Barley risotto

My favorite aisle in the Lund's across the street from me is the frozen food one, due solely to the fact that the frozen food aisle is where they stash their cart of "sale" items. What a bounty I've found in this ever-changing cart: organic apple juice-sweetened dried cherries (I bought 15 packs for $1 each!), sunflower butter, fancy pasta sauce, and on and on. It seems like many of their more obscure items (often organic/"natural") end up in this cart, making it the first place I go when I'm at the store. Anyway, about 9 months ago, I bought cartons of this broth, never having used mushroom broth before and not really knowing what I'd do with it...but it seemed like such a good deal (I think they were $1 each) that I put them in my basket and figured I'd come up with something later.

Well, the other day I decided to clean out the cupboard and realized that they were set to expire on July 27, so I made two batches of this vegan risotto (from Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet cookbook)--it's simple and delicious.

1/4 c. dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1 cup very hot water for 20 minutes
4 c. mushroom stock
1/2 c. white wine
2 T. olive oil
1/4 c. minced shallots
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 c. pearl barley
2 c. chopped cremini mushrooms
2 t. minced fresh marjoram leaves (first time using these--such an amazing scent!)
2 t. minced fresh parsley leaves
2 t. minced fresh chive
Salt and black pepper

1) Drain the porcinis, reserving the soaking liquid. Chop the mushrooms and set aside.

2) Combine the stock, reserved mushroom liquid, and wine in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer.

3) In a large skillet or saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant and slightly softened. Add the barley and both kinds of mushrooms, and stir until covered with oil.

4) Add 1/2 c. of the hot liquid and simmer, uncovered and stirring frequently, until the liquid is almost absorbed. Continue adding the stock mixture 1/2 c. at a time, until the barley is tender, about 30 minutes.

5) About 5 minutes before the risotto is finished, stir in the herbs and salt and pepper.

Serve hot!

Chocolate peanut butter tart

Ahhhh, this is a delicious, delicious, delicious vegan and gluten-free dessert. I want to make it again right now!

A few alterations to the original post: I used agave instead of date sugar, and I put it in a Pyrex baking dish. (According to the blogger, it's really sticky, but it worked just fine in glass.)

butter

I'd be lying at least a little bit if I said WE made butter last night. Really, we watched the KitchenAid make butter and tried to contain potential splatters. Sure, sure, there was some amount of pushing/squeezing out buttermilk (yum!) at the end, but WHOAH, easy easy! If you want the whole run-down, complete with pictures and step-by-step instructions for making all sorts of tasty stuff from gallons and gallons of cream, go here and scroll down a bit.

If Peter Piper pickled a peck of peppers...

Then how many peppers did Peter Piper pickle?

Go ahead, say it three times fast. Then pickle your own peck of peppers.

My banana pepper plant has been going, err, bananas this summer. Lucky me, since I LOVE pickled banana peppers on my pizza. I used the very official-looking recipe from the University of Georgia National Center for Home Food Preservation. Then I went and modified it, thus probably ruining all of the very carefully calculated ratios of whatnots to whoozits. I added another mystery pepper (larger, greener), omitted the celery seed (didn't have it), and semi-accidentally turned the jar on its side in the hot water bath. If you're still interested in coming over for pickled pepper and pepperoni pizzas with some pretty persnickety pals, let me know.

Cool Beet and Cucumber Soup

I love this soup recipe in the heat of summer - especially Polish style, ladled over a hard-boiled egg. It is fetching with its pink color, and surprising in its not-really-borscht-but-still-a-cold-beet-soup. It's also perfect for the early summer produce: beets and their greens, green onions, cucumbers, and dill.


This recipe is from ReBar, a veggie restaurant/bistro in Victoria, Canada that has a great cookbook. I made the broth on day one so that it would better chill in my fridge, and then finished it off to eat for dinner day two. I sort of wonder if bunches of veggies are a little smaller in Canada than they are here - I inevitably need to add more buttermilk, lemon and pickle juice, and I still end up with a pretty chunky final product. So, when they say adjust the seasoning, I guess they mean ADJUST. you know?!

Serves 4-6 (or closer to 8 if you add in the extra like I do)
2 small beet bunches, with greens
water to cover
1 T salt
2 T sugar
3 c. buttermilk
1 c. yogurt, kefir, or sour cream
2-3 lemons, juiced
1/4 c. pickle juice
lots of cracked pepper
1/2 long English cucumber, 1/4" dice
1 bunch scallions, minced
1/4 c. fresh minced dill

1. Cut greens from the beetroot and and wash both well to remove any clinging dirt. Peel beets, quarter, and thinly slice. Place in a pot and cover with water by 1-inch. Bring to a boil. Add salt, partially cover, and reduce heat. Simmer until beets are just tender.


2. While the beets are simmering, finely shred the greens and stems. When beets are tender, stir the greens and sugar into the pot. Cover and turn off the heat. Let stand 10 minutes. Uncover and cool to room temp; then chill thoroughly before proceeding. (This step can be prepared up to days in advance or frozen up to 1 month!)

3. In a large bowl, combine the beets/greens/cooking water with buttermilk, yogurt, lemon & pickle juice. Season with salt, cracked pepper, sugar, or more lemon to get the right balance for your taste. Chill the soup for at least one hour before serving.


4. To serve: stir in the cucumbers, scallions, and dill and taste one more time to adjust the seasoning. Serve in chilled bowls. (Or in my case, jars!)

Zucchini noodles

Zucchini as noodle = genius! It is a great way to use up the ever-prolific zucchini, does not require purchasing a packaged anything, is GF, and looks amazing. oh yeah!

Before embarking on this recipe, I was worried that the "noodles" would fall apart, or that the whole pasta dish would just taste like zucchini sauce - which while not bad, was not what I was going for. Instead, the zucchini takes on a noodle form that is really zucchini-ish. It holds its own flavor rather than blend in with the sauce AND keeps a noodle shape that you can twirl up on your fork!

I followed a recipe from the New York Times and it used a veggie peeler to peel thin strips from the zucchini. Other recipes talked about mandolines and skinny julienned strips, and I have neither a mandoline nor the patience to cut such uniform tiny noodles. They look nice though, and I think you could go raw that way: just salt and sweat them for 30 minutes.

For these I peeled each zuke down to the seeds - you'll know when you get there because they get harder to peel. Also, the directions to saute in olive oil for just 3 minutes seem critical - it gets your peeled slices somewhat translucent and al dente like, but not at all overcooked. (Also keeps your noodles from losing their integrity! they don't get mushy at all.) I topped mine with a quick sauce of mushrooms, tomatoes, sausage, wine, fresh basil and oregano, and pepper flakes. Really really yummy and very filling. I like the original recipe's light topping of just parmesan, salt and pepper too.

Bohemian Cucumber Soup with Shrimp

I've avoided eating shrimp for awhile due to some idea in my head that sustainably caught shrimp is hard to come by. This soup recipe (featuring about-to-be-abundant-cucumbers) got me curious though, so I did a little more research to find out the real deal. I found Seafood Watch (referred by Michael Pollen), an AMAZING resource about all kinds of seafood farming and fishing practices, mercury levels, and a sustainability rating system. (Check out the trout page for interesting Great Lakes info.) As it turns out, the Seward carries uncooked shrimp farmed in Thailand, which is rated in the "good alternative" category, as is their larger, wild-caught shrimp from Mexico. Maybe Coastal has something rated "Best Choice" - which is SeafoodWatch's top rating...

This chilled soup recipe comes from the Schumacher cookbook which features all kinds of Central European dishes. The recipe is easy to make, fast-ish, and really nice for the hot weather. I also think the shrimp could be easily and tastily replaced by tofu (lightly flavored and baked or fried, then chilled). I do think it would be best as a starter course to another dish...some other Bohemian something or other, perhaps. In my case it went with some sliced up beets from the garden and brats. All were consumed in the appetite-facilitating, air-conditioned bedroom (as opposed to the 91 degree rest-of-the-house, which seems to suppress my hunger)!

Serves 4-8 depending on serving size.
1 large cucumber (4 oz)
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 pints buttermilk
1/2 t Worcestershire sauce
1 c plain yogurt
2 cloves fresh garlic
2 T plus 2 t dill pickle juice
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t dry mustard
1/4 t salt
pinch white pepper
1 T fennel seed
1 T chopped fresh dill
6 oz cooked popcorn shrimp*
1 t fresh lemon juice
2 hard boiled eggs
2 T green chopped onions
*I used the bigger shrimp and cut it into small pieces.

1. Make your hard-boiled eggs.
2. Cook the shrimp by placing them in a saucepan with 2/3 c cold water and lemon juice; bring to a fast boil. Remove from heat and set in fridge to cool (keeping liquid).
3. Peel and split the cuke lengthwise; scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Dice the cucumber, sprinkle with salt, and set in a strainer to sweat/drain for 30 minutes. (I was too impatient and did not wait this long!)
4. In a blender or food processor, mix 1/2 pint buttermilk, Worcestershire, yogurt, garlic, pickle juice, drained cucumber, nutmeg, mustard, salt and pepper, and blend for one minute. Pour into a bowl, add dill, fennel, and remaining buttermilk, and refrigerate.
5. When everything is cool enough for your liking, mix the shrimp and liquid with the buttermilk base. Serve with chopped eggs and green onions for garnish.
*Schumacher notes that this soup takes some moderate care and only keeps for about 48 hours. So eat up.

Grilled corn with honey-ancho chile butter

This post is dedicated to Megan Holm.

Hi, WFDM. Sorry about not posting for the past several weeks (months?!). I haven't been cooking very much lately, and what I have been making has already been posted. Anyway, I recently made two discoveries that are very relevant to MH's interests: frozen kefir (delicious!) and spiced butters.

I had the latter while grilling at Jaime and Jacob's on Saturday (where I learn many things about food and cooking. Post, Jaime!) and made it again last night because it is just so damn good. I never feel this way about butter, which is partly why I'm so struck by this recipe...it's turned me into a butter lover! Yum. Make it, make it, make it!

(Oh, here's the recipe, courtesy of Bon Appetit.)

oh, napa cabbage....

sometimes i feel like i'm plagued by napa cabbage when it comes to the csa box. i like the stuff but i never seem to be able to eat the enormous quantities that come week after week. this recipe is the response to my desire to have a napa cabbage miso soup with soba noodles-totally made up on the spot.

and browsing through the blog today, it doesn't escape my attention that megan posted a startlingly similar recipe back in february. but i already took the photo so...

in a wok heat sesame oil on high
add 1/2 finely chopped onion
add diced tofu
add several cloves minced garlic and
thumb sized piece of ginger grated

add matchstick carrots
chopped mushrooms
coarsely chopped napa cabbage-throw the lid on.

cook till cabbage is wilty.

mix:
about a tbsp "better than bouillon" with a couple cups of water (boil or microwave till really hot so it's easy to mix with the water)
add a very generous spoonful of miso (i LOVE south river sweet brown rice) and stir together.
add to wok to make it all soupy

boil:
soba noodles about 5 minutes. add to wok after draining once everything else is done.

this requires cooking with a very cold beverage in your hand-beer is my personal preference. because it's WAY to hot to cook like this when it's 90 degrees out. but that napa cabbage isn't going to eat itself....and i can't eat slaw everyday.