Rippin Another Blog: Parmesan Roasted Fennel with Mozzarella di Bufala and Reduced Balsamico

Good morning sugar loves!

It's my opinion that food is something that unites us all. Without getting all humanistic and homogenizing (because I learned in my Women's Studies classes that's a bad thing), we all need food. We all eat food (hopefully). We all want food (except those with eating disorders). And we all love food. Who doesn't enjoy eating?? (again, see above).

While what we eat differs from country to country, region to region, home to home, person to person - we do all eat.

And thank God for that. She must love food too.

That's why for the month of February I selected a Swedish blog to rip a recipe from. Min ugn är min tv. We might not speak or type the same language but with photos as fantastic as this Mattias', how can we not connect? The best part was looking at the food and trying to figure out what dishes were. And when it came to actually making one of his dishes, as Haydn mentioned yesterday, Google translator is a handy-dandy-translating magic machine! 

Fennel gets an incredibly tender flavor when it's cooked, losing most of it's aniseed punch, while the creaminess of the mozzzarella paired with the crunchiness of the cheese is unreal.

Small note: Buy the best ingredients for this that you can afford. They key to simple dishes like this is getting the good shit. Your mouth will thank you. Twice.

tack så mycket, Mattias... and Google Translator.

Roasted Parmean w Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella
(printable recipe) - serves 2.

Ingredients:

2 Large Bulbs of Fennel.
2 Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella
Real Parmesan Cheese, finely grated.
Good Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Coarse Sea Salt and Fresh Cracked Black Pepper. 
1 Batch Balsamic Reduction.

What to Do:
 
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 

As it heats, chop the woody and fuzzy tops off the fennel and slice in half. Place on a baking pan and drizzle generously with oil, salt and pepper. Place in the hot oven and bake for 30-45 minutes or until it starts to brown nicely. 

Remove from the oven. Sprinkle with a good helping of Parmesan cheese. Place back in the oven and continue to cook until the cheese has a juicy golden color (approx 15 minutes). 

As your fennel bakes, remove the fresh buffalo mozza from the package and in a sieve to drain well.

Once the fennel is done, pile it all up on a big plate, drizzle with a good helping of balsamic reduction and olive oil, garnish with some fennel tops and serve with a loaf of crusty bread.

Eat.

RPI Eggs: Super Simple Poached Egg Sunday Breakfast

Happy Thursday darlings!

The best part of my day? I logged into Blogger, checked the blog's stats for the day, and opened up my draft for RPI Mission Eggs... I was greeted by this:

Jingle bells, batman smells, Robin laid an egg.

Batmobile lost a wheel and Joker got away.

Oh the joy of sharing a blog with a close friend who you wished lived closer. I've heard this song eight million times and was always kind of annoyed by it. Until now. Now it's the endearing gentle message my dear friend Haydn left me in my draft copy of RPI Eggs - a small but significant message that he hopelessly misses me. I miss you too, Haydn. Stupid, giant, Canadian country.

Something else that is dear to my heart? Eggs. Particularly, super simple Sunday breakfast eggs. When we established eggs as our Rock, Paper, ingredient mission this month, my mind immediately started digging into the various culinary fascinations of eggs - custards, cakes, aioli, souffle, blah blah blah. Ultimately, I chose to showcase the true nature of the protein powerhouse known as the egg. And stayed true to chicken.

Small side note: Duck eggs scare the squeezebox outta me. Much too large. Much. too. large. Pretty much anything that is larger in size than the average/normal freaks me out.

All you need for this recipe: eggs, bread, left over veggies. Maybe a little cheese. Golden. 

Super Simple Poached Egg Breakfast

(printable recipe) - serves 2.

Ingredients:

4 Pastured Eggs.

1 Tsp Vinegar.

1 Bunch Kale or Chard.

1/3 C Chicken or Veggie Stock.

Leftover Roasted Winter Veg.

2 Pieces Baguette or Sourdough Loaf, cut on an angle.

2 Shavings of Salty Grainy Cheese (ie Grana Padano, Parmesan, Pecorino Romano)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Coarse Sea Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

What to Do:

Pre-heat your oven to a high broil. Once hot, place sliced bread on a baking sheet, brushed lightly with olive oil, and slide under heat. Broil until golden. Remove from oven and lay the cheese on warm toast. Set aside.

Turn the oven down to 400 degrees F. Re-heat winter veg in oven until hot. 

Heat 2 Tbsp of oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Once hot, throw in the greens, season well with salt and pepper and stir well to coat. Add the stock and while stirring often, allow the greens to cook through and the stock to evaporate.

To poach eggs: Bring a deep saute pan of salted water to a light boil over medium-high heat. Once the water starts to bubble, add vinegar. Crack eggs into individual bowls and gently slide into the semi-boiling water. Using a slotted spoon, corral the whites around the yolks to help them keep their shape. Cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the egg whites are cooked through and the yolks runny. Remove from water and gently place eggs on top of cheesy toast.

Throw it all on a plate and chow down my friends, chow down.

Yes - eat.

How do your friends let you know they love you? How do you show you love them?

Salads Ain't Just Fo' Summer Yo!

There are plenty of splendid and flavorful ingredients that can be used to make some pretty stellar Winter ones. Who needs mass produced & globally shipped lettuce when you can use locally and organically grown kale? Mmmm-mmmm - Christmas Winter salads are a wee bit of yum, yes?

I know, I know.

I promise that every post I do here up until Christmas will not be Christmas related.

To be fair though, this dish really isn't about Christmas. It's about using your Winter veg up effectively and let's be honest: Sometimes it's friggin difficult to find a fresh way to use those beets. Or leafy greens.

There comes a point, in every CSA participant's box, when we think "for the love of all that is good and holy - if I get one more (insert bastard vegetable here), I'm going to kill myself!". For me, that's usually kohlrabi. For John, it's turnips. Thence this recipe.

The fact that this dish is white, green and red just happens to make it an excellent side to a holiday meal. I promise, it's not Christmas.

Beet Carpaccio & Massaged Kale Winter Salad

(printable recipe) - serves 2.

Ingredients for Salad:

6 Small Red Beets, scrubbed and well dried.

6 Small Golden Beets, scrubbed and well dried.

1 Bunch Kale.

6 Oz Goat Cheese, room temperature.

Handful of Sweet & Spicy Nuts.

Coarse Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

Ingredients for Dressing:

1/2 C Good Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The Juice of 1 Orange.

1 Tbsp Good Quality Balsamic Vinegar.

Coarse Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

What to Do:

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F. Place the golden beets in one roasting pan and the red beets in another. Drizzle both with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Cover and roast in the oven for 40 - 60 minutes, depending on the size and age of the beets. When a fork slides gently into the beet, they're done. Remove from the oven and set aside until you can touch them. Chop off the top, peel the skins off and discard and place beets in the fridge until cool.

Meanwhile: remove the stem/rib of the kale and then chop into thin sliced. Massage - yes, massage - until the kale becomes soft and edible. This can take a while so just plop down in front of the tv if you want and rub baby rub. Set aside.

Make the dressing: Dump all the ingredients into a mason jar and shake. Set aside.

Once the beets are cool, use your mandolin to slice them on the thinnest setting. Watch your fingers! You can do this with a knife but it will take longer and it will be difficult to be as consistent. Make sure you do all the golden ones before the red or you will discolor the delicate gold beets with purple.

Lay the red beets on a plate, slightly overlapping the edges until the plate is full. Slide gold slices so they lay just slightly under each red beet. 

In a bowl, dress the kale with some of the dressing and the goat cheese. Gently place on top of the beets and finish with some nuts.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Eat.

How do you feel about Winter salads? Have you ever massaged kale? What do you get in your CSA that makes your little heart happy? Angry? Confused?

Homemade Hearty Beef Stew

Confession: I always feel a little conflicted about posting very "meaty" recipes. 

Those who know me know that I am an "ethical" eater. That is, I try to eat most of my food small organic, small scale, seasonal, and local. That can be tricky with meat.

Or at the very least, it complicates things a little more. It not only needs to be all of the above, but pastured and NOT grain fed, as well.

Side Note: I've noticed in the grocery store lately that producers are advertizing their meat as "grain fed" - particularly the beef and chicken. If you get anything out of this post get this... 

Grain fed is not a good thing. 

Animals are not meant to eat grain. Sure, they aren't being fed the chicken litter off the chicken barn floor or left over beef bits (yes, that is what conventional meat is fed) = a whole lot of excess antibiotics, hormones, and possible health risks for you; but grain isn't much better. It's likely genetically modified or engineered, grown on mass scale with chemical inputs, and shipped all over the world. You are eating all of that when you eat your grain fed meat. Not to mention what that kind of diet does to the animal who consumed it to begin with. 

Instead: Google a few hits, make a few phone calls and find which producers and/or sellers in your area are raising organic pastured animals. Pastured is key. Pastured is a way of living - both for the eater and the animal. It fosters the essence of the cow, or pig, or chicken, or goat, or bison, or lamb, or whatever your poison is. For more information on pastured meat, click here.

Back to reality: Right. So, organic, small scale, seasonal, local & pastured meat. Tall order. And the guilt that comes with posting about meat. 

We need to cut down our meat consumption for a sovereign food system. And when I post about meat - particularly without the above premise - I feel like I'm not doing the world any good. Does posting my meaty meal encourage more meat consumption rather than less? Or does it encourage a holistic, and natural way of eating seasonally? Am I thinking this through too much? Ah!

So meat: Eat less. When you do eat, eat pastured. And don't think I'm obsessing.... I might be obsessing. Just a little.

Homemade Hearty Beef Stew

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Lb Chuck Stew Meat, cut into 1-2" pieces.

3 Small-Medium Turnips, peeled & chopped into 1" pieces.

3 Carrots, chopped into 1" pieces.

8 New Baby Red Skin Potatoes, cut in half.

3 Stalks of Celery, chopped.

1 Onion, chopped into 2" thick slices.

5 Garlic Cloves, peeled.

2 C Beef Stock.

28 oz. Canned Tomatoes.

1 C Dry Red Wine.

Italian Seasonings (i.e. Basil, Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary, etc...).

1 Bay Leaf.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

 Kosher Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

What to Do:

Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the beef pieces - you may have to do this in batches. Brown well all over. Remove from the pan and put in a large stock pot.

Once the beef is browned, turn the heat down to medium. Add a couple glugs of olive oil to the pan and add the carrots, celery and onion - this is the base of the stew (and many other dishes), it's called a Mirepoix (meer-pwah). Stir well to coat. Cook for about 5 minutes or until just starting to get a bit of color on the vegetables, stirring occasionally.

Add the tomatoes, seasonings, bay leaf, and wine. Season with salt and pepper. Allow the wine to reduce for about 5 minutes. Pour the mixture into the stock pot along with the beef stock, turnips, and garlic cloves.

Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to a simmer, and allow to slow cook the mixture for 2 1/2 - 3 hours.

In the final half hour of cooking, add the potatoes and make sure they're covered with the liquid.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a great big hunk of honey'd corn bread.

Eat.

What do you obsess over? 

What do you think about my meat issue? Have you ever thought about this "grain fed" business? What kind of "happy" meat or vegetables are available near you?

This post is linked up with Cast Party Wednesday; This Chick Cooks; Full Plate Thursday; Tastetastic Thursday; Fight Back Friday; Fresh Bites Friday; Seasonal Inspiration Saturday;

Roasted Rosemary Sunchokes + Giveaway!

Good morning lovelies!

I hit 100 followers yesterday on my other blog, Gastronomical Sovereignty! And while I know that followers aren't everything, it sure makes you feel good when someone likes you (or at least your blog) enough to click and publicly display their virtual affection. It's the second best thing to comments.

So to celebrate.... I have a giveaway that I'm sharing both here as well as on the other blog because hey! - I want you to get some cool shit. And lemme tell you, this is one sweet deal of a giveaway; not to mention cost some serious cheddar. Aye! 

So here's the deal. School is coming to an end for me. My immediate reaction to that is, "bring on the wine!"... However, I can't ship wine internationally. And so what's the next best thing after vino for sipping in the middle of the afternoon? Well... at the end of every term John gets me a "Floating Cloud" package from this incredible local spa called Silk Road - essentially, it's a one hour full body massage followed by a one hour facial followed by as much fresh brewed tea as I can possibly consume. This place is the shit. So I'm giving away: tea.... but not just any tea.

I'm giving away 9 incredibly diverse and flavourful different varieties (3 green; 3 black; 3 herbal) of their spectacular tea, each one supplying 7-10 cups per package:

A Scandanavian styled, Finnish made steeper/mug that is super fucking cool:

Some home baked chocolate chip cookies:

And of course... a little reading material. John has put together 10 copies of what could be called my very limited edition, very first cookbook ever. Happy Valentines Day to me, yo! And to you! I'll send you a copy along with the package.

So let's review: 9 types (63-90 cups!) of incredible tea, one amazing tea pot/mug, home baked mother ef'n chocolate chip cookies, and something to pass the time with - my first cookbook. Hellz yeah I did yo! 

To Enter: 

Simply click here and follow the directions!

This giveaway closes February 19th - so get your entries in! The winner will be announced on February 20th.

via magisso

...Okay, onto roasted sunchokes! Because really, who doesn't love roasted sunchokes?? 

Sunchokes - aka Jerusalem artichokes - are related to sunflowers! Funny looking gingeresque tubular little guys (tubular as in like a tube, not like TMNT "totally tubular dude!") taste sort of nutty yet sweet and can be prepared the same way you'd prepare a potato or eaten raw in a salad if you so desire. If eating raw make sure to give them a little lemon bath (lemon jc. and water) to make sure they don't discolor.

When buying, look for non-marked knobbles and store in your vegetable crisper for up to two weeks. If I were you, I'd leave the skin on when preparing because their knobbliness (is that a word?) is a bitch to get around. Just scrub well before cooking. 

Seriously! Try them! They're fantastic! And roasting them in the oven with a bit of garlic and rosemary (oooh! or duck fat!) makes a different yet scrumptious addition to any meal. Well, maybe not any meal. I find it hard to imagine that sunchokes would fare very well with these.

Roasted Rosemary Sunchokes

(printable recipe)

Ingredients: 

1 to 2 Lbs of Sunchokes, scrubbed clean, well dried, and chopped into 1" pieces.

5 Cloves Garlic, peeled.

2 Sprigs of Rosemary, finely chopped.

1 Lemon for Juice.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Kosher Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

What to Do:

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees F.

In a baking pan or two, toss the sunchokes, garlic and rosemary with a Tbsp or two of olive oil, lemon juice, and season well with salt and pepper.

Arrange in a single layer in the pan(s) and roast in heated oven for 30-45 minutes or until desired tenderness is achieved.

Remove from the oven and serve.

Eat!

This post is linked up with Tasty Tuesdays; Slightly Indulgent Tuesday; Tuesday Talent Show; This Chick Cooks; Cast Party Wednesday; Simple Lives Thursday; Full Plate Thursday; Tastetastic Thursday; Fight Back Friday; The Gallery of Favorites via the 21st Century Housewife; Fresh Bites Friday; Seasonal Inspiration Saturday; Seasonal Celebration Sunday.

Cookbook Challenge: Sausages with Winter Rosti

I'm late. No, not that kind of late. 

I'm a bad blogger.

Aye. These last couple weeks have been ridiculously busy between school and both blogs and trying to get my freelance writing career off the ground and looking for a job and being sick and the list goes on and on and on. Could I possibly say "and" anymore times in that sentence?

Therefore, I am late. I was supposed to post my cookbook challenge recipe Thursday morning. I didn't. In fact, it's 7:49pm on Friday night and I just finished it. But you know what? It was worth the wait.

This little ditty comes out of dreamboat Chef Ross Dobson's, Kitchen Seasons. Eating seasonally is absolutely instrumental to my foodways and I both dine and breathe the philosophies attached to that paradigm.

I'll be honest though - at first glance I wasn't so hot on the recipe I randomly selected. I mean really, potatoes and sausage for dinner? But, as sexmagnet Chef Dobson has proven to me countless times before, his dishes are always a treat!...And so is his face. It's not for the faint of heart mind you (the dish, not his face) - and I mean that literally! The butter and sat fat quotient is a little high. And I enjoyed every last bite of it. Seriously. There's nothing left. This dish was surprisingly enjoyable and probably the least elegant of anything I've ever made. I even topped it off with some frozen peas to really class it up. The flavours and the textures however, were like two peas in a pod. Perfect.

Sausages with Winter Rosti
(printable recipe)

Ingredients: 

8 Happy Pork Sausages.

2 Tbsp Olive Oil.

Mustard, to serve.

3 Medium Russet Potatoes, peeled & quartered.

1 Head of Celeriac (approx 1 3/4 Lbs), peeled & quartered.

3 Tbsp Butter, unsalted.

3 Tbsp Olive Oil.

Sea Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

What to Do:

Put the potatoes and celeriac in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over max heat, then immediately remove from the element and cover with a tight fitting lid. Set aside for 10 minutes. Drain and allow to cool completely before continuing.

Once cooled, grate potatoes and celeriac into a large bowl. Add 1 Tsp salt and a good helping of black pepper. Mix well to combine.

Heat half of the butter and 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over high heat, swirling the butter around to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the potato mixture and gently press own to form a large cake. Cook for 5 minutes over high heat. Pour 1 Tbsp of olive oil around the very edge of the pan and gently shake the pan often to prevent the rosti from sticking to the bottom. Reduce the heat to medium and cok for 10 minutes, shaking the pan often.

Take a plate slightly larger than the pan. Place it on top of the pan and then carefully invert the rosti onto the plate. Add the remaining oil and butter to the pan, then carefully slide the rosti back into the pan, cooked side up, and cook for 10 more minutes.

Just before you add the oil to the pan (before the flip), cook the sausages. Heat the oil in a frying pan over low-medium heat. Prick the sausages with a fork, add them to the pan and cook for about 20 minutes, rotating them often to ensure even browning. Once golden, drain on paper towels and serve with a side of mustard of your choosing.

Eat!

This post is linked up with Tasty Tuesdays; Tuesday Talent Show; This Chick Cooks;  Full Plate Thursday; Seasonal Inspiration; Fight Back Friday.