Thursday, August 27, 2015

Roasted Summer Veggies & Jalapeno-Bacon-Cheddar Grits

More eggplant this week! No PRO-blem! For the veggies, use whatever assortment you have. It'll be delicious. I used our CSA eggplant, green peppers, garlic and tomatoes, plus half a large onion. Chickpeas would be good if you want some more protein (or a fried egg on top, which I think I'll do with the leftovers for breakfast), but it's pretty filling already. I sort of wished this was a little saucier but it was good as-is. For the grits, use quick-cooking if you want (and leave out bacon and/or dairy if you want), but the old-fashioned stone-ground kind are delicious if you have the time. Or use polenta, same concept. I think I'm down to two out of the 10 or so jalapenos we got last week. It's been a spicy week.

Jalapeno-Bacon-Cheddar Grits:
(start these first if using the stone-ground kind)
- Boil 6 cups water in a large, heavy pot. Add some salt.
- Lower heat to medium and pour in 1 1/2 cups of stone-ground grits. Whisk well.
- Cook for about 20 minutes, whisking occasionally. Add 1-2 minced jalapenos* and turn the heat down to low.
- After 30-40 minutes total the grits should be thickened & smooth. Add a couple pats of butter and a splash of half & half.
- Add some grated cheddar cheese and some diced cooked bacon (2 strips)
* if you have the patience to roast jalapenos, that would be tasty - add at the end instead. 

Roasted Summer Veggies:
- Heat oven to 450.
- Cut vegetables into similar-sized 1-inch-ish pieces: eggplant, peppers, onions, squash, etc.
- Toss veggies in a bowl with some minced garlic, 3 tablespoons olive oil, salt & pepper and whatever other spices you want.
- Spread on a baking sheet and roast for about 15 minutes.
- Stir veggies and add a couple of tomatoes, cut into large chunks.
- Roast for another few minutes.
- Tear some fresh basil over the top and serve the veggies over the grits.
Pre-roasted veggies

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Cantaloupe-Cucumber Salsa & Spice-Rubbed London Broil

I've never made either of these things before but I thought they would go together well for a potluck I was attending, and the salsa made good use of the cantaloupe, jalapenos and tomato from our last CSA haul. The salsa was good, but the London Broil was GREAT, and I should remember this for the future. It was really easy and not expensive (under $7 and would probably make 4-6 dinner servings), and disappeared pretty quickly at the party. I think more people ate the salsa with chips than with the meat, but it's good with chips too. Also over eggs the next morning.

Cantaloupe-Cucumber Salsa
The essentials in this (according to most recipes online) are the cantaloupe, lime juice, onion, jalapeno and cilantro - but the other veggies are good in it as well.
- Dice half a red onion and add to a bowl with the juice of 1 lime while you prepare the other ingredients (I have a theory this starts pickling/mellowing the raw onion; not sure if that's true but go for it...)
- Cut half a cantaloupe into small cubes and add to the bowl. Dice finely and add: 1-2 jalapenos, seeded* (two made it fairly spicy), half a red bell pepper, 1 large cucumber (seeded), 1 large tomato (if in-season and awesome, otherwise don't bother), and about half a bunch of cilantro. Season with salt and toss well.
*I put a plastic produce bag over one hand when I cut/seed jalapenos to prevent the Dreaded Burning.

Spice-Rubbed London Broil
I've seen recipes for coffee-rubbed steak and thought that might be good, but I only mixed a little finely ground coffee in with this to keep it subtle. 'Twas delicious; coffee's probably optional. I did not measure the spices but there was probably about 2 Tablespoons of the rub total. Use whatever floats your boat. I'm sure this would be good on the grill too, but it's easy in the broiler.
- Take yer London Broil out of the fridge. Might be sold as "top round" depending on the store. I think my piece was between 1-1.5 lbs.
- Mix together the spice rub. I used cumin, smoked paprika, a garlic-onion blend, chili powder and kosher salt. Optional - add a teaspoon or so of finely ground coffee beans.
- Coat the meat with a little bit of olive oil and rub the rub on both sides. Let sit while you preheat the broiler. 
- Preheat your oven's broiler and a broiler pan (or baking sheet with a rack on it).
- Put steak on the pan and broil for 5 minutes on each side which should hopefully be a perfect medium rare.
- Let sit for 10 minutes and slice thinly against the grain.


Friday, August 14, 2015

Beef & Eggplant Stew with Spinach-Feta Couscous & Yogurt Sauce

This was an experiment, but turned out delicious! Wanted to try something different with eggplant and I had some ground beef in the freezer, so I googled "beef eggplant" and kind of improvised this from several recipes I found. Sorta Greek, sorta middle easternish. The eggplant isn't very forthright in this, so if you're not a big eggplant fan, you'll probably like it. Besides 1/2 of a large eggplant, the other CSA veggies were garlic, jalapeno, green pepper, tomatoes and chives. If you'd like the beef mixture to be a little saucier, you could add a can of tomato sauce.

Beef & Eggplant Stew:
- 1 onion, chopped finely
- 1/2 large eggplant (or 1 medium), cut in small cubes
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced (save a little bit for the yogurt sauce)
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 2 tsp Penzey's Turkish Blend (or cumin & oregano)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- splash of red wine 
- 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped

In a large skillet, saute onion in olive oil until soft. Add eggplant, season with salt and cook over medium-high heat until eggplant browns & softens. Remove mixture to a plate. Cook ground beef in same pan until no longer pink. If there's a lot of fat, spoon off some of it. Add garlic, jalapeno, green pepper and spices (+salt & pepper), and cook for a couple minutes. Add red wine, tomatoes and the eggplant & onion mixture. Lower heat, cover & cook for about 15 minutes. Add a bit of water if it seems dry. Serve over couscous & top with yogurt sauce. 

Spinach-Feta Couscous:
- Boil 2 cups of water with some salt. Add 1 box instant couscous.
- Throw in a couple big handfuls of baby spinach, cover pot and let sit off heat for a couple minutes.
- Stir & add a couple pats of butter and some crumbled feta. Toss until spinach is wilted & taste for salt.

Yogurt Sauce:
Stir together 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt (2%), some minced garlic, chives, salt and pepper & the juice of 1 lime or lemon. If you have mint or other herbs that would be good, and/or some chopped cucumber.




Thursday, August 13, 2015

Summer Vegetable Chowder

This was supposed to be corn chowder because I'd been gifted a whole bunch of corn...but all but 2 of the ears were shriveled. Meh. Luckily I had plenty of other veggies on hand to fill it out (all CSA), including some cabbage and a lone pattypan squash that were almost ready to be tossed...almost.

Like any soup this is totally adaptable for what's on hand. Can easily be made vegetarian or vegan, or gluten free if you cut out the flour step (I really don't think that did much thickening anyway). 

- In a large pot, heat some oil or bacon fat and saute some chopped garlic (and onion if you have it; I didn't).
- Add a tablespoon of flour and cook briefly. Pour in a box of chicken or veggie broth (or you could use water) and mix/whisk well. 
- Add cubed potatoes, chopped cabbage and any other long-cooking veggies. If you're using fresh corn, add a couple of the corn cobs after you cut the kernels off. Cover & cook for 15 minutes or so, until potatoes are almost tender. Remove the corn cobs.
- Add quick-cooking vegetables. I used corn, chopped tomatillos, pattypan squash, green pepper and jalapeno pepper. Add more water if necessary & cook until tender.
- Add spices - I used chili powder - and taste for salt. Oh, I also added some turmeric as the color was looking a little blah.
- Optionally, puree some of the soup (if you do this, I don't think you need to bother with the flour step). I added a splash of half & half.
- Before serving, add fresh chopped tomato and chives or other herbs. Basil or cilantro would be great. Hot sauce? Probably. Garnish with bacon? Yes please.


Monday, August 10, 2015

Potato-Veggie Breakfast Hash

I have some variation of this at least once a week for breakfast (or brinner). There's always potatoes, but I'll mix in whatever veggies are on hand...baby spinach, bell peppers, etc. This one was all CSA stuff - red potatoes, zucchini & thinly sliced jalapenos. With the eggs, it's all one pan!

- Heat a frying pan (I use non-stick) on medium-high heat. Cube potatoes fairly small.
- Saute potatoes in olive oil or bacon fat (<--YUM) for...awhile, until browned. Let them sit for a few minutes on each side to cook properly. Season with salt & whatever seasonings you want (I use a garlic/onion blend and/or chili powder and/or smoked paprika).
- When potatoes are pretty much done, add whatever other veggies you want. If they are pretty quick-cooking, proceed to the next step:
- Lower the heat and crack a couple (or however many you want) eggs carefully over the mixture. Cover the pan and cook until the eggs are done to your liking. This always takes longer than I think, even for runny yolks - about 10 minutes. You could probably run it under the broiler to speed up the process...or just wait and drink some coffee. Watch carefully towards the end as there always seems to be a 30-second window where the eggs go from runny to hard. Runny is good.
- Slide (or dig) out of the pan, apply salt & perhaps some hot sauce to the eggs, and eat! I like some fancy black lava salt I got as a gift. And no hot sauce on this one as the jalapenos were plenty!




Thursday, August 6, 2015

Tomatillo Cucumber What-Have-You

An exciting CSA haul today! Tomatillos, corn, jalapenos, onion, heirloom tomatoes...and we still had a bunch of cucumbers left. I was thinking...salsa? Gazpacho? Well, I don't have a blender, so this turned into more of a salad...I don't know, it's a what-have-you.

Here are the CSA players (plus a big heirloom tomato):


Everything got chopped small (garlic minced) - corn left raw 'cause it's so fresh. Raw tomatillos are pretty tart, but they get mellowed by the other stuff in the mix.

I added a can of black beans and a bunch of chopped cilantro. Then made a little bit of dressing from the juice of 1 lime, salt, chili powder and olive oil. 


Rob randomly bought some tostada shells and I was like "huh, what are you gonna do with that?" He didn't have a plan, but...ding! Threw some grated cheddar on a couple, warmed in the toaster oven and piled the what-have-you on top. Scooped out an avocado and dotted with some Meier Devil's Envy hot sauce (great folks we found at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival). 


No-cook and tasty! This would also probably be great if you roasted the corn, tomatillos & jalapenos, but no heat is good right now.