Hello food friends!!!
Ah, it feels good to be cooking again after a holiday of processed, food science driven fare!
The following few meals don't contain a HUGE amount of the produce that I received in my FDO box last week, but we had some stuff kicking around the house that needed to be used up, and I HATE waste!
Saturday night I had a great little girls night with a couple of my besties Amy and Joanne - a yummy dinner and FEW too many glasses of vino eventually led to a 3:00am chat about our varying philosophies on life, and an impromptu sleep over party! It all started with great food though...
To start...prosciutto wrapped honeydew. YUM! Food styling courtesy of Amy
This melon was a non-organic non-local leftover from the week before last...Rory did the grocery shopping, and he's not as..sensitive... as I am about where my food comes from :) Is it sort of sinful of me not to mind this?... if it means he's going to come home with a big deliciously juicy melon in the middle of winter, when all I've had are so-so apples and pears for three months? shhh...
This appy didn't exactly 'go' with the rest of dinner - but the whole theme idea gets thrown out the window when there's a melon to be used up!
Our main was...
Honey Orange Glazed, Miso Marinated Acrtic Char, Ginger Whipped Sweet Potatoes, and Braised Kale
Arctic Char was a first for me - I've always heard it's delicious, but it's usually expensive when I see it - Loblaw's had a sale! This is Farmed, Iceland Arctic Char - A sustainable choice! Arctic char is a pink fleshed fish - tastes a lot like trout, maybe not as strong...very yummy.
The recipe is a take on the following: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=226373
I didn't have mirin so I used rice wine vinegar, and I didn't have limes so I used fresh squeezed OJ.
This was also my first experience cooking with miso - it won't be my last!
For the ginger whipped sweet potatoes - peel and slice a few sweet potatoes, peel and mince a tablespoon-ish of fresh ginger - boil them or steam them together til nice and soft...and use a hand blender, a little chicken stock or cream or both, and whip 'em up until they're smooth and to your liking. Don't forget to season well with salt! An excellent combo and a great gingery compliment to the fish!
The kale (FDO) was cleaned chopped and cooked in heavy bottomed sauce pan with 1/3 c of chicken stock, steamed for 2 minutes with the lid on, then removed the lid until the stock evaporated, and seasoned with s&p. I haven't cooked Kale before, but it's got the heartiness of cabbage, and the girls agreed the flavour is a mix between brocolli and green cabbage - not bitter at all, which is what I expected.
Overall, a GREAT meal - I would cook all of these items again solo or in combo!
This meal was inspired by leftovers! I had walnuts that needed to be used, two slices of proscuitto, an almost empty box of couscous, and a bag of cranberries starting to get shrively...
Proscuitto wrapped arugula-walnut pesto chicken over whole wheat couscous, served with homemade cranberry jam with a side of live leaf lettuce with lemon vinaigrette.
This meal was a show stopper! and SO SO easy!
Arugula Walnut Pesto:
- 2-3 c. packed arugula leaves
- 1/3 cup of shelled walnuts
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
- 1/4 c EVOO
- s&p to taste
Whip the first four ingredients up in a food processor - slowly add the oil at the end until it becomes a pesto-like consistency (this is open to interpretation!), add s&p until it tastes like you want it to.
Use the pesto in pasta, on top of chicken, fish, seafood, whatever you think it would be good with! I gave samples to Andrea and Dara, two of my foodie coworkers, and they used it in a shrimp pasta, and on top of fish :)
The cranberry jam a bag of fresh cranberries, a cup of cugar, and a cup of water...simmered until thickened. 15-20 minutes..that's it!
The live lettuce was from the FDO box - it was from the same provider as the live lettuce I got from my organic GFB...it was crisp and fresh and a little sweet, with a mixture of lemon juice EVOO a 1/2 tsp of mustard and s&p for dressing
The couscous - read the package! Made mine with chicken stock :)
A great meal - rory swooned over it! I can't wait to eat arugula walnut pesto again - and it's way less expensive than basil/pine nut pesto to boot.
This final meal is the loser of the bunch - A Michael Smith recipe from his Chef at Home cookbook.
I think it's a GREAT cookbook, and this has been the only disappointment so far. I think it may be that he's not very specific with the ingredient list, and that can be tricky...turns out for this recipe, the juice and zest from 1 lemon was much too lemony!
Penne with Smoked Salmon and Dilled Cream Cheese Sauce
I hope some of you are able to make use of a couple of this post's recipes... really worth it!
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