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Spicy Leek and Roasted Pepper Soup

This was the result of a "how do I cook everything in my fridge at once?" exercise.  Tasty and malleable, I'll be doing something like this again very soon.

Spicy Leek and Roasted Pepper Soup

two green and one red bell pepper, cut into strips

1-2 jalapeno peppers, cut into strips

3 small-medium leeks, trimmed, washed

half of a medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, sliced or crushed

Turn your oven or toaster oven to 400.  Toss the peppers with some olive oil and course salt, arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet/in a pyrex and roast until the skins just start to blister.  We don't really want char.  I forget how long this took.  15 minutes, maybe?  Keep an eye on em.

While the peppers are roasting, add a tablespoon of butter to a saucepan (or sub oil to make the recipe vegan).  Saute leeks, onions, and garlic until the onions and leeks are soft.  Add these items and all of your green pepper strips to a blender, and puree til smooth.  Add this mix back to the saucepan and throw in the red pepper strips whole.  Simmer and taste, you might want more salt.  If I make this again I'll probably try it with some lime zest.  It's a really nice starter recipe for almost anything, I think.  The base could take just about any addition of veggie or chicken, if that's your inclination.  Also, I made mine extra spicy (act surprised) and had four jalapenos in there, two of them seeded.  So ratchet the jalapeno use to your spice liking.

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Beet Green Bruschetta

This recipe was borne of necessity.  A certain friend of mine* doesn't eat hummus or guacamole (no obstacle to friendship is insurmountable, kids) and I didn't want his unfortunate picnic disability to keep him from some al fresco snacking.  This is tasty and pretty, and super simple.

Beet Green Bruschetta

1/2 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, diced

1/4 cup diced fresh fennel (opt)

one bunch of beet greens (from 3-5 beets) washed and chopped, stems separated from leaves

one medium tomato or a handful of grape tomatoes

black pepper, salt

Heat some olive oil in a pan on medium-low heat, add onions, saute til translucent.  Add garlic, saute another few minutes before you add the stems of your beet greens (and fennel if you have it).  This can cook over low heat with occasional stirring until the onions and garlic start to brown.  It's even ok to wait til things are sticking to the bottom of the pan, a little.  This is when you add your diced tomato (or quartered if you're using grape tomatoes).  Stirring constantly as the tomato heats will allow the liquid from the tomato to deglaze the pan, making for a richer dish.  Add in your chopped beet green leaves and incorporate them well, they should wilt nicely.  Add some cracked pepper and a dash of salt.  Cook everything just long enough now to reduce the amount of liquid in the pan so you don't soak the bread you spread it on.  I like it with some hard cheese shaved on top, asiago (pictured) or grana padano or parmesan.  You could probably add a few diced olives in there, too (and skip the salt).  Next time...

*Addn'l detail: This friend recommended I call this food item "Boomschetta, cause that shit was DOPE."  

[csacounterintelligence]

Sungold Tomato Sauce

And they said it couldn't be done.  Most sauces are annoying cause you have to skin the tomatoes, but I sure as hell* wasn't going to skin a hundred baby tomates, so instead we have this.  Basically, this works if you like chunky sauce and tomato skins don't bother you.  And it works well.  I had an overabundance of yellow grape tomatoes from my most recent CSA pickup, as well as a bunch of other relevant items, and I thought about how opening your freezer to summer tomato sauce in the fall is kind of the best, so I'm gonna do it.  You can, too!

Sungold Tomato Sauce

1lb sungold cherry tomatoes

1 head garlic

1 onion

2 stalks celery

1 green pepper

2 small carrots

1/4c basil leaves

herbs de provence

salt n pepa

First!  Oven or toaster oven to 400.  Drizzle garlic cloves (skin on) with olive oil, double wrap in foil, and stick in there.  Cut all your tomatoes in half and fill a little pyrex (or whatever you wanna roast em in) and toss with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.  These went into the 400 degree oven for something like twenty minutes.  they start looking like this:

and when they're done they'll look like this:

The garlic is done when you squeeze the foil (which will be hot, remember) and it's soft, 40ish minutes.

Everything else (onion, carrots, pepper, celery) gets chopped finely and put in a pan with 1-2T olive oil until the carrots are tender enough for a food processor.  Add the basil and herbs a few minutes before transferring the vegetable mixture and roasted garlic to a cuisinart.  Blend!

Then put it all in a saucepan to combine!  End result:

Top photo is with pasta and kale!  So easy, I made it twice.  

*This idiom is especially apt, as hell isn't sure, and I'm prone to taking on needlessly time consuming and tedious projects.  This time I didn't.

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Cilantro Lime Potato Salad

This.  Rocks.  I hate mayo, so I wanted a vinegar-based recipe for potato salad.  But instead of doing a traditional German version with parsley, I wanted to use the cilantro I'd gotten from my CSA.  Lime juice, vinegar, vegan Mexican Chipotle sausage instead of bacon?  Yes.

Cilantro Lime Potato Salad

3c sliced potatoes

half a medium onion, diced

two cloves garlic, sliced

half a link of Mexican Chipotle vegan sausage

1T butter/oil

juice of one lime

2T white vinegar

2T water

2T fresh cilantro

Boil potatoes (quartered, sliced, however you want it to look) for about ten minutes, or until just fork tender.  Drain and place in a cold water bath so they don't overcook.  

Brown "sausage" in a skillet and set aside, letting it cool.  Add 1T of oil/butter to the pan and saute onions until just browned.  Add garlic and stir for a minute.  Add lime juice, vinegar, and water, bring to a boil.  Let the liquid reduce by half, then add your potatoes and chopped cilantro and combine thoroughly.  Crumble or dice the sausage and add that in, as well.

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Strawberry Vinaigrette

We got fresh, local, delicious, adorable strawberries in my last CSA distribution.  I blended six of them with a few tablespoons of avocado oil, a couple tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar, some purple basil leaves, and some ground green pepper.  Loving it.

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Asparagus and Carrot Fried Pancake

I'm not totally sure why I thought to make this.  I was trying to think of something different to do with asparagus.  Grill for salads?  Saute for an egg scramble?  Then I remembered one of my breakfasts in California this March, when I had a perfect potato pancake with a sunny-side egg and delicious green mole.  I got out my grater and some veggies.

Last week was my first CSA distribution for the 2012 summer season (!!) so instead of buying groceries I looked to the contents of my full fridge.  One large white carrot and three large stalks of asparagus formed the substance of the mix, with some garlic chives for good measure.  I had some Citrus and Garlic Chive Dressing made earlier this week, which perfectly completed the salad.

Asparagus and Carrot Fried Pancake

one large carrot

three large asparagus stalks

a few garlic chives

one egg

shpices

2T coconut oil

Grate the carrot and asparagus into a bowl, use kitchen shears to cut in a dice of garlic chives.  Pro-tip: knuckles are not grate-proof.  Add some spices you have lying around.  I think I added cayenne, paprika, CHILI 3000 "The Now Chili" (no joke), and a dash of herbs de provence for no good reason.  A pinch of salt, also.  Whisk egg in a separate bowl and add to the carrot/asparagus mixture.  Heat a nonstick pan and add 1T coconut oil.  I made four palm-sized pancakes, and felt I needed to add a little more oil when I turned them.  My friend and breakfast chef in Cali gave me the tip that coconut oil helps to make a nice crust when you fry.  And it did!

I'm maybe a little too pleased with myself over this one.  You should try it.

[csacounterintelligence]

Citrus and Garlic Chive Dressing

This week marks the beginning of Salad Season.  I'm excited.  Really!  For this dressing I used about 2T orange juice, 2T grapefruit juice, 1/4c walnut oil, 1T diced garlic chives, 1t apple cider vinegar, a pinch of salt, and a couple dashes of paprika.  If you have an immersion blender, whip it out!

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Spicy Spanishish Rice with Grilled Shrimp

One night I had a dream that I was making rice and then I had all these tomatoes and I chopped them up and added them in and the liquid from the tomatoes made the rice delicious and somehow the tomato skins weren't annoying (which is how you know it's a dream, cause in real life that shiz would drive me crazy) and when I woke up I thought "I'll make paella for my roommate's birthday dinner party!  Kind of!"  And that is how it happened.  I present to you, a lazy man's version of something that is reminiscent of paella.

Spicy Spanishish Rice with Grilled Shrimp

2T olive oil

Two (2) links vegan Mexican Chipotle sausage, sliced

one large onion

Two (2) cloves garlic

Two (2) cups rice

one 28oz can whole tomatoes (I used San Marzano) crushed by hand (fun!  it is recommended that you remove your shirt)

Three (3) cups water, or so

cumin

chili powder

cayenne pepper

black pepper

salt

Heat the oil in the biggest pan you have.  Heat sausage through until just about browned.  Add onions and garlic to sweat for a few minutes.  Add rice to the pan and stir to coat with oil/toast mildly, not more than a minute.  Add a cup of water, liquid from the canned tomatoes, and stir well, making sure nothing's sticking to the pan.  Crush the tomatoes by hand!  This is fun and messy.  Don't overthink it.  Add in all your spices (save the salt for the end) and add water (or stock?) til the rice is covered.  Hopefully your rice is cooked in about fifteen minutes!  Salt needed will depend on the "meat" you use.  Mine was pretty spicy/salty to begin with.

I made the rice a day in advance, and heated it as I grilled the shrimp.  Winner.

[csacounterintelligence]

Summer Citrus Salad

This is one my mom used to make all the time in warmer months.  It's a refreshing delicious salad, very pretty, and super simple.  Fresh, juicy grapefruit and tangelos (or oranges, or cara cara?) are complimented by mild avocado and crunchy candied pecans.

Summer Citrus Salad

This is more about assembly than anything else.  I used a head of lettuce, one avocado, two small oranges, one medium grapefruit, and a cupful of candied pecans.  I've used a bunch of methods for candying pecans, but this time it was a sugar and egg white mixture with chili powder, cayenne, and cinnamon.  Enjoy!

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Lunch!  vegan chipotle sausage and spinach cooked in a reduced carrot soup with pecans over crisp batard

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recipe and a history lesson!  this dude scott is pretty sweet.  i'm hungry.  i just found a reblog button.  result:

Fried Pizza - The Perfect Food?

Montanara at Forcella in NYC.

Yes, you read that correctly. Fried pizza is real and it’s comin’ to getcha. Imagine a sweet, innocent pizza walking home one night only to be cornered in a dark alley by a dangerous deep fryer. Sounds terrifying, but the confrontation actually results in a flavor mashup the likes of which few tongues have ever tasted. It combines the danger of oil with the familiarity of typical pizza toppings. New York pizza is currently experiencing its first real dose of the deep fryer, but what exactly is it and where does it come from?

I became a big proponent of fryers when I bought one in college. We had parties on Friday nights in which friends would bring over anything they wanted to fry. Yes, we did call it FriedDay. People brought anything from chicken and fish to cookies and Hostess cupcakes. We formulated different batters for sweet and savory items and eventually bought a second fryer to accommodate both genre. Come to think of it, I don’t remember cooking anything else when I was in college - those fryers were pretty much it!

Suffice it to say, I was into frying almost as much as I was into pizza. So when my friend Jeff called me in 2003 to tell me there was a place doing deep-fried pizza in Brooklyn, I jumped on a train from New Jersey and met him at Chip Shop in Park Slope. What we got was a lackluster slice from the pizzeria across the street battered abused by the deep fryer. We could still taste the briny residue from the day’s orders of fish and chips. It was totally gross.

New York Post article about Forcell’s Montanara. The media loves it.

Luckily, the fried pizza hitting NYC today is a completely different animal. I remember hearing about it from Keste’s Roberto Caporuscio, but Giulio Adriani was the first to pull it off at his Williamsburg pizzeria Forcella. The process begins with a stretched piece of dough, opened in the same way a dough would be stretched for pizza. The one major difference is that the dough is punctured at several spots inside the outer rim. This “docking” process eliminates gas pockets that would normally expand when met with extreme heat. The dough is then placed into the deep fryer, where it puffs up and forms a bread bowl that is both light and crispy. After pulling the dough out and drying it for a few seconds, toppings are applied and the whole thing slides into the oven in a small metal dish so the oily dough doesn’t make contact with the brick hearth and send smoke throughout the space. After a quick dip into the oven, the cheese is melted and the sauce is cooked. The result is a complete departure from pizza baked solely inside an oven.

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Borscht!

Real talk: borscht is delicious.  When I was a kid my dad would buy beet soup.  It came in a jar like juice does, and I knew it was disgusting cause we all know that soup comes in cans and is never purple.  One helpful reviewer on epicurious.com suggested that since beet soup is gross you should just try minestrone, instead.  I suggest that we all remember that I was an idiot when I was a kid, and also that we read fewer "comments" on websites in 2012.

With borscht you can go Whole Hog (which would require beef, actually) or you can do it this way.  Much faster; fewer cows.  I'm sure it's not *quite* as good as your Ukrainian gramma used to make, but you don't even have one of those, so shut it.  Also.  I made like a gallon and a half of the stuff, most of it is in my freezer.  If you didn't just pick up 20lbs of veggies/you don't have eleven children to feed you can safely cut these proportions in half.

Borscht

3T olive oil

1 1/2lb potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 1/2c chopped green cabbage (I used savoy cabbage, great texture)

1 large onion, chopped

6-8c broth/stock of choice (I used a beef base for more "authentic" "flavor" but if you have a favorite just throw it in there--but not yet! we haven't started)

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

4 large (3" diameter) beets, peeled and chopped

1c drained chopped canned tomatoes

1t cracked pepper

a lemon or two

Fage yogurt (or sour cream...if you're into that sort of thing)

Heat oil briefly in large(st soup pot you have) over medium heat.  Add potatoes, cabbage, and onion, stirring while the cabbage softens (5-10min).  Add beets, carrots, tomatoes, pepper, and stock.  I like thick soups, so I added stock just to the level of the veggies in the pot.  You can do the same for now.  The choose your own adventure part comes in a minute.  Bring the pot to a boil, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer til the veggies are all tender, a half hour or longer.

When everything is cooked through, blend four cups of the soup and then return the puree to the pot.  If the whole thing looks too thick to you, add some broth/stock a little at a time.  Stir in 1-2T fresh lemon juice, add a dollop of greek yogurt, and voila!  Something tasty.  

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Pasta with Carrot Sauce and Roasted Asparagus

Delicious cold weather pasta!  The sauce was pretty easy to make, and very tasty.  A great way to finish off the bag of carrots otherwise wasting away in the drawer of the fridge.

Pasta with Carrot Sauce and Roasted Asparagus

For Sauce:

1/2 onion, diced

6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped

3-4 sundried tomatoes, sliced

1T olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves

1t salt

1t cracked pepper

1/2t herbs de provence

parmesan rind

3/4c white wine

1/4c coconut milk (or real milk or heavy cream)

The rest:

1lb pasta

1 bunch asparagus spears

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add onions and saute until soft.  Add sliced carrots and sweet potato, cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add sliced sundried tomatoes, pressed garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs (I gave an extra shake of thyme for good measure), and stir til combined.  Add parmesan rind and wine, reduce heat, and cover.  I made sure the rind was sitting atop a couple carrot slices so I wouldn't have a cheesy block stuck to the pan, later.  Cook until potato and carrots are well done.  Remove rind and transfer to food processor or blender with milk (or "milk") and puree.  You can adjust this liquid level if need be (blender requires more liquid) with more "milk" (or milk) or vegetable stock.  Or water.  Or wine.

Cut the woody ends off of the asparagus.  Drizzle asparagus with olive oil and coat.  Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet, dust with salt and pepper.  Roast 15-20 min at 400.

Boil pasta like you're supposed to.  Drain, but save a cup of the cooking water (this will be Too Much).  Add carrot sauce to pasta in a large bowl and toss, adding cooking water if needed/til the pasta is evenly coated.  Add your (now chopped) roasted asparagus, and serve with grated parm and...chopped toasted almonds?  Yes.

[csacounterintelligence]

Home Fries+

These are pretty.  And sweet!  And spicy!  Found an errant beet and sweet potato, and made breakfast.  More color = better.  All the time.  I dunno if this qualifies as a recipe post or a gloat post, but here it is.

Home Fries+

1 small onion

5 keuka gold potatoes

1 sweet potato

1 beet

three jalapenos (I seeded half of them)

three or four sundried tomatoes

a clove of garlic

Sauteed onion a few minutes, added sliced potatoes and beet cooked over medium heat, pan covered for a few minutes, stirred every so often so that most things had a chance to brown a little.  Added soy sauce (1t, 2t?) heat on low, and covered so that the potatoes could cook.  Added sliced jalapenos, sundried tomato chiffonade, pressed garlic, sauteed with heat a little higher and then done.

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Broiled Tomato Sandwich with Roasted Garlic Gravy

God, I love breakfast.  I hope this feeling never goes away.  

Step one: Delicious Bread Alone nine grain bread, a fresh, sweet, mildly tart tomato sliced thin (courtesy of the one and only Jesse, thanks!) and a toaster oven.  Step two: This roasted garlic vegetable gravy is my fave, and it's totally worth it to make the stock from scratch.  Huge difference.  You could cut the soy sauce down a mite if you usually skimp on salt.  Pro tip: don't start making the gravy when you're hungry for breakfast.  Also great on biscuits.  And we'll find out in a few days, but I think it'll be good on IKEA meatballs.

[csacounterintelligence]

PDG Cookies

I'm just gonna come right out and say it: these cookies are pretty damn good.  I found a sugar cookie recipe online and then I...didn't really follow it.  I mean, I kind of did.  I had all this bosc pear/black tea puree in my freezer left over from the summer (don't we all?) so I replaced half of the butter in the recipe with that (much like people use applesauce in place of shortening) and then I discovered that the all-purpose flour situation in my kitchen was dire, so...well, that also got a tweak.

PDG Cookies

1c all-purpose flour

1c wheat flour

3/4c unsweetened finely shredded reduced fat coconut (that you have in your pantry cause of that caramel bread pudding with jameson sauce you made two years ago that called for, like, 1/4c of the stuff...)

1t baking soda

1/2t baking powder

1/2c butter, softened

1/2c pear puree (or applesauce, more likely)

1 1/2c sugar

1 egg

1t vanilla

cinnamon

Turn your oven on to 350, if you please.  In a small bowl, combine flours, unsweetened coconut (mine actually says "finely shredded for baking" on the package), baking powder, baking soda, and some amount of cinnamon if you're feeling randy.  In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar.  Add applesauce and mix well.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  Mix the dry ingredients in a little at a time.  I decided to leave out about a quarter cup of the dry ingredients, cause I thought the cookie dough looked done, so pay attention to the texture you're getting as you blend.  We've all eaten raw cookie dough before, I think you can figure out when it looks right (if you're not sure, use your gut--literally).

I dropped smallish spoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet.  About ten minutes in I sprinkled the top with cinnamon and sugar (easiest if you have a dedicated shaker for it, like every home I have ever lived/will ever live in) and then put them back in for a few minutes.  Take them out when the bottom starts to brown.  They stay soft and um, awesome.  Several of the other CSA volunteers last night went to far as to call them "perfect" so...you know.  That's all.

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The Kipling

Born of a combination of neglect, inspiration, obsession, and convenience:  my new favorite fancy-ass bourbon thing.  Basil, ginger, curry, bourbon, and pear come together to create a sweet/spicy/herbal cordial that I'm gonna hold onto for a while.

The Kipling

To make individually: 

Add to a cup several fresh basil leaves and a dash of curry powder.  Muddle to bruise the leaves, but not to shred them.  Add 1-2 teaspoons of ginger syrup (my obsession: The Ginger People's organic syrup), 2oz bourbon (I used Evan Williams, i don't think you need to get too highbrow), 4-6oz pear juice, and shake.  Shaking helps to incorporate the syrup and also reduce the thickness of the pear juice, which can sometimes be a little...heavy.  Sometimes icemelt is functional!  You might want more syrup than that, or less, depending on how much you like ginger, how sweet the pear juice you're using is, and probably other reasons as well.

The Kipling Party Kit:

2T ginger syrup, 1/2t curry powder, some basil leaves (I bruised them between finger and thumb), and 8oz of bourbon.  Shake it up a little, and stick in the fridge overnight.  Bring to party with a bottle of pear juice.  Best to shake each one for reasons of texture and the sometimes reluctant miscibility of liquids of different densities, etc, but lack of a shaker during my experimental phase didn't reduce individual consumer enjoyment as far as this lady could tell.

Note: I hate posting flash photos, but now that it's basically dark by 4pm it would probably bode poorly for my mental health if I were taking photos of bourbon cocktail creation sessions in broad daylight.  Alone.  In my apartment.  So, be heartened by my crappy photo.  And go make this!

PS: props to Kimi for the name.  I'm terrible with names.

PPS: The first time I made this, it was with homemade bosc juice, and I used black tea to blend the pears before straining, but at that point the curry powder wasn't part of the equation.  I might add tea back in next time to see what happens.  Tea infusions are easy: Two or three tea bags in a liter bottle of high proof liquor for two hours, pour into a different container rather than squeezing the tea bags out of the bottle to avoid some bitterness.