Gleaming onions in the gloaming

For these luxurious long evenings in the Nation's Capitol that are now gently guiding us from spring to summer, nothing seems more appropriate than firing up the grill for...

Spring onions! Perhaps you are one of those sad souls who thinks that grills are only good for men cooking meat. But tonight, we courageously laid to rest the grand philosophical debate of the centuries: how many women, without assistance, does it take to fire up a grill? Turns out, two is more than sufficient. Wonder of wonders, neither of us culinary ladies had ever started up a grill on our own, but we felt compelled to try -- our onions were just too beautiful for lesser treatment.

Perhaps, though, we should start at the beginning. By this time of year, farmers' markets are in full swing and CSA deliveries will be arriving any day now. This makes us giddier than kids waiting for candy at Christmas. Really. X and Ladson spent Saturday morning wandering the rows of Arlington's Courthouse farmers' market, and these onions' long, spring green stalks with glossy purple and white bulbs caught their eyes. They seemed much too large to be scallions yet far different than grocery-store Vidalia onions. X knew it was high time to get back on the blog.


In addition to being perfect for enjoying the great outdoors, grilling has the advantage of making for a quicker recipe.

Ingredients:
6 large white and purple spring onions
1 bunch asparagus
2 links of free-range bison sausage
For seasoning: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, real salt, exotic peppercorn blend


We first washed the onions, cut off the ends (which were somewhat hairy), and sliced them in half lengthwise, including their stalks. We also chopped off the ends of the asparagus and gave it a good rinse. We tossed both vegetables together in salt, pepper, and a light drizzle of oil. Having cleaned off the grill, we fired it up and piled on the vegetables. After about 5 minutes, we also added the sausages. Monitoring and turning the veggies to make sure they didn't become overwhelmingly charred, we grilled them for about 10 to 15 minutes.  The asparagus cooked fastest, and we removed it and the thinner onion stalks as they became ready.

Once everything was done, we sat outside to enjoy the temperate spring breezes and the irresistibly sweet crunch of our spring onions.

The onions were incredibly sweet- more so even than much-loved vidalias! They paired nicely with natural sausage and asparagus. Some mustard could be added for classic brat fans, but we found the flavor combination to be more than sufficient. 

When life hands you lemons...

When I arrived home famished tonight, the produce drawer handed me a questionable cabbage--one of those vegetables that rolled around in the fridge for weeks, unclaimed by anyone, until one day last week it was mysteriously assigned to my drawer. Hunger cravings overwhelming me, I told myself that I had to keep it under control until I could figure out what to do with my cabbage.

All of this was further spurred on because a friend told me last night that he "just isn't a cabbage man"--dear ol' cabbage and I take that as a personal affront and a gauntlet thrown.

I looked to my new compendium of vegetable love, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (more than 200 pages in the section on produce alone!), written by Mark Bittman, a writer for the NYT. His cabbage offerings were less than inspirational, but I flipped over to the Brussels Sprouts section (they are, after all, mini cabbages) and decided to adapt an "Indian-style treatment" of the tasty gems.

Ingredients:
1 head green cabbage--cored, chopped into bite-sized pieces (the size isn't too important)
About 1 Tbsp. olive oil for the pan
2-3 tsp. mustard
2-3 tsp. paprika/crushed red pepper flakes/black ground pepper (some like it hot)

1-2 Tbsp. Garam Masala (a slightly sweet mix of spices)

Real Salt
About 1/3 cup plain yogurt
2 tsp. coconut milk

Once I'd removed the older leaves from the outside of the cabbage and chopped the remaining, I rinsed it in our salad spinner. I left a good bit of moisture on the leaves.

I heated the olive oil over medium-high heat (a 6 out of 10) in an oversized skillet with a lid, then added about 1 tsp. each of the mustard and the pepper flakes and a generous sprinkling of the garam masala. I heated for about 1 minute until they became fragrant, then added the cabbage. I let it simmer for a bit, but had to pour off a bit of the water left from the leaves and add more spice. I should say that for this dish, the spiciness and flavor are really up to you. Add some spice, then try it; if the dish isn't flavorful enough, add more spice! X, Ladson, and I all agree it's best to be liberal with pepper.

After about five minutes, I added the yogurt and coconut milk. Bittman's recipe called for a cup of coconut milk, but I decided the yogurt substitution would be just as creamy without all the fat. I stirred, covered the skillet, and let it cook over higher heat (about an 8 out of 10) for 5 more minutes, until the cabbage was nice and soft. I cooked for a couple more minutes without the lid, until the whole melange was at my desired thickness.

In another skillet, I'd heated up a wild-caught salmon burger from Whole Foods. When everything was done, I put it on a small plate (this trick is recommended to help you avoid eating way TOO much of your healthy delicacy) and ate up. Not the most picturesque of vegetable meals, but certainly a delight to taste. A bit sweet, a hint of sour--not altogether removed from lemonade.

guac

Part of me (X) really does not want to share this recipe. Why? because everyone LOVES it, and I get all the credit. But, pushing my pride aside, I will divulge the secrets to avocado goodness that I received from my aunt. Straight from Southern California where I learned to eat:

1/2 onion chopped
cilantro chopped
jalepeno pepper, chopped (you can use cayenne pepper and chili powder if you can't get a jalepeno)2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tomato coarsley chopped (tomatoes on the vine are the best!)
juice from 1-2 limes
sea salt
cumin (optional)
2-3 avocados

Making guacamole, like any cooking process, is not a precise thing.  Go with what you like, if you don't like onions, don't put them in.  If you like things more spicy, add another pepper, if you can't handle heat, don't put any jalapeño in.  If you can't get a fresh tomato, don't sweat it. You will still enjoy this concoction if things are not just the way I (or any other self-designated Mexican food expert) have written.

Chop the stems off of the jalapeño, de-seed it and chop it fine.  Remove stems (as much as is reasonable) from cilantro and chop that fine as well.  Often I will use my little food processor to simplify the process of chopping cilantro and jalapeños and garlic into little bitty pieces, and sometimes onions, too. But if you are like Sarah, you will go to town on that chopping block and do just fine.

Mix everything together, add cut up avocados last to keep it chunky.

Avocados are supposed to be one of the best fats you can consume, so eat up!  A great tip for keeping avocados fresh, I learned from my sweet Texan roommate: keep the pit and put it in the container in which you keep the guacamole/partly consumed avocado, it will keep that soft stuff nice and green and tasty for a week!

One caution: as always, read the label of those corn chips!!! Most of the corn produced in America is incredibly modified from the way our ancestors ate it (whole grain, ground up and soaked in LIME).  If you can get organic, non-GMO corn chip cooked in non-GMO oil, that's the way to go!

sweet (and salty) potatoes

I don't even like french fries any more. But who can resist salty and sugary sweet potato fries?
Don't worry, ours are still healthy guaranteed!

Peel your sweet potatoes, especially if they are not organic. The pesticides that prevail in conventional soil will be most dense on the skins of root vegetables such as potatoes, beets and carrots. Slice those potatoes really thin for more crispness in your fries.

There are so many ways to season "fries". This time I coated a cookie sheet with a little olive oil, honey, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. I'm careful not to put too much liquid on there because it will make the potatoes soggy. Then I tossed on the thinly sliced sweet potato so that the oil-honey blend covered them and they were evenly spaced on the sheet.

We broiled them on high on the top rack. If you don't have a broiler or an oven with 'Broil' setting, you can set your oven to a temperature somewhere above 450* f. Depending on how thin you sliced the potatoes and how hot your oven gets, they will take about 20 minutes give or take. Don't forget to flip them over mid-way!

The second round of unFries, Sarah thought it may be more effective to use a rack instead of a cookie sheet so the heat would circulate around the potatoes and encourage crispiness. This was somewhat effective, but we decided to put them back on the cookie sheet to get that oil on the unFries for flavor.

They are so hot and yet so yummy, slide them onto paper towel to cool a little, but if you're like our photographer, you may not be able to wait for that!

I'm just mad about saffron!

We are mad about saffron. What a special spice--long the world's most expensive spice by weight. Xandria's mom gave her some... the Lord knows we can't afford such an exotic luxury!

What to do with saffron? Risotto! Who doesn't love moist, rich risotto on a chilly evening? Today was perfect for such an indulgent treat--a sunny spring day, flowers petals floating down from trees all over the Hill, yet with enough of a nip in the air by evening to call for warm comfort food.

We lament, however, that risotto is typically made with nutrient-poor white rice and salty broth that's heavy on MSG. We decided to attempt a risotto that not only tantalizes our taste buds, but nourishes our bodies as well.

Last week left us with an abundance of vegetable scraps (onion, cilantro, kale and chard stems, and celery tops). We had chopped and boiled these for about an hour to make a hearty stock, then strained into a glass mason jar. The nutrient-dense brew was further inspiration to once again pull out the stock pot.

When eating a lot of carbohydrates, it is always a good idea to include some good fats and proteins. And putting together this with the ample vegetables we have on hand... here we go.

Scanning our cupboards once again, we found our ingredients:

Butter and liquid from the can of salmon for the sauteeing fats
2 onions, one red, one yellow -- diced until (we were) sobbing plus a few spring onions
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons organic short grain brown rice
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
Wild Alaska canned salmon (you could probably use good tuna as well)
3-4 stems each organic kale and chard (any greens will work, even ones that have been in the fridge for a few days too long)--chopped to your liking
1/3 cup organic diced (canned) tomatoes
Saffron

We were relative novices at making risotto; if you are too, you should know that it can take quite awhile--but it's well worth the wait.

We began by adding fat to the bottom of our stockpot--about 1/2 tablespoon of butter and the liquid off the can of salmon. We warmed this over medium heat for a few minutes before adding the diced onions. The onions should simmer (always so aromatically!) in the fats until they become soft and translucent. At that point, we added the rice to the pot to allow it to toast for a few minutes.

Once the rice was toasted (2-3 minutes), we added the broth bit by bit--we went in 2/3 cup increments as it was absorbed by the rice. This takes patience. We stirred the risotto to make sure the bottom did not burn, but we did not stir constantly--to be on the safe side, you probably can't go wrong with more stirring! [After the fact, we noticed that some recipes call for bringing the broth to a boil separately before adding it to the rice--this might make the process faster!]

We kept adding broth until it seemed as though the rice was not absorbing any more liquid. Then we dissolved the saffron in a bit of hot broth and added it to the rice mixture, allowing it to infuse for about 3 minutes.  We then added the tomatoes and the salmon (which had to be de-boned). When the tomatoes and salmon had warmed through, the greens were the last addition before serving. We wanted them to maintain some of their texture. We stirred them in and allowed them to wilt, then topped the risotto with salt and pepper to taste.

The short-grain rice resulted in a sticky but creamy risotto. If our delicious risotto is any indication, saffron's just mad about us, too!

leave no squash unturned

Many people seem to have the impression that winter is a drab, colorless season for vegetables, when starchy baked potatoes are the most exciting option. We could not disagree more--and squashes are the prime example of colorful winter excitement! (Xandria: "I wish I could write a ballad about squashes...!"). The multitude of options, once you get past the supermarket aisles, is truly astounding: from acorn to butternut to carnival to the more exotic kabocha and blue hubbard varieties, each squash offers a unique flavor and usually a different shade of orange.

Because Sarah has a farmer friend who kept her supplied through most of the fall with beautiful and exotic squash varieties, we have had the opportunity to enjoy multiple culinary experiments, from a night when we accompanied blue hubbard with four varieties of cheese and spices to this post's delightful pairing of butternut and acorn squash. In any event, the aesthetic squash can provide countertop adornment (don't refrigerate it!) for weeks at a time, so in the winter we always seem to have a few sitting around when cravings call. And they inevitably do.

Picking your squash: Alice Waters tells us to "look for heavy, hard-skinned squash with no blemishes or bruises." Usually, we find it's kind of hard to go wrong with squashes.

Generally, before making a specific grocery trip, we figure out what we have on hand and whether the ingredients we already have could constitute a full dish. This week, true to form, Sarah had an acorn squash and Xandria had half of a butternut. A spicy squash stew sounded like the perfect antidote to the cold, rainy weather, so we scoured the internet for recipes that we could adapt to our purposes.

2 stalks celery
4 carrots
2 red onions
1lb butternut squash
1lb acorn squash
5 cloves garlic
2 springs fresh thyme
red pepper flakes
Real Sea Salt (Celtic Sea Salt is also a healthy option)
Olive Oil!
2 cups of veggie stock
1/2 inch of fresh ginger

We tend to scour our fridges for veggies that will work. You could use any winter squashes here. White onion will have a different flavor, but won't miss too much excitement. Thyme could be replaced with rosemary or sage, depending on your herb collection.

We always use unrefined sea salt, a readily available brand is Real Salt. It retains the trace minerals that make salt healthful and delicious.

When prepping your veggies, you can choose to pre-chop your ingredients or race against the simmering concoction to have the next vegetable ready before the others overcook. The former is probably preferable, though you might enjoy the adrenaline rush of the latter option! We prefer the pace and aesthetic of chopping ahead and piling them all together, their colors and abundance reflecting the bounty of God's creation.

First, we warmed up a couple dollops of EVOO in a stock pot and let the thyme sprigs sizzle in it until the air was aromatic and the thyme became crisp. Remove the thyme and that oil is ready for the chopped onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. We allowed them to cook until tender and translucent. Then, we poured in a couple cups of broth and let the squash cubes tumble into the mix.

Then, we waited, tantalized by the mouth-watering aroma rising from the stockpot. Luckily, we had Michael Buble tunes on Grooveshark and Ladson's fancy camera to entertain us. He played with lighting to get the perfect textured shot of brussels sprouts (did you know they're little cabbages that were cultivated in Belgium in the 14th century?!).

Finally it was time to add the salt (to taste), and we decided it needed a bit more flavor, so we finely chopped a little fresh ginger, poured some broth off of the cooking soup into a smaller saucepan and let the combination simmer so that the ginger cooked a little and diffused through the broth. We added the ginger-infused stock back to the soup and let it all simmer until we absolutely could not wait any longer. You'll know your soup is done when the squash flesh is no longer stringy or hard--it should practically melt in your mouth.


The soup can also be pureed, should you so desire, although we concluded that it's best when you can taste the flavors of each separate vegetable coming together.