Recently in Easy Category

Even though I've made great strides with learning to like vegetables, I admit that broccoli and cauliflower are still  not high on my favorites list. In fact, I think I can easily rank brussels sprouts higher than either broccoli or cauliflower. So I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe that just might turn the tide on my dislike for them.

This recipe comes pretty close. I can't say it's my favorite, but it has great potential. You should still be able to find broccoli in Puget Sound for the next few weeks (assuming the farmers markets are open and farmers are able to drive in with all of the snow).

This is a simple recipe that you can infinitely vary to suit your needs.

Oven Roasted Broccoli

• Broccoli
• Olive oil
• Zane and Zack's Alder smoked dry rub or Hickory smoked sea salt
• Garlic
• Parmesan cheese

Just cut the broccoli into florets and toss with the olive oil, Zane and Zack's, and some minced garlic. You want to make sure the broccoli is nicely coated with the olive oil, but you don't want a lot of olive oil left in the bowl after tossing.

Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes at between 375 and 425 (you can adjust the temperature and cooking time if you happen to be cooking something else in the oven), stirring occasionally, until the garlic starts to brown and caramelize.

Serve tossed with Parmesan cheese.

If it's Christmas, feel free to arrange the broccoli on the plate in the shape of a Christmas Tree before dusting with the cheese (snow).

Enjoy!

Patricia's Notes: This was very tasty. The roasting gave the broccoli a very rich flavor and I really enjoyed the crispy bits of broccoli along with the tender stalks. You won't end up with limp, soggy broccoli with this recipe. Towards the end of the cooking time, you'll want to stir and peek at the broccoli every 5 minutes or so to make sure it doesn't burn. If you aren't a huge fan of basic broccoli flavor, make sure to be generous with the seasonings. You can also add garlic powder, paprika, or some smoked sea salt.

Chicken and white fish are two foods that can take almost any manner of marinades, rubs, and sauces. Because there are so many possibilities, it’s often hard to just pick one. We picked up some rock fish a couple of weeks ago and I improvised a bit of a glaze for it, inspired by this recipe on Slashfood.

There are no hard and fast measurements for the ingredients here, so just do what feels right. I’ve included what I used (approximately), so feel free to use that as a guide.

Rock Fish with Agave/Honey-Ginger glaze

• 1 pound rock fish (or other firm, white fish that’s local and wild)
• 2 tsp grated or chopped fresh ginger
• 1 small minced shallot
• 1-2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/8 – 1/4 cup honey or agave nectar (I used a mixture of both)
• A few shakes of Zane and Zack’s alder smoked rub or cayenne pepper

Cook the fish. You can use any method you’d like. I seared ours in a skillet and then transferred it to the oven to finish cooking and keep warm while I made the sauce.

In a small sauce pan, melt just a bit of butter or heat a bit of olive oil.

Sauté the shallot and garlic for 2 minutes over medium heat.

Add the ginger and cook for another minute.

Add the honey/agave nectar and the seasoning.

Cook over medium heat (just below a simmer) for a good 5 minutes or so, stirring regularly.

The shallot, garlic and ginger will caramelize and the entire mixture will turn reddish brown.

Serve over fish and enjoy!

Patricia’s Notes: This was an amazing recipe. I cooked my sauce a touch longer than I intended as the fish needed another minute or two and this actually worked out very well. The garlic, ginger, and shallot were almost candied. This did result in a little bit of ‘stick in your teeth’ behavior, but it was incredibly tasty. Plus, it was a visually dramatic dish. We will definitely make this again.

Did you ever stop to think how marshmallows were made? I didn't. Marshmallows are one of those foods that I rarely ever eat, but when I do, I really want them to be perfect. I think they are a food that as adults, we idolize. We have these great memories of our parents making us hot cocoa and topping it with mini-marshmallows or makng s'mores outside over a fire with the big giant marshmallows. Yet if we happen to try them once we're past the age of 20, they are stale and tasteless.

Well, have I got the solution for you! It's currently 29 degrees in Seattle and this past weekend, I made homemade marshmallows! I cannot believe how easy they were. Not only that, but when I brought them to work today, they disappeared to rave reviews. One coworker told me that these tasted the way that marshmallows should taste (but never do). I got this recipe from a great baking blog, Baking Bites.

So, without further delay, make yourself some homemade marshmallows and brew up some hot cocoa! Wrap yourself in a blanket and make the best of this frigid weather.

Homemade Marshmallows

• 3 packets Knox gelatin (0.75 oz)
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cups light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Start the prep work ahead of time. Trust me on this.

Line a 9x9 or 7x9x2 inch pan with saran wrap.

Spray with Pam or cooking spray or use a basting brush to coat with olive oil.

Spread out a second piece of saran wrap and coat one side with cooking spray or oil as well.

In the bowl of your KitchenAid mixer (or just a large bowl that you're going to use with an electric mixer), sprinkle the 3 packets of gelatin over the half a cup of cold water. Let it sit for about 10 minutes.

After the gelatin has been soaking for about 5 minutes, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil and boil for a full minute.

Pour the boiling mixture into the gelatin mixture. Turn on the mixer (with the whisk attachment) on high (I used 6-8 on my KitchenAid). Add the salt.

Beat the entire mixture for 12 minutes.

Yes. 12 full minutes.

Add the vanilla and beat on medium until incorporated.

Coat a spatula with oil or cooking spray and use it to transfer the marshmallow cream into the baking dish. Spread evenly and then cover with the oiled piece of saran wrap. Press down slightly to set the marshmallows.

Let the mixture cool for several hours or even overnight.

Cut into squares and dredge in powdered sugar mixed with Christmas sprinkles.

Patricia's Notes: These were great marshmallows. They were VERY vanilla. In fact, John thought they might even have been too vanilla-y. However that's what many of my coworkers really enjoyed about them. So your mileage may vary.

Variations would include:

• Adding peppermint extract instead of vanilla
• Mix some cinnamon in with the powdered sugar
• Dredging in pulverized candy canes
• Mixing hot cocoa mix with the powdered sugar
• Add some ancho chili powder in with the hot cocoa and powdered sugar (this would be a daring choice but I think it could work).

I make no apologies for this next statement. I. Love. Meat. I've always loved meat. Beef, pork, chicken, turkey, buffalo, bison... Not only do I love meat, but we eat a fair amount of it since my wonderful husband is diabetic and needs a fair amount of protein at each meal. However, one of the ways to reduce your impact on the environment is to reduce your meat consumption. Grass fed beef can actually give back to the environment by allowing the soil to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but even with that, there is still some methane production to deal with.

One of the suggestions I took away from the evening with Michael Pollan the other week was that we should try to have one meatless meal a week (I'd go as far as a meatless day for me, though the husband still needs some sort of meat or fish with at least one meal).

So when we found a recipe for baked beans that used (of all things) BEER, we decided to give it a try. I was skeptical all the way up to the first bite. After that, I was hooked. I will never make baked beans from a can ever again. We picked up some great cranberry beans from our friends at Alm Hill Gardens/Growing Washington.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cranberry beans (or pinto beans)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium red onion
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 Tbsp Chardonnay Mustard from Sea Breeze Farms
• 2 dried hot peppers
• 3 cups beer*
• 1/2 cup chopped dried fruit*
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• Smoked paprika
• Salt

Soak your beans overnight in water. (I've heard anecdotal reports that changing the water frequently will help reduce gas after eating, but your mileage may vary.)

Dice the onion and saute in a Dutch oven with the olive oil for 2-3 minutes.

Add the honey (or molasses or agave nectar), the mustard, dried peppers, the beer, the dried fruit, and the broth. Bring to a simmer on the stove and then cover and bake at 350 for anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours. Start checking the beans for doneness after about an hour and a half. If the beans are done before the liquid has reduced sufficiently, move the Dutch oven to the stovetop and bring to a boil uncovered, stirring regularly, until the liquid has the right consistency.

Season with some smoked paprika and maybe some salt. Serve with some crusty bread.

Patricia's Notes: When choosing your beer, go with some sort of berry or fruit beer. We used an Elderberry beer and dried peaches. However the original recipe suggested making sure your beer and your dried fruit "went together". So dried raspberries with raspberry beer. Dried peaches with a peach beer, etc. This isn't a requirement as we found out, but next time we might try to follow this suggestion. We did end up using chicken broth, so our version wasn't completely vegetarian, but that's just because I had fresh chicken broth in the fridge and decided to use it up. The original recipe called for molasses, but we used honey to keep it more local. 

When the beans were cooking, they smelled WONDERFUL. I used to make baked beans with half a pound of bacon and these beans smelled almost exactly the same. They were rich, thick, and almost pasty (I cooked mine just a tiny bit too long). They reheated very well for lunches for the rest of the week as well.

Some days just don't turn out the way you hope. Oh Saturday started out well enough. Tsugaru apples are on  their way out and we picked up a big box to make into apple butter this week. However after that, things just went downhill. But that's life sometimes and even though the thought of take-out pizza sounded pretty darn good, I decided to opt for something healthier and more local. I made Minestrone.

A true Italian soup, it deserves to be made in a truly Italian way: from scratch and with minimal measuring. Here's a rough guide for a tasty soup that takes under an hour to prepare.

Ingredients

• Beef broth (at least 4 cups)
• 3 cups chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 onion
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 small dried hot peppers
• 1 cup red wine (optional)
• Fresh herbs (a mix)
• Salt and pepper
• 2 links Andouille sausage
• 1 cup dried pasta (optional)
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Chop the onion and garlic. Rough chopping is fine here, as it all cooks down pretty well.

In a large soup pot, heat some olive oil over medium heat.

Saute the onion and garlic until fragrant and translucent. Season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Add the carrots and celery and saute another few minutes.

Pour in the beef broth, the red wine, and the tomatoes and season with whatever fresh herbs you have around (good ones would be rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, and basil). Add the dried hot peppers as well. You can even leave them whole.

Turn the heat up just a bit and simmer the soup for about 15 minutes.

Slice the Andouille sausage and add to the simmering pot. Note: If your sausage isn't fully cooked, you'll need to cook it in a fry pan or on the grill first.

Simmer for another 5-10 minutes. At this point, taste the soup. You might want to consider adding hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper, or even some water if the soup is too strong.

If you want to add pasta, throw it right in the soup and cook until the pasta is done.

Serve topped with some grated Parmesan cheese and crusty bread.

Patricia's Notes: You can add just about any vegetable to this dish. Kale and spinach should be added in the last 5 minutes of cooking. Peppers can be added at the same time as the carrots. Turnips or parsnips would even work here. I like my Minestrone spicy, so I used some pretty hot peppers, but you can easily omit them for a mild flavor.

I have a confession to make. Until just very recently, I'd never read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals completely. I started it over a year ago, but it is a long book and I got busy. I knew the gist of it, having read summaries (basically the Cliff Notes version), heard Michael Pollan talk in person, and discussed it with my husband at length. So while I knew I needed to read the whole thing, life just kept getting in the way.

Well, I've finally read it and... wow. I cannot even begin to imagine the changes that would come to our food system if everyone in America read this book.

When Michael Pollan is talking about one of the meals he cooked as part of the research for this book, he mentions oven roasting kale. Well, here in the Pacific Northwest, the winter is dominated by fresh kale. Kale, kale, kale. It's all kale. Kale is very good for you. A member of the cabbage family, kale has high levels of vitamins A and C, folic acid, calcium, and iron. We've posted about kale before, and that's been our standard recipe for a year. But now I have a new recipe, all thanks to Michael Pollan!

This recipe can't be easier.

  Take one bunch of kale and chop off the bottom of each stalk. The center of a kale stalk is pretty tough, which is why most kale recipes tell you to separate the leaves from the stalk. For this recipe, cut off the bottom third of each stalk and discard.

Brush both sides of each leaf with a bit of olive oil and place in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

Bake between 375 and 400 for 10-15 minutes, or until slightly crispy.

Season with salt and pepper or some smoked paprika and serve.

Now that fresh salmon is harder to come by, I'm in the mood for salmon recipes that need a little marinating. If you are lucky enough to be in the Puget Sound area (or somewhere else where fresh, wild salmon is plentiful), you know that truly fresh salmon doesn't smell fishy. However, even the freshest fish, once frozen and defrosted, sometimes gets just a bit of that well known scent.

We buy almost all of our salmon from Wilson Fish. During the summer months, they sell salmon that's so fresh, they don't even want you to tell it that it's dead. Some days we are lucky enough to get fish that has been out of the water less than 36 hours.

While they were fishing this summer, and selling lots of fresh fish, they were also flash freezing King Salmon, Coho Salmon, and Halibut. You can still find them at the Ballard Farmers Market every Sunday, selling their frozen fish. We picked up a nice 3/4 pound Coho fillet the other day and our CSA box from Growing Washington contained a colorful bunch of Swiss Chard this week.

So last night, after a long day at work, we set about to make this recipe. 20 minutes later we were sitting down to a delicious, nutritious, and local dinner. The original recipe called for a salmon steak, but I often have trouble finding those at the market. Most of the fish we buy from Wilson's has the skin on. So I've included two sets of instructions. Use the bold version for a fillet and the italicized version for a steak.

Sauteed Swiss Chard and Salmon (adapted from Whole Foods)

Serves 2

• 3/4 to 1 lb salmon fillet or steak
• 1 bunch Swiss Chard
• 1-2 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1-2 Tbsp soy sauce (preferably low sodium)
• 1/2 an onion
• Splash of lemon juice (optional)

1. In a casserole dish or bowl large enough to hold the salmon, combine 1 Tbsp of the sesame oil and 1 Tbsp of the soy sauce.
2. If you've got a fillet, lay it skin side up in the dish and marinate for 10 minutes. If you've got a steak with no skin, cut it into 1 inch cubes and marinate for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, separate the Swiss Chard leaves from the stems. The easiest way to do this is to fold the leaf in half lengthwise and pull the leaves off. Roughly chop the leaves and dice the stems into 1/2 inch pieces.
4. Dice or slice half an onion.
5. If you've got a salmon fillet, now is the time to throw it on the grill.
6. In a stir fry pan or wok, heat 1 Tbsp of the sesame oil over medium heat.
7. Cook the onions for 2 minutes.
8. Add the chard stems and cook for another 3 minutes.
9. Add the leaves and cook for another 2 minutes, until the leaves are moderately wilted.
10. If you've got cubes of salmon steak, remove the chard and onions from the pan, keep warm, and throw the salmon cubes and the marinating liquid into the pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through.
11. Serve the chard alongside the salmon and drizzle a small amount of lemon juice over the top. If you have extra cooking juices from either salmon or chard, you can drizzle those over the top as well.

Patricia's Notes: The strong flavor of the soy sauce helps cut any fishy flavor from frozen salmon. You can cook the chard for as long or as short as you want. I prefer my chard a little on the raw side, as fully wilted chard often tastes a bit bitter to me. The lemon juice just brightens up the flavors a bit, but you certainly don't need it. A bit of minced ginger would also go well in this dish. For a more dramatic presentation, sprinkle some sesame seeds over the top.

Today's recipe was truly a last minute meal. In fact, it was so last minute that I didn't even get a picture of it. We had a couple of small tenderloin steaks in the freezer that we took out before we left for work. Other than that, we had no plans for what we'd do with them.

When we got home, I just started throwing together a few ingredients while I cooked the steaks in my cast iron pan. It really doesn't get much simpler than this. You can substitute ingredients with a variety of different components you might have in the house.

Steak with Creamy Mustard Sauce

Serves 2

• 6-8 ounces of beef tenderloin 
• 1 Tbsp grainy mustard, like Sea Breeze Farms Chardonnay mustard
• 1 Tbsp heavy cream or sour cream or yogurt
• 1 Tbsp butter
• Salt or Bacon Salt

1. Salt and pepper your steak and preheat a cast iron pan to medium high.
2. Sear the steak on both sides, approximately 1-2 minutes.
3. Turn the heat down to just below medium, and cook the steak until done. This should take approximately 3-4 minutes per side for a 1-2 inch thick steak.
4. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt a little butter. Exact amounts aren't important here.
5. Add in some grainy mustard, some heavy cream, yogurt or sour cream, and some salt and pepper, or some bacon salt.
6. Mix and keep warm until the steak is done.
7. Serve the sauce over the steak and enjoy!

Patricia's Notes: This simple mustard cream sauce is infinitely adaptable. You can add shallots, or onions, or garlic, or some sherry. This whole dish took under 10 minutes to cook and when paired with a simple salad or even a baked potato and steamed carrots, makes a complete meal.

Lamb is one of those meats that I never wanted to try. I love beef, chicken, and pork. I've enjoyed buffalo while on vacation and have had venison, quail, and alligator. But lamb never held much appeal to me. In all honesty, even after two very tasty lamb recipes, it's still not my favorite meat. It's just too fatty in chop form for my tastes. Sea Breeze Farms' lamb sausage however, is definitely on my list of favorites. 

Even though I find lamb chops too fatty, I still enjoy them when my husband cooks them. 
John found this recipe while browsing one of our favorite local food blogs: The Culinary Fool. She posts a lot of local restaurant reviews in addition to her recipes, so check out her site as soon as you're done here!

Lavender Grilled Lamb Chops adapted from The Culinary Fool
Serves 2

• 2 lamb chops (from Sea Breeze Farms)
• 1/4 cup minced culinary lavender
• 2 Tbsp honey or agave nectar
• Salt and pepper

1. Finely chop the lavender.
2. Heat the honey gently so it is spreadable. If you're using agave nectar, it will already be liquid enough.
3. Brush the honey over one side of the chops.
4. Press the honey coated chops into the chopped lavender. 
5. Flip the chops and repeat the coating and pressing on the other side.
6. Grill until done.

Patricia's Notes: When you coat the chops in lavender, it will look like a ton of spice. Seriously. Your chops will be more lavender than meat! But a lot of it falls off during cooking. We use agave nectar whenever a recipe calls for honey because John's diabetic and agave nectar is low-glycemic. However, there are several local sources for honey and there is no local source for agave nectar. Woodring's Orchards sells agave nectar at the University District Farmers Market, but they import it from Mexico.

I enjoyed the lamb, but there's not a lot of meat on the chop. Not to mention it's a little hard to get to the meat because of the fat. However, the fat will caramelize pretty well and so if you do get a bit of fat in your bite it's a lot more enjoyable than you might expect.

I remember, long before I started cooking local, prawns were one of my splurge dishes. I'd buy half a pound of them and mix up a batch of cocktail sauce. Throw a lettuce leaf in the bottom of the bowl, arrange half a dozen prawns on top, and serve with a dollop of sauce.

I still love prawns that way, but I rarely buy them these days. It isn't always easy to get them local. The prawns that you see in the supermarkets in Puget Sound are often from as far away as Australia. If you want a local source, though, you can usually find spot prawns at the Fisherman's Terminal during the week. Spot prawns are a west coast treasure. They aren't exactly prawns, or shrimp, but are available all the way from Southern California to Vancouver.

This recipe can be thrown together in less than twenty minutes. I used some fantastic cherry tomatoes from my CSA and fresh basil from my garden. You could easily replace the prawns with some leftover cooked chicken if you don't like seafood or can't find prawns locally.

Prawn Pasta with Balsamic-Marinated Tomatoes

Serves 2

• 1/2-3/4 pound spot prawns
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Linguini
• Fresh basil
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (preferably Panko)

1. In a large bowl, marinate the cherry tomatoes in some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. You can also add some sea salt.
2. Meanwhile, mix the breadcrumbs with some olive oil and toast in a small skillet until golden brown.
3. Set a pot of water to boil and cook the pasta. If your prawns are uncooked, throw them in during the last 3-4 minutes of the pasta cooking.
4. Drain the pasta and prawns and toss with the tomato mixture, some fresh, chopped basil, and some sea salt. Add extra olive oil as needed.
5. Top with the toasted breadcrumbs.

Patricia's Notes: This is the perfect recipe for a weeknight dinner. You can also cook the tomatoes with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar for about 5 minutes until a few of the tomatoes burst to give the dish a softer texture. The breadcrumbs serve as a nice contrast to the pasta, however they are optional.