Entries tagged with “Onions”.
Did you find what you wanted?
Thu 15 Jul 2010
Pickling Cukes - Photo:Chad
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been watching a lot of Good Eats. A recent episode on traditional dill pickles really piqued my interest, as I fondly remember my grandma’s pickles, which were always the high heat, jarred with vinegar kind. Well in his method, Brown uses fermentation and an open air ceramic vessel to make some garlicky, kosher dills. Looking at the cucumbers starting to take shape in our garden gives me hope, but in that far off way (at least a few months).
That’s why when I saw pickles by the bucket next to oversized bunches of dill at the Nesity Garden stand at the Wednesday Dane Co. Farmer’s Market, I started getting excited. I picked up the ingredients and a few other goodies to make it through the week including some grillable meats from Pecatonica Valley and rushed home. In the end my list was short this week:
- Basil – Deerfield Family Farm
- Cukes and Dill – Nesity Garden
- Sweet Corn – Heck’s Market
- Shallots. Onions. Carrots. – Va Family Garden
- Beef, Chicken, and Pork – Pecatonica Valley Farm
When I got home, I immediately checked out Amazon.com and after searching extensively for a ceramic crock, settled on a nice glass one. It’ll be here Friday, and pickling should start Sat., after the Farmer’s Market. I’ll keep you posted.
Thu 15 Jul 2010
Buffalo Wings - Photo:Lindsay
The busy summer days have, unfortunately, resulted in some very simple dishes this past week. With all the great seasonal ingredients, you really want to make something unique and different but between boating, baseball games, and making any excuse possible to enjoy the few non-rainy days, simplicity has been high on my list.
We started the week out with some baked hot Buffalo wings ala Good Eats with Alton Brown. I’ve been catching up with some old episodes of, what is in my opinion, the best food geek show out there. After watching his tribute to the Buffalo Wing, I thought about the wings I had picked up from Jordandal Farms, at the Westside Community Market, a few weeks back. Although, like most Good Eats recipes, there were a few more steps then I would have expected, the baked wings came out crispy and flavorful. With a side salad of fresh greens topped with a light vinaigrette to balance out the high calorie wings, this made for one heck of a meal.
Beef and Broccoli - Photo:Lindsay
After a Wednesday market teaming with broccoli, I decided to make the most of the sirloin tip chunks that had been in the freezer for a few weeks. A quick search on Epicurious’ iPhone app (will launch iTunes) revealed a recipe for Quick Beef and Broccoli. Sounded like a great meal for after our evening workout. So, with just the most elemental of prep (cleaning the broccoli and trimming it right into a storage container when I got home from the market) we had a meal in as long as it took to boil some rice. While I thought it was OK, Lindsay was less than impressed, and wished it had some more flavor. I guess with convenience you sometimes get the occasional bland dish.
BBQ Onion Burger - Photo:Lindsay
Deciding I wouldn’t let another beef dish go down this grey path, I decided to go all out with a BBQ burger on Friday. With advance apologies to the folks at Fountain Prairie farms, who recommend only using a little salt and pepper on their burgers, I went a bit more extreme.
To start off, I mixed the meat with chopped bacon and roasted garlic chips. Some reserved bacon grease and a Tbsp of butter was used to slow caramelize a coarsely sliced onion. After 30 minutes of cooking on low, when the onions were a translucent light brown, I mixed in what might easily be the quickest and simplest homemade BBQ sauce (recipe @ allrecipes.com). The burger was topped with a slice of everyday cheddar from Bleu Mont Dairy, a heaping helping of the onion mixture and a few pickles. To “healthy” this meal up we served with it Green Beans from Xay Lo Garden and seasoned shredded turnips. Needless to say flavor was not an issue here, but an outside table setting made it a lot easier to clean up the inevitable mess. It was a happy and very satisfying mess.
Sat 12 Jun 2010
Posted by Lindsay under Farmer's Markets
1 Comment
Garlic Scapes Photo:Lindsay
Westside Community Market. Today we went to the west side community market since we were on a bit of a time crunch. Chad and I got up later (since we got home a little late last night) and were out there around 10:30am. A lot of the vendors were starting to pack up, but we were able to snag the following:
We plan on making some pizza this week along with a latin dish with the beef. We’ll also give the chicken wings a try!
Wed 9 Jun 2010
Posted by Chad under Recipes
1 Comment
Radish Top Soup Photo:Lindsay
Ingredients
- 6 T butter
- 1 c chopped onions or white leek portions
- 8 c loosely packed radish leaves
- 2 c diced peeled potatoes
- 6 c liquid (water, chicken stock, or combination)
- salt
- ½ c heavy cream (optional)
- freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Melt 4 T butter in a large saucepan, add onions or leeks, and cook until golden, approximately 5 minutes.
- Stir in radish tops, cover pan, and cook over low heat until wilted, 8-10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook potatoes until soft in liquid along with 1 tsp salt.
- Combine with radish tops and cook, covered, for 5 minutes to mingle flavors.
- Puree finely in a food processor, food mill, or with an immersion blender.
- Add heavy cream if desired and enrich with 2 T butter.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot.
Quick Notes
If you want to serve it cold, omit the butter enrichment at the end. We didn’t put the heavy cream in the soup, and honestly, we think that if you add cream, it would be almost too much.
Cooking time (duration): 35 Min.
Number of servings (yield): 6
Meal type: soup
My rating:4 stars: ★★★★☆
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Mon 7 Jun 2010
Asian Beef Salad Photo:Lindsay
On Thursday night, having just had the beef roast the night before, we wanted to try to use some of it up, so we made an Asian salad with roast beef, cherry tomatoes from Canopy Farm, Australe lettuce from Snug Haven, salad mix from Black Earth Valley, and spicy Asian radishes and sugar snap peas from Roots Down Farm. We made an Asian-style sesame dressing which accompanied it, but since the dressing wasn’t very good, we’re not going to share it with the masses. We’ll have to come up with a better sesame dressing for next time.
Beef and Dill Potato Pasty Photo:Lindsay
Then, on Saturday, we decided to use up the rest of the beef by making and freezing some individually sized Cornish pasties. We wanted to use the dill we had gotten at last week’s farmer’s market since it was going a bit limp in our refrigerator, so we started scouring the internet to find a recipe that would include the beef, potatoes, and our quickly diminishing dill. There really wasn’t a recipe that satisfied him, so we kind-of mashed a bunch of them together to make these Dill Potato and Leftover Beef Roast Pasties.
If you’re not familiar with pasties, they’re traditionally a little dry, so you’ll want to eat them with some sort of sauce. Lindsay prefers ketchup, but Chad likes his with Sriracha sauce. Also, if you’re in the mood for a history lesson, the origins of the Cornish pasty are also quite interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty.
Our pasties came out crispy, but firm enough you could eat with just your hands, like you’re supposed to. The dill was subtle, but present, and the beef stayed tender, even through it’s second cooking. We’ve already reheated a few of these and will look forward to pulling them out of the freezer for a quick meal.
Mon 7 Jun 2010
Posted by Chad under Recipes
1 Comment
Beef and Dill Potato Pasty Photo:Lindsay
Recipe: Dill Potato and Beef Roast Pasties
Summary: This was the solution for what to do with about two pounds of leftover roast beef. Delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. of leftover beef roast, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces.
- 3 Tbsp. butter
- 1 1/2 lb. potatoes peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
- 2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tbsp. fresh dill, chopped
- 3 Packages of refrigerated 9″ pastry crust (2 rolls per package)
- Flour for dusting
Instructions
- In a large pot or dutch oven melt butter over low heat.
- Add potatoes, salt, and pepper. Gently mix to coast. Cover.
- After 5 minutes, when potatoes start to steam, add onions and mix to thoroughly incorporate. Cover.
- Cook for additional 15-20 minutes, mixing occasionally, till potatoes are fork tender when tested.
- When they’re ready, remove from heat and spoon potato mixture in a large metal mixing bowl, mix in the chopped dill, and allow to cool while you prepare the dough.
- Preheat oven to 350 Degrees
- Lay a sheet of dough on a cutting board (flour cutting board if necessary) and place a 6″ circular object (upside down bowl, pan lid, etc.) on, so that the edge of the object touches one of the edges of the dough. Using the object as a guide cut a circle using a knife. If you can repeat this process with one sheet, do so. Otherwise, roll the dough into a ball and roll it out to the same thickness as the first piece. Repeat this process, adding any dough from one sheet that cannot be made into a cut piece with the leftover from the next sheet you cut. When all is said and done, you should have approximately 24 six inch rounds.
- Sprinkle flour on a large baking sheet
- Mix the cut-up beef with the, now cooler, dill potato mixture.
- Spoon approximately 1/4 cup portions of meat and potato mixture onto one side of each dough circle. Fold the other half over and using your fingers, seal the edges. (You can follow this seal with a fork-tip crimp for a nicer look)
- Cut three 1/2 slashes on the top of each pasty to serve as a vent.
- Place the pasties on the baking sheet so that no two touch. You will likely have to do at least 2 batches.
- Bake for 55 min or so, till the top of the pasties is lightly browned.
Quick Notes
Once removed from the oven, these can be served immediately or stored in the fridge or freezer. Heating up is a snap: Microwave pasty for approximately 1 min (fridge) or 2 min (freezer) till warmed through, then place in a toaster oven for a few minutes @350 to re-crisp the outside. Remove from heat if they start to darken much more.
Cooking time (duration): 2 Hours 45 Min.
Number of servings (yield): About 20 Pasties
Meal type: lunch
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Wed 2 Jun 2010
Carnitas Photo:Lindsay
Carnitas are usually found on the weekend menu at places that serve authentic tacos. You know, the kind that come with onion, cilantro, and a wedge of lime. Carnitas meat is a slow cooked pork that in another meal would be shredded, but in this incarnation is coarsely chunked and broiled at the last minute to get a crispy crunch on the outside. My new-found faith in all things Cook’s Illustrated was reaffirmed, when I found a simple recipe to make these delicious Pork Carnitas at home.
We used the pork butt I had picked up from Jordandal Farms at the Westside Community Market. Lindsay did most of the work for this one, slow roasting the meat while I worked a rare Sunday shift. I came home to a delicious smell very reminiscent to those weekend tacoreia visits. After they were done braising, we separated the pork into small chunks and tossed it with the reduced braising liquids.
The pieces were spread out over a cooling rack used for baking. We placed the rack on a baking sheet 8” under the broiler, and used the few minutes while the meat browned to chop up radishes from Thor Farm, cilantro from Lem Park Farm, and onion to garnish the tacos.
I also like pre-heating my tortillas on a dry electric griddle to make sure they are pliable.
As expected the Cook’s recipe didn’t disappoint, with rich flavor, and a satisfying crunch in every meaty bite. The radishes chopped with the onions and cilantro lent a nice flavor too.
The recipe calls for sour cream as a garnish, and after biting into the first taco I understood why. While very flavorful, the broiling does seem to dry the meat considerably, and with low moisture onions and radishes as garnishes, the tacos by themselves tend to be a bit dry. I didn’t have sour cream on hand so I served these with some extra salsa, which worked perfectly adding the needed moisture.
All in all, these made for a great Sunday recipe, and one I’m sure would impress some taco-loving friends.
Wed 2 Jun 2010
Posted by Chad under Recipes
1 Comment
Pork Carnitas Photo:Lindsay
Ingredients
- Meat
- 1 (3 1/2-to 4-pound) boneless pork shoulder, fat trimmed to 1/8 inch thick, cut into 2-inch chunks
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 small onion, peeled and halved
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons juice from 1 lime
- 2 cups water
- 1 medium orange, halved Tortillas and Garnishes
- Corn tortillas, warmed
- Lime wedges
- Minced white or red onion
- Fresh cilantro leaves
- Thinly sliced radishes
- Sour cream
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine pork, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, cumin, onion, bay leaves, oregano, lime juice, and water in large Dutch oven (liquid should just barely cover meat). Juice orange into medium bowl and remove any seeds (you should have about 1/3 cup juice). Add juice and spent orange halves to pot. Bring mixture to simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until meat is soft and falls apart when prodded with fork, about 2 hours, flipping pieces of meat once during cooking.
- Remove pot from oven and turn oven to broil. Using slotted spoon, transfer pork to bowl; remove orange halves, onion, and bay leaves from cooking liquid and discard (do not skim fat from liquid). Place pot over high heat (use caution, as handles will be very hot) and simmer liquid, stirring frequently, until thick and syrupy (heatsafe spatula should leave wide trail when dragged through glaze), 8 to 12 minutes. You should have about 1 cup reduced liquid.
- Using 2 forks, pull each piece of pork in half. Fold in reduced liquid; season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread pork in even layer on wire rack set inside rimmed baking sheet or on broiler pan (meat should cover almost entire surface of rack or broiler pan). Place baking sheet on lower-middle rack and broil until top of meat is well browned (but not charred) and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, flip pieces of meat and continue to broil until top is well browned and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes longer. Serve immediately with warm tortillas and garnishes.
Cooking time (duration): 2 Hours 45 Min.
Number of servings (yield): 6
Meal type: lunch
Culinary tradition: Mexican
My rating:5 stars: ★★★★★
Microformatting by hRecipe.
Wed 2 Jun 2010
French Onion Soup Photo:Lindsay
French Onion soup is for some reason indelibly linked with hotels for me. As far back as I can remember, any time I stay at a hotel and have to order room service, I always see French Onion soup on the menu and I visualize a bubbly crock of tender caramelized onions topped by a baguette sopped in broth and covered with bubbly cheese. The reality is never quite that good, with salt usually being the primary taste, followed by a realization that room service can never quite deliver fast enough to keep the soup hot.
When I made beef stock from the soup bone I picked up from Jordandal Farms, I knew I wanted to take a stab at something a little different and French Onion Soup definitely fit the bill. For those of you out there like myself who had never made this before, the recipe seems a bit strange, cooking down four pounds of onions to a small browned layer at the bottom of a Dutch oven. To further deepen the flavor, Cook’s Illustrated recommended deglazing this layer three times instead of the usual once. Once the soup portion was complete, we ladled it into two large coffee cups (the only oven safe small bowls we have) and topped it with toasted baguette slices from Stella’s and the Gruyere we picked up from Forgotten Valley.
We made a light dinner featuring the soup and a farmer’s market salad. The soup was perfect with almost no saltiness to speak of, and a flavor so rich and deep, I can only say that the Cook’s research got it 100% right on this one.
If the onions we planted decide to cooperate at harvest, I will be remaking this soup, but hopefully doubling the batch.
Wed 2 Jun 2010
Posted by Chad under Recipes
1 Comment
French Onion Soup Photo:Lindsay
Recipe: French Onion Soup (Cook’s Illustrated, Jan. 2008)
Ingredients
Soup
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 3 pieces
- 6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices (
- Table salt
- 2 cups water , plus extra for deglazing
- 1/2 cup dry sherry
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups beef broth
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine
- 1 bay leaf
- Ground black pepper Cheese
Croutons
- 1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)
Instructions
For the soup:
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place butter in pot and add onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.
- Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in broths, 2 cups water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.
For the croutons:
- While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in 400-degree oven until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.
To serve:
- Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.
Cooking time (duration): 3 hours 20 min.
Number of servings (yield): 6
Meal type: lunch
My rating:5 stars: ★★★★★
Microformatting by hRecipe.
