So, I accidentally produced a healthy, dairy-free BBQ menu for my sister's housewarming party. Funnily, we bought sour cream and shredded cheese to serve but ended up forgetting about it. I am going to post the recipes separate, because if I put them all together, this would be a very long post.
First things first, Jen made a masterful culinary breakthrough by asking if we should grill the corn on the cob with the husk still on. I hadn't tried it that way, so I suggested husking half of it and grilling the traditional way (for me at least) and the other half with the husks still on. Hands down, everyone loved it with the husks on. You want to cook it on the upper rack, if you have one, or with low heat until the husks get a bit charred and fragrant. They end up smelling like tamales and the corn is perfectly steamed.
The total menu for the BBQ:
Marinated chicken kabobs
Marinated Vegetable Kabobs
Grilled Corn on the Cob
Spanish Rice
Romaine Salad with Lime/Cilantro Vinaigrette
Refried Beans (from a can)
Housemade salsa (which didn't work so well as tomoatoes are very out of season)
And the Coup de Grace: Dessert of grilled pineapple, lime/coconut milk cream and housemade blueberry syrup
Recipes to follow...
Monday, May 30, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Lamb with Snowbank Morels, Braised Greens and Wilted Pea Shoot and Bok Choy Salad
So, I made a base vinaigrette that serves as a sauce for this whole dish. You should make this first, then cook the rest of the items. I made it in a mortar and pestle, but it would be much easier in a blender.
1/4 cup mint leaves
2 T green onions chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 T red wine or rice wine vinegar (I used the daikon pickle brine from the previous recipe)
Salt, to taste
Add all ingredients and blend. You can make it as smooth or chunky as you want.
Side salad:
One small head of bok choy, chopped large
About 6 pea shoots, chopped large
Small amount of daikon pickles chopped
1 Tsp mint dressing (above)
Add all ingredients to a bowl and toss until leaves are uniformly coated by dressing. Let this sit while preparing the rest of the dish. This will wilt the greens.
Lamb and Braised Greens
2 oz lamb meat cut into 1 inch cubes
2 snow bank mushrooms chopped
1 T mint dressing (above) used instead of oil
Heat a medium sized saute pan. Add mint dressing as you would oil. When hot, add lamb meat and morels and toss to coat. Heat for several minutes until the lamb has a nice coloration. Set aside on a plate and cover to keep heated. Use the same pan to quick-braise the greens. In this instance, I used kohlrabi greens and tuscan kale, but feel free to use whatever greens you like.
2 cups mixed greens (tuscan kale and kohlrabi greens are pictured) chopped large
1 T water
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sambal oelek or red pepper flakes
salt, to taste
Put the pan back on the heat. Add add all the ingredients except the salt and cover with a lid. Cook until the greens are bright green and shiny. Season to taste with salt. Add the greens and salad to the plate with the lamb and enjoy!
This was my first time eating kohlrabi greens. They are much more fibrous and pungent than the tuscan kale, but still good. The snowbank mushrooms were the perfect pairing for the lamb. I don't know that I have ever had lamb with mushrooms, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Daikon Pickles
One of my favorite things to make at work is pickles. There are endless variations of vinegars, vegetables and seasonings to add to make endless variations of pickles. I have been pondering using fresh herbs in pickles for a long time, so I decided to infuse rice wine vinegar with mint for this version. Be careful, making pickles makes your house smell of vinegar, so you should do it on a day when you can open up the windows and air it out.
If you aren't familiar with daikon, it is a root vegetable shaped like a large, blunt carrot that is white and relatively mild with a little kick of spiciness.
12oz Rice Wine Vinegar
1/2 bunch of mint
Put vinegar and mint (stems and all) in a non-reactive (stainless steel or non-stick) in a saucepan and bring up to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let sit 20 minutes.
12oz water
1 T coriander seed
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 cup salt, preferably non-iodized, sea salt or kosher salt (iodized salt will make your pickles taste bad)
1/4 cup sugar
Heat a large non-reactive stock pot. Add spices and toast until fragrant (maybe for a minute or so). Add the water. Strain mint-vinegar into stock pot and discard mint. Add the remaining ingredients and boil for 5 minutes. The pickles will continue to cook until the brine cools completely, so you want them not quite done when you pull them from the heat. Taste them. When they are just a little too cruchy for your taste, pull them off the heat.
Remember, hot pickles will taste different than they will when cool. Once cool, store them in the refrigerator with all of the brine and seasonings. Over time, the seasonings will impart more flavor to the pickles. These should last for about a month. This is a fairly salty pickle, so feel free to reduce the amount of salt or add more sugar.
These are great eaten from the jar or sliced and put on salads.
If you aren't familiar with daikon, it is a root vegetable shaped like a large, blunt carrot that is white and relatively mild with a little kick of spiciness.
12oz Rice Wine Vinegar
1/2 bunch of mint
Put vinegar and mint (stems and all) in a non-reactive (stainless steel or non-stick) in a saucepan and bring up to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let sit 20 minutes.
12oz water
1 T coriander seed
1 cinnamon stick
3 cups daikon, peeled and chopped into uniform shapes (I cut them into half moons)
1/4 cup chopped green onions1/4 cup salt, preferably non-iodized, sea salt or kosher salt (iodized salt will make your pickles taste bad)
1/4 cup sugar
Heat a large non-reactive stock pot. Add spices and toast until fragrant (maybe for a minute or so). Add the water. Strain mint-vinegar into stock pot and discard mint. Add the remaining ingredients and boil for 5 minutes. The pickles will continue to cook until the brine cools completely, so you want them not quite done when you pull them from the heat. Taste them. When they are just a little too cruchy for your taste, pull them off the heat.
Remember, hot pickles will taste different than they will when cool. Once cool, store them in the refrigerator with all of the brine and seasonings. Over time, the seasonings will impart more flavor to the pickles. These should last for about a month. This is a fairly salty pickle, so feel free to reduce the amount of salt or add more sugar.
These are great eaten from the jar or sliced and put on salads.
Strawberry Smoothie
This is a very easy and healthy smoothie.
3/4 cup strawberries with the tops cut off
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
1 tsp honey
Blend and enjoy!
Smoothies are always a quick and delicious way to get fruit and proteins in the morning. The yogurt provides the protein in this recipe. If you need more energy in your smoothie, you can always add peanut butter or other nut butters. If you want it creamier, you can add a banana. If you want it to be colder and bulk it up calorie-free, add some ice. All sorts of fruits are great for smoothies.
3/4 cup strawberries with the tops cut off
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
1 tsp honey
Blend and enjoy!
Smoothies are always a quick and delicious way to get fruit and proteins in the morning. The yogurt provides the protein in this recipe. If you need more energy in your smoothie, you can always add peanut butter or other nut butters. If you want it creamier, you can add a banana. If you want it to be colder and bulk it up calorie-free, add some ice. All sorts of fruits are great for smoothies.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Farmer's Market Greens and Pasta
So, my meal today was inspired by my trip to the farmer's market. It's so easy to forget the abundance and quality of produce that is at the market. When I first got there, I was the proverbial kid in the candy store until I settled myself down by eating a bowl of dal (indian lentils with brown rice). Thus sated, I was able to think clearly and ended up buying strawberries, small bok choy, kohlrabi with attached greens, tuscan kale, pea shoots, a gigantic daikon (which I mean to pickle) with attached greens, green onions, mint and some lamb stir fry cuts. Oh, and I picked up some snowbank mushrooms because they are almost out of season. So, that is probably what I will be posting about for the week to come.
This is the simplest meal I have had in a long time. The only seasonings are butter, olive oil, salt and red wine vinegar so you get a lot of that refreshing green flavor that comes from spring greens. Make sure you have all of you ingredients prepped before putting the pasta in the water. Sauteeing these vegetables should take no longer than the 7-8 minutes it takes to cook the pasta.
2 tsp butter
2 tsp olive oil
1 small head of bok choy sliced in half
1 T sliced green onions
2 leaves tuscan kale, sliced into 1/2 inch strips
Handful of pea shoots
1 cup pasta
1 tsp red wine vinegar
salt to taste
Heat 1/4 the butter and olive oil in the pan. Add the bok choy and sutee for 1 minute. Add the onions and kale. Drizzle a 1/2 tsp of vinegar in the pan and cover with a lid (this will steam the kale). Cook for a few minutes until the kale is deep green and starting to wilt. Put contents of the pan on a plate. Add another 1/4 of the butter and olive oil to the pan and add the pea shoots turning so they heat evenly. The leaves should wilt and the stems should still be a little crunchy. Add the pea shoots to the plate with the kale. Cover with a lid to keep heated while finishing the pasta.
Drain the pasta and add to the pan you cooked the vegetables in. Add the remaing butter, olive oil, and 1/2 tsp of vinegar and toss to coat. Serves 1.
This isn't a showstopper presentation-wise, but it is delicious and packed with nutrients and high in vitamins A and C. I chose tuscan kale because it is one of the milder cruciferous greens. I found recently I had problems eating more than a small amount of turnips greens because the taste was so pungent. It turns out tuscan kale is delicious.
This is the simplest meal I have had in a long time. The only seasonings are butter, olive oil, salt and red wine vinegar so you get a lot of that refreshing green flavor that comes from spring greens. Make sure you have all of you ingredients prepped before putting the pasta in the water. Sauteeing these vegetables should take no longer than the 7-8 minutes it takes to cook the pasta.
2 tsp butter
2 tsp olive oil
1 small head of bok choy sliced in half
1 T sliced green onions
2 leaves tuscan kale, sliced into 1/2 inch strips
Handful of pea shoots
1 cup pasta
1 tsp red wine vinegar
salt to taste
Heat 1/4 the butter and olive oil in the pan. Add the bok choy and sutee for 1 minute. Add the onions and kale. Drizzle a 1/2 tsp of vinegar in the pan and cover with a lid (this will steam the kale). Cook for a few minutes until the kale is deep green and starting to wilt. Put contents of the pan on a plate. Add another 1/4 of the butter and olive oil to the pan and add the pea shoots turning so they heat evenly. The leaves should wilt and the stems should still be a little crunchy. Add the pea shoots to the plate with the kale. Cover with a lid to keep heated while finishing the pasta.
Drain the pasta and add to the pan you cooked the vegetables in. Add the remaing butter, olive oil, and 1/2 tsp of vinegar and toss to coat. Serves 1.
This isn't a showstopper presentation-wise, but it is delicious and packed with nutrients and high in vitamins A and C. I chose tuscan kale because it is one of the milder cruciferous greens. I found recently I had problems eating more than a small amount of turnips greens because the taste was so pungent. It turns out tuscan kale is delicious.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Warm Asparagus, Mushroom and Farro Salad
So, here was my quick lunch. All together, it took about ten minutes from start to eating. I had farro left over from a previous meal, so it was pretty much chop, sautee, chomp. It was good and simple, not necessarily show off to your guests good. I used Snowbank Mushrooms in this which are also referred to as False Morels. They have a softer texture than morels which might be a turnoff for people who don't like mushrooms, but they are highly flavorful and quite fantastic.Side Salad:
Chopped Romaine
Chopped Tomatoes
Sliced Green Onions
Parsley, chopped
Dash of Red Wine Vinegar
Dash of Olive Oil
Salt
Toss and Serve.
Aparagus and Farro Salad
1 T butter (sustitute olive oil for vegan dish)
Bottom parts of green onions, chopped
4 spears chopped asparagus
1/4 cup snowbanks mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup cooked farro
Parsley, chopped
salt, to taste
Heat the butter in a saute pan. Add the onions and cook until fragrant. Add the asparagus and mushrooms and saute until starting to color. Add the farro and cook until warmed. Finish with parsley and salt.
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