Gingered Carrots & Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi, kohlrabi.  There’s a joke that goes – If you say the name of something 7 times it’s yours for life, and then some girl says – John, john, etc.  It doesn’t matter how many times I say kohlrabi, my mental picture doesn’t match up with that name and I go blank trying to remember. Kohlrabi is a nice crunchy vegetable, similar to a turnip, but tastes more like a cross between cabbage and turnips to me with a little bit of sweetness. My sister in law adds it to salads, or just peels and slices it up for people to chew raw.  My dish was baked, bringing out another level of flavor.

I peeled off the leaves, scraped off the skin and julienned the kohlrabi along with some carrots. I used my frozen ginger in this dish, which smells so wonderful when grating. I did all the mixing right in the baking dish, so it’s truly a one pot dish. Even though this would have served more , with my husband repeatedly dipping into the dish,  it only served 3.  It was delicious, did I say that yet?

Ingredients:

• 1 kohlrabi – deleafed, destemmed, peeled, julienned
• 3 or 4 carrots – peeled and julienned
• 1 tsp ginger – grated
• 2 garlic cloves – minced
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• salt
• pepper
• parsley

Directions:

Throw all of the ingredients together in the baking dish – up to the olive oil, mix around a little. Drizzle white wine over top, sprinkle on herbs and spices,  cover with foil, bake at 375 until veggies are firm soft.

 

 

What was the name of that vegetable?  Carrot.  No the other one.  Ummm, (look at title) Kohlrabi.  Yes, that’s it.

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Savory Squash Fillo Bake

I’ve been given the opportunity to sample some different types of organic (love it) fillo sheets from the Fillo Factory.  When I’m shopping I first see if there is a quality product in the organic section.  I’m thrilled that I can find fillo dough frozen that’s organic too. I used the organic spelt fillo dough for this recipe with some squash I bought at the farm stand. I’m not an expert with fillo dough.  I use it and follow the rules about keeping them moist as best I can, but sometimes they fall apart.  My fake out is to tear strips of fillo dough and layer them across the top nice and neat.  My family loved eating the crunchy top and peeling it apart.  I thought it was funny the way they pulled apart the layers.

The Fillo Factory Fillo Sheets should be defrosted and placed flat, covered with a damp towel to keep from drying out.

I used:

2 yellow acorn squash

2 delicata squash

1 green acorn squash

  Ingredients:

Squash – enough for about 3-4 cups

Olive Oil

1 Onion – diced

2 garlic – minced

Sage – nice handful of fresh sage

1/2 cup grated grana padano cheese

salt

pepper

melted butter

8 Filo Factory Fillo Dough Sheets

 

Directions:

Slice each squash in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds with a spoon and drizzle with olive oil.  Place the squash cut side down on a baking sheet, and bake until soft.  I used a silicon sheet on the pan for easier cleaning. Peel the squash, and slice into bite size cubes.  Sauté onion, garlic and sage in one tbs of oil until the onions are soft.  Place squash, onion, garlic, sage, salt, pepper and cheese in a bow. 

Work with the fillo but try to keep the sheets damp.  As you use each one, brush with melted butter. Place six of the sheets on a baking dish so that the ends stick out over the side overlapping. Fill the Filo lined baking sheets with the squash mixture and fold the ends over the top.  If you can do it all nice and neat, great.  Mine needed a little work, so I placed one sheet over top, then the next sheet I tore into wide strips, layered over top and tucked in the edges. The squash had such a nice savory flavor, not like pumpkin pie at all.  This makes about 8 servings, or more if spread out in a larger dish making a thinner layer.  It would be a great bring to the family gathering dish.  We had leftovers that were delicious reheated.  You could probably cover the top of the pan after preparing and bake right before you are ready to use it if you want to make it ahead.

 

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Purple (Cauliflower) Risotto

I made a Purple Risotto, I kid you not.  It had flecks of different color purples from dark blue purple on down to lavender.  If you have kids that love new colorful meals, this would such a cool dish for them to try.  My son, my husband and I all thought it was scrumptious, and we’d eat it again. Actually we will, because there are leftovers. 

My husband and I went to Lynd’s Fruit Farm just outside of Columbus.  We’ve been going there for apples in the fall plus other fun things.  This was the last weekend of the sale tent and we didn’t want to miss out. They have such cool things available like purple cauliflower, purple broccoli, purple Brussels sprouts – okay, not purple brussel sprouts – just green, pumpkins, gourds and apples.  While we were there, we actually got to be part of an apple tasting.  One gentleman said they were trying out a new apple and we should taste 4 different types and rate where they landed on a piece of paper.  After we placed the apples on the paper in the proper like/dislike square (it was a range), he marked where they landed, and told us the one we liked best was 1238.  There’s only one tree in the world with those apples, and they developed it.  That apple was really delicious and sweet, though he said it was a tart apple.  I hope they plant more of these trees.  As a thank you, we were able to pick out some gold rush apples to take home.  Cool!

I love the bright purple Cauliflower (no, of course I don’t have a before picture) though I’ve never used it before today.  I was really pumped to see that the color when the cauliflower didn’t disappear, but changed as I cooked.  I first boiled the cauliflower in a pot of water, so that I could use that water as the base for the risotto.  The water turned blue purple, but when poured in with the arborio rice, it turned lavender.  So all of these purples – dark blue down to light lavender are in this risotto and make it so pretty.  A few green herbs thrown really pop.  Then I strained the water out into another pot and let the cauliflower cool long enough to be able to dice it up.

Ingredients:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 cup arborio rice
• salt
• pepper
• parsley
• thyme
• 1/4 cup grana padano grated

Directions:

In a pot large enough to hold the whole head of cauliflower, boil until almost done but still firm.  Strain the water (it will be blue purple) into a second pot and place that on the stove on low heat to keep warm.  In large deep skillet heat oil, sauté onions and garlic. Pour in white wine, and stir until evaporated.   When the onions and garlic are tender but still firm, add in the arborio rice, and stir for about a minute.  Then pour in one to two cups of purple cauliflower water.  Let it soak up the water, then add more. Meanwhile mince the cauliflower head.  Add more purple water to the rice slowly, until it is just about risotto ready.  Mix in the cauliflower, throw on some salt, pepper, the herbs and add on top the grana padano. 

 

Deb, you’ve got to try this – T would love it.

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My First Polenta.

Deb, my sister, put it well when she said to me – social media is great fun. She’s right, sometimes instead of getting down to work some nights I get caught up on browsing seesmic, tweetdeck, facebook and google reader, looking at all the things people write.  I also get inspiration from those tweeters and bloggers, and encouragement to try new things.  I found a tweet on seesmic from Olga at Mango & Tomato and I clicked into her Polenta with Mushrooms, Bacon and Mushrooms Post .  That dish looked fantastic. I left her a comment, and she sent me an email encouraging me to try it. 

I had a bag of Bob’s RedMill Corn Grits just waiting to be experimented with.  So I did it, I tried something new for me.  I made my first polenta.  What did we think?  The consensus was corny cream of wheat; Corn taste with a cream of wheat texture. I poured it into a clay baking dish, sprinkled it with romano cheese and broiled it for a couple of minutes to create a nice cheesy crust on top.  We decided we like polenta and we will definitely do it again. Thanks Olga for the encouragement. Isn’t social media grand?

Ingredients:

• 6 cups water
• 1 tsp water
• 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Corn Grits
• 3 tsp butter
• Olive Oil
• Grated Romano Cheese
• crumbled sage
• thyme
• salt
• pepper

Boil water and salt in large deep pot. Gradually stir in polenta.  Polenta acts like lava spitting up out of a volcano when it’s cooking, so be careful. Reduce heat and simmer gently and stirring frequently to prevent sticking.  Toss in herbs while stirring. Stir in butter.  Keep stirring until it becomes thick. 

Oil a baking or casserole dish really well – because polenta will stick.  Pour polenta into pan, sprinkle with grated Romano and broil for a couple of minutes.

 

Try it, it’s delicious. What new to you thing have you tried lately?

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Lemongrass-Basil Yellow Squash and Potatoes

Is there another name for yellow squash?  I only know it as yellow squash, but it’s so tasty I think it deserves a nicer name.  Since it’s major harvest and put up time, soccer season, football and band season, I find my dinners are rather lackluster and repetitive.  I have lots of stuff, but my inspiration is waning as I think about my days and evenings ahead.  Last night though, I had my Yellow Squash and Potatoes out, trying to decide what to do and then it hit me – Lemon Grass and Basil are just sitting in the herb beds waiting to be used.  Well not so much the basil since the Japanese beetles have been munching away at it, but I’ve flicked them into the soapy water bath.  Best way to take care of those things is with a bowl of soapy water.  I do tend to use a lot of the same ingredients over and over, because they come from our garden.  I keep expecting my son to say – No Not Chard AGAIN!!! and run off screaming into the night, but so far he hasn’t.

Anyway, this tasty side dish was divine with our steak last night. I peeled off the outer leaves of the lemon grass, then bent the stem back and forth a little to release the really good stuff before chopping up the white bottom part of the stem.  Not easy to do while fending off four legged lemon grass thieves.  The cats weren’t the only ones in on it either.  I found a big pile in the living room left behind by the dog, who is always eager to join in on the fun.  The basil, I tore the leaves off the stem and chopped into nice thin pieces. mmmm.  If I would have picked the yellow squash a couple of days earlier, it would have been 1/3 to 1/2 smaller than it was.  Smaller seeds would have been nice, but this was still very tasty.

 

Ingredients:

• 4 stalks lemon grass – prepared as suggested above
• big bunch of basil – chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 6 – 7 medium potatoes – scrubbed of all the dirt from the garden
• 1/2 extra large yellow squash that should have been picked earlier
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper

Directions:

Brush oil on to the bottom of a casserole dish.  Slice up potatoes and Squash, spread evenly around the dish.  Sprinkle on garlic, basil, lemon grass, salt and pepper.  Drizzle with a little more oil and stir to coat.  Bake at 400 for about 1/2 hour – basically it’s done when the potatoes are soft.  There was a nice lemony basil taste especially on the squash.  Next time I think I might use lemon basil – that would be cool.

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German Potato Salad

This German Potato Salad was the perfect side to our steak tonight.  Not one bite leftover, it was devoured.  In fact, my daughter dropped some on the deck on the way out and the dog ate it all.  She wanted more, but it was gone, all gone.  It’s a sweet and tart taste with a little smoky bacon potato flavor, mmm.  This is from Recipes From the Heart – a cookbook on sale this summer to help bring fresh fruits and vegetables to food banks.

This recipe is actually called Nana’s German Potato Salad and was contributed by Fara Bone of Salt Lake City Utah.  All of the recipes in this book come from associates of the U.S. Foodservice.

Nana’s German Potato Salad

Ingredients

• 4 – 6 small potatoes
• 4 slices bacon
• bacon drippings
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup vinegar (I substituted apple cider vinegar)
• 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
• 5 tbs water
• 2 tbs oil
• 1/4 cup onion minced
• freshly ground pepper
• chives or parsley for garnish

Preparation

Boil Peel and slice the potatoes (I skipped the peeling).   In a heavy frying pan, cook the bacon, drain, crumble and set aside, reserving the bacon drippings.  To the reserved drippings, add the salt, vinegar, sugar, water, oil and minced onion.  Heat the dressing and slowly add the potatoes and bacon.  Heat thoroughly to serving temperature.  Add black pepper to taste, and garnish with chives or parsley.

 

My family loved this salad.

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Cheddar Potatoes and Broccoli

I made Cheddar Potatoes and Broccoli to go along with our Bison Burgers.  We are potato fans and summer is a good time to get fresh grown local potatoes.  We had leftover fresh broccoli from my son’s party to throw in with it. I par-boiled the broccoli and potatoes together to soften them up.  I like to do that so that the potatoes cook in the oil for a shorter amount of time.

Ingredients:

• Red Potatoes (about 8), cut into halves or quarters
• Broccoli heads pulled apart so they are about the same size as the potatoes
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic -  chopped (more if you really like garlic)
• 1 medium onion – diced
• Parsley
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions:

Parboil broccoli and potatoes – drain and set aside.  In a large pan, sauté garlic cloves, and onions until soft.  Throw in potatoes and broccoli and heat until browned. Shake pan and turn over potatoes to prevent sticking.  Toss on parsley, salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle cheddar and cook until melted.

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Red Ruby Cabbage Slaw

This is my contribution to the Independence Day Celebration at my brother in laws.  I wanted something bright, something kind of healthy that make use of some of the cabbage we have in the garden.  This slaw has a nice wine vinegar sauce that you sauté it in and is a cool side for your picnic plate and it’s lovely to look at too.  This recipe came from my Joy of Gardening Cookbook that is about 15 years old and.  Decent gardening cookbooks can last you a lifetime, with recipes to enjoy right away as well as giving you ideas on how to put things up for the winter.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup or brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of water
• 2 tbs fresh tarragon or 1 tbs dried
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 cups finely chopped red cabbage
• 1 medium onion finely diced

 

In a saucepan, combine the vinegar, maple syrup, water, tarragon, caraway seeds, and salt.  Heat until simmering.  Add the cabbage, onion and stir.  Cook, stirring often for 5 minutes or until the cabbage is bright magenta and slightly crunchy.  Transfer the cabbage to a ceramic or glass salad bowl and chill before serving.

 

 

Happy Fourth of July – Everyone!!!

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Red Potatoes and Cabbage

Tonight’s dinner was inspired by the cabbage we are growing in our garden. We have plenty of it, and now we’ll have to come up with plenty of recipes to try it all out.  What’s cool about picking cabbage.  I read in my gardening book that if you leave a portion of the stem and leaves, newer smaller cabbage heads will branch off.  I picked a head of cabbage leaving behind the steam and big leaves and lo and behold, four smaller heads are growing there now. 

I thought red potatoes and cabbage would be delicious together along with a little apple cider vinegar to add a some tartness. It was an easy side dish with a really good flavor and I will definitely make it again.

 

Ingredients :

• 8 – 10 red potatoes
• 1/2 head of cabbage, diced – bigger pieces
• 1 medium or 2 small onions, diced
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 2 tsp caraway seeds
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

Cut up potatoes into big bite size pieces and boil in a big pot of water until almost soft, then drain.  In a large skillet, heat oil.  Sauté onion until it starts to soften, and add cabbage, sauté a little longer and add the potatoes.  Add apple cider vinegar, brown sugar caraway seeds, salt and pepper to taste.  Stir together for another 5 minutes until heated through and serve. 

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Green Barley & Kale Gratin

Since I have plenty of Kale, I search for different recipes to try out.  I followed the recipe on this one, thinking, okay, we’ll try it and see.  It looked kind of on the funky side to me with the bright green, but it was very good tasting. My daughter said it reminded her of pumpkin pie. 
This recipe was also from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  This book is one of my favorite resources.  I’m not a vegetarian, but it offers ways of cooking meatless meals that appeal to me.  I actually have a first edition book that I bought twelve years ago and still use today.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup pearl barley rinsed
• Salt and freshly milled pepper
• 1 large bunch kale, about 1 1/4 pounds stems entirely removed
• 2 tbs butter
• 3 tbs flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk or basic vegetable stock
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup grated gruyere or provolone

Directions:

In a saucepan, add the barley to 1 quart boiling water with 1/2 tsp salt  and simmer uncovered until tender, about 30 minutes.  Drain, then puree with 1/4 cup of the cooking water until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan, whisk in the flour, then add the milk.  Cook stirring constantly over medium heat, until thick.  Season with allspice, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Combine all of the ingredients, check the seasoning and transfer to a lightly baking dish or ramekins. 

Bake until lightly browned on top (that was difficult to tell) about 30 minutes.  If you’ve used ramekins, run a knife around the edges, then unmold them by giving them a sharp rap on the counter.  Present them browned side up.

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