Guest Post - Blackened Catfish with Corn Succotash

Hi crop share members - Erin here - you may have met me up at the register or seen me on the floor obsessively adjusting recipe cards. I've commandeered this blog for a post because my family has been part of the crop share program for a long time and I wanted to share one of our favorite recipes with everyone.

The corn we've been getting in the store has been amazing recently, and we recieved beautiful green peppers and onions in our crates last week, so I knew I had to make this catfish with succotash. I discovered this recipe in New Orleans, where my sister lives. Other than Mardi Gras, the best thing to experience in Louisiana is the amazing soul food. Usually soul food does not equal healthy food, but there are enough veggies in this succotash to excuse the bacon.

You know a recipe is good when it starts with bacon. 

Best thing about the recipe? It’s easy! All you have to do is dice up your vegetables, fry them with the bacon, and cook the catfish. Dizzy Pig's Bayou-ish seasoning also gives you that great Cajun flavor, and makes it easy to blacken fish without burning it. To keep your corn as fresh as possible, refrigerate it in the husk and shuck it just before cooking. You can also be flexible with these ingredients. Use white, yellow, or bicolor corn and try substituting tilapia or any firm white fish for the catfish.

Make sure you've got a big enough cutting board for all those veggies.

Now that the weather is getting warmer, try cooking your catfish on the grill. Yeah, it's not summer (or even Spring) yet, but I can dream right? Season the fish and place it on a well-oiled grill at 100° for 3-4 minutes on each side. Also during the summer, throw in shelled butter beans with the veggies. A lot of southerners say it's not real succotash if it doesn't have lima beans. So put on some Louis Armstrong, break out the Tabasco, and sit down to this simple New Orleans-style family supper!

Most of the snow is gone, that means it's time to grill right?

Catfish with Corn Succotash

Ingredients:

• 2 strips of bacon, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds of catfish
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 bell peppers, seeds/stem removed and diced
• 1 small sweet onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons of thyme
• 4 ears of corn
• 2 tablespoons Dizzy Pig Bayou-ish or your favorite Cajun blackening spice

Directions:

1. Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. Add bacon to the pan; cook 3 minutes or until crisp, stirring frequently. Remove bacon from the pan to a paper towel.

2. Add onion, bell pepper, celery, and thyme to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Add minced garlic, cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. 

3. With a sharp parring knife, strip the kernels off of the ears of corn into the pan. Stir to mix all the vegetables together. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 8 minutes - stirring occasionally. Add the bacon back into the corn mixture.

4. Pat the catfish dry with paper towels. Rub spice mixture evenly over fish. Heat another large skillet over medium-high heat, add olive oil to the pan. Cook the catfish for 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Serve over the corn mixture.

Servings: 4

Cook Time:  30 minutes

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming!

No, It's Not Just a Movie

Listen, I love that little mouse, too.  But Remy's movie isn't just a movie for kids.  It's a movie for us foodies, too.  And, ratatouille is an actual dish.  Granted, like any good chef, Remy put his own spin on it.  What you'll see in a traditional ratatouille recipe looks more like a vegetable stew with a tomato sauce.  And it's fantastic.

Map via Google Maps

Ratatouille is a dish native to Provence, particularly around Nice.  In reality though, forms of this dish can be found all the way around the Ligurian Sea to Tuscany and even south to Rome.  In Italy, essentially the same dish is called ciambotta.

Photo via Epicurious

Yes, there are definitely variations in both ingredients and in how it's served.  Generally they will both contain a combination of eggplant, peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes.  Toward the east (France), the dish is flavored with marjoram and thyme.  As you go west, there is more basil and parsley instead.  In France, the dish is a casserole or the filling in an omelet and can be served either hot or cold as a side.  In Tuscany, the dish is thicker, and generally a stew, often with potatoes and olives and sometimes even meat.  Making either ratatouille or ciambotta is fairly simple, and the ingredients are now in season!

Photo via SmittenKitchen

For those of you who, like me, have a child who is a fan of the movie, you can't get away with making the dish if it doesn't look like Remy's interpretation.  Don't worry, I've got you covered.  There are two great examples (here and here) that will make you quite the hero.

So, do you have any of those peppers left from your box?

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Peppers via Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice

About a month ago, I was on the phone with my mother-in-law while she was making dinner and when I heard what she was whipping up I begged for the recipe.  I'm very pro-stuffing vegetables, especially peppers, so when she said these were like chicken enchiladas inside bell pepper, um YES PLEASE.  The report from her was they they were delicious, but she felt they could use a clove or two of minced garlic (we're all functionally Italian, we'd put garlic in pancakes if we could get away with it).  So grab those green bell peppers from this week and your spinach, because this is two for one recipe on the Crop Share goodies this week.  I'm sure you could even toss some diced yellow squash in, if you're really looking to sneak extra veggies into your meals.

Follow the link below to see the recipe on Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice, and check out the rest of her recipes.  She's got a killer looking Cheesy Spinach & Bacon Puff Pastry Quiche -- Easter brunch anyone?!

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Peppers via Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice

Sweet Day In The Morning, It's Sweet Potato Season!

So, unfortunately, my brain hates freedom tonight and no amount of Advil or Tylenol is touching it.  I am actually blogging in sunglasses at the moment.  Classy.  Thus, for now at least, this week's posts will be rather short and sweet.  In the Spoiler e-mail we linked you to our favorite, simple preparation for Sauteed Swiss Chard, which doesn't exactly scream Labor Day picnic food, but thankfully with this week's bounty of fruit you'll be able to throw together a wonderful fruit salad, fruit crisp, or even go all-American with some apple pie (or tart it up a bit!).  But I've got two preparations for those sweet potatoes for you.  One (an oldie but a goodie from our Crop Share vault) that will be a healthy, yet filling game day recipe now that football season is upon us (I might as well draw ire where I can...Go Colts!) and then another to take you from the gridiron to the grill and have you set for this weekend's picnic circuit.  Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!  Now where's a nice, dark and quiet room for me to hide?

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Scallions via Martha Stewart

Szechuan Noodles with Broccoli via Barefoot Contessa

Wednesdays are typically my day off from Nalls Produce and that means I actually get to watch Barefoot Contessa.  Nothing relaxes me quicker than the soothing sound of Ina Garten's voice, even though I always feel like she's silently judging me.  Am I using good olive oil?  Would Ina approve of my faux cheeze?  And this week, as I slipped into a vicarious food coma, I watched as Ina whipped up Szechaun Noodles with Chicken & Broccoli.  Then I thought to myself, "Ooo, next time we get broccoli in the Crop Share, I'm making this!"  And then lo and behold...broccoli is coming home with all of us this week!  The version linked below is the bare bones version, but in the show she added shredded chicken from 4 roasted, bone-in chicken breasts and about a cup of blanched broccoli.  I'm going to use some of this week's cabbage and possibly some of the eggplant, as well, in this dish.  And since we're peanut free in this house, I'll see how it turns out with almond butter in place of the peanut butter called for in the sauce.  So be on the lookout for my follow up post after this weekend, but until then, I give you Barefoot's version...

Szechuan Noodles with Broccoli via Barefoot Contessa

Click through to view this recipe from Barefoot Contessa...

Herbed Curry Chicken Kebabs

So we've gone a bit overboard loading you up with veggies in the past two weeks of Crop Share.  What can I say, we just can't help ourselves.  But if you're like me, that means you've likely got a fridge full of peppers and squash from this week and last and you're wondering how on earth you're going to use it all up.  Well, when you've got a bounty of veggies and no grand ideas, then it's time to harpoon those suckers.  Okay, not with a real harpoon -- with kebab skewers!  So yesterday I whipped up this tasty dish and in the end still had way more veggies than chicken, so this will easily leave you with enough to make at least 4-5 vegetable-only kebabs.  Get ready to fire up the grill, or in my case, the grill pan!

Herbed Curry Chicken Kebabs

Ingredients:

1 onion, sliced

4 squash, cubed (yellow, zucchini or pattypan)

1 green bell pepper

3 sweet banana peppers, sliced

4 plum tomatoes, halved and quartered

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

For marinade:

1 cup olive oil

1 cup white balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dried tarragon

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp pineapple sage

2 tsp Dizzy Pig Bombay Curry-Ish (now in store!)

Combine all marinade ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Assemble kebabs on wooden skewers alternating between vegetables and chicken.  You'll have lots of leftover vegetables, so go ahead and make some vegetarian kebabs out of them.  They'll make great ready-made side dishes for the rest of the week.  Layer skewers in a baking dish and pour marinade over top.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, more is always better.

Pre-heat your stove top grill pan over medium high heat.  Lay out kebabs and grill for 20 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked, turning the kebabs regularly to sear all sides.

Serve with jasmine rice.

Eggplant & Pepper Curry (Plus Tips on Freezing Basil)

Who doesn't love a good curry?  Okay well I'm sure there are folks who don't enjoy curry, but I question whether or not they despise all that is good and wonderful in the world.  Be it a traditional Indian or Thai curry, German currywurst, or a thick, pub style curry in the UK, if it has curry in it, I want to eat it.  So the other night having a fridge full of basil, eggplant and bell peppers I decided it was curry time.  You'll be getting a whole bundle of basil this week, so this quick and easy curry will be a great way to use up a good portion of it, and then freeze the rest to preserve it.  Just snip the leaves from the stem, rinse and allow leaves to dry on the counter for about 30 minutes.  Then loosely layer leaves in a freezer bag and place in freezer for future use.  When you want to use them, just remove the bag and allow to gradually thaw.

But enough of that...now onto the curry!

Eggplant & Pepper Curry

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
3 baby neon eggplants, cubed
3 bell peppers (1 green, 1 white and 1 purple), seeded and chopped
2 Tbsp Dizzy Pig Bombay Curry-ish seasoning (now in store!)
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (or Tofutti Sour Supreme for dairy-free/vegan)
2 cups water
3 Tbsp basil, chopped
Jasmine rice for serving

In a saute pan, heat olive oil and cook onions over medium high heat until they begin to caramelize.  Add in eggplant and bell peppers and cook for 3-5 minutes or until eggplant begins to brown.  Stir in Curry-ish seasoning and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.  Mix in Greek yogurt and then add in water.  You may not need the full two cups or you may wish to add more, whatever your sauce thickness preference is.  Simmer for an additional 3-4 minutes, and stir in chopped basil.  Serve over jasmine rice.

Grilled Vegetable Skewers via Proud Italian Cook

Pardon my lack of original content this week, I'm out of town for a wedding and my lonely share is waiting for me back at Nalls.  :(  So for all you Crop Share newbies, don't worry, cooking does actually happen in Nalls' Kitchen!

In the meantime we can all drool together with some gems I discovered thanks to Pinterest, like this Grilled Vegetable Skewers from Proud Italian Cook.  A great way to use up the corn, bell peppers, broccoli and even slice up the tomatoes into wedges to skewer.  I hear grilled cantaloupe is fantastic!  Though probably hold off on grilling the spinach, something tells me that's a bad idea.

So follow the link below to view this recipe that has me ready to fire up the grill at 9am!

Grilled Vegetable Skewers

Kale Stir-Fry

I made this stir-fry the other night when I realized that I had a bunch of kale that was starting to get limp along with a pepper that had seen better days. My solution to this is usually to make a stir-fry. This ended up being one of my favorites to make. It's a great side dish for just about anything.

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped kale
1/2 sweet onion or 2 shallots
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 small pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder ( I may have used a little more...)
2 tablespoons olive or coconut oil
dash of lemon pepper

Directions:
1. To toast the pine nuts, I just placed them on foil in the toaster oven for 3-5 minutes. Loosely chop kale and slice the mushrooms, onion and pepper. 
2. Heat the olive oil in a wok. Once it's hot, place the sliced onion and pepper in. Stir for a couple of minutes and then add kale and mushrooms. Stir frequently until the onions are browned and the kale has a nice dark color.
3. Serve and enjoy right away!

Deconstructed Chicken Fajitas

Fajitas are a lot easier to make than you think. I always wonder why we don't have them at home at least twice a month. I just have to get down the serving on a sizing plate down... 

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon fajita rub
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
16 ounces boneless chicken breasts cut into strips
1 large sweet or yellow onion, sliced
4 roasted bell peppers
1/2 cup fresh corn
1 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
16 grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced
2 tablespoon cilantro, chopped

Click through to view the rest of the recipe at: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2094040

Chargrilled Pepper, Eggplant and Basil Salad

This recipe makes a colorful and savory side dish. The flavor combination of smoky eggplant and pepper is irresistible!

Ingredients:
1 each large red, yellow and orange pepper
2 medium-sized eggplants
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
olive oil to brush eggplant with
2 good handfuls fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper

To view the rest of this recipe, please visit: http://ourkitchen.fisherpaykel.com/recipe/chargrilled-pepper-eggplant-and-basil-salad/