Brie en Croute with Caramel and Walnuts

Two posts in one day?  Well, it’s COLD outside and a friend just asked me to send her this recipe I prepared a couple of years ago for a Thanksgiving appetizer, so I decided to “blog” it to share with others, because it’s a really good recipe.  It came from FoodNetwork.com, and contrary to what I usually do, I followed this recipe to the letter.

1/2 (17.3 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
flour, for dusting work surface
1-8 ounce package round brie cheese, halved crosswise
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pear slices, for serving
assorted crackers, for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Unfold the puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface.  Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out slightly to smooth out any folds.

Place the bottom half of the brie round, cut side up in the center of the pastry.  Gently pack the sugar on top of the brie and arrange walnuts on top of the sugar.  Top with the remaining brie half, (cut side down).  Trim the puff pastry so that there is only a 2 inch border around the brie.  Place the brie, seam side down, onto the prepared baking sheet.  Use desired shape cookie cutter to cut designs from the excess pastry, if desired.  Place on top of the brie and brush again with the egg wash.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden.  Allow brie to stand for 3 minutes before serving with pear slices and assorted crackers.

The only recommendation I would make is to double the recipe because it disappears fast!

Great use for leftover ham

Okay, so the holidays aren’t approaching, we’re surrounded!  One of my favorites during the holidays is ham.  Happy hoer LOVES ham, especially country ham.  This recipe doesn’t use country ham though, it’s a great way to use up leftover spiral sliced ham.  As with every recipe, you can tweek it however you wish.  It’s definitely not a vegetarian dish, but delicious. 

Ham Tetrazinni

2 T chopped onion
1 T butter
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c water
1/2 c shredded cheddar
1 cup diced ham
6 oz spaghetti
2 T chopped fresh parsley
2 T chopped pimento peppers

Cook pasta.  Saute onion in butter in a large skillet. Add garlic when onion is soft.  Stir in soup, water, and cheese.  Heat and stir until the cheese is melted.  Add the ham, parsley and peppers.  Stir until heated through.  Serve sauce over spaghetti.  Add a side salad of fresh greens from the high tunnel.  YUM!

Butternut Squash Soup

Part of eating in season includes coming up with new ways to prepare the bounty of the season.  There were several small squashes in the harvest this year that were kept for myself.  Yesterday I made butternut squash soup and this particular blend of ingredients was quite tasty.  I used sour cream because I didn’t have any regular cream or half and half; it worked great.  A great way to keep chipotle peppers around is to buy them in the can, transfer them to a glass jar, and they’ll keep in the fridge for a really long time.  Just take one out when you need it and put the rest back in the fridge.  If you’re not into spicy, then just forget the pepper.

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 small carrot, chopped into 1/2″ pieces

2 cloves minced garlic

2 small butternut squash peeled, seeded and chopped  (about 2-3 cups chopped)

1 can chicken stock

1/2 tsp sage

pinch of pumpkin pie seasoning

salt and pepper

about 1/2 cup sour cream (or regular cream or half and half)

1 chipotle pepper, chopped

Put squash in a pot with the chicken stock and start simmering.  Melt butter in a frying pan and saute’ onion and carrots till tender then add garlic.

Pour onion and carrots into the squash and continue cooking until all veggies are soft.  Add chipotle pepper, sage, and salt and pepper.  Set pot off the heat and use an immersion blender to puree all the ingredients.  When the veggies are all creamed, add the cream and finish blending.   If you don’t have an immersion blender you can put the soup in small batches into a blender or food processor to puree. 

I made some garlic cheese biscuits to go with the soup.  Yum!

Get to know your veggies – Arugula

Cooler temperatures and shorter days are here, meaning to eat seasonally we need to adapt to what’s growing locally.  The new high tunnel has a bumper crop of arugula, just waiting to spice up many salads this fall. 

Arugula has no fat or cholesterol, and it is also a good source of protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, Zinc and Copper, and a very good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin A (5% RDA), Vitamin C (2%), Vitamin K, Folate, Calcium (2%), Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Manganese.

A great recipe for Arugula calls for washed and dried arugula leaves, toss them with a Walnut Vinagarette, crumble goat cheese and walnuts on top, then throw on a few dried cranberries–it’s a very tasty salad. 

Arugula–even if you don’t like it, the word is fun to say!

Quest for the homegrown artichoke, part 3

Quick update on the artichoke saga:  Part 1 was the selection and planting, Part 2 was the death of the first batch of seedlings (mice) and replanting. 

Every year I like to experiment with a vegetable that I haven’t grown before, and this year the lucky veggie was the artichoke.  A variety called “Imperial Star” was selected that reportedly tends to behave like an annual and make a “choke” in one season rather than two seasons.  The artichokes were planted and grew very well in the garden, but after a full summer in the garden, “no chokes”! 

Plan B will be implemented, carrying this experiment into yet another season.  I’ve read to let the plants go through the first hard killing frost, which is predicted for this weekend, then the tops are cut back to about a foot tall and a heavy mulch is applied.  I’m going to use a thick mulch of leaves then cover with hoops and a frost blanket, then a piece of plastic to keep everything dry.  Artichokes are hardy to 20 degrees and around here it gets below that many times during the winter, so if they don’t make it, there will be one more part to this series, to be called “How to Kill 30 Artichoke plants”—-OR there will be several more parts with recipes for how to prepare artichokes.  Let’s hope for the latter!

Sweet summer kraut salad

I’m not sure of the “proper” name of this salad, but it is delicious!  One of the farm members gave me the recipe and even brought a sample of it the next week, and oh my, it’s worth sharing.  It would be great with beans and cornbread or on a polish sausage on a bun, or just as a side dish.  It’s sweet and I think would be great with some hot peppers in it too.  Here’s the recipe:

1 can sauerkraut, drained

1/2 c chopped green pepper

1/2 c chopped onion

1/8 tsp curry

1/3 c sugar

1/8 t cumin

1/8 t paprika

3/8 t dill weed

Mix all the ingredients together and let it marinade in the fridge overnight. 

Thanks, Dale!

Squashy noodles

Yep, that’s right—another recipe for summer squash.  The joke around this area is that you don’ t leave your car windows down during the summer because someone will throw squash in there just to get rid of it!  It is a prolific vegetable, but very versatile.  This recipe is just another proof of it……

From Food Network Magazine, Sept. 2010

Zucchini “Fettuccine” with tomato sauce

4 large zucchini, yellow, or other summer squash, salt, 5 medium vine ripe tomatoes, 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling, 1/2 clove garlic, chopped, 1 tsp chopped jalapeno pepper, freshly ground pepper, 1/4 cup pine nuts, plus more for topping, 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, 1 tsp chopped fresh oregano

Trim and peel the squash, then use a mandoline or vegetable peeler to thinly slice lengthwise into wide ribbons (stop when you get to the seeds).  Cut the ribbons into 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide strips to make them look like fettucine.  Transfer to a colander and toss with 1/4 tsp salt; let drain in the sink, tossing occasionally, about 30 minutes.  Rinse well and pat dry.

Meanwhile, peel the tomatoes then halve horizontally and squeeze out the seeds.  Puree 1 tomato with the olive oil, garlic, jalapheno, and 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper in a food processor or blender.  Transfer to a bowl.  Chop the remaining 4 tomatoes and add to the bowl; add the pine nuts, basil, oregano, and salt to taste.

Divide the zucchini among bowls and top with the tomato sauce.  Top with more pine nuts and drizzle with olive oil. 

Hey, this recipe doesn’t involve any cooking!  Great for these hot southern nights……….

Gazpacho time!

Even though it’s been sweltering here for the last several weeks, it just doesn’t seem like summer until the first big batch of gazpacho is chilling in the fridge.

Gazpacho, or cold soup, is a very loose recipe; you can add to or alter the ingredients pretty much as you like.  I wouldn’t advise adding okra to it though.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE okra, but it does not work in gazpacho.   It turns the otherwise yummy tomato soupey base into a tomato slimey base. 

Here’s my recipe for a manageable size batch:

Gazpacho

2 cups tomato or v-8 type juice

1 beef boullion cube dissolved in 1/2 cup water or 1/2 c beef broth

4 cups chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 to 1 cup chopped and seeded cucumber (this is a good recipe to use some of those kind of big ones that hid from the last picking

1/2 to 1 cup chopped green and or red bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno, it doesn’t matter what kind as long as you don’t make it too hot to eat

1-2 TBS fresh basil, chopped

2 or 7 cloves of garlic 🙂

generous dash of worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Add the boullion cube to the water and tomato juice and set aside.  Chop all your vegetables and add those and everything else to the tomato juice.  Stir well and let it set in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours so the flavors will blend.  It will keep in the fridge for several days but it won’t last that long!

Good squash recipe

This time of year squash is really “doin’ its thang”, so another yummy squash recipe should be welcome.  The original recipe calls for zucchini, but I can’t tell much difference in the summer squashes, so I call it “Squash Fritters”.  This is also a good recipe to use up some of those squash that were hiding the day before and got kind of big to greet you the next picking day!  I still haven’t perfected the art of picking every single squash or cucumber–has anyone? 🙂

  

Squash Fritters

2 small summer squash (yellow, pattypan, zucchini) OR 1 larger one, with most of the seeds removed

4 minced scallions (or green onions, or onions)

¼ cup parsley

¼ cup dill (can use dried dill, sparingly)

1 beaten egg

¾ cup parmesan cheese

¼ cup flour (I used panko)

 Grate squash into a colander and toss w/ 2 tsp salt, let sit 10 minutes.  Squeeze out liquid.

Then mix squash with other ingredients and pan-fry spoonfuls of the mixture in olive oil, flattening with a spatula, 3-4 minutes per side, until golden.  Drain on paper towels & season with salt.

 

 

Tabouli or not Tabouli, that is the question

I’ll admit when I was looking for recipes for tabouli I didn’t even know how to spell it.  I started with “taboulah”, then “tabouleh”, “taboula”, and I’ve seen tabboulah and tabbouleh,  and FINALLY tabouli.  It’s spelled every which way on the net though, so it’s not just my spelling.  I choose the shortest, tabouli.

My son told me about a grain he was eating called “Quinoa”, pronounced “ken-wa”.  I think I remember seeing it in the stores maybe and thinking grits or oatmeal, but it’s fantastic!  It has more protein than any of the other grains, like 16% and can be substituted for meat in a meal. 

The quinoa needs to be washed, which is the most challenging part of cooking with it.  The grains are tiny and must be washed in a sieve-type colander.  I just put a cupful in there and swished it around with my hand under running water.   I read somewhere in my searches that there’s a bitter coating on the grains.  It must have washed off though, I tasted nothing bitter. 

I put one cup quinoa to 1-1/2 cups water and cooked it for about 10 minutes.  Be sure to not cook it too long or it will become like grits or oatmeal and be mushy.  You’ll see little curly-q’s like worms in the pot when it starts to get done.  I just kept tasting mine.  It should still be firm to the bite, but done.

After the quinoa was done, I turned it off and set it aside and started chopping and preparing the other ingredients.  Please note that all of these ingredients can be altered, omitted, or supplemented as tastes demand.  The recipe works no matter what the amounts or types of ingredients are added. 

Quinoa Tabouli

 2 cups cooked quinoa (don’t overcook it; should be still somewhat firm, not mushy—I used 1 cup Quinoa to 1-1/2 cups water cooked for about 10 minutes—keep tasting for doneness)

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp evoo

1 tbs chopped parsley (the original recipe calls for 1/2 cup–I thought too much)

1 tbs chopped basil (same as above)

1 chopped cucumber

1 chopped tomato

3 chopped green onions (I used Vidalias because I didn’t have any green onions in the house and it was dark outside)

Ground pepper

The recipe also called for chopped mint leaves but I didn’t think I would like that taste so I omitted the mint.  All the ingredients can be adjusted to your taste preference.  I added a tbsp of minced garlic to my recipe and I liked the addition.

Mix the quinoa and parsley and basil together.  Add rest of vegetables.  Add lemon juice and olive oil, then taste it and adjust ingredients accordingly.  Refrigerate and enjoy because it gets better every day.

It only lasted 2 days at my house–very tasty, cool and refreshing for a summer meal.