produce and planning!

I can get overzealous at the farmer's markets this time of year.  There are so many lovely things!  I want to cook and eat them all!

Now it's Saturday afternoon and I am trying to motivate myself to do some serious cooking for the week.  The problem:  I'm overwhelmed.  I currently have in my possession:

Turnips (multiple varieties)
Mustard greens
Carrots
Fennel
Peas, both sugar and snap
Bell peppers
Eggplant
Zucchini
Garlic scapes
Spring onions
Beets
Rhubarb
An obscene quantity of berries

There are only two people in this household of mine.  This is enough food to get us through the week if we ate nothing but produce.  Most of it, though, has to be cooked.  If not cooked, then at least prepped.  And I've got ideas:

Stir fry
Mashed turnips with butter and scapes (to go with a lovely pastured chicken destined for roasting)
A pureed tahini beet dip
Rhubarb and strawberry sauce
Zucchini bread
Blueberry muffins
This recipe for the carrots and fennel

I've just got to get motivated to do the cooking!  It shouldn't be so hard, really, because I love doing it, but today feels like a lazy Saturday.  If I'm not careful all of these lovely things will get wasted and I'll be stuck going to the grocery store for "food" that I'm not exactly proud of.

I firmly believe that if one wants to reduce their spending on food, finding ways not to waste anything has got to be a top priority.  This is where that process breaks down for me - in between the purchasing at the eating, at the stage of actually cooking.  Making more dirty dishes on purpose!  Being inside when it's so beautiful out today and all I really feel like doing is sitting outside with a glass of iced tea.

Or wine.  You know, whatever works.

Off to get motivated!  Hopefully soon I will have some more recipes to share.

asparagus, potato and bacon soup (and an ode to Rachael Ray)

 Adapted from this Rachael Ray recipe.

Yes, I love Rachael Ray.

Trying to find quick and easy recipes that fit into a weekday schedule isn't that difficult - see any number of mini "cookbooks" lining the checkout counter at your local supermarket.  As long as you're comfortable using salad dressings of questionable food status to marinate your factory-farmed boneless skinless chicken breasts, you are totally set.  Some of those recipes don't even taste that bad.

But.

A few notable relics aside (one of which will show itself in this recipe) I have done away with processed foods in my life and in my kitchen.  If I am willing to eat hydrogenated, genetically modified, high-fructosed "food" laced with indecipherable chemicals, then I'll hit a drive-through.  I am not going to go through the effort of shopping and cooking and dish washing just to poison myself.

Rachael Ray's recipes rely pretty heavily on real food, and are very substitution-friendly.  They've also encouraged me to pick up ingredients I may not have used previously. (Yes, Rachael Ray converted me to kale.  Really.  And while I won't be eating it raw, tossed with lemon juice and red onion on a regular basis, it has found its way into quite a few dishes since.)

I also appreciate her general approach to cooking and recipe-creation, which is fun.  It's playful.  It's forgiving.  Often what you get is a perfectly serviceable, quick, tasty meal.  It's not always mind-blowing.  It may not make your family hear choruses of angels singing with every bite.  But when it's Tuesday, and it's 9 PM, and you're hungry, you really don't give a shit.  I'm willing to bet that salad-dressing marinated chicken breast dinner didn't make you see the deity of your choice either.

There is merit in good food.  There is merit in cooking a few quality ingredients creatively and efficiently, without too many bells and whistles.  And for someone, like me, who is generally hoping her cooking will actually make angels show up and sing, that's a valuable lesson.

Anyway - on with the soup!  This has become one of my favorite Spring recipes, and I will likely continue making it as long as I can get asparagus.  It's balanced and filling and lovely for the kind of unseasonably cold days we've been having lately.

Ingredients, in order of addition:

8 oz bacon
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
4 cups water
2 tsp chicken soup base
1 1/2 lb of potatoes
1 1/2 lb of asparagus
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 cup greek yogurt

Notes on ingredients:

Bacon - if you're not using bacon, you will need a bit of oil to saute the onions and garlic.  You may also want to increase the soup base to 3 or 4 tsp.

Onion - I have used red and white with success; the original recipe wanted a leek.

Soup base - I still have this jar of chicken soup base and I can't throw it away!  I will really never buy it again after it's gone.  Because of the salt in the bacon, I used half of the amount indicated by the quantity of water.  If you are not using bacon, you may want to up it to 4 tsp.  If you're using store bought stock and bacon, use half stock and half water.  If you're using home-made stock I'd use it full strength unless your home-made stock is quite salty.  Vegetable substitutes would be just fine.

Steps:

1)  Heat a heavy-bottomed stock pot or whatever you use for soup over medium-high heat while you chop the bacon into bite-sized bits.  Drop the pieces in the hot pan and cook, stirring often, until they look as if they are beginning to crisp but before they start to burn.  (Bacon thickness varies widely - this may take two minutes or ten.)

2)  While the bacon is cooking, chop the onion and garlic.  Don't worry about getting the onion pieces perfectly even, as they will all be pureed eventually.  Don't forget to stir the bacon.

3)  Once the bacon looks done, use a spatula or slotted spoon to remove from the pan and place on paper towels to drain.  Place somewhere out of reach so that you will still have the bacon when you need it.  Turn down the heat to medium-low.

4) Here comes the heresy:  Don't drain the grease.  Throw those onions (not the garlic, not yet) right on in there.  This is what makes this soup the beautiful, wonderful thing that it is.  If you really must, take out a few spoons, but please consider leaving it in there.  (No, I don't think it's bad for you.)

5) Are you still holding the onions with a panicked look on your face?  Just throw them in.  I won't tell anyone.

6)  Make sure to stir the onions occasionally.  After 3-4 minutes, once they've started to turn soft and translucent, add the garlic and cook another minute or two.

7) While the onions are cooking, chop up the potatoes. Peel or don't, as is your preference. I halved and quartered my small red potatoes to try to get even sized pieces.

8) Add the water/soup base/stock and the potatoes, and bring the heat up back a bit to medium-medium high.  (For those of you using soup base: don't bother to pre-dissolve it in hot water.  I never do.  It will dissolve just fine in your boiling soup pot.)  There should be enough liquid to cover the potatoes with room to stir - if there isn't, add a bit more.

9) Cook until the potatoes are almost tender.  This was 10 minutes for me, but may be more or less depending on the size of your pieces.

10) While the potatoes are cooking, trim and cut the asparagus.  Take a bunch of spears all facing the same way, and snap the ends off.  This does result in uneven lengths, but since they're going in soup it's no issue.  After you've snapped the ends, cut into pieces about half as long as your index finger.

11) Once the potatoes have reached their almost-done stage, add the asparagus and spices. Cook 3-5 minutes.

12) When potatoes and asparagus are tender enough to puree, remove pot from the heat.  I used an immersion blender, which is my preferred method, but a regular blender or food processor will also work just fine.  If you're using the food processor or blender - work in batches, don't fill more than halfway, and be careful.  My experience with hot + food processor is generally not whether I'll burn myself, but how badly.  And how much of the food will end up on the ceiling.

13) Once pureed to your satisfaction (may not be completely uniform, especially if you kept the potato peels), add the yogurt.  I used my immersion blender here too, but if you don't have one I'd just stir it in.

14) Taste to adjust seasoning.  Debate the merits of a bit of cumin, but decide it's just fine the way it is.

15) Return to heat if necessary, and serve, topped with the bacon (assuming no one found where it you had it hidden) and maybe an extra dollop of yogurt.

Total time: 45 minutes - 1 hour, depending on how you puree

Estimated cost: $17 (asparagus = expensive, but so worth it)

Serves: 6-8

Tastiness factor: 5, no angels, but very, very tasty.
Easiness factor: 3-4, varies based on the possession of an immersion blender and your stance on bacon.

Farmer's market!

Clockwise from top: soda*, milk**, arugula, russian kale, radishes, salad mix, shitake mushrooms.  Center: cottage cheese**, fresh sheep's milk cheese.

  

 Friday haul above, Saturday below.  After having abandoned this blog in the depths of winter, I am now determined to write more regularly.  And look at all the tasty things I have to write about!

Coming soon:  a post on how I've migrated from, "wow, these cookies are labelled organic!" to purchasing almost every single food I eat directly from local producers.

I know - it's so much easier in May, right?  I intend to take full advantage of it, and document as much as possible.

Clockwise from top: fresh flowers, whole grain cookies*, strawberries, eggs, MORELS, chuck steak, asparagus, italian sausage, fresh whole wheat pasta.

* Soda and cookies are quite obviously indulgences that are arguably not part of this healthy, real food thing I'm trying to do.  To that, I say BAH.  I am going to eat some sweets and I have a soda addiction that I'm still trying to purge.  For now, small amounts of these things made locally and without any crazy ingredients prevent me from breaking down and purchasing their conventional alternatives.

** Milk and cottage cheese not actually purchased at the farmer's market, but acquired on the same trip.

Wake and Bake: Baked Oatmeal

I live in an 1930s-ish apartment building.  The place is huge and rent is cheap, and the building is pretty poorly maintained.  I use space heaters and put plastic and blankets over the windows and it's still COLD in the morning.

Especially in the kitchen.  We leave those windows uncovered because that's where all the plants go in the winter.  So it's even colder in the kitchen.  I have actually avoided eating breakfast or making coffee on multiple occasions because it's just too cold in there.

We call our pantry "the walk-in" between October and March, if that helps.

This past November I went on a mission to find all kinds of tasty oven-cooked breakfasts that would give me an excuse to roll out of bed, turn on the oven, and defrost my kitchen.  The first thing I discovered - and the most common, to date - is baked oatmeal.

I LOVE baked oatmeal.  I can't believe that I lived for so many years without it.  This recipe is versatile and easy, very forgiving of substitutions, and I can make it when I am half asleep and it turns out tasty every time.

BEHOLD, ingredients:

Super Flexible Baked Oatmeal

This is for an 8x8 or 9x9 pan, feel free to double and stick it in a 9x13 - I often do.

1) Dry ingredients:

1.5 cups rolled oats

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

(salt and cinnamon are optional)

2) Wet ingredients:

At least two of these three:

1 egg

1/4 cup melted butter or other fat

1/2 cup applesauce

I like to use all three, or egg and butter if I have no applesauce in the pantry.  You could probably make it with only applesauce (3/4 of a cup), but it would not be as tasty, and some fat is a good thing! If you omit or reduce fat considerably, you will need to grease the pan.

1/4 to 1/2 cup sweetener

(Depends on how sweet you want it to be.  Brown sugar, honey, maple syrup...whatever you have on hand is probably fine.  The 1/2 cup version tastes more like a cookie than a breakfast, but I think it pairs well with tangy yogurt.)

1/2 cup of liquid

I have used milk and apple juice, both worked great.  Non-milk milks (almond, soy, etc) would be fine.  Water might even be OK in a pinch.

1 tsp vanilla

(totally optional, don't fret if you're out)

3) Additions

1/4 - 1 cup of additions

Totally optional, whatever you have on hand.  I prefer walnuts and dried cranberries, but any dried fruit or nuts would be lovely.  If you use fresh fruit you may want to decrease your liquid slightly.

Steps:

I start by mixing dry ingredients:

Then mix in the wet ingredients, THEN my additions:

Then I put in my pan.  No need to grease unless you have decreased or omitted fat. 

It should be spreadable, but not liquidy.  Thicker than cake batter and thinner than cookie dough.  (Once I got it into the pan and it WOULD NOT spread because I had forgotten to add any liquid, at all.  The dangers of cooking before coffee...)  Anyway, you shouldn't have issues with the texture unless you've done A LOT of substituting.

Then bake for about 30 minutes.  When it's golden brown and just a bit crispy around the edges, it's good to go.

NOTE about serving:  If you insist on cutting it right away, it will crumble and be perfect served in a bowl with milk, or plain yogurt and a touch of honey.  If you let it cool all of the way, it will resemble actual bars and be good for portable snacking.  I love it when it's crumbly and warm paired with yogurt.  Perfect breakfast.

Total time: 45 minutes

Estimated cost: under $3 for my version, varies a lot based on the ingredients you use

Serves: 2-4 people for breakfast.  Maybe 6, if you serve with fruit and yogurt.  However, this does not mean you can make one pan for two people and have breakfast for two days.  It will magically disappear before that happens, trust me.

Tastiness factor: 5
Easiness factor: 5

Woe is Stock (notes on a failed experiment)

A good homemade stock is a hallmark of a resourceful, frugal, whole-foods kitchen operation.  It allows you to get full value out of your chickens, veggies, and other scraps as well as saving money on stock, broth, or bouillon you would have to purchase.  In addition, the ingredients lists on most of those products is less than ideal.

I endeavored, therefore, to make a lovely chicken stock.  I saved my scraps.

I've been keeping a bag in the freezer and stashing scraps - onion ends and peels*, celery leaves, carrot tops, apple cores, everything.

I put all of those goodies in my giant stockpot with bones from a baked chicken and some bay leaves.  All is well so far, right?

And I cooked it.

And cooked it.

And cooked it.

I cooked it for hours, and it had no flavor.  I cooked it for two days, and it had no flavor.

Then, finally, eventually, on about the third day, it had a flavor - the flavor of utter disgustingness.  The flavor of burnt something.  The flavor of "this is going in the trash."

The flavor of failure.

Total time: 3 days
Estimated cost: free - I just used scraps

Serves: no one with tastebuds

Tastiness factor: 0
Easiness factor: 5

*According to James Duke, most of the beneficial quercetin in the onion is in the peels.  He suggests cooking the peels with the onions and straining them out later.

budget no-boil lasagna (yes, it is possible)

Lasagna is a perfect food.

It is easy, even if time-consuming.  It's full of cheese and pasta and tomatoes and goodness.  The downside is that lasagna is expensive.

Putting together a pan of lasagna for less than 40 dollars is something I've never tried to do, before now.  This was my first attempt to make lasagna into something affordable.

I even stretched it a little to fill an 11 x 15 pan, but you could use the same recipe in a regular size, and just use fewer noodles.

Ingredients:

1 box lasagna noodles (not necessary to precook!)

1 large or 2 small onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 Tb Italian seasoning (which I didn't have, so I used basil, oregano, and thyme)
1 lb pork sausage  (or whatever kind of ground meat you prefer)

About 1 qt pasta sauce

10 oz box frozen spinach, thawed and strained to remove as much liquid as possible
2 eggs
15-oz container ricotta
4 oz parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne or a few splashes of hot sauce

12 oz mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 tsp oregano

Notes about these ingredients:  I used pork sausage because it was on sale.  I have found that almost anything (ground turkey, ground beef, ground chicken, most sausages) works for lasagna.  Alternately, omit the meat and add some more veggies to the sauce.

I have a freezer full of tomato sauce that I made cheaply with big cans of tomatoes.  This summer I plan to do some of my own canning, so I will have sauce on hand.  Being flexible with the type of meat you use and making your own sauce can drive the cost down quite a bit.

Steps:

1) Saute the sausage or other meat over medium/medium high heat with the Italian seasoning.  When the meat is no longer pink, drain out most of the grease and add the onion and the garlic and reduce heat a bit to avoid burning the garlic.  Saute until onion and garlic are soft.

2) Add the pasta sauce and simmer while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

3) Preheat the oven to 350.

4) Mix the ricotta, thawed and drained spinach, eggs, and half of the parmesan cheese.  Add salt, garlic powder, pepper, and cayenne.

5) Spread about 1 cup of the sauce mixture in the bottom of the pan, cover with one layer of (uncooked) noodles.  Add another cup of sauce mixture, half of the cheese mixture, and sprinkle one third of the mozzarella cheese.

6) Repeat the pasta, sauce, cheese mix and mozzarella steps.

7) Place the last layer of noodles and spread the remaining mozzarella and parmesan on top.  Sprinkle with oregano and cover with foil.

8)  Bake 45 minutes, then remove foil and bake for 15 minutes more.

Total time: 2 hours
Estimated cost: under $15

Serves: 6-10 (six very hungry people, with no sides)

Tastiness factor: 4.5
Easiness factor: 4

white chicken chili (and a lesson regarding the importance of checking one's spice rack)

 I've been talking about making white chili since last winter, but I finally decided to do it this week when I realized that it would fit nicely into my (currently rather restricted) budget.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

One pound great northern beans

Cooked chicken - I had about 3 cups

2 onions

3 cloves garlic

about 2 tbsp chicken soup base

4 oz can green chilies

about 1 tbsp dried oregano

about 2 tsp chili powder

A few notes about these ingredients:

Beans:  I almost always buy bulk organic beans from the natural foods store - this time was an exception, simply because I was on my third grocery store of the day and I just didn't want to make it four.  Bulk organic costs about the same as conventional in a package, so in any other situation I would get the bulk organic.

Chicken:  The cooked chicken was leftover from an whole chicken I baked a few days ago - it was all white meat, but I think either white or dark would work just fine.

Soup base:  I am well aware that soup base and bouillon are full of assorted strange ingredients.  I probably won't buy them again, but I will use what I have left in the pantry.  You could probably use stock to cook the whole recipe, as long as it wasn't too salty - that might prevent the beans from softening.

Chilies:  The can of green chilies is a nod to convenience and tradition.  If you prefer to use fresh peppers and avoid cans, I'd suggest one or two (depending on your desired spice level) Serrano peppers, either chopped up or left whole and removed at the end like a bay leaf.

Spices:  If you've ever made chili before in your life, you are probably aware of one glaring omission in this list - cumin.    I had every intention of using it until I realized I didn't have any.  =(   

Recipe:

Because I am horrible at doing prep-work in an appropriate time frame, I did a quick soak for the beans.  Cover with water, bring to a rapid boil, cover, remove from heat, and let sit for one hour.

Drain, rinse, and return the beans to the pot.  Cover with water again - 2-3 inches above the level of the beans, and cook until they are getting soft - almost edible texture.

While the beans were cooking, I chopped up the onion and garlic, and sauteed them in a bit of olive oil.  After about five minutes, I added the green chilies and the chicken, hoping to infuse a bit of flavor into the chicken, which was a little bland.  I cooked it all together over medium heat, stirring, for about five more minutes - the chicken was already cooked, so I didn't want to overdo it.

When the beans reached their almost-edible consistency, I added everything else into the pot - the chicken/chilies/onion/garlic mix, along with the chili powder, oregano, and soup base.  I don't reconstitute soup base when adding it to a recipe like this - there is plenty of liquid already, so I just add it into the pot.  

Once everything went into the pot, I cooked it for about another hour, and tasted to adjust the seasonings.  The absence of cumin was a serious liability - I ended up adding more chili powder and oregano, along with some garlic powder, white pepper and just a bit (about 1 tsp) of curry powder.

Next time I will add an extra can of chilies, or do the serrano peppers, but I like things a bit spicy.  I will also check to make sure I have cumin.

 I added a spoonful of lebni, which complimented the flavors quite well.  Sour cream or yogurt would also be just fine.

This chili turned out to be enjoyable, and even better as leftovers, but I will make some adjustments next time.

Total time (including the rapid soak of the beans): 3:15
Estimated cost: under $6

Serves: 4-6 adults as a one-dish meal

Tastiness factor: 3.5 - not bad, but needs some modifications
Easiness factor: 4 - not difficult, just time consuming