Good Real Food

anyone who tells you that two kids more than doubles the work is totally correct. Wow.

Anyway, in addition to being up to my eyeballs in kids, this site’s software lost it’s marbles for a bit and none of our intrepid authors could login to share their culinary adventures. Apologies that it has taken me so long to get things sorted out.

And being back, I thought I should share something food-ish. In fact, I have two things to share: squash stuffings, and a nifty thing to do with soup.

Squash Stuffings:

I don’t know what’s happening where you live, but we are well into fall here, and that means squash.

In the past weeks, our CSA share has provided a few butternuts, a couple of acorn, a kombucha and some truly amazing delicata. I’ve been kind of down on the peel, roast, eat practice recently - maybe since that was all I ever did with squash so lately, I’ve been stuffing it. Below are two suggestions for stuff squash - the sausage one filled out the roasted delicata, while the bean and greens stuffing filled out roasted acorn squash. The butternuts and kombucha are likely to find themselves in a soup or pie in the not too distant future.

Sausage stuffing for squash: This couldn’t be simpler. Get some good bulk italian sausage. Cook it. Make a simple tomato sauce - I put fennel and peppers and garlic and onions and capers in mine. Halve, scoop, lightly oil and roast your squash (cut side down) - I did ours at 400 and tucked a sprig of thyme under each half of squash. When cooked, spoon sausage into squash and top with tomato sauce and some grated pecorino or parmesan.

Beans and Greens stuffing for squash: Another simple one. Cook some great northern beans. Chop some bacon, cook until it’s mostly done, then add diced onion, garlic, carrots, and peppers assuming you’ve got some from your market or CSA. Cook down, adding some salt and pepper and some crushed red chili along the way. Add your greens. I used some lovely “saute greens” from our CSA - a mix of all kinds of little greens. You could use any greens you like. I think dino kale, chard, spinach, or arugula would all be lovely. Beet greens would be fantastic, and you’d have beets too! Once the greens are wilted, add your cooked beans without the liquid they cooked in, and reduce heat and let it hang out for a bit, stirring occasionally and maybe adding a bit of water if it looks like it needs it. Once again, roast your squash, stuff it with this mixture, and enjoy.

Really, these are shared not because there’s anything terribly interesting about them - you likely already do stuff like this all the time - I just find that sharing and hearing about what others do with their veggies inspires me to get a bit more creative with my cooking from time to time.

Nifty soup trick: Yes, I was rather proud of myself when I thought of this one. Does that make me a food nerd? Fine, then I’m a food nerd.

Anyway, I was making some celeriac, carrot, and beet soup, and I thought it would be swell with a poached egg in each bowl. So, instead of poaching them separately, I just broke the eggs directly into the simmering soup and waited till they were cooked to my liking. Just don’t forget how many eggs you put in!

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I had never seen this cut of lamb before at the market. It was so great on the grill. I just let it sit with some olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper and lemon juice for about three hours before putting it on a hot grill for 5-7 minutes on each side. The salad was made by cooking the couscous and tossing it with olive oile, kalamata olives, garlic, onion, spinach, grilled egg plant, and red onion.

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I had no idea that this was such an easy meal to make, or that pork tenderloin is one of the leanest meats you can get. My Dad and step mom are big fans of pork tenderloin on the grill, but I was lazy, and, being as it is not quite summer yet, and no risk of overheating the kitchen….I went with an easy inside version. Take a fresh pork loin, salt and pepper it, then brown in a heavy skillet on both sides with a little oil. Transfer to a baking pan and roast in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes. At this point, pour on a sauce or glaze of some kind. I used about a 1/2 cup of maple syrup mixed with cinnamon and cloves. Other recipes I have seen call for orange juice and ginger. Roast for another 5-10 minutes–but check, as it as it is really easy to overcook these babies, leaving them dry. D liked the finished product with a bit of the extra glaze drizzled on top. I served the sliced tenderloin with summer squash and kale made by sautéing both in sesame oil with onion and garlic and sesame seeds added just before serving. The combination of sesame infused veggies with the maple syrup taste of the pork was divine.

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Sorry, still no pictures - soon, soon.

This stew has to be one of the easiest and tastiest things I’ve ever tasted - all the more easy because I didn’t have to cook it.  However, it was very easy according to my wife, and she is generally unimpressed with overly complicated or time consuming recipes.

The universe sent me two very similar recipes for this dish in the space of week.  I couldn’t ignore that sign from the great cookbook in the sky, and nor should you.  Chances are very good that you’ve already got most of what you need in your pantry as it is.

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No pretty picture this time - seems my camera is having trouble focusing, which is understandable when confronted with such tasty food. You’ll have to take me at my word that this meal wasn’t just tasty, but was pretty too.

The only credit I can claim in this line-up was the combination. I’d read this recipe for braised red cabbage with prunes on a blog earlier in the week, and it sounded easy and wonderful. I’d been planning to make it, but wasn’t quite sure what to make with it. That problem was easily solved while chatting with our meat and poultry farmer at the St. Paul Farmer’s market this morning. I saw pork chops, and thought about what sort of meat my wife was likely to be craving and briefly pondered side dishes and cooking methods.

It took longer to type that than it did to think it.

So, pork chops in hand, me the kid came home and a few minutes of googling turned up this lovely recipe for braised pork chops. And there you have it - two braised dishes coming together for an easy and lovely meal.

While the pork chops were good, I think the real star here is the cabbage. As I said to my wife, “how can anything this purple be bad for you?” In truth, it’s the combination of the orange juice and the almost melt-in-your-mouth prunes that really push this over the top. The recipe for the cabbage makes a lot, which was my intention. I’m already dreaming of the cabbage for lunch later this week over brown rice, maybe with a slice or two of fried haloumi cheese on top.

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I recently started to try using leaner meat options in my standby recipes. (Last month is was ground turkey instead of ground pork in my lasagna.) I have been working on perfecting my chili recipe for some time now (this time of year I make it about every other weekend), but today was the first time I have tried using ground bison in place of ground beef. Below is my home chili recipe w/ bison.

What you need:

• 1 pound lean ground bison
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 large can of tomatoes
• 2 cups cooked or 1 large can pinto beans
• 2 cups cooked or 1 large can black beans
• 1 red or 1 green pepper chopped
• 1 habanero pepper chopped
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 bottle of beer
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup strong coffee

1. Saute onion, peppers, garlic and spices in oil in a dutch oven or deep heavy pot. Add the bison and stirr to brown.

2. Add the tomatoes, beans, beer and coffee and simmer for 1/2 hour.

Salt and pepper to taste and eat with good bread or cornbread along with a topping of fresh cilantro or sour cream. This chili tastes even better on the second or third day.

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This was me on The Big Day, a proud girl with her Turkey.

As we set upon the post-dinner remains, using every avalable container and plastic bag in the house to send everyone home with goodies, I realized D and I would be eating the big guy for about two weeks. Inspired by the many Asian supermarkets to be found in Saint Paul, this past weekend I experimented with a few dishes using my copious leftovers. Following are two of them: Szechwan Soup and Turkey and Pumpkin Stew.

Szechwan Soup

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I rolled into town at 6:00 am after sitting on a plane from SFO all night.

Red-eye flights are. . . interesting.  And exhausting.  Still, it was good to be home and back in my kitchen.

The in-laws were coming over for dinner and we were all craving something vaguely healthy.  I in particular was craving a massive dose of leafy green veggies, so kale was at the top of my list.

The dish I came up with surprised us all - its got a wonderful mix of spicy, sweet and earthy flavors, and if you’re not averse to eating veggies that have been cooked with meat, you can maintain an illusion of being vaguely vegetarian too!

Here are the details:

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It took me quite a few years of buying organic boneless skinless chicken breasts at my local co-op that cost me an arm and a leg before I started to face my fear of the (gasp) whole chicken. I now am getting in the habit of roasting a chicken every week, and using every part in some way for meals throughout the week. When the opportunity came along to order chickens from my local CSA and pick them up in person I jumped at the chance. I also hear that there are deals to be had if you help with the chicken harvest (is harvest the right word for killing chickens??). So more to come on that adventure this summer when I visit the farm. In the mean time, I thought I would try to list some of the ways I use (or hope to use) the whole chickens I have been roasting. Leave me a comment and let me know if you would like me to post the full recipe for any of the meals I list below.

1. roasted chicken stuffed with quartered lemons, garlic and fresh tarragon

2. home made chicken stock

3. chicken soup with mini pasta, carrots and cellery

4. chicken quesadillas with mole sauce

5. chicken and black bean chilli with red peppers and winter squash

6. old fashioned chicken salad (the kind with mayo)

7. risotto with any left over veggie in the fridge (using the chicken stock)

8. paella (like risoto except you use saffron to spice it, and add clams, mussels, or choriso sausage with the chicken legs)

9. chicken pasta (so many options here)

10. jerk chicken and rice

11. curried chicken and rice

12. chicken spring rolls

13. chicken calzones

14. Vietnamese chicken salad with rice noodles
 

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I don’t eat meat (ok, realistically, what with eating the kids leftovers on occasion, I’m probably like 96% vegetarian), but my family does, and since I can’t stomach large scale commercial farming, I buy meat for them from the folks at our local farmers market, with preference to the folks trying to raise animals in a sustainable way.

On Saturday, as we were buying our chicken and eggs, our poultry farmer mentioned that he had some bags of turkey wings that he was giving away if we wanted one. He suggested making soup, and since I’d been thinking about stock since his similar offer of chicken backs the week before, I jumped at the chance.

And though it was a decent amount of work to braise the wings, remove the meat, and then simmer the pot for 4 hours, the vat of stock that’s sitting in my fridge was well worth it.

Even more than that, I was totally overwhelmed at the amount of meat I got off the turkey wings. All told, I probably pulled about 4 cups of meat off the wings - plenty for turkey salad or something similar for the carnivorous family member lunches this week. The fact that the wings were free says something not so nice about our relationship to the animals we eat and how we want them delivered to us. Just something to think about.

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