Thursday, January 24, 2013

Black Bean Edamame

Last summer we grew and froze about 20 quart size bags of edamame.  They are one of my favorite things from the garden and every now and then I like to spice them up.  Although they are super yummy with just a bit of salt too...

This recipe was inspired from a much more difficult recipe on Food 52, but I changed it a bit to make it simple and quick.  I gave it a 9/10 for flavor but 5/10 for presentation.  I think next time I will only do this with shelled beans because it is a little hard to eat this way.  Oh well, licking the sauce off my fingers was fun too.


Ingredients:
1 pound edamame, shelled or not
3 tsp black bean garlic sauce, from the Asian food section at my local grocery store
3 green onions
pinch ground ginger
2 Tbsp OJ
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
zest of one orange


 Steam your edamame for a couple minutes in salted water.  Then drain and let dry about 5 minutes.
While draining combine the black bean sauce, onions diced, and ginger in a small bowl and stir.  In another small bowl combine the rest of the ingredients.

Heat a wok on med high heat and toss in your edamame.  When they start to blister toss in the black bean sauce mix and stir for 1 minute.  Add in your liquid ingredients and stir until a glaze has formed and there is little juice left in the pan.







Enjoy with a napkin.


I wish you enough.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Salmon Rillettes

This month I am participating in a virtual cookbook book club called Cook the Books.   The ladies at Grow and Resist and Oh, Briggsy are hosting a year long cookbook challenge.  So each month they picked a different book and a bunch of people will cook things and post blogs about them as well as reviews of the books.

January's book is Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  I am usually hesitant to look at french cook books because there are always hard to find ingredients and the techniques take to long for me right now.  This book is wonderful.  Ms. Greenspan includes recipes and stories that are simple, tasty and quick.  I made a pumpkin flan, and plan to make pissaladiere (onion anchovy pizza), salmon rillettes, tuna confit with black olive tapenade, and possible a fresh orange pork loin.  Stay tuned... I won't post these recipes to honor copyrights but if you're interested you should totally check the book out at your local library.


This morning I hosted a brunch and served this and....

What can I say besides super delicious!?! This spread made with wine poached salmon, smoked salmon, butter, lemon and spices was a total hit and will definitely be made again.  It literally took me 10 minutes to make.  I substituted the red chile pepper with a dash of cayenne in the poaching liquid and a diced red bell pepper in the spread.





The adapted recipe:
1 lb salmon steak, skinned and cubed
4 oz smoked salmon
pinch of cayenne
1/2 c. dry white wine
1/2 c water
small piece of lemon peel
zest and juice of one lemon
5 coriander seeds
diced red bell pepper
2 Tbsp butter, room temp
dash of pepper
salt

1.  Boil wine, water, piece of lemon peel, coriander, and cayenne for 5 minutes, covered.  Drop cubed salmon into liquid and poach for one minute.  Drain and remove lemon peel and coriander seeds. 
2.  Place poached salmon in a bowl and lightly mash.  Then add smoked salmon, bell pepper, and butter and stir to combine.  Once combined add lemon zest and half of the lemon juice.  
3. Decide whether or not to add rest of lemon juice based on flavor and season with salt and pepper as needed.  
4.  Pack rillettes into a jar or a bowl making sure to press down firmly.  This should be kind of thick once it's done.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to overnight.  It won't last once you take it out of the fridge but just in case I would eat it within 3 days.


At the brunch we feasted on this salmon dish on top of toasted english muffins.

I wish you enough!

Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan


This month I am participating in a virtual cookbook book club called Cook the Books.   The ladies at Grow and Resist and Oh, Briggsy are hosting a year long cookbook challenge.  So each month they picked a different book and a bunch of people will cook things and post blogs about them as well as reviews of the books.

January's book is Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  I am usually hesitant to look at french cook books because there are always hard to find ingredients and the techniques take to long for me right now.  This book is wonderful.  Ms. Greenspan includes recipes and stories that are simple, tasty and quick.  I made a pumpkin flan, and plan to make pissaladiere (onion anchovy pizza), salmon rillettes, tuna confit with black olive tapenade, and possible a fresh orange pork loin.  Stay tuned.....

I started with a Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan (pg 146):







The recipe is simple: mix some eggs, cream and pumpkin together.  Season and top with Gorgonzola Cheese and bake in a water bath.  I didn't have a can of pumpkin and was not going back to the store.  But I just happen to have a butternut squash in the basement from the garden this year.  So I roasted and pureed it first.  I think this would only take about 8 minutes to make if you used canned pumpkin, but the butternut was also super yummy.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Pissaladiere

This month I am participating in a virtual cookbook book club called Cook the Books.   The ladies at Grow and Resist and Oh, Briggsy are hosting a year long cookbook challenge.  So each month they picked a different book and a bunch of people will cook things and post blogs about them as well as reviews of the books.

January's book is Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  I am usually hesitant to look at french cook books because there are always hard to find ingredients and the techniques take to long for me right now.  This book is wonderful.  Ms. Greenspan includes recipes and stories that are simple, tasty and quick.  I made a pumpkin flan, and plan to make pissaladiere (onion anchovy pizza), salmon rillettes, tuna confit with black olive tapenade, and possible a fresh orange pork loin.  Stay tuned.....



Next up was the Pissaladiere (pg45):














This is basically a caramelized onion pizza with anchovies.  The dough is a basic pizza dough and is very good and fairly quick from start to finish, about an hour.  I would definitely use this crust again.  So to make the pizza you caramelize onions with some thyme and bay leaves and then stir in some chopped anchovies and bake.  The recipe calls for anchovies on top too but I learned through making this that I don't particularly like anchovies like I thought I would.


After I made this and didn't like the anchovy flavor I picked them all off.  Then I made a reduced balsamic vinegar glaze to drizzle on the pizza.  This wasn't a favorite in my house but to those who love anchovies it is a wonderful recipe.





Stay tuned for more from Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table.

I wish you enough!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Cook the Books: Around My French Table

This month I am participating in a virtual cookbook book club called Cook the Books.   The ladies at Grow and Resist and Oh, Briggsy are hosting a year long cookbook challenge.  So each month they picked a different book and a bunch of people will cook things and post blogs about them as well as reviews of the books.

January's book is Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  I am usually hesitant to look at french cook books because there are always hard to find ingredients and the techniques take to long for me right now.  This book is wonderful.  Ms. Greenspan includes recipes and stories that are simple, tasty and quick.  I made a pumpkin flan, and plan to make pissaladiere (onion anchovy pizza), salmon rillettes, tuna confit with black olive tapenade, and possible a fresh orange pork loin.  Stay tuned..... I won't post these recipes to honor copyrights but if you're interested you should totally check the book out at your local library.

Here is the rundown of what I actually accomplished.  But I think I'll keep this book around for a bit to try some more.

I started with a Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan (pg 146):







The recipe is simple: mix some eggs, cream and pumpkin together.  Season and top with Gorgonzola Cheese and bake in a water bath.  I didn't have a can of pumpkin and was not going back to the store.  But I just happen to have a butternut squash in the basement from the garden this year.  So I roasted and pureed it first.  I think this would only take about 8 minutes to make if you used canned pumpkin, but the butternut was also super yummy.

Next up was the Pissaladiere (pg45):















This is basically a caramelized onion pizza with anchovies.  The dough is a basic pizza dough and is very good and fairly quick from start to finish, about an hour.  I would definitely use this crust again.  So to make the pizza you caramelize onions with some thyme and bay leaves and then stir in some chopped anchovies and bake.  The recipe calls for anchovies on top too but I learned through making this that I don't particularly like anchovies like I thought I would.


After I made this and didn't like the anchovy flavor I picked them all off.  Then I made a reduced balsamic vinegar glaze to drizzle on the pizza.  This wasn't a favorite in my house but to those who love anchovies it is a wonderful recipe.



This morning for a brunch I made Salmon Rillettes (p. 26):

What can I say besides super delicious!?! This spread made with wine poached salmon, smoked salmon, butter, lemon and spices was a total hit and will definitely be made again.  It literally took me 10 minutes to make.  I substituted the red chile pepper with a dash of cayenne in the poaching liquid and a diced red bell pepper in the spread.






At the brunch we feasted on this salmon dish on top of toasted english muffins.  Muy bueno!


Stay tuned for more from Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table.

I wish you enough!