207: Smoked Salmon Potato Salad

This isn’t terribly sexy-looking, but I’m not sure how much you can do with potato salad. Based on this insanely simple recipe from Serious Eats, I adapted a bit to what I had and knew I would enjoy.

I’m not a huge sour cream person, but I always have greek yogurt on hand, and while rummaging through my crisper for recipe-approved herbs I came across dill. It's not on the list but it seemed a natural pairing with salmon so I went with it. By this time I was nearing a tzatziki anyway, so I just added in that garlic. Apologies to anyone who gets near my monster breath. Totally worth it.

Ingredients:

2 lbs potatoes, cut into 1/2" coins

Salt

3 oz smoked salmon (mine’s from Ikea! I probably shouldn’t be so excited, but I am)

3/4 cup Greek Yogurt

1/4 cup mix of scallions and dill (mostly scallions, maybe 1.5 tsp dill?)

1 clove of garlic, made into a paste with a little kosher salt

Black pepper to taste

 

Boil/simmer your potatoes in salted water until tender then drain and let cool. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, then add your potatoes. Season to taste. Super simple and makes a ton of food. I feel like leftovers will be even better, once the garlic and herb flavors have had time to bloom.

206: Cauliflower Cous Cous

I’m attempting (and mostly failing) to avoid sweet things. Are you tired yet of my rants regarding my preference for borderline foods (squash, sweet potato, etc) to veer savory/spicy as opposed to sweet? But then what am I beyond always breaking my own rules?

I came across this recipe on simply recipes and couldn’t resist. It fits my loves of tricky food (like those beet burgers), sneaking in extra vegetables, and excuses to buy walnuts. It’s also, amazingly, something savory I enjoy with citrus.

The dish looks like cous cous but is actually cauliflower, processed a bit into little cous-cous-like granules. You steam that for a bit, and as it cools, heat up the remaining ingredients (in this case I went with version 2- with walnuts, cranberries, green onions and apple- though I definitely want to try the other when I have celery or an equivalent).

While cooking I kept going for the novelty of it, but when I tasted the final result? I actually really liked it! The combination of the nuts, green onions (which I went a little heavy on) and cauliflower balances out the cranberries (which I went light on) and apple. The best bites are when you can get a little bit of everything.

Delivery 21

I'm very much behind on this post, apologies. Many recipes are pulled from previous posts.

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Carrots - 1 pound 

Chiogga Beets - 1 pound

Garlic - 2 heads

Lacinato Kale - 1 bunch

Mustard Greens - 1 bunch

Radishes - 1 bunch

Thyme - 1 bunch

Romanesco Cauliflower - 1 head

Mustard Greens

Salads are tempting, but it's hard for me to turn down an Indian dish.

Chiogga Beets

Will take a picture of this pretties when I actually cook them, but in an effort to save plastic I didn't want to tear open the bag. They have bag of 15 lbs of beets for sale from my CSA. It's bad how tempted I am. Definitely want to preserve the color on these, so will likely use one of these recipes from the kitchn. Here are more raw beet recipes.

Rainbow Carrots

Raw salad to showcase the colors. Roasted with honey ginger butter. Salad with walnuts and radishes.

Potatoes

Roasted (bonus for rainbow carrots).

Radishes

Mango and radish salad. Radish curry. Oh man, maybe I'll actually make this crazy crazy bread.

Romanesco Cauliflower

Really want a recipe that keeps the cauliflower looking pretty, so a roast seems ideal.

Thyme

Roasting herb. Will throw it in where I can. Maybe I'll try drying it out? I can never use these things up in time.

Garlic

Used in other recipes, most likely. Can't afford to be precious.

Dinosaur Kale

All the salads, please. Here's one with balsamic vinegar and pine nuts. One with ricotta. Super simple with breadcrumbs and garlic.

205: Charred Veggies

Originally I titled this post Roasted Veggies, but realized how different this was from the batch that started this week's share, so I adjusted. The first set was diced then roasted rather slowly until pillowy, soft and sweet. These were big chunks, just barely seasoned with salt, pepper and oil. I didn't cook them nearly as long as the first set, but at a much higher temperature (on sheet pan directly on the pizza stone at the bottom of my oven). They still had a lot of bite, the roasting just took the edge off and gave them a bit of caramelization. Different but good.

204: Squash and Mushroom Pizza

Or maybe it's some sort of squash and mushroom flatbread. The left slice/pizza has pecorino, the right does not. I preferred the sans-cheese, but it also had mas-mushroom, so the reason is a bit of a toss-up.

I roasted my squash, sliced, in an oven (at 350ish) until soft. I had been simply dressed with a little olive oil and salt.

The mushrooms were sliced and sauteed with garlic, lots of sage, lots of thyme and lots of olive oil. I'd probably up the herbs were I to do it again- or, hell, toss those herbs on the pizza. They were at a good level on the mushrooms by themselves, but I forgot to take into account the gestalt with squash and dough.

The combination was lovely, though the squash was (as it is) on the sweet side. Leftovers will have the important addition of sriracha to take the edge off.

203: Butternut Squash Quick Bread

My squash bread came from this recipe, but, to be fair, was initiated by a desire to make this one from Cook's Illustrated. But I didn't have time to cook down a squash puree into squash butter, or the nuts or cream cheese to make it right. Another time.

As it was this turned out nicely- with a little caveat or two. The top (you can see above) is pale and a little underdone, as I threw in another pan, a little too close, to multitask a warm oven. And while waiting for that part to brown later I burnt the bottom (which was cut off in the pic above). It averages out, right? Like fish sticks?

My only adjustments were to use walnut oil in lieu of canola, and then that thing where I'm braindead and accidentally add a tsp of chili powder instead of nutmeg, and then say eff it and also add the nutmeg. No one noticed. In fact, it probably tasted better.

For all the fuss about baking being a science (which it is, don't get me wrong), I find quickbreads super forgiving. This is still tasty. I left my for work having taken a slice for a snack, and came back to find more than half gone- the (much appreciated) work of my roommates.

Eff pumpkins, I'm all about squash in the fall.

201 & 202: Radishes and Turnips

A two-fer this post, as neither dish was all that successful and they both contained about the same ingredients.

201: Braised Radishes and Turnips

My only criteria for this dish was that it be the simplest thing ever involving radishes and turnips. And lo: this recipe from the NY Times couldn't really get more basic. The issue came down to the turnips. Mine was really huge, bitter, and cooked much faster than the radishes. Definitely not something I'd make again.

202: Radish and Turnip Salad

Another sad dish- quick slaw with radishes, turnips and scallions- made bitter by that same turnip (I said it was really huge), and then with a lime dressing that didn't work. I may try this again as it was quick, but I'd do something more basic, maybe not as much a dressing as a little oil, maybe some vinegar.

Definitely picking smaller turnips if they come in the share again. The one I roasted was so nicely sweet (even when raw)...and about half the size.

200: Potato Bread with Dill and Caraway

Can I suggest a new name for the blog? Kelly bitches about how her recipes didn't turn out right. This one was close (so close!)- the flavor is spot on, I just needed to adjust my oven temperature. 

A milestone post deserves a little story. The last time I made a legit yeast bread (non-pizza category) was a year ago. I had just taken a sourdough bread class and had a bit of the teacher's starter to play with. I named him Beauregard, and as I was trapped at home due to hurricane Sandy I decided to make chili and bread. 

The bread was actually really delicious, but I wasn't able to keep up maintenance on my starter, so I had to toss him. I'm a terrible bread mom. 

After getting potatoes for the last month I finally decided to make bread. Only I never have four hours to make/cool a bread from start to finish, especially with the additional baking potatoes step, so I made this through the initial rise, then gave it a two day fridge fermentation period before finishing it off. 

The only adjustments were to use non-russet potatoes (didn't seem to hurt the final outcome) and powdered buttermilk instead of regular milk. 

I also used my Dutch oven to bake, which gives it a lovely crust. The flavor was amazing, the only issue being my underpowered oven didn't completely cook the bread- it's not raw, just wet. How wet?

There it is, staining the cutting board. 

The thing about bread is, even if its not great, if you toast it, maybe add a little butter (which is somehow not needed here- seriously), it's still pretty amazing. 

And I'm still really happy with the outcome, given my lack of practice doing everything by hand. Bread was my gateway to serious cooking and crazy projects. Didn't realize how much I'd missed it. 

199: Rosemary Pickled Beets

As soon as I saw I had 2 lbs of beets (and leftover rosemary!) to play with a few weeks ago, of course I was going to remake my favorite pickles. And yay, the red beets came out as wonderfully sweet/tangy as I remembered. The only difference to the recipe in my initial post is that I had to make an additional half batch of brine. I cut my beets into wedges as opposed to slices and packed my jars fairly loosely, so the amount listed wasn't enough to cover. It yielded a little shy of two quarts of beets, which should last me a month or two.

Is it bad that I'm tempted by my CSA's proffering 15 lb bags of beets? I could pick up a 5 gallon food grade bucket...if I only had the fridge space.

198: Curried Potatoes and Cauliflower

Lessons Kelly will never learn: start small, you can always add more spices, but once they're in there, you can't take em out again. Had to scale this recipe down (have some plans for some of the cauliflower so I didn't want to use it all), and while I cut back on the spices a bit I wouldn't have minded even less. 

I'm getting ahead of myself though. I was looking for a recipe that would come together with minimal thought/effort, decided on this one from the kitchn. I had some issues with how it turned out- I'll totally take responsibility for the spice, but it wasn't my completely my fault. 

For one, the recipe calls to saute the onions, then add the potatoes/cauliflower and saute those until brown- how am I supposed to brown the veggies without torching the onions? Also, I'm not sure I've ever heard someone refer to a 1" knob of garlic. I assumed they meant ginger, which I added in addition to a few cloves of garlic. 

I also added some garlic chili paste (though had I been thinking, I would've used a share jalapeno), and ended up topping it off with a runny egg.

It's a decent idea and a fine enough meal, but it could use a little work. 

196 & 197: Kohlrabi and Apple Slaw

This recipe from Martha falls under the insanely easy but kinda neat column. Literally just apples and kohlrabi, cut into match sticks, tossed with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.

With something so simple you need to be spot on. I made it once, thought it was good but needed improvement so I made it again the next night.

Version 1: Gala Apple

My kohlrabi sticks were a little larger than I'd like, especially as the vegetable is much firmer than the apple. The kohlrabi was very mild but a little savory, the apple nicely sweet and the dressing tart, so there was a good combination of flavors. 

My thoughts were to cut the kohlrabi smaller or the apple bigger, or to try a firmer variety of apple. 

Version 2: Granny Smith

My kohlrabi was a lot more uniform this time (yay to squaring off- meant less for the salad but more scooby snacks) and my apple was firmer so texturally it was a bit better, but I actually think I like the gala a bit more. Both of my dressings were on the tart side, and then having the granny smith just kinda set it over the top. At least the gala was more sweet than tart, you know?

Overall though it's simple and new enough to be interesting, and something I'd definitely do again, with a bit more adjustment (less lemon in the dressing, for one).

195: Daikon Pickles

I only have one regular mouth ball jar. I've lost the lid to that jar. Hence the plastic wrap. 

Used this recipe from America's Test Kitchen. After two days it's on the sweet side, will probably let it sit a little longer hoping the vinegar will step up its game a little more. Refrigerator pickles are the easiest- heat up your brine (with whatever vinegar, sugar and flavoring you'd like), toss your to-be-pickles in a jar, cover with the hot brine and once it's at room temp, throw it in the fridge for a few days.

Also hey this stuff smells, really strongly. I always thought that kim chi smell was mostly a product of fermentation, but it's a lot just straight up cut daikon.

194: Roasted Veggie Salad

Cop out? Kinda. I'd say to really be a cop out it'd be an automatic home run, and I did have some issues with how it turned out, so there's something to talk about here.

Overall it was about a half a head of lettuce and about 3/4 cup of roasted veggies. And two scallions sliced thin for a little more oniony-ness. The dressing was just oil, vinegar, sage and pepper. I tried to make up for the lack of herb flavor from the roasted veggies themselves by adding some chopped sage to this, but it still didn't come through. I'd even left it to steep overnight- maybe I'd needed to heat the oil for it to infuse?

My standard practice of making my dressing uber vinegary didn't work well here, either. It was nice to have some contrasting acidic bite, but it was just a little too much.

Tasty salad, but a little refinement needed.

193: Roasted Veggies

So I didn't entirely enact the crazy plan I mentioned in my delivery post, but close. I took a little bit of a number of veggies from this week (butternut squash, potatoes, carrots, and turnips) and a few things that were not (onions, garlic), and tossed those with olive oil, salt, thyme and chopped sage.

Roasted them for ages (stirring every 15 minutes or so), and would've kept it going longer had my knife skills been better and my bits actually chopped the same size. As it is there's a good bit of browning and caramelized sweetness (the turnips are surprisingly sweet), but not the crispy crust you can achieve leaving them in longer.

I thought I'd added a ton of herbage, but I forget some of these things will just fall off in the cooking/stirring process. They're still lovely eaten as is, but would be good with some pasta, quinoa or another preparation I'll have for you all soon.

192: Laziest Salad Ever

Literally: lettuce, scallions, and a dressing comprised of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. I did eat leftovers with this, but while I posting this Thursday, it was my lunch on Tuesday before picking up my share and the fridge was a little sparse.

Definitely not as good as the simple salads with bitter greens like kale (or even turnips). The lettuce is soft and a little sweet. Needs more mix-ins.

Delivery 20

Butternut Winter Squash - 1

Turnips - 2

Lettuce - 2 heads Lettuce Smettuce, went for another bunch of radishes again

Broccoli - 1

Radish - 1 bunch

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Garlic - 2 heads

Kohlrabi - 1 bunch

Sage - 1 bunch

Carrots - 1 pound

Hot Peppers - Jalapenos

Cauliflower - 1

I have a bit of a crazyplan this week, just to chop everything up and roast it with the sage. But then I don't have enough sheet trays/oven space/etc.

Turnips

Kinda giant turnips this week. Here's a soup. Fritters with potato and scallions. Frittata. Simple roast.

Cauliflower

Heyyy I got one that wasn't moldy this time! Faux cous cous looks neat (and I love excuses to use the food processor). Spicy roasty cauliflower steaks. Creamy curried soup. And a curry with potatoes.

Jalapenos

Part of the reason I was able to build up so many habaneros for that jelly was they were too spicy to use in normal dishes. Happy to have a few milder everyday peppers to just use as needed.

Garlic

Every time I look at this thing, I just keep thinking of Eraserhead. I'm sorry if that's now stuck in your head. I use garlic all the time, but don't want to just toss this in with a bunch of other flavors. One of my favorite things about the CSA is subtly but profoundly different ingredients taste when they're this fresh. Most likely this will just get roasted and spread on bread like butter.

Butternut Squash

Yay! Butternut squash is one of those foods I adore, but don't order it at restaurants as it's a borderline food. It can be sweet or savory, and I want none of the sweet. Or rather, additional sweet. So no cinnamon or maple syrup please, the squash brings enough of that to the party as is. Roasted squash soup. I have my own favorite soup recipe with rosemary and onions, may try that out. These wontons sound neat, if a little sweet.

Potatoes

Salad with salmon. Pizza dough. First batch that appear to have been cleaned before sending.

Carrots

Roasted carrots and avocado salad. Carrot cake pancakes. Carrots with potatoes and dill. Spoon bread.

Sage

Crispy sage. Pizza with butternut squash. If I didn't still have pate in the freezer I'd make that again.

Radishes

There was a lot of sage (and I mean a lot) on the swap table today, but thankfully my radish-hating friend left an extra bunch for me to swap out. It's more than a little ridiculous that I traded two heads of lettuce for a baby bunch of these radishes (especially when I'm on a salad kick lately), but it happened. Pickles, with cheese and chives on bread, or just with butter and salt. Or I'll just make a bunch of radish roses, and throw them at people.

Broccoli

Broccoli grilled cheese (healthy wha?). Hummus with white beans. Chilled soup (bonus for dill, which I still have from last week).

Kohlrabi

Salad with apples. Slaw with apples. Slaw with turnips.

191: Habenero Ginger Jelly

I was about a 1/2" short of the 6th half pint for this recipe, which turned out surprisingly well. This is the first jelly I've made, and while I was following a recipe, and read a few others I hadn't attempted, I still didn't think what is essentially a slurry of sugar and vinegar, with a few flavorful "bits," would work- set wise or flavor wise. 

But look! Adorable little flakes of habenero and ginger, suspended in a thick but totally spreadable base!

I followed this recipe as written (she waffles between writing 1 and 2 packets of pectin; it's one). Well almost. I had 5 orange habeneros and 3 green, and used a few cubes of grated ginger I generally keep frozen at all times (for oatmeal, and life). I also processed in a water bath, as opposed to the turning over method.

I made the mistake of breathing a few times while making this, you may want to be a little more careful. It wasn't the instant-death she mentions (or maybe I just breathe in a surprising amount of vinegar fumes on a regular basis), but it still wasn't pleasant.

The good part of that missing 1/2" (probably partly due to my using a pint jar) is that I have a decent amount to taste test, not that I'm sure what I'll eat it in/on besides toast. It's a situation where if you take just a little dab of it you may be mistaken on the spiciness level, but even a demi-spoonfull will make your mouth burn in a big but entirely pleasant way. Part of me is a little sad it's not overwhelming, but then I remember it'll continue to get a little spicier in the jars, and at least now I can actually use it for things.

Looking around the internets, there are much spicier versions out there, but were I to make this again I would probably just cut down on the sugar a little.

190: Leftover Broccoli Cauliflower Pizza

A somewhat inadvertent take on this pizza I made the other week, but really was just an excuse to use leftovers. It just so happens to have broccoli and smoked mozz and pecorino, the latter two being leftovers from the first pizza.

I like red pies more than white, but wasn't in love with the pizza. I think I have an excess of cheese in my diet, and anything beyond minimal salads is being rejected by my body.

Still not happy with the crust, more flavor than I had been getting, but still undersalted and definitely stretched too thin. But! I didn't burn it this time, so at least that's something.

189: Daikon Napa Cabbage Soup

Beige on beige on beige. This is kind of a mix of two recipes, one from the Huffington Post, the other from Bittman (hot & sour).

Ingredients

1/2 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbs grated ginger

1 box (4 cups?) miso broth

1 lb daikon, chopped

1 head napa cabbage, sliced into strips

1 lb extra firm tofu, drained and cut into cubes

~ soy sauce, vinegar, pepper

I added the ~ items haphazardly, and feel like only the pepper may have actually been needed? It's fine, don't get me wrong, but the broth (from Whole Foods, don't judge) was really good and comforting on its own (or at least with the ginger, garlic, etc). 

My favorite part of this recipe is how much of my share it knocked out, though. Not sure I'll make again unless I'm faced with another cabbage/crazy huge daikon situation.