Good Grub from the maker of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont

Tourtiere du Fittsgeorges

2012-11-12T23:18:32Z

This is not a weeknight meal. This is not even an "average Sunday" meal. This is a "plan on being in the vicinity of the kitchen all day" kind of meal. Fortunately it's not hard, it just takes a while. And it can also be made ahead and frozen, for a yummy no-fuss meal.

Tourtiere is a French-Canadian meat pie. Being engaged to a French-Canadian, I've taken great interest in yummy sounding French-Canadian foods that I was formally unfamiliar with (and by "taken an interest in" I mean "totally mess with my fiance's traditions").

Traditionally tourtiere is made with ground meat, but Martin Picard (of Montreal's Au Pied de Cochon fame) has forever changed that for me. He opened up a sugar shack north of Montreal (read: middle of friggin nowhere) and published the recipe for his Tourtiere du Shack, which is about 60/40 braised pork/ground pork. I think his original recipe uses pig trotters, but mine uses a more easily obtainable pork shoulder. Any meaty braising cut will fit the bill.

If you are unfamiliar with the Quebecois tradition of the sugar shack (Cabane a Sucre), I highly recommend familiarizing yourself. The idea is that Quebecois families go to a nearby maple sugaring shack during maple sugaring season and eat a huge buffet of the types of foods that the sugarers (who are doing backbreaking work in the snow in the woods) would eat. This involves lots of meat, lots of fried and lots of salt. The tourtiere is just one of the meat options. Others include creton (a pork spread that I have spent a lot of time trying to recreate), and Oreilles de crisse (literally means "ears of christ," and literally is fried and salted pig jowls). Have I mentioned that Quebecois love pig in all it's many and tasty forms?

I've made this tourtiere several times now and it has gained a reputation amongst "those in the know." I say "those in the know" because the reputation is apparently "Mine! All mine!" with little interest in sharing. It's kind of crazy good. So be warned, if you make this you may be asked to make it again. And then again.

Tourtiere du Fittsgeorges
Inspired by Martin Picard’s Tourtiere du Shack

Crust:
3 cups white all purpose flour
1 cup cold butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp salt
cold water

Filling:
2 onions
2 heads of garlic
1 tsp dry thyme
6 peppercorns
3 bay leaves
2 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
2 lb pork shoulder
2 tbs bacon fat or butter
1/4 lb mushrooms
1 tsp salt plus more to taste
3/4 cup white wine
1 lb ground pork
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup shredded russet potato (about 1/2 large potato)
pepper to taste
1 beaten egg yolk

Crust:
1) Mix the salt into the flour.
2) Using a food processor or pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has formed a fine grain (but has not begun to clump together). If you have time, refrigerate the butter/flour mixture for 1 or more hours.
3) Add the water, starting with a couple tablespoons and mix in with a wooden spoon, until the dough just barely holds together. Be careful to not over mix. Cut the dough into two balls and let rest in the fridge for 20 minutes to a full day.

Tourtiere:
1) Preheat oven to 325° F.
2) Rough chop 1/2 onion and 1 head of peeled garlic. Place in a dutch oven with the thyme, peppercorns, bay leaves, broth and whole pork shoulder (broth should mostly cover the shoulder). Bring the broth to a boil over medium heat, then cover and place in preheated oven for 2 hours
3) Remove the dutch oven from the oven and shred the pork shoulder with two forks. Cover again and return to oven for another hour, or until the pork is falling apart. Set aside to cool. When cool, remove any bay leaves, bones, fat chunks or connective tissue and further shred the pork. Remove most of the liquid and set aside.
4) Finely dice the remaining 1 1/2 onion, peeled garlic head and mushrooms. Add to a large skillet with the bacon fat and 1 tsp salt. Sautee over medium heat until onion is starting to brown and almost all of the liquid has evaporated, about 5-10 minutes. Deglaze pan with the wine.
5) Let most of the liquid evaporate again and add the ground pork, cinnamon and cloves. Cook the pork until cooked through, stirring often to break up any large pieces. Add the shredded russet potato and cook for about 10 minutes or until the potato has softened. Add the mixture to the shredded pork and stir in as much liquid as the mixture will soak up. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside or refrigerate to cool.
6) Preheat oven to 400° F
7) One pie dough ball at a time, roll the dough on a generously floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick and large enough for two 8-inch pie tins, being careful not to let the dough stick.
8) Line two greased 8-inch pie tins with the dough, letting about one inch of dough overhang the side. Fill the two crusts with the tourtiere filling.
9) Roll out the remaining dough ball and cover the two tourtieres, rolling the top and bottom crusts together. Cut vents in the top crust of each tourtiere and brush with beaten egg yolk. Bake tourtiere at 400° F for 30 minutes and then reduce heat to 350° for another 30-45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Enjoy!

Note: Fully assembled yet unbaked tourtiere can be wrapped and frozen for up to three months. Let fully thaw in the fridge before baking.

Squash Casserole

2012-10-03T18:34:17Z

The life of a recipe developer is so much more fun when someone comes up to me and says, "I need a recipe focusing on this one specific thing, stat!" It gives me a jumping off point, but lots of flexibility. So, today that thing is winter squash. I copped out two weeks ago with a squash repeat, so I needed to not do that again. But I also needed to make dinner out of items that were already in the house (for a man who tends to be a little ho-hum about squash).

My first thought was a corn/beans/squash dish, since those are very complimentary foods (for growing and eating). But I didn't have corn or beans, so that was out. Then I thought that a squash/veggie/sausage casserole dish sounded lovely, but I'm all out of sausage. Fortunately I've found that some ground beef (which I did have) plus fennel seed and bacon fat ends up tasting remarkably like sausage in dishes (and my man is very not ho-hum about bacon fat).

This dish is very flexible to the ingredients you have in your house. Just about any veggie combo will do and you can eliminate the meat by subbing in some black beans (mix in about 2 cans after taking the vegetables off the heat). You can eliminate the cheese by just leaving it out and sprinkling nuts over the top (or not, if nuts ain't yo thang). I'd say that the only thing this dish really needs is the mashed, roasted squash and some vegetables of some kind for the squash to stick to. Have fun!

Squash Casserole

1 large winter squash (butternut, pumpkin, acorn, Long Island cheese squash)
1/2 medium cabbage, sliced
1 medium fennel bulb, sliced
2 medium onions, sliced
2 tbs bacon fat, butter or olive oil
1/2 garlic bulb, peeled and sliced
2 bell or anaheim peppers, cored and sliced
1 jalapeno or cayenne, finely chopped (optional)
1 tbs fennel seed
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1 lb ground beef
8 oz chevre
4 oz grated cheese and/or crumbled feta

1) Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut the winter squash in half, remove seeds and place cut side down on a foil lined cookie sheet with edges (or a roasting pan). Roast the squash for about an hour, depending on size, until a fork easily pierces the skin of the squash. Remove from oven and let cool.

2) Meanwhile, cook over medium heat the cabbage, fennel bulk, onions, fat, garlic, peppers, fennel seed, salt and pepper, stirring regularly, until cabbage is soft, about 30 minutes.

3) Turn the heat up to medium high and add the ground beef, stirring regularly until beef is cooked through. Remove from heat and let cool somewhat.

4) Scoop out about 4 cups of the cooked squash and roughly mash with a fork. Mix it into the beef mixture. Break the chevre into 1/2 inch pieces and gently fold into the beef and squash mixture. Spread everything into a 9x13 inch casserole pan and top with grated or crumbled remaining cheese. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350° F or until cheese is starting to brown.

Winter Squash repeat

2012-09-20T09:31:35Z

I've never repeated a blog entry, but this one is from three years ago (and delicious), so I thought it was time. Enjoy!

Winter Squash Soup

So I would have thought that once I got heat in my house (yay heat!) I would have starting veering away from soups, but apparently that is not the case. I have recently been falling in love with squash soup. It’s so simple and so delicious.

When winter squashes started showing up at the farmers market I realized that I didn’t know much about most of them. I love butternut and, of course, pie pumpkins (be prepared for the best pumpkin pie recipe ever in November), but I didn’t know much about the rest. And one of the lovely things about this blog is that I have to get outside of my food comfort zone to keep writing columns (my blog would be very boring if I did nothing but write about the stir fries that I make more often than I should). So I started bringing squash home and roasting them (it’s so much easier than peeling and boiling them). At first I was just eating them straight (or with butter, for the drier varieties). But that wasn’t very interesting (and could be quite fattening). So I came up with the brilliant idea of soup!

Last week I bought a bunch of squash at the farmers market and when roasting time came I had butternut, delicata and a variety that I had never seen before. It looks like a cross between a delicata and an acorn. The farmer at Dog River Farm told me the name, which I promptly forgot. But, when in doubt, roast! So I sliced the squashes in half, composted the seeds (some folks like to roast them, but that’s never been my thing) and placed them upside down on a greased, foil-lined pan. I roasted them at 350° F “until done.” Done, to me, means that a fork slides easily through the skin. This time ranged from about 30 minutes to about 1 hour 15 minutes depending on the squash and the size.

I went ahead and made squash soup with my delicious delicatas right there on the spot (see below), but as it was around 11 pm on a Sunday night I decided to leave the other squash for later. I shelled out each type of squash into a separate container and tossed them in the refrigerator. As luck would have it, this ended up making me perfect lunches all week. My roommate had brought a whole bunch of leftover chopped onions home from a company picnic and she decided to sauté and freeze them for later use. So, each morning I’ve been pureeing some of these sautéed onions with chicken broth and the roasted squash to make some absolutely lovely squash soup for lunch. All of the squashes have made excellent soup, but so far that mystery squash has been my favorite. I’ve played around with adding curry, roasted garlic or chili pepper flakes, and I encourage you to do the same. But I’ve put my super simple recipe below because it’s still my favorite and it makes a good jumping off point.

So, I hope you enjoy this simple soup as much as I have been and keep an eye out for my upcoming blog entry on making your own homemade broth!

Winter Squash Soup

4 delicata squash (or a similar amount of your favorite type of winter squash)
1 medium red onion
2 tsp olive oil
pinch salt plus more to taste
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
black pepper

1) Slice the squash in half, discard the seeds and roast the squash, open side down, at 350° F on a greased, foil lined baking pan. The squash is done when a fork easily slides through the skin, about 30 minutes for a delicata and longer for larger squash. Remove the squash from the oven and let them cool.

2) Dice the red onion and sauté over medium high heat in the olive oil and the pinch of salt in a large saucepan until the onion starts to brown. Remove pan from heat and scoop the contents of the squash into the pan, discarding the skin.

3) Add the broth to the pan and with an immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth (or puree in batches in a standing blender). Return the pan to the stove and heat the soup, over medium heat, until hot. If the soup is too thick, add more broth or water. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Fresh Tomato Soup

2012-09-05T21:54:17Z

Fresh tomato soup is the perfect bridge between summer and fall. In fact, if we had another season between summer and fall, I think it should be called Fresh Tomato Soup Season (FTSS for short -- it would be fun to hear folks say it). To me, farmers market (or garden) tomatoes taste like sunshine. Luscious, bright, juicy, bikini by the swimming hole with a glass of maple lemonade kind of sunshine. So, eating fresh tomato soup on a brisk fall evening is like wrapping yourself in a handknit throw made with pure spun summer sunshine. It's just all kinds of perfect.

Fresh tomato soup is nothing like the canned stuff but is almost as uncomplicated. I like serving mine up with some grilled cheese sandwiches. Last night's grilled cheese was two slices of cracked wheat bread, spread with chevre, a good melting cheese and just a little bit of hot sauce. Then cooked with butter between two cast iron pans. Oh, yeah. I could do that for dinner again tonight. And maybe tomorrow night too...

Fresh Tomato Soup

1 the olive oil
1 med onion, rough chopped
4 med garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp chopped thyme
1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
6 medium tomatoes, chopped

1) In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, saute the olive oil, onion, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper until the onion has softened.

2) Add the tomatoes to the pan and stir. Cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the tomatoes are soft and juicy. Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree the soup until everything is more or less pureed. Simmer over low heat for another 10 minutes or until ready to serve.

Tomato Sausage Pie

2012-08-28T22:02:12Z

This isn't the most elegant of dishes, but it's crazy tasty and makes great leftovers. I love how sunny summer tomatoes taste to the degree that I don't bother with fresh tomatoes in the off season. It's not out of a local-tomato obligation, but rather a "food that I want" vs "food that I don't want" issue (I feel the same way about homemade butter). There are just much tastier things available in the other 7 months of the year!

I also love how this recipe can be entirely local (ok, well, 99.9% as that no one is growing local peppercorns as of yet). So go forth and eat!

(And BTW, I don't have any pictures of luscious Vermont tomatoes because last weekend me and my man cooked and froze 72 lbs of fresh tomatoes to save for colder months -- equivalent to 52 cans. And this has left us temporarily tomatoeless -- I'm guessing we will survive).

Tomato Sausage Pie

1 pie crust in pie plate (optional)
1/2 lb chorizo sausage (no casing)
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 lb tomatoes, sliced
1-1/2 – 2 cups grated cheese, divided
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp ground pepper

1) Preheat oven to 375° F.

2) Cook the chorizo, onion and garlic over medium heat until the chorizo is cooked through and onion is soft. Place sausage mixture in the pie crust (or greased, empty pie plate, if omitting crust).

3) Sprinkle 1/3 of the grated cheese over the sausage mixture. Top with the sliced tomatoes. Whisk together the eggs, milk and ground pepper in a small bowl, then pour over the tomatoes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake at 375° for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is browning. Enjoy!

Maple Basil Shortbread with Maple Tomato Jam

2012-08-09T19:59:47Z

I listen to a bunch of food related podcasts in the bakery and the other day I was listening to one (this is the article: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/28/157359289/you-wont-throw-tomatoes-at-these-recipes) and they mentioned using tomatoes as a sweet item and specifically mentioned tomato jam. I was intrigued. Then someone mentioned pairing it with a basil shortbread and I was hooked. Ok, I went back and read the article and found that they mention pairing a tomato sorbet with the shortbread, not the jam, but I liked the jam idea, so I went with it (although, perhaps tomato sorbet should be next on my list). Also, now that I've read the article (instead of just listening to the podcast while elbow deep in cookie dough), I see that they have a tomato jam recipe there, but mine is different. Feel free to experiment and compare.

I've done a couple different versions of this shortbread and they are all curiously fantastic. I even did one where I swapped out the rice flour for a coarse local cornmeal (that's what's in the picture). If you can get over the fact that it doesn't taste like what you expect a shortbread to taste like, but still tastes just like a shortbread, it's crazy delicious. Enjoy!

Lemon Basil Shortbread

3 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup of maple sugar
4 tbs chopped basil (about 32 large leaves)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup rice flour

1) In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, maple sugar, basil and salt until just mixed plus a little more. Add the vanilla and lemon extracts and mix thoroughly.

2) Add the flours and mix just until the flour is evenly incorporated. Shape the dough into a rectangle, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.

3) Preheat the oven to 350° F. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with knives or cookie cutters. Place cookies on foil or parchment paper lined cookie sheets and bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges of the shortbread are golden. Enjoy!

Makes about 30 cookies

Maple Tomato Jam

3 lb tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cumin

1) Add all ingredients to a large pot and cook over medium heat for about 2 hours, or until the mixture is thick and spreadable, stirring regularly. Let cool and enjoy!

Humaneitarian

2012-06-22T10:29:05Z

Have you heard of this lovely website? Humaneitarian.org (and yes the 'e' in the middle is deliberate) is a website devoted to helping people learn how to eat humanely raised meats. I highly recommend checking out and not just because I wrote a few recipes for them! Here is one on tender grass fed steak:
www.humaneitarian.org/being-a-humaneitarian/in-the-kitchen/grass-fed-beef/

There will also be some recipes from me on cooking whole chicken, Vermont Style BBQ Pulled Pork and grilled lamb chops. But in the mean time, check out everything they've got going on over there!

Rhubarb deliciousness

2012-06-22T10:21:58Z

And here is a lovely article I recently wrote for the new iteration of Edible Green Mountain about some of the tasty things you can do with rhubarb:
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/greenmountains/editorial/spring-2012/edible-seasonal-kitchen.htm

The Development of a Recipe and a Recipe Developer

2012-06-22T10:14:49Z

I recently wrote an article for Local Banquet about being a recipe developer and how to develop a recipe. There are also two delicious recipes to go with it (and the mention of a third that didn't make it in because after 14 tries I had to call it quits). Here's the link:
http://www.localbanquet.com/issues/years/2012/summer12/recipedevelopment_s12.html

Whole Milk Strawberry Sorbet

2012-06-21T01:07:26Z

When the manager of the Montpelier Farmers Market asked me to write up a recipe for my favorite way to eat local strawberries, my first thought was, "Um, recipe? My favorite way to eat local strawberries is rinsed." But then I gave it a second thought and realized that there are many delicious ways of consuming these scrumptiously seedy red delights. Some obvious preparations, like shortcake and pie came to mind, but really, who wants to cook in this sweltering humidity (the meatloaf in my oven notwithstanding)? And can I just say how much I love ice cream and all things frozen? I made this a milk based sorbet because there is just so much tasty tasty milk available at the Montpelier Farmers Market and ice cream seemed too heavy for this hot summer heat (and would require that steamy cooking thing to happen too). The rum, besides being rum-tastic, also helps keep the sorbet softer for days to come. If you're going to eat the sorbet right away and you're not an imbiber you can just leave the rum to the sailors. Enjoy!

1 qt fresh strawberries, washed, stemmed and chopped
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup VT maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup VT rum (such as Dunc's Mill or Smugglers Notch)

1) Put all the ingredients in a food processor and purée until smooth. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Refrigerator Pickled Potatoes

2012-05-30T21:50:47Z

So, I realize that this isn't quite a "recipe" per se, but it is a delicious food that doesn't really need a specific recipe and I needed to share. About a month ago my beau and myself found ourselves in San Francisco (and by "found" I mean we carefully planned a trip many months ago to the Bay Area to visit my family). On a recommendation from my sister we went to this ridiculously wonderful watering hole called the Comstock Saloon (go ahead, click on the link. And then visit the place. It's that yummy). They not only had a delicious selection of alcohols and mixed drinks to choose from, but they also had a selection on the drink menu called "Barkeeps Whimsy" which meant you could describe your preferences to the waiter and then the barkeep would make you up something new to your liking. I ordered many variations of this.

But then there was the food. Oh my. Now that was tasty. We had some hominy fritters with smoked pepper dip that you just wanted to snuggle right down into and this buttery pork slider called Pig in a Biscuit that had my man all atwitter. But the Rabbit Three Ways was my favorite and on the side was this selection of pickled veggies (ok, I confess, I don't remember exactly which dish had the pickled veggies on the side, but you can take that as a testament to how good the drinks were). Among the pickled veggies were potatoes and I wasn't expecting much. But oh, do I love to be surprised. These potatoes were crunchy and vinegary with the right amount of salt and just a touch of starch. Immediately me and my guy decided that we needed to figure out how to make these from our delicious Vermont ingredients. So try we did and we were immediately rewarded. These are easy (especially if you have a mandolin slicer) and make great additions to sandwiches and salads or just as a straight up snack on their own. They're kind of like salt and vinegar chips without the fried. For the "other tasty stuff" I recommend onions, carrots, peppercorns, garlic, chives, rosemary, dill, or whatever is in season and looks tasty to you. I've been using red potatoes, but just about any potato should do the trick. Have fun!

Refrigerator Pickled Potatoes

Raw potatoes, thinly sliced
Other tasty raw stuff, thinly sliced
Enough vinegar to submerge the potatoes and tasty stuff
salt

1) Mix everything together in an appropriately sized container and refrigerate for a couple of days or as long as you want. Enjoy!

Rhubarb Bread Pudding

2012-05-23T18:41:21Z

There is no end to the number of delicious things one can do with rhubarb. Which is a really good thing because if you've got rhubarb, chances are you've got a lot of it. And if you have a neighbor with rhubarb, chances are you've got a bundle of it sitting on the seat of your unlocked car. I love how rhubarb can be used as a vegetable or a fruit (or a drink or a rather weak and short walking stick). I even wrote an enticing article on the subject in the most recent edition of Edible Green Mountains (viewable here: onlinedigeditions.com/publication/?i=100926). And just days ago I came up with this oh so yummy rhubarb bread pudding. I also made some Maple Rhubarb Agua Fresca (rhubarb juice, water, maple syrup and a little salt. Lemon juice or wine or seltzer are also good mixers with that). I'm about to make some Maple Rhubarb Jam and sell it at the farmers market. It will be delicious (I have declared, so it must be so -- can you tell I'm in a punchy mood?). Anyway, back to bread pudding. Here it is:

Rhubarb Bread Pudding

1 loaf artisan bread (Red Hen’s Waitsfield Common is a good choice)
4 cups sliced rhubarb
2 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
8 eggs
1 1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1) Preheat oven to 325°F. Slice and remove the crust from the bread. Toast each slice and cut each slice into 3/4 inch cubes. Place the bread cubes and rhubarb into a 9x13 inch casserole dish and toss together.

2) Pour the milk and butter into a saucepan and heat over medium heat until the milk just starts to bubble. Pour the milk mixture over the bread and rhubarb and let sit for about 15 minutes.

3) In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt. Pour the mixture over the bread and rhubarb and mix gently until everything is coated. Bake at 325°F for 60-75 minutes or until nicely browned.

Ramplicious Goodness

2012-05-03T01:42:53Z

I love the excitement that comes with springtime foods and I find myself looking forward to things like sugarsnap peas and asparagus. But those things aren't available in Vermont yet and ramps are, so I've got ramps on the brain. I know I can get ramps at a few stands at the Montpelier Farmers Market this weekend, but I just didn't want to wait that long. So I decided to see if I could find any on my own. A few weeks back my boyfriend and I were tromping through Hubbard Park and saw some plants that we thought might possibly, maybe, could be ramps. We didn't investigate then, but I decided to make yesterday's exercise into a foraging trip. Armed with a bag, some gloves and a picture of a growing ramp cluster (it's surprising how different things look on your cutting board than in the dirt), I soldiered into the woods.

Turns out they are really easy to find. And once you find one cluster, there will surely be a couple thousand more plants within about 100 ft. So I had me some easy pickings. And I picked a lot. But I doubt I even got 1% of what was on that hillside. I cleaned and pureed the whole lot, so I could freeze it and use it for later. But 1/2 lb was saved from the freezer and used for this delicious (and potent) ramp pesto. I've got me some ramplicious breath now!

Ramp Pesto

1/2 lb cleaned whole ramps
3 oz feta cheese
1 tbs olive oil
3/4 tsp salt plus more to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup almonds or walnuts
spinach to taste

1) Rough chop the ramps and add everything except the spinach to a food processor. Puree until smooth. Add the spinach to taste and puree until smooth.

Note: As ramps can be as spicy as raw garlic, if you’re using the pesto as a main component (as in pasta), I recommend adding 2-4 oz of raw spinach to cut the burn. If you’re using the pesto as a dip or spread, I recommend enjoying full rampiness and leaving the spinach out!

Wild Leeks

2012-04-19T00:42:26Z

Wild leeks are back! And for the uninitiated, they are oh so tasty. Culinarily wild leeks are really less like leeks and more like onions. The tops can be used like scallions, although they look more flat and leaf-like and the bulbs are like, well, mini onion bulbs (I bet you didn't see that one coming). This recipe is from a couple years ago, but it's still as good as ever (but that does mean no photo for those who have been enjoying my fine, fine photography). And since I wrote this recipe I've discovered that you can make a fabulous wholeish grain risotto out of pearled barley (I say wholeish because pearled barley is kind of in between a whole grain and a white grain, nutritionally. But in my opinion it makes a good high-fiber risotto). To modify this recipe for pearled barley, just add an extra cup of broth (and choose a larger pearl for better nutrition and less refinement). Oh yum.

Wild Leek & Bacon Risotto

15 wild leeks, leaves and bulbs sliced and separated
6 pieces of bacon
1 cup white wine
1 cup Arborio rice
3 cups vegetable broth, warmed
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1) Cook bacon over medium high heat to taste in a large high-sided frying pan or sauce pan. Remove the cooked bacon from the pan and set aside.
2) Cook the chopped wild leek bulbs in the bacon fat for about 1 minute. Add the white wine and scrape the yummy bits from bottom of the pan.
3) Add the rice and stir until almost all the liquid is absorbed by the rice. Add one cup of warmed broth and stir the mixture often until most of the liquid is absorbed. Repeat for the rest of the broth.
4) Remove the risotto from the heat and mix in the cheese and black pepper. Enjoy!

Cabbage Mac & Cheese

2012-04-06T11:28:26Z

I originally came up with this recipe because I had extra cabbage and cheese and just thought that this sounded good. At the time I still had it in my head that most people didn't like cabbage, so when I made this for a potluck and folks started clamoring for the recipe, I was pleasantly surprised. It did seem to take 2 years for me to get around to writing this recipe down, but let me tell you that this is a tasty one. It's dangerous for me to have a whole pan of mac & cheese in my house, so I made it for a potluck again. The folks at this potluck (an entirely different crowd) had equally excited admiration for the dish. So, this is officially two-potluck approved!

Cabbage Macaroni & Cheese

8 oz pasta (elbow or penne recommended), cooked, drained and set aside
1/2 medium cabbage (about 2.5 lbs of cabbage), chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs butter
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs mustard
4 cups milk
1 1/4 lb semisoft cheese (Monterey Jack or a favorite local cheese), shredded
1/4 lb blue cheese, crumbled
9 oz crushed potato chips (thick cut recommended)

1) Preheat oven to 350° F and grease a 9x13 inch casserole dish

2) In a large sauté pan, over medium high heat, sauté the cabbage, onion, olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt until the cabbage has softened. Remove from heat and set aside

3) In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, make a roux by melting the butter and then adding the flour (make sure to sift out any lumps first). With a fork, vigorously stir the flour and butter for several minutes until the flour just starts to brown. Add several tablespoons of milk and incorporate the milk into the flour with the fork. Add several more tablespoons and fully incorporate again. Repeat until all the milk has been added (once the mixture is more liquid than solid you can add more milk with each addition). Add the cloves, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, salt and mustard to the milk mixture and cook, continuing to stir regularly with the fork, until mixture has thickened. Remove the sauce from the heat and mix in 1/2 the semisoft cheese.

4) In a large bowl, mix together the cooked pasta, cabbage mixture and cheese sauce. Pour into the prepared casserole dish and top with the other half of the semisoft cheese, crumbled blue cheese and finally the crushed potato chips. Bake at 350° F for about 1/2 hour or until the cheese on top is cooked to your desired level of doneness.

Fennel, Fennel, Fennel

2012-03-23T02:12:07Z

I wrote an article about fennel for the latest issue of Local Banquet and you can see it here:
http://www.localbanquet.com/issues/years/2012/spring12/fennel_sp12.html or read the whole magazine digitally here (which I highly recommend):
http://issuu.com/localbanquet/docs/spring12?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage
I've got some cools things coming down the writing pipeline too, so be sure to keep an eye out!

Maple Creme Brulee

2012-03-15T02:08:38Z

I'm always excited when there's a dish in my head that I've been wanting to do for a while and then someone comes along and asks me to write a recipe that fits perfectly with the recipe in my head. This is just one of those recipes!

As someone who doesn't eat refined sugar, I've always been excited by the common inclusion (in Vermont at least) of maple creme brulee on fancy restaurant menus. And then I've always been sad that the sugar they "brulee" (i.e. burn) is the regular table sugar that my insides don't agree with. And they already added the sugar to the top of every prepared custard, so I can't even just get maple custard.

Prior to developing this recipe, I had never had creme brulee. It always enticed and intrigued me, but I could never eat the sugar on top. I always felt like it could be made with maple sugar, but that was never offered in restaurants and pre-weight loss me really shouldn't have eaten the maple sugar anyway (even though I occasionally came up with some really valid sounding excuses for why I could, just this one time). But maple sugar is one of the many delicious things my post-weight loss pancreas can handle, so a maple sugar maple creme brulee has gotten back on my radar screen in recent months.

So, when the manager of the Montpelier Farmers Market emailed me to ask if I had a good maple recipe for this week's market newsletter, I jumped on the chance. And oh my, did I just fall down a high calorie rabbit hole of deliciousness (and if you don't mind, I might just hang out down here for a while).

Creme brulee is way easier than many restaurants make it seem. My experience in the food world has taught me that most savory chefs are terrified of the sweet kitchen, so if you see a dessert that even a chef will make, you'll probably be able to handle it just fine. Creme brulee does take a little time, but it's largely unattended time. So you can be doing other stuff at the same time, or make the custard ahead and burn the sugar under the broiler in about 5 minutes right before you're ready to serve.

So, have fun with this one. And I won't even tell you what my new calorie counting app says is in this little indulgence...

Maple Crème Brulee

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
3 large egg yolks
1/3 cup maple syrup
4 tsp maple sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 325° F

2) Put the cream and vanilla into a small pan and, stirring occasionally, cook over medium high heat until the cream just starts to bubble.

3) In a medium bowl, beat the egg, egg yolks and maple syrup with a whisk until even. While whisking, slowly pour the hot cream into the egg mixture. Strain the egg and cream mixture into a large measuring cup with a spout (at least four cups).

4) Place the ramekins into a casserole dish and place the whole dish on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Pour the cream and egg mixture into each ramekin (it should just fill the ramekin). Then pour enough hot tap water into the casserole dish, so that the water reaches halfway up the side of the ramekins. Bake the custards in the water bath for about 40 minutes or until the custards still quivers when shaken, but has no liquid beneath the skin. Cool the custards in the fridge for 1 hour to three days.

6) When the custards are cool, turn on your oven broiler and evenly spread 1 tsp of maple sugar over each custard and place the custards on a cookie sheet. Move the oven rack to the highest location in the oven and put the sheet of custards under the broiler. The sugar will take about 5 minutes to burn, although broilers vary widely in intensity, so keep a careful eye on the crème brulees. The crème brulee is done when the maple sugar is a mix of light brown and black. Quick cool the crème brulees in the fridge for about one minute and then serve immediately.

Roasted Horseradish Potatoes

2012-03-02T00:58:55Z

This recipe came to mind originally as a parsnip dish. The sweetness of the parsnip plus the bite of the horseradish just sounded right to me. So, on batch one I peeled and sliced the parsnips into french fry sized pieces, and tossed them all in olive oil, spices and horseradish. While I like the sinus crushing power of fresh horseradish, I know most people prefer a slightly mellower flavor, so I kept the horseradish to just a mere tablespoon. Because I usually put horseradish in dips and spreads (or pair it with something sharp like vinegar or mustard), I hadn't realized how much horseradish mellows in the oven. So, while batch one made some tasty parsnips, the horseradish wasn't even noticeable.

While I still think that this dish would taste great with parsnips (or sweet potatoes), I used up all my parsnips on batch one and was obliged to move on to potatoes. It was a good move, because batch two was mighty tasty (even the leftovers taste good with ketchup and mustard, as the empty bowl next to my computer can attest to). The horseradish definitely comes through in this variation, but could even stand to take more horseradish, if you are inclined toward mighty flavors.

Roasted Horseradish Potatoes

6 large red potatoes (about 3 lbs)
4 tbs jarred horseradish
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme

1) Preheat your oven to 450° F. Oil a large baking sheet pan.

2) Chop the potatoes (skin on) into roughly equal bite sized pieces. Mix in a large bowl with the rest of the ingredients

3) Spread potatoes out on the prepared pan and roast for 20-30 minutes, until fork tender. Enjoy!

Valentine's Day Garlic Soup

2012-02-10T02:36:35Z

I have spent far more Valentine’s Days on the single front than I have entwined in a couple, so when I was tasked with creating a Valentine’s Day themed recipe for the Montpelier Farmers Market newsletter, I had to spend a little time thinking about what this holiday meant to me. I never been much of a subscriber to the belief that you have to celebrate Valentine’s Day with pink hearts and squishy-wishy tweddy bwears. To me Valentine’s Day is about celebrating all the good stuff about the relationship you are in. Kind of like Mother’s Day for love. I also think that V-Day should be about you and your better half, so folks outside of the pair shouldn’t get a say (kind of like gay marriage, really).

We’re often taught what are appropriate date foods and what aren’t. Foods that are messy, need your hands, make your breath smell or make you fart are all out. But, to me, Valentine’s Day isn’t about dating, it’s about your coupledom, so if you and your partner like to get messy with your hands or don’t mind life’s odors, you should do what makes your pair happy. I love garlic, my man loves garlic, and when I suggested this dish to my man he quickly texted back “Yes please.” Since ours were the only opinions that mattered, I decided to give us mutually sweet breath with this sublime soup. One of my favorite parts about this soup (besides its taste) is the one cup of wine. The two of you can finish off the rest of the bottle together to get a head start on this holiday that’s as lovely as the one you love.

Valentine’s Day Garlic Soup

3 small yellow onions
3 medium heads of garlic (about 3.5 oz, unpeeled)
1 tbs fresh rosemary (or dried, if preferred)
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup white wine
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 oz chevre (optional)

1) Peel, halve and then slice the onions (slicing from pole to pole, rather than across the center produces onion slices that hold their structure better in a soup). Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Finely chop the rosemary.

2) Add the onions, garlic, rosemary, olive oil and salt to a large saucepan and sauté over medium high heat, stirring often, until the onion has started to brown. Add the wine to the pot, reduce heat to medium and cook for about 5 minutes, until onion and garlic have softened. Add the broth to the pot and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and portion into bowl. Add a 1/2 oz dollop of chevre to each bowl of soup, if you’d like. Enjoy!

Thinking Outside the Bordeaux

2012-01-20T12:55:52Z

Another article I wrote for Local Banquet. Aiming to aggregate my articles all in one place!

http://www.localbanquet.com/issues/years/2011/Fall11/fruitwines_f11.html