My travel schedule of late has kept me from the blog, and cooking in general for a few weeks. I have had some great meals out at Berthas Mussels and Burkes seafood in Baltimore. I made eggplant rollantini while on vacation with eggplant from our CSA. Lots of fresh grilled veggies, summer squash, eggplant, onions.
Today we grilled some tasty grass fed sirloin steaks, some amazing sweet corn and grilled vegetables. As I was eating it, it dawned on me how much each of them tasted like the thing they are. The steak tasted like steak, nothing more than salt, pepper, olive oil and fire. The corn was boiled for just a few minutes to heat it through and that's it, it still had a nice snap to it. It tasted like corn should.
It just reinforces the message that permeates the food world at the moment. Eat as seasonally and locally as you can. If you eat animals, eat those that have been raised in a good environment and fed diets that they like and keeps them healthy. If you eat things you can't get locally (ocean seafood in Syracuse NY) do your homework, find out how the fish was raised or caught. All these little things can make a difference in the world around you, and make your food taste better. I've never been out to save the world, but if it helps the world to not eat mushy tasteless tomatoes in december then I can make that sacrifice. Ok off my soap box now. Not that I was on one. Most of this was written from a hammock after a tasty, local, sustainable meal like I have been blathering about.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Cabbage with Pancetta
This is a quick and simple side that I have done a few different ways. This variant was served alongside Ratatouille this weekend. The cabbage we get from our CSA is really delicious but Kerrie is not a huge cabbage fan so sometimes I struggle to use it up. I could eat most of this myself.
This time around I used
1 small head cabbage
1/4 - 1/2 cup of chopped pancetta (as will all things pancetta you could use regular bacon but it's not quite the same)
1/2 Tbsp coriander seeds
slice the cabbage into 1/4 inch thick slices and set aside. Crush the coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle (yes seriously, ancient tools still rock)
Heat up a small frying pan and add the crushed coriander seeds, dry toast for a minute or two until you can smell them, then add your chopped pancetta. Cook until the pancetta is beginning to brown and has released some of its fat then add your cabbage. Toss and cook until the cabbage is softened but not completely cooked through.
This was the first time I used coriander for this dish, I typically use cumin seeds or caraway seeds, coriander brings a nice citrusy note that I really enjoyed but all three are excellent choices.
This time around I used
1 small head cabbage
1/4 - 1/2 cup of chopped pancetta (as will all things pancetta you could use regular bacon but it's not quite the same)
1/2 Tbsp coriander seeds
slice the cabbage into 1/4 inch thick slices and set aside. Crush the coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle (yes seriously, ancient tools still rock)
Heat up a small frying pan and add the crushed coriander seeds, dry toast for a minute or two until you can smell them, then add your chopped pancetta. Cook until the pancetta is beginning to brown and has released some of its fat then add your cabbage. Toss and cook until the cabbage is softened but not completely cooked through.
This was the first time I used coriander for this dish, I typically use cumin seeds or caraway seeds, coriander brings a nice citrusy note that I really enjoyed but all three are excellent choices.
Ratatouille
This time of year ratatouille is the perfect dish. All of the ingredients are in season and and the peak of their tastiness. Their are many many variations of ratatouille.
I kind of made it up as I went along. I read through the recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food
on Saturday morning and then tossed it together at my parents house out in Sodus.
I used:
2 small Eggplant (Calliope eggplant from the CSA)
1 large Zucchini
1 large Yellow Squash
2 large Tomatoes (some incredibly tasty heirloom varieties)
8 cloves Garlic
6 Cippolini onions (2 regular onions)
Parsley
Basil
Oregano
Salt
Pepper
Slice the Eggplant, Zucchini and Yellow Squash on a mandolin or v-slicer if you have one. A knife will work just fine you just want to get the slices as even as possible. Cut each slice in half so you have a big pile of half moon shaped veggies. Chop the onions and garlic and set aside.
Pre heat your oven to 375 and completely oil a casserole dish. Starting with tomatoes make layers of tomato, onion and garlic, squash, zucchini and eggplant. Sprinkle salt, pepper and herbs every other vegetable or so. Once your casserole is full to the top drizzle with a bit more olive oil and bake at 375 for an hour or more. You want the vegetables to be fully cooked and soft but still hold their shape.
If you want more of a stew, don't take the step below.
At 40 minutes or so of cooking, pull the ratatouille and press down with a spatula, drain off some of the accumulated liquid and return to the oven to complete cooking.
It is more of a texture thing for me, I like my vegetables to be a little more dry and retain more of their independent flavors and textures. Stew just doesn't say summer to me so I like this is more of a side that is perfectly at home on a paper plate versus something that really needs a bowl. I think I may experiment with all the veggies in this dish this week and slice and freeze them together for a nice winter ratatouille.
I kind of made it up as I went along. I read through the recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food
on Saturday morning and then tossed it together at my parents house out in Sodus.I used:
2 small Eggplant (Calliope eggplant from the CSA)
1 large Zucchini
1 large Yellow Squash
2 large Tomatoes (some incredibly tasty heirloom varieties)
8 cloves Garlic
6 Cippolini onions (2 regular onions)
Parsley
Basil
Oregano
Salt
Pepper
Slice the Eggplant, Zucchini and Yellow Squash on a mandolin or v-slicer if you have one. A knife will work just fine you just want to get the slices as even as possible. Cut each slice in half so you have a big pile of half moon shaped veggies. Chop the onions and garlic and set aside.
Pre heat your oven to 375 and completely oil a casserole dish. Starting with tomatoes make layers of tomato, onion and garlic, squash, zucchini and eggplant. Sprinkle salt, pepper and herbs every other vegetable or so. Once your casserole is full to the top drizzle with a bit more olive oil and bake at 375 for an hour or more. You want the vegetables to be fully cooked and soft but still hold their shape.
If you want more of a stew, don't take the step below.
At 40 minutes or so of cooking, pull the ratatouille and press down with a spatula, drain off some of the accumulated liquid and return to the oven to complete cooking.
It is more of a texture thing for me, I like my vegetables to be a little more dry and retain more of their independent flavors and textures. Stew just doesn't say summer to me so I like this is more of a side that is perfectly at home on a paper plate versus something that really needs a bowl. I think I may experiment with all the veggies in this dish this week and slice and freeze them together for a nice winter ratatouille.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
An off week
Being on the road for a week really puts a crimp in my cooking. Sadly the food at the resort this week is nothing to write about. All in all I have to give the Big Sky Resort a solid meh. I never expect much from conference food and my expectations were met. The two best parts of the food and beverage portion of the trip were the beer tasting at Lone Peak Brewery (thanks Marilyn) and the BBQ at the off site dinner at the 320 Ranch.
Lone peak had some nice offerings, their ESB was really delicious and their Porter and Stout were also tasty. The star was the steep and deep winter ale. Oddly by itself it was not as great as it was when it was transformed into a Steep and Deeper, with the addition of some vanilla vodka. The vanilla vodka really enhanced the flavor and highlighted the bourbon cask aging. Their flight was served in a ski as a rack which was a nice touch.
The 320 Ranch had some pretty tasty bbq, the ribs were fall apart tender, but a little on the mushy side rather than the nice bark you should get on ribs, but the flavor was there so it all worked out in the end.
I'm back at home for most of this week and a ratatouille is on the horizon due to some squash, eggplant, and green peppers form the CSA.
Lone peak had some nice offerings, their ESB was really delicious and their Porter and Stout were also tasty. The star was the steep and deep winter ale. Oddly by itself it was not as great as it was when it was transformed into a Steep and Deeper, with the addition of some vanilla vodka. The vanilla vodka really enhanced the flavor and highlighted the bourbon cask aging. Their flight was served in a ski as a rack which was a nice touch.
The 320 Ranch had some pretty tasty bbq, the ribs were fall apart tender, but a little on the mushy side rather than the nice bark you should get on ribs, but the flavor was there so it all worked out in the end.
I'm back at home for most of this week and a ratatouille is on the horizon due to some squash, eggplant, and green peppers form the CSA.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Balsamic Onion Marmalade
I found this recipe at another recently discovered blog called One Perfect Bite
I won't re post their work here but I will say I changed a few things.
I had to scale down the recipe as I only had 3 cups of onions. I used cippolini onions which I had a ton of from the last few weeks of CSA pickups and wanted to get them used up. I also replaced the white sugar with brown sugar. Since the cippolinis were too small to slice them all by hand I ran them through the food processor which worked out really nicely. Kerrie is not a huge fan of large stringy onions so pieces will make her happy.
Very tasty stuff, caramelized onions with this great vinegar tang. I can't wait to drop them on top of some pork or a lamb chop
I won't re post their work here but I will say I changed a few things.
I had to scale down the recipe as I only had 3 cups of onions. I used cippolini onions which I had a ton of from the last few weeks of CSA pickups and wanted to get them used up. I also replaced the white sugar with brown sugar. Since the cippolinis were too small to slice them all by hand I ran them through the food processor which worked out really nicely. Kerrie is not a huge fan of large stringy onions so pieces will make her happy.
Very tasty stuff, caramelized onions with this great vinegar tang. I can't wait to drop them on top of some pork or a lamb chop
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