mmmm yes please.

[moominmolly]

Simple food that has made my life better this week:

* A costco-sized bag of smoked salmon at work, with a sippy cup of lemon juice and some fresh dill for garnish
* Sauerkraut made by rising_moon and dreda with meat CSA hot dogs
* Raspberries by the quart with Natalie
* Some crazy marinated greens that ceelove made from our backyard, at a picnic IN our backyard

Also in recent memory: local tomatoes that were out of this world even in June, buffalo mozarella with 'em, half a round of Saint Andre on crackers, sneaking in sushi in stolen time before a movie with dilletante, spinach salad with steak on top, all the sweet carrots I can get my hands on.

I make a bad vegetarian but a very very good me.

I see the farmers markets starting up and I want to ask: what's been good for you?

Comments

[harimad.livejournal.com]

Half a happy pig in my freezer. Well, it used to be half a one. We've eaten about 1/3 of it, so about one third of a happy pig.

It's not simple food. Many of the cuts have a lot more fat than what we get in the supermarket and I'm experimenting with charcuterie. So I need to learn to use my (never-used) grill as a smoker. Definitely not simple.

But very, very welcome.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Don't get me wrong, I also like complicated projects, and this definitely sounds like one. :)

We always used to get half a cow every year (from a close friend who raised them). I miss that! Some day I will clean enough of the house to get to own a chest freezer. :)

[veek.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, you're welcome to some of mine. :)

[harimad.livejournal.com]

Somehow I already figured that you liked complicated as well. But since you asked about -simple- food I wanted to publicly recognize I was going off-topic.

Simple is the pig heart I'm going to slice, spice, and fry for dinner. The Critters think that chicken hearts are the world's best treat so let's see if they branch out.

[yagagriswold.livejournal.com]

TJ's smoked herring has been my salvation this spring. Also: the discovery that I can use the toaster over to roast vegetables.

Last night's farmers market score was forellenschluss from Kimball Farms.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

...you can use the toaster oven to roast vegetables!

You totally just changed my life right there.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

You totally just changed my life right there.

???

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

...I find that questions that contain words are much easier to answer!

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I should be able to manage that!

What about that post was life changing for you?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I love roasted vegetables, so being able to roast smaller batches without having to heat up an entire oven means that I will do it much much more often. For example, one head of garlic, or one red pepper - not worth using the oven, but the toaster oven, hell yes.

[whynotkay.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, you can, and I totally do (since I am often cooking for me). You can also roast chicken (for one person) in a toaster oven, and if you have a large enough oven roast chicken AND vegetables simultaneously in it.

Shhhh.

[cutieperson]

avocado, fresh corn, jalapeno, lime, cilantro salsa

this chicken

gnocchi with short ribs. it's one i should learn to make... Highland Kitchen's version is good, Pizzeria Posto's is INSANELY TASTY

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh! Highland Kitchen + yagagriswold mentioning roasting vegetables = I should try to make HK's buffalo brussels sprouts with fresh sprouts this summer!

Also, man, that chicken looks good.

[cutieperson]

oh, yes, and you should invite me to help eat them! the folks i go there with have had no interest in trying them. so sad.

that chicken is what i made for dinner last night. chillguru helped with the wiping it off and cooking it through and then i took over the sauce bit. which meant that in 30-40mins we had rice, red chard, and the chicken. i am always surprised at how quickly full, delicious meals can come together.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh they are sooooo good. Brussels sprouts, halved and perfectly roasted, and then deep fried and served with buffalo sauce. Hands down my favorite thing on their menu.

[reesei.livejournal.com]

Elaborate! How do you perfectly roast your brussels sprouts? The very first time I roasted brussels sprouts they were amazing. I have never managed to repeat this, and I don't know what I am doing wrong. Help!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, I don't know how. I've done it right sometimes and not others. Highland Kitchen is the place that gets it right every time. Perhaps I should ask!

At any rate, trying it in the toaster oven is less daunting, and I can try smaller batches.

[reesei.livejournal.com]

Oh, darn, I misinterpreted and thought you did it yourself! It's so hard to get the balance between the crispy outside and that perfectly roasted soft inside...

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

I have never managed to roast brussels sprouts so that they come out as well as they do when I just pan fry them in butter or bacon fat, perhaps with a few minced shallots, and top them with pepper and a little lemon juice and parmesan.

You cut them in half and put them cut side down in the pan and don't stir them much so that they get a lovely almost-burnt caramelization.

[reesei.livejournal.com]

I will try this next time! Are you aiming for a long and slow frying, or higher heat shorter time? Or some combination?

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Medium heat - it doesn't take very long, especially if you cover it so the tops cook as well.

[reesei.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

It changed Mr. E's whole outlook on brussels sprouts! I am very proud. :)

[harimad.livejournal.com]

This.

Works for me on the stove and in the oven. Preheat the pan, preheat the fat, flavor the fat (I like salt, garlic, maybe powdered cheese). Meanwhile cut sprouts in have along longest axis so to get maximum roasting surface. Toss sprouts in fat, lay them cut side down, let them get brown and imbued with fat.

For creamy inside and browned outside, try experimenting with first boiling or steaming the sprouts till half-done, then roasting.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I do this but keep the caramelization slow and avoid the crispy by adding stock when it is the color I want on the cut side but not the tenderness I want all through.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

{adopts that idea for next time}

[cutieperson]

also, roasted veggies in the toaster oven seems brilliant.

[veek.livejournal.com]

Blue Juliette cheese, local to Victoria BC, that makes me think of you every single time I eat it (which has been every day this week). It's a blue goat cheese. Yes, I did just say that.

Grapes faintly resembling muscat, but seedless.

BC oysters, fried.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Blue goat cheese? ....

If I open my mouth very, very wide, do you think you could toss some in?

[veek.livejournal.com]

Oh god I wish.

[bluepapercup]

I need to know if you're eating the grapes and the cheese at the same time so I can be completely and thoroughly awed by your food. ;)

[veek.livejournal.com]

I possess both at the same time (hello fridge in the dorm where I'm staying!), but for the most part am eating them in succession.

[bluepapercup]

:)

Still sounds totally yum.

[regyt.livejournal.com]

Fresh asparagus on the grill, with nothing but a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper.

Sugar snap peas by the handful, just for munchies.

Mercimek (red lentil) kofte (http://paulaerbay2.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/mercimek-kofte-turkish-red-lentil-patties-recipe/) served wrapped in fresh lettuce leaves (I make the recipe with extra tomato and pepper pastes and olive oil - it's so tasty and crunchy in the cold lettuce!).

Hangar steak and homemade tabbouli.

Fresh mint tea with the tons of extra lovely mint I got when buying tabbouli ingredients.

And I just saw garlic scapes at last! It's time to eat many of those.

[bluepapercup]

Red Lentil Kofte! Do you think it would work to substitute millet for the bulgar?

[regyt.livejournal.com]

Maybe! You should try and then tell me how it goes. ^^

[bluepapercup]

It's a deal! Maybe Sunday, or next week some time. :)

[bluepapercup]

I have rediscovered how delicious it is to have fish for breakfast! I've been toasting millet bagels and swiping them with cream cheese and piling on smoked trout and slices of fresh California avocado. Wondrous!

Fresh veggie stews with lots of Indian spices.

Bunches of kale, steamed and dressed with olive oil and black pepper. I eat the kale pretty much as fast as I can bring it into the house. Kale obsessed!

Sweet and succulent local yellow peaches. They are perfectly ripe and each one is a little fuzzy gem. *swoon*

[starphire.livejournal.com]

Om Nom Nom that sounds wonderful, even before the peaches!

[bluepapercup]

:) :) :)

Thanks!!

[regyt.livejournal.com]

I looooove kale and peaches. Yums! I do my kale in the oven with olive oil until it's crispy, usually.

[bluepapercup]

Oooooh yes crispy kale. I can eat two heads of kale in a day if it's crispy! o_O

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

This has been the weirdest goddamn year for weather, with the result that it is JUNE and we are just having cherries. But! We are having the first cherries! And nectarines! And I hear that pluots are just here I AM SO EXCITED \o/

[whynotkay.livejournal.com]

Cherries, peaches. Blueberries!

Homemade Goan sausages stewed with onions and whatever other veggies are lying around.

Fresh herbs tossed into anything.

Pickled thingies!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Pickled things! Yeahhhhh.

Can't wait for fresh peach season up here. I want to make gallons and gallons of peach ice cream.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

I have to say, a pint of caramel ice cream the day I'd had my most recent oral surgery was one of the most wonderful things I've ever put in my mouth.

[mesoterica.livejournal.com]

A friend and I just roasted up some farmers' market asparagus with fresh leeks and garlic scapes last week (we topped it all with a fried egg and some shaved parm, but honestly it'd still be delicious without if you're in a vegan mood), and I've been honest-to-goodness dreaming about it ever since.