recipes


Soup Bones
August 31st, 2010 | Comments
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Over the weekend, we made the best roast chicken we had all summer. (Actually, it was the only roast chicken we had all summer, it’s been too damn hot to turn on the oven.) We stuffed the cavity with fresh herbs from the garden, garlic, onion, and lemon, seasoned it liberally with salt and pepper and roasted it in on a bed of onions, carrots and turnips.  Our hungry group picked the chicken clean and devoured the veggies.

Thrifty B’s that we are, we saved the leftover scraps, frame and pan juices. This morning we put them into a big stockpot along with the odds and ends from the vegetable drawer: a slightly sad zucchini, the ends of a bag of spinach, the last few carrots, a stick of celery, half of an onion, a garlic clove. We covered it all with cold water, brought it to a boil and then turned the heat down to a slow simmer.  It’s cooking down now and later this afternoon we’ll add half a cup or so of wheat berries or barley or faro to the mix (depending on what’s in the cupboard), season with salt and pepper and have this for dinner.

Actually, whenever we have leftover bones, juices and gravies we add them to the pot (so to speak) to create another interesting, flavorful and cheap meal. Not to get too earthy crunchy or anything, but there is a kind of harmonic convergence in being a bitch on a budget, a good green queen and a true foodie.

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Watermelon and Feta
August 19th, 2010 | 1 Comment
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This summer watermelons seem to be the bunnies of the vegetable world. (They are the state vegetable in Oklahoma, we’re still struggling with this discovery.)

Everywhere we go watermelons of all shapes and sizes are spilling out of crates, trucks, farmstands. Suckers that we are for a bargain, we recently came home with an old-fashioned- jumbo-sized-black-seeded (yes, they still make them) crispy-juicy-red watermelon. It cost all of four bucks.

Then we had to eat it. We ate big seed spitting slices; we drank  glasses of watermelon juice; we made watermelon pickles .

Here’s one of our favorite savory dishes made with watermelon. It is scary simple and really good.

Watermelon and Feta Salad

-Cube  fresh watermelon into 1-2” chunks.
-Crumble a high quality feta cheese (sheep and goat milk) on top.
-Drizzle with a touch of extra-virgin olive oil.
-Top with torn pieces of fresh spearmint  (love spearmint, uh, not so much peppermint).
-Sprinkle with salt and serve.

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Cucumbers in Hot and Sweet Sauce
August 6th, 2010 | Comments
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Last night we made one of our favorite dinners-brown rice bowls: Brown rice, steamed spinach, mung bean threads, squash in sesame oil, seared tofu with teriyaki sauce, carrots, bean sprouts, fresh spearmint, cilantro, basil, ground peanuts. For condiments: curried peanut sauce, sriracha and hot and sweet sauce.  Inexpensive and delicious.


Cucumbers in Hot and Sweet Sauce

2 cucumbers sliced and seeded

1 cup white vinegar

1/2-1tsp hot pepper flakes

1 cup sugar

1 pinch of salt

Combine sugar and vinegar in a small saucepan, slowly bring to a boil then add salt and pepper flakes (to your taste) .  Simmer for five minutes. Remove from stove and let cool.  Meanwhile slice the cucumbers the long way, use a teaspoon to slide down the center of each half and remove the seeds. Slice into thin half moons. Add to cool sauce. Let marinate at least a half hour before serving. This will keep up to a week in the refrigerator.






Lovin’ Our Garden Weed: A Recipe for Poppers
July 26th, 2010 | 1 Comment
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We Love Our Garden Weed

It’s that time of the summer when the weed in our garden runs wild!  We’re not complaining, we love our weed, but as good as it is early on the more you use the trickier it gets. Face it, overdosing is not a delicious thought. As we’ve worked our way through prep methods—and trust us, we’ve done it all—we were delighted when a younger friend (isn’t it always the way, they’re the ones up on all the latest in cooking paraphernalia) introduced us to their favorite ingestion method.

Healthy, simple and sure to delight.

Allie’s Best Zucchini Poppers

Pre-heat oven to 450

2-3 firm fresh from the garden zucchini

egg white wash

1 cup corn meal

2-3 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan Reggiano

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Wash and dry the zucchini. Cut into ¼” rounds. Thoroughly mix the cheese and corn meal, generously salt and pepper.  Dip the zucchini first in the egg wash and then dredge in the corn meal and Parmesan mixture. Shake excess off.

Place on greased baking sheets (we used Pam on ours).

Check on them after 15 minutes or so, they should be lightly brown on the baking sheet side. Turn and cook another 15-20 minutes. The poppers should be crisp on the outside and soft on the inside but cooking times vary by oven and water content in the zucchini.

Great as an appetizer with aioli, ketchup, guacamole, sriracha or simply served with salt.

(Oh! The weed? Zucchini, of course.)






Beets!
July 1st, 2010 | Comments
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Since we live to eat and we love nothing more than yummy, fresh, local produce we’re in heaven now that our local farms are selling their wares. So far this summer we’ve eaten our way through the arugula, lettuces, strawberries, rhubarb and asparagus crops. Next up from our local farm — fresh beets.  

We look for small sized beets with bright green leaves. Most people forget about how delicious and nutritious the greens are;  besides since we’re all about being on a budget, there’s nothing thriftier than using the entire vegetable.

There are so many interesting beet varieties, we can never make up our mind which we like best, so we buy several bunches at a time—striped, red, golden.  Our favorite preparation is simple and shows off the true flavor of the beet:

Sliced Roasted Beets Served on a Bed of Tender Beet Greens

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Wash and cut the beets leaving two inches of stem still attached.  Place them in a tightly covered baking dish and cook until tender –45-60 minutes. Let cool slightly, then slip off the outer skin and slice.  (You can stop here and simply cut the beets into chunks, lightly salt and serve.)

If the greens are tender they’ll be a wonderful base for the salad. If not, substitute, spinach, arugula, Bibb or Boston lettuces. Arrange the sliced beets on top and dress with the tarragon vinaigrette.  (The beet greens cook up just like Swiss Chard –they’re in the same family–and can be served steamed or sauteed. Also, don’t forget there is nothing like a fantastic cold borscht on a hot summer day!)

Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves

Freshly ground salt and pepper

Emulsify the oil, vinegar and mustard.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Mix in the tarragon right before serving.

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