a slaw for summer

This is a truly bastardized recipe for Asian-style slaw that pulls in influences from across Southeast Asia. It captures the magical balance of flavors for which this complex region is known: sour, sweet, spicy and salty. It’s also a great way to use up leftover grilled meat. We used steak, but pork tenderloin, chicken (shredded), shrimp or fish would all work in its place. While it was only 75 degrees in Madison when we ate it, this would be a perfect dinner to make when it’s hot out. Just crack open a couple bottles of Tsingtao or Singha and enjoy.

Asian-style slaw with grilled steak
Serves 3-4 people

Ingredients

Dressing:
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla)
Juice from ½ a lime
1, 1-inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and grated on a microplane grater
2 red chiles – Fresno (mild), Serrano (medium) or thai bird (hot) chiles, thinly sliced diagonally
1 heaping tablespoon natural peanut butter
3 tablespoons hot water

Slaw:
4 cups very thinly sliced green cabbage
1 carrot, julienned
1 scallion, thinly sliced on a diagonal
3 tablespoons cilantro or mint, chopped finely

6-8 oz. leftover, cold grilled steak – tri-tip, skirt or flank steak would work well; thinly sliced.

Directions:
Combine slaw ingredients in a large serving bowl; toss to distribute evenly.

In a small saucepan, combined dressing ingredients. Whisk over medium heat until dressing is smooth and hot; don’t let it boil.

Pour dressing over slaw and let sit for at least 15 minutes to allow cabbage to wilt slightly – don’t let it sit longer than 30 minutes or you will have a soggy mess.

Mound slaw onto plates. Place some of the sliced steak on top. Enjoy!

this week's menu

Our CSA just started up and we are really looking forward to a change in our Saturday morning routine. Every other weekend we’ll be hitting the Mermaid Café for breakfast and our veggie pickup instead of hitting the market. This year we joined Driftless Organics' CSA and so far it’s been a good pick. The boxes are overflowing and the produce is gorgeous.

Our first breakfast/pickup with Pickle went well; I had a proud-mom-moment when Pickle chose to eat my curried egg and avocado sandwich over my husband’s maple-syrup drenched whole-grain waffle! My little culinary adventurer in the making!

In our CSA box:
Basil
Broccoli
Cilantro
Fennel
Green butter lettuce (2 heads)
Green onions
Green garlic
Radishes
Spinach
Strawberries
Sugar-snap peas

Menu: week of 28 June 2009
Sunday: Grilled tri-tip steak – Santa Maria Valley-style – with baby romaine salad and baked beans.
Monday: Leftover steak thinly sliced and served with an Asian slaw of cabbage, broccoli and carrot in a curried-peanut dressing (see posted recipe)
Tuesday: Turkey meatloaf sandwiches with tomato jam, butter lettuce salad with edamame and chopped broccoli in an herbed buttermilk dressing
Wednesday: Grilled fish with a cilantro-lime yogurt sauce and sautéed veggies
Thursday: Whole-wheat pasta with sautéed spinach, Fraboni’s Italian sausage and red onion
Friday: Pizza and a movie (even a foodie needs a night off!)

Pickle’s Menu:
Lunches: squash ravioli, fregole (toasted pearl-shaped pasta) in Mario Batali's red sauce, berries, ricotta frittata, shredded cheese
Dinner: gnocchi in Mario's red sauce; sautéed spinach, spinach cacik (aka tzatziki) with whole-wheat naan, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday menus above.

lunchtime

Since I work full time, Pickle goes to daycare, or as we call it at home, "school." I pack his snacks and lunches for school every day and it's really tough sometimes to ensure that he's getting what he needs nutrition-wise while not consuming all of my free time cooking specific meals for him. This is a great article to quantify how much food a toddler needs. It's not as much as you think.

In one of my blogs, I shared with you my pancake recipe. Well, I have to say that "cakes" in general are a great way to pack in a meal's nutritional requirements of protein, dairy, vegetable/fruit and grains:
Fish cakes (salmon, tuna, cod, tilapia, shrimp)
Bean cakes (lentils and chickpeas, too)
Grain cakes (bulgur, quinoa, whole-wheat couscous, wheatberries, brown rice)
Veggie cakes (roasted mushrooms, eggplants, squash, potato, zucchini, carrot, turnip, parsnip, the possibilities are endless!)

Here's a link to a family favorite from Everyday Food: veggie burgers. These are very versatile and can easily accommodate what you have in your pantry and fridge. Switch the pinto beans with black beans; quinoa for bulgur; unsweetened almond butter for tahini; the list goes on and on for substitutions.

Inspired by some crab cakes I recently made for Chris's birthday, I am working on a fish cake recipe that I'll post soon.

So here are some recent lunches/snacks Rhys has taken to school with him:
3-4 RP's Pasta Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli — diced into bite-size pieces
One hard-boiled egg, diced
Raspberries, quartered
P.M. snack: diced bananas dusted in pulverized whole-wheat graham crackers

Whole-wheat cinnamon-banana pancakes, cubed
Shredded cheddar cheese from Cedar Grove Dairy
Strawberries, diced
P.M. snack: blueberry applesauce and Cascadian Farm Organic Os (contains no sugar)

Ricotta Frittata with spinach and red peppers, cubed
Diced avocado
Blueberries, quartered.
P.M. snack: whole-wheat graham crackers with cream cheese (broken into small pieces) and diced melon

Other lunch-time helpers I love:
Box graters: great for grating more than cheese, especially those things that fall into the “choking hazard” category — apples, pears, carrots, zucchini, sweet potato.
Electric Scale: helps you “eyeball” accurate portions
Steamer-basket insert: steaming preserves a lot of the vitamins in vegetables

beet it!

I love beets. I should clarify; I love roasted beets – pickled or canned beets, not so much. This recipe is a mainstay in my kitchen – I use everything from late spring's baby beets to summer's glorious full-size ones, be it garnet, golden or chioggia beets. The inherent sweetness of the beets is offset by the smoky cumin, the tang of the red-wine vinegar and the goat cheese that adds a perfect, creamy salinity to balance it out. Throw in some pistachios for both the amazing color contrast and texture and you have a really delicious, healthful salad that goes well with fish, chicken, pork, beef, lamb, etc.

Disclaimer: The beets have barely made it to Pickle's lips. I'll let you know when one is actually ingested.

Roasted beet salad with goat cheese and pistachios
Ingredients
1-2 bunches baby beets or one bunch, medium-sized beets, greens removed and reserved for other use
4 oz. goat cheese
¼ cup pistachios, shelled and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons red wine vinegar
½ to 1 teaspoon cumin, to taste
½ teaspoon kosher salt
A few grinds of freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
For baby beets: wrap 4-5 beets on heavy duty aluminum foil. Repeat with remaining beets. Larger beets can be wrapped individually. Place foil packets on a baking sheet and roast beets for 45 minutes to an hour. Let beets cool and then peel the beets and remove any remaining stems. Slice beets into quarters, lengthwise, and place in serving bowl.

For the vinaigrette: In a small bowl, add vinegar, cumin, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. In a slow stream, add the olive oil, whisking continuously until you get an emulsion. Taste vinaigrette and adjust seasonings, adding more cumin, salt or pepper. Pour dressing over beets and toss to coat. Garnish with pistachios and crumbled goat cheese.

this week's menu

I'm sorry that I haven't posted any recipes listed on last week's menu. It was just one of those weeks. I'll have some recipes to share very soon, but until then, here's what we bought at the market and what we'll be eating this week.

Hot and humid weather has hit Wisconsin and we'll be eating accordingly— light meals with little-to-no oven use. Sunday was Father's Day and Chris requested a molé for his celebratory dinner. Rick Bayless, king of haute Mexican cuisine, never lets us down! It was delicious. The Mexican chocolate ice cream I made would have been delicious too, but I forgot to put the freezer bowl in the freezer since the last time we made ice cream, so we'll be having freshly churned ice cream tonight. Sorry babe!

At the Market:
Baby Romaine
Cilantro
English hothouse cucumber
Early tomatoes
Scallions
Spinach
Strawberries

This week's Menu: 21 June 2009
Sunday – Father's Day(Chris's request): Grilled chicken paillards with spicy ancho-peanut molé with a salad of baby romaine and avocado in a lime vinaigrette
Monday: Farfalle with sautéed escarole, pine nuts and sultanas
Tuesday: Larb Gai – Ground chicken with lime, chili and fresh herbs served with butter lettuce and cucumbers
Wednesday (Chris is cooking!): Grilled stuffed squid with frisée, capers and herbs
Thursday: Ricotta Frittata with spinach

Friday: Grilled fish tacos with avocado créma and black refried beans

this week's menu

It was raining again during Saturday's farmers' market – bummer. Pickle and I were flying solo as Chris was out of town, parking was a beast and I spilled coffee all over myself trying to maneuver the stroller out of Café Soleil, so all in all, not the best start to our Saturday ritual.

But, boy oh boy, did the farmers make it all the worthwhile! The stands were burgeoning with fresh goodies. Every shade of green was featured with pops of red from the glorious, finally in-season strawberries. There is nothing better than a homegrown strawberry – red all the way through and sweet as sugar. Yum! Pickle had a meltdown midway through the market, but one of those berries made it all better. Oh, the power of food.

At the Market:
Arugula
Baby beets
Breakfast radishes from Harmony Valley Farm
Escarole from Jones Valley Farms – it was enormous!
Oyster mushrooms
Pencil-thin asparagus – so happy to have one last bunch before the season ends
Red butter lettuce – absolutely gorgeous and so unusual looking!
Spinach from Harmony Valley Farm
Spring onions
Strawberries
Sugar-snap peas

Menu: week of 14 June 2009
Sunday: Grilled flank steak and escarole with toasted pine nuts, golden raisins in a warm, garlic-lemon vinaigrette (recipe coming soon!)
Monday: Grilled, Korean-style Key West Shrimp with scallion pancakes and sautéed sesame sugar-snap peas
Tuesday: Oven-baked meatballs with herbed Greek yogurt and roasted asparagus
Wednesday: Puffed pastry tart with sautéed greens, oyster mushrooms and a roasted-beet and goat cheese salad
Thursday: Pasta with sautéed escarole, Fraboni’s Italian sausage and red onion
Friday: For cocktails on the patio: Breakfast radishes on crostini with softened butter and fleur de sel and a glass of Rosé – summer is finally here!

taco tuesday

We try to go meatless at least twice a week. It definitely makes you a little more creative during those dreary winter months when all that is in season is winter squash, onions and maybe some overwinter spinach, but now that the Dane County Farmers' Market is in full swing, veggie dinners are super easy, super satisfying and super good for you and the planet!

Before Pickle was born, Tuesday nights were often spent with friends at the Old Fashioned for their boozy Taco Tuesday – the fish and pork tacos rocked; so did the margaritas; the next morning was not so rocking. Needless to say, Pickle is not digging that scene too much just yet, so Taco Tuesday is more of a home affair.

Last Saturday, we picked up some amazingly gorgeous baby beets (we'll be roasting them later in the week) from Jones Valley Farm, one of my favorite stands at the market.

People often discard one of the best parts of the beet – the greens. Similar to Swiss chard in flavor and texture, beet greens are wonderful sautéed and piled on a taco. What makes them even better are some crimini mushrooms, sautéed until golden with some garlic. Yum. Add to that some DreamFarm chevre and you got yourself one heck of a taco.

Pickle loves greens (I know, we’re lucky) and he really gobbled up the greens on our first Taco Tuesday of the season! The mushrooms were tolerated and the goat cheese was thrown on the floor. He’s on an anti-dairy kick this week.

P.S. I like a “fresh” component to garnish these tacos. Some thinly sliced scallions, microgreens, radishes or pea shoots add a crisp top-note.

Here's the recipe. Bon Appétit ... or, rather, Buen Apetito!

Tacos of sautéed beet greens and crimini with goat cheese ... Serves two adults and one Pickle

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 bunch beet greens, roughly chopped and washed
1 lb. crimini mushrooms, wiped clean, if necessary, small ones left whole, larger ones halved or quarter depending on size
1 half of a red onion, halved and then sliced thinly 1 clove garlic, grated on microplane, divided
1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 oz. chevre
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
8-10 corn tortillas*
Hot sauce

Garnishes: thinly sliced scallions, microgreens, radishes or pea shoots

Directions:
Heat 12-inch sauté pan until smoking hot over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and then add mushrooms. Do not touch them. When they start to whistle (yes, whistle), they are ready for a flip or a stir. Let them go a little bit more, until their juices start flowing a little. Add red onion, half the garlic, a good pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Cook until onions are nicely browned and soft, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove to a serving dish; keep warm in the oven or tented with foil.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to pan. Add greens and cook, stirring occasionally until wilted. Add remaining garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add balsamic vinegar and let it reduce down until greens a just coated. Season with salt and pepper. Remove to a serving bowl.

Top each taco with chevre and some of the garnishes noted above.

*Heating corn tortillas
A great way to consistently and easily heat corn tortillas without over-steaming them (and having them glued to the kitchen towel they were wrapped in) is to heat them in the oven.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and, on a foil-lined baking sheet, place one layer of tortillas. Brush very lightly with olive oil. Repeat with a second layer on top of the first. Brush with oil and repeat again, if needed. Heat in oven for 2-4 minutes — keep an eye on them; overheating will make them disintegrate. Pile them up in a towel-lined basket. Eat fast.

Note: this method is also great for assembling enchiladas.

happy meal? pancakes for all times of the day

Making lunch for a toddler who only wants to feed himself is tough. So many options fall into the “choking hazard” category and others are on the just-too-messy side of self-feeding (um, soup). Plus, you want food that is nutritious and meets their daily requirements of fruits, veggies, dairy and protein. Woo, I’m overwhelmed already!

Here is my fail-safe, go-to recipe that can be modified to your child’s likes and dislikes: pancakes.

Yep, whole-wheat pancakes filled with fruits or vegetables, dairy or protein – the options are endless. I usually grate the fillings, which means you don’t have to pre-cook them. I make a big batch, freeze them in waxed paper bags housed in a freezer Ziploc and voila! Instant breakfast, lunch or dinner. Just pop them in the toaster on defrost and cut them into bite-size cubes. I don't serve these with syrup or anything, except the carrot ones; they just screamed "raita."

Here are some flavor combinations Pickle loves:
Apple/Pear and Cheddar from Cedar Grove Cheese
Zucchini and Marieke Gouda from Holland’s Family Farm
Carrot and Cumin, served with a cilantro-mint raita (yogurt sauce)
Banana and nutmeg
Sweet potato and cinnamon

Still tinkering on some protein-based pancakes … I’ll keep you posted.

Master recipe for whole-wheat pancakes
Ingredients:
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1-½ cups buttermilk, preferably organic
1 extra-large egg
3 tablespoons melted butter, cooled

¾ cup of your choice of fillings – use the large holes on your box grater for the fillings; the exception are carrots and sweet potato; I use a fine grater for those.

Olive oil for frying the pancakes

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. In a large measuring cup, add buttermilk, egg and butter. Slowly add the liquids to the dry ingredients, mixing only until just combined. Add the fillings slowly, checking consistency as you go.

Note: if you want to have super-fluffy pancakes, you can separate the yolk and white of the egg and whisk the whites until soft peaks form; then fold in whites once the liquids are incorporated.

Heat griddle or sauté pan over medium-low heat; add oil and cook in batches until bubbles appear on surface; flip and cook 1-2 more minutes. I use an ice cream scoop to get consistently sized cakes (about 1/4 cup).

this week's menu

I thought I would share with you what I bought at the farmers' market and this week's menu. If you're wondering if I have time for anything else besides cooking, I will be running on Sunday and Wednesday and Friday. Yes, it's hard to fit it all in when you get home from work at 5:45 p.m., but if I run I get to eat what I want!

At the Farmers' Market:
Asparagus
Red-leaf bib lettuce from Harmony Valley Farm
Rhubarb
Purple scallions
Crimini mushrooms
Spinach
Baby beets from Jones Valley Farm

Menu: week of 6 June 2009
Saturday: Curried Cream of Potato Soup with homemade Croutons
Sunday: Pizza with oven-roasted grape tomatoes, fresh ricotta and thyme
Monday: Thai lettuce wraps with coconut rice
Tuesday: Tacos of sautéed greens and crimini with chevre (recipe coming soon!)
Wednesday: Roasted asparagus with fried eggs, prosciutto and mustard-creme fraiche sauce
Thursday: Grilled pork tenderloin, with roasted beet, pistachio and goat cheese salad (recipe coming soon!)
Friday: Carry out and movie

P.S. I made a rhubarb crisp for a sweet treat throughout the week.

no soup for you!

So, last weekend was darn cold for June (I know, we live in Wisconsin). We had hit the farmer's market in the morning, but I still wasn't sure what to make for dinner that night. I had menus for the rest of the week set, but Saturday night was throwing me for a loop.

Pickle was going to eat dinner before we did so we could have a grown-up meal without the worry of food being thrown at us, so the options were endless. I hadn't made soup in ages and since it was 59 degrees outside and spitting rain, soup sounded perfect.

With five Yukon gold potatoes in the pantry and some purple scallions, petite carrots and baby spinach from the market, I whipped together a little curried cream of potato soup for dinner with some homemade croutons for a garnish.

The next night, Pickle was given the leftover soup; needless to say it did not receive the same warm reception it did the evening prior.

Here's the recipe ... make it before it's too hot out (although, it could be good cold, too):

Curried cream of potato soup with greens and croutons
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
6 scallions, finely sliced
1 large carrot or three petite carrots, medium diced
5 yukon gold potatoes, diced into 1/2 cubes
1 teaspoon madras curry powder
4-5 cups chicken stock
1 cup whole milk
8 oz. baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
1-2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
Over medium heat, add olive oil and butter to a 6-8 qt. Dutch oven or soup pot. When the butter subsides foaming, add scallions and carrots. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and some pepper. Sauté until slightly tender, about 5-7 minutes. Add curry power and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add potatoes, stirring to coat. Add stock and milk (add more stock if need; vegetables should be submerged completely). Add other teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until potatoes are tender, but not yet falling apart, about 45 minutes.

Remove from heat and with a slotted spoon remove about 1/3 of the potatoes and carrots and place in a bowl. With a handheld or traditional blender, puree the remaining soup until smooth. Use caution when blending hot liquids.
Add reserved veggies back into the soup, along with the heavy cream and baby spinach. Check seasonings, and add more salt and pepper as needed. Return to medium-low heat and warm until spinach has wilted and soup is hot.

Garnish with homemade croutons.

Croutons
Ingredients:
Leftover country or sourdough bread (although almost any bread will work), cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 clove garlic, shaved on a microplane grater

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Place bread on baking sheet lined with parchment or foil.
Mix olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic together in a small bowl.
Drizzle over bread. Toss to coat.
Bake for 15-20 minute, until bread is golden brown and crisp.