kale salads, this is a good one.

kale salad(This picture could have been a little prettier if I didn’t eat almost all of it first…)

Kale Salad with Fennel, Blood Oranges and Olives

Cook Time: 10 minutes plus several hours to marinade

Ingredients:

  • 2 medium bunches of kale
  • 10 blood oranges
  • 1 fennel bulb
  • 15 good olives
  • a drizzle of olive oil
  • salt and pepper

To prepare all the ingredients:

First, remove the stalks from the kale, then slice the leaves into very thin ribbons.

Peel 7 of the blood oranges then roughly chop them.

Slice the fennel bulb in half from top to bottom, the slice each half into very thin half moons.

Pit the olives and then roughly chop them.

Then: combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Juice the three remaining blood oranges and drizzle the juice over the kale. Drizzle olive oil over the salad and season with salt and pepper. Mix well, cover and set in the fridge to marinade for a few hours or overnight.

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Posted in Spring, Vegetarian

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Winter Vegetable & Lentil Stew

Posted on January 30, 2013 | 4 Comments

I think the easiest way to make something good out of whatever vegetables you have on hand is to make soup.  And it’s great, because I really like soup. I like cooking it. I like eating it. I like that you can make a big pot and put the leftovers in the fridge and have lunches for days. I do a fair amount of professional cooking, and soups and stews are the most obvious choices when I need to feed a mixed group of carnivores-vegetarians-vegans-gluten free – whatevers. It’s pretty simple just to make a big pot of veggie stew, maybe serve it with a green salad and a grain.

Really, one of the main things I like about soup is that its a huge pot of vegetables, so when I have a bowl, I can pat myself on the back for eating healthy things and not Doritos.

These were the vegetables I decided to turn into soup today: winter vegetablesSomething about the sweet, nutty flavor of the parsnips really made this recipe worth righting about here. It was delicious.

We had it for lunch, topped with some parmesan cheese, with a few slices of bread.   winter vegetable and lentil soup

Winter Vegetable and Lentil Stew

Cook Time: 2 hrs.

Makes: a big batch!

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 leek, sliced in half, rinsed, and then sliced into thin half moons
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 3 celery ribs, tops included, diced
  • 4 parsnips, diced
  • 1/2 sm. buttercup squash, peeled, seeded, and sliced into 1/2” cubes
  • 1 bunch of swiss chard, roughly chopped
  • 2 c. crushed tomatoes with juice
  • about 13 c. water or stock
  • 1 lb. lentils
  • salt and pepper
  • a splash of apple cider vinegar
  • a pinch of cayenne pepper
  • grated parmesan cheese, for serving

 

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot, on medium high heat. Add the carrots, celery, onions, leeks, parsnips, and buttercup squash.  Saute for about ten minutes, til the onions start looking translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients- the tomatoes, water, swiss chard (stems and all!) and lentils, and reduce heat to medium.  Simmer for a few hours, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and add the cider vinegar and cayenne if you think it needs a little kick.  To serve, top with grated parmesan.

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Posted in Vegetarian, Winter

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Winter Squash Bisque with Gorgonzola and Toasted Walnuts

Posted on December 16, 2012 | 3 Comments

This is the best soup that I know how to make. Since I like you guys so much I wanted to share the recipe with you since it’s perfect for the holidays.butternutsquashbisqueMy mom has been making a version of this to serve on Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember.  I think she got it from either Sunset Magazine or Bon Appetit (an educated guess based on on the huge stacks of Sunset magazines she has in the front closet, years of subscriptions from a time before the internet). I never saw the original recipe, and it’s evolved a lot over the years as I tinkered around with it. This version that I’m sharing with you today is what I’ve settled on and have been making for quite awhile now.squashWinter squash always is a staple in our house since it’s so easy to preserve. We’ll grow a rainbow of different varieties during the summer and then keep them in bins in the pantry for the cold months. My favorites types are butternut, kabocha, and buttercup, although there are so many different varieties that it’s hard to really narrow it down to just those. This soup will work with any combination of what you have, though I have noticed that it doesn’t come out quite as good with pumpkin. Try to stick with varieties with drier, solid flesh, like butternuts. Sweet potatoes or yams will work just as well if you happen to have those.

Oh, and a note to any gardeners who were unsure about this: To preserve winter squash, just cut it off the vine when it’s ripe, leaving the stem attached, and store in a cool, dark place.  Ideally you’ll get them before they’ve gotten frosted on and left out in the rain for days, but I’ve also found some hidden out in the December garden that are still just fine.  Usually they’ll keep for months, but it’s a good idea to check your stash every so often to see if there are any that have soft spots or tiny bits of mold popping up.  That’s all you have to do. They really just preserve themselves.snowy trees

This recipe would be a wonderful light lunch for Christmas or New Year’s, a great for a weeknight supper when it’s freezing outside, or, if you’re busy and haven’t got a lot of time for cooking, make it in advance by a day or two when you have time and then reheat it. It may thicken a bit in the fridge but just add some water to thin it out and check the seasonings again.

Winter Squash Bisque with Gorgonzola Cheese and Toasted Walnuts

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbs. butter
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 celery ribs, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 3 or 4 fresh sage leaves
  • 1 sprig of fresh thyme
  • 12 c. cubed winter squash (peeled and seeded first*)
  • 8 c. water or stock
  • 1 c. heavy cream
  • 1/2 c. crumbled gorgonzola or blue cheese
  • 1/2 c. toasted walnuts or pecans
  • 1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley
  • salt and pepper

In a large soup pot, melt the butter on medium heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots, and sage, and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the winter squash and water (it should be enough to cover the cubed squash, but feel free add more. Turn the heat to low and simmer everything for an hour or two. Remove from the heat and puree with your tool of choice (blender, immersion blender, etc.). Put the pot back on the stove on medium heat and stir in the heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve, topping each bowl with a few tablespoons of blue cheese, a sprinkle of nuts, and some fresh parsley.

Note: The gorgonzola cheese sounds weird if you haven’t tried it before but it’s vital. Don’t skip it or switch to a different cheese unless you’re allergic to moldy cheese or something. I’ve tried it with goat cheese and it’s not the same at all.

*I feel like there are already a million places on the internet that explain how to prepare winter squash. If you need help, just google. The main thing is to have a sharp chef’s knife and just to go for it — it really only takes a minute.

Happy Holidays!

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Posted in Fall, Vegetarian, Winter

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Jam Vinaigrette from the Redwood Valley Farmers Market Chef Demo

Posted on July 25, 2012 | 3 Comments

I’m pretty excited about this.

So, a couple weeks ago at the Redwood Valley Farmers Market, my friend Amanda from Fairall’s Farm Fresh Eggs & Produce did a chef demo using some of the wonderful items available at the farmers market that morning.  She set up a delicious taco bar with chipotle sausage hash, a zesty salmon taco filling, and a big veggie and egg scramble, which you can find the recipes for here. She also made a huge farmers market salad with a jam vinaigrette that was so damn good I knew I had to write about it here and try to convince everyone on the internet to make too.

I’d never actually bothered making salad dressing with jam before, and it was so tasty that I went home and promptly made huge batch.  I guess  that when I thought about jam for salads, it sounded like it would be too sweet and overpowering.  I still think if you were having a really delicate salad of baby lettuces and sliced radishes, it would be a questionable idea at best.  Amanda’s salad was killer, though, and it’s because she didn’t just use lettuce, but also incorporated sliced cabbage, raw kale and chard leaves, summer squash and salad turnips.   These big, hearty vegetables stood up so well to the flavor of the jam.

Floodgate Farms grew the salad mix used as a base for everything, which in itself was outstanding.  It has more fresh produce than I’ve ever seen in any salad mix, ever, with fresh mint leaves, onion blossoms, sprigs of dill, nasturtium blossoms, purslane leaves, and more.  I’m not always much of a salad girl- I usually would rather have a big bowl of vegetable stew, like a ratatouille or the braised kale and white beans, but this salad mix is so beautiful and full of flavors that…. well, it makes me want to go buy more from them, even though I have a huge garden with plenty of my own vegetables.

Jam Vinaigrette

Cook Time: lightning fast

Ingredients:

  • jam:  I really like the flavor of dark berry or plum jams with the kale and cabbage, especially if they happen to be tart or low-sugar jams, but really, anything you want to use up will be good.
  • oil: I used hazelnut oil when I made it at home,  but anything you have will work.
  • vinegar: apple cider, champagne, sherry– again, whatever ya got.

In a half pint jar, combine two parts jam with two parts oil and one part vinegar. Shake it up. Pour over your salad. Eat.

Amanda’s Farmers Market Salad

In a big bowl, combine as many good salad things as you can find:

  • Salad Mix: different kinds of lettuce, diced onion blossoms, sprigs of fresh dill fronds and dill flowers, edible flowers, roughly chopped mint leaves, cilantro, parsley…. and any other things you can think of.Dark Leafy Greens: like shredded green cabbage, roughly chopped kale leaves and roughly chopped swiss chard leaves.  The more the merrier.  The key to growing really nice greens is to keep them well picked, so go out to the garden and pick any random leaves you can find.
  • Chopped Vegetables: summer squash, salad turnips, and cucumbers, etc.

Dress with jam vinaigrette, top with crumbled chevre or feta to make it even better, and serve.  My little brother ate a huge plate of it and said: “this salad is awesome, and I hate salad.”  So, it’s that kind of recipe, where you get to eat a really good meal, but then you get the added bonus of laughing when your family members who claim to hate kale end up eating a whole bunch of it — and liking it.

Amanda, thanks so much for sharing your wonderful cooking with everyone.  It was delicious!

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Posted in Jam, Jelly, Marmalade and Other Preserves, Spring, summer, Vegetarian, Winter

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Saucy Summer Vegetables

Posted on July 24, 2012 | 4 Comments

I meant to post this recipe a few weeks ago, but I couldn’t decide what it really is.  Is it a stew? A sauce? A soup? I still don’t know.

The reason I finally decided to share this:

If you have a vegetable garden, shop at the farmers market, or get  a CSA box, this combination of vegetables is bound to show up at some point, and this recipe is a really versatile way to put dinner (and then leftovers for lunch and other dinners) on the table with almost no planning at all. 
The flavor of this dish is kind of like a cross between a vodka sauce and a ratatouille.   Cook the veggies for a shorter time to leave it like a stew, and eat it with crusty bread and a salad.  Cook it for a long time, letting the moisture really reduce off, to make it into more of a pasta sauce.  Once it’s thick and saucy, you can  toss it with cooked penne, top with mozzarella cheese and bake it in the oven.  Or use it as the filling in a lasagna, alternating with layers of ricotta cheese.  I love this sauce served over a bowl of creamy polenta with mascarpone.  Fold it into some scrambled eggs and eat it for breakfast.   For something really luscious, make a batch of fettucini alfredo and then stir in some of this sauce — it’s so creamy and good, really divine.  You could even puree this and serve as if it were a plain red sauce if you’re trying to do things like trick haters into eating eggplant.

The point is, this combination of vegetables may not be all that much of a revelation. I realize lots of people know about ratatouille.  The thing is, I feel like any time you can effortlessly walk into your garden, pick some vegetables, and turn them into a dinner that everyone will love, it’s a major victory. When it’s a dish that can be transformed into several different meals and you end up using every last little scrap of it and wishing you’d made even more, it deserves to be on the internet.

Saucy Summer Vegetables 

You could absolutely add other vegetables, like green and yellow string beans, bell peppers, or a couple swiss chard leaves.  You could also substitute white wine for the vodka, other cheeses or cream for the chevre, or no dairy at all if you’d like to leave it vegan.

Cook Time: 20 minutes of active cooking, then 2 hours to simmer on the stove

Makes: a lot… but it really just depends how long you cook it

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 5 c. cubed eggplant (1 large Italian eggplant or several smaller Asian eggplants, either is fine)
  • 7 1/2 c. sliced summer squash (from a couple medium sized squash of different shapes and sizes, sliced into bite sized pieces)
  • 10 c. roughly chopped heirloom tomatoes, cores removed (about 5 really large tomatoes)
  • 1/2 c. roughly chopped fresh basil
  • 1 c. vodka
  • 6 oz. plain chevre

  • sea salt and black pepper, to taste

 

In a big pot, heat up the olive oil on medium heat. Add the garlic and the cubed eggplant. Give the eggplant a liberal seasoning with salt at this point. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the eggplant starts to brown nicely.  Add a little more olive oil if it starts to stick. Add the summer squash (and any other vegetables you’d like to throw in) and saute for another couple minutes.  Crank the heat up to high and get everything flaming hot for a couple seconds (purposely trying to get some slightly caramelized bits on the bottom of the pot) then quickly pour in the vodka to deglaze the pan.  Turn the heat to medium-low, and add the chopped tomatoes, basil, and chevre. If you want this to be a soup, you can add a couple cups of vegetable stock or water.  At this point, you just turn the heat to low and cook it until it’s the consistency that you want.  It will probably need to cook for at least an hour on low heat to get the flavors tasting really awesome.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve… over rice/noodles/polenta/in a bowl/whatever makes you happy.

A note about tomato skins: I never peel tomatoes.  I also don’t peel carrots, potatoes, or cucumbers.  I really think the skin on heirlooms is so delicate that it’s not worth the time it takes to get it off. If you hate skin, though, feel free to blanch the tomatoes, peel them, then core them and dice them.

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Posted in summer, Vegetarian

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Shells with Roasted Summer Squash, Queso Fresco and Basil

Posted on July 12, 2012 | 6 Comments

I used to think that summer squash was gross and boring. I didn’t understand the point.  It’s not like a carrot, you know? Or a tomato.  They can kind of just be…. there, these bland tasting monstrous green things that you find hiding under huge leaves in the garden.

Over the years, though, I started discovering all these beautiful varieties of summer squash, and it completely changed my feelings about this bountiful summer vegetable.  Some of my favorites are the luminous, pale green Benning’s Green Tint Scallop from Baker Creek Seeds,  and the charming yellow and green Zephyr from Johnny’s Seeds.

My favorite squash recipe of the moment is this lightened up, summery mac and cheese.  It comes together incredibly quickly, and I really can’t get enough of this flavor combination- the nutty roasted squash, tangy queso fresco, and bright fresh basil are perfect for a hot summer night.  Of course, there’s plenty of room for playing around here; you could toss in a handful of kalamata olives, some diced heirloom tomatoes, a few leaves of kale, or some garbanzo beans.

… by the way, I end up never sharing my fresh recipes because come dinner time I don’t bother taking enough pictures to feel like it should go on the internet.   Maybe one day I’ll get around to taking a bunch of beautiful food-porny pictures of pasta and squash, but I didn’t want to wait until then to share this recipe with you.   It’s too good.

Shells with Roasted Summer Squash, Queso Fresco and Basil

Cook Time: 1 hr. (but only about 10 minutes of active cook time)

Serves: oh… 8-10?  The leftovers are great and will hold for several days in the fridge.

Ingredients:

  • 10 small to medium sized summer squash, preferably an assortment of at least two varieties, but the more the merrier.
  • 1 large onion, cut in half and then sliced into thin half-moons
  • 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 lb. bag of small shell pasta
  • 24 oz. queso fresco*
  • 1/2 c. bread crumbs – whatever kind you have on hand is fine
  • 1 c. fresh basil leaves – purple looks nice, if you can find that variety

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut the squash into bite-sized pieces.  Put it in a 9×14″ glass casserole dish.  Combine with the sliced onion, minced garlic, olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about half an hour, or until the squash is cooked through and has nice spots of golden brown where it’s starting to caramelize.

Cook the bag of pasta. Drain, and stir into the roasted summer squash.  Crumble the queso fresco over the top of the pasta and squash.  Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top of the cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and top with fresh basil leaves.  You can leave them whole or slice them into thin strips.

*Queso Fresco is a fresh Mexican cheese that has a wonderful light, tangy flavor that’s great for the hot summer months.  If you can’t find queso fresco, you could substitute any combination of mozzarella, ricotta, feta, or chevre.

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Posted in summer, Vegetarian

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Fermented Things

Posted on June 25, 2012 | 5 Comments

As you might remember, the May Cook It 2012 Project was to ferment something.  I made traditional napa cabbage kimchi, which was delicious and gone already (I need to fork over the big money for a crock, so I can make a huge batch!) So, before I post the recipe for these amazing canned brandied cherries that I can’t stop eating, I wanted to share these other projects from my fellow bloggers:

The Kitchen Ninja made these beautiful lacto-fermented dill pickles.  I’m so happy she made them since this is such a classic and delicious fermentation project.  The remoulade recipe included also looks pretty epic, and since I’m a fiend for a good po’boy I’m sure we’ll give this a try once the cucumbers come in.

There really is nothing quite as beautiful as a jar of pickles, right? (or a jar of canned apricots… or dilly beans.  Yes. Not only do I spend huge amounts of time photographing canned goods, I’m also actively aware of which canned goods I think are the most beautiful and interesting to photograph.)

Speaking of beautiful… that brings me to the lovely glowing bottles of fizzy homemade ginger beer from Homemade Trade. What a brilliant idea!

I basically read Aimee’s post and then ran to the store as fast as I could to buy a big huge piece of ginger so I could make the project myself.  Because, you know, one of the main things I’ve learned from the fermentation challenge was that it is so, so easy, so you might as well give it a try. There’s so little work involved, so few ingredients, and so little equipment.  Time is the only thing you really need…

(I really did go get ginger. My starter is just starting to fizz = so exciting I can barely deal with it)

Aimee and Ninj: always inspiring to read what you’re up to! such beautiful projects…

and to everyone else: Don’t forget, the June Cook it 2012 resolution is to make jam, so if you haven’t yet, go get yourself some fruit and get jamming.

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To be included in the jam round-up post, e-mail me a link to your post by July 15, 2012.  My e-mail is thejamgirl@gmail.com

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Posted in Cook It 2012, Pickling and Fermenting, summer, Vegetarian

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How To Preserve Radishes

Posted on April 22, 2012 | 17 Comments

Radishes aren’t really a vegetable that screams out for preservation.  They’re usually eaten raw, after all.  The problem is that I compulsively preserve all of the produce we grow, and in the springtime this invariably means that there will be the odd bunch of radishes that goes unsold at the farmers market.  The unsold produce usually makes its way into our meals for the week, and yes, baby greens with thinly sliced radishes and mustard vinaigrette tastes wonderful after all of the kale we’ve been eating all winter, but we can only eat so much salad before that gets old.  True, you can also roast them in the oven and toss them with brown butter for something more unexpected.  When the temperature starts to spike up into the 80s during the day, however, roasting things for dinner just doesn’t seem very appropriate.

Over the years, I’ve managed to find a few ways to preserve the bounty of spring radishes.  Radishes are so delicate that one heat wave can ruin them —  leave them in the garden a few days too long and they turn tough and unpleasantly spicy.  It’s much better to pick them at their peak, right away, and turn them into something tasty while they’re still fresh and perfect.  These preservation methods will help extend the season a little bit, so that you don’t have to figure out how to do crazy things like eat a whole bed of radishes in four days.

Refrigerator PicklesRadishes make perfect pickles.  They’re so crunchy already, and when you put them in a brine in the fridge they’ll stay crisp for weeks.  Spiced with white wine, green garlic and fresh herbs from the spring garden, these pickles are majorly addictive.Pickled Radishes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Makes: 1 quart

Ingredients:

  • about 2 bunches of radishes
  • 1 c. pinot grigio
  • 1 c. white vinegar
  • 1 c. water
  • 3″ section of stem from green garlic  (or fresh garlic tops, or scapes would work too)
  • 1 sprig thyme
  • 1 small sprig of fennel
  • 1 sprig marjoram
  • 1 sprig oregano
  • 1/2 tsp. whole black peppercorns
  • 1 1/2 tbs. kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 tbs. sugar

In a nonreactive pot, combine all of the ingredients except the radishes.  Bring everything to a boil and then let it simmer for a five minutes to infuse the brine with the fresh herbs.  Turn off the heat and let it cool down a bit after this- warm is fine, but boiling hot could cook that radishes a little bit, and we don’t want that.  Meanwhile, cut the radishes into smaller pieces.  Depending on the size and shape, you can cut them into halves, quarters, wedges or rounds (whatever makes you happy).  Pack the radishes into a clean quart jar.*  Remove the cooked herbs from the brine and discard. (If you want, you can throw a sprig of something in the jar, but I like to grab a fresh sprig).  Pour the brine over them.  Screw on the lid and store in the fridge for up to 1 month.  (The radishes take about three days to taste properly pickled.)As the radishes sit in the vinegar, the red from the outside of the roots will dye the whole thing a vibrant shade of hot pink.

*Sterilize the jar to make the pickles last longer in the fridge.

Radish ButterThis is my most favorite radish recipe ever.  This year, I used it for our ugly radishes that didn’t make it to the market.  Any that are split, cracked or sat in the garden a few days too long can just be thrown right in with everything else to make this delicious spread without compromising the quality of the final product. It’s simple, too.  Just puree the radishes with your favorite kitchen appliance for pureeing things and then mix them together with softened butter and fresh herbs.  Basically, the plan is to cram the whole early spring garden into one compound butter and then eat it on toasted sourdough bread.

This lasts for a week in the fridge, and we’ve had success freezing it but I’m not sure how long it really lasts yet. (I’ll come back and update, I promise!)  So far, those jars only sit in the freezer for a week or two before we’ve polished them off.

Radish Compound Butter

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Makes: 3 half pint jars

Ingredients:

  • about 16 radishes
  • 1 1/2 c. salted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 tbs. chopped fresh marjoram
  • 1 tbs. thinly sliced garlic greens (from the growing tops of the garlic in the garden)
  • 2 tbs. chopped fennel fronds
  • fresh cracked black pepper

Puree the radishes in a food processor (or whatever you use.)   Add in the butter and the fresh herbs and mix until everything is thoroughly combined.  Season with fresh cracked black pepper to taste.

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Posted in Pickling and Fermenting, Spring, Vegetarian

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Paula Deen Would Be Proud Of Us

Posted on April 18, 2012 | 1 Comment

The time sure flies when you’re having fun…

So far, Cook it! 2012 has brought us all shapes and sizes of handmade pastas, a beautiful assortment of breads, and the most recent undertaking, fresh sweet butter.

Truly, nothing really says luxury like warm bread slathered with butter made from the best grass-fed cream.   I still haven’t found a local source for dairy other than the natural food store, but hopefully something will appear soon.

Or…

Maybe I need to get a cow?

Or a goat?

As usual, I loved reading the collection of everyone’s projects.  It is a constant inspiration to see the great things that other people are cooking.

Belated Bread and Butter, from Snowflake Kitchen: a touching post about making bread and butter as kitchen therapy during sad times.

Butter, and Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes with Garlic Shrimp, from Homemade Trade:  Aimee, you had me at mashed yukon gold potatoes with fresh buttermilk.  That should be a food group all to itself.

Buttermaking, from Oh Briggsy: green garlic compound butter sounds like something I could eat on pretty much everything.  More importantly, this post managed to find the theme song for the March challenge: C.R.E.A.M., from the Wu Tang Clan.  (In case you don’t have it on your iPod already, it stands for “Cash Rules Everything Around Me,” which is perfect since making good butter requires the best quality cream, which really does involve shelling out the big money.  Nice song choice, Briggsy…)

Calendula Butter, from Bunchberry Farm and Dogwood Designs:  Lots of nice ideas for using calendula in this post, including a charming calendula butter.   (Scones + calendula butter + jam =  sure sounds good to me)

Homemade Butter and Buttermilk Rum Pound Cake, from Adventures of the Kitchen Ninja: that pound cake looks divine, and that stoneware bundt pan that you scored for free at the dump? I’m jealous.

(On How Not To) Make Butter, from Grow and Resist: My favorite part of this post is that me and Meg’s four year old had the exact same thought process.  Shaking the cream in a jar = boring.  KitchenAid mixer = powerful superior technology.  You could have had the exact same shot of me dumping the jar of cream into the mixer….
And with that, we move on to the April project: cheese!

Happy cooking, everyone…

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Posted in Baking, Cook It 2012, Spring, summer, Vegetarian

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