All the tomatillos...

I love tomatillos.  I love the lemony flavor they have, green salsa you can make with them, along with recipes like Black-eyed Pea Posole with Collard Greens, or Enchiladas Verdes (though I usually use a jar of pre-made salsa for that one).  The recipe that got me started on using fresh tomatillos in cooking was this White Chili from way back in the day.  My roommate Kathy and I had planted tomatillos in our garden in Oregon, and were stunned at how prolific they were!  The White Chili was a good way to use them up.  I think if I make it again I'd use boneless chicken thighs instead of breasts, but that's just me.

When my mother-in-law was in California, she subscribed to the LA Times and would save the food sections for when we'd come to visit.  I'd clip out all the recipes I thought looked interesting, bring them home and .... never make them.  Oh well.  One page I'd saved forever (from 2008) was an article entitled "The Tomatillo Unwrapped":

Slow-Cooked Pork with Fresh Herb Tomatillo Sauce
LA Times, Wed May 14, 2008 (http://www.latimes.com/style/la-fo-tomatillosrec14b-2008may14-story.html#)
Total time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Servings: 6
Note: From test kitchen director Donna Deane.
2 pounds boneless pork butt
2 to 3 slivered garlic cloves, plus 1 minced garlic clove, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 small serrano chile, seeded and minced
1 pound tomatillos, husks removed and coarsely chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
2 teaspoons fresh oregano, divided
1 tablespoon chopped basil
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1 teaspoon lime juice
Black pepper
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a small sharp knife to make small 1-inch deep cuts all over the surface of the pork, and push one sliver of garlic into each slit. Season the pork with salt and pepper, rubbing the seasonings all over the meat.
2. In a large, heavy oven-proof casserole, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the pork and sear on all sides to a rich brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the pork to a plate and set aside.
3. Add the onion to the casserole and reduce the heat to medium. Sauté the onion until tender, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the minced garlic, the serrano chile and the tomatillos and continue to sauté until the tomatillos are tender, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the chicken broth to deglaze the pan. Stir in the orange peel and 1 teaspoon of the oregano. Nestle the roast back with the vegetables and spoon some of the juices over the meat. Cover and roast 2 hours, until the pork is tender (it will pull apart easily). Remove the casserole from the oven.
5. Carefully lift the meat out of the casserole onto a carving board. Stir the basil, mint, remaining oregano, lime juice and a few grinds of black pepper into the sauce. Use a fork to break the meat apart into bite size pieces. Divide the pork evenly among six plates and spoon the tomatillo sauce evenly over the portions. Serve with grilled tortillas and/or rice.
Each serving: 323 calories; 27 grams protein; 8 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 21 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 90 mg. cholesterol; 385 mg. sodium.


 This weekend I went to the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market.  I hadn't been much this summer since, well, with the CSA I have a ton of produce to use!  But they also sell meat, eggs, baked goods, milk and cheese, and also it is corn and cantaloupe season and the Guilford College farm doesn't grow either of those.  And I am tomato snob and need my Cherokee Purples.  While there I stopped at Pine Trough Branch Farm and along with some pork chops that were on sale, I picked up a 2 lb pork shoulder that I knew would be perfect for the recipe above.  And I was right.  Their pork shoulder is more expensive than what I can get at the grocery store, but as they say on their web site "We grow beyond-organic vegetables and highest-quality meat from free-range animals born and raised on pasture and forest land. All our meat production is certified as Animal Welfare Approved."  The pigs are a heritage breed that produces 2-lb shoulders as opposed to the 7-9 lb behemoths I see at the Teeter.  And while that might not be the best for a big barbecue (though I should consider it) it's definitely good for dinner for 2-6.  The recipe came out great.  I really liked the fresh herbs and lime added to the sauce at the end.  It wasn't that hard to put together and this it just did it's thing in the over for 2 hours (you could probably toss it in a slow cooker as well).

Here's the pork shoulder seasoned with salt and pepper (this one was bone in):

Chopping up the tomatillo (husks peeled and rinsed):

The pork after browning, sitting in the tomatillo/onion/chicken broth mixture, ready to braise:

After 2 hours at 350°F

Plated up!  With grilled squash from the Guilford College Farm.

Verdict?  Worth keeping around that recipe for the past 10 years.  Also worth the PTB pork!

When recipes go wrong...

So last week we had some friends over for dinner, and I asked them to pick up some blueberries at the farmer's market because I was going to make some cobbler for dessert.  We ended up with too much food for dinner and not enough desire for dessert, so I had blueberries in my fridge and needed to do something with them.  After considering many possibilities, this recipe for Blueberry Snack Cake with Pecan Topping from Food52 caught my eye  - in part because it looked delicious, but also because I had everything, from blueberries to lemons to pecans, on hand.

Everything went swimmingly until it was time to bake.  I had measured out all the dry ingredients and mixed them together as instructed.  The butter and sugar had been creamed together and all the eggs and flavorings added, the oven pre-heated, the pan prepared.  I folded in the blueberries, scraped the batter into the pan and sprinkled the top with sugar and chopped pecans and slipped into the oven and turned to the several other tasks going on in the kitchen.

About 10 minutes into baking, I was looking for something on the other side of the island in kitchen and realized what I had left out of the cake.  There was the bowl, sitting on the counter -what did it contain?  The flour. The salt. The cornmeal. The baking powder.  Basically pretty much half the cake. No wonder the batter going into the oven had tasted so smooth and delicious.

Panicking, I thought "what do I do?  Dump the whole thing out?"  I didn't want to do that, so I pulled the rapidly melting puddle of butter, eggs, sugar, blueberries and pecans out of the oven. I dumped the dry ingredients into the pan, and mixed it all together until it looked like a batter and then put it back into the oven for 40 min. 

The result?  Not bad. Very edible.  Tasty even. No roasted pecan topping, but overall pretty good.

No CSA items in this post.  The moral though?  Don't give up.  Don't ever give up. ;-)

Week 10 and Oven Roasted Tomatoes

I'm pretty sure it's week 10!  Here's this weeks box:

What have we got?

• 1 lb heirloom tomatoes (for me this week that's the giant yellow/red one in the upper right)
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 2 lbs red, white and blue potatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1/3 lb specialty peppers 
• 3 hot peppers (two serranos and one reddish one)
• 1 lb paste tomatoes
• 1 lb squash/zuchinni
• 1/2 lb okra
• 1 bell pepper
• 2 lbs tomatillos 
• 1 bunch basil

It's starting to be tomato time for the CSA, and while I love tomatoes, I'm kind of picky about which ones I like to eat raw.  I like the Sungold and Black Cherry varieties of cherry tomatoes, and my favorite slicing tomatoes are Cherokee Purples.  Week 9 we got 1.5 lbs of tomatoes that included one I sliced and the rest were these larger "paste" tomatoes that were pretty firm:

My favorite thing to do with these tomatoes is to roast them slowly.  I use this recipe for Oven-Roasted Tomatoes from David Lebovitz's blog (I mentioned earlier it's one of my favorites for recipes).

I crowd my tomatoes a bit more than he does:

Here's what they look like when they come out.

I wrote this part of the post this past Saturday, when I wasn't too hungry for dinner because of lunch at Bites and Pints (yummy!), so had a little bread and tomatoes and wine for dinner:

I toasted some sliced whole wheat baguette (sprayed with a little olive oil)  spread it with a little Goat Lady Dairy plain goat cheese and smashed some roasted tomatoes on top.

These roasted tomatoes freeze very well, and will also keep for several days in the refrigerator.

Fresh tomato pasta with goat cheese

Before I left for my conference last week, I was trying to use up everything in the fridge from the different boxes. I'd gotten some good tomatoes in the week 7 box, so I decided to make one of my favorite things to eat in the summer, a fresh tomato pasta.  You can vary the cheese you use, but I used a fresh goat cheese from Goat Lady Dairy.  It's also good with fresh mozzarella, and I'm sure many other cheeses.  Maybe even tofu if you're into that sort of thing.  I'd press it between some paper towels first to dry it out and let it marinate in the tomato mixture. (note:untested recipe!!!)

This is the amount for 1 serving, but it's easily multiplied.  I also used some zuchinni noodles (also using up box items FTW) that I made with this thing called a "Zoodle Slicer" which is basically a manual pencil sharpener for zuchinni.  There are lots of versions of spiralizers available and this one's main advantage is that it's small and cheap.  If you decide to go big into vegetable noodles, you might want a fancier one.

Ingredients:
1-2 medium tomatoes, cored and chopped (you can peel them if you like, but it's not necessary)
5-6 fresh basil leaves, chopped (chiffonade)
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 small clove garlic, crushed
1-2 ounces spaghetti
1 medium zuchinni, spiralized into noodles
1 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1 tbs pine nuts, toasted
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
grated parmesan

Directions

1. Combine the chopped tomatoes, basil, 1 tsp olive oil, balsamic and garlic in a  large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper and stir.  Set aside.
2. Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions. Drain.
3. Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a skillet.  Add the zuchinni noodles and saute briefly (1 min max).  Add the drained spaghetti and mix.  
4. Dump the noodle mixture into the tomato mixture (you can also add the goat cheese at this poing if you'd like a creamier sauce).  Toss with tongs.  
5. Transfer to serving bowl, sprinkle with goat cheese and pine nuts and grated parmesan if desired.

Some pics!  Chopped tomato mixture:

The rest of the mise:

Cooked spaghetti and zuchinni noodles:

Final product:
oops.  guess I was hungry.

Tomatillo salsa

One of the items in the basket this week was tomatillos, so I decided to make a tomatillo salsa.  I know it seems like I get most of my recipes online, and while I think it's more common that it used to be, I also have more cookbooks than I should!  I'm trying to keep a steady state, meaning if I can't give a cookbook away, I won't get a new one.  That works most of the time, but I have a weakness for Rick Bayless's cookbooks.  He probably has a version of this recipe in every one of his books, but I used the one from Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen.  Here's Rick in all his mid-90's realness:

The recipe is on p 42 for "Essential Roasted Tomatillo Serrano Salsa" (I had to use a jalapeño).
Ingredients:
1 lb tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 jalapeño (about 1 ounce)
1 small white onion, finely chopped (I used about 1/2 cup of chopped onion from the week 7 box)
2 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/4 cup loosely packed, roughly chopped cilantro
about 1 tsp salt
Sugar, if needed (about 1 tsp and I didn't need it.

Directions

1. Put the chopped onion in a small bowl and cover with water.
2. Put the tomatillos on a baking sheet and roast about 4" from the broiler for about 5 min, then flip and roast 5 min more.  Allow to cool completely on the she.
3. Toast the chiles and garlic on a comal or cast iron pan over medium heat, turning them occasionally until they are blackened in spots and soft.  Cool, peel garlik and pull the stem out of the chiles.
4. Put the cooled tomatillos (and any juices) into a blender along with the garlic and chiles.  Pulse until it is pureed to your liking (I don't like it too smooth).  Scrape into a serving bowl
5.  Strain the onion out of the water, rinse with cold water. 
6. Stir the onion and the chopped cilantro into the puree.
7. Serve!

This is good with tortilla chips, of course.  We had it with some chicken soft tacos I'd made by grilling some chicken thighs marinated in Goya Naranja Agria (as described here).  We also had avocado and queso fresco.
Here are the rinsed tomatillos:

I think they get a little purple if they get exposed to the sun.  After roasting:

Blackening the garlic and jalapeño:

The final product:

A couple of side dishes...new and old

So, yesterday I made two side dishes I really like, one I just discovered, and one I've been making for years.  We had friends over for the 4th, and I made brats on the grill and a variety of sides. 

First, I had a purple cabbage that's been kicking around in the fridge for a few weeks (week 5, she says apologetically).  I found this really simple and really delicious recipe from the "Simply Recipes" blog for Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage.  It came together very quickly!

Pretty wedge of cabbage:

Slice cabbage ready to be sauteed:

Finished cabbage - oops forgot to take a photo!!  But it was delicious.

The other side dish I made was a classic Squash Casserole.  This is one I've adapted from a local blog called Slowly She Turned.  Unfortunately I can't find the original post, so I've copied the recipe below.  You can add a little more squash and onions, change up the cheeses or add different vegetables, it's  a pretty flexible way to turn vegetables into a casserole.

Squash Casserole
3 1/2 cups chopped summer squash (any kind!)
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
2 tsp olive oil
2 tbs flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk (I use 2%)
1 cup (4 oz) cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup (1 oz) parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1 cup bread crumbs (I usually just whiz anything I've got kicking around in the freezer in the food processor).

I double this for a 13x9" casserole dish, so I find this recipe fits in an 8x8" square casserole.

Preheat oven to 350°F
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a saute pan.  Saute the onion and squash for about 10 minute until tender.  Add salt and pepper to taste while cooking.  Cool to room temperature.  Combine squash and onions in a large bowl with the eggs, flour, milk, 1/2 cup (2 oz) cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup bread crumbs.  Put the mixture into a casserole dish sprayed with olive oil.  Mix together the rest of the cheeses (cheddar and parmesan) and the remaining 1/2 cup breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the casserole.  Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

I'll take a pic next time!

Tap, tap...is this thing still on?

Well.  Been at a conference for a week, 4th of July holiday, all that.  Week 8 of the CSA went to my friends Erin and Kyle, since I left town the morning after pickup for a conference.  Here's this weeks' (week 9) bounty:

We have (don't have amounts since I can't find the lovely note that was included!):

• Slicing tomatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Multicolor and shaped carrots
• Purple (and a few other color) potatoes
• Tomatillos
• Squash (various summer)
• Okra
• and....the the return of the kale! (baby kale this time)
• oops - edited to add the boquet of chard:

I have a lot of catch up posts to make, and in the spirit of that I'll post something I made yesterday with some of the produce I needed to catch up on, specifically the carrots.  There's been carrots in the last several boxes, and I decided to make some pickled carrot slices based on this recipe from David Lebowitz's blog (which is great recipe blog, including the recipe for the best sticky toffee pudding ever)

Sliced up and simmered some carrots in salted water for about 30 sec (DL recipe called for simmering carrot sticks for 1 min), then dumped them in a colander and rinsed with cold water.

I made the brine (didn't have the spices needed besides garlic and bay so I added a few chili flakes- could have added more!):

Dropped the carrot slices into the brine stirred, and let it cool to room temp on the stove:

Put into a mason jar and chill in the fridge.  Very pretty!

more to come...I promise!