Tag Archives: side dish

Recipes, Side dish, Vegetable, Vegetarian

Mashed carrots and parsnips

Nothing can be simpler or more tasty than sweet carrots and parsnips mashed together as an accompaniment to a simple meal. If you want to puree them instead of the more casual mash, that’s fine as well.

2 lb carrots, preferably a sweet variety like Nantes
2 lb parsnips
2 tbsp butter
salt

Wash and peel carrots and parsnips.
Cut roughly into 1 inch pieces and place in a saucepan, cover with cold water and add a healthy pinch of salt.
Bring up to a simmer, reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes.
Drain, add butter, and mash together or puree, depending on the consistency you prefer.
Season to taste.

Bread, Breakfast, Recipes, Side dish

Buttermilk Biscuits

3 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk

Method

Combine dry ingredients and mix with butter until mealy
Add buttermilk and knead lightly
Roll out 3/4 inch thick and pat into a rectangle measuring 9 by 12 inches
Cut into 12 large pieces, each 3 inches square
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 F, until golden brown.

Nice additions (to the dry ingredients)

1/2 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup chopped herbs or scallions

Recipes, Salad

Summer Vegetable Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

During the summer, we eat salads of crisp raw summer vegetables with great regularity, as the main vegetable portion of the meal, especially if we are cooking outside. A bit of fresh bread and something off the grill rounds out the menu nicely. Cucumbers are a nice addition to this as well, either in as well as or in place of the carrots, in which case I usually serve a creamy dressing instead of the vinaigrette.

1 lb assorted coloured carrots
1 lb assorted coloured peppers
1 lb mixed cherry tomatoes

Vinaigrette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup basil, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, minced

Wash and peel the carrots and slice thinly on a slight bias.
Wash the peppers, core and seed them, and dice into 1 inch pieces
Wash and stem the cherry tomatoes and halve them if large (1 inch diameter or more)
Combine all vegetables in a bowl and mix well.

Combine all ingredients for the dressing, season to taste, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Toss salad with enough vinaigrette to coat the vegetables lightly and serve immediately.(Any extra dressing may be kept for a few days in the refrigerator)

Bread, Recipes

Walla Walla Onion and Basil Foccacia

Foccacia bread is one thing that I make very frequently, as it is an easy, satisfying compliment to just about anything. (Leftover, it makes fabulous croutons, diced, tossed in olive oil and baked until golden brown). Allow 2 1/2 hours for preparation, rising, and baking. I use instant yeast for most things at home, as you just add it to the dry ingredients rather than having to activate it first. If you want to use active dry yeast instead, you will have to add the sugar and the yeast to the warm water, rather than the dry ingredients in the recipe. Amounts are the same. For the most accurate baking results, weigh the dry ingredients, as flour density does vary, and too much flour will result in a heavy dough.

550 ml very warm (hot to the touch) water (2 1/4 cups)
60 ml olive oil (1/4 cup)
1kg flour (6 1/2 cups)
20 g salt (4 tsp)
45 g sugar (3 tbsp)
25 g instant yeast ( 3 tbsp)

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp cornmeal or semolina

1 medium Walla Walla onion
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup basil, chopped
1 tbsp coarse salt

Combine water and olive oil in a mixing bowl and set aside
In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, and instant yeast
Add dry ingredients to wet, and knead in an electric mixer with the dough hook for 10 minutes , until smooth and elastic to the touch. (alternatively, you can prepare the dough in a bread maker using the dough setting, or by hand if you’re feeling particularly vigorous)
Coat dough ball with 1 tbsp vegetable oil and place into a large bowl, cover, and put into a warm place to rise. (45 minutes-1 hour, depending on the temperature)
Once dough has risen to double its original size, punch it down, re-cover and allow to rise a second time. (30 minutes or so)
Transfer dough to a lightly floured board and roll out into a rectangle 12 by 16 inches ,or the same size as a baking sheet.
Spray a baking sheet lightly with nonstick spray and scatter with cornmeal or semolina (this gives it a nice crust and prevents sticking)
Cover and allow to rise for an additional 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 F

While dough is rising, slice onion very thinly and sauté in olive oil until golden.
Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.
Chop basil and set aside.
Once the dough has finished its pan rise, spread the onions all over the top, scatter with basil and coarse salt, and bake for 30 minutes in a 350 F oven, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the top

Remove from oven and allow to sit for 20 minutes before serving.
Slice into large squares and serve.

Appetizer, Cooking, Dessert, Entree, Food, Menus, Poultry, Recipes, Side dish, Vegetable, Writing

The Striped German

1 Comment

The first of my Sunday Dinner series…

Last night, Milan Djordjevich from Stoney Paradise brought me a gift. Not just any gift to mark my new direction in life, but the tomato to end all tomatoes. Twelve years we have known each other, and there have been many fine specimens to grace my kitchen, but none quite as impressive as this. I opened the paper bag to see what was inside, and there was THE tomato, a 2 1/2 lb Striped German. It sat on the counter for the remainder of service while I contemplated its fate, knowing we were having friends over for dinner tonight, and wanted to see how that one tomato could inspire a meal.

the tomato in question

I woke this morning to see it proudly perched on my kitchen counter at home, and decided that I would hollow it out and use it as a vessel to serve an appetizer, reserving the flesh for something, perhaps the filling. A trip to the market in the morning provided a few complimentary items; peppers, sweet onion, and basil. I had picked up a few chickens in the hope of barbecuing, and figured we had a good start. Once home again, I noticed quite a few windfallen apples on the ground from one of our two trees, and went out to gather them. Not quite perfect, but great for applesauce or something along those lines. The tomato plants provided a few cocktail sized red tomatoes suitable for roasting along with the peppers and onion to add to the filling, and by now, the menu was starting to take shape.

Roasted vegetable relish (served in the Striped German, with fresh baguette)

Roast chicken of some description ( I had given up on the barbecue as it looked pretty gloomy outside)

Something with apples, still under consideration

Half a dozen cocktail tomatoes, halved, one sliced sweet onion, and two peppers, seeded and quartered made their way onto a sheet pan and into the oven with a splash of olive oil and salt. An hour or so at 300 degrees, I figured, and started carving the tomato. The flesh was soft and sweet, so I chopped it lightly, salted it, and placed it in a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of chopped basil.

I let it sit while I split the chickens and removed the thigh bones, and put them into a large pyrex pan to marinate. A couple of tablespoons each of honey and grainy mustard whisked together with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and a quarter cup olive oil provided a good rub down, topped with a few sprigs from the garden: rosemary, oregano flowers, and thyme, followed by a healthy pinch of coarse salt and about teaspoon of chili powder. Birds comfortably in the fridge, I returned to the tomato flesh, decided to puree it and go from there. The resulting liquid was magic, and it seemed a shame to toss it in with the roasted veg, fresh out of the oven. Maybe just a shooter of cold tomato soup? By the time it was strained, there was only about 10 ounces, not quite enough for the eight of us, so I decided to make some gnocchi, and toss them in the golden elixir.

Back to the roasted vegetables, now cooled to room temperature: a brief chop, a splash of balsamic, a healthy dose of chopped basil, a pinch of salt, and into the shell of the German. Potatoes on, things really were shaping up. The windfallen apples were peeled, into a pot with some brown sugar and cinnamon they went, just a splash of water to keep them from sticking, and onto a low simmer. I figured a bit of fun would be nice for dessert, so settled on making some sweet cinnamon waffles, topping them with the applesauce, vanilla ice cream, and caramel. Popped the waffle batter together quickly and put it in the fridge, brought out the birds to be transferred to a sheet pan to go in the convection oven for an hour or so, and took the potatoes off the stove, strained them and allowed them to cool and dry out for a bit.

stuffed and ready to go

By this time, our guests were arriving, so I sliced the bread to go with the tomato relish, and sat down for a drink and a visit. Only the gnocchi to make yet, so we were in good shape. Once cooled to room temperature, I riced and weighed the potato, gather the prescribed amount of flour (1/3 the weight of the potato), a couple of eggs, and put the dough together while I waited for the water to boil. There was still a couple of tablespoons of chopped basil there, so I tossed it in, and rolled, cut, and shaped the gnocchi, laying them out on a sheet pan. By this time, the water was boiling, so in they went in batches (so as not to crowd the pot), and once they floated to the top they were cooled in cold water, strained, tossed in a touch of oil, and set aside.

The chicken was looking pretty good by this point, so I pulled it from the oven to rest, cleaned some yellow beans, and went back to our guests. the tomato shell was all that remained, and it looked quite juicy once all the roasted vegetable relish had been spooned out of it. As I carried the platter back to the kitchen, it seemed a shame not to make good use of the rest of the German, so I diced it up and threw it into the food processor, and strained the resulting liquid to add to the previous batch from the flesh of the fruit.

Beans went into the steamer, and two large saute pans were brought out for the gnocchi. Once heated to medium-high, I baptized them with a splash of olive oil, and divided the gnocchi among the two. Just a nice browning, then I tossed in the golden tomato puree and just cooked it enough to heat through. Dinner was served!

Following a respectful break for digestion, it was time to move forward on dessert. The waffle iron was heated, plates were laid out and the waffles cooked and quartered. A generous helping of the not too sweet applesauce on the hot waffle, a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, and a fair drizzle of caramel sauce over everything put the finishing touches on a great Sunday dinner, the last before school starts and the first in my new-found existence. The kids went back for seconds, thirds even, polishing off the rest of the waffles and applesauce.

What a way to end the summer with good food and good friends, and to think it all started with one tomato, but what a tomato it was! I can’t wait for next week, I’m starting to get hungry again. Actually, there may still be some gnocchi left in the fridge…..