Thursday 28 June 2012

Fresh Summer Salad



A fresh summer salad from my garden is defined daily by whatever is "ready to pick". Today, in the sweltering heat, i quickly watered and plucked a handful of radishes and some rosemary before escaping indoors to prepare a simple salad lunch. Radishes aren't always the easiest vegetables to insert into a recipe. Generally speaking we eat them as they are, perhaps with a little olive oil (or butter - eek!) and salt, but the radish i have this year are super spicy and require a morcel of attention. Historically, radishes (which have been around in culinary terms for over 1000 years) have the role of “clearing the taste & preparing for food and drink”* and should be eaten raw and without much fuss. The combination that follows is a crunchy, peppery, sweet and sour salad with a hint of fragrance from the fresh rosemary. I added tiny cubes of aged Comte cheese which deliver an earthiness and complementary texture.

Serves 4 as a light appetizer


Radish, Apple and Comte salad

8 medium radishes, sliced thinly into circles
1 granny smith apple, cored, quatered and sliced thinly lengthways
1 shallot, quatered and sliced thinly
8 oz Comte cheese, cubed

dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup cider vinegar
1/2 tsp honey
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
salt and pepper

Method

Mix all the salad ingredients in a bowl, being careful not to break the apple slices. In a separate jar with a lid, combine the dressing ingredients and shake well. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix to ensure all the morcels are coated. Serve immediately or chill for later.

* (Jane Grigson - Vegetable Book)

Monday 28 May 2012

Strawberry Delight

Expect the unexpected. It’s not a motto i live my life by, but it certainly has it’s place in the context of the weather we’re experiencing right now, and i have no complaints. Our higher than average seasonal temperatures and prolongued days of sunshine have ensured our strawberry season has arrived with gusto. We’ve waited patiently for some color in our urban garden, and like the first glimpse of sunshine after a storm, were rewarded with these rich red, textured, heart shaped fruit nesting in their foliage. A good percentage of home grown strawberries are popped straight into the pickers mouth. For any which make it into the kitchen, try this no-bake Strawberry Cheesecake using some tangy, creamy, fresh Michigan Cream Cheese.



Strawberry Cheesecake

Serves 4-6 depending on glass size

Ingredients


  • 6oz Graham Crackers, crumbed
  • 2oz butter, melted
  • 12oz Michigan Cream Cheese
  • 2oz confectioners sugar
  • ¼ tsp vanilla essence
  • ⅔ cup/5 fl oz heavy cream
  • 8oz (approximately 10 medium) strawberries
  • 2tbsp confectioners sugar

  1. In a bowl, mix the melted butted and the crushed graham crackers (you can do this in a processor or by hand by putting into a plastic bag and using a rolling pin)
  2. Press into the individual glasses for serving and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  3. In a bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the heavy cream and combine.
  4. Spoon the cream mixture onto the individual cooled biscuit bases and refrigerate.
  5. Puree half the strawberries with the 2tbsp sugar and seive.
  6. Slice or dice the remaining strawberries and pile onto the cheesecake bases, then drizzle
          with the puree

 

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Green City Market Pickings


Saturday mornings are usually a leisurely affair in our household. I'm the one who stumbles into the kitchen bleary eyed and bed-headed in my pj's desperately seeking out the coffee pot. I'm grumpy and i communicate in grunts. Once i have my hands tightly wrapped around that steaming mug of freshly brewed french press, i become human again. We are definitely not the family who comes to the breakfast table all sparkling clean and new. Last weekend was an exception, because we didn't convene around our usual breakfast table, but chose instead to head to Green City Market "early doors" to snaffle the best fresh produce and enjoy coffee and fresh pastries. There are folks who do this weekly and without a doubt i understand its appeal. When residing in France we find a different local outdoor market to frequent every day, and a little place to drink a small black coffee and eat the occasional croissant au beurre. At Green City, not only did we get to feast on Monkey Buns (like a croissant but folded differently and topped with a sprinkling of sugar), fresh wholewheat pancakes and buttery brioche, but we came home with a small collection of rather fine ingredients. Ah, and the coffee, Chicago's very own Intelligentsia, a homely cup of freshly brewed medium roast just topped off with milk. The "rather fine ingredients" included (amongst other things which i will wax lyrical about in a future post but think fresh cheese and interesting coloured vegetable variations) spinach and a boule of sourdough bread enveloping small buttery sweet chunks of Yukon Gold potatoes. The spinach along with 2 crushed garlic cloves became a soft frittata made with a half dozen free range organic eggs. I volunteered for the extra special wibbly wobbly soft bit in the middle, and spread it onto my bread, a very satisfying end to our Saturday morning.




Spring has Sprung



Right now is the perfect moment to embrace the seasonality of cheese. The explosion of spring brings delicious fresh cheeses back to centre stage. It’s easy to overlook the fact that our animals produce milk essentially to feed their young, so it follows that fresh sheep or goat milk cheeses are seasonal. Those skipping spring lambs and goats signify the best time to start eating fresh, un-aged goat and sheep milk cheeses. An urban spring is unlike a rural one in that the reality of these images is unlikely to frequent the lives of seasoned cityfolk, other than for a sporadic jaunt into the countryside. By cultivating and nurturing our own small parcel of shared land tucked away in our urban landscape, we’re connecting ourselves with our neighbors and immediate physical environment in the best way possible. It’s the 2nd growing season for Merchant Part Community Garden and we’ve added 6 new plots. Folks are busy planting seeds and anything incubated over our cold but milder-than-usual winter is bursting forth with gusto, akin to those little lambs after taking their first clumsy, tentative steps. Self seeded lettuces are popping up unexpectedly and plants usually categorised as annuals are making their second appearance on the spring stage. Nature has a way of taking taking us by surprise. Rather than meddle with these delicate cheeses, i have a simple suggestion. Choose a fresh cheese, serve it alongside hot toasted seeded bread oozing with melted salted butter and some pickled fennel to add a tangy anise crunch. I have used fresh Mozzarella for this recipe.

Makes 1 pint

1 fennel bulb, trimmed, split down the middle vertically and chopped into ¼ inch thick semi circles
2 cups of white wine vinegar
⅔ cups sugar
⅓ cup water
1 tspn salt
½ tspn each of fennel, caraway and mustard seeds


  1. Combine the vinegar, sugar, water and salt in a pan and bring to the boil
  2. Add the chopped fennel and cook for 5 minutes
  3. Toast the seeds in a dry frying pan and drop into the bottom of a sterilized jar
  4. Pour the pickling liquid and fennel over the seeds in the jar leaving ¼ inch at the top.
  5. Seal the jar and leave to cool.

This will keep for 1 month, if you want it to keep for longer then process the sealed jar in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

Friday 23 March 2012

Jumping on the Street Food (Band) Wagon


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As a European immigrant to America, I’m continually inspired by some of the little known ingredients adorning the displays of my local Windy City grocery store, where the avocados are always ripe and delicious, the watermelon seed free, juicy and sweet. Despite backpacking in Mexico some years ago, I never ate cactus or jicama, but filled up on street side tacos, quesadillas, pickles and oil drum rotisserie chicken with the occasional splurge on a restaurant meal which invariably wasn’t half as good as the street food.
The street vendor struggle is well documented in our city, where officially no one is allowed to prepare and sell food on the street for public consumption. There are a number of dormant food vans awaiting a change in the law to legalize the preparation and sale of food streetside. The culinary landscape in Chicago is already diverse, add this movement to our repertoire and it’s a new dawn. There’s been a burgeoning of artisanal businesses, a movement which in some cases reflects the food truck model.
Operating in a confined space with limited ingredients to produce quality, freshly prepared goodies for waiting customers can be best served by employing a refined and focused menu. Just as the spatial limitations of a food truck do nothing to hinder the quality of the output, the same applies to our small 8’ x 8’ raised beds in our garden Urban Community Garden. The smaller the space, the more resourceful you have to be, a lot of it is about the preparation.
The winter months put a stop to most growth in the raised beds, with the exception of some winter salad leaves grown under plastic. The augmentation of small scale street vendors of late correlates to that warm sun we've been feeling, and is the inspiration for this Mexican style chili-dressed salad, using the winter leaves which are available. It’s vibrant and refreshing, made more substantial with the addition of some sticky and salty Valbreso feta cheese and a chilli kick from mixed spiced nuts.

Mexican inspired crunchy, spicy salad

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Serves 4 as a starter
8oz spinach, washed and torn
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced into batons (no need to peel if using an English Cucumber)
½ / 8oz Jicama sliced into matchsticks
16oz watermelon cubed into 1cm cubes
4 salad onions sliced lengthways
7oz Valbreso Feta cheese, crumbled
3 limes, juiced
1tspn salt
1tspn mexican chilli powder
2oz spiced nuts (see recipe below)
1. Put the spinach, cucumber, jicama, watermelon, onions and feta into a large bowl
2. Mix the lime, chilli and salt and pour over the salad ingredients, toss together carefully
3. Sprinkle the salad with the spiced nuts and serve
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Spiced and candied Mixed Nuts

8 oz mixed nuts
2 tbspn confectioners sugar (icing sugar)
½ tspn of each of the following: cayenne pepper, ground cinnamon, allspice, cumin, salt, ground black pepper
2 tbspn vegetable oil
1. Place the nuts in a bowl and blanch in boiling water for 1 minute then drain.
2. Stir the confectioners sugar into the nuts to coat.
3. Mix the spices together in a bowl and set aside.
4. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed skillet (frying pan) and fry the nuts until they take on some color, about 1 minute.
5. Remove the nuts from the pan with a slotted spoon and toss into the spice mixture, making sure all the nuts are evenly coated.
6. Spread the nuts out onto a tray to dry out and store in an airtight container in a cupboard for up to 2 weeks

Sno-zone Layer

 
I recently took off from Chicago on an evening Trans Atlantic flight in bright sunshine and cloudless skies with not a flake of snow on the ground. We were greeted on our descent into London Heathrow at sunrise by a fresh blanket of snow covering the green and pleasant land: it seemed everything that should be normal is not normal. Things seemed to be upside down, inside out and topsy turvey (thankfully not the airplane): my unsynchronised bodyclock, the distant acquaintance with my homeland after a year of absence, and, on an inauspicious note, the disconnect between anticipated and actual weather patterns.
The reality of climate change appears increasingly obvious. The last winter Olympics in Whistler were characterised by a serious lack of the white stuff, and, going slightly off-piste, I am wondering what apres-ski fayre was on offer as sustenance for those ski folk going stir crazy from the lack of snow. Elk? Venison? Freshly landed Pacific Coast seafood? I’m not convinced that highly tuned Olympic athletes coming off the slopes would plump for such cheesy Alpine delights as Tartiflette, a staple of those chalet restaurants that dot the mountainsides of the Savoie in France. Potatoes, cheese, bacon and cream are baked together with a triumphant result.
The reality of this dish is the reverse of it’s delicate sounding name. It is rich, luxurious and homely. I recall groaning my way through a Tartiflette during the height of a heatwave some years ago while camping in the Savoie, being pig-headed about eating a regional favourite. A half Reblechon sits on top of the potato mixture so that when the cheese melts the rind is left on top. Delicious. Pickled vegetables or gherkins make a good acidic accompaniment washed down with a glass of cold white wine. Our garden potatoes were limited this year but in abundance they can be stored successfully over winter. Reblochon can easily be replaced by Ardrahan, an award winning Irish washed rind cheese with a distinctly earthy aroma and an equally good crust.

Tartiflette


Serves 6

  • 2 1/2 lb/1.1 kg waxy potatoes
  • 2 tbsp/28 g butter
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 2 large garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1/2lb/225g slab bacon chopped, or lardons
  • ¼ cup/60 ml dry white wine
  • 1 cup/240ml heavy cream
  • 1lb/450g Reblochon cheese (Substitute with Ardrahan or Hooligan) 

Directions:


  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/175 degrees C.
  2. Put the potatoes into a large pot, cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes. (Use potatoes of similar size to ensure even cooking).
  3. Drain the potatoes and slice into 1 cm rounds when cooled.
  4. In a saute pan heat the butter, add the onion and saute until golden brown. Add the bacon/lardons and saute over a medium heat until crisp. Pour off any excess fat.
  5. Add the potatoes and wine to the saute pan and cook for 5 minutes.
  6. Add the cream, salt and pepper to taste. Stir all the ingredients together for a minute.
  7. Butter the inside of 10 inch earthenware baking dish. Add the potato mixture and smooth the surface.
  8. Slice the cheese in half horizontally into half moons. Use a sharp knife to lightly score the crust of each piece.
  9. Place the two pieces of cheese crust-side-up on top of the potatoes so that they form a circular cheese again. Bake in the oven until bubbling, for about 45 minutes.

Monday 23 January 2012

The Onion Principle



Somewhat belatedly, we find ourselves in the depths of winter, although i’m still not sure if we’re totally there yet. I’ve been anticipating blizzards and all the challenges they bring with them since, ooh, November, so I wasn’t disappointed when finally some snow arrived. It introduces another dimension to our day and instantly makes me think of steaming mugs of hot cocoa and scrumptious stove-top stews served bubbling from the pot. Our house is like an unending human flip-book of dressing indecision - layers on, layers off - but the Onion Principle is proven to be the best way of maintaining one’s core temperature.

To celebrate the versatility of the onion, this triumphant alium, in all it’s glory, I have showcased it by baking it under a blanket of Italian Gorgonzola in an onion gratin. This dish will stick to your ribs, providing another layer of insulation against the cold. The gratin makes a rich and tantalising side dish to accompany a steak or roast beef (I recently discovered tri-tip roast,  a cheaper and very tasty cut), or as an entree served with warm crusty french bread and a spinach salad.

Last year, I harvested shallots from the garden and these can be roasted whole for this recipe, but I have used sweet yellow onions here since they are more accessible. Onions can be stored perfectly well over the earlier winter months by initially air drying the tops then braiding them before hanging in a sheltered damp free location with air circulation. Some experimentation with homemade polytunnels at the garden this winter has provided a steady crop of spinach for a salad. Pair with a big, gutsy red wine or a dark beer.

Onion and Gorgonzola Gratin

Serves 6 as a side, 4 as a lunch entree.

3 medium yellow onions, quartered and separated
2 tbsp olive oil
seasoning
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup/240ml heavy cream
¼ cup/60ml dry white wine
nutmeg
4oz Gorgonzola

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a 9" x 9" ovenproof dish toss onions in the olive oil and season. 


Bake for 45 minutes and stir the onions occasionally when required. Remove from the oven.
2. Melt the butter and add the flour to m
ake a roux, cook out for a minute before adding the cream, wine, nutmeg and seasoning. Cook for a further 5 minutes on a low heat.
3.
Pour the sauce over the cooked onions and sprinkle with the Gorgonzola.


Grill until bubbling (approximately 2 minutes).

Serve immediately.