Off We Go
16 comments Categories: Cook and Eat, Food, Garden, Lunch, Recipe, Salad, Savory
In just a few hours, I’m going to be hopping on a plane to another season. There will be butt-numbing numbers of hours watching personal video, reading and listening to music. And then, I’m going to find myself in South Africa.
Yes, South Africa. Where, if weatherbug has it correctly, the weather will be surprisingly like it has been in Seattle. Imagine that.
We are going because my husband, who is very brave and maybe a little insane, will be running this marathon. Which really isn’t a marathon at all. It starts that way, but then it keeps on going. For a total of 55 miles. Did I mention a little insane? And very, very brave?
Afterwards, and after a couple of days of recovery, we’ll be heading out on safari before heading back home.
I can’t wait to share some of the stories with you. I also can’t wait to see what will be happening in the garden when I return. It is already so full of promise. My pea plants seem to grow in inches overnight, and have just started to put out scarlet blooms. Lemony sorrel, which was planted last fall, is in full force. Chives have blossomed into beautiful lilac balls. And I have just harvested my first leeks!
There is nothing like a leek pulled straight out of your own garden.
With these, I made little julienned strips, tossed them in olive oil, and roasted them in a hot oven for about 15 minutes. They caramelized up quickly into little crisps which taste remarkably like toasted marshmallows.
You can use them to top soups, pizzas or as I did on top of a simple salad of sorrel, sauted trumpet mushrooms and an egg. Delicious.
Have a great couple of weeks! See you in June!
Spring on a Plate
10 comments Categories: Food, Lunch, Recipe, Salad, Side
Swirl ribbons of fresh, fat spears of asparagus, an unusually colored carrot and lightly pickled rhubarb together with a touch of minced shallot, a pinch of thyme leaves, a sprinkle of sea salt and a splash of fruity olive oil and sherry vinegar. Add a bit of fresh from the farmers’ market soft chevre, if you like. And there you have it. Spring on a plate. Nothing else really needs to be said, does it?
The Italian Farmer's Table
8 comments Categories: Cookbooks, Lunch, Recipe, Salad
The summer we went to Italy, Cam & I came home with dreams of packing up and finding some little Italian cottage to call home. I’d meet local food artisans and do what I do… write and photograph about the food and culture. I’d write a cookbook on traditional Italian cookery that went much deeper into regional dishes than most Italian cookbooks do. Of course, that’s far easier to dream about than actually do, so here I still sit in Seattle, longingly flipping through The Italian Farmer’s Table cookbook, written by a a pair of chefs who turned their dream into a book of real Italian cooking.
Yes, I am quite envious of Matthew Scialabba & Melissa Pellegrino who got to live one of my dreams. For 4 months, they traveled around Italy’s agriturismi, harvesting grapes, making goat cheese, hunting for local venison. I’m also thankful that they shared so much they experienced in their cookbook; not just recipes, but stories of the families they met along the way. They sent me a copy of their book several months ago, and it’s taken me a while to sit down with it and take it in. I still have much I want to cook from it, but today, I finally picked out a recipe to try, a simple salad of cabbage, pear and orange.
This recipe is definitely not what you’d think of if you think of Italian cooking, and that’s one of the reasons that I picked it. I appreciate the fact that this is not simply a cookbook of those recipes that everyone thinks of when they think of Italian food, but gets deeper in to what people really eat. This particular recipe is from the chapter on Casale Cjanor, an agriturismo/poultry farm in the San Danielle region of Friuli. Recipes in this region are heavily influenced by Germanic and Slavic roots, and you’ll find all sorts of ingredients that wouldn’t come to mind when thinking about Italian food.
This particular recipe is a bright salad that would be a perfect accompaniment to any heavy stew (like perhaps, the hearty looking braised duck just a few pages past). The celery, cabbage, pear and oranges are remind me of a Waldorf salad, but without the goopy mayo. It’s really the perfect side salad to have in winter, when citrus is at it’s peak.
I’m very much looking forward to trying many of the other recipes in this book!
Cabbage and Pear Salad (Insalata di Cavolo e Pere)
From The Italian Farmer’s Table
The original recipe calls for green cabbage, but I had red cabbage on hand and I love the vibrancy it adds. Feel free to use either red or green. I think this salad would also work well with a handful of toasted walnuts tossed in.
Serves 6
1 or 2 large orange
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/2 head cabbage (red or green)
1 pear, cored and thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced into half moons
1 tablespoon poppyseeds
Start by peeling the orange. I like to do this with a knife even if the oranges peel easily, to remove all the pith and white membrane. Once peeled, section the orange in small segments, and catch the juices that spill as you go. You want to have between 1 and 2 tablespoons of juice, so if needed, squeeze a bit more. I like the dressing quite citrusy.
Whisk together the orange juice, olive oil, vinegar and a bit of kosher salt & pepper, and set aside.
Shred the cabbage and place it in a medium bowl. Then, add the pear, celery and poppyseeds. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, followed by the dressing. Toss to coat.
To serve, place a mound of the cabbage and pear mixture on the plate, and top with two to three orange segments.
Family Recipes
9 comments Categories: Family Recipes, Recipe, Salad, Savory
Cole is taking Food Science this semester, and one of her projects was to create a small book of family recipes. She’s probably the only one in her class that has a parent that is a food photographer, as well as a family cookbook that is already online. Lucky kid! And, lucky me, because we got to spend quite a bit of time cooking together, something that she hasn’t been that interested in before. While Cole has always had a great appreciation of good food, it’s always been more about eating it than making it herself.
Her passions lie elsewhere, in her music. You’ll have to excuse a little proud mama moment, but Cole had an opportunity a few months ago to record two of the (many) songs she has written over the past year at Robert Lang Studios. This all came about because her vocal coach, Andrew Vait, was able to get her studio time & some studio musicians to sit in with her. What an amazing experience it was to watch her in the studio (the same studio that Death Cab for Cutie was recording in the night before). This week, we got the tracks back from the studio. Cole has posted them to her MySpace Music page, along with some of her other home-recorded work. She’d love it if you took a listen!
Anyway, back to the food. We made a delicious lentils salad (recipe below) which couldn’t be simpler, along with my family’s marinara sauce, Italian bread, chicken cacciatore, Nancy’s pasta, “Carli” cake and butter tarts. Simple and delicious food that was so fun to share with her.
PS: Menu for Hope is going on! I’ve be posted about my offering on Still Life With & The Doughnut Cookbook blogs! There are so many great prizes this year… make sure you check it out!
Quick Lentil Salad
Boil lentils (I like to use the small French lentils) in salted water (about a 1:4 ratio of lentils to water) for about 20 minutes or until they are just tender. You may need to keep adding water so the pot doesn’t go dry.
While those are cooking, make a fine dice of carrot, green pepper, celery and shallot. Fresh herbs if you have any.
Make a quick viniagrette of olive oil and red wine vinegar (or champagne vinegar), 2:1 ratio, with a little salt and pepper and maybe a pinch of dijon mustard if you’d like. Mix well.
Drain the lentils, and rinse in cool water briefly. Drain again. Dump in the veggies and dressing, and then add a bit more salt and pepper to taste.
