Molly Sheridan
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Molly

Pretty in Pink Week: Beet Hummus with Finnish Flatbread

beethumus_top
May 17, 2012 By In breads & breakfast, condiments & pickles, csa & vegetables, eat me, snacks

In addition to this being “the week of pink” here in Wonderland, it’s also been a week of dirty butter knives due to the number of spreadable inventions we were working our way through. More asparagus pesto, an addictive smoked salmon spread, the leftover extra-extra garlicy homemade mayo from a variation on these roasted potatoes, plus a fresh batch of the eye-popping beet hummus you see pictured above.

I’ve mentioned this hot pink dip/condiment/sandwich dresser-upper on the site before, but have been especially excited this week to see how well it works stirred into things (mashed potatoes, for one) or smeared over them (whole wheat bread and topped with baby arugula, for two). To make a batch, I tend to just put an adequate eyeballed amount of roasted beet chunks (leftovers put to swift use!), canned or cooked chick peas, tahini, lemon juice, salt, and garlic into the food processor and run it to smooth while drizzling olive oil through the feed tube, large variations totally acceptable depending on pantry inventory. However, if you are the type of cook who likes numbers, I turn you towards this recipe on Not Without Salt.

Of course, these things all required plate-to-mouth delivery vehicles (admittedly, grabbing a spoon and the entire bowl works perfectly well, but we’re trying to keep it civilized) so it seemed like the perfect time to finally take a crack at these Finnish Potato Flatbreads I’d saved to my Pinterest board. I’m still messing with the recipe a bit, as it seems to take me a 450F oven and 25 minute bake time to get adequate browning, but even if I haven’t hit the ideal disc due to too soggy mashed potatoes or some other error, these are a lovely find: a no muss, no fuss addition to my repertoire that I suspect will stick with me. Three batches in, and I’m not tired of them yet.

And so, to review:

Happiness is a big scoop of…

  • Beet Hummus
  • Asparagus Pesto If you don’t have spinach, arugula is tasty too. I like a combo and plan to also add a bit of basil to the next batch. For nuts, I used up my pecans and walnuts and was not disappointed. Pistachios are excellent as well.
  • Smoked Salmon Spread I bought this amazing fish from Neopol at the Waverly Farmer’s market, but they also have a retail outlet in North Baltimore.

Serve these treats with the crackers, breads, or crudites of your choice. Cauliflower would provide some bonus beet visual drama, I suspect. We ate ours on…

Things in Jars

I fear @briansacawa will soon stage a "no more jars" intervention for me.

Pretty in Pink Week: Market Strawberries

strawberry_top
May 15, 2012 By In diy, drink me, eat me, non-alcoholic, salads

We’re not really a fruit household. I mean, there’s Brian’s banana-a-day habit and my endless juicing of lemons, but aside from that, it’s the rare apple or lime that crosses our threshold; like cakes and cookies, the sweets just don’t carry much traction. Give us brussels spouts or give us broccoli, but please hold the peaches, pineapples, and grapes.

Still, even a hardhearted Team Savory fan such as myself could not resist the loveliness that was the first market strawberries of the Maryland season. And when my friend Marie helpfully prompted that I could “totally put a couple in a salad,” my defenses were crushed.

At home, I did indeed find a way to work them into an arugula salad with a tangy herbed buttermilk dressing. But I also got to thinking about that colonial fruit preservation method known as the shrub. I’d kept a jar of this vinegar-laced syrup a couple summers back and put it to good use in generous glasses of seltzer (yes, my homemade seltzer contraption is still going strong!). Perhaps it was time to make some more? Yes, yes indeed.

Strawberry Salad with Herbed Buttermilk Dressing
Serves 2

2 generous handfulls of baby arugula, spinach, or greens of your choice
6 strawberries

For the dressing

1/2 cup buttermilk
1 T white Balsamic vinegar
1 T fresh chopped basil or dill (or a mix)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all dressing ingredients.

Rinse the greens (if necessary) and hull and slice the strawberries. Plate and drizzle with the dressing.

The Strawberry Shrub

After some internet research and reflection, I decided to go with the 1:1:1 ratio of fruit:sugar:vinegar. I macerated the fruit with the sugar (now that is a satisfying feeling) and left the mixture to sit for 24 hours. At that point, I added a cup of apple cider vinegar and will now mind it, shaking daily, for seven days. Then it’s strain and refrigerate until needed. Here is a helpful post, if you’re looking for more detailed background and instructions. The last time I did this, I worked in the reverse order, first infusing the vinegar and then cooking in the sugar. So we shall see how this new experiment compares.

Pretty in Pink Week: Cold Summer Beet Soup

soup_top
May 14, 2012 By In csa & vegetables, eat me, soups

Due to market produce selection, it’s shaping up to be something of a pretty in pink week here in Wonderland. Beets…strawberries…grapefruit juice…purple potatoes (yeah, but close enough relations?). Even before I did the shopping, I was already gazing into the refrigerator to assess the inventory and dreaming in Pantones.

What I already had on hand due to the previous week’s cooking: three perfectly roasted beets; half a bottle of buttermilk; one cup of thick yogurt; one bunch of spring onions; a cucumber and some dill; plus a few remaining pickled ramps floating around in jar of brine that was so sweet and tangy and delicious it would be criminal to not put it to some use.

Cold Summer Beet Soup

I mention this because as soon as I saw the Šaltibarščiai soup recipe in Canning for a New Generation, I started in on the Googling and realized that I wouldn’t be able to make a soup a Lithuanian Bubby would recognize, but I might just come up with a tasty “inspired by” summer dish. Plan formed, I went to work with my knife.

Cold Summer Beet Soup
heavily inspired by Canning for a New Generation, internet research, and the contents of my refrigerator

1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or kefir)
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup strained or Greek yogurt
1 cucumber, seeded and diced into small cubes
2 large cooked beets, peeled and diced into small cubes
1 spring onion, finely sliced and chopped a few times
2-3 T sweet pickle brine or rice vinegar (to taste)
2 T dill, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
black pepper

Really, once you’ve completed the knife work required (as indicated above), you’re pretty much done. Reserve some of the beet and cucumber pieces for garnish, if desired. Place all remaining prepared ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve.

Cold Summer Beet Soup

Soup can be made in advance and kept chilled. Flavors meld, but also be forewarned that the beets will continue to bleed into the broth. By dinner last night, Brian was a little freaked out by the “Barbie corvette” tone the evening’s soup course had taken on.

How Does Your Garden Grow? (2012 Edition)

clematis
May 12, 2012 By In the rabbit hole

Things have been a little quiet in the kitchen, but there’s been a lot of action in the yard. For one, the Clematis Etoile Violette that I have been coaxing to grow in honor of my dear Aunt Helen has finally bloomed!!

Elsewhere, I have stuffed the beds with miniature hostas and even a couple white Bleeding Hearts. All of the above came from White Flower Farm, a mail-order greenhouse that has always exceeded my expectations. Each and every plant they have delivered has hit the ground growing.

Miniature Hostas and White Bleeding Heart

Miniature Hostas and White Bleeding Heart

Our vegetable patch was already bursting with the garlic I’d planted in the fall, and the strawberries in the yard were taking care of themselves. I pushed quite a few seeds into the remaining dirt: bush beans, swiss chard, broccoli, radishes, basil, cilantro, dill, and parsley. The tomato plants looked too good to pass by when we stopped to buy flowers for the porch, so room was made for them as well. Now it’s just a matter of sun, water, and time. Plus plastic chicken wire to keep the rats, squirrels, and birds at bay. Such is the plight of the urban farmer.

Strawberries and Flamingoes

The promise of strawberries, the threat of flamingoes.

Tomatoes: Five Kinds!

Tomatoes: Five Kinds!

Thyme and Radishes

Thyme and Radishes

Porch Planters: Persian Shield, Creeping Jenny, and Silver Stream Alyssum.

Porch Planters: Persian Shield, Creeping Jenny, and Silver Stream Alyssum.

Disco Marietta Marigolds

Disco Marietta Marigolds

Front Flowers

Warmer Than Springtime

potatosalad
May 8, 2012 By In condiments & pickles, csa & vegetables, eat me, salads, soups

Sunshine: 87 degrees worth this past weekend, to be exact, triggering that desperate need for shoes that are not boots and a few new dresses free of olive oil stains. Yes, these are the signs, here in Mid-Atlantic Wonderland Kitchen, that we have finally shut the door and thrown the deadbolt on the chilly months and plunged into the humid swamp that will keep us cooking well into October.

Even more than all that, however, it was the scent coming from the bag of dill, cilantro, and basil that I had picked up at one of my favorite market stands that got me excited about the possibilities of the…new year? Yes, this time has always felt like much more of a beginning than that celebrated calendar change buried in a case of snow and ice. Trailing the smell of fresh herbs with every step, home I came with enough feeling of prospect that I snapped the first petite “market haul” pic of 2012:

market haul

See that cloth bag up there at right? My regular sister-in-produce Marie gifted me a few of those snazzy sacks sewn as part of a great initiative here in Baltimore, and I am hooked. You can learn more about the project here.

Once all these fine bits of produce were unloaded onto my counter top, my favorite game of “suss out the magic formula” began, during which I wracked my brain, my bookcase, and the internet for the perfect use of the assembled raw ingredients. This week’s winners?

Rhubarb Chutney

First off, the inaugural canning project of the season was successfully completed: Rhubarb Chutney. Thanks to a lovely, small-batch recipe I discovered through Food52, the exercise proceeded without a hitch. It’s sweet and tart and cries out to be smeared on grilled cheese sandwiches, served with fancy crackers and goat cheese, and probably tastes lovely with roasted fowl, if you’re into that sort of thing. Honestly, the only real usage challenge I anticipate will be to keep from eating all this newly jarred deliciousness immediately.

rhubarb chutney: process

I also snuck a few more flats of Mason jars and a gallon of apple cider vinegar into the house over the weekend, so this preservation adventure has only just begun!!

Ahem. Okay, back to the food at hand.

Spring Radish, Asparagus, and Potato Salad

1 1/2 lbs baby red potatoes, cut into 1″ pieces
1 bunch asparagus, tough ends removed and lower stalks peeled if necessary
1 bunch mild radishes, quartered

For the dressing

1 cup strained yogurt (I happen to have a lot of this on hand because I love its sour cream-like consistency and because I’ve been using the whey in fermentation projects. It’s easy if you have one of these. However, any thick yogurt will do.)
1-2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tsp. chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste
sunflower seeds to garnish (optional)

Boil potatoes just until fork tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside to cool.

Blanch asparagus for 2 minutes, or just until tender crisp. Immediately plunge into an ice bath. When cool, slice into 2″ pieces.

Place the potatoes, asparagus, and radishes in a large bowl and set aside while you prepare the dressing. Combine yogurt, onion, dill, salt, and pepper and spoon dressing over the vegetables. Toss to coat. Adjust seasoning and chill. Garnish with sunflower seeds before serving if desired.

celery soup

Cream of Celery Soup
adapted from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups

I often find soups too heavy to start a meal with, especially in the warm months, but this one is truly light and appetizing. It works well served both hot and chilled.

Celery Soup

4 cups celery, diced
3 shallots, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 white boiling potatoes, cubed
6 cups water
1 1/2 cups milk
2 T corn starch
2 T butter
scratch of nutmeg
1 T chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste

Place celery, shallots, garlic, and water in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the white sauce. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Dissolve the cornstarch in 1/2 cup of the milk and, when the butter begins to bubble, add this mixture and stir for several seconds. Add the remaining milk, salt, pepper, and the nutmeg, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and continue cooking, stirring often, until the sauce has thickened. Reserve.

When the simmering time is complete, puree the soup and return it to the pot. Add the white sauce and the dill, and adjust the seasonings as needed. Enjoy hot or cold!

Little Debbie, Little Debbie…Mini Bourbon Oatmeal Cream Pies

cookies_top
May 1, 2012 By In eat me, snacks, sweets

Though I don’t spend a lot of time on Pinterest, I love using the service as a way to quickly file recipes I spy online and want to be able to return to when the occasion suits. As a result, this “To Make” board haunts me due to its visual deliciousness, questioning sweetly (yet with an aggressive undertone) “Why make it later, when you could make it now?” whenever I review its contents.

Well, the pin board won a round this weekend and I finally put my hand to cracking out a batch of these very tempting Mini Whiskey Oatmeal Cream Pies from Food Plus Words. Though I opted for bourbon and added some nutmeg and clove to the spice profile of the cookies, I otherwise followed the recipe and did as I was told. Be forewarned that, as written, it makes a lot of filling–much more than you’ll need for just this batch of cookies. Once you get a taste of it, however, you probably won’t have a problem finding other things to slather it on. Considering all my pies are already gone (hey, I shared!) I would have gladly doubled the recipe on the cookie side in order to net more treats up front. Lessons for next time. Because there will be a next time. Just invite me to your summer picnics and see how many next times there might be.

Or, you can make a batch for yourself:

I also feel like this “Classic Snack Cakes with an Alcoholic Punch Up” could easily become a thing here in Wonderland. A chocolate jelly roll cake spiked with a Chambord version of the above-mentioned copious filling to create an oversized Ho-Ho, anyone? And don’t even get me started on my ideas for Sno-ball variations…

And yes, I did play this track several times while constructing my pies. Little Debbie, Little Debbie…I just couldn’t help myself.