Red Pepper Olive Oil

Hot peppers from Red Fire Farm + EVOO + sunshine = tasty and lasts forever.  Not to mention very pretty and makes an awesome gift.

So simple

“Simple” is just about the last thing I have to say about finishing my MBA program, but I DID IT!!! Whoo-hoo!

But, when it comes to tomatoes from Red Fire Farm, simple is best:

Delish dinner to top off a crazy night of paper-writing

Well, grilled chicken, really.
I marinate the chicken breasts in my awesome cilantro sauce (cilantro+garlic+ EVoo into the blender), then pound them thin and grill them on high.
French fries tonight are Red Fire Farm potatoes, skin and all, sliced into 1/4″ little logs and fried in canola oil until golden. The secret to crispy fries to drying them off both before AND after frying and never, ever, ever salting them before you cook and dry them.
In other news, a week from today I’ll have my MBA.

Sorry about the crap phone picture!

Be jealous, be very jealous

If you love seafood as much as I love seafood, that is.

Scallops and Freshwater Shrimp with Salad

Super-quick (and not expensive!) dinner. Freshwater shrimp ran me just under $5, and the scallops were about $5 as well. The veggies are from the Red Fire Farm CSA!

Freshwater shrimp has a more delicate taste than regular shrimp, so you have to be careful not to overcook it. I steamed mine for 45 seconds, then turned it over for another 45 seconds. Then I put it in the warm sauce, so it cooked for another maybe 10-15 seconds, then I chilled it with ice.

For the sauce:

Olive Oil + hot pepper + garlic + my cilantro-garlic sauce –>  Warm it all up and let sit while the shrimp cooks.

To cook scallops:

Dry them very well and sear quickly on each side. When the scallops are no longer glossy, they’re ready to go.

My salad was simple leaves of Romaine tossed with baby zucchini slices and an olive oil and lemon dressing.

The whole thing took me longer to eat than it took me to cook.  Just sayin’.

Spicy Corn Relish

What I did last night while procrastinating from writing a paper 🙂

Earthy roasted bell peppers and crazy-hot Scotch bonnets give this relish a recognizable kick, while cumin and paprika lend some Indian flavors resembling of classic chutneys.

This recipe was inspired by Food and Wine magazine.

You will need:

Corn (I used 6 ears of delish CSA goodness)

1 Sweet (Spanish) onion, thinly sliced

Scotch bonnet pepper – as many as you can handle. I had one.

Other hot peppers – I used red ones for color

2 Bell peppers

Apple cider vinegar

Salt

Sugar

Grainy mustard

Cumin

Paprika

Method:

1. If you have a grill, roast the corn and the peppers together. This will give the relish a beautiful smoky taste.   I don’t have one, so I boiled the corn quickly and roasted the peppers in a non-stick frying pan. Chill the corn and the peppers to room temperature.

2. Chop up the peppers and cut the kernels off the corn.

3. Mix everything in a bowl, add the spices to taste.

4. The relish will keep in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Use on hot dogs, tacos, steak and rice!

Quick, healthy, delicious

Amazing little salad to counter the redunculous (and very tasty) breakfast burger I had today at the West Side Lounge.

Super-easy:

Farm-fresh tomatos

Basil

A clove of garlic

Onion, very thinly sliced

Corn kernels

Stale crusty bread

Dressing is simple lemon juice + olive oil

All veggies are from Red Fire Farm CSA!

Chicken with Rice and Roasted Pearl Onions

picture by Jamie D.

Deliciousness!

The tasty secret for this dinner was a cilantro sauce that I made from the CSA offering: basically I didn’t want the herbs to go bad, so I threw a bunch of washed cilantro (stems and all) and some (ok, a lot) garlic cloves into the food processor with lemon juice and olive oil.  This can be turned into a pesto by adding cheese and nuts, but I wanted more of a base, so I just left it simple.

Sauce ingredients: cilantro, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil.

Rice and Broccoli:

I put the rice (I had a basmati/ brown/ wild rice mix) in the rice cooker. When the rice cooker turns off, I threw in some broccoli crowns and closed the lid again so that the broccoli can get steamed.

Next I took about a teaspoon of the cilantro sauce, added a teaspoon of grated parmesan cheese and a touch of water to thin it out and whisked everything together. Pour it over the rice and broccoli.

Chicken:

First the chicken breasts marinated in olive oil with the cilantro sauce – let them be for at least a few hours.

When I cook meat or fish I always take it out of the fridge about 15-20 minutes before cooking. I believe that protein cooks better and more evenly when the starting temperature is not that cold: slapping a cold piece of meat on a super-hot pan makes the muscle fibers contract (don’t think about this 🙂 hence making for chewy dish.  There are definitely people in the cooking community that will disagree with me, so do your own research 🙂

After the chicken is just under room temperature I pound it thin – about 1/2 inch or a little more. Keep the chicken in the plastic bag that you marinated it in for easy clean-up.

Heat up the grill pan until very hot. Place the chicken. Wait 3 minutes. Turn it over. Wait 3 more.

THAT’S IT!

Another side dish I served yesterday was Roasted Pearl Onions with Balsamic Sauce – you can see them on the 2nd plate on the picture.  The little onions bring a tangy note and would probably do very well on top of a steak.

The method is easy:

1. Preheat the oven to 475F.

2. Bring water to boil, dunk the onions for 15 seconds. Take the onions out with a slotted spoon and dunk them in ice to chill. Peel the outer layer.

3. Whisk together 1 part of each balsamic vinegar and dry red wine with about 1/2 part of soy sauce and olive oil.

4. Toss the onions with the dressing (reserve about 2 tablespoons for serving) and chopped fresh rosemary (optional).

5. Put them in the oven for about 12-15 minutes, checking often. If they stick to the pan, deglaze with more wine.

6. Serve with the remaining dressing.

Ingredients for the onions:

Pearl onions, cut in half; red wine; soy sauce; balsamic vinegar; rosemary; olive oil.

Taco soup with local spinach

So easy: beans + corn + salsa (or canned tomatoes) + ground meat of choice (turkey or beef are my favorites) + chili powder –> stew for about 20 min, then add washed spinach and cover until it wilts.  Serve with guac or sour cream, with a sprinkling of cilantro.

Hakurei Turnips

I continue to dig through my farm share and Hakurei turnips are next!

Hakurei turnips are magical spring root veggies. They are crunchier, lighter and crispier than their fall cousins, and taste great raw.

Slice them thin, toss with good olive oil, sprinkle with black pepper – and you’re good to go!  (Some scallions or dill would be great here as well)

Don’t throw away the green parts – sauté them quickly with garlic  for a green side dish.

Light and delicious summer lunch: poached eggs over salad

This summer we are signed up for a farm share from Red Fire Farm, which I’m incredibly excited about.  This past Friday I picked up our first share: there were mixed greens, some spinach, fresh green garlic, hakurei turnips and a bunch of dill.

For my first CSA meal I made  A Tossed Salad topped with Poached Eggs and Shaved Blue Cheese.

It was absolutely perfect.

Here is how:

1.  Toss your greens with some olive oil + apple cider vinegar. I had two kinds of baby lettuce and baby arugula.

2. Poach two farm fresh eggs. To do that boil about 3 inches of water. Turn down the heat so that the water is moving a little, but not boiling. Crack an egg into a bowl and gently slide it into the water. For a runny yolk cook ’em for 2 minutes.

(for this recipe you want the runny yolk, because it will turn into a salad “dressing” of sorts)

3. Assemble the eggs and shaved blue cheese on the bed of greens. Top with some freshly ground black pepper.

YUM!

I absolutely love fresh farm eggs – just look at this! The color! The flavor! *swoons*