greg

Aug 11 2008

Sunday Chicken

I’ve been traveling quite a bit lately. I plan to share with you all food from my camping trip through Yellowstone and the Black Hills but I am still trying to organize all my photos. Stay tuned for that. But I did want to update my blog to let you all know I am still here and still cooking. Let me share with you last night’s chicken dinner.

Simply roasted chicken is just such a delight for a hearty fulfilling Sunday meal. This chicken was stuffed with fresh sage, thyme and winter savory. It was brushed with butter and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Underneath is a bed of potatoes and onions seasoned with the same herbs. I like to roast my chicken at a high heat at first. First, the chicken was placed breast down and roasted for 20 minutes at 500 °F. It was flipped over and roasted for another 15 minutes at that high temperature then I turned the oven down to about 375 to finish roasting. I cook it just until the thickest part of the thigh hits 160 °F. Then I take it out, cover it with foil and let it rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting. This allows the juices to set back in the meat and it will finish cooking.

I just found some new plates at TJ Max that I thought were perfect for serving this Sunday chicken on. They were only $4. Quite a deal if you ask me. The interesting white plate was on clearance for $5. I love the four individual serving wells on this one.

Actually this plate inspired me to prepare four salads to go along with the meal. One was super easy. I simply sliced up some fresh kohlrabi from the garden. Nothing else was added to that one. I love the fresh crunch of kohlrabi. I’m a big fan of broccoli stalks and I think this vegetable tastes just like it.

I had some roasted beets in the fridge from a few days ago so I made a beet salad with a pinch of brown sugar, rice vinegar and walnuts. Sweet and salty complimented the beets well.

I also had some fresh green beans in the garden. I quickly flash steamed them just for a minute to set the color but at the same time they were still crunchy. After chilling in ice water and drying they were mixed with slivered garlic, fresh oregano, dijon mustard, rice vinegar and salt and pepper.

What to do with zucchini? I made very thin shaved slices and wilted them by salting the zucchini and letting them drain. After rinsing and drying they were mixed with fresh basil, fresh tomato, fresh chopped garlic and olive oil. Refreshing and delicious. I really like the texture of the zucchini in this. The wilting gives it a slight ‘cooked’ texture and softens it but it still retains a lot of the flavor, only enhanced, of the raw zucchini.

Nothing fancy here in terms of plating. I cut off the wings, breast and leg quarters and just slapped them on a plate.

The potatoes and onions were flavored by all the chicken drippings. The flavor was unbelievable.

Jul 22 2008

Summertime Pesto

Nothing says summer like fresh basil in the garden. My basil is just starting to come to fruition and I should have a LOT of it very soon. Of course the best thing for basil is fresh pesto. I love it on simple pasta with nothing else. Tonight I was looking for a quick meal and penne with pesto was just the thing to satisfy me. I threw in some fresh spinach too. I don’t usually do this but tonight I wanted a more hearty green pesto full of nutritious greens. My only problem this evening is that I ran out of parmigiano reggiano. I know – sacrilege! But it happened. The pesto was good but it just wasn’t quite right without it. For this pesto I used a couple heaping handfuls of fresh picked basil, a handful of fresh baby spinach leaves, 3 cloves of garlic, the juice of half a lemon, a half cup of walnuts (pine nuts are also traditionally used), salt, pepper, and olive oil – maybe 3 tablespoons. I threw it all in the blender except for the olive oil which was drizzled in until the consistency was just right. This was simply poured over the hot cooked pasta and it was mixed up and enjoyed! Ah, Pesto!

Jul 09 2008

Eating Local – Beef

Of course I love to cook (hence the blog) and I love exotic ingredients from around the world. But our family also tries to support local food producers as much as we possibly can. That means getting locally grown produce from our CSA and from the area farmer’s markets. We also buy our beef one cow at a time. Well, we usually split a whole cow purchase with a friend so we get half a cow at a time. This is usually about 300 pounds of meat after processing.

A half a cow will usually last our family about a year and a half. We don’t eat beef every day. We were getting our beef from a North Dakota farmer in the past but this year we bought from Evavold’s Oak Grove Farm across the river in Battle Lake, Minnesota. The cows are pasture raised and spend most of their life grazing on grass. During the winter months they are fed corn silage. They are natural without added hormones or unnatural supplements. We think this is the best of both worlds. Grass fed beef produces meat with a higher amount of omega-3 fatty acids but sometimes leads to leaner, less flavorful meat. On the other hand, cows that are fed a grain based diet have great tasting meat but almost no healthy omega-3 fats. The combination of feeding at Evavold’s should provide just the right balance of healthy and good tasting meat.

The cows are humanely slaughtered and hung for two weeks before being processed at J & B Meats in Barnseville, MN. Another reason we like to buy local beef a cow at a time is because the meat is processed from a single cow and not mixed with hundreds of other animals in a large processing facility. I believe this tremendously reduces the risk of salmonella or other nasty bacteria contaminating the final product. I feel better about cooking my burgers medium rare when it is from a single cow. All the meat is vacuum packed and frozen so it stays fresh and tasty for a very long time.

Our recent half cow purchase gave us many different cuts of meat including ribeye steaks, T-bones, all kinds of roasts, about 80 pounds of ground beef, and various other cuts. I even requested the oxtails which usually don’t come with the cow and are nearly impossible to find in our local stores. The best part about all of this? It only cost us about $2.60 per pound for a product that is exponentially better than you can get in the grocery store. They even drove it up and delivered it to our house for free.

Jul 05 2008

Community Supported Agriculture

We got our first CSA box last week. We went with the Lakes and Valley CSA this year and so far they have been great. If you are not involved in a CSA, you should be. It’s a wonderful idea and a great way to support local growers. CSA, or community supported agriculture farms are popping up all over the country. The idea is that you buy into a share of a farm for the whole season. Every week the CSA we belong to delivers a half bushel box of whatever is being harvested in the garden at the time. This season has been very cold and wet so our local farm is a bit behind the seaons. Usually we get our first spring greens in early June. But it was worth the wait. Our box was brimming with fresh lettuces, arugla, spinach, asian greens, and a few radishes. New to us this year is farm fresh eggs! We were delighted to find a farm with free range chickens.

Our first CSA dinner was, of course, a salad. Mixed grees, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, red peppers, blue cheese, topped with a fried free range egg and crispy bacon. A dijon balsamic dressing was just the right combination for this satisfying salad.

Jul 04 2008

Just a burger

When it’s too hot to fire up the kitchen I opt for easy to prepare food on the grill outside. Nothing can beat a grilled burger. This one had some extra flavor though. I mixed into the meat some chopped up pepperoncinis, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and some dijon mustard. They were flavorful and juicy.

Happy 4th !