Pork Roast en Cocotte

OK, so it has been over a year since I posted the last recipe in this series. Whoops. I have gotten some exciting cookbooks in the last year that have distracted me!

Here is the next recipe, and I promise I'll try to post more often and get through this book:

Concept 9: En Cocotte at Work
Recipe: Pork Roast en Cocotte with Apples & Shallots

This concept is to put a seasoned piece of meat in a pot with some vegetables and cook it without liquid at a low temperature, braising it in its own juices. But unlike braising, you can do this for a short period of time with higher quality cuts of meat.

I chose the pork roast recipe because I liked the idea of cooking a loin roast with apples in the fall. I also don't cook pork much at home.

Still working on my food photos, ha!

Here you brown the meat in a pot, which produced quite a lot of sizzling, then cook the shallots and apples in the juices, re-add the meat, and put in a covered pot in the oven at 250 degrees - for less than an hour! I wasn't sure it'd be done by then, but it was, and it was very tasty.

There is another recipe in this chapter for French chicken in a pot, which sounded good, too.

Next concept is to cook meat with the bone in for added flavor, fat, and juiciness! I think the hubs is going to like that chapter!

Roast beast

OK, back to the Science of Good Cooking.

Concept 6: Slow Heating Makes Meat Tender
Recipe: Slow-Roasted Beef

The concept here is that by slow heating a cut of meat, you use the enzymes to break down the long muscle fibers of the meat. This method results in a tender cut of meat.

We decided to try slow-roasted beef, roasting a boneless eye-round roast on a rack for hours at a low temperature. First, you salt the beef and keep in the fridge for a day. You sear the beef for flavor, then roast at 225 degrees for almost 2 hours. You also let it sit for a while, since we learned from concept 4 that hot food keeps cooking. 

The roast turned out a beautiful medium and was so tasty that I can't believe I don't do this more often. Dave was pleased, too.

I served with some wilted greens and braised carrots, both veggies from my CSA. 

The next concept is also meat-heavy - cooking the hell out of tough cuts of meat to break down the collagen into gelatin. There are some tasty pork recipes in this chapter that are probably going to make me want to cook pork more often, too.

Oven frittata

OK, so maybe it's been almost a year since I continued my challenge to myself to cook my way through The Science of Good Cooking. Whoops... Time does get away from you.

Part of the reason is I've been going through some wacky stuff in my personal life. But probably a bigger part of the reason is that the next item in the list was a tough one to make for a person who currently lives alone most of the time - the choices were some 12-egg frittatas, or a rack of lamb, or a tenderloin. So I chose:

Concept 4: Hot food keeps cooking
Recipe: Asparagus, Ham, and Gruyère Frittata

The idea here is that you should take something off of the heat early, because it'll keep cooking as it sits. (Hence the two large meat cuts suggested by the recipes in this chapter.)

This was actually astonishingly simple.

1. Cut up asparagus; cook in pan.
2. Cut up ham and onion / shallot; cook in pan.
3. Whip up eggs, half and half, pepper, salt, and chunks of gruyère; cook in pan until eggs are slightly wobbly.
4. Put in oven and cook under broiler until puffed and brown, but still slightly wobbly and wet.

Results:

It was really tasty, nutritious, and not too unhealthy. I probably overcooked it a bit, but it was still good. No matter what the America's Test Kitchen folks say, there is a fair window between "totally runny and inedible" and "well cooked" and "ehh a little overcooked, but still delicious."

Funny story, too - I used farmers market eggs in this, and those eggs are always very robust indeed. Even after whisking for several minutes, several of the yolks were unbroken and I had to whack them multiple times against the side of my bowl to pop them. Love those free-roaming chickens.

I was a little worried about not using a nonstick pan, like the recipe suggests, but my aluminum pan was fine. I was able to cut a slice out without a problem.

Next time: "Some proteins are best cooked twice." Probably some meat will be involved.

Beef teriyaki

The next chapter in my little project is...

Concept 2: High heat develops flavor
Recipe: Teriyaki stir-fried beef with green beans and shiitakes

This chapter was all about the Maillard reaction, which is the caramelization of sugars on the surfaces of meats and vegetables exposed to high cooking temperatures. Many of the recipes in the book were stir-fries, so I picked one that sounded the best to me. (The other two have snap peas and snow peas, which aren't my favorite.)

I got a lovely steak from my farmers market butcher and sliced it thin, marinated it in soy sauce, and then fried in oil. You set that aside and then cook the mushrooms and green beans, then add some minced garlic and ginger. It was very fragrant at this point! I was worried I'd burn things, but I didn't.

After cooking the green beans at a high temperature to achieve the crispy Maillard reaction on the outside, I added some water to steam the beans for a few minutes just to get them cooked through. Then you add the beef back in, along with some chopped scallions and a sauce you make with chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, cornstarch (for thickening), and red pepper flakes. Cook a few minutes, tossing to coat:

A stir fry is a beautiful thing! I wasn't sure how much I would like this recipe from the smell, given my aversion to teriyaki for being too sweet at times. But once I started eating it, I knew it was a great recipe. It was deeply savory and satisfying.

It is also worth noting that I tried a new way of making rice, which was suggested by another recipe in the book. The Cooks Illustrated folks recommend rinsing the rice, which I never bother with. Then you cook the rice in a bit of butter before you boil it. This is all detailed in a chapter entitled, "Rinsing (Not Soaking) Makes Rice Fluffy." That's concept 30 and it comes later, so I won't get into it now. However, the rice was pretty much perfect, so I guess the Cooks Illustrated people know what they're doing.

The next chapter is on resting meat to maximize the juiciness of the cut. My plan is to make the maple-glazed pork roast, but I won't make it for a few days because wow, do I have leftovers right now. But I look forward to the roast.

BACK! ...with deviled eggs

Well, it has been almost two years since my last post. I had been feeling stale and that I wasn't really adding much to the food blog scene, but I thought of a new project and I'd like to see it out, even if I don't continue posting after it's done.

Basically the project is this: I received a birthday gift of a cookbook some years ago, the Science of Good Cooking by the folks at Cooks Illustrated. I loaned it out and have recently received it back, and man, there are some good recipes in here! The book is organized by fifty cooking concepts, and I'd like to cook at least one recipe from each chapter. Beginning with...

Concept 1: Gentle heat prevents overcooking
Recipe: Deviled eggs

The concept behind this chapter is that if you heat food gently, you give the food a chance to warm up more evenly. Roast a piece of meat too hot and the outside will be burned by the time you bring the center up to the correct temperature.

I picked the deviled egg recipe to illustrate this concept because the other two were both huge pieces of meat - a whole turkey, a spiral-sliced ham, or a prime rib. I'm living alone at the moment, so that's a lot of meat for just me. I'd like to try the glazed ham recipe at the holidays, though.

The egg recipe works like this: you don't boil the eggs for a long time, you bring them up to a boil and then turn off the heat and let them sit in the hot water for ten minutes. So it's not really "hard-boiled eggs," it's "hard-cooked eggs." You get the same egg with a more reliable process.

I used some beautiful farm-fresh eggs from my weekend market:

This style of hard-cooking eggs is something I'd done before, but I don't cook eggs too frequently, so I often forget exactly what I'm supposed to do. However, when you use this method, you can see that you minimize the gray ring around the yolk:

The recipe for the deviled egg filling was a bit less moist than I'm used to: just mayonnaise, sour cream (I substituted Greek yogurt), white vinegar, spicy mustard, salt, and pepper. (My own deviled egg recipe usually also includes yellow mustard, but I liked how the vinegar gave these some acidity.)

I ate these for dinner, serving with some wilted greens:

The greens are a spinach-like vegetable that I got from my CSA. The recipe is below and is my own!

Wilted garlic greens

1. Coat a pan lightly with oil or melted butter. Slice four cloves of garlic thinly and add to the heated pan. Cook for about one minute, until golden brown.
2. Add handful of spinach or other cooking green and toss briskly in the oil and garlic until coated and begins to wilt. Do not cook the heck out of them, just do this for a minute or two.
3. Serve warm!

Next entry on the blog, probably in the next week or two, will be concept 2 from the book: high heat develops flavor, with the illustrating recipe of teriyaki stir-fried beef with green beans and shiitakes!

Mediterranean mac & cheese

The Chicago Tribune published a couple of mac & cheese recipes about two months ago, and I am just now getting to cooking them.  (Yes, I know the weather is warm, who cares, the mac & cheese was delicious.)

First up, Mediterranean mac & cheese.

The link contains the full recipe, which I followed exactly.  As you can see it is pretty complicated.  You are basically doing several things at once, at every step of the way:

1. Heat the milk in a sauce pan to prepare for the roux, and also bake the garlic...
2. Start on the roux (butter and flour) while you get the water boiling for the spinach...
3. Remove the spinach and add the pasta, and also add the milk to the roux...
4. Cook the roux and add the spinach, and cook the pasta, and remove the garlic.
5. Throw everything into the roux.  Bake.

It turned out awesome - Dave had two helpings!  Yay for tasty pasta, veggies, and cheese!

Turnip & bacon quiche

Made this crustless turnip bacon quiche for a gluten- and dairy-free friend for brunch!

Shred the turnips, chop the onions.  Sauté the bacon in a pan, then add the onions, then add the turnips.  Get it all nice and soft and flavorful.  At this point you add some eggs, cook in the oven until firm, and voila!  Turnip quiche tart thing.

I hate turnips, but this recipe turned out awesome and I would definitely make it again, especially since I have about eight turnips left in the fridge from my spring CSA that just started.  Now what to do with those beets...

Celeriac carrot slaw

Celeriac.  WTF.

I made this tasty salad / slaw as a side for dinner on Sunday (with a main dish of potato pancakes - how's that for a dinner based entirely on grated roots?), but I forgot to take any photos.  Darnit.  But I made it again for lunch today, so I will share the recipe with you now.  I will tell you a secret:  this was much better than expected, even not taking into account the lowered expectations for a salad of grated vegetable roots.

Celeriac is basically the root of the celery plant.  It is a funny little bulb that looks like a really F-ed up potato, but tastes like celery. 

First off, I need to apologize to all the celeriac that went bad in my fridge last winter.  I didn't know what to do with it, and after a few weeks, it became even more shriveled and scary than usual, and I threw it out.  I now see the error of my ways.  (But I'm not entirely alone, there is a whole NPR article on how ugly celeriac is.)

For this recipe, you must first peel the celeriac until all that nasty crap is gone.  Then grate it, which is not very easy.  You also grate two carrots, which is much easier.  (And yes, the bunny got all the extra trimmings this morning.)

For the dressing, you mix mayo (I use olive oil mayo), lemon juice, red pepper flakes, and salt.  Pour over the slaw and devour.

Dave and I both had second helpings of this on Sunday night.  We were both really surprised how much we liked the spicy, savory crunch of the slaw.  I hope it is as good after sitting in the fridge until lunch; something tells me that the flavor will be as good, but the texture of the vegetables will not be as crisp.  Ahh well - what a healthy delicious lunch!  Make it, you won't be sorry.

Sunday brunch with family

My mom and grandma came up for brunch / lunch today before we visited an exhibit on historic quilts in the Arlington Heights History Museum.  I wanted to make something from my amazing breakfast book, and I also happened to have everything to make the arugula pesto salad from the Chicago Homegrown Cookbook.  Giddyup.

For a sweet item, I chose to make the French toast bake from The Art of Breakfast, with some modifications.  First, I didn't read the recipe, so I didn't soak the bread in the milk-egg mixture overnight.  Whoops.  (It still turned out fine.)  Second, I halved the recipe, because good god.  Third, I used dollops of homemade raspberry jam instead of blueberries, because all of my blueberries are frozen, not fresh, and I thought that would affect the cooking time.  Lastly, I did not make the maple rum glaze, because my family is trying to watch their waistlines just as I am, and I thought this was rich enough without a cream sauce.   (Instead, I served with extra jam on the side.)

Basically you cut up some bread into 1-inch chunks, then soak it in a mixture of milk, eggs, etc.  (This is the French toast part.)  Then you make a streusel topping and sprinkle some blueberries (or raspberry jam), along with some toasted pecans.  It turned out very lovely (and delicious!) and my mom and grandma were very impressed.  Not to mention Dave, he was impressed, too.

Next up was the pasta salad, which was actually much easier than I expected.  You make the arugula pesto while the pasta is cooking, so it is very fast also.  Cook some noodles - I used 8 oz. of cavatappi - and meanwhile throw everything else in the food processor.  Arugula, garlic, salt, pepper.  Pulse a few times until it is nice and smooth, then add the olive oil.  Mix together with onions, green beans (they said steamed, I roasted), carrots, and cherry tomatoes (I left these out).

This made for a very peppery, spicy dish.  I hope all the raw garlic in there will help me ward off the cold that seems to be going around...

Beef paprikash

I got this recipe for beef paprikash from a Whole Foods cooking demonstration quite a while ago.  I finally made it for Dave and the boys.  Unfortunately they ate it all before I got home and I forgot to ask Dave to take a picture, so I don't have anything to show here.  But I can tell you that the stew looked a lot like the photo in the link above!

I didn't have any rump roast, so I used chuck roast.  Maybe the chuck roasts I had were a little more full of gristle than usual, but it was hard to trim it and get suitable meat chunks out of it.  But I did, and then I browned the meat in a big pot.  When the meat chunks were browned, I took them out and cooked the veggies in there:  first the onions, then the garlic, then the green pepper and spices (paprika and cayenne pepper).

When the veggies were getting a bit soft, I put in a cup and a half of my 10-hour tomato sauce, as well as some water and "Better than Bouillon," which is like a meat jelly that dissolves in water.  When that gets boiling, you throw the meat back into the pot and boil it for hours and hours.  (2-3 hours to be exact.)

I left some egg noodles out for Dave to make for the guys when he got home, and instructed him to put a dollop of Greek yogurt on top before serving.  They all really liked it; I'm not really sorry I didn't get any because I haven't been eating much meat lately, but I'm glad we are cooking our way through our quarter cow.

Indian Chickpea Salad

I wanted to get back into my Vegan Indian Cookbook lately, and I made chickpea salad (because I had wanted to make chana masala but I couldn't find my Indian Slow Cooker book).  I made chickpeas in the slow cooker from dried beans, then mixed it together with chopped green peppers, chopped serrano peppers, chopped onions, lemon juice, and spices (ground cardamom, ground cumin, ground red pepper, freshly ground black pepper, sea salt, pink Himalayan salt, and a bit of ginger).

It was DELICIOUS.  I wanted to eat the whole bowl.  As Anupy recommends, I cooked some grains (in this case, red quinoa) and mixed together before eating.  It was so spicy and flavorful, and so amazingly healthy!

Clearly I need to make more recipes from this cookbook...

Mustard Seed Potato Hash

I made another one from Vegan Indian Cooking last night, mustard seed potato hash.

First you roast the seeds, turmeric, and soaked lentils, then you cook the onions and potatoes until done.  Very easy, although dicing the potatoes was kind of time-consuming.  Also, I don't know if this was a misprint, but the recipe said that the potatoes would be done in the stovetop in two minutes, which is way less time than it actually took.  After two minutes they are still crunchy!

I served them up at work today with some herbed roti:

I didn't make the roti, although I did buy chapati flour so I can make it very soon!

Fancy brunch at home

My favorite Christmas gift this year was a new cookbook, The Art of Breakfast.  I know, I know, I don't need any more cookbooks, and I'm not even sure I'm going to get Ina's new one...  But this cookbook is seriously amazing.

My baked goods platter alone was awesome: cherry walnut bars (recipe below), mini banana bundt cakes (from The Art of Breakfast), and an apricot kringle from my friend's favorite bakery in Wisconsin.

I also made grapefruits brûlées, basically grapefruit cut up, with homemade vanilla crème, sprinkled with brown sugar, and then torched.  So the bonus here was that I got to break in my new kitchen torch.

The final lineup on each plate also included cheesy mushroom hash with fried eggs.  All of it was really easy to make in advance and leave in the warm oven.  The whole brunch was really fun to make and I definitely want to keep cooking my way through this book.

So, I haven't mention how especially awesome the cranberry walnut bars are, but now it is time.  We had a cookie exchange at work, and getting the recipe for those made the whole thing worth it.  Here is the recipe, and it's not even as bad as Ina's evil pecan bars, which, if I recall correctly, use something like 8 or 9 sticks of butter.  (This is only 3!)

Cherry Walnut Squares

Crust:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. plus 1 1/2 tsp. granulated sugar
• 1/8 tsp. almond extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp. salt

Filling:

• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 3/4 cups chopped walnuts, divided
• 1 cup dried cherries, chopped
• 2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup white baking chips

Directions:

1. Crust: In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugars, and almond extract until light and fluffy.  Combine flour & salt and gradually add to the mixture, mixing well.  Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9 x 13 in. pan.  Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden.
2. Filling: Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, heavy whipping cream, and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat, cook and stir for 4 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Remove from heat.  Stir in 2 1/2 cups walnuts, cherries, & vanilla.
3. Assembly:  Spread walnut / cherry filling over crust.  Don't worry that the crust is totally coated with the filling, as the filling will spread in the hot oven.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until bubbly.  
4. Finishing: Sprinkle with baking chips and remaining walnuts, lightly pressing into filling (use a spoon for this, as the filling is hot).    Cool on a wire rack.  Cut into bars.

I used white chocolate chunks from Whole Foods, but otherwise I used the ingredients as listed.  I even bought and used almond extract, which I hate, but I see how it helps make this dish awesome.  Make these bars, you won't be sorry.

Happy almost new year to my readers!

Pasta with chicken and red sage sauce

I'm going to break my own rule and do a post with no pictures - simply because I had this neat idea, it was tasty, and I forgot to take a photo.  Also, I haven't  posted in a while, and I've got to make myself keep up these days.

So last night a friend was coming over and requested that I cook some type of chicken.  (She's a big meat-eater but isn't supposed to have much red meat anymore because her cholesterol went way up.)  I hardly cook meat at home, but I did go out to Whole Foods to get some tasty chicken.  I also grabbed some rigatoni so I could do a pasta dish of some kind.

First thing I did when I got home was start the pasta boiling.  Then I added some butter to a pan and cooked the chicken, whole boneless skinless breasts.  When the chicken was cooked, I removed it from the pan and set aside, then added my 10-hour pasta sauce to the pan.  (I made this sauce this summer by boiling down a half-bushel of Roma tomatoes.)  Once the sauce was hot, I cut up some dried sage from my CSA and added, along with the chicken and some hot pasta water.  By that time, the pasta was just done and I mixed it all together.

I may have used a little more sage than I was ready for, because it was REALLY sage-y, almost to the point of being minty, but it was delicious.  I was really happy with how it turned out.  My friend liked it, too!

I served the whole thing with fried Brussels sprouts and fresh carrots.  It was a very nice multi-colored plate - they say eat your "rainbow" of veggies, right?

Also, I feel I should note that I ordered and will soon receive a quarter of cow, pre-butchered.  I don't even know how many pounds of meat this will be!  I bought it from a farmer that I have met many times at the Palatine farmers' market, as well as winter markets in the general northwest suburb area.  He is really great, his meat and eggs are fantastic, and I believe the animals had a great life.

When I asked him if the meat was ready, he told me that "oh yeah, they're dead and hanging up in the freezer."  Yikes.  I guess this is what it means to get close to the source of your food...  Anyway this means many meat dishes through the winter, or definitely more than I am used to.  Dave's excited.

I also have part of a deer in the chest freezer, which I feel I need to eat because my friend's ex-boyfriend killed the deer, but now they are broken up.  I must eat the evidence of their relationship / breakup!  Time for venison tacos!

Scallops provencal

This is one from Ina's Barefoot in Paris cookbook, which I had forgotten how much I loved.  Scallops provençal.

The scallops are easy - just sauté in butter and then add the aromatics:  shallots, parsley, and garlic.  It really smelled amazing; Dave came downstairs and started ooh-ing and ahh-ing as soon as he smelled them.

I also wilted some kale and added as a side "salad," and to mop up the scallop butter.  I also happened to have some leftover naan, so I used that for mopping up as well.

I haven't really been much for cooking this year; not like usual, anyway.  I have been down about my dad's passing.  Eventually it will pick up again, I just don't have much energy for the kitchen these days.  Hopefully recipes like these scallops will help ignite my interest again...

Indian as Apple Pie event!

One of my favorite cookbook authors, Anupy Singla Gupta, held a cooking demonstration at Williams-Sonoma to treat Chicago bloggers to breakfast.  I have been Facebook stalking her for several years, so I was thrilled to snag an invite.  She has two cookbooks; one is all slow cooker and the other is all vegan, but they are like a Venn diagram with some overlap in each cookbook.  All of my Indian slow cooker posts have been from her first cookbook, and the recipes I tried out last year for roasted chana dal green beans and Punjabi-style cabbage were from her new cookbook.

She decided to make chai (Indian spice tea), tofu scramble, and hand-rolled aloo paranthas.  Her spices and ingredients are so high quality and wholesome, I was drooling before she even started passing out the samples.

Here she is showing us the elements of her hand-crushed spice chai:  cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, and cloves!

She crushed those items and boiled them in water, then added a little soy milk before serving.  It was delicious tea, and I normally don't enjoy spiced chai.

Her tofu scramble began by roasting some spices in grapeseed oil, then adding crumbled extra firm tofu.  The yellow turmeric turned the tofu yellow like eggs, and the black salt she added gave a distinct eggy smell to the tofu.  It seriously could be eggs, yet it contains no cholesterol or saturated fat.  

To eat the scramble, she rolled some roti by hand, then folded in some spiced potatoes to make aloo parantha - stuffed roti.  Although everything was delicious, this was probably my favorite part of the entire demonstration.  I need, NEED, to begin making these at home.  They were so much more delicious than tortillas or naan you can get at the store, and she said you can fold in any kind of leftover - lentils, garlic, onions, potatoes, you name it!

I am planning to do an entire kick of recipes from her cookbook to showcase these amazing recipes.  Although I love cheese too much to ever become vegan, I have morphed into a quasi-vegetarian over time and love eating vegan recipes frequently.  Thank you for your invitation, Anupy, and thanks for a delicious breakfast!

Garlic scape pesto

Maybe I am a bad CSA shareholder, but I still have some garlic scapes in my fridge from about a month ago.  They don't go bad very quickly, but I was feeling neglectful, so I decided to make something awesome with them:  garlic scape pesto with mini-tube pasta.  It was DELICIOUS.

This is a recipe from the CSA:

Ingredients:

• 5-7 garlic scapes
• 1/2 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil plus 1 tbsp.
• 1 cup pine nuts (I used walnuts)
• 1/2 cup grated good quality Parmesan cheese
• 12 basil leaves
• 2 bottled sun-dried tomatoes with 1 tbsp. of their oil
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• Sea salt & pepper
• Optional: 2 tsp. anchovy paste (I used 4-5 anchovies)
• Optional: 1/4 tsp. of either Tabasco, Sriracha, or red chili flakes (I used flakes)

Directions:

1. Chop scapes into 1 inch pieces.  Saute half of them in 1 tbsp. olive oil.  Let cool slightly.  (If you are using pine nuts, now is the time to toast them over low heat in a non-stick pan.)
2. In a food processor, blend all scapes, nuts, and Parmesan cheese.  Add basil, sun-dried tomatoes with their oil, and lemon juice.  With motor running, add olive oil in a steady stream until emulsified.  Add a generous pinch of sea salt and a few cranks of fresh black pepper.  If using, add one of the "heat" ingredients and the anchovy paste.  
3. Let sit for about an hour to allow the flavors to blend (I did not do this and it was perfectly delicious, although I am excited about my leftovers today for lunch).  The CSA recipe recommends thin linguini, although I used tubini.

More tomatoes, please!

So, last year I did a tomato sauce that took 10 hours to cook, but resulted in a smooth, delicious sauce.  I was able to can a few pint jars but didn't have a large enough canner for the quarts, which I kept in the fridge.  This year I want more quarts, and I have the canner to do it.  So, the only logical thing to do is buy 30 lb. of tomatoes at the farmers market.

This is about half of them.


I rinsed them, removed the top stem part, and quartered them, putting them into pots to cook down for 45 minutes.

As you can see, I had quite a few pots going.  It required two stockpots and a saucepan (twice).  I really hardly needed to wash them; these are some of the most beautiful and perfect Roma tomatoes I have ever had.  I must thank Mr. Farmers Market Dude for selling me a 30 lb. bushel!


After breaking down, I ran the tomatoes through a sieve and now I just have two stock pots full of the juice and pulp.  I probably have about three or four pounds of just skins.

It's cooking down now and I'll can it tonight - hooray for the bounty of summer!

Tempeh with cabbage stir-fry

Tonight I made a delicious, healthy dinner with farmers' market & CSA ingredients:  tempeh with cabbage stir-fry!


The tempeh was easy enough; I just put it in a pan with some hot oil and cooked until each side was golden brown.  Then I cut it on an angle and topped with fresh garlic guacamole and some sliced Hungarian hot wax peppers.

By "garlic guacamole," I mean that I mashed up an avocado, then added some grated fresh garlic to it.  It gives it a spice and you get great health benefits from the raw garlic.


I believe I've done the cabbage stir-fry on here before, but let me add the recipe again:

1. Shred one head of cabbage.  
2. Place shredded cabbage in a large wok or stir-fry pan and heat with sesame oil.  (I use a few tablespoons.)
3. Cook, turning with tongs, until the cabbage is slightly cooked, but not total mush.  It will be somewhat translucent and will have released some liquid into the pan.
4. Thinly slice one bell pepper and shred some carrots.  Add to pan with red pepper flakes and soy sauce and toss.  (You can also add sesame seeds, which I forgot last night.)

I had some kind of horrifying allergic reaction last night, so I don't know if it was something in this meal or whether it was something else (dust, bunny, etc.).  The only new thing was the hot peppers, so maybe it was those, but that would make me really sad.

Venison tacos

I have made venison tacos before, but this time it was with ground venison!

My friend's boyfriend killed the deer, and I got a package of steak and two packages of ground venison.  Awesome.  I topped it with refried beans (no lard), guacamole, sauteed peppers and kale, and some fresh onions.  A very tasty summer meal!