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!

I Dip, You Dip, We Dip: Ricotta, Gorgonzola & Honey Apple Dip

Oh I'm on fire with the corny blog titles tonight!  Watch out now!

A few years ago, my childhood bestie and Barefoot Contessa fangirl, Miss Katie Jane (no Jane is not her middle or even last name, but for some reason my family always called her that) had a pre-Christmas cookie exchange/lots of wine & appetizers night.  I remember this night for two very distinct reasons.  1.)  It was the night that the Mister presented me with my wedding ring (we'd been engaged for over a month, because I'm the kind of gal who could care less about diamond and rings until they arrive and I'm all oooooo it's shiny!), and 2.) RICOTTA...GORGONZOLA...HONEY...DIP.  The night you get your wedding ring is a pretty big honkin' deal, so you know that dip had to be gooooood.  And the way Katie served it and I continue to serve it, is always with slices of crisp apples.  Because then you feel all healthy when you're eating an entire bowl of fancy cheese

So since we're getting more glorious apples this week in the Crop Share, what better way to enjoy them then dipped in some delicious dip.  Plus, honey is a major player in this dip, so snag some local honey while you're in to pick up your Crop Share, and get a jump on fighting seasonal allergies!  I also tend to think this dip would be really good slathered on burgers, so if you're breaking out your grill this weekend (I've given up looking at the forecast, is it going to snow, rain, be summer, or locusts?) then have some dip with some apples, slather some on a burger with the green leaf lettuce as a garnish.  Basically, I've now made you all crave juicy hamburgers, haven't I?  Ooo, even some lamb burgers with super thin slices of apple and this dip slathered on.  Okay, okay, I'm stopping!

Ricotta, Gorgonzola & Honey Apple Dip

Ingredients:

1 15 oz carton of part-skim ricotta

6 oz Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

1/4 tsp dried thyme (use 1/2 tsp if using fresh)

1/8 tsp dried rosemary (use 1/4 tsp if using fresh)

1 heaping Tbsp local honey

2-3 apples, sliced

Lemon juice

In a medium sized bowl, using a hand mixer, whip up the ricotta until nice and smooth.  About 2-3 minutes.  Then fold in gorgonzola, herbs and honey, mixing until fully blended.  Transfer to a smaller bowl for serving, cover and let chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour, up to a full 24 hours.

Slice apples shortly before you're ready to serve.  Toss apple slices in some lemon juice to help prevent browning, and serve with the dip.

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

Wait till you see the amount of potatoes you're getting in the Crop Share this week!  Squee!  Can you tell I'm Irish by descent?  So, after you're done whipping up this Leek & Potato Soup, you're still going to have potatoes left over!  While I suggest using up some in this Potato Salad with Cucumber, Rocket Greens & Smoked Salmon (this is not your Grandma's potato salad, no mayo in sight, it is an actual salad), I've also got another "fishy" recipe below that is one of my all-time favorite preparations for salmon.  The potatoes become this wonderful crispy base, and then you'll be able to throw on some of the tangelos or any leftover citrus from last week, and snag a Meyer lemon or two while you're in the store.  Then, as I mentioned in the "spoiler" e-mail earlier today, hands down one of my favorite salads of all time is this Herbed Shrimp & White Bean salad I'll link to below.  When you see how beefy the green leaf lettuce is this week, you'll have to work to use that up too, and this entree salad will be just the ticket.  We got in fresh cherry tomatoes today, so you'll be able to snag a pint of them along with some local honey to help round out the salad ingredients.

So without further ado, I give you two of my favorite recipes that are sure to help you use up this week's bounty (titles are hyper-linked to original recipes)...

Salmon & Potato Casserole With a Citrus Herb Vinaigrette via Country Living

Herbed Shrimp & White Bean Salad via Cooking Light

Getting 'Snippy: Baked Parsnip Fries

I'm slightly obsessed with French fries and turning random vegetables into types of fries.  So last year when I received parsnips for the very first time I thought...let's make this into a fry!  Best idea ever!  Parsnips are pretty interchangeable with potatoes, so they work incredibly well as fries, plus they have that little parsnip umph that gives it something a potato can't.  So if this is your first encounter with parsnips...put a fry on it!

Baked Parsnip Fries

Ingredients:
2-4 parsnips, peeled and cut into French fry pieces
3 Tbsp olive oil
Garlic powder, Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste (Sprinkle on about 1 Tbsp of fresh rosemary for a fragrant kick!)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Toss parsnips in olive oil and sprinkle with seasonings to evenly coat.  Spread evenly onto a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.  Turn parsnips to allow to brown on all sides and roast for an additional 10 minutes or until they look nice and golden brown.

Serve with a sriracha mayo dipping sauce (mayo, garlic powder and sriracha all mixed up to taste), or get your hands on some Black Truffle Salt from Spice & Tea Exchange in Old Town and combine that with some mayo, a titch of olive oil and rosemary for a sinfully decadent dip.

Turkey Tenderloins in an Apple Cider Cream Sauce

I'm pretty sure my apartment became the Iron Chef Kitchen Stadium this weekend, and the secret ingredient was definitely anything and everything apples.  We already had a gallon of the apple cider in our fridge, so I decided I wanted to use the little quart from Crop Share to cook with.  I mused over a few recipes, but my mind kept coming back to pork tenderloins.  And thus I devised to make an apple cider cream sauce (dairy-free, of course, for allergy sake) with hints of rosemary and Dijon mustard.  I make a killer honey, tarragon and course ground mustard cream sauce for pork and turkey tenderloins, so I knew this was going to be a knockout sauce.  And then when I was browsing the pork tenderloins at the market, I kept seeing Penny Pig nuzzle my legs like she does when she wants me to give her a treat.  ACK!  The pig's gotten to me!  So I walked straight to the turkey section and got some lovely packages of sliced turkey tenderloins.  Both are really interchangeable flavor-wise, so you can use either pork or turkey tenderloins in this recipe, and I bet they'd even be delicious with pork chops.  Serve with some roasted asparagus and herb roasted baby potatoes for a wonderfully rustic Fall dinner.

Turkey Tenderloins in an Apple Cider Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

8 turkey tenderloins (would work great with pork tenderloins or pork chops, as well)
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cups apple cider
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (for dairy-free, I used just shy of 2 cups of unsweetened rice milk blended with 2 Tbsp of melted Earth Balance margarine.  You may need to whisk in some corn starch blended with equal parts butter -- to prevent clumping -- in order to thicken the sauce a bit.  But you can also use unsweetened Silk soy creamer as that will be nice and thick-- alas, the store was all out of it.)
1 Tbsp dried rosemary (I ground it up in my mortar & pestle)
3 Tbsp Dijon mustard

In a heavy bottom skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Season tenderloins on both sides with Kosher salt and cracked black pepper.  One oil is hot, add tenderloins to skillet, spacing evenly and making sure not to overcrowd the pan.  You'll likely have to brown them in shifts.  Brown on both sides about 2-3 minutes per side, and then transfer to a plate.  Repeat with all tenderloins and then tent the resting plate with foil.

Deglze the pan with the apple cider, stirring to remove all the browned bits off the bottom.  Whisk in your cream (or "cream concoction"), rosemary and Dijon mustard until fully blended.  Bring to a simmer, reduce heat and allow to simmer until sauce is reduced by half, about 4-5 minutes.  Return tenderloins to the skillet, adding any juices from the plate, cover the skillet and allow tenderloins to finish cooking in the sauce, about an additional 5-6 minutes until all tenderloins are cooked through.

Transfer tenderloins to a clean platter for serving and drizzle some of the sauce over top.  Place remainder of the sauce in a gravy boat for serving.

Guest Post from Across the Pond: Pattesons Glass' Pork Rillettes

Apparently my foodie vibes must have been reaching across the miles, because as I spent my weekend musing over this blog becoming a collection of voices, I returned to work on Monday to find an e-mail from Pattesons Glass Ltd, a glass bottle and jar company in Grimsby, England.  They've enjoyed reading our blog, and wanted to offer up one of their recipes to share with our members.  While their Pork Rillettes recipe isn't exactly Spring produce heavy, it's the perfect way to put your garden herbs to good use in a bouquet garni as the base for this dish.  Still have lots of parsley leftover from last week or have you been drying your Crop Share herbs?  Then now is their time to shine.  Just whatever you do, don't tell Penny Pig we've got a pork recipe up on the blog, she might start to wonder why I feed her so many strawberries!

So from some fellow foodies across the pond, I give you their recipe for traditional French rillettes (if you need help with the metric conversions, hop on over to http://www.metric-conversions.org/ to compute it quickly and easily)...

Pork Rillettes

Like all charcuterie, rillettes (pronounced ree-yettes) were originally a way of preserving the cornucopia of fatty goodness yielded by the slaughter of a pig. Stored in earthenware crocks or in glass jars and sealed with a lid of pork fat, they would keep for months. This recipe is much lower in fat and consequently has a little less staying power, but the rillettes will keep well in the fridge for at least a week, and will benefit from a few days’ maturation before you break open the jar.

1.25kg pork belly or shoulder, skin removed but bones left in, cut into chunks

4 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

1 bouquet garni

3 bay leaves

6 cloves

50ml vermouth

500ml water

1tsp ground mace

Salt and pepper

Place the pork, garlic, bouquet garni, bay leaves, vermouth and water in an ovenproof, lidded dish. Cook at about 100°C for four hours, turning the meat a few times so it doesn’t become too brown, until it falls away from the bones. Remove from the pan and allow to cool slightly. Discard the bay leaves, cloves, bouquet garni, bones and any obvious pieces of cartilage. Drain the pork and place the liquid in a small bowl over ice or in the fridge to chill.

Using two forks, gently shred the meat, allowing it to retain its natural grain. Remove the reserved liquid from the fridge and carefully lift off the solidified fat. Mix the jellied stock that remains with the pork, season to taste with mace, salt and pepper and place in a sterilised 580ml clip-top jar.

Melt the reserved pork fat and pour over the rillettes before sealing the jar and refrigerating until needed.

Rillettes are delicious served cold or at room temperature as a starter, the centrepiece of a light lunch or for a picnic. All that’s needed to accompany the rillettes are some slices of warm baguette, a few cherry tomatoes and some cornichons or pickled onions.

View the original recipe on Pattesons Glass' recipe blog at http://www.jarsandbottles-store.co.uk/blog/recipes/pork-rillettes/ and be sure to check out some of their other great recipes, like their divine looking Salsa Verde!

Thanks very much to Pattesons Glass to reaching out to us with their recipe, it's great to have you at our communal table!