Lime and Tonic

From time to time, I like to go alcohol-free. Here is a good drink to make when you still like the ritual of unwinding at the end of the night with something in a long-stemmed glass. Just squeeze some Tahitian lime into a glassful of tonic water. The lime is so fresh and fragrant that adding gin to this drink would be an unnecessary distraction.

Eat it RAW!

The Sassy! lettuce mix this week consisted of baby greens, mizuna, and "ruby streaks." It was delicious and fresh. It kept its crispness for a long time. We had some assistance enjoying it.
<-- Chocolate Ninja Bear, at far left.

Thai Eggplant Tempura

Thai Eggplant Tempura

The Thai eggplant is the cute little green one in the upper right corner of the first picture. I sliced it into discs, dipped the discs into tempura batter (just a store-bought mix), and deep fried them in vegetable oil over medium heat. These were served alongside a tempura dipping sauce. There are a lot of little seeds in the eggplant. They didn't taste bad and added an extra crunch.

Roasted Leeks and Eggplant with Polenta

Roasted Leeks and Eggplant with Polenta

For the roasted leeks and eggplant: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim leeks: cut off roots, cut off most of green part, split the larger ones down the middle. Slice eggplant into quarter-inch discs. There's no need to salt/soak these eggplants. Spread vegetables in single layer on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 15 minutes.

For the polenta: I followed the recipe on the back of a bag of Goya Corn Meal. It instructed me to boil 6 cups of water seasoned with one and a half teaspoons of salt. Once the water begins to boil, add in one and a half cups of the corn meal slowly, whisking continuously so that the polenta doesn't clump. After all of the corn meal is in the boiling water, reduce heat to medium and stir continuously for half an hour with a wooden spoon (or else the polenta will stick to the bottom of the pan and/or clump up). Towards the end of the half an hour, mix in one and a half tablespoons of butter. This actually kept the polenta from sticking to the pan. When I removed the polenta from the heat, I spooned myself a heaping helping of it then poured the rest into a glass baking dish greased with olive oil. It cooled rapidly into the dish but didn't stick to the sides. I think I'll cut the polenta up into squares and saute the squares in butter or grill them and serve them as a side dish for another day.

Willie's Fried Rice with Tat Soi

Willie's Fried Rice with Tat Soi

This recipe is for when you find yourself with extra white rice that is getting cold and hard, extra proteins that need to be used up ASAP, and extra vegetables.

In a large pan (or wok), fry up about four slices of bacon, diced. Remove the bacon, but keep the bacon grease in the pan. In the bacon grease, fry up half an onion, diced. Get out your cold, old white rice and start crumbling it into the hot bacon grease and onion mixture. Make sure the rice gets coated all over. Willie also adds chicken stock to rehydrate the rice and to add a layer of rich flavor. Next, mix in your diced extra meats, and don't forget the bacon! What works well: leftover spam, chicken, pork, shrimp, beef, and even hot dogs. Throw in other vegetables you may have around, like frozen peas and carrots or scallions. This time around, we used tat soi. That wilted in nicely. Season the mix (which should have grown substantially by now) with dashes of shoyu, sesame oil, and a hot sauce like sriracha or sambal oelek to taste. Salt and pepper to taste. Optional sauces to add in are mirin and hoisin.

The fried rice tastes even better the next morning, with a fried egg on top.

The tat soi was also delicious raw. I ate it with a simple balsamic vinaigrette dressing (but I would love to have it with Minato Restaurant's pineapple dressing). The tat soi has a bitter, arugula taste when you first bite into it, but it also has a subtle, perfumy taste as you swallow it.

Stunning Produce!

The lettuce heads were bigger this week. The carrots came in a deep red hue. And the lu`au leaf was huge and visually interesting. It also repelled water from its leaf like an umbrella.

Chard, Leek, and Thyme Quiche

Recipe from the blog, Being Cheap Never Tasted so Good

Ingredients:
pie crust
3-4 leeks, chopped
1/2 bunch Swiss chard, chopped
1-2 TBSP butter
thyme
1 c. milk
3 eggs
4 0z. herbed goat cheese
salt
pepper
nutmeg

Step 1.
Heat the butter in a skillet and sauté for about five minutes until they begin to get tender.
Season generously with thyme. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Add the chard and sauté for a couple minutes more.
Remove from heat and set aside in mixing bowl.

Step 2.
Wisk together milk, eggs, goat cheese, a few pinches nutmeg, and a dash of salt and pepper.
Stir in liquid mixture with vegetables.

Step 3.
Pour into pie crust.

Bake tart for 15 minutes at 425°F. Then lower heat to 350°F and bake for another 15 or 20 minutes until liquid is just set in the center. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so before serving.

Adrienne's Notes: Next time I make this, I won't use goat cheese. I'll use something like Asiago or parmesan. The goat cheese was hard to crumbled into the egg mixture. It also added a mushiness to the quiche, which is already mushy in texture because of the eggs.

Cod and Clam Ceviche

Adapted from "Cherry Snapper Ceviche," recipe from Executive Chef Roger Ruch of the South Beach restaurant, 1220 at the Tides. The original recipe can be found on page 139 in The South Beach Diet book by Arthur Agatston.

Ingredients:

1 box of "Steamers in Ten" clams from Costco, cooked then shelled

2 cod filets in large dice, bought frozen in a bulk bag from Costco

3 limes, fresh juice of

1/2 teaspons sambal oelek

2 ripe Roma tomatoes, medium dice

1/2 yellow Spanish onion, medium dice

2 1/2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Directions:

Soak the diced fish and shelled clams in 3/4 of the lime juice for three hours. Drain off the liquid and discard. Mix the fish and clams with the sambal oelek, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and the remaining lime juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. The fish is cooked by the lime's acidity rather than by heat. Serves 4.

Fast and Easy Chicken Lau Lau

WOW! Seven huge lu`au leaves with purple stems.
Here is what the front of the whole leaf looks like. According to my coworker, Melva, snip off the stem where it meets the back of the leaf as close to the leaf as possible. Be careful, because the juice from the cut stem might make you itchy. Then, tear off the bottom tip of the leaf as well as the two tips on either side of the heart shape of the leaf. This will prevent bitterness from cooking into the lau lau.
I placed a chicken thigh in the center of each leaf and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and about five dashes of liquid smoke. Then I wrapped the thigh up like a little parcel in the lu`au leaf. Melva suggests diluting the liquid smoke with water, at a ratio of 1:3 or using a pat of butter instead of the liquid smoke.
The bundles are then wrapped in tin foil and placed in a loaf pan in a 350 degree oven for an hour. The finished product: the spinachy lu`au leaf melted around the chicken thigh, which took on a deep, smoky flavor. Good over white rice.

Guacamole

Guacamole Recipe (from Willie and Adrienne)

Two avocados, pitted
1/4 white onion, finely chopped
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tomato, seeded and diced finely
half a bunch of cilantro, leaves and stems finely chopped
juice of one MA`O lime
salt and pepper
5 dashes of hot sauce (like Tabasco)

Mash the avocado up (we use a potato masher), then stir in the onion, garlic, tomato, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper, and hot sauce.

Kale Chips

Tuscan Kale Chips Recipe from Bon Appetit:

Ingredients

• 12 large Tuscan kale leaves, rinsed, dried, cut lengthwise in half, center ribs and stems removed


• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation

Preheat oven to 250°F. Toss kale with oil in large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange leaves in single layer on 2 large baking sheets. Bake until crisp, about 30 minutes for flat leaves and up to 33 minutes for wrinkled leaves. Transfer leaves to rack to cool.

Notes from Adrienne

This time, we kept the kale chips in for about 25-30 minutes before they started smelling like they were burning. Next time, we'll take them out at around 20 minutes. The kale chips are crispy (they break into pieces when you bite into them), salty, nutty, and earthy. They taste like a terrestrial variety of Korean nori (dried, roasted seaweed).

Chard Tart

Swiss Chard Tart: Pasticcio di Bietole al Forno, from Mario Batali
Ingredients

• 2 pounds Swiss chard, washed and spun dry


• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil


• 1 Spanish onion, thinly sliced


• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced


• 1/4 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped to yield 1/8 cup


• 3 large eggs


• Salt and freshly ground black pepper


• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano


• 1 cup bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Bring 8 quarts water to a rolling boil and add 2 tablespoons salt.

Roughly chop the Swiss chard, discarding the rough stems. Add the Swiss chard to the boiling water and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain thoroughly and set aside.

In a 12-inch saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over a medium flame until hot but not smoking. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the Swiss chard and the parsley. Let cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Meanwhile, break the eggs into a small bowl. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Add 3 tablespoons of Parmigiano and, using a whisk, mix until the ingredients are well-blended. Add the egg mixture to the cooled Swiss chard and toss to combine.

Using the remaining olive oil to lightly grease a shallow 9-inch round or oval baking dish. Dust the bottom of the baking dish with 1/2 cup bread crumbs. Carefully place the Swiss chard and egg mixture into the pan. Dust with the remaining Parmigiano and then the remaining bread crumbs.

Bake until the top is golden brown, about 1 hour. Serve hot or room temperature.

Notes from Adrienne

We were running out of parmiggiano reggiano, so we substituted Asiago. The change was fine. Also, we added bacon bits into the mix. Panko is great as the "bread crumbs" in this dish. This is a nice recipe for a brunch dish, served with Sassy greens in a balsamic vinaigrette.

Mustard Greens Pesto

Cheese tortellini, sun-dried tomatoes, and macadamia nuts, tossed in mustard green pesto and parmesan cheese:

Recipe for mustard green pesto from MA`O Farms website:

3 Cups loosely packed mustard greens
½ Cup macadamia nuts
¼ Cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
¾ Cup extra virgin olive oil

Place mustard greens, nuts, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese in food processor. Pulse 3 times, in a stream add oil while machine is whirling. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stop when oil is incorporated.

Uses: In pasta or topping for grilled meats and vegetables.

This recipe courtesy Holly Hadsell El Hajji and Les Dames d’Escoffier

Assembling the rest of the ingredients (from Willie and me):

Cook pasta as directed. We used the Barilla Three-Cheese Tortellini that came in the family-size bag. In the last few minutes, throw a big handful of sun-dried tomatoes in the boiling pasta water to rehydrate them. Drain pasta and sun-dried tomatoes. Toss both in half of the yield from the mustard greens pesto recipe, or about one cup. Top with diced macadamia nuts and grated Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese. Serves four.

Sassy! salad mix, lettuce heads, carrots, radishes, and beets

Left: Flank steak with Sassy salad, which included ....
... Radishes and beets...
... Baby carrots ...
... And the Sassy greens mix, in a basalmic vinaigrette (one part balsamic vinegar, one part brown mustard, salt and pepper, two parts extra virgin olive oil, shaken well).

Tat Soi

What is this green? Derek from MA`O Farms said it tastes good wilted in saimin, so that's how Willie had it. He said it tasted fresh and spinachy.

Joining MA`O Organic Farms' Community-Supported Agriculture Program

Willie and I joined MA`O's CSA program starting the week of February 7, 2011.

So what was in the box?

SALAD: Sassy! Lettuce Heads
ROOTS: Carrots, Beets, Radishes
COOKING GREENS ETC: Lacinato Kale, Chard, Mustard Greens
HERBS: either Basil or Cilantro (We got cilantro)
BONUS items: Limes, Tat Soi

Want to join, too? Here's the link!
http://shop.maoorganicfarms.org/