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coraaDinner tonight!
(I honestly think the roast vegetable salad was the best dish of the night, and the potatoes second. Frankly, we could have easily gone without meat at all, even though the meat came out pretty well, too.)
Roast Beet and Carrot Salad
* 2 beets
* 4 small carrots
* 2 small yellow onions
* 3-5 garlic cloves
* 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
* salt
* pepper
In our last Pioneer Organics box, we got three good-sized beets and a slew of beautiful little carrots. I wanted to do something with them, but, even though I like beets, I don't have much experience with them. But I have heard good things about roasted beet salads, so I decided to try that. I preheated the oven to 350F to start.
I decided to use beets with carrots (which are also a hard root vegetable, and so would roast for about the same time), quartered small yellow onions, and garlic. I used two beets and four carrots -- the carrots were thin. Peeled them all, then cut the beets into wedges, and the carrots into chunks of about the same size. Then added two small, quartered yellow onions and four whole garlic cloves.
(By the time I was done with this, my hands and the cutting board were soaking with red-purple beet juice. It looked like a massacre.)
I tossed the vegetables with oil, salt and pepper just to coat, then threw it all in the cast-iron pan and put that in the oven. (If I didn't have a cast-iron pan, I would have used an oven-safe roasting dish of some kind... but I love my cast iron.) I roasted like that for 30-ish minutes. By the end of 30 minutes, the vegetables were tender but not quite as brown as I'd like, so I boosted the oven to 450 and cooked for another ten minutes before pulling them out.
I dressed them with a little bit of the honey mustard dressing (below), but frankly they could've gone with no dressing at all. I was startled by how good they were. It's probably partly the good-quality fresh produce. The beets and carrots were both tender and flavorful. Using a dry heat method helped too: concentrating the flavors by driving off moisture, and caramelizing the sugars. Mmm. Even better, it required just a little prep time in terms of whacking up vegetables, and then attended to itself for half an hour in the oven. Definitely a method I'm going to remember.
Serves 2 people who quite like it.
Honey Mustard Dressing
* 2-3 tbsp Dijon mustard (or any other mustard you like)
* 2 tbsp lemon juice
* 2 tbsp honey
* 4 tbsp olive oil
I wanted some kind of dressing for the beets and carrots, and honey mustard seemed like a good choice -- since beets and carrots, especially roasted, are fairly sweet, I wanted something tangy and spicy to offset that.
We happened to have the tail end of a small bottle of Dijon mustard in the fridge, so I used it up and made the dressing straight into the bottle. This let me emulsify the dressing by just shaking the bottle vigorously, which was handy, but you could make it in a bowl with a whisk too -- that's how I usually do it. (I actually also didn't measure anything, so this is all estimates.)
I put the mustard, lemon juice (I think you could also use wine vinegar equally well) and honey in the bottle, warmed it up a wee bit in the microwave to loosen the mustard and honey, and then shook vigorously to mix everything together. Then I threw it back in the fridge to cool it back down again. Right before eating, I put olive oil into the bottle -- I actually used about 3 tbsp of ordinary olive oil and 1 tbsp of fancy-schmancy extra-virgin stuff for flavor -- and shook it up to emulsify the oil and liquids.
(Actually, I handed the bottle to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jmpava and told him to shake it and shake it and shake it....)
I drizzled it over the roasted vegetable salad just before serving and put the remainder in the fridge. It's probably enough for four or five salads.
Mashed Potatoes
* 2 medium-smallish Yukon Gold potatoes
* 1 medium-smallish Russet potato
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 tbsp butter
* 2 oz cream cheese
* salt
* pepper
* cheese (to taste)
Usually I make mashed potatoes by slicing up potatoes, boiling them until tender, and mashing away with a masher and enough milk and butter to make it smooth. This works pretty well, but the potatoes sometimes get gluey, so when I read a Cook's Illustrated recipe promising satiny, non-gluey mashed potatoes, I thought why not?
(You could use any combination of Yukon Gold and Russet potatoes -- all one, all the other, or some of each. You could also throw in a couple of small red potatoes for flavor, but I don't prefer all-red-potato mashed potatoes.)
The method called for simmering the potatoes whole and in their skins for 20-30 minutes until tender. While the potatoes were simmering, I put the milk, butter, cream cheese, salt and pepper into a small pan and heated it very gently until the butter and cream cheese melted, then kept it warm over the heat while the potatoes finished.
Then I pulled them out and dunked them in cold water just long enough to make them cool enough to handle. I peeled off the skin (it came off very easily, with the potatoes cooked) and ran them through a potato ricer, which is supposed to make the potatoes less gluey by bursting fewer starch granules. I stirred the hot milk/butter/cream cheese into the riced potatoes until smooth, added a little grated cheese for taste, and served.
I was really impressed by the potato-y-ness of the mashed potatoes. Part of that was probably, again, good-quality potatoes, but part of that
Serves 4.
Fake Chicken Cordon Bleu
* 1 largeish chicken breast
* 2 slices thinly-sliced ham
* 2 slices thinly-sliced cheddar
* 1/4 c flour
* salt
* pepper
* butter
Though the vegetables stole the show, the chicken came out beautifully: with a crisp, mahogany crust and just the right proportion of cheese and ham to chicken.
I started by slicing the chicken breast so that it opened up like a book. In between the 'pages' I layered the cheddar and ham, and then folded it back up again so that the chicken wrapped all the way around the filling. Finally I cut the chicken breast into two pieces (to fit better in the pan, and because we were each having just half).
Then, on a small plate, I mixed the flour with some salt and pepper. I dredged the chicken in the flour mixture, being sure to get all the sides lightly coated. Then, in a small frying pan, I heated up enough butter over med-high heat to cover the bottom of the pan to about a 1 cm depth until the frothing died down. I fried the dredged chicken pieces, first on one side, then on the other, until they were a deep crusty golden-brown all over and cooked through -- about 5-7 minutes on each side.
Serves 2.
(I honestly think the roast vegetable salad was the best dish of the night, and the potatoes second. Frankly, we could have easily gone without meat at all, even though the meat came out pretty well, too.)
Roast Beet and Carrot Salad
* 2 beets
* 4 small carrots
* 2 small yellow onions
* 3-5 garlic cloves
* 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
* salt
* pepper
In our last Pioneer Organics box, we got three good-sized beets and a slew of beautiful little carrots. I wanted to do something with them, but, even though I like beets, I don't have much experience with them. But I have heard good things about roasted beet salads, so I decided to try that. I preheated the oven to 350F to start.
I decided to use beets with carrots (which are also a hard root vegetable, and so would roast for about the same time), quartered small yellow onions, and garlic. I used two beets and four carrots -- the carrots were thin. Peeled them all, then cut the beets into wedges, and the carrots into chunks of about the same size. Then added two small, quartered yellow onions and four whole garlic cloves.
(By the time I was done with this, my hands and the cutting board were soaking with red-purple beet juice. It looked like a massacre.)
I tossed the vegetables with oil, salt and pepper just to coat, then threw it all in the cast-iron pan and put that in the oven. (If I didn't have a cast-iron pan, I would have used an oven-safe roasting dish of some kind... but I love my cast iron.) I roasted like that for 30-ish minutes. By the end of 30 minutes, the vegetables were tender but not quite as brown as I'd like, so I boosted the oven to 450 and cooked for another ten minutes before pulling them out.
I dressed them with a little bit of the honey mustard dressing (below), but frankly they could've gone with no dressing at all. I was startled by how good they were. It's probably partly the good-quality fresh produce. The beets and carrots were both tender and flavorful. Using a dry heat method helped too: concentrating the flavors by driving off moisture, and caramelizing the sugars. Mmm. Even better, it required just a little prep time in terms of whacking up vegetables, and then attended to itself for half an hour in the oven. Definitely a method I'm going to remember.
Serves 2 people who quite like it.
Honey Mustard Dressing
* 2-3 tbsp Dijon mustard (or any other mustard you like)
* 2 tbsp lemon juice
* 2 tbsp honey
* 4 tbsp olive oil
I wanted some kind of dressing for the beets and carrots, and honey mustard seemed like a good choice -- since beets and carrots, especially roasted, are fairly sweet, I wanted something tangy and spicy to offset that.
We happened to have the tail end of a small bottle of Dijon mustard in the fridge, so I used it up and made the dressing straight into the bottle. This let me emulsify the dressing by just shaking the bottle vigorously, which was handy, but you could make it in a bowl with a whisk too -- that's how I usually do it. (I actually also didn't measure anything, so this is all estimates.)
I put the mustard, lemon juice (I think you could also use wine vinegar equally well) and honey in the bottle, warmed it up a wee bit in the microwave to loosen the mustard and honey, and then shook vigorously to mix everything together. Then I threw it back in the fridge to cool it back down again. Right before eating, I put olive oil into the bottle -- I actually used about 3 tbsp of ordinary olive oil and 1 tbsp of fancy-schmancy extra-virgin stuff for flavor -- and shook it up to emulsify the oil and liquids.
(Actually, I handed the bottle to
jmpava and told him to shake it and shake it and shake it....)I drizzled it over the roasted vegetable salad just before serving and put the remainder in the fridge. It's probably enough for four or five salads.
Mashed Potatoes
* 2 medium-smallish Yukon Gold potatoes
* 1 medium-smallish Russet potato
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 tbsp butter
* 2 oz cream cheese
* salt
* pepper
* cheese (to taste)
Usually I make mashed potatoes by slicing up potatoes, boiling them until tender, and mashing away with a masher and enough milk and butter to make it smooth. This works pretty well, but the potatoes sometimes get gluey, so when I read a Cook's Illustrated recipe promising satiny, non-gluey mashed potatoes, I thought why not?
(You could use any combination of Yukon Gold and Russet potatoes -- all one, all the other, or some of each. You could also throw in a couple of small red potatoes for flavor, but I don't prefer all-red-potato mashed potatoes.)
The method called for simmering the potatoes whole and in their skins for 20-30 minutes until tender. While the potatoes were simmering, I put the milk, butter, cream cheese, salt and pepper into a small pan and heated it very gently until the butter and cream cheese melted, then kept it warm over the heat while the potatoes finished.
Then I pulled them out and dunked them in cold water just long enough to make them cool enough to handle. I peeled off the skin (it came off very easily, with the potatoes cooked) and ran them through a potato ricer, which is supposed to make the potatoes less gluey by bursting fewer starch granules. I stirred the hot milk/butter/cream cheese into the riced potatoes until smooth, added a little grated cheese for taste, and served.
I was really impressed by the potato-y-ness of the mashed potatoes. Part of that was probably, again, good-quality potatoes, but part of that
Serves 4.
Fake Chicken Cordon Bleu
* 1 largeish chicken breast
* 2 slices thinly-sliced ham
* 2 slices thinly-sliced cheddar
* 1/4 c flour
* salt
* pepper
* butter
Though the vegetables stole the show, the chicken came out beautifully: with a crisp, mahogany crust and just the right proportion of cheese and ham to chicken.
I started by slicing the chicken breast so that it opened up like a book. In between the 'pages' I layered the cheddar and ham, and then folded it back up again so that the chicken wrapped all the way around the filling. Finally I cut the chicken breast into two pieces (to fit better in the pan, and because we were each having just half).
Then, on a small plate, I mixed the flour with some salt and pepper. I dredged the chicken in the flour mixture, being sure to get all the sides lightly coated. Then, in a small frying pan, I heated up enough butter over med-high heat to cover the bottom of the pan to about a 1 cm depth until the frothing died down. I fried the dredged chicken pieces, first on one side, then on the other, until they were a deep crusty golden-brown all over and cooked through -- about 5-7 minutes on each side.
Serves 2.