Enchiladas

[ salsa verde, cheese, chicken, onions, peppers ]

Sunday Brunch

Frittata with roasted red peppers, white asparagus, and crab.

Chocolate soufflé

A Quoc special. Rich chocolate soufflés hot from the oven in individual dishes.

Two Autumn Vegetables

In our farm share this week, rainbow chard and Hakurei turnips ((which I'd never heard of before). The turnips were steamed and just tossed in butter, salt and pepper. The chard was blanched and then sauteed with garlic, balsamic vinegar, and a dash of chicken stock.

Stuffed roast chicken

This is a big favourite here on Sharon street. The chicken is totally deboned and popped into a brine if you have time. Then it's rinsed off and laid flat, skin side down, and you pile up a stuffing mix on top and tie it up. Usually I do a mix of cooked diced Italian sausage, onions, bread, pine nuts, herbs, garlic, parmesan and an egg to bind it all together. Or something fruity with nuts, like almonds, pine nuts, raisins or prunes or dried apricots. You pull the chicken back into shape then and secure it all with string and bake it as usual. Cook the stuffing to 160 degrees. Very delicious. The deboning can be tricky at first but you get the hang of it. And it's well worth the effort.

Mizuna and apple

Mizuna, apple, gorgonzola, sherry vinegar, mustard, olive oil, salt

Chard Quinoa Taboulet

Blanched rainbow chard and quinoa with a tahini garlic dressing

Moroccan Scallops

Seared scallops served over a Moroccan spiced mix of roasted red peppers, tomatoes, onion, cumin, lemon juice, and garlic

Roastings

Roast chicken with Syrian spices


Roasted purple potatoes and carrots with garlic, preserved lemons, and cilantro

Tomatoes from the Pumpkin Pond Garden

And a fresh heirloom tomato salad

Country Champions

Breakfast at Pumpkin Pond. Local pork sausage, Mexican eggs [ onion, eggs, chicken, tomatillo salsa, cotija cheese ]

Wildflower seed collecting at Pumpkin Pond

Saturday Supper at Pumpkin Pond

Tod and Jay have a top of the line rotisserie gadget in their oven. So we marinated two chickens two ways and gave it a bash. One was a mix of fresh garden herbs [ thyme, oregano, rosemary ] lemon zest and butter which was mixed to a paste and rubbed under the skin of the chicken. The second was a paste made from cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, pomegranate molasses, honey and olive oil. This went under the skin too, and both birds went into the fridge for a few hours.
They turned and roasted in the oven for about an hour or so, and were deliciously tender and moist. One the side we had green beans in butter and lemon juice, grilled summer squash, and Jay's Middle Eastern couscous [ Lebanese couscous, onions, figs, golden raisins, almonds, cumin, coriander, stock ]

Friday night roast

Pork loin brined [ salt, honey, allspice, coriander seeds, thyme, garlic ] and roasted.
Served with a citrus roasted vegetable mix [ carrots, fennel, onion, lemons, oranges ]

Chocolates from Poland

Tomato Salad

[ heirloom tomatoes, mizuna, shiso vinegar, salt ]

Treats from Japan

Our friend Nobue brought us all these top notch treats from her last trip home. Not really sure what they are exactly- some investigating to do. But there's chili powder, yuzu puree, and all kinds of delights. Nice!

Lunch salad

Heirloom tomatoes, arugula, blanched kale, parmesan, olive oil, balsamic

Chicken in saffron cashew sauce

This is a variation on a Spanish rabbit in almond sauce recipe. It's a bit trickier to get fresh rabbit in Williamsburg than it is in Andalusia. And I didn't have any almonds last night, so cashews went in instead. But it was very tasty nonetheless.  The trick I find with any kind of stew like this is to simmer for a long time til the meat is just melting away. 

Salt and pepper the skinless chicken pieces and set aside.

Saute slowly a chopped onion and 4 garlic cloves with 20 almonds (30 cashews) and set aside.

Brown the chicken in the same pot.

In a food processor or blender puree the onion mix with 1 raw clove garlic, 10 peppercorns, 1/4 tsp saffron, 1 tbs parsley, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 2 cloves, 1 tsp salt. To this paste add 50ml water and 250 ml of dry white wine.

Add the sauce mix to the chicken and simmer covered for an hour or more til the meat is moist and falls off the bone. If the chicken is very big you might want to increase the sauce quantities. Check for seasoning, salt, pepper, maybe a squeeze of lemon juice.

On the side, sauteed kale with garlic, chili, and olive oil.

Quinoa Taboulet

Quinoa, watercress, parsley, white onion, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, cherry tomatoes

Saturday Supper

Beet salad [ steamed beets, caraway & sherry vinegar dressing, labneh, arugula, watercress ]

Fettucine with a sugo of onion, garlic, chili, roasted red peppers, italian sweet pepper, sardines, fresh tomatoes, parsley, thyme, perilla, basil ]

Yikes!

Very odd recipe. I got it from Molto Italiano by Mario Batali. Everything I made from it so far has been excellent. Last night I tried the Chestnut cake with lemon sauce. Well, not having full milk in the house I chanced my luck with soy milk. Big mistake. The cake, although it had a good flavour, had the consistency of baloney that had been sliced thick and left out in the sun.  Yuk.

The lemon sauce however was top notch. Slice 2 lemons super paper thin (a mandolin is perfect for this) and pop them in a heavy bottomed pot with 3/4 a cup of sugar and half a cup of water. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 30 minutes. A delicious marmalade style sauce is the result. 

Potato gratin with lemon and parmesan

The spuds are parboiled, then layered with a mix of milk, grated parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and lemon zest. About the zest of one lemon for an average dish. Bake the whole thing in a 180/350 oven with a layer of parmesan on top. You can add in slices of a melty cheese between the spud layers too if you have it.

Mary Rowley's Irish brown bread recipe

This is the best brown recipe ever - of course it's my mother's. The recipe here is for a two pound loaf tin. And it freezes well, so it's best to double the batch and make two batches at a time. A double batch will fit in a standard food mixer.

13 oz wholewheat flour

3 oz plain or bread flour

a handful of bran

a handful of wheatgerm

a handful of oatmeal

1 tsp sugar or honey (you can use treacle to for a darker loaf)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg

2 tbs of oil or melted butter

15 fluid oz buttermilk (this is English fluid oz - and is about 425 mls)

Mix all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl, sifting the baking soda into the plain flour.

Mix the wet ingredients together and add to the dry. You might need to add a little more buttermilk in order to get the consistency right. The mix should be loose and wet, not as solid as a dough, and not as liquid as a batter.

Pour the mix into a oiled and floured loaf tin or cast iron pot. The pans should be heated in the oven before.

Bake at 180 C or 35o F for about an hour or so until a skewer comes out clean. The loaf should sound hollow when tapped.

Cooking in Spain - lunching

Just back from a wonderful week of holidays in Andalusia, where we did lots and lots of cooking. So here's a selection from the last week below. 

The food there is so good you really just have to put it on a plate.

Lunchtime [ membrillo and manchego, lomo, serrano ham, marinated anchovies, peaches ]

Cooking in Spain - gazpacho

The Andalusian classic. [ tomatoes, green pepper, cucumber, cumin, onion, bread, olive oil ]

Cooking in Spain - chicken cazadora

I think this must the the Spanish equivalent of Chicken Cacciatore. Chicken simmered in a sauce of serrano ham, lomo, onion, thyme, brandy, white wine, saffron, bay

Cooking in Spain - Endives two ways

In simple olive oil, salt and garlic on the grill.

Wrapped in serrano ham and grilled