This page is for listing of interesting recipes, often provided by our vendors. New books, articles and websites on buying, eating and growing healthy food may be included as well.
Sweet Potato Salad – Andrew’s recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups boiled, cubed, peeled sweet potatoes (cool completely)
- 1/3 cup finely diced celery
- 1/3 cup finely diced red onion
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1 T fresh parsley chopped
- 1 t fresh grated ginger
- 1/3 cup raisins, soaked for 15 minutes in hot water and drained
Combine all ingredients and place in refrigerator for 24 hours before serving.
Updated: 12 June 2011
Louisiana Gumbo
As we suddenly have gotten into Fall, wham! almost overnight, hot food suddenly takes on something like its old attraction. Sorry to say, I just have a hard time eating lots of hot food when the temps are over 90 degrees. Just can’t. It heats you up, for one thing, and when you’ve broken into a sweat from walking outside the house and waving to the neighbor, well, more heat doesn’t feel just great.
But, we realized that a) it was actually, perhaps, going to eventually cool down, maybe even this weekend, and b) the farmers’ market was coming up and we still had some great veggies left in the fridge. What to do? Cut em all up and make gumbo to celebrate cool weather!
So simple we don’t even use a recipe anymore, so here goes:
1. Cut up equal amounts of these veggies, the magic three for Louisianans:
Sweet peppers, bell peppers onions celery
Oh, what the hell, cut up any more you want to add in, such as carrots, squash, butternut squash. Just remember, the softer the vegetable, the later it gets added in, so it doesn’t turn into mush. Some of it, like zucchini and yellow squash, add in at the end, just when everything else is simmering. Classic gumbo also has okra in it, which is where the name comes from – it’s an African word for okra. It’s used for thickening and you don’t need much, just a handful cut up, else it gets gooey, so add it if you’ve got it.
2. Stir fry some good sausage, fresh if you can get it, like Neeses or farmers’ market sausage, or a good smoked polish sausage, like Hillshire Farms. Cut it up small, so it fries faster, but more important, you get more bits in each bite. Don’t drain the pan, unless it’s really fatty. You want the flavor from the meat juices.
3. Throw the veggies in when the meat is almost done. Let them cook for a few minutes until softened.
4. Put in a lot of thyme, sage, oregano, and a mix of ground peppers, black, white & red. Go easy on the white and red unless you like it hot. Stir it into the meat and vegetables. Keep the fire at medium hot, and let the seasonings toast, and the kitchen will fill up with that wonderful smell.
5. Pour into the pot a quart or so of water, chicken broth if you’ve got it and want to use it up. Remember, this is not fancy food, water is fine; you’ve already got all that seasoning meat and spices and herbs for flavor. Let simmer for just a little bit, 20 minutes or so on low heat.
6. Ladle over rice in a big bowl. Eat a lot, this is a one dish meal.
Liz – 2 October2010
North Africa in North Carolina
Tis the end of the summer, and all the late veggie crops are coming in full force. We’ve got speckled beans, loooots of multicolored sweet peppers, onions, okra, tomatoes of all kinds, and the native grapes, bronze and blackpurple. Plus lots of squash, yellow crookneck and green zucchini summer, butternut and acorn fall varieties.
That means it’s time for North African recipes, and here are a few: Carrot and Pumpkin/Butternut Squash and Eggplant dips for pita bread, just in case you’re tired of hummus: preserved lemons, to put into hummus, salads, pastas and baked chicken, among other things: and vegetable Tagine, a stew-like concoction that reminds me of my mom’s gumbo, with the rice replaced by couscous. So here are some of my favorites.
Carrot Dip
1 lb carrots chopped 2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 cloves garlic minced 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 onion minced about 1 teaspoon harissa (see note)
Cook or steam the carrots and garlic until carrots are tender. Heat cooking oil, preferably olive oil, and cook the onion until softened. Add the cumin, stirring in until fragrant. Process everything in a foot processor or mash by hand. Add lemon juice and harissa and salt to taste. Let cool and spread or dip with pita crisps or tortilla chips, or your favorite dip carrier.
Note: Harissa is a chile paste that is used on just about everything in North Africa, rather like salsa in Latin America or Oelek Sambal in Southeast Asia. You can get it by the jar or tube in a Mideastern Market or a very trendy modern supermercado. In the Triangle, look in Neomonde or Nur Deli. Or just use a good chile paste, or try this recipe, but I’ve not made this one myself, as I have been able to buy my harissa.
Harissa - definitely on the list of simple recipes to try
Soak in hot water for one hour, 2 oz. dried red chilies, your choice, and drain. Combine in a grinder with 2 garlic cloves, 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 2 teaspoons caraway seeds, pinch of salt. When it has been mixed into a paste, add 3 tablespoons olive oil, put into a small jar and float some olive oil on top to keep it from darkening and to preserve it from mold. Cover and keep in a cool, dark place, which in this climate means the refrigerator.
Pumpkin Dip
1.5 lb pumpkin in pieces (butternut squash is perfect too)
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1 garlic clove, crushed
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon harissa
Clean pumpkin of skin, seeds, threads. Cook or steam until tender. In a separate pan, heat the oil, cook the caraway and coriander until fragrant. Add pumpkin, garlic, harissa, lemon juice and salt to taste. Remove the pan from the heat, mash or process all the ingredients together, let cool before eating.
Eggplant Dip
2 lb eggplant 1 /2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 garlic cloves, sliced 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Cut slits in the eggplant skins and insert garlic slices. Bake in the oven until the skin is charred and blistered. Remove and cool. Peel the eggplant, squeeze out and discard the juices, then place in a bowl and mash with the spices.
Heat the oil in a pan, add the eggplant mixture and fry it, stirring frequently until very thick, about 15 minutes. Pour out excess oil and add lemon juice to the paste. Serve warm or cool, with pita bread slices or crisps, or with broiled meats, chicken or fish.
Have fun! More recipes coming up soon . . .
Liz – 05Sept2010
Food Program Sucker, Right Here
I’ve got suckered into watching some of those food programs, that are on WUNC_TV Explorer channel. Just saw a half-hour show on Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie show on Korean cooking. I’ve now got it bookmarked so I can show it to Joe tonight – especially since we have a Korean market down the street (in the same place much-missed Hancock Fabrics used to be, around the corner from Ollie’s and TJ Maxx). Yay! Can go get the ingredients. Boo! Have just discovered that my local Korean/Japanese restaurant – Asahi – has just gone out of business. Damn. Haven’t visited them in awhile, now I can feel guilty, plus we always ate off the Korean menu and I was just getting into the mood for some Bibimbob and some Korean seafood pancake. Rats!
Sometime soon, I’ll post the result of trying out one of the Korean recipes from the show – tofu w/ a spicy sauce on top, really fast, looks simple.
Liz – 18June2010
The Botany of Desire – Not What You Might Think, Shame on You
I just watched – for the 2nd time – the PBS special on Michael Pollan’s book The Botany of Desire, narrated by him, and it was just as good again. Totally recommend it. The book was really good too, and of course, it gives way more info than the TV show, but is a good introduction to it. The show has some different info to add to the book, and really interesting interviews with growers and researchers as well. Gorgeous visuals, too, and not too difficult for kids to understand.
In a nutshell, the book shows how plants have used us while we’re using them – for food, beauty, mental stimulation(!) – in order to propagate themselves throughout the world from their areas of origin. Not with any intelligence, of course, but as most organisms do, by responding to various stimuli and encouragement to reseed.
And I notice that Michael Pollan has yet another book out on food and eating – Food Rules – on how to fix the health care crisis by eating whole food rather than food products. That’s what we’re all about, so that’s next on my reading list.
Wow, that was fast, but it turns out to be a handbook, companion to the In Defense of Food book. This one is short and sweet, and has it’s funny moments too. Rule #36 – Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk. Oops, bet I know which ones those are.
Liz – 17June2010
Julie and Julia, Great Book – What About the Movie?
Maybe movies will make the cut – I just finished reading Julie and Julia, and may check out the movie. I’ll definitely be looking for Mastering the Art of French Cooking at the library to get hold of that recipe for cauliflower, watercress and cheese casserole. It just sounded too good!
Liz
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