Veggie Tomato Stoup

Posted on April 10, 2011 by karafty

I did know wether to call this a stew or a stoup, so I settled on stoup. So I’m on the Standard Process Cleanse again for three weeks of march-april. It was actually quite cool and not very spring-like so warm comforty food are what I was craving.

INGREDIENTS

3 Roma tomatos, diced

1/2 of a zuccini, diced

1 Jalapano or serano chili, seeded and diced fine

1 medium onion, diced

6-8 small cloves of garlic left whole or cut in half

2 medium white turnips, diced

1 Kolrabi, diced

2 Celery ribs, diced

2 Carrots, diced

1-2 sprigs of rosemary, chopped fine

1 Big hand full of parsley, about 2 tbsp. chopped

1/2 a bell pepper, any color, diced

1 by leaf

1 tsp. dried thyme and same for oragano

2 tbsp. evoo

2 cups of veggie stock + 1 cup water

1 1/2 cups tomato sauce or puree

1 tsp. ancho chili powder

1 tsp. mustard powder

1 tsp. powdered fennel

2 tbsp. organic balsamic vinegar

 

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over med heat. Add the onion, celery and peppers and saute for about 5 min, then add the garlic and rosemary and saute till onions are opaque, about 5-10 min. Add the rest of the veggies and saute for another 5 min. Add the tomatoes, cook for 2 more min. Season with s7p as you go. Add 2 cups of veggies stock and the water, bring to a boil. Add the spices, turn down the heat and let simmer for another 20 min. At the end add the parsley and balsamic vinegar. Should make about 4 servings.

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Mushroom Risotto

Posted on March 27, 2011 by karafty

 


These are some glorious Pioppini mushroom I got at the McCarren Park Greenmarket. They are pretty spongy, lending themselves perfect for risotto. This was my first and only time thus far having them, so I don’t really know what they would be like otherwise.

INGREDEINTS

2 cups diced mushrooms. I used 1 cup of the Pioppini and 1 cup of regualr button mushroom. Feel free to use any and all kinds of mushrooms fresh or dried.

2 leaks, diced

1 really big shallot or 2 small, finely diced

1 1/3 cup risotto rice

1/3 cup white wine

5 cups of liquid, I used 3 1/2 cups of chicekn stock and 1 1/2 cup water

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. chopped fresh herbs, I used dill and paresly

1/2 tsp. lemon zest

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1/4 cup parm cheese

S&P

DIRECTIONS

Heat the butter in a large pot till it bubbles, then add the leeks , saute till soft, about 5 min, then add the shallot and saute another few min, seasoning with s&p. Add the mushrooms and over med heat add the mushrooms and cook down stirring often, about 10 min. Then add the wine and cook off for a few min. Then dump in the risotto and stir for a min or 2 till the edges start to turn transparent. Do not let anything get browned.

Start adding your liquid 1 cup at a time. Stir each time till almost all the liquid is absorbed, then repeat. This should take around 50 min. At 40 min taste to get an idea of the texture. If if still very aldante, keep going for 10 more min, you can always add a bit more water if you need to. Turn off heat,  season with s&p, stir in the herbs, lemon and parm. And Bob’s your uncle.

I served this with baked salmon and some wilted spinach greens. Garnished with dill. Pretty amazing winter meal.

 

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Grandma’s Lemon Squares

Posted on March 26, 2011 by karafty

This is my Grandma Julia’s recipe, and her old plate pictured above. I can’t explain my craving for a lemon square, but it came on strong. It has probably been years since I had had one. So I call her up on a Saturday morning and made them that evening. When you think of lemon squares you think of this goooy lemony jelly custard with a crumbly cookie crust. And oh so sweet! I was really surprise at the simple common ingredients. And how little lemon it took to get big lemon flavor. The only alteration I did make to Gram’s original recipe was I did add a bit of lemon zest.

INGREDIETNS

For the crust:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar

For the filling:

2 eggs

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. lemon zest

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp. flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

 

DIRECTIONS

Do the crust first.

Cream together the first three ingredients and spread on to and up the sides of a 9x9x2″ glass baking dish. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool before adding filling.

Then combine all other ingredients and pour over the baked crust. Bake for another 25 min. at 350. Let cool. Then dust with powdered sugar and cut into squares. Yay!!!!!!

 

 

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Dinner at Gabe’s

Posted on March 7, 2011 by karafty

Gabe and Maki (pictured above) had a dinner Party for our pal Liz last Saturday Feb. 26th.

I made a brined lamb leg with a serrano chile-mint jelly.

The leg was 2.5 lbs. boneless butterflied. For the brine I used 1/4 cup salt, 1.5 tbsp. sugar, 8 colves of garlic, and 6 cups of water. Let it marinate over night.

For the jelly I used this recipe

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ming-tsai/roasted-leg-of-lamb-with-serrano-chile-mint-jelly-and-roasted-new-potato-medley-recipe/index.html

Other dishes included braised pork shoulder

Beet salad with mash greens

roasted cauliflower with this interesting type of Italian andouille sausage that’s cured but not dried

Burrata mozzarella cheese with some basil and good evoo on bread (amazing)

And a few other bit and bobs

 

And of course there were great pals

Liz, Yohai, Peter, and Bullets

Colin, Yohai, Amy with baby Rowen

Amy with baby Rowen, Liz with doggie Kona

Ah Kona

and some more animals

Thanks Gabe

 

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Roasted Chicken Thighs with Couscous

Posted on March 7, 2011 by karafty

I wanted to try something new and unusual with chicken. I had 4 thighs frozen in the freezer so I used those. I made the following recipe, but omitted the raisins, just used the grapes. They created a really sweet nice bite. And I used regular couscouse since I already had it. It was really rich and delicious. I also used about double the amount of diced fennel to bulk it up. This is a really nice dish for thighs. You don’t need to have a ton of meat for the really filling and flavorful dish.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/roast-chicken-breast-with-zibibbo-raisins-and-pearl-couscous-recipe/index.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/roast-chicken-breast-with-zibibbo-raisins-and-pearl-couscous-recipe/index.html

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Shrimp Fresh Rolls

Posted on January 27, 2011 by karafty

This is a Vietnamese Fresh Spring Roll,  but I have no idea how authentic it is, and seeing as I don’t have a lick of Vietnamese in me nor did a person of such descent  teach this recipe to me, I thus feel like a  faker calling it as such.

It is the middle of the winter, and most cooking inclinations lean towards the hearty, roasted, slow cooked, and rich. It is precisely this current trend that has me not only feeling like I’ve grown some extra padding to keep warm, the scale has told me so. It was last Sunday that I was in the mood to make something light and fresh and healthy. I also was going to watch football with my man and a few of his friends, so I also wanted to making something that fit the “Party food/finger food” categorie. This could only bring these little goodies to mind.

Yields around 22 rolls

INGREDIENTS

32 medium frozen shrimps, defrosted

Pot of boiling water for the shrimp

A knob of ginger, roughly peeled and chopped into 3 or 4 chunks

A stock of lemongrass, chopped in the 1″ pieces – this is optional, don’t go out of your way. I had some old frozen pieces that I threw in.

4 cloves of garlic, whole or slightly smashed

Small sq of cheese cloth and a bit of cooking string

2 teaspoons of salt

22-24 Vietnamese rice wrappers. use the smaller ones (6″ diameter). These you’ll probably have to find at a specialty food store/Asian market.

Package of vermicelli (mung bean pasta) also may have to get at specialty/Asian market. you’ll only need 2-3 of the nests.

1 Kerby cucumber, peeled, seeded, sliced into matchsticks, and soak with 2 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar and salt.

1 big carrot, sliced into matchsticks and blanched for a couple min., then ice bathed

1 small package or around a cup of big bean sprouts

3-4 scallions, white to light green parts only, sliced on the bias into thin strips

hand full of basil, sliced into strips

Shallow rimmed plate or bowl filled with room temp water

Flat try work surface

For the dippin’ sauce – just whisk all together:

1/4 cup Husein sauce

3 tbsp. soy sauce

Juice of 1 lime

2 tbsp. of rice vine vinegar

1 teaspoon (or to taste) of hot chili oil

DIRECTRIONS

OK, this seems like a lot, and it is, a lot of details, but all in all it’s not complicated, just a bunch of simple steps, and easy to not screw up. Basically prep everything and get it chilled, or at least room temp. The shrimps need to be defrosted a bit a head of time. Get the pot of water boiling. Wrap the ginger, lemongrass, and garlic in the cheese cloth and tie up, throw that in the pot and the salt as well. Get that  rolling for a good 15-20 min., in the mean time prep your carrot, cucumber, scallion and basil. Set the cucumber aside in the fridge with the vin and salt.  Blanch the carrots in the boiling water, use a slotted spoon the take out of the pot and dunk into an ice bath and put in the fridge. Next cook the shrimp in the boiling water for 4-5 min. DO NOT over cook. Then remove with slotted spoon and ice bath and fridge them. Next, cook the vermicelli in the boiling water, should take only about 3-4 min. Then strain, and like everything else, put in the fridge till its al least cool to room temp.

Once the shrimps are room temp, peal the shells and tails off and slice in half down the spine. Strain the cucumber and get everything out of the fridge and set up on your work surface. Pat, or wring things dry with paper towels if they are wet. Set up your wrappers in a pile next to the bowl of water.

Now you’re ready to roll!

Dip one into the water and place flat on your smooth work surface (plastic tray).

Put 3 half pieces of the shrimps, outside pink side down

Place a small two fingerfull bunch of the vermicil on top fo the shrimp

Next, pile on a few carrot and cucmber strips

Last sprinkle a bit of scallion and basil

Then roll the wrapper. If you don’t know how to do this, consult some other blog or website about rolling spring rolls.

Arrange on a platter and put dipping sauce close buy   small spoon in it.

There ya go. Its a lo of prep, but worth it for a good size group.

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Beet Salad 2

Posted on January 19, 2011 by karafty

INGREDIENTS

4 medium size beets, boiled (30-35 min.), cooled and pealed.

1 turnip, pealed

1 tablsp. chopped parsley

1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts

Dressing:

1:1 Apple cider vin. and evoo

S&P to tates

DIRECTIONS

In a food processor with the shredder blade, shred the beets and the turnip. Toss with the parsley turnip and dressing and there ya go.

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Pork Wellington and Celeriac Mash with mushroom gravy

Posted on January 9, 2011 by karafty

I watched Alton Brown do this on his Good Eats, episode “Tender is The Pork”. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pork-wellington-recipe/index.html

Except I made it about half the size, as I was making it for 2, and because I bought a very small piece of pork tenderloin as it was expensive, from Farmers Brand in Windsor, Vt at the Union Square Green Market on Wednesdays. I also omitted the dried apple, as I really didn’t have enough of a piece to cut in half. I used the same amount of thyme and mustard, and I used half of the puff pastry I got and re-wrapped and froze the other half for a later project.

I wanted to make the mushroom crispy on top of the celeriac, I thought this would be a good contrast to the mushiness of everything else, but what I didn’t work, and if fact, it worked out much better to have a sauce at the bottom of the plate to moisten every bite up with earthy goodness. I read about someone crisping up shiitake mushrooms as thin slices and then roasting in the oven. I got baby portobella mushrooms, not to be confused with criminis. What happened is that they turned out to be just really chewy and kinda bitter, the flavor was well, very mushroomy in the way of mushrooms that you wouldn’t normally cook with. I roasted them with some shallot, which was great. So the only way to salvage was to boil it all in some chicken stock, strain, then thicken up with a bit of butter and corn starch. This came out nicely.

INGREDIENTS for the Celeriac Mash

1 large celeriac (also called celery root), peeled and roughly diced into 1/2″-3/4″ pieces

3 cups chicken stock (you can use boulion here, I used Primarque Chicken Base)

1.5 tsp. chopped thyme

1/2 tbsp. 1/2 & 1/2

1.5 tbsp. butter

1/2 tsp. truffle oil (optional)

1/2 cup finely grated Gouda Parano (a hard gouda, or parm would be fine)

DIRECTIONS

Boil the celeriac in the chicken stock for 15 min, then strain, put in a small mixing bowl and stir in the thyme, 1/2 & 1/2, butter, truffle oil, and season to taste with s&p. This can be made ahead, then when ready to serve divide up onto the plates then top each serving with the shredded cheese and heat in the microwave for around 25 seconds to melt the cheese. Then plate the pork wellington and drizzle the mushroom sauce on top over everything. A for his sauce, I would say use a handful of dried mushroom reconstituted and simmered for a while in stock and onion or shallot, then strain and add a tablespoon of butter and a teaspoon of corn starch, whisk till smooth. I served this with a beat salad, which you can find here, Beat Salad 2.

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Stuffed Mushrooms

Posted on January 3, 2011 by karafty

I did this for Christmas at my aunt and uncle’s house. This is a great app for the whole family. It’s a bit labor intensive, so it’ really only worth doing for a group of more than 4 for the amount of effort you’ll be putting in, but not more than 9-10, as it will take for ever. This recipe I made for 9, and there was at least 3 each.  They are vegetarian. You can also prep the caps and stuffing the day before, and just stuff and bake the morning of serving.

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs large white button mushrooms

a bit less than 1/4 lbs of other mushrooms like oyster or shiitake, etc. or you could used a few re-constituted dried mushrooms.

1 1/2 cups finely diced onion

1 1/2 ribs of celery finely diced

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup plain bread crumbs

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

1 cup shredded parm cheese

1 tbsp. evoo

5 tbsp. butter

Garlic herb mixture - In a mortar or pestle grind together the following:

1 tsp. dried rosemary

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried fennel

2 sm. or 1 large clove of garlic

dash of chili powder

s&p to taste

2 tsp. of evoo

DIRECTIONS

Make the herb mash first and set aside.

Heat oven to 375.

Carefully clean all the mushrooms with damp paper towels. Cut the very tip of the steams off and discard, and keep the rest of the steam and with a small spoon scoop out some of the flesh of the inside of the mushrooms being careful not the crack the caps. They should still be thick. Keep all the mushroom bits together and chop them up with the added 1/4 lb. mushrooms. Next, over med., heat the evoo and 2 tbsp. of butter, add the onion and celery and saute till translucent, about 5-10 min. Ad the herb garlic mash and saute for another 1-2 min. Add the mushrooms and saute until they have released all their moisture, about 10 min, then turn up the heat, season a bit with s&p and add the wine and cook it off, another 5-6 min., until they start to get brown and stick to the pan. Turn off the heat, stir in 1 tbsp. of butter, then the bread crumbs, pine nuts and parm. You’re ready for stuffin!

Place your caps on a baking sheet, they can be close but not touching. Stuff each – be careful not to crack! Drizzle with the last 2 tbsp. of melted butter. Bake in the oven for about 25-30 min.

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Orange Pomander Balls

Posted on December 16, 2010 by karafty

, so this isn’t a food recipe, but it involves food and is a fun holiday karafty type thing to do. I did this with a small group of lady friends that do a craft night every couple of weeks. I’d never done these before, it’s not any kind of family tradition, it just seemed like an easy, fun pretty holiday craft. They are supposed to be like holiday potpourri. But I have to admit that they don’t really smell that much in the house. I did hear from one of the ladies, Rebecca, that you can boil them to release the fragrance into the air. I have not tired that yet. Basically you make designs with cloves in oranges, and then let them dry out for a couple weeks and then tie them up with ribbons and hang around the house. We did this 10 days ago on Sunday Dec. 5th. so they are not totally dried out yet. (more photos TK)

WHAT YOU NEED

A bag of oranges

A LOT of cloves. We used about 6 oz. for about 10 oranges, but you may need more. I bought a 12oz jar  from Southern New England Spice Company for only $6.50.

Toothpicks or thin wires, anything really that you can use to poke holes in the orange for the cloves to fit into. You don’t have to do this, but it helps to keep the cloves from breaking.

Optional: A spice mixture of equal parts ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger

Ribbons

HOW TO DO IT

Using a toothpick or wire, pre-poke the holes for the cloves in a design of your choice. This step is good as a first draft of your design, in case you do it a bit off center or something, you can fix it before you insert the real cloves. Then poke the cloves in the holes. You can roll around and sprinkle with the spice mixture if you want. Or leave without it. And voila! That’s basically it. Let them sit in a dry place, like on a window sill that is over a heater, and rotate them every day or two so they dry out evenly. Some of them may rot instead of dry out, so make a few. After they have shrank and are hard, tie some holiday-esque ribbons around them and hang around the house. Or give as gifts.

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