A Tale of Two Pastas

Over the winter, I've collected two recipes that I've been itching to try:  Pappardelle With Spring Vegetables, and Spring Vegetable Ragout With Fresh Pasta.  Now that we're starting to see the fruits (okay, veggies, actually) of spring, I finally get to make this!

Photo via Fine Cooking

The latter recipe is exceedingly simple.  It calls for blanching whatever baby spring vegetables you have, reducing that water to a vegetable broth, and tossing vegetables, fresh pasta, fresh herbs, and butter with the broth.  The former one is a bit more complex.  It calls for a quick sauté of the vegetables, and tossing with a sauce of shallot, seasonings (cayenne and celery seed), mascarpone, and reduced chicken stock.

When I look at the pictures of the two recipes, in both I see the ultimate taste of spring.  It should be crisp, incredibly light, and fresh tasting.  Because of that, I like the herbs from the latter, and I think the heaviness of mascarpone cheese called for in the former would be way too heavy.  On the other hand, I believe the sauté pan would give the vegetables a crispness that blanching wouldn't (think stir fry), and the dash of cayenne would definitely liven the dish.  While either vegetable broth & butter or chicken stock would make a wonderful sauce, I'm leaning towards stock.  The collagens it has (you're using homemade, right?) will give the sauce a silkiness that simple broth won't.

Photo via Fine Cooking

In either case, the great thing about these recipes is that they'll work for whatever young veggies you've got on hand at the moment.  I was at Nalls today, and picked up some asparagus and some beautiful young rainbow carrots that'll work fantastically.  So, whichever you pick, open a bottle of crisp white wine and enjoy the fruits -- er, veggies -- of spring!

If I Can Do It, So Can You

All winter, going to the grocery store was an exercise in frustration.  I get so used to cooking with fresh herbs, I want them to cook with over the winter, too, but the prices are exorbitant.  Plus, the packages contain more than I need at the time, so I wind up tossing some in the trash when it goes bad.  Ugh!

On top of this, I'm the biggest brown thumb on the planet.  Seriously, I try every year.  I try hard.  But my little 35 square foot garden usually yields about 3 carrots, 2 tomatoes and a handful of jalepeños in a year.  Yes, I'm that bad.

But herbs are different.  Maybe they're more foolproof than veggies.  In any case, about this time I plant a bunch in pots, and I don't have to buy any for months.  One plant, that will yield all season long, costs about the same as 1 or 2 small packages at the grocery store.

Come fall, we'll talk about how to preserve herbs over the winter.

One more note.  Have you tried Trickling Springs's ice cream?  Waaaay good.  Their Strawberry is about the best I've ever had -- and when it comes to ice cream, I'm really addicted.  The seasonal flavor right now is Lemon Chiffon, and it's pretty darned incredible too.  Hurry up and get some, before I eat it all!

My Crop Share Challenge: Swiss Chard Wrapped Salmon with Grapefruit

This past weekend I decided that I'm going to give myself some Iron Chef style challenges each week by pairing two seemingly random items from that week's share into one dish.  And not like oh such and such with a side of this and a side of that, the items must reside together in the dish.  For fun, whether I wind up with a kitchen win or a kitchen fail, I'll post the recipe and results on the blog each week.  So to kick off my first challenge, I grabbed the Swiss chard and the grapefruit and got to dreaming...again, literally, I'm dreaming in food lately, ha!  And what came to me was to wrap some salmon in the Swiss chard, because hey if folks use banana leaves to wrap fish in, chard has to work, and citrus is always a good idea when it comes to fish, so could we have a winner, winner Crop Share dinner?

Swiss Chard Wrapped Salmon with Grapefruit

Ingredients:
2 fillets of wild-caught Sockeye salmon (Sockeye is a great sustainable choice, so snag it when you can, and for more info on sustainable and over-fished seafood, see this great database from the Monterey Bay Aquarium)
2 slices of grapefruit, halved
1 Tbsp butter (for dairy free we use Earth Balance margarine)
1 tsp chopped dill
4 Swiss chard leaves
Olive oil to drizzle

In advance, whip up your dill butter as you'll want it to set up for about an hour in the fridge.  For that just blend together your Tbsp of butter and your tsp of dill and allow it to chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a saucepan, bring some water to a boil and toss in your 4 chard leaves for 2-3 minutes, just long enough to turn them from bright to dark green.  Remove from boiling water and immediately rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.  Lay flat onto a kitchen towel or paper towels and lightly pat to remove any excess water.

On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or in a lightly oiled baking dish, place to chard leaves, slightly overlapping each other and then an inch or two away, repeat with the other two leaves.  Place salmon fillets, skin side down, onto the left edge of the leaves.  Divide the dill butter evenly and spread it on the tops of the salmon, like you're making delicious salmon toast.  And then place two halves of grapefruit on top of each salmon fillet, and spread them out enough so that you're maximizing your grapefruit-touching surface area -- you don't want all the flavor concentrated right in the middle of the fish, you want to spread the love.  Then pick up a fillet on the left side, with the chard leaves under it and gently roll it over so that you're wrapping the rest of the leaves around it.  Place back so that the skin side remains down and repeat with the second fillet.  Your leaves may not wrap the whole way around, and that's okay.

Drizzle the tops with a touch of olive oil and bake at 400 for about 15 minutes.

Results...

Omnomnomnomnom!!!!  Because of the general texture of the grapefruit, you really want to think of this as solely a garnish as cutting through it to get a complete bite with the fish and the chard is a bit much and the grapefruit does not want to play along.  So just set your grapefruit slices aside, because they've done their job of imbuing this dish with it's bright citrus flavors.  The chard holds all of the moisture into the fish, and then gives this dish a great earthy flavor.  We served our fillets with herb roasted fingerling potatoes.

So if you're just not a fan of Swiss chard, then using it as a moisture-trapping fish wrap is the way to go, because you could even look at it just like the grapefruit, as mere garnish, and set it aside, because it will still have done it's job of allowing the fish to steam and braise in all it's own wonderful juices and that added dill bitter, while it all gets roasted away.  There's a trifecta of cooking techniques happening all at once to that fish, and it's all thanks to a couple leaves of Swiss chard.

Vegan Creamy Dill Dip

Rarely do I snack on chips (now chocolate chips, that's another story), and if they're at a party I tend to pass them by.  Unless...there's dip.  I could eat onion chip dip by the spoonful, right out of the container and only feel a twinge of shame.  Just a twinge.  So when I married the Mister and his dairy allergy, store bought chip dips were right out.  Ah, but I could still dip away at parties!  Until I had to go gluten free, and that glorious onion dip was now on the no list.  Really, gluten, you have no business in my chip dip!  So while we were back in Ohio over the holidays, I concocted this little number that was so addictive, my Mama, my Gram and I sat around eating it while everyone else ate their dessert on Christmas.  My recipe calls for the use of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and Tofutti Sour Supreme (both can be found at the Giant), and while as a self-proclaimed connoisseur of all things sour cream and cream cheese I give these two thumbs up, if you prefer to not use the faux stuff, you can absolutely use regular cream cheese and sour cream.  Lighten it up with reduced fat sour cream and Neufchatel (a third less fat than regular cream cheese), just beware with the reduced fat sour cream you'll have more water content so you may need to add a little less sour cream to help maintain the dip consistency.

Vegan Creamy Dill Dip

Ingredients
16 oz Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
10 oz Tofutti Sour Supreme
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 bundle green onions, ends trimmed, and diced down to white part
3 Tbsp dill (fresh or dried, either will work)
pinch salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper

In a medium sized bowl, whip together cream cheese and sour cream until smooth and creamy.  Fold in remaining ingredients and stir until fully combined.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place into fridge for at least 1 hour prior to serving to allow flavors to mingle and for dip to firm up.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.  Great to make a day in advance, as the longer this dip sits, the better it tastes.

Salmon with Grapefruit-Dill Yogurt Sauce via Tash's Noshes

A couple of our Crop Share members have started their own food blogs (and then there's some out there who really should -- I'm looking at you Bethany Duffy, Louise Burnett and Kat Cole), including the newly married, Natasha Gannon!  In the Spring, Tash and I had dueling low-cal, spring onion cream sauces for salmon, and here was her healthy take with some grapefruit thrown in for a pop of citrus.  Since it's not Spring, there are no spring onions, but you could easily substitute leeks, chives, green onions or even shallots.  So for anyone who doesn't care for grapefruit as it is, this is a great way to use it up and sneak it into a meal.  Clink the link below to view the recipe at Tash's Noshes and poke around her site for other great, healthy ideas.  Now that she's out of the wedding planning mire, we can expect to see more deliciousness coming out of her kitchen!

Salmon with Grapefruit-Dill Yogurt Sauce via Tash's Noshes

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

Chicken In A Spring Onion Cream Sauce

Thanks to this round and the Early Spring round of Crop Share, I am officially addicted to spring onions.  Not only do I get a kick out of the fact that the ones we get for Crop Share are often dug right out of the ground the day before our pickup, but also they are just so versatile and flavorful.  By far my favorite preparation has been this cream sauce I devised one evening.  I had a bunch of spring onions and a few pieces of salmon, so I poked my head into the fridge and the pantry and after a bit of musing, I came up with a plan to make a decadent cream sauce to pour over the fish and use the spring onions as a fragrant base.  This was one kitchen experiment that turned out even better than expected, and one that we've repeated again and again as either a sauce over salmon or chicken.  Here I give you the preparation I use with chicken.  Enjoy!

Chicken In A Spring Onion Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt & pepper

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 bunch spring onions, washed and sliced thin (greens & bulb)

3 tsp fresh dill, divided

1 cup chicken stock

2 cups sour cream (we kept it dairy free with Tofutti Sour Supreme)

4-6 Tbsp Dijon mustard (depending on how much mustard zip you prefer)

In a heavy skillet or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Season both sides of chicken with salt & pepper, and then add to skillet to brown chicken on both sides, about 8-10 minutes on each side.  Remove and set aside on a plate.

Add wine to deglaze, scraping any browned bits off of the bottom of the pan.  Add in spring onions and stir occasionally to allow for some of the onions to caramelize a bit. 

Add 1 tsp of dill and stir to evenly distribute among the onions.  Continue cooking for an additional 1-2 minutes or until onions have begun to brown on the edges.  Add in chicken stock and then whisk in sour cream and Dijon mustard till sauce is fully incorporated and thick.  Stir in remaining 2 tsp of dill and season sauce with salt & pepper to taste.

Return chicken to pan along with any juices that have collected on the plate.  Stir to coat the chicken, reduce heat and simmer together for 3-5 additional minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked through and sauce is thick.

Serve over rice or quinoa and with roasted potatoes.

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Potatoes

During my time in Ireland I became obsessed with stuffed potatoes.  No, not just the broccoli & cheese or "loaded" baked potatoes we have here, these were stuffed potatoes on a whole other level.  The Irish call them jacket potatoes, and think huge puffy winter jacket kind of jacket, because they are stuffed to the gills and then some with all sorts of yumminess.  Basically what we'd normally reserve for an elaborate salad bar, they will shove into a fresh baked potato.  So when I stumbled upon this recipe in the fall, it was love at first sight.  A stuffed potato that would make the biggest jacket potato blush!  Being chock full of veggies, this will be a great recipe to come back to through all seasons, and the perfect way to use the zucchini we're giving you this week.  I've even made it with baked sweet potatoes, so if you still have some leftover from last week, stuff them up!

Veggie & Chicken Sausage Stuffed Potatoes

Ingredients:

4 baking potatoes or sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tsp, divided use
4 links of apple chicken sausage, sliced into 1/4 rounds
1/2 sweet onion, sliced thin
1 cup crimini or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 zucchini, sliced thin
1 yellow squash, sliced thin
1 14oz can diced tomatoes, some juice drained off but not all
1/2 tsp dried dill or 1 Tbsp fresh chopped dill
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Rub potatoes with olive oil, stab a few times with a fork to allow for ventilation when baking, and place in middle rack of oven to bake for 50-60 minutes.  While potatoes bake, prepare all the sausage and veggies.

In a large skillet, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken sausage and onions, gently tossing and cook until the sausage begins to brown.  Then add the mushrooms and garlic, and allow for mushrooms to begin to brown.  Add in red pepper, zucchini and yellow squash, and cook for about 2 minutes.  Then add in the tomatoes with a little bit of the juice from the can, the dill and your seasoning.  Cook for an additional 2 minutes and then remove from heat while you wait for the potatoes to finish baking.

Once potatoes are done, carefully remove them from the oven (wooo hot potato!!) and allow them to cool slightly.  Then slice lengthwise down the potato and fluff the the inside with a fork to loosen everything from the skin.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and season with a dash of salt & pepper.  Then generously top with the sausage and veggies.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream if you so desire.


Recipe adapted from The Cozy Apron (http://thecozyapron.com/reminiscing-a-little-over-vegetable-stuffed-potatoes/)