Summer Cottage Pie

Many people have heard of Shepherd's Pie, but while looking around the internets yesterday for inspiration, I learned something. Technically, it's only Shepherd's Pie if it contains lamb or goat, otherwise it is Cottage Pie. So, that cleared up, you may be wondering why I'm making Cottage Pie in August. The fact is this: we have such freaking bounty from our CSA (denoted by *) that I was just looking for something that would use a lot of our spoils. Mission: deliciously accomplished. I served this with a side of spicy, garlicky sautéed chard, also from our CSA. (PS sorry I didn't get a picture. Trust me though, it's awesome.)

• 8-10 medium yukon gold potatoes*, peeled, large diced
• 2 ears fresh sweet corn*
• 3-4 small/medium carrots*, peeled, small diced
• 2 medium turnips*, chopped into 1/2" cubes
• 2 medium spring onions* separated, whites: thinly sliced half rounds, greens: rough chopped
• 5-6 brown button mushrooms, diced
• 1 cup frozen (or fresh) peas
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley*,  finely chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter (I always use unsalted)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups veggie stock, separated (1/2 c and 1 c)
• freshly cracked black pepper and kosher salt, to taste

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2) Bring potatoes to a boil in salted water over high heat. Once the potatoes get to boiling, slip the whole ears of corn in there. Boil until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain. Using a sharp knife and downward strokes, cut the kernels off the corn.

3) While the potatoes are doing their thing, brown the beef in a large flat bottomed skillet. Season with the cumin, cayenne, crushed red pepper, as well as salt and pepper. When it's cooked, move the meat to a bowl and return the skillet to the heat.

4) Add olive oil to pan. Sauté garlic and onions for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add carrots and turnips. Sauté another 6-7 minutes. Add mushrooms, corn, and peas. Cook another 5 minutes. (If at any point things start to stick, add a little more olive oil.) Mix in beef, parsley, and 1 cup of veggie stock. Remove from heat. Season with salt/pepper to taste.

5) To the drained potatoes add the butter, milk, and 1/2 cup veggie stock. Mash thoroughly. Mix in the green part of the onions.

6) Dump the meat and veggie mixture into a 13 x 9" glass baking dish and smooth out to even thickness. Spread the mashed potatoes on top, as evenly as you can. (If you wanted, you could sprinkle shredded sharp cheddar on here.) Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top starts to get golden brown.

Fall Veggie & Sausage Sauté

Have I mentioned lately how much I love getting a CSA? Because boy howdy do I love it. I'm already despondent thinking about trying to get anywhere near the quality at the market once the CSA shuts down for the season. This dish was, yet another, example of "what can we make with what we have on hand?" As I was eating it I realized that, sausage aside, this flavorful dish was actually really healthy. No butter, no cheese, only a handful of pasta to the mound of sauté... this could become a recurring guest on our table.

A couple of notes: the squash I roasted a couple days prior and put in the fridge. I under-roasted it slightly so it would stand up to being sautéed without becoming mush. Also, the sauteé is hefty and filling, so you could forget the pasta base entirely if you wanted to avoid carbs. Me, I like starchy bases, so it stays :) The large sausage links I bought at McKinnon's, a local meat shop. Struggles and I have been loving their garlic-cheese ones for just about everything. (There'll be another post about mushroom soup and how I punched it up the second time around with these delicious meat tubes.) I pre-cooked the sausages a bit so they'd hold their shape when I sliced them. Oh, and as always, anything marked with a * came from the CSA!

(so good, even the picture makes me want to eat it again)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/2 large red onion, large dice
• 1/3 medium butternut squash, roasted and cut into inch cubes*
• 3 small bell peppers, rough chopped*
• 1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4" half rounds*
• 1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1.5-2" pieces
• 3 large sausage links, slightly precooked and cut into 1/4" slices (see notes above)
• 1.5 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• salt & pepper

• 1/2 pound pasta, cooked and tossed with:
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon dried thyme

1) Olive oil, garlic, and red onion go right into the pan to sauté over medium heat until they're translucent. Throw the not-entirely-cooked sausage medallions in there. (I'm using a LARGE, flat bottomed skillet, by the way.)

2) After 2-3 minutes, toss in the zucchini, peppers and asparagus, along with the spices. Cover. Open and stir every 90 seconds or so until the asparagus is BRIGHT green.

3) Push everything around to the sides, leaving an empty spot in the middle of the pan. Fill the empty spot with butternut squash cubes. Cover and let sit for 1-2 minutes. Open and stir very gently so you don't squish the squash.

4) Serve over pasta. Dust with parmesan, if you want.

So we're trying to eat healthier AND more frugally

Struggles and I spent a week in the desert recently, followed by a week in my beloved Portland. If you've never been to PDX, the most you know is probably from that one show or the apparently unrequited love the New York Times has for the city of roses. At any rate, while Portland is a mecca for vegans and vegetarians, we also really REALLY love meat. And we do it well. Our time there was thusly summed by Struggles, "Every day we ate until we hated ourselves. And then we ate some more." So, upon our return to the East, we agreed that frugal and healthy was the plan. We're still getting our farm share, so that's a big help. I'm a protein machine though, so eggs and beans are about to be my best friends. Here's round one.

A few words about this frittata. You can really put whatever you want in it. That's kind of the beauty of something like this. Also, if anyone says "Oh that's like a crustless quiche" punch them square in the mouth. By definition they are the same thing except for the crust issue. Anyway, I used our big ass cast iron skillet for this, which is the way to go if you've got one. In any case be sure that your skillet can go from stove to oven without a meltdown. I ended up just serving this with corn on the cob, but next time I'm definitely having some sort of greens on the side. I had a kale caesar salad in Portland I've been itching to mimic, so maybe that. 

Veggie Frittata with a Kick
(things with an asterisk are from our farm share!)

• 2-3 tablespoons oil (if you're using a well seasoned cast iron you can err on the conservative side)
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup red onion, diced
• 1 medium carrot diced*
• 1 medium bell pepper, large chop*
• 3-4 white or crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 a small zucchini, in thin half rounds*
• 1/2 a small yellow squash, in thin rounds
• 1 medium-large red potato, scrubbed and sliced thinly*
• 12 eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• salt and pepper
• 1 medium tomato, sliced*

1) Sauté the onions and garlic in the oil for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the carrots; cook for another 5. Next are the pepper, mushrooms, squash. Sauté until the carrots are not crunchy, but not total mush, another 5 minutes-ish. Undercook them just a little because baking will finish them off.

2) Turn heat down to low. Scoop half of the pan's contents out and level the rest. Put a layer of potatoes down. Don't make it a totally solid layer, just scatter them around. Put the rest of the sautéed mixture on top, followed by the rest of the potatoes.

3) Beat the eggs with the spices thoroughly. Turn off the stove. Gently pour the egg in, make sure to get it all around. If it's trapped and pooled in one area gently move the pan back and forth to help it even out. With the amount of veggies I had, the egg *almost* covered them. I had to poke a few potato slices into submission.

4) Lay the tomato rounds on top all pretty like.

Before the oven. Not pictured: my skeptical face that it'll look this nice when it comes out.

5) Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. You want the egg to be totally set, but not dried out.

6) Some schools of thought on frittata demand that you flip the finished product out of the skillet onto a platter for serving. Mine looked so pretty on top that I skipped that. I cut wedges with a sharp knife and just used a cake/pie serving spatula to get it out. Garnish with grated parmesan if you like.

Holy shit. Look at the glory!

Food Dreamin': Rice and Bacon and Greens, Oh My!

Struggles and I have been getting a weekly farm share. This has been all sorts of interesting. For one, it's a LOT of veggies to consume on a weekly basis. 

For another, there's things in there that I'm totally clueless about what to do with (or don't even know what it is. I'm looking at you, kohlrabi.)  Anyway. We always get tons of greens. I *love* greens. Kale is probably my favorite, but I've yet to meet a green I don't like. Proper usage/preparation of said greens are key though.

So, the other night I had a food dream. This is pretty rare for me. In fact I can't even think of the last time I ate in a dream. But this came to me fully formed. It was so beautiful, I knew that it was going to be dinner. A savory rice pilaf type base, a beautiful emerald nest of greens, onions and bacon all topped with a blindingly bright poached egg. In fact, it looked like this:

A note, there are a lot of awesome greens in this dish, but other than that it's not really super healthy. You can certainly make it so (see ingredient notes) but the way I initially envisioned and prepared it is with emphasis on what sounded awesome. I wanted something kinda pan-Asian, but I have little experience there, so I just seasoned simply and put an emphasis on toasted sesame oil. Also of note is the punch in the greens from the crushed red pepper. It was definitely noticeable, but not too much for my less-spicy palate. Your mileage, as usual, may vary. Finally, anything with a * next to it means it was from the farm share. Eat local!

Rice Pilaf:

• 2 cups long grain white rice (Could sub brown, for healthier option.)
• 4 cups liquid (I used 3 cups water, 1 cup chicken broth. You might want veggie. Always go low sodium if using pre-made broth.)
• 3 cloves garlic, small diced
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1/4 cup carrot, diced*
• 2 tablespoons butter (Could use some sort of oil, olive, etc.)
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• pinch kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated garlic (Why? When I taste tested at the end, it seemed bland.)
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1) Sauteé the garlic, onion and carrot in the butter over medium heat, along with the spices, until the aromatics are translucent.
2) Turn up the heat to medium high and add the rice. Toast for 1-2 minutes.
3) Add the liquid. Bring to a boil. Cover and turn down to simmer. Cook for 20 minutes, or until the water is all absorbed.
4) After removing from heat, stir in the sesame oil.

Sautéed Greens with Bacon:

• 6-8 cups assorted greens* (Seems like a lot, but they cook way down. I used mostly mizuna, along with some red chard and kale.)
• 1/4 cup cippolini onions, sliced* (Including the green tops!)
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 3 tablespoons butter (Again, could use some sort of oil.)
• 1/2 lb bacon, cut into 1-2 2inch pieces)
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper 
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 1/4 cup chicken broth (or water)

1) In large, flat-bottomed skillet, over medium-high heat, fry up bacon, along with pepper and granulated garlic. (I'm all about flavoring my bacon.) You DON'T want it super crispy. Remove cooked bacon with slotted spoon to drain on paper towel and drain off most of the fat.

2) Add onions, sliced garlic, and crushed red pepper to the pan and sauté over medium low heat until translucent. (Don't burn them!)

3) Add the bacon back in. Turn back up to medium heat.
4) Carefully pile the greens in, then add the chicken broth. Cover and do not disturb for 2 minutes
5) Take off the lid and stir the greens. I found it easiest to do this with tongs. Sautée for several (5ish) minutes, until the greens are bright and wilted.
6) During the last minute or so, add in the sesame oil.

Poached Egg:

• 1 egg, cracked into a small dish
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• medium saucepan with 4 inches of water

(I literally hadn't poached an egg since home ec class in high school, so I'm going to write out how I did it, in case you're in the same boat.)

1) Add vinegar to pan with water and bring up to *almost* boiling. It should be at that stage where the entire botton and sides of the pan are covered in tiny little bubbles.
2) Using a rubber spatula, stir the water in the pan into a whirlpool. Gently slide the egg from the dish into the center of the whirlpool.
3) DON'T touch it, for at least 30 seconds. Give it time to set up. If you think it might be sticking to the bottom, after 30 seconds, gently slide the spatula under the egg. Be careful!
4) Let it cook for 3-4 minutes.
5) Using a slotted spoon, scoop out the egg and let it drain a few seconds. You can set it on a paper towel if you aren't putting it directly onto the dish.

Assembly:

• Rice in the bottom.
• Using *tongs* make a nest of greens on top of the rice. Make sure there's a bit of a divot in the center.
• Gently slide your freshly poached egg into the divot.
• Drizzle toasted sesame oil over the egg. 
• Dust with black pepper.
• Nom.