Cucumber Lime Mint Agua Fresca

If you can't eat your cucumbers, drink them. Although I love myself a Pimm's Cup, I needed a faster, more efficient way to eat all of the cucumbers that keep showing up in my CSA box. I had a spectrum of cucumbers, ranging from "fresh out of the box" to "on deaths doorstep".

The remains of one of the dying bits

When I saw a friend on facebook had linked to this Cucumber Lime Mint Agua Fresca, I was sold. I made slight modifications, but here's the gist:

Cucumber Lime Mint Agua Fresca:

• 2 med cucumbers
• 1/2 c. fresh sqeezed lime juice (~5 limes)
• 1 1/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. sugar (or honey)
• 5-10 mint leaves

1.  Chop the cucumbers and discard the ends.
2. Combine everything into the blender and liquify. If you have an older, less functioning blender, you might find it easier to put all the liquids in first then add the cucumber bit-by-bit.
3. Strain through cheese cloth (make sure you sqeeze all the liquid out), chill, and drink.

note: warming the limes in the microwave will increase the amount of juice you get.

I used a lot less mint that the original recipe, but I thought it still had a great mint flavor. In fact, I would suspect that using the original amount would have overdone it.

The result was extremely refreshing. It was good all by itself, but it also mixed well with gin and/or Pimm's (no suprise there). As long as my CSA keeps handing out cucumbers by the pair, this will probably be a weekly tradition for me.

Musics:

Eggplant Tartine

Using up all food from the CSA within a week can be difficult. Where others might falter, I try and take it in stride. In the winter, the easy answer was always soups.  Now that summer heat is upon us, I have been trying my luck with other methods to use up my foods. This week I was getting desperate, I had a record number of things to use (some dying, others were ok...for now). It was getting bad. I swear I could hear them screaming in my dreams, I would wake up in a cold sweat desperately thinking of ways to put them out of their misery. The dying group included 1 eggplant, a green bell pepper, and three heirloom tomatoes.

Please....kill us.....

I also had some fresh garlic from a couple weeks ago that wasn't looking so...fresh. I also had some shitake mushrooms and some sage on hand. I decided to make the following (which I'm going to call Eggplant Tartine, cuz "open faced eggplant sandwich" sounds unfortunate):

Eggplant Tartine:

• 1 med eggplant, sliced med-thick
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into strips
• 3 med/large tomatoes, diced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1c shitake mushrooms, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 3 sage leaves, finely chopped
• 1/4c white wine
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. milk
• ~2c. panko bread crumbs
• olive oil
• salt/pepper
• Romano cheese (or Parmesan)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together the milk and egg. Dip each eggplant slice and then cover in breadcrumbs. Place on a greased baking sheet (or use a silipad). Sprinkle with some kosher salt.
2. Toss the bell pepper with some olive oil to coat arrange on a second baking sheet. We want them to roast, so don't pile them up, keep them spread out. Sprinkle with some kosher salt.
3. Heat up a large skillet or dutch oven on med and add a few Tbl. of olive oil and onions. Cook until translucent and starting to brown (~6.4 min), then add mushrooms and garlic. Keep stirring for a few minutes, add a pinch of salt.  Unless you are using a non-stick pan, you should start to have brown bits sticking to the pan (after ~3-4 min). De-glaze the pan with the wine, then add the tomatoes, bay leaf, oregano, sage, and salt and pepper. Cover and turn down the heat to low, cook for about thirty minutes (while you cook the veggies) and stir occasionally.
4. Put the eggplant pan and the bell pepper plan in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes, flipping every thing over half way through.
5. When the eggplant/pepper are done, check the sauce.  If it is pretty wet, take the lid off and let some of the liquid evaporate. Its ok to have a little liquid, but you don't want a soup.
6. Put 4-5 eggplant pieces on a dish, top with some strips of roasted bell pepper, then a heaping of the tomato sauce. Grate some cheese on top, then enjoy!

I was suprised at how good this tasted, even ignoring the fact that I was winging it. I'm usually not a big fan of eggplant, but it was nicely balance by the tomato sauce. The sage complemented it really well, I added it hoping to just get rid of it but it took it up another level. It might have been even better if I had put some cheese on the eggplant as well, but I guess that goes without saying (you could put cheese on a truck tire and call that an improvement too). I plan on archiving this one for future use!

The decayed food ganged up on the poor shitakes

eggplant is breaded and ready for the oven!

Sauted onion, mushroom, and garlic, just before the de-glazing.  You can see the fond!

All toasted up!

Roasted bell pepper strips

The tomato sauce, there still a little juice left!

All stacked up

The finished product!

Music:

Strawberry (Decay) Flambé

In some parts of the country, strawberry season is just beginning. Here in New Orleans, we are at the tail end. They have been officially removed from the CSA box this week, and the only ones left were a heap of juicy ones on the decay table. As in, they are already juicing, everywhere.

Juicing, everywhere.

I was fortunate enough to find some that were relatively mold free. However, these would not be good strawberries for chomping. Instead, I thought I'd make strawberries flambé. If you have never purposefully set your food aflame, I highly recommend it. It's easy, cheap, and quite fun. Plus, it makes you feel wealthy (hence me hearing Lucille Bluth's voice in my head while I eat them). I had half of an orange dying in the fridge so I thought I'd use that too.

Strawberries Flambé
-berries (I used sliced stawberries)
-1/2 orange, juiced (optional)
- 1 shot high-proof booze (~60 or above, I mixed triple sec with vodka, aka a poor mans grand marnier)
-you base (I used oatmeal with greek yogurt)
 - 1/2 Tbl butter

1. Heat the butter in a sausepan (note: I avoid using non-stick pans for this. it might be ok, but I just play it safe and use stainless steel.  Also, DON'T use wooden utensils when the berries are on fire)
2. when butter starts to brown, add berried and cook for a bit, stirring.
3. Add orange juice and stir, let cook for a few minutes until it gets a litle more syrupy.
4. Make sure the heat is on about a medium and the stove vent is on.  Add the liquor and light. You can shake the pot to get bigger flames, but watch out, you can melt your stove. If the flames get too big you can turn down the heat or lift the pot off the stove, or if they get really bad just throw a lid on it and they will be put out. They will burn for a while and then go out on their own.
5. Cook until reduced, it should be almost syrupy.  Drizzle over your base.  I used oatmeal with greek yogurt, this would also be great on ice cream.

While I have flambéd many times before, this was my first time using strawberries. It turned out really well, the strawberries were the main player with a hint of orange. This can be easily modified for any berry, just start with a fat (usually butter), add your fruit, add a sweetener (I used juice but you can use white or brown sugar), then booze. I like to do butter+blueberries+brown sugar+rum, or you can do blackberries with brandy.

The dying fruits

Heat butter, berries, then orange juice.

On fire!

Finished, on top of oatmeal + greek yogurt

Musics:

Decay Saturday: Herbed Soup

The weekends are a great time to not only pick up some new (sometimes decayed) food at Hollygrove, but also find out what has been decaying since the week before. Eating is a constant battle in our house, as food is constantly dying (but aren't we all?). This week past week was a great success: I had eaten almost everything from the week before.  However, I had some herbs that had dried up within a day of taking them home, and six days later they were more like dried herbs than fresh. Never fear, I decided they needed to be re-constituted in some kind of broth, so I decided to make a soup.  Fortunately, I also had some leftover lasagna noodles, and a dying purple onion, so I managed to kill off a lot of things.

Spring-Herb Soup:
- chopped herbs (I think I had some rosemary, basil, tarragon?  They were so dead it was hard to tell)
- onion, chopped
- 1 Tbl butter
- 2c beef broth
- 1 egg
- cooked noodles (i.e. lasagna)

1. Cook the onions in butter until soft and browning, add the garlic and stir for a few minutes.
2. Deglaze the pan with broth and add herbs
3. While pot is simmering, crack and egg into it while stirring.
4. Add noodles, season with salt and pepper.

Considering my roommate took one look at my ingredients and said "Now THAT is offensive!", I'd say it turned out pretty good.  I probably should have added some more stuff like siracha or soy sauce or...something.

Musics:

The Fungus Among Us: Mushroom-Lentil Summer Squash Sandwiches

The dollar decay table at the market had a bounty of semi-decayed mushrooms this past weekend. Normally the thought of eating anything but the freshest of mushrooms would leave me quivering in the corner, but recent experiences have changed my opinions on the matter. A while back market had mushrooms that weren't just decayed, I swear the were decomposing to the point where the mushrooms were growing their own mushrooms.  I was hesitant at first, but a guy told me you just give 'em a sniff and if they don't smell too offensive, they are OK to eat. I'm not sure how good that advice was, but my being here today is a testament to the fact that eating offensive foods doesn't always result in death. Or perhaps it's a testament to the knowledge of strangers, especially when dealing with eating old fungus.

Could be waaaaay more offensive

Anyway, the mushrooms this weekend weren't so bad.  Maybe a 3.7/10 on the offensive scale (where 1 = Jamie Oliver fresh and 10 = dumpster stew). If the mushrooms were more offensive I would probably just blend them into a soup, but since they were somewhat lively I thought I'd make something a little more solid. I had to work late in the lab and didn't have time to run to the store, so I decided to make some sandwiches with the stuff I had:

Mushroom-Lentil Summer Squash Sandwiches
Mushrooms (~1 lb), sliced
1 Onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
~2 small summer squash, sliced (zucchini would probably have been even better)
2-4 Tbl. butter
2 cups green lentils
beef broth
bread (i used french bread)
pepper jack cheese
2 bay leaves
1/2 sprig rosemary, very finely chopped
lettuce leafs
olive oil
salt/pepper to taste

1. Boil the lentils in the broth with the bay leaves until done but still firm (~20-30min).  When they are done, strain them.
2. While the lentils cook, saute the chopped onion in a couple tablespoons of butter. Once they are soft, add the rosemary and garlic, and cook for about a minute.
3. Add the mushrooms.  Keep cooking the mushrooms on med-low heat until they are cooked down (I put the lid on for a little bit to speed things up). I added another tablespoon of butter here. While you wait for the mushrooms to reduce down, it might be a good time to cook the squash (see #5)
4. Add the lentils to the mushrooms and stir through to mix.
5.  Heat up a skillet to cook the squash.  A cast iron pan would work great.  I used a salt block because...why not? Toss the slices with some olive oil to coat, then place on the pre-heated pan and cook until browned.  When one side is browned flip over (~5-10 minutes each side).
6. Assemble on the french bread: the lentil/mushroom mixture, with some slices of squash on top, some lettuce/greenery, and some pepperjack cheese.  I toasted the pepperjack on the bread first to make it nice and melty.

The sandwiches turned out pretty well.  The mushrooms weren't overpowered, and there was a very subtle  taste of rosemary. I thought I would need to add something like Crystal sauce or Sweet Baby Ray's to make it edible, but it was pretty good as-is.

Here are some pictures (note: due to the termite swarms I had to do most of the cooking by the light from the handleabra, which didn't work so well for pictures)

 Washing even the grossest of mushrooms can greatly enhance their appearance. Even better: put the freshest mushrooms on top

 What's that? Did onions just whisper sweet nothings to the squash?  It's so hard to tell when everything is bathed in the romantic light of the handleabra.

Onions, mushrooms, garlic, and rosemary are cooked down with a little butter

Summer squash cooking on the salt block

 The finished product!  You might not be able to see it but there is a layer of pepper jack cheese on top of the lettuce.

Musics:

 

Pimm's Cup: The Solution to the Cucumber Cache

The CSA has started giving us cucumbers, and while I think the little guys are cool, I often have a hard time eating them. Since they aren't very good for cooking, they often just get thrown on top of a salad or are left to rot. I had one cucumber in particular that was heading down the latter path. Fortunately I also had a half-zested lemon that was on the verge of dying, so I decided to make Pimm's cups.  Pimm's #1 is a liquor that was invented in the early-mid 1800's in London as a digestif, but has not become popular as the staple ingredient in a Pimm's Cup. At one point there were 6 different types of liquors, but as far as I know only the first is still available. It's a great summer drink and as a bonus, it's relatively cheap (I paid about $15 for the Pimm's #1). I haven't found an official recipe, so I just decided to wing it. Here's what I did:

Pimm's Cup
1. Place a few cucumber slices in the bottom of a tall (e.g. collins) glass and fill with ice.
2. Add one shot of Pimm's #1
3. Add about 2 tsp. simple syrup (2 pts. sugar to 1 pt. water, brought to a boil and cooled) and 4-8 tsp. lemon juice (both to taste).
4. Fill remainder of glass with club soda. Use a spoon to mix it and add several more slices of cucumber to garnish.

If you don't feel like measuring so much, I found that a half shot of simple syrup and a full shot of lemon juice was best. This drink was great because it not only killed off the cucumber and the lemon, but it used the simple syrup that my roommate had just made (and yes, it was made from decayed sugar cubes). Plus, it tasted good!

The offensive cucumber and lemon. Both partially used and left to die.

 My roommate was very excited to make simple syrup out of his old and broken sugar cubes.

 

Grapefruit Brûlée: An Ode to Citrus Season

My roommate was kind enough to remind me that I have a grapefruit sitting in the back of the fridge.  I don’t know how long it’s been there, but according to a quick email search, the last time the CSA had grapefruit was April 6^th, so it must be at least a month old. This prolonged storage, combined with the fact that some of the produce offered by the CSA at the end of its season is always looks a little…roughened, meant that my grapefruit was not looking its best. 

Where have you been hiding this whole time?

Fortunately, the ice-like temperatures at the back of the fridge had preserved the grapefruit better than I could have imagined. However, it would not keep much longer, and if I had to hear my roommate remind me that I had a grapefruit in the fridge one more time, I was going to shove a screwdriver in my ear (though in his defense, watching my grapefruit wither away in the fridge probably made him want to use said screwdriver to stab his eyes out). My initial thought was to juice it – it’s quick, easy, and most importantly the deed would be done. But then I thought about Isaac Newtown.  When an apple fell on his head, did he juice it?  NO!  He developed a theory of gravity. Surely I could take a page from his book and do something with my produce that was a little more grande than “juicing”.

I decided to make grapefruit brûlée. The methods are about as simple as you can get: 

1. Cut the grapefruit in half

2. Sprinkle large-grain sugar (I used turbinado sugar) on each half

3. Set them under a broiler.  I used the toaster oven to avoid heating up the whole house.

The end result was fantastic: each half was incredibly juicy and there was almost no detectable bitterness. At first I was hoping that the top would have more of a caramelized sugar layer to crack, but it was so delicious I found myself not caring after too long. It does appear that I need to invest in a grapefruit spoon, as none of our usual flatware was up to the task. As a bonus, I used a sharp knife to remove some of the grapefruit zest for making citrus salt. I'm not sure if it will work but I'll have to wait and see how it turns out!

Slicing in half revealed some beautiful ice crystals. These can only be obtained by carefully placing the citrus in the back of the fridge and then forgetting about it for more than a month.

  Sprinkle some large granule-sugar on top. You can use fine grain but you will probably need a lot more of it to get the nice caramelized taste (and it might make it too sweet).

In the toaster oven, set to broil for ~15min.

Quick and Tasty!

I had a small lidded vessel lying around so I put some of the grapefruit zest and sea salt inside. I'm not sure how this will turn out.

Music to accompany the cooking: