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: