herbed potato salad with lemon and olive oil dressing

every summer requires a reliable potato salad, and this summer mine was the herbed potato salad with lemon-olive oil dressing from bon appetit. some batches turned out better than others, but having an in-a-pinch recipe to turn to for dinner or last-minute barbecues has simplified several evenings over the course of the season. 

the recipe caught my eye because it calls for fresh herbs that happen to be growing in my herb pots. i've also never been in to mayo-based potato salads and appreciated that this one has a light and tart dressing of olive oil and lemon juice (which i spiced up with a little whole grain mustard and sugar). it comes together super fast, but the salad needs to sit for an hour or so before serving in order for the potatoes to take on the flavor of the dressing-- otherwise, it can seem like a flavorless bowl of steamed potatoes.

use super-waxy potatoes-- in the batch in the photo above i used yukon golds, red lasodas, and viking purples for a colorful mix. they held up beautifully, even though i over-steamed them! (i also forgot the red peppers in the batch pictured, and really missed them. won't make that mistake again.)

herbed potato salad with lemon-olive oil dressing
adapted from bob appetit, june 2000

2 lbs waxy potatoes
1/2 cup rough chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup (or more) extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp (or more) whole grain or dijon mustard
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup finely chopped sweet or red onion
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt

fresh cracked pepper

3 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano
2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
1 Tbsp chopped parsley

scrub potatoes and cut into bite-sized pieces, about 1". steam in a basket steamer until tender, about 10 minutes. put potatoes in bowl and add red peppers. in a separate bowl, add lemon juice, mustard, onions, sugar, and salt and pepper. whisk in olive oil, taste, and adjust seasonings. pour dressing over potatoes, add chopped herbs, and mix thoroughly. cover and refrigerate 30 minutes to 4 hours for dressing to flavor the potatoes. serve at room temperature. 

sources:
potatoes: olsen farms

potato gratin with summer savory

right after we moved into our place in seattle i took a careful tour of the yard, looking for any perennial herbs left behind by previous residents. i found only 7 small plants growing along the front of the house that looked like a less woody rosemary, but the taste indicated they were definitely not rosemary. the flavor was a little like thyme, but with the bitterness and pungency of oregano. i snipped a piece to take with me to the seattle tilth edible plant sale a few weeks later, and compared my sample to their herb starts. that's how i discovered we had 7 small summer savory plants in our yard.

once i'd learned what it was, i had a new critical question-- what the heck do you do with it? all of the online information i could find talked about its use in flavoring beans. it wasn't seeming like a terribly versatile herb, and i had 7 of them. (now we're down to 3, since i ripped out 4 to make the tomato bed.)

a couple of months ago i bought a new cookbook, the herbal kitchen by jerry traunfeld. jerry was executive chef at the way celebrated restaurant/inn, the herbfarm in woodinville, washington, before opening his new restaurant here in seattle, poppy. (maybe you saw him on top chef masters this past season! he didn't make it to the end, but we remain darn proud, just the same.) the bottom line is, jerry is a chef known for his knowledge of herbs, and his cookbook offered a great recipe-- a summer savory potato gratin. we're entering a potato drought for several weeks until the new season crops are ready at olsen farms, and the gratin was a perfect use for my final 2 pounds of yukon golds until later in the summer.

summer savory potato gratin

adapted from the herbal kitchen by jerry traunfeld

2 lbs organic waxy or russet potatoes, like yukon golds or rio grande

1+ Tbsp butter cut into dices, plus some softened for preparing the pan

1/4 cup chopped shallot

1/4 cup chopped summer savory (substitutions: 2 Tbps chopped winter savory or chopped thyme)

1 cup (or more) grated good quality gruyere cheese

3/4 cup milk (we used organic 2%)

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

heat oven to 400 degrees. peel potatoes and slice them as close to 1/16" as you can. (remember when i said you have to get a mandoline if you don't have one? i'm serious. go get one now. you can slice 2 lbs of potatoes in, like, 4 minutes.)

butter a gratin dish (glass or ceramic) and arrange 1/3 of the potato slices around the bottom. top with 1/2 shallots, 1/3 savory, and 1/3 cheese. sprinkle with salt and pepper. repeat twice more, topping with savory and cheese. (season each layer with salt and pepper!) dot top with the diced butter and pour milk over top.

bake 40-45 minutes until browned and bubbly.

sources:

yukon gold potatoes-- olsen farms

shallots-- pipitone farm

beef stew over mashed potatoes-- a staple

as it happens, it can be 55 degrees and raining well into may here in seattle. thus, beef stew season lingers. i make this all the time (really-- all.the.time.), but i'm just now getting around to posting about it.

i first tried this recipe in 2002 when i was taking an evening course in landscape design at the local college. i came into class one day and a friendly classmate asked, "hey, how are you?" i responded, like a complete dork, "I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH I LIKE THE STEW I MADE TONIGHT!" she smiled and shifted away from the crazy stew lady and i spent the rest of class daydreaming about my new creation.

i've tried several other beef stew recipes, but i keep coming back to this one. the original came from epicurious.com. 

by the way, this takes 3+ hours, so start early!

beef stew with mashed potatoes
from hearty beef stew with green peas and carrots, epicurious 2001 
serves 4

1 lb organic, grass-fed stew beef
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
3 Tbps flour
1 cup red wine
2 cups homemade chicken stock
1  bay leaf
1/2 tsp dried thyme (more if using fresh)
2 large carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3/4 cup frozen peas

in large, heavy-bottomed stock pot, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. sprinkle beef with salt and freshly cracked pepper. add beef, in batches if necessary, to the pot and brown on all sides, adding more oil if need be. (color equals flavor, so resist the urge to stir the meat. let the sides get a good sear on them before you turn them over.) remove meat from pot and set aside.

reduce heat to medium. add chopped onion to pot and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. add garlic and cook, stirring, about 30 seconds. add mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and the liquid has been reduced. (mushrooms let off a ton of liquid when they hit heat, so cook until that has been reduced. if using dried, reconstitute by soaking in hot water for about 20 minutes and add to the stew when you add the beef.) stir in flour and cook, stirring, about one minute. add wine and deglaze pan, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom. add broth, bay leaves, thyme, and beef. bring to a simmer, cover, and reduce heat to low. cook at a low simmer for about 2 1/2 hours until beef is tender. (ideally it will be very soft and pull apart easily.)

add carrots and peas to pot and cook another 30 minutes until carrots are cooked through. (carrots can also go in earlier.) taste and season with salt and pepper. 

serve over mashed potatoes. (my "recipe" below.)

mashed potatoes

1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes

2 and/or 3 of the following:
milk
butter
sour cream
buttermilk 
salt and pepper

peel potatoes and chop into large chunks. add to a pot and cover with cold water. (cold water important for even cooking.) add about a 1/2 tsp or so salt to cooking water. bring to a boil and cook until you can get a fork through them easily. 

drain and return to pot with some of the cook water still on them. mash. stir in milk, butter, buttermilk, sour cream (some combination, depending on what you have on hand) and salt and pepper until they taste the way you want. i like to overseason slightly just to make sure they stand up under the stew.

sources: 

grass-fed beef and cal white potatoes from olsen farms 
mushrooms, dried porcinis, from foraged and found edibles 
chicken stock made from stokesberry sustainable farm chicken
frozen peas from our freezer, last fall's preservation

bacon-wrapped vegetable gratins. not a diet food.

heh. i thought i was getting tired of root vegetables until i wrapped them in bacon. edible seattle's recipe maven jess thompson presented a recipe last january for winter root vegetable gratins as an idea for a super bowl snack. this past sunday, i took her up on it. uh, can i just say, YUM?

recipe here: bacon root vegetable gratins 

the recipe says to use a mini-muffin tin, but my vegetables were big, so i used the regular muffin tin. also, i trimmed the bacon to wrap around, which ended up being 6" or so lengths, rather than the 3" pieces the recipe calls for. i used an uber sharp cheddar-style cheese, and just sprinkled a little on each layer. the 2 Tbsp of cheese in each layer called for in the recipe has to be a misprint! toothpicks were to secure the bacon as i put the gratins together, but were removed before cooking.

baked 30 minutes, et voila...

... an incredibly decadent way to experience winter veggies! 

speaking of winter, rob and i are heading to sunny hawaii tomorrow for what is a well-earned vacation on his part, and an aren't-i-lucky-he-wants-me-to-come-too trip for yours truly. know what i'm looking forward to as much as anything else? FRUIT, that's what. juicy, drippy, tangy, sticky, tart, sweet, fruit. i'll be sure and get some pics. 

catch y'all a little later!

not ruining the corn chowder

last week, i ruined the soup. it was a corn and potato chowder from edible seattle, fall 2008 that i'd been looking forward to all week. i made it to the final step, congratulated myself on how quickly it came together, and then i ruined it-- i forgot to remove the bay leaf before i went at it with the immersion blender. there are conflicting reports on the danger level of ingesting bay leaves-- some say "OMG you will DIE," and others say that while some laurels are toxic, culinary bay laurel is harmful only because it can cause scratching in the digestive tract. even if i had been willing to risk death or a punctured intestine, the soup tasted of nothing but BAY. well, bay and all the salt i added to try to mask it. so, into the disposal it went, while i battled the heartache of all that waste.
last night, i tried again. seeing no need to risk repeating my mistake, i let the bay leaves remain cozily in their jar. 

while onions and potatoes are still available at the farmers markets, i had to (or, was lucky enough to) pull some ingredients out of storage. sweet corn and red peppers in january-- hoorah for summer preservation! 

i substituted fresh thyme from the garden for the rosemary (i found the rosemary a little aggressive in the first batch), and used organic 1% milk to keep it light. the soup was deee-licious, and even though we went a little bacon-crazy on the accompanying salad, it turned out to be a good let's-not-undo-all-the-progress-made-on-the-exercise-bike meal.

corn and potato chowder 
adapted from edible seattle, fall 2008 

1 cup corn
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into 3/4" cubes
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp butter or oil
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup lowfat milk

heat butter in soup pot over medium heat. cook onion, pepper, and garlic until softened, about 5 minutes. add potato, corn, thyme, and stock, and simmer partially covered until potatoes are tender and beginning to break down (this will thicken the soup), about 20-30 minutes. or, cook just until potatoes are tender and partially blend to thicken.

stir in milk, and season well with salt and pepper.




sources:
corn and red peppers from alvarez farms 
potatoes from olsen farms 

beef burgundy and three root-vegetable mash-- amongst the top 10 things i've ever cooked. maybe top 5...

me: i need to come up with an angle for my beefy post.
rob: what kind of angle?
me: you know, an intro or an anecdote-- something besides 'i made this and it was good.'
rob: 'i made this and it was REALLY good?'

that's as good a place to start as any. i made this. and it was really. REALLY. good. it was so delicious and satisfying, in fact, that when rob forgot to take the leftovers for his lunch the next day, he came home to retrieve them. unprecedented! if i had nothing to do but cook and eat and get really fat, this would be my daily meal.

we are big fans of slow-braised meats of all kinds-- wild boar ragout, lamb bolognese, elk with pappardelle-- big fans. my list of "things to learn to cook" has included a rich braised meat since the fall, and i finally took the plunge last week. i didn't suspect it would be a difficult preparation, but was concerned that there may be a trick to getting really great flavors. if there is a trick, gourmet's boeuf bourguignon from march 2001 has it.

i followed the recipe almost to the letter, even the first step of boiling the bacon. i'm still not sure what this step accomplishes, but it did appear to boil out some of the fat, which is just fine with me. the boiled bacon goes into the stew as whole strips, which i found unusual, but worry not-- the strips melt away into pure flavoring during the 4 hour cook time.

recipe link again: boeuf bourguignon, gourmet march 2001

(forgive me for not typing it out? it's kinda long, and i've got to wrap this up so i can prep the pork chops and watch michael pollan on oprah... you understand, yes?)

a few notes:

• don't skip the deglaze with brandy-- it makes the house smell of a bacon and waffle breakfast for a few minutes.
• i didn't have celery or parsley, so simply left them out.
• i used baby shallots instead of pearl onions and didn't bother to blanch or boil first-- just gave them 30 minutes to an hour to cook in the stew.
• i used dried porcinis instead of fresh mushrooms, and since i didn't reconstitute them first, i ended up having to add about 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup homemade beef stock towards the end of the cooking time. watch it, and if it starts to get dry, add a little water or stock.
• one more thing, and this may be a controversial thing to say. i may need to eat my words one day, but... i've decided the missive "don't cook with what you wouldn't drink" is horse pucky. without hesitation i poured a $7 bottle of wine that had been open since mid-december into the pot (and not open with a wine-saver top, either!), and came back to one of the best meals i've ever made. (that said, before the bottle sat open for a month, it was something i would drink! there's still plenty of stuff i wouldn't even allow into my home, for cooking or otherwise.)

super-rich beef not your thing? maybe you'll like what i served it with, a mash of 3 winter root vegetables-- potato, carrot, and nutty sunchokes.

sunchokes, also called jerusalem artichokes , are nothing like globe artichokes that top your pizza and go into cheesy spinach dip at the bar n' grill. they look like ginger root, or extraterrestrial larvae, and are the tuber of a kind of sunflower. their texture is much like a water chestnut or crisp apple, and they have a fresh, earthy, and incredibly nutty flavor. i've read several accounts of them causing intestinal distress for certain people, but so far i've not noticed any side effects, though we are eating them in small quantities, and almost always mixed with other roots.

this mash was a flavorful alternative to pure mashed potatoes, and probably a little healthier, too.

puree of three root vegetables

from gourmet, december 1993
(serves 2)

1 carrot, peeled
1 russet potato, peeled
1/2 lb sunchokes, scrubbed clean and peeled (peeling optional-- but if you try it, just scrape off as much as you can. no need to be thorough.)
butter
salt and pepper

chop vegetables into uniform chunks. cover with cold water and cook 20-30 minutes over medium heat, covered, until they are all tender. drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid.

transfer to bowl and mash together, or use mixer or food processor and mix to desired smoothness. add reserved cooking water to thin, if it's too thick. season to taste with butter, salt, and pepper.


sources:
stew beef and potatoes from olsen farms
most delicious bacon ever from skagit river ranch
onions from willie green's organic farm
dried porcinis from foraged and found edibles
carrots from nash's organic produce
sunchokes from stoney plains organic farm
baby shallots from pipitone farm

roasted chicken with fall vegetables

there are 3 key reasons why i like roasting a whole chicken. the first is that it reminds me of what henery hawk sees in foghorn leghorn. the second is that it's an easy one-pan endeavor that will feed a couple of people for a couple of days. third, i get 3-4 quarts of stock from the bones.

on my most recent re-examnation of my diet i gave some extra thought to eating meat. i've always been an omnivore, with some restrictions in place, but after learning more and more about the impact that the meat industry has on the environment and on our health, it turned my stomach one too many times.

but, i like meat. i like chicken. i like steak and bacon. i decided on a compromise-- that i would buy meat from local farms, and, since the local stuff is more expensive, buy less of it. as a result we eat more vegetarian meals which, according to current dietary and environmental analysis, is not a bad thing at all.

but anyway-- back to the chicken...

this organic pastured bird came from stokesberry farms in olympia, washington. it cost around $5/lb, which at 3.44 lbs is not cheap. even so, 20 bucks for dinner for two people for at least two nights is not bad. figure in the 20 bucks worth of stock i get from the bones and the math starts to look pretty good.

i've consulted many different recipes over the years and usually combine aspects of each one to cook a bird. the most recent i found incorporated fresh bay leaves under the skin of the breast so i decided to throw that method into the mix this time.

my understanding about tying up the bird is that it holds the wings and thighs in close to the body so that everything cooks evenly. but i don't really know. sometimes i don't ask questions, i just do what i'm told. (to be clear, this only applies in the kitchen.) i couldn't find string at our local grocery, but the butcher there was kind enough to give me about 20 yards of hers.

roasted chicken with fall vegetables

adapted from roast chicken with lemon and thyme, bon appetit sept 1999

and tuscan roasted chicken

• 
  
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme, plus extra sprigs
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 whole roasting chicken
• 2 carrots, chopped in 1" thick pieces
• 2 parsnips, chopped in 1" thick pieces
• 2 waxy potatoes such as yukon gold, chopped in chunks
• 1 onion, chopped in chunks
• 1 1/2 cups mushrooms, left whole or cut in half
• (other vegetables can be substituted: turnips, celery root, etc.)
• 8 cloves garlic, left whole

• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup (about) chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 450°F. Mix first 4 ingredients in bowl. Rinse chicken; pat dry. Separate the skin from the breast meat and insert fresh bay leaves. Place chicken in roasting pan. Rub garlic-thyme oil over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place lemon, 1 bay leaf, 2 garlic cloves, and a few sprigs of fresh thyme in cavity of chicken. Tie legs with string. (from Tyler's Ultimate roasted chicken recipe: Using 2 3-foot pieces of kitchen twine, tie up the chicken: Tuck the wing tips between the wings and the body. Put the midpoint of the twine under the chicken, bring the ends up and around the wings, and pull them tight against the body. Bring the ends of the twine up underneath the legs, wrap the string around them, pull the legs together, and tie them tightly.)

Roast chicken 20 minutes. Remove from oven and add vegetables to pan, except the mushrooms.

Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Roast chicken until meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of inner thigh registers 180°F, about 1 hour 15 minutes, adding mushrooms to the pan about 20-30 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

Lift chicken and tilt slightly, emptying juices from cavity into saute pan. Tent chicken with aluminum foil to keep warm.

Add wine to pan with juices from chicken and veggies; place over high heat. Bring to boil, stirring frequently. Add enough chicken broth to cup to measure 1 1/2 cups. Whisk flour into broth mixture. Boil broth mixture until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Season pan-juice mixture to taste with salt and pepper. Serve chicken and vegetables, passing pan-juice mixture separately.

i'd never worked with fresh bay before-- SO fragrant! maybe even too fragrant. it was still great-- chicken pretty much tastes like chicken-- but i suspect the bay treatment is best when there aren't a lot of other flavors competing with it. still, an absolutely excellent several meals. the pan gravy can be skipped, but it is delicious and adds a lot to the dish, and it's especially useful when you're having the leftovers. yum!

sweet potato gnocchi with apple cider sauce-- super good, and super easy!

late last summer rob and i were having dinner at a fantastic little joint in portland called justa pasta. the leaves were beginning to change, the days were getting shorter, and i was excitedly describing a new recipe i'd found using fall ingredients that were soon to be available. i'd been trolling blogs for recipes and found a sweet potato gnocchi with apple cider sauce that sounded divinely autumnal-- i couldn't wait to try it out. for some reason, however, i never did. so when the leaves started changing this year, i added apple cider and sweet potatoes to my shopping list and brought them home the first day they were both available at the farmers market.

in truth, i don't know if i bought sweet potatoes or yams. the sign said sweet potatoes, but these look kinda yammy to me. but whatevs-- they totally did the job. also, after a year had passed i had no idea where i'd seen the sweet potato gnocchi with apple cider sauce, so i made a gnocchi from epicurious.com and served it with reduced apple cider and apples.

sweet potato gnocchi with apple cider sauce

from sweet potato gnocchi with brown butter and sage, bon appetit

• 2 1-pound red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), rinsed, patted dry, pierced all over with fork

• 1 12-ounce container fresh ricotta cheese, drained in sieve 2 hours 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 2 3/4 cups (about) all purpose flour
• 2 cups apple cider
• 1 tart apple, sliced

Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place sweet potatoes on plate; microwave on high until tender, about 5 minutes per side. Cut in half and cool. Scrape sweet potato flesh into medium bowl and mash; transfer 3 cups to large bowl. Add ricotta cheese; blend well. Add Parmesan cheese, brown sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, and nutmeg; mash to blend. Mix in flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, until soft dough forms.

Turn dough out onto floured surface; divide into 6 equal pieces. Rolling between palms and floured work surface, form each piece into 20-inch-long rope (about 1 inch in diameter), sprinkling with flour as needed if sticky. Cut each rope into 20 pieces. Roll each piece over tines of fork to indent. Transfer to baking sheet.

Bring large pot of water to boil; add 2 tablespoons salt and return to boil. Working in batches, boil gnocchi until tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer gnocchi to clean rimmed baking sheet. Cool completely. Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

(this is where i strayed from the recipe, though in retrospect my changes were completely unnecessary.)

pan fry the cooked gnocchi in small batches in butter until golden.

in a small separate pan, add 2 cups apple cider and one tart apple, sliced. simmer over medium heat until the cider reduces by about half and the apples break down. stir in a small pat of butter.

serve gnocchi hot with a drizzle of the sauce.

rob commented that it tasted like candy, and it really was quite a sweet treat. this could easily be repurposed into some kind of semi-savory dessert with vanilla bean ice cream or something. i had a few leftovers the next day for lunch with just a little melted butter and it was still amazing. next time i will probably save the cider for drinking since it's so spectacularly tasty.

a few tips:

the recipe says to drain the ricotta for 2 hours, but i didn't build two hours into my prep time so i put it in cheesecloth and squeezed as much moisture out as i could.

the sweet potato flesh is very fibrous which i suspected would not contribute to a smooth dough. i processed the sweet potato and ricotta together in the food processor to get an even consistency.

after mixing the sweet potato and ricotta, remove to a bowl to add the flour. don't add the flour to the food processor mixture or the dough will become overworked and hard. i found that i used only about half of the flour the recipe calls for-- just enough to get it to the point that it's no longer sticky.

this is a really forgiving gnocchi dough, i discovered. it was easy to get the consistency i wanted and the dumplings held up perfectly when cooked. i fried them in a non-stick pan because i've become so accustomed to my other potato gnocchi beginning to break down in the boil and then sticking maddeningly to the saute pan, but i don't think these even needed that safeguard.

the recipe made enough that i was able to freeze another meal's worth. freeze in a single layer (not touching) before boiling, and then transfer to a freezer bag or container. when you're ready, they can go straight from the freezer into a pot of boiling water and will be ready in about 5 minutes.

eat the greens!

it was about two years ago that i began to learn that the tops of root vegetables are edible. i grew up eating turnip greens, but as my mother recently pointed out we didn't eat the turnip. so the idea that both the roots and the tops are food came as a bit of a surprise. it started when i got a box of vegetables from a farmer who would bring his goods to our office. there were beets with greens attached in the box, and when i questioned their usefulness two of my colleagues insisted "yes! yes!" and then talked excitedly over each other about how best to enjoy them. i had to experiment for a while before i found my favorite beet greens recipe, which turns out to be roasted beets sliced over the greens which have been wilted in olive oil and a little water, served warm with a lemon vinaigrette and crumbled blue cheese. absolutely delicious.

this past spring i tried radishes for the first time. i'd only really experienced them on salads and was not impressed, but they were one of the first things available in the farmers markets so i decided to give them a go. when i asked the guy working the full circle farm booth what i should be looking for, he mentioned that the greens were edible so i should be checking for healthy looking radishes as well as their tops.

given that my experiences with "the tops are edible" were mounting, i'm not sure why it was such a shock for me to overhear at the market a couple of weeks ago that carrot greens are edible as well. farmers at the market are always asking if they can remove the tops for their carrot-buying customers, and have a huge pile behind them overflowing from a cardboard box. one farmer even asked if i wanted to donate the tops to her chickens. i suppose i assumed, based on those experiences, that the greens are good for chickens or for compost back on the farm, but not for eating. i was wrong! and now, in the interest of my "use the whole beast" sensibilities, i'm looking for ways to use carrot greens in my menus.

i got started by pinching off bits of the greens and tasting them, finding the raw flavor familiar but not quite able to place it. i remembered that i have a rainbow chard plant in the backyard that was never able to produce enough to use before the critters would get to it, but which has steadily had 3-5 small leaves on it since june. i snapped off a leaf of chard and tasted it along with the raw carrot greens-- that was it! they taste like chard, only a little bit milder. if that's the case, they can be used anyplace chard is, or any other green as far as i'm concerned.

my first try was a simple preparation i sometimes use with kale. i wilted them in olive oil with a little salt, a splash of red wine vinegar, and a dash of red pepper flakes. they were okay, but the stems are pretty tough and chewy, and i realized that i need to be more careful with the prep and pull off just the feathery leaves. i also noted that they are hearty and don't cook down and disappear like some greens do.

now that i had the basic texture and flavor down, i wanted to see if i could turn them into a reasonable side dish. i removed more of the stemmy material this time and sauted them with caramelized onions, then added some golden raisins and port. i thought it was delicious, and though rob went for the flavor, he noted that the texture was still chewy. i'll try and remove even more stems on the next go-round.

carrot greens with onions and raisins

(2 servings)

2 cups carrot greens, leaves only, washed and still a little wet

1/2 cup thin sliced onion

2 small garlic cloves

olive oil

1/3 cup golden raisins

1 Tbsp port

1 Tbsp hot water

salt and pepper

saute onions in olive oil over medium low heat until very soft and beginning to caramelize, without browning, about 15 minutes. add garlic and cook about 1 minute. add carrot greens and a pinch of salt and cook until wilted. add a bit of water if necessary.

meanwhile, put raisins in a bowl and add port and hot water. allow to plump up for 5 minutes or so.

add raisins and soak liquid to the carrot greens and onions and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the liquid is reduced. adjust seasonings and serve warm.

i really liked the carrot greens and raisins dish, but wanted to find more ways to get use out of these carrot tops.

i decided to make a soup i'd been curious about, adding a carrot and substituting carrot greens for spinach. between the tahini, cumin and cream, this soup had some curry-like qualities and a really interesting flavor that we both liked a lot.

garlic, chickpea, and carrot green soup

(serves 4)

modified from linda fraser's garlic, chickpea, and spinach soup from the great encyclopedia of vegetarian cooking

1 cup dried chickpeas

olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

3 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

4 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)

2 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 large carrot, chopped

1 1/2 cups carrot greens, stems removed

1 Tbsp cornstarch

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 Tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)

salt and pepper

sort chickpeas and throw out any foreign matter. rinse, and soak overnight in fridge in large pot of water. cook in soak water at a low boil for 45 minutes to an hour, until cooked but not mushy. pour off cooking water and set chickpeas aside.

in soup pot, saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until soft and translucent. stir in cumin and paprika and cook for a minute longer.

pour in stock, and add chopped potatoes and carrots. bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. add chickpeas and simmer 5-10 minutes more until vegetables and chickpeas are tender.

in separate bowl, blend together cornstarch, cream, and tahini. add salt and pepper to mixture to make sure it is well seasoned. stir mixture into soup, and add carrot greens. bring to a boil, stirring, and simmer a few minutes until soup thickens and carrot greens are wilted. taste and season with salt and pepper, adjusting other seasonings as necessary. serve with crusty bread, or perhaps even try with basmati rice?

i'll continue to experiment, but it seems the take-away for now is that carrot greens are a reasonable substitute for others. this is welcome news now that i can save my carrot tops from the compost bin, and even save a few bucks here and there on chasing down some other kind of leafy green. i think they'll be especially useful in soups where their stemmier parts are able to cook down and soften. let me know if you have any ideas!

note: i read in a few places that some people are allergic to the greens of carrots, so anyone who has bad reactions should obviously steer clear!

potato, squash and goat cheese quesadillas. really quite tasty. really.

we're going out of town tomorrow, so tonight i decided what was for dinner based on, "what is in our kitchen and garden that will go bad in our absence?" i turned up a handful of tomatoes, a yellow squash, a potato, a half block of tillamook monterey jack, a half log of goat cheese, a bunch of cilantro, a half jalapeño, and an aging lime. the items also in possession, which were not in the same danger of decay, were an onion, a head of garlic, and some flour tortillas.

i gotta say, i thought the combo might be weird, but the resulting potato, squash and goat cheese quesadilla with a fresh tomato salsa was thoroughly delicious! i would happily make this again.

fresh tomato salsa

3 smallish, or 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped

2+ Tbsp onion, finely chopped

1+ tsp jalapeño, finely chopped

1 Tbsp cilantro, finely chopped

1 Tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice

salt and pepper

mix all ingredients, adjust seasonings to taste, and refrigerate for 1 hour or more. (note: after chopping jalapeño, avoid touching eyes, nose, and lips, and pulling apart cooked chicken for the cat.)

potato, squash, and goat cheese quesadilla

2 servings

1 medium to large waxy potato, diced

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp ancho chili powder

salt and pepper

1/2 yellow summer squash (or zucchini), shredded

1 1/2 cups monterey jack cheese, shredded

1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled

2 large flour tortillas

1 Tbsp butter, divided

preheat oven to 400 degrees. toss potato cubes in ovenproof pan with olive oil, then add chili powder, salt, and pepper, and toss again. cook at 400 degrees, turning once or twice, until a knife test says they are done-- soft, but not falling apart-- about 15-20 minutes.

heat 1/2 tablespoon butter in a large pan over medium heat. place a tortilla in the pan, and line half of it with half of the monterey jack, the squash, the potatoes, and the goat cheese. fold the other half over and cook until golden. flip, cook until the other side is crispy and the fillings are warmed through. repeat with the second tortilla and the rest of the fillings.

serve with tomato salsa.

this recipe has a ton of potential. there may be goat cheese and a potato in every quesadilla i make from here on. i can imagine a number of variations on this dish that would be filling and absolutely tasty, and, if i'm lucky, use up some perishables like it did tonight.

gnocchi success! but a different sauce next time.

i've wanted to try tyler florence's potato gnocchi recipe for a while now, but haven't been prepared for the mess it was sure to make. but really, what else is a partly-cloudy sunday afternoon for if not plastering your countertops with gooey potato dough and throwing flour all over yourself?

tyler's recipe calls for russets, but after consulting with the knowledgeable gents from olsen farms at the saturday farmer's market, i went with a variety called cal white. it has a bright white flesh and a light and fluffy texture. i'll definitely do more with these potatoes.

tyler's recipe is here. i followed the gnocchi recipe exactly, but after reading some reviews decided to take a slight detour on the sauce.

gnocchi with peas and prosciutto cream sauce

1lb or so prepared gnocchi, drained

1tbsp butter

1/2 shallot, chopped

1 c green peas

1/2 c chicken stock

1/4 c white wine

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

4 slices prosciutto

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

bake prosciutto in 350 degree oven, 10 minutes or until crispy.

after boiling and draining gnocchi, pan fry in batches in butter over medium heat to a golden brown.

in a separate pan, saute shallots in olive oil until softened. add chicken stock, white wine, and heavy cream and cook until slightly thickened. add peas and cook until heated through. adjust seasonings. taste and adjust for cream/stock ratio as well.

serve gnocchi with sauce, crumbled prosciutto, and grated parmesan cheese.

i have to admit, i did not love the sauce. primarily, i did not think the peas did much for the dish. maybe a simple cream sauce next time, and the peas as a side? but at least i got the hard part down! searching for a great sauce will be a welcomed task.