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.

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. 

Delivery 19

Dill - 1 bunch

Beets - 2 pounds

Diakon Radish - 1
Cheriette Radishes - 1 bunch

Cauliflower - 1 head

Red Leaf Lettuce - 1 head (standard switch for more radishes)

Green Lettuce - 1 head

Napa Cabbage - 1 head

Bok Choy - 1 head

Leeks - 1 bunch

Broccoli Florets -1 bunch

Ancho Peppers - 4

Hot Peppers - take if you like

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Cauliflower

Still love this roundup, though I'm tempted to try and fix my smothered cauliflower dish.

Napa Cabbage

With daikon I'm well on my way to more kimchi, but no. Loving this cabbage roundup from Bittman (picks: hot & sour, egg & tomato, caesar). Really feeling soup lately.

Leeks 

Still have my leeks from last week- I just went ahead and cleaned and chopped everything up without a definite plan in mind. Less excuses to dawdle. Here's a soup with cauliflower and cashews. Or that confit. Or fritters, again, though a different recipe.
 

Dill

There is some smoked salmon in my freezer that would be good with this- I'd go super simple though. Beyond that (as I still have tons of potatoes from the past few weeks): a potato salad with dill, roasted potatoes, or roasted radishes. Dill bread. Potato dill bread. And another.

Radishes

See other ingredients. Lazy this week. I'm not sure who doesn't like radishes, but for some reason they're always on the swap table. Not complaining, beats red lettuce any day.

Green Lettuce

A salad, natch. Not sure what kind, though could easily be a just greens with dressing kind of thing.

Beets

You have no idea how happy I am to see beets. I'd gladly take two pounds of these every week. Part of me was sad there were none on the swap table, but as it gets colder these will be more prevalent, so here's hoping. These guys are already roasted, earmarked for a repeat of sorts.

Daikon

This daikon is as big as my forearm. No kidding. Some will be pickled. Here are more recipes for that. I like this soup, even if it's more about the mushrooms than the daikon. Here's a simpler one.

Poblano Peppers

Not that I have a plan for it, but I'm tempted to make a sauce. Also maybe a pizza. Also also I picked up more hot peppers but forgot to add them to this pic.

Broccoli

Roasted with cauliflower and garlic. Spicy saute. These feel firmer than the last batch for whatever reason. Not a lot though.

Bok Choy

Cole slaw with radishes and daikon. Or a saute. I've gotten over my inherent meh-ness about this veggie, as I've made some fun things with it so far, but it's pretty hard to store in my greens-hatin' fridge.

150: Greek Cabbage Pie with Dill and Feta

So once again my oven has browning issues, the broiler was used...and the result not the prettiest. I used this recipe from the NY Times, happy with the simplicity of the ingredients, slightly daunted by the time it took to make. Though I was able to use the recipe's suggestion of cooking the filling ahead of time, then assembling and cooking the pie the next day.

I had a wonderful flavor memory from the filling of this pie. Stirring the dill and parsley in at the end, at first it didn't taste like much, but given a little time to meld and bloom...I took a bite, and bam! The rice pilaf from George's Roasters. That exact flavor. Well now I know how to make it, and make it a little healthier with cabbage. And also now I want their rotisserie chicken. I think they coat it in crack.

Anyway, after my last fillo experiment I felt a little more confident using it- laid on the butter and oil, tried to keep everything fairly tight without ripping it (much), and in the oven it went. For an hour. Once again, hardly any browning. Definitely need to pick up a thermometer and test my oven out. 

I forgot to slash the top to let steam out, which probably didn't help my top layers stay together, but the overall flavor is very good, especially when warm. I sometimes have trouble with seasoning for these kinds of recipes, as I can't taste the final product (raw egg), but this turned out fairly well. Maybe needed a little more pepper. I still have a small square left (yay for events where I can load off some food!), will definitely try it with a little squirt of lemon.

Would definitely make this again...when I have a day to kill. We'll see when that happens.

142: Fasolakia

It's hard to make big masses of things in tomatoes look good sometimes, but believe me- this is delicious. I think my goal is to learn all of the "things braised in tomatoes" dishes from cultures around the world, at least as an entry point into the flavors of their cuisine, as there's no way I can not enjoy that kind of dish.

This is green beans braised in tomatoes, and it's greek. Dill weeks become greek weeks, so it goes. I can't remember how I came upon this dish, but as soon as I saw it had a name on one blog, I googled it and opened up like four different recipes to see how it generally came together. One had sweet potatoes in it, which I might try one of these days. Anyhow, here's about what I did:

Ingredients (approx as always):
1 medium/large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Pinch red pepper flake
1/2 tsp oregano (dried)
1 14ish oz can diced tomatoes (or a few fresh ones, I ate all mine this week like handfruit)
1 lb of green beans, ends trimmed, cut into inch or so pieces (minus snacks)
2 Tbs parsley, chopped
~1.5 Tbs dill, chopped
salt, pepper, olive oil as needed

That is what I added, next time I may go a little lighter on the herbage.

Start your onion in a pot with some olive oil with a little salt, saute until translucent, maybe getting a little brown. My pot was a little small so it was more a sweat than a saute. Add the garlic, pepper flake and oregano, stir until fragrant. Add your tomatoes and let em simmer a bit. Add the green beans, bring up to a simmer and let those go.

I think mine were in about 20 minutes before I added my herbage. Some recipes said to add it right when they come off the heat, some when you added the tomatoes- I split the difference. I went a little light, let them go another 10 minutes or so, then added a little more when I took the beans off the heat.

This was lovely with a little crusty bread. But I had already eaten all the things when I made this, otherwise there would've been an egg poached in it, or fried over easy on top. But that is what leftovers are for.

141: Potato Salad with Dill Vinaigrette

Yay for roasting potatoes well.

I would say I used this recipe, and I guess I did, but I only half read it, and in the half-reading it was very confusing. I do realize how that ridiculous that sentence is. So I cut up the potatoes to a size I thought would be nice and roasted them, along with a bunch of cloves of garlic.

While those went I made the vinaigrette (lower portion of the recipe)- somewhere between a 1/4-1/3 batch. And then a little heavy on the vinegar mix as I couldn't pour that much olive oil in. I just couldn't. Also I can probably drink vinegar straight, I love to so much.

When the potatoes were done I let them cool as long as I could, then spooned a little vinaigrette on and threw in some capers. Just a small portion of potatoes, though. (All of the roasted garlic went in my face btw, not the salad). And while I would encourage the addition of those capers, it took a bit of finagling to get them looking pretty as above, they all just want to fall to the bottom of the bowl.

Oh yeah, and it's good to let this sit a little bit before eating so the flavors can meld, but I'm also happy I kept the leftover potatoes and dressing separated in the fridge. Definitely a mix like ~20 min max before serving kind of thing.

Delivery 14

Tomatoes - 3
Green Beans - 1 pound

Edamame - 1 bunch

Carrots - 4

Dill - 1 bunch

Broccoli - 2 heads

Red Onions - 2

Cabbage - 1 head

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Peppers - 2

Habanero Peppers - take them if you dare somehow I forgot to grab these somehow

Feeling a little lost with my recipe selection. The "finding as few simple recipes as possible" method is nice, and I am trying new things, but something's missing. I really enjoyed geeking out the other day, and would like to focus more on whys than hows. Someone pointed me in the direction of Cook's Illustrated, and I've checked this book out from the library...not that I have time to read much before it's due back. Thinking about buying it, though, as just skimming through showed me how wonderful of a resource it could be.

Tomatoes

These were not the best and weren't originally on the list from the farm, so they have to be the last of the season. Will be sad to see them go, and will probably just eat them like handfruit.

Edamade

This is kind of awesome, as I'm so used to edamame only being frozen. I had no idea how they grew. Ideally there would be a recipe that called for fresh beans specifically, but I don't see many when I search. Here they are roasted, and a roundup from the kitchn.

Cabbage

There is definite cabbage fatigue at my CSA- the swap table was like 10 of these...and a bunch of dill. I'm not tired of it...yet, but I'm not terribly excited for it, either. Here are roasted wedges, braised, or in a greek pie (bonus for red onion and dill). Here are a few slaws from Cook's Illustrated.

Peppers

Still a little miffed I forgot to grab those habeneros- I was just braindead and exhausted after work. I could roast these with green beans, or a greek pita. They're in a few other dishes I've linked to here as well.

Broccoli

These are a little limp, but still look good. Fritters, as always, are on my mind. But there's a stir fry with tofu, another with peppers and tofu. Super simple with curry powder and couscous, a salad from Macheesmo, or spanakopita.


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Potatoes

I KNEW I forgot to take a picture of something (will fix tonight). Just imagine the last batch, though dryer. I still have those chives, so these fritters are still an option. Knishes look funnn, or I've read you can just make perogi in wonton wrappers. Here's a salad with dill, and another.

Dill

Will do my best to integrate into as many dishes as I can- though I'm tempted to get a cucumber and make another batch of tzatziki.

Green Beans

Dilly Beans (yay canning). Here's a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, and another braised dish from them.

Carrots 

I kind of want to make carrot cake. Here's another recipe. I know, I know, trying to be healthy here. But I still may, especially if I can stuff them with the frosting for easy transport. Roasting with dill is an option again, or here's a soup!

59: Cool Barley Cucumber Salad with a Dilly Yogurt Dressing

Really good for a day like today. Not sure I can take too much more of this heat.

This cool barley salad is based on a Bittman recipe. Very few adjustments though.

I used hulled barley instead of pearled. Cooked up a decent sized batch of that last night and used a little more than two cups for this. The cucumber was one of my marketmore slicing cucumbers, and I did the de-seed and salt thing. I used a little less lemon juice and olive oil than he called for, and a little less dill, only because I ran out.

On the one hand I'm proud at myself for not stopping at the farmer's market on my morning bike ride- there was no way I would've made it out of there with just mint. But, you know, would've been nice. Regardless, super tasty salad. Looking forward to how it holds up as leftovers!

Oh! And I used a little less of the dressing than the recipe called for. Wanted a yogurt snack.

I'm enjoying using yogurt in dressings and sauces. It's something I hadn't tried before, and I feel so much better with it than if I'd used mayo or sour cream or something. I guess it pairs well with the herbs I've been getting.

Notes for Improvement: Try it with a little mint :)

58: Dilly Roasted Carrots

Simple simple. Peel and cut your carrots on the bias. Toss with a little olive oil and salt. Grill or heat in a pan on the stovetop (covered) until they get a little color. Turn over and do the same on the other side. As soon as they come out, toss with a little dill (minced), pepper, salt and lemon juice to taste.

Notes for Improvement: a little more browning would've been nice. Otherwise super delicious though.

Also- you may have noticed- getting rid of the dish/sauce/whatever labels. Just numbers.

Dish 55: Cucumber Sandwiches

So I went a little crazy with these. Excuses to buy cheese and nommy bread. It's presumably based on the standard cucumber tea sandwiches, though I used this as my guide.

The bread is rye from Black Rooster. It's not widely distributed but it's AMAZING. A little dense, so slice it thin. It's wonderfully fruity and complex. I got lost at Fairway in Kips Bay looking for it, bought both varieties (one plain, one with dried fruit and nuts) and plan on freezing most of it for later consumption. That was the plan, we'll see how fast I eat it. I'm like halfway through two days in. Whoops.

Cucumbers are either Boothby Blonde or Poona Kheera- not sure. Sliced them up with Sweetness. Giving my knife skills some practice.

Cheese...well I tried three varieties of cheese (left to right): Brie, Blue, and Tallegio. Blue was by far the best, the Talleg came in a distant second. Brie a close third to that.

I also cut up a little dill, which helped with the weaker cheeses but was largely unnecessary. Do I need to explain how to assemble? Thin rye, a little cheese, a cucumber. Face. Rich cheeses are not the best choice for a hot day tho.

Notes for Improvement: I wasn't terribly blown away by the sandwich to be honest, doubt I'll make it again. The blue cheese went really well with the rye though, but as I said it's a little too hot.

Dish 53: Grilled Veggie Pita

Do this! Grab your tzatziki. If you have extra it's a good dip while working on other veggies.

Destem and deseed your bell pepper, cut into large flat pieces and roast on a burner if you've got a gas stove. You can also broil or real grill. It was hot so I didn't take them terribly far, def could've used more char. 

Slice your eggplant on the bias, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Heat a pan on the stovetop and cook a few minutes each side until they've got a little brown on 'em. As soon as you take them out, toss with a little vinegar- I wanted to do balsamic but ended us using garancha wine vinegar. Still lovely.

Slice up your tomato into manageable pieces. 

The veg spread. Too many tomatoes for the pitas, about enough to also snack on while working on everything else.

Toast your pita a little to warm it up and make it flexible, then assemble the veggies and top with some tzatziki and a little lemon juice. Nom until you're full and sleepy.

Notes for Improvement:
- More eggplant. I'd considered also roasting up some squash, wish I had, but still good
- Reheat the eggplant, if not also the pepper
- Do this with some rosemary chicken or something. Yummy.

Dish 52: Kale, Beet and Feta Salad with Dill Garlic Dressing

Yum!

Based flavor-wise off this recipe. Kale base with roasted beets, scallions, feta and a garlicky dill vinaigrette. 

Only bits of this are from my share. The kale I got as leftovers from a knife skills class. The beets were roasted for another project. The feta I've been using forever now. Will probably finish it up this week.

Remove the leaves from the kale and slice thin. Chop the beets into sticks. Slice the scallions on the bias. Crumble the feta.

Chop the dill as fine as you can manage, mince the garlic and make a paste with kosher salt. Whisk with a little rice wine vinegar, olive oil, pepper and honey. I made that in the morning so the flavors had a few hours to mingle before lunch.

Really happy with this. Was worried the dressing wouldn't balance out the bitterness of the kale, but with the roasted beets it was perfect. Yay!

Notes for Improvement:

- Get a bigger bowl to eat salads at lunch

- Maybe dice the beets next time? Or have more. It was a great bite when I had a bit of everything and those needed to spread around a bit more

- Scallions are awesome. I wasn't missing them but a little more wouldn't hurt.

Sauces 5 and 6: Tzatziki & Herb Butter

Too hot to do much cooking, decided on a few sauces/spreads/etc to use and use up some ingredients. 

Tzatziki

I ended up using this recipe instead of the one in my original delivery post. It seemed more manageable. My interpretation was a little loose. 

1/2 cucumber, seeded and peeled

3 pinches each salt & pepper (or, you know, to taste)

7 oz yogurt

1/4 cup dill

1 clove garlic

I did a (lazy) dice instead of grating the cucumber. Chop up that dill pretty finely, mince your ginger. If you think ahead you can make a paste with the salt so it incorporates even more, but if not it's fine. Everything just gets mixed in a bowl. Easy.

It's a little chunky but good. I wish I'd had good mint- the bunch I picked up at the grocery store was unpleasantly bitter so I didn't use it- but it's still delicious on a pita.When I eat it as part of a dish I'll probably squeeze a little lemon on, but I'm hesitant it'll overpower if originally added to the mix.

Herb Butter

I had a little cinnamon basil that wasn't looking so great, decided to try a little herb butter. Super simple.

1/4 cup herb

1/2 cup butter (i.e. 1 stick)

Salt pepp

Slice the herbs as small as you're comfortable. Soften the butter. Mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garlic (powder, roasted) would be super amazing in this. Will probably just use it on toast or freeze for another occasion. Definitely tasty on a pita.

Notes for Improvement:

- Grate the cucumber next time for a smoother sauce (Tzatziki)
- Buy mint at the farmer's market next time (Tzatziki)
- Add more herbs and/or garlic (Butter)

Delivery 6

Delivery 6! By far the smallest of the bunch- though I guess the greens the past few weeks added a ton of volume. Super excited for everything I have though! 

Bright Lights Swiss Chard - 1 bunch

Summer Squash - 2 
Marketmore Slicing Cucumbers - 2
Eggplant - 1
Scallions - 1 bunch
Caraflex Cabbage - 1 head **these were crazy tiny so I used the swap table to get another container of currants
Currants - 1 box
Dill - 1 bunch
Boothby Blonde/Poona Kheera Cucumbers - 2

Cucumbers

Debating just eating all of these guys raw, or maybe in a little salad with basil and tomato. There are a few recipes for some of the heirloom pickles- this sandwich with the poona kheera looks lovely. There are (of course) also pickles. I do want to try lacto-fermentation of these days. Bittman has a recipe.

I guess the Marketmores are for salads/slicing/etc, while the poona kheera/boothby (not sure which I got) are more pickle-ready.

Dill

Obviously, pickles come to mind, but if I don't mind turning on the oven, there are biscuits. (It is a heat wave now. I do kind of mind turning on that oven. But, you know, biscuits...). Another zucchini dip, though I still have a bunch of the last one in the fridge. May use the flavors of this recipe with quinoa or barley. Ooh tzatziki  or this (actual) barley salad- also bonus for cucumbers. Also grilled carrots, have a bunch of those in the fridge from other recipes. 

 

Currant

Super excited about having a fruit in this veg share- especially fresh currants. If I want to be all clever and resourceful I could use zucchini too and make mini-breads or muffins. I've made jams and curd in the past if I feel like getting out my canning kit (here's a scalable recipe).

There's also this recipe for a salad that uses green onions, zucchini, currants AND dill. So, kinda tempting. Even if I could really go for some shortbread and curd right about now.

Eggplant

Skinny japanese eggplant. May do another Moroccan stew- with more zucchini this time- with amped up spices. I think I still have a jar of tomatoes. Or just roasted with some kind of dip/sauce. I'm feeling simple cooking this week.

Chard

Chard + Dill: crepes or frittata. Or just sauteed. I don't have a lot of greens this week so will try and stretch these.