Looks aren't everything

Apparently I was feeling very adventurous while food shopping last week, not only did I roast my first chicken and cook fennel for the first time, I also picked up some celeriac, also known as celery root, and decided to try that for the first time as well. It is not a pretty vegetable, but it's January and I know it's going to be a couple of months before I can eat pretty vegetables again.

Turns out it is delicious however! I used a Claire Robinson for Celery Root and Carrot Puree and it turned out great. I mostly followed the recipe, but since I don't have a TV contract that limits me to five ingredients I also put in a little cream and chopped parsley at the end. I was also excited because I got to use the chicken stock I had made a few days earlier. Overall celery root does taste like celery, but it's a less sharp and intense flavor. Adding the carrots mellowed out the flavor of celery as well. Neither my husband or I like eating raw celery, but we both loved this. Robbie actually loved it so much he requested it again for this week!

I served the puree with some spiced lamb. This recipe was originally inspired by a Rachael Ray recipe (which I can't seem to find a link to, sorry) but I think I've changed it a bit over time. 

Here's what you need:

1 to 1.5 pounds of boneless leg of lamb, cut into bite sized chunks 

Spices: I included salt, pepper, cayenne, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, paprika, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and ground cloves

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup of wine (red or white, whatever's open) to deglaze the pan 

1/4 cup of dried currants (raisins would also work)

1 cup chicken stock

Combine all of the spices in a ziplock bag. The amounts, and even what spices you use, are up to your discretion. I put in pretty much whatever I have, with the exception of anything that's dried leaves or something else that might burn easily. This time I think I used a little but too much clove, so I'll have to try to be less heavy handed next time. Anyway, after you have the spices in the bag put the meat in and shake it up so all the pieces are evenly coated.

Meanwhile heat some olive oil and saute the garlic. When it's browned a bit add the lamb and turn the meat occasionally so that all of the meat gets seared on the outside. After that's finished, deglaze the pan with the wine, then add the currants and stock. Cover the pot and let it simmer for about twenty minutes. That's it! This is a super easy and quick way to cook lamb, an ingredient that can be somewhat intimidating. Here's my finished meal:

Roasted Chicken and Homemade Stock

The farmer's market in my neighborhood is technically year round, but I guess we at the time of year when the farmers just have nothing to sell. There were no produce stands at the market last week, which was very disappointing. Next Saturday I'm going to try the market in the next neighborhood over to see if maybe they have more to offer. Anyway, the meat vendor from Smith Meadows Farm showed up, so my trip was not in vain. I bought some eggs and because I was feeling adventurous I also got a whole chicken and an oxtail. More on the oxtail later.

Although I roasted a duck for Thanksgiving, I've never done a whole chicken before. For some reason I found the idea really intimidating and kept putting it off. Man, was I being silly. Roasting a chicken is SO EASY and SO GOOD. Since this was my first time doing it, I decided to stick with a recipe which is uncharacteristic for me. I used Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Chicken recipe and followed it almost to the letter. The only things I did differently were to omit the onions (because I hate them) and to put some fennel fronds in the chicken cavity just because I had them and why not. Since my bird was a little smaller, around 4 pounds, my cooking time was closer to an hour. Here is the finished product:

Golden brown and delicious!

In addition to roasting chicken for the first time, this was also the first time I've cooked fennel. My husband and I both liked it. It has a subtle sweetness and I think it's great for these kinds of applications. Since I dislike onions so much I think I might start using fennel as a substitute for things like roasts, and maybe stews. It isn't my new favorite thing (like cauliflower was, haha) but I'm happy to add something new to my repertoire.

The hardest part of cooking a whole bird is carving it, but I think we managed to do that without butchering it too badly. We each had a breast and a drumstick for dinner.

In addition to providing us with a wonderful Sunday night dinner, I also got enough meat off the chicken to use in four lunch salads and I was able to use the carcass to make stock. After thanksgiving I made duck stock with our leftovers and I did that on the stove top since I was home from work and had the time to babysit it. This time I decided to try the crock pot, however, and it worked beautifully. Basically I just threw a bunch of stuff in and left it alone. First I added the carcass, and I left the aromatics inside the cavity. I figured they couldn't hurt. Then I added spices, mostly red pepper flake, bay leaf, thyme, and rosemary. I think I also added additional salt. I threw in the leftover roasted fennel and carrots, then added more carrots and two stalks of celery in addition to more fennel tops. Recently I read that putting acid in a stock helps leach the nutrients out of the bones and into the stock, which is where you want it, so I also put in a few dashes of apple cider vinegar. I covered it with water and left it on low for 20 hours. The result was beautiful, I got over two quarts of lovely, rich, dark brown stock.

I forgot to take a picture before I strained it, sorry!

I strained it into a pitcher so I could just pour it into whatever I want to use it for later in the week. I'm just obsessed with the color. It's so much darker than the store bought stocks or broths. Even Kitchen Basics, which was my preferred brand, is a few shades lighter than this. Making the stock was so easy I really have no excuse to ever buy it again. 

Meat and Potatoes

Potatoes are a bit on a controversial food for me. They aren't really an approved part of any Primal or Paleo diet but they are just so delicious and versatile it's hard for me to give them up altogether. Luckily I have found some great substitutes, like pureed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes, but I still haven't found anything to replace really delicious roast potatoes. So, I just eat them. Not often because of the high carbohydrate content, but on occasion. Probably about once every two weeks.

In any case, Friday night I had some beautiful New York Strip to cook, and what better to pair it with than roast potatoes?

This whole meal is a great example of how simple food can be delicious. The steak was simply crusted with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper then seared for about five minutes on each side in a cast iron skillet. For the broccoli, I just steamed it for about 5-7 minutes then sauteed it in butter with a little bit of garlic. This is pretty much how I cook most vegetables. It makes anything taste good.

The potatoes were a little bit special, though. I still had some duck fat left over from Thanksgiving so I coated the small halved potatoes with that. In addition to salt and pepper, I also grated a clove of garlic on the spuds and added a bit of rosemary. I put all of the potatoes cut side down on a baking sheet so that they would have a lot of contact with foil and get extra crispy. I roasted them at 400 for about 20 or 25 minutes. They turned out perfect, very crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, and the duck added an interesting flavor. I know not everyone has duck fat on hand though, and I think bacon grease would work equally well.

Overall, this was a very quick and simple meal, but it still felt special, a little celebration for the end of the workweek.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012 everyone! I know I'm a bit late, but better late than never. I've also been a bit MIA lately, sorry about that. My husband and I were in Italy on vacation eating lots of delicious although mostly carby food. Now that vacation and the holidays are over, however, I'm ready to get back on track with old goals and start working on some new ones.

So far my goals for the upcoming year are to
-Recommit to eating Primal. I let myself cheat a bit too much in the last few months and I could tell the difference, both in the way I looked and in the way I felt.
-Stop drinking Diet Coke. For real this time!
-Continue to avoid the grocery store whenever possible. This also involves finally ordering some bulk meat from a local farm. I need to get a freezer before we do this, but hopefully I can do that before March when Polyface starts delivering meat again.
-Experiment with other things to make my lifestyle more sustainable, like perhaps washing my hair with baking soda or making my own green cleaning solutions.
-Keep working on my garden. It was going pretty well, but everything kind of died while I was away. The herbs, lettuce, and kale are all really droopy, I think they froze at night. The oregano, rosemary and thyme seem good though, so I think they can be salvaged. I'm not too disappointed, I knew this might happen, and I'm was planning on planting replacements for the things that died anyway.

Speaking of gardening, I just placed my order for seeds from Baker's Creek Seeds. Here's what I'm getting:

Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli
Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts
Tonda di Parigi Carrots
Snowball Self-Blanching Cauliflower
Violetta Itallia Cauliflower
Marketmore 76 Cucumber
Florida Market Eggplant
Arugula
Forellenschluss Lettuce
Hollow Crown Parsnip
Early Prolific Staightneck Squash
Black Beauty Zucchini
Spaghetti Squash
Butternut Rogosa Violina Giosa Squash
Mary Robinson's German Bicolor Tomato
Yellow Pear Tomato
Amish Paste Tomato
Genovese Basil
Cilantro
Italian Parsely

All of these are organic and heirloom varieties. I'm also getting some Lacinato (Dino) Kale seeds from Amazon because Baker's Creek didn't have the kind of kale I wanted. I just can't wait for all my stuff to come in so I can start seedings in mid-February! I also need to get some containers and soil between now and then, but I'll work on that later. I also want to start growing tomatoes in my new AeroGarden and try to sprout the orange seeds my friend Brittany gave me for Christmas. I think I have a busy few months ahead, but I'm excited for this new challenge!

I have finally perfected eggplant parmesan!

Eggplant parm is a staple for me, and has been for about the last two years. One day I was at my mom's house and we needed something to fix for dinner but there wasn't a lot of food in the house. She did happen to have an eggplant though, and some shredded mozzarella, so we decided to try eggplant parmesan even though neither of us had ever had it before (I have no clue why she even had the eggplant). I ended up really liking it and have been making it ever since. I didn't do much differently this time, but for some reason it just all came together in the most perfect way.

When I make this I cut the eggplant into rounds and bake it, instead of breading and frying it. This has two upsides: it is MUCH easier and cleaner, and it's healthier. No gluten from the breading, no worrying about oxidized frying oil. I'm sure I originally did it this way to make it lower in fat, and while that isn't really my focus anymore, baking the eggplant is still a good idea. This recipe takes a little time, but it is super easy.

Eggplant Parmesan:
1 large eggplant
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 C shredded mozzarella
2TBS shredded parmesan
1 clove garlic, minced
1 TBS each chopped thyme and chopped oregano
Olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

First preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then slice the eggplant into rounds. Use a sharp knife for this, it makes a world of difference. I think one of the keys to really good eggplant parm is uniformly thin eggplant slices. Lay the slices on a cookie sheet and drizzle both sides with olive oil and season both sides with salt and pepper. This is basically the same way I cooked the eggplant when making enchiladas.

While the eggplant is baking make the sauce. Saute the garlic in some olive oil over medium heat. Add the red pepper flakes (to taste) and let that hang out for a minute or two. Next dump the tomatoes into the pot, season with salt, pepper, and herbs, and turn it down to medium low to simmer while the eggplant is cooking. This is basically the same simple sauce I used for my sausage meatballs.

After about 20 minutes in the oven the eggplant should be done. It should look nice and brown before you take it out. The next step is to assemble everything in a casserole dish. I prefer to use a smaller one so I can get more layers in.

First put a thin coating of sauce on the bottom so nothing sticks, then add a layer of the eggplant rounds. Put more sauce on top of the eggplant, followed with a layer of mozzarella. The key to this is to make thin layers, if you put too much sauce or mozzarella the whole thing will come out too watery. Add another layer of eggplant, then sauce, then mozzarella until you run out of eggplant. Add the parmesan to the last layer of mozzarella. Put the whole thing back in the 400 degree oven, uncovered for about 45 minutes. Do not take it out before all the cheese on top is dark brown and bubbly. You could eat it earlier, but trust me, the crust is worth the wait. Also, the longer baking time makes the eggplant skin more tender. It can be really bitter and tough to cut, but if you cook it long enough it is soft and delicious. Here is what mine looked like:

Next, slice and serve! I cut this one into 6 squares. My husband and I both ate two squares for dinner and I had the leftover two for lunch the next day. This is really, really good leftover.

Mediterranean Salad

I haven't been cooking anything very exciting lately since I've been pretty busy, but I had some friends over for brunch last weekend and I thought I'd share this salad I concocted for the occasion. It isn't terribly seasonal, but it is delicious, and *gasp* vegetarian. I thought I might never post any vegetarian recipes on this blog, but I guess the time has come. 

Overall, this is ridiculously simple. I had some bocconcini in my fridge and wasn't sure what to do with them, but my first thought was Caprese salad. That didn't seem all that interesting so I added whatever other Mediterranean ingredients I could think of to get a wider range of flavors and textures. Over all I used 

3 cups of bocconicini, halved

2 pints of cherry tomatoes, halved (I used about one pint red and one pint heirloom variety)

1 cucumber, peeled and diced

1 can of artichoke hearts packed in water, drained and halved

1/2 cup Kalamata olives, halved

I dressed the salad with the juice of two lemons mixed with about 1/2 cup of olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, and about 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil. 

This salad is great leftover. After serving it for brunch on Saturday my husband and I ate it as a side with steak that night, and I've had it for lunch today and yesterday. For lunches I served it over some baby spinach, as pictured above.

I've never been crazy about olives, but I'm glad I put them in here. They add a nice salty kick and I think they are something I could definitely learn to like in small doses. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of cooking for a little while, but I don't know how hopeful to be. We are going on vacation in less than two weeks and for some reason travel always sucks away my ambition. We will see. 

Garden Update!

I am new to gardening, and when I started out about six weeks ago I had no clue whether or not I'd be able to grow anything, especially since I decided I wanted to start pretty much at the end of the growing season.

Well, it turns out that I'm doing ok! I've been able to keep almost everything alive. Nothing is growing like crazy, but like I said, it's alive. I'm counting that as a success for now.

So far the most problematic thing has been basil. I just can't seem it keep any alive. I tried in the pot out on the balcony, and in my kitchen window because I thought it might be too cold outside. I don't know if it's the temperature, or the sunlight level, or what but it just shrivels up and dies. Maybe I'll have better luck in the spring. Also I think that my husband's aunt may have bought us an AeroGarden for Christmas, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for that.

My biggest success has been the garlic. I had a bulb that I guess I had been holding on to a little too long and the cloves had begun to sprout. Instead of throwing it away I decided to stick it in the dirt and see if anything happened. I really wanted this to work because we eat a LOT of garlic, and because buying garlic from seed suppliers is really expensive. Well, it did work! All the cloves sprouted and now have really tall leaves. I'm so excited!

Anyway, here are some photos:

First is my cilantro and parsley. They have grown a bit, but don't produce as much as I'd like to eat. The basil was in the middle but I took it out. The little green shoot there is garlic.

sorry for the sideways picture

Next is the pot with rosemary, oregano, and thyme. The oregano and thyme are doing great. I really wish the rosemary would grow more quickly. I've almost just gone to get a bigger plant a couple of times now. In front of the rosemary is a bunch or garlic that is just going crazy.

The last pot has kale and lettuce. Neither of them has really done much, I think the container might be too small. I'm thinking about moving them into something bigger.

The compost is still going. I filled the bucket up a bit quickly, so I'm waiting for it to break down more before I add more scraps. So far it doesn't smell bad or anything.

My next move is to get some holders for these boxes so I can put them on the railing. I also want to buy or make some larger containers and start to prepare for spring planing. I should probably start thinking about ordering seeds as well. I'm excited and overwhelmed all at the same time. This tiny garden has been easy, but I don't want to fail when I try something bigger or more involved. I guess I still have a few months to figure it all out.