EatLocal365 » Fast Meals

Early Fall Roasted Chicken

Lindsay — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 12:08:32 +0000

Am I ever glad that fall has arrived! I know that’s a little controversial, but hear me out. First – cooler weather. Maybe not such a big deal to you gestationally normal out there, but, for me as a pregnant lady, it’s huge. Second – food!!! We’re awash in peppers, pears, corn, tomatoes, grapes, even an early pumpkin or two. Third (or maybe second-and-a-half) – cooking is fun again. This one’s obviously linked to points One and Two, but there’s something about the changing seasons that reinvigorates me in the kitchen. So, whether or not you agree, hurray for fall!!

The recipe below does not actually involve any seasonal produce, but it is tasty and certainly easy. I’m not usually a huge fan of chicken dishes. I generally find them a little blah and would rather spend my budget (financial and caloric) on more satisfying fare – like duck or eggplant. However, I was watching the Cooking Channel and caught this show about a woman who has a tiny restaurant in her Parisian kitchen. She made this lavender-lemon roasted chicken and made it seem so effortless and delicious. Maybe it was the British accent and perfect red lipstick…maybe it’s a weird pregnancy craving like the cucumber ice cream, but I opened up my Amazon app in a flash and ordered her cookbook. We’ve since made quite a few recipes out of this book and have been delighted each time.

If you start with a cut-up chicken, it’s definitely a weeknight meal, but the complex tart-sweet-herbaceous flavor is truly dinner party worthy.

Sorry for the lack of photos! Totally forgot.

Lavender-Lemon Roasted Chicken

Makes about 6 servings, but it depends on the size of your chicken and your appetite

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
1	Chicken	Cut into 6-8 pieces (purchase pre-cut or see this post)	Stillman’s
2 TBsp	Lavender	Make sure that it’s food grade.	Lavender by the Bay
4 TBsp	Olive oil		Capone Foods
4 TBsp	Honey		Warm Colors Apiary
2 sprigs	Fresh thyme	Leaves stripped from the stalk	Red Fire Farm
1	Lemon	Zested and juiced
Good pinch	Salt

Directions

Combine all the ingredients except for the chicken and salt in a small bowl and whisk to blend.

Arrange the chicken pieces in a container in a (mostly) single layer. Pour the marinade over the top and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 4 hours.

Once the chicken has marinated, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Dump the chicken and marinade into a baking dish and sprinkle with the salt. Bake (uncovered) for 45 minutes, flipping halfway through, or until the temperature at the thickest point is 165 degrees (or the juices run clear when you slice into the thickest part).

This was so tasty, I’d lick my plate, but I don’t have my licker license. I love you and miss you already, Grandpa!

The Doldrums

Lindsay — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:17:06 +0000

If local food folks call winter the “Dark Days”, I’m going to call spring the “Doldrums”. Stagnation, indeed! Watch out, strawberries and lettuce! I’m going to snap you up in a couple of weeks. For now, I’m thankful to have several places to by fresh, quality food, and for the skills and time to cook, so I won’t complain too much.

This meal was not really local at all, but instead of hiding our non-local eating and then forgetting to post this recipe later, I’m just going to post it now. I hope you forgive me once you try it. It’s easy peasy and delish, combining several of my favorite things – greens, soft-cooked eggs, yogurt, and butter. Mmmmmmmm! It does take a little more time than your usual egg dish (roughly 30 minutes), because the eggs bake in the oven, but you can just set a timer and then go on with your business.

Look at those yolks!! We only took one photo, because the yogurt and butter totally covered the eggs and greens making for a pretty unappetizing picture. Yummy yummy in my tummy, though!

This recipe is minimally adapted from Plenty to use ingredients we generally have on hand.

Baked Eggs with Arugula and Yogurt

Makes 2 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
2 TBsp	Olive oil		Capone Foods
4 to 8 ounces	Arugula	Mix in some spinach, if you want
2 to 4	Eggs		Sherman Market
3/4 cup	Plain yogurt	Whole milk, if possible	Homemade
1 clove	Garlic	Finely minced or put through a press	Red Fire Farm
4 TBsp	Butter		Shaw Farm
1/2	Dried chile	Substitute 1/4 to 1/2 tsp chile flakes	Home-dried
Pinch	Sweet paprika
6 leaves	Fresh sage		Snipped or sliced into shreds
To taste	Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. I used our 12-inch cast iron skillet. Add the arugula (and maybe spinach) and a pinch of salt and saute for 5-10 minutes or until the greens wilt and there’s a puddle of liquid in the pan.

Transfer the greens to a small oven-proof dish using tongs to squeeze some of the water out. Leave that puddle of liquid behind on the pan. Create 2-4 divots in the greens and crack an egg into each. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until the whites are white (not clear). The baking time will depend on the size of your eggs.

While the eggs are baking, mix the yogurt and finely minced garlic together with a pinch of salt. Although I don’t love my garlic press, this is a good time to bring it out, so that there aren’t any large pieces of garlic. A good knife job will work just as well, though.

After the yogurt is mixed up, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the dried chiles, sweet paprika, sage (which I cut with a kitchen scissor right into the pan), and a pinch of salt. Let it all fry for a minute or two, then turn off the heat.

Once the eggs are cooked to your liking, remove them from the oven and divide among two plates or bowls. Top with the yogurt and drizzle with the butter sauce. Dig in with a spoon, fork, or generous slice of crusty bread.

Quick Asparagus and Hazelnut Pasta

Lindsay — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:53:20 +0000

Hello again! We’ve finally emerged from our early spring slump. Our CSA ends in March and our farmers’ market closes for the season in mid-April, so we enter this confusing 6-week period where we have to shop at the regular grocery store to supplement what we can get at our neighborhood’s small local foods market. It’s very uninspiring.

We still aren’t quite into the summer harvest season, but Erik picked up some delicious local greens and asparagus this week that motivated me to get moving in the kitchen again. It was also 80 degrees yesterday! Crazy! The combo of perky veggies and a warm breeze have shaken me out of my funk enough to dig up an old favorite recipe. I’ve got a file folder full of recipe clippings, so I’m not sure where this one came from, but it was probably Real Simple or Whole Living. On a side note, it’s weird how you get to know a magazine’s font and layout after a while, isn’t it? Useless knowledge, but it sticks in my brain somehow. Anyway…I changed up the recipe to serve two and use more veggies and a leeeetle bit less pasta. The pasta adjustment is mostly because we have a FANTASTIC Italian grocery store nearby that sells dirt cheap, high quality, super delicious fresh pasta and I feel silly asking for 9 ounces of pasta, so I just get half a pound (which is 8). We’ve stopped making our own pasta, because this place is so great!

Besides being yummy, this is a very quick meal. If you start the water heating and the hazelnuts toasting before you slice the asparagus, you can have dinner ready in just about the time it takes to boil a pot of water. If, like me, you forget to start the water until you’re done prepping the asparagus, it’s still pretty fast.

Pasta with Asparagus and Hazelnuts

Makes 2 hearty or 3 smaller servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
1/2 pound	Fresh long pasta	Spaghetti, linguine, angel hair, etc.	Capone Foods
1/4 cup	Hazelnuts		Bulk section
1 bunch	Asparagus		Sherman Market
1/4 cup	Olive oil		Capone Foods
1/2 tsp	Kosher salt
Several grinds	Black pepper	Freshly ground or a good sprinkling of pre-ground
1 ounce	Firm, salty cheese	Parmesan, ricotta salata, etc.	Sherman Market

Directions

Start heating a large pot of water on high heat. Give it a good pinch of kosher salt, if you’d like.

Heat the oven to 350. Put the hazelnuts on a small baking sheet and toast them for 10-15 minutes or until fragrant and the skins are starting to darken. Once they’re toasted, give them a rough chop and set aside.

While the water is heating and the hazelnuts are toasting, slice the asparagus as thinly as you can stand, lengthwise. You can use a vegetable peeler for this, if you want. I usually cut each spear in half lengthwise, then, placing the cut edge flat on the cutting board, cut each half into 3-5 long strips. The texture is best with thinner strips, but it’ll still be tasty if you lose patience.

Once the water comes to a strong boil, add the asparagus and set a timer for 2 1/2 minutes.

After the asparagus has cooked for a minute (1 1/2 minutes left on the timer), add the pasta to the same pot. Give the whole thing a stir so that the pasta doesn’t clump up.

Once the pasta and asparagus are done, drain them and put back in the pot. Add the chopped hazelnuts, oil, salt, and pepper. Stir gently to distribute evenly. I normally use tongs, because they help to integrate the asparagus into the pasta.

Put the pasta on two or three plates and grate or crumble the cheese on top. I like to use a vegetable peeler to carve nice long ribbons of Parmesan. Eat up!

How to Make a Winter Smoothie with Local Ingredients

Lindsay — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:46:41 +0000

In the winter, I usually crave hot breakfasts. Oatmeal with applesauce and peanut butter, eggs of all sorts, or pancakes. Recently, I haven’t been eating particularly well, so I’ve been trying to get a little “insurance” at breakfast to make up for the Pad Thai at lunch and burger, fries, and a shake at dinner. Yep. That was yesterday.

Smoothies are an easy way to cram more veggies into your day. A little fruit covers up the healthy taste and if the green color bothers you, just avert your eyes. This has become my go-to recipe, but you can make some tweaks if it’s not sweet enough for you. Add a tablespoon of maple syrup or use a whole peach/banana instead of half.

We don’t have a fancy blender…although I really really really want one, I can’t justify the crazy price. There’s an easy technique for making a good smoothie with a normal blender. Check out this video from Good Eats – the technique info starts at about 4:22.

My blender has four speeds. I run it on the first until the vortex starts, then each higher speed for one minute. If a bubble forms, I turn off the blender, give it a little shake to encourage the “burp”, then turn the speed back up. It takes about 4 minutes of blending, but that’s enough time to put away the ingredients and make a cup of tea.

If you want to get crazy, add half an avocado to the mix. We ordered a box of them from California Avocados Direct, a responsible family farm, and were blown away.

Local Winter Smoothie

Makes 1 large smoothie

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
1/4 cup	Rolled oats		Bulk section or local, if we can get them
1/4 cup	Yogurt		Homemade
1/2 medium	Frozen peach	Substitute half a canned peach or half a frozen banana	Red Fire Farm
1 Tbsp	Chia seeds or ground flax seeds	Chia seeds will make it thicker; flax seeds will give it a nutty taste.
1/2 tsp	Ground cinnamon	Other spices, like cardamom, are nice, too.
1 cup	Water	Substitute juice or milk (dairy or non-dairy), if you want
1-2 handfuls	Spinach or kale	Well washed, so that you don’t have a gritty smoothie.	NorthStar Farm
1/2 cup	Cooked squash or pumpkin	Pureed or roasted (make a big batch and refrigerate or freeze)	Red Fire Farm
1-2 handfuls	Ice cubes

Directions

If you are organized and want to be like Alton Brown, prep your smoothie the night before. Put everything except the ice cubes into the blender (in order) and stash it in the fridge. In the morning, add the ice and blend, following the directions above. Make sure all the spinach/kale blends in. Sometimes a leaf or two will stick to the side. This is a great way to have a nice smoothie even on a busy morning.

If you, like me, are usually not that with it at bedtime, make your smoothie when you’re ready to eat it. Add all the ingredients to the blender (in order) and blend, following the directions above. It might take a little longer for the vortex to form, because the fruit is still frozen, but you can get it going by stopping the blender and smushing the spinach/kale down toward the blades. When you start up the blender again, the smoothie should start moving. It might take a couple of tries. If it’s really giving you trouble, add a little more water/juice/milk. It’ll thin out your smoothie, but usually does the trick.

15-Minute Mu Shu Duck for One

Lindsay — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:50:35 +0000

This week, I had some colleagues up from NYC and, in addition to working hard, we had a lovely dinner at an Italian steakhouse. Being somewhat contrarian, I ordered the duck. It was fantastic, but HUGE!!! The menu said it was half a duck, but I didn’t connect that that meant they’d serve me HALF A DUCK. It was as big as my face!! Needless to say, I went home with at least a quarter of a duck in a paper bag. Now today, I have a craving for Chinese food, but a refrigerator full of leftovers. I also have about 20 minutes in between conference calls, one egg, some milk, flour, and cabbage…of course, cabbage. Think think think… I once made a cheater’s mu shu chicken with rotisserie chicken, cole slaw mix, and tortillas, so that seemed like a good start.

I know you won’t all have a bag of deliciously cooked duck sitting in your refrigerator, but this fake mu shu technique will work with almost any meaty leftovers.

Lunch is done. Time for another conference call!

So sorry for the bad cell phone photos. I was hungry, Erik wasn’t around, and I needed to get back to work, so I prioritized speed over quality.

Fast and Fake Mu Shu Duck

Makes 1 serving

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Notes
1 tsp	Olive oil
A handful or two	Cabbage	Sliced (like this)	Red Fire Farm
Some	Leftover cooked duck	Cut into bite-sized pieces.	Davio’s
1-2 tsp	Hoisin sauce	Bottled
1	Egg		Red Fire Farm
2 ounces	Milk	By weight or volume	Shaw Farm
1 ounce	Flour	By weight; about 3 TBsp by volume.	Buckwheat flour from Upinngil Farm

Directions

Slice up the cabbage and toss it in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat with a little olive oil.

While the cabbage is sauteing, chop up your cooked, leftover meat into bite-sized pieces.

Add the meat to the skillet with the cabbage and cook until the meat is hot and the cabbage is tender.

While the cabbage/meat filling is cooking, whisk up the egg, milk, and flour to make the crepe batter.

Once the filling is done, remove it from the pan into a bowl and put the pan back on the heat.

Pour about half the crepe batter into the hot pan, swirling it around so that the batter evenly coats the bottom of the pan.

Cook the crepe for about a minute, or until the edges start to brown and curl off the pan. Carefully use a butter knife to loosen it from the pan. If it sticks, let it cook for another 10 seconds or so. Once the crepe releases easily from the pan, work the knife under the middle of the crepe, lift it up, and lay the uncooked side down on the pan.

Let the second side cook for about 30 seconds and repeat with the remaining batter.

Mix a teaspoon or so of Hoisin sauce into the filling. Top a crepe with filling and fold it up.

If you want to make more than a single serving of crepes, you can easily increase the batter. The Ratio for crepes is 1 part liquid to 1 part egg to 1/2 part flour (by weight). Since an egg is usually about 2 ounces, decide how many eggs to use and scale accordingly.

How to Make Roasted Squash with Chile Vinaigrette

Erik — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:43:49 +0000

This is going to be the first post in a series called “Husband Alone with the CSA.” Lindsay has been away for work for two weeks. I’ve been travelling 3 days a week as well. Although I’ve been trying to share our bounty with friends and neighbors, I still have had to cook my way out from under a big pile of produce each week. The biggest challenge has been the menu planning. I’m a great soldier in the kitchen. I will chope, puree, brown, sear, mince, whatever. But Lindsay is usually the one giving the marching orders, or at least picking out the recipe. I had some Skype help, but a lot of the meals have been entirely my own doing .

On a side note, please forgive the relative lack of pictures in these posts. It’s difficult to keep up with this much produce on my own. It’s VERY difficult to do so and take pictures at the same time. I did my best. So, on to recipe #1…

Roasted Delicata Squash with Chile Vinaigrette

Makes 3-4 servings as a side or 2 as a main

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation
1	Delicata squash	You could also use Acorn, but that would require two
1-2 tsp	Chili peppers	Finely chopped, including seeds
4 TBsp	Olive oil
1-2 cloves	Fresh garlic	Minced
1 TBsp/td>	Lime juice
1 tsp	Salt
0.5 tsp	Black pepper	Freshly ground
2 TBsp	Cilantro	Chopped (optional)

Directions

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil (optional).

Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Cut off the top (stem end) and bottom of each half. Scoop out the seeds and scrape the cavity to clean out the “guts”.
As you can see in the pictures, I waited too long to make this. Acorn squash can last for weeks on the counter, but with Delicata you need to move fast; you have no longer than a week to ten days. The bad news is that it’s thin-skinned compared to Acorn or Butternut. The flip side is that the skin is edible.

By the time I cut out the pieces that were rotting, I lost a full third of the squash. But I was cooking it as a side for one, so all I lost was leftovers. I soldiered through!
Cut the squash lengthwise into 3/4 inch wedges.

In a large bowl, toss the wedges with the pepper, 3/4 of the salt, and 2 TBsp of olive oil. Place them on the sheet pan, flesh side (not skin side) down. Roast for 20 – 30 minutes. You want the wedges to be thoroughly roasted, but if it roasts too long the skin will become crunchy and inedible. If that does happen, simply remove the skin as you are eating it. It should peel away easily. If you are using Acorn squash, the skin will not be edible.

In the meantime, mince the garlic and mash it with the remaining salt into a paste. Finely chop the hot peppers, including the seeds (be careful to wash your hands thoroughly and don’t touch your eyes in the meantime!). Transfer the garlic paste and chopped peppers to a small bowl. Whisk in the lime juice and the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the cilantro to the mix. Depending on your taste, you may want to adjust the amount of oil vs. lime juice vs. hot peppers. This version is on the bright side (more lime and less oil) and hot side.

Plate the squash and drizzle with the vinaigrette.

Corn and Zucchini Stir-Fry with Cashews

Lindsay — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 17:21:18 +0000

More zucchini!! This is a recipe I first made while babysitting for my niece, who was not yet two at the time. She sat at the counter jabbering away, while I chopped and cooked, close enough to catch her and far enough away to keep her hands a safe distance from the stove. That night we made up an awesome call-and-response scatting game. She would blab something that obviously made sense to her, but sounded like nonsense to me, so I’d sing it back to her like Ella Fitzgerald. Pretty soon, we were taking turns making up silly little songs and giggling like crazy people. Then, in a flash, dinner was ready. Bipidy do da wah!

The next time we made this, we were visiting my parents in Minnesota and cooking for them and some friends. One of the friends is vegetarian and the other is a trained chef. No pressure, though. We had also just gone to the State Fair, so we were in dire need of vegetables. Luckily, my parents have a CSA and they had plenty of fresh stuff hanging around. Everyone loved this, even the skeptical meat-eaters of the group.

When we made this last time, there wasn’t any scatting or anyone to impress. Just a hungry Erik and Lindsay and TONS of corn and zucchini to use up. Much less of a story. If you want to make it more “Food Network”, add rice, steamed buns, and dessert. It doesn’t need any of that stuff, but sometimes it’s fun to go nuts.

Corn and Zucchini Stir-Fry with Cashews
Adapted from Fast, Fresh & Green
Serves 2 generously

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (USM = Somerville’s Union Square Market)
1 pound	Zucchini	Large ones are a little easier to deal with; substitute summer squash	Red Fire Farm
4 ears	Corn		Red Fire Farm
6 large	Scallions		USM
2 tsp	Hoisin sauce
1 tsp	Fish sauce
1 tsp	Lime juice	Substitute lemon juice
1 TBsp	Fresh ginger	Grated
1-2 cloves	Garlic		Keith’s Farm
1/4 tsp	Chili-garlic sauce	We used sriracha
2 TBsp	Sunflower oil		Stolor Organics
1/3 cup	Cashews
1 tsp	Kosher salt
1 1/2 TBsp	Fresh mint		USM
1 1/2 TBsp	Fresh cilantro

Directions

This method of dicing zucchini is a little unorthodox, but it gives you the “meat” of the zucchini without the seeds. Cut both ends off the zucchini. Cut panels off of all four sides, leaving a brick of seeds, which you can discard. Dice the panels into about 1/2-inch pieces. Repeat with the remaining zucchini.

Slice the corn off of the cobs. If you go too close to the cob, you’ll dull your knife, so it’s okay to leave a little of the kernel behind. I find it easiest to cut right in a big bowl, so that the kernels don’t fly all over the kitchen. Add the corn to the zucchini.

Slice the scallions into 1/2-inch pieces. Use both the white and green parts. Add the scallions to the corn and zucchini.

Chop up the mint and cilantro and set aside.

Finely chop the garlic. You could also grate it, if you’re feeling fancy. Add it to a small bowl with the grated ginger and chili-garlic sauce.

Whisk the hoisin sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, and 1 tsp of water together in a small bowl.

Heat 1 TBsp of the sunflower oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. When the oil is hot (hold your hand an inch or so above it to test), add the cashews and stir them around until they’re browned in spots (about 3 minutes). Don’t walk away, because they’ll go from perfect to burned rather quickly. Remove them from the pan and set aside.

Heat the remaining 1 TBsp of oil and let it heat up over a high flame. Add the zucchini, corn, scallions, and salt. This part will take about 5 minutes. Leave it alone at first, but stir more toward the end. The veggies should be browned in spots and the zucchini should be soft and translucent.

Stir in the ginger-garlic mixture and fry for about 30 seconds (you’ll be able to smell it).

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the hoisin sauce mixture.

Stir in the cashews, mint, and cilantro and serve. If you’re not serving it right away, transfer the stir-fry to a plate so that it doesn’t continue to cook and get mushy.

Awesome Spicy-Sweet Cantaloupe Slaw

Lindsay — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:42:59 +0000

Cantaloupe is another CSA adventure for us. Both of us kind of like it, but not nearly as much as the other fruit that tempts us at the farmer’s market – peaches, blueberries, raspberries… Yum! When it showed up in our share last week, I ate two slices then cut up the rest and froze it. Granted, we just got an awesome chest freezer, so I’m a little freezer-happy at the moment, but still. It’s kind of embarassing. I was determined not to do that again, so I hunted and hunted for a recipe to blow me away. There are a million (seriously, a million) recipes for the melon, cured meat, soft cheese, and viniagrette combo, but I’m on a very strict diet to help control my migraines and can’t have cured meat, cheese, or vinegar. Gah! Of course, all those recipes looked delicious and made me hungry. So then I took a lunch break.

After lunch, I gave up on the melon and started looking for fun slaw recipes to tackle the two heads of cabbage we also got from the CSA. Double success! With just a few modifications to a mango slaw recipe from Smitten Kitchen to accomodate my weirdo diet and what we had on hand, lunch was served.

This might be my new favorite salad. It’s crunchy, spicy, and sweet. Like any slaw, it takes quite a bit of chopping, but just take your time to cut things roughly the same size.

Spicy Sweet Cantaloupe Slaw
Serves 6 as a side or 3 as a main

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (USM = Somerville’s Union Square Market)
1/2 cup	Nuts or seeds	Roughly chopped if large; we used cashews.
1/2 small	Cantaloupe		Red Fire Farm CSA
1 small	Nappa cabbage	About 12 ounces	Red Fire Farm CSA
1	Poblano pepper	Use a bell pepper if you’re really sensitive to heat.	USM
2	Red spring onions	Substitute 1 red onion, if neccesary	USM
About 1/4 cup	Cilantro	Chopped	USM
1 TBsp	Mint	Chopped	USM
1/4 cup	Lemon juice
2 TBsp	Vegetable oil	We used part olive and part sunflower oil.	Stolor Organics
1/2 tsp	Salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Toast the nuts or seeds on a baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes. Smaller nuts/seeds will need less time, so keep an eye on them. Give the pan a shake once during cooking so that they brown more evenly. While they’re toasting, work on the veggies, but don’t forget about the nuts! Once they’re done, let them cool while you finish up.

Prep the cabbage: Remove the outer leaves. Quarter the cabbage from the North to the South Pole. Holding your knife at an angle, cut out the core and discard. Slice each cabbage quarter into short, thin ribbons. Put the ribbons into a big bowl.

Prep the pepper: Quarter the pepper from the North to the South Pole. Remove the stem, seeds, and membranes using your fingers and discard. Slice each pepper quarter into short, thin ribbons. Add these to the bowl with the cabbage.

Prep the onions: Remove the outer layer of each onion. Slice each onion from the North to the South Pole. Slice each onion into thin, half-moon slices. Add these to the bowl with the cabbage and peppers.

Prep the cantaloupe: Halve the cantaloupe from the North to the South Pole. Set aside one half to use for something else. Use a spoon to scoop the seeds out of the half you’re using. Slice that half into as many equally sized wedges as you’d like. We did eight, but it depends on the size of your melon. Smaller wedges are better. Lay a wedge on it’s side and cut the rind off. Cut the wedge into thin slices like you’re cutting a banana. Repeat with the other wedges and add to the bowl with the rest of the vegetables.

Add the cilantro and mint to the bowl.

Put the lemon juice and salt in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the oil.

Pour the dressing over the slaw. Add the cashews and mix well.

Smashed Zucchini on Toast (or What to Do With All That Zucchini??)

Lindsay — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:49:06 +0000

Hello all! After a fantastic wedding and honeymoon, we’re back to cooking like ourselves again. It was a few crazy weeks of delicious restaurant meals (and crackers shoved into my face when time got away from me), but now it’s time to settle into some better eating habits. Luckily, it’s summer, so healthy eating is (relatively) easy, especially for those of us with a CSA or you lucky, hard-working folks with a garden. Just keeping up with the flood of produce forces it.

This is our first summer with a CSA and we’ve never had a garden, so we knew about the summer zucchini attack only second hand. We’ve seen piles and piles of them at the farmers’ market, of course, but could choose whether or not to take buy any. Now, we don’t have that choice. On Wednesdays, we dutifully take them home and figure out what to do with them. I have to be honest, though…I don’t love zucchini in it’s pure form. I could eat truckloads of it in my mom’s chocolate zucchini cake, but I was kind of at a loss for other, less indulgent uses. So we’re experimenting. I like this recipe, because it tastes bright and tangy from the lemon juice and mint. I also love smooshy things on toast – poached eggs, avocado, overly ripe peaches, whatever!

Feel free to play around with the ingredients. The recipe is from a Jamie Oliver cookbook, which uses measurements like a “glug” of olive oil, so you can’t take it too seriously. I think basil would be nice instead of mint. I love garlic and chiles, so I will probably add more of each next time. This would also make a good pasta sauce or cracker topping. It would probably be amazing in a grilled cheese sandwich, too.

In the wedding rush, we didn’t take any pictures of this. Sorry!! Honestly, it’s not that photogenic, so you’re not missing much.

Smashed Zucchini with Lemon and Mint
Serves 4 (or so)

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation	Where we bought it (USM = Somerville’s Union Square Market)
1/4 cup	Sunflower oil	Divided; substitute olive oil or another neutral oil	Stolor Organics
2-3 cloves	Garlic	Finely chopped	Keith’s Farm
2	Dried chiles	Crumbled with your fingers	Home-dried
About 2 pounds	Summer squash	We used all zucchini, but the yellow ones would work just fine.	Red Fire Farm CSA
To taste	Salt and pepper
About 1/4 cup	Mint	Loosely packed	USM
2 TBsp	Lemon juice	About 1 lemon’s worth

Directions

Wash the summer squash then chop it into roughly 1-inch pieces. Don’t worry about being too precise. It’s going to cook down to mostly mush anyway.

Mince the garlic and crumble the chiles.

Heat half the oil (2 TBsp) in a large pan with a lid (12-inches or so) until a drop of water sizzles a bit when you drop it in. Cook the garlic and chiles uncovered on medium heat for a few minutes until they start to brown and you can smell them.

Add in the summer squash and stir to coat it in the garlicy, spicy oil. Put the lid on and turn the heat down to medium low. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan every 5 minutes. The lid should keep enough moisture in to prevent serious sticking, but if the mixture starts to burn, add a little water. It’s done when you like the texture, so give it a taste.

Once you decide it’s cooked enough, add in the salt and pepper, mint, and lemon juice to taste. You can always add more, so start slow and stop when you like it.

Finally, add enough of the remaining oil to make it smooth and spreadable. Toast some bread and pile it on.

How to Make Roasted Green Beans and Mushrooms with Rosemary and Garlic Oil

Erik — Wed, 30 May 2012 01:16:32 +0000

The past six weeks have been a bit of a challenge in terms of our shopping and cooking routine. The winter farmer’s market has been steadily winding down, to the point where it’s all prepared foods, bread, jams, etc. However, the summer version hasn’t yet started. We’re also in between CSA shares. Everything gets back to normal next week, but it’s been slim pickings!

That’s why this recipe was perfect. It was simple and leveraged what we DID have. And it was easy and tasty to boot.

Roasted Green Beans and Mushrooms with Rosemary and Garlic Oil

Makes 2-4 servings

Amount	Ingredient	Preparation
12 oz	Green beans	Stems trimmed
10 oz	Crimini mushrooms	Cut into quarters (halves if small)
1 tsp	Fresh garlic	Minced
1 tsp	Fresh rosemary	Chopped
1/4 tsp	Red pepper flakes	Crushed
1/4 cup	Olive oil
1 tsp	Kosher salt

Directions

Heat the oven to 475 degrees. Line a large sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper.

Place the mushrooms in a bowl and add 2 TBsp of olive oil and 0.5 tsp of salt. Toss thoroughly to coat. Spread the mushrooms out on one portion of the pan, cut side down, in single layer. Do the same with the green bean with 1 TBsp of oil and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Roast for about 25 minutes, or until the beans and mushrooms are a bit shrunken, shriveled, and browned.
While the vegetables are roasting, put the remaining 1 TBsp of oil in a small skillet and add the garlic, rosemary, and red pepper flakes. Turn the heat onto medium-low. Once the oil begins to bubble, cook for about 1 minute. Set aside.

When the vegetables are done in the oven, toss them together with the infused oil in a mixing bowl.

Delicious and simple!