Cucumber Sardine Boats

Happy over-the-hump of the heat wave! Earlier this week I looks at the temps, and seeing all those hot red sun images on the 7-day-forecast (they are gone now) inspired me to think about going up north for the weekend. There is a high of 75 along northern Lake Superior (think Beaver Bay and Grand Marais) - but still hot in Ely and inland from the Lake. So I think My Charming Companion and I are going to try a spontaneous mini Superior Hiking Trail trip for a couple of days. I have never hiked the trail, so this seems a very mild introduction to see how it goes. I haven't actually been hiking in close to 10 years, and my backpack was quite cobwebby when I pulled it out of the garage. But 2 days!? Why not.

I bought a roasted chicken so that I could just eat that (cold) all week rather than cook. And I've had smoothies and cobb salads (with cucumbers instead of cheese & avocado), lots of pickles, and sardine salad boats - aka, sardine salad in a cucumber. They are easy to eat, sort of akin to an open faced sandwich, and perfect on a 95 degree day. You could also do the filling in small cucumbers for a festive appetizer or potluck sort of item. You know - anything easily picked up and eaten makes a good candidate for a potluck.

Wild Planet sardines are on sale at the Co-ops again - only $2 each (I think only til Sept though). I bought more than a case full because it seems handy to have these on hand. I started using sardines in place of canned tuna for "tuna" salad just because sardines are more sustainable and are so good for you. Sardine salad is a little more wet - though I imagine that is partly because I get them packed in oil as opposed to the water packed tuna.

Cucumber Sardine Boat
2-4 cucumbers (depending on their size), sliced in half, seeds removed
One tin sardines
2 T Mayo
2 T Fresh herbs: I used Dill and Parsley, chopped
Either pickles or olives, chopped
2 T red onion, minced
1 tsp mustard
salt and pepper to taste
2 T Toasted pistachios, chopped

Mix everything but the pistachios (and cucumbers, obviously!) in a bowl. Spoon into hollowed/de-seeded cucumber "boats" and sprinkle with pistachios.

To-go cucumber boats!

Milkweed Pods

I just learned that milkweed is a delicious edible plant, thanks to Samual Thayer's book called The Forager's Harvest. Milkweed - that I just pulled tons out of from the garden because it was taking over the raspberry bushes and gets super tall, but is so pretty with it's bright green stalks and flowery bunches and big pods. Each fall I take a client or two on a river walk and we look for milkweed pods to open up so we can feel the soft seeds inside.

Collect the tiny seed pods to eat

And it turns out milkweed is edible in lots of ways: the early small shoots, the flowers (are apparently the best), immature pods, and the seeds. I missed the previous two (though some shoots are still coming up in the garden, so maybe I'll try them), but I tried some seed pods last week. They had a nice texture and tasted almost like chewy green beans - maybe a little okra-esque, but not slimy.

While biking from the northside homestead to my house on Sunday, My Charming Companion and I gathered a bunch of mini pods along the Mississippi. They are starting to get too big already - but you want to seek out pods that are just an inch or 1 1/4" long. That is pretty small since the pods get to about 4". There are often 4-8 pods on a plant, so the collecting is pretty quick work, though you do get sticky "milk sap" on your hands from picking them.

Apparently milkweed pods get tough and hard pretty quickly once picked, so you will want to eat them within a day or two of picking them. I wanted to eat them very simply this first time, so just sauteed/steamed the pods with water and a little fat, and used only salt for seasoning. They were really good.

The seeds inside the immature pods

Here you can see the seeds from an immature pod. When the pods are bigger than 1 1/4" you can eat the seeds - apparently cooking them in water creates a cheesy sort of sauce. I haven't tried it yet, but sounds interesting.

I put the pods in a cast iron skillet with some bacon fat, and turned the burner on medium. They sucked up the fat right away (like eggplant does), so I added some water and put a cover on the pan. They sucked that up too so I added more until they seemed able to steam and saute just a bit. The total cook time was about 5 minutes. Putting them in boiling water for 5 minutes would also work.

Here are the finished, sauteed pods. Sprinkle with salt and eat!

Arugula pistachio pesto

I enjoy pesto in pretty much all incarnations: basil, radish leaves, cilantro, and now arugula. My arugula bolted weeks ago, but I've still been eating it in salads and I generally don't mind the extra spice. I have a lot though, and the pesto seems a nice way to temper the pepper of the arugula, even the already bolted kind. I am not a raw garlic eater so I didn't add any, but go ahead if that is your thing. You could also add romano or pecorino cheese, though I didn't miss them here.

Arugula Pistachio Pesto
3+ cups packed arugula
1/2 c. pistachios
1 tsp salt
1/2 c olive oil

1. Toast pistachios in a 400 degree oven for 5-10 minutes until brown (or on cast iron skillet on the stove top, stirring often). Allow to cool. (You can skip toasting the pistachios, but it adds more flavor depth and is extra tasty when you do.)
2. In a food processor, blend arugula and toasted pistachios. Pulse several times to chop and mince the nuts and greens. Add salt and olive oil and pulse again until a nice paste.

I love pesto on green beans (just steam the beans for a few minutes and than stir in the pesto) and also on eggs with some cherry tomatoes. The pesto would also be good on chicken, sauteed zucchini, a tomato salad - endless possibilities!

Paleo Biscuits

My Charming Companion was jonesing for some biscuits last weekend, so after looking for some recipes online, we found one that seemed promising. I've made these twice already and thought they were great each time - I might have made them again this weekend, but the HOT weather suggests I might wait til later in September to try these again! 

Anyway, these biscuits are sort of cornbread like in consistency - not particularly fluffy, maybe more scone like. I have not had them a la english muffins for Eggs Benedict, but I think they would be great for that. They would be excellent with fruit and whipped cream/coconut cream for strawberry shortcake. So far I've had them with a bit of butter and honey or jam (delicious), or with a scrambled egg and some bacon or sausage (also delicious and very filling).

These are really easy, and do seem to have some variation depending on coconut flour. The original recipe calls for 1/3 c of coconut flour, but I've had to use more than that both times. I use Bob's Red Mill Coconut flour, and it may be that that brand just absorbs less liquid. I noticed that the Seward now carries Coconut Secret brand coconut flour (cheaper too), so I'll experiment with that to see how things turn out. In any case - go for consistency here, rather than an accurate measurement. You want the biscuits to look like the picture below before cooking - where you can actually shape them a bit. I've used both melted butter and melted coconut oil and both were good. The butter version was a little less coconut-y tasting. I do wonder if using chilled butter that you grate/cut into the flour will give a puffier biscuit - might be worth a try.

Paleo Biscuits
1/2 c coconut flour (Bob's Red Mill - use less flour if other brand)
5 T butter or coconut oil, softened or melted
4 eggs
5-8 drops stevia (optional)
dash of salt
½ tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder) and add butter. It will be a thick paste if you use melted butter/coconut oil. Next add the eggs and stir well to get any lumps out of the batter. Add more flour if needed to achieve a batter that is not runny and that you can form biscuits with.
3. Using your hands, form dough into 6-8 biscuits. They should be about 1/2" thick (they only rise a little, so you could play with this a bit if you want to try thicker).
4. Bake for 12-16 minutes until just starting to brown.

Yum. I'm excited to try these in the fall/winter with chili or stew, or maybe as a topping on a fruit cobbler. Enjoy!

Berbere Meatballs

I was in a hurry the other morning to make a dinner for work (in addition to lunch, so I was making two meals to go), and decided to just throw together some meatballs. They turned out nice - I love berbere, so it was kind of a no-brainer. Berbere is that delicious Ethiopian spice blend that I used last month in a chicken dish called Doro Wat. It's typically a spicy blend of paprika or chili, cinnamon, cardomom, ginger, and fenugreek, plus a few others. My blend is on the milder side, so if you have a spicier Berbere, you may want to reduce the amount so as not to be too hot. I had some defrosted pork and venison - so I did a combo. But you could use all venison, lamb or beef too.

Berbere Meatballs
1/2 lb pork
1/2 lb venison/beef/lamb
1 t coconut flour
1 1/2 T berbere
1/2 t salt
1/4 c chopped parsley
pepper
1 egg

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, combine thoroughly with hands to get spices mixed evenly. Roll into approximately 1" balls (or a little bigger) and place on rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

I ate mine with greens (arugula in this case) and onions sauteed in coconut oil with turmeric and coriander. Later I had some of these meatballs with sauteed zucchini, onions, and beet greens with similar spices. These meatballs are very tasty left over or cold. Yum!

Creamy cucumber salad

Poona Keera

Cucumber mania! I planted three kinds of cucumbers this year, and they all have been delicious. One is a standard pickling cuke (National Pickling), another is a long english variety (Sweet Success), and the third, my favorite, is a brown/white skinned cucumber that is really crunchy and delicious and "never bitter" (says the seed catalog). It's an heirloom from India called Poona Keera.

Pickler in front, Poona Keera in back

The Sweet Success were the most prolific last week, and I used those to make a really simple, super refreshing and tasty salad. The recipe was created by My Charming Companion - so all credit goes there for the clever use of coconut milk and fresh herbs. Actually, this dressing makes an excellent ranch alternative - it would be great on all kinds of salads (slaw, green salads, etc) and is nice and creamy and super fresh tasting with the fresh herbs. I actually don't even know how to describe this salad - it's like a more salad-y raita maybe? 

The salad can be prepared any number of ways: I thinly sliced the cucumbers, but I've also done a rough chop. You can peel the cukes or not, remove the seeds or keep them in. Add tomatoes, and switch up the herbs. *Note that cucumbers do seem to get watery if you make a salad like this and are saving some or making enough for left overs. Removing the seeds will decrease the excess water.

Creamy cucumber salad
3-4 cucumbers (any variety will do), sliced thin or chopped
1 small red onion, sliced thin or minced
1 c coconut milk
1/4 c combined fresh mint and parsley
1/4 c olive oil
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp mustard powder
pinch of cumin
black pepper

1. Prepare your cucumbers and onions however you like and toss together in a bowl.
2. In a blender mix coconut milk and herbs. You want the herbs to mix in really well and get minced. Add remaining ingredients and continue to blend until thoroughly combined. Toss dressing with cucumbers and onions and serve!

Since eating the salad listed here, I've also had a variation using dill, parsley and garlic scape buds in the dressing (rather than mint) with cucumbers and tomatoes - see photo. Yum. It also looked really pretty with a blend of the white and darker green cukes. So festive!

Herby Pork Breakfast Sausage

I am working my way through some more pork products, namely ground pork - which makes terrific sausage! (I also tried them in a meatball recipe that I'll post soon too.) My herbs are so over-flowingly bountiful right now, that I wanted to use lots of them in my breakfast.

This was a super easy recipe that I found from a blog called Use Real Butter that I modified just slightly. I did put in a little honey in the sausage, but you could very easily leave it out if you don't want added sugar. The sausage mix will last a week or so, or you could freeze it if you don't want to eat all the patties at once. These would be amazing with pancakes, though I have been eating them with lots of veggies with herbs for breakfast, and that is great too.

Herby Breakfast Sausage (makes 8 patties)
1 lb. ground pork
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 tsp honey
1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well-blended. Form patties to desired size (mine were 2-inches in diameter). Place a skillet on medium-low heat and set the patties in the pan. Cook until the bottoms are browned, then flip and continue to cook until the sausage is done (about 10-12 minutes).

Beet and Sardine salad

My co-worker is not a beet eater and every year, to my delight, she brings me the beets from her CSA. My garden beets are just a bit slow (they aren't in the sunniest garden spot) and aren't quite ready yet, so these were a treat. While perusing the beet section in Tender, I came across a recipe for beets and marinated mackerel. I used it as inspiration to make something simpler - with sardines and a bit of arugula added in. Nigel Slater says that oily fish (sardines, mackerel and herring) are a perfect accompaniment to beets, and based on this dish I agree!

Spring beets are so nice and small, you can boil them on the stove top and they are ready in 20-30 minutes. They peel easily after they cool - just use your thumbs and fingers to press off the beet skin and watch your fingers turn pink. Once the beets are made, this is a super quick salad. I ended up using some of my pickled onions, but regular ones would work too. I also had purchased a tin of Bela sardines (the Wedge carries them) - usually I get the Wild Planet ones - and wanted to try them for a taste comparison. (The Bela's are the fave from Nom Nom Paleo.) They definitely look different than the Wild Planet sardines, and they tasted delicious. I don't know that I could tell a difference by taste alone between the two products though, and the Bela's cost a bit more for fewer ounces.

Beet and Sardine Salad
3 small beets, cooked/boiled and peeled
handful arugula, chopped
fresh dill, chopped
pickled (or regular red onions), sliced thin
one tin sardines packed in lemon olive oil
juice of half lemon
1 t dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Slice beets thickly and arrange on a plate over arugula. Remove sardines from tin, reserving olive oil, and lay sardines and onions on salad. Mix sardine olive oil, lemon juice, dill, mustard and salt and pepper together and pour over salad.

This tasted really good - the beets were sweet and almost creamy tasting with the sardines. I also think you could forgo the arugula entirely. It wasn't necessary, though I enjoyed it as a surface with which to eat more of the dressing on. Next time, I will go straight up beets and no lettuce - the simplicity is appealing to really taste the strong flavors.

Fermented onions and radishes!

I had some spare onions and radishes the other week, and, inspired by my lacto-fermenting fiend of a friend, decided to pickle them via fermentation. Yum!

These are the jars before fermentation

 A few notes about lacto-fermented pickles:
1) fermenting things is so easy
2) they taste amazing
3) they are super good for you and your digestive system

No matter what you are going to ferment, you will need a brine mixture of this ratio:
2 c. water to 1 1/2 T sea salt - or - 1 quart water to 3 T sea salt.
Be sure to use the fine grained sea salt and not the rocky stuff. I heated a portion of the water so the the salt would dissolve better, and than topped it off with cool water to the appropriate ratio. (You want the brine to be room temp or cool when you add it to the veggies, not warm.)

Your big decision is what to ferment! Some things may require a quick blanching first (green beans, brussel sprouts) or cooking (beets), but many things just can be fermented in their raw state (onions, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower). You do want to be careful to use veggies that are in good shape and not bruised. Whatever you choose, the basic idea is to put some spices in a jar (peppercorns, dill, garlic, hot peppers, mustard seeds, etc) and than fill the rest of the jar with your chosen item or blend. Pour the cooled brine over the top and make sure that all veggies/herbs/spices are submerged. Note: Keeping everything submerged can be challenging, but tuck beans under or pack radishes down and fill the jar all the way to the brim. Screw the lid on the jar tightly.

Now comes the part where you leave the jar out for several days to weeks for it to ferment. You will need to "burp" the jars each day to release the pressure - mine often end up spilling over the counter, leaking from the jar lid because of the fermenting process inside (I perhaps don't screw mine tightly enough, but just as well so the jars don't break!) This is all good and means the pickles are getting really tasty, just wipe it up and watch all the bubbles rise to the top in the jar. The best way to tell that your pickles are done is to taste them. You want to taste for nice pickle flavor - and there is no going wrong here. Some people like a mild ferment, others want it really strong. There will be a point where the active fermentation process ends - there will no longer be bubbling or overflow from the jar, so you can also use that as your done meter. Once you decide your pickles are ready, move them to cold storage (I put mine in the fridge) and eat them or store them for a long while. A year or more, so long as it is airtight and covered with the brine.

For my radishes:
I chopped them in half and had just enough to fill a pint jar. I have lots of dill going to seed in the garden, so I plucked several of the seed "heads" to stick in the jar. I also tossed in some black peppercorns, and would have put in mustard seed if I had any. Garlic and a hot pepper would have been great too, but I was out. My radishes were ready after 4 days, and they turned a nice pink color. These were great with a burger, in salad, or just plain for a snack.




For the onions:
I used red onions because that is what I had, and I thought they would look really pretty. I am a little sensitive to raw onions, so I was excited to ferment some to put in stuff without needing to cook them or soak them in vinegar first. This worked out great - they were still onion-y, but less sharp. They were perfect in salad and on burgers - really you could eat them on anything. I didn't use any spices with these, just the brine, and they also turned pink. The onions took longer and the juice kept spilling over the jar - it was about a week or 8 days when I liked the flavor best and called them done!

Sauteed Kale with Roasted Tomatoes

The garden kale is getting really big and, as I mentioned in the last post, keeps needing thinning. My favorite kale dish of late is a somewhat sweet, with a little bit of apple cider and some roasted tomatoes, both of which have been in my freezer all winter. It's time to rotate the stock!! This kale tastes delicious, and is sort of made al dente so that the onions are barely translucent and the greens are still super bright. I've been using smaller kale leaves, so if you have giant ones, you may want to cook them a wee bit longer.

This is a half batch in the skillet! Yum!

Sauteed Kale with Roasted Tomatoes
Large bunch kale, chopped in pieces
1/4 c. apple cider
onion, sliced thin
1/4 c. roasted tomatoes
2-3 T coconut oil

Melt coconut oil in a large skillet. Add onions and saute for 3 minutes. Add the kale and than the cider. Stir often to rotate the greens so that they all cook and become bright green, about 5 minutes. Add roasted tomatoes and continue to saute another few minutes, again stirring occasionally so that tomatoes soften a bit and greens are just tender. Serve!