Strawberry Fennel Salad

Here’s a nice, quick recipe for the early summer.

It’s good with or without the chicken.

Salad (toss in bowl)

3 cups sliced strawberries (about one pound)

3 cups shredded radicchio

3 cups thinly sliced fennel bulb

3/4 cup shredded basil

1 1/2 cups walnut halves, toasted

1 pound grilled chicken breast strips

Dressing (process until emulsified)

1/3 cup walnut oil

1/3 cup olive oil

2 T. balsamic vinegar

1 T. roasted garlic paste

1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

A real update

A few recent successes: 

-My mom's Jewish Apple Cake (this recipe is pretty similar)
-Potato Latkes from Smitten Kitchen
-Brown Sugar Cookies from More Best Recipes
-Crock-Pot Pulled Pork with Zesty Peach BBQ Sauce (something I'd canned this summer)

Brown Sugar Cookies

Pizza

And here's a photo I found from the fall:

Kale chips!  Very easy, very addicting, and very healthy.

And the list goes on

Zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, purple potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes of various sorts, green peppers, habanero peppers (much hotter than I anticipated, even at a very unripe stage), butternut squash, eggplant, pattypan squash, beets, okra, multi-colored carrots...I think that pretty much covers what I've been getting from my CSA subscription and the community garden.  Needless to say, I haven't been buying much in groceries lately except for eggs, milk, and the occasional bag of sugar for canning.  Speaking of which, I bought a half bushel of peaches the other week which I--besides simply canning a large portion of them--made into preserves as well as this delicious peach barbecue sauce (a great recipe that you could simply make fresh).  There are still a few boxes of jars sitting around waiting for an apple-picking excursion followed by applesauce making.  Hopefully they're not bothering my roommate too much!

So what does one do with all the aforementioned produce? Especially when extra, unanticipated zucchini show up on your doorstep?  Well, I've made buttermilk zucchini soup, ordinary zucchini soup, chocolate zucchini bread, pineapple-raisin zucchini bread, cucumber salad, cucumber and basil slush (I was incredibly skeptical of this, but it actually tasted fairly good), ratatouille, roasted root vegetables, sauted squash, okra and tomatoes, and borscht. For the latter (a great soup that utilizes a lot of mid- to late-summer vegetables), Mary and I used a conglomaration of a few recipes, and it turned out well.  We actually only used one beet.  One beet, which yielded 4 cups when grated.  No joke.

The beet which became the borscht:

I hope you're enjoying the bounty of summer as much as I am!

It was bound to happen...

Time for a confession.  Two days ago I bought 96 canning jars on Craigslist.  Yes, 96.  For only $22!  It was actually kind of a hike to get to the folks (45 minutes), but I had to go halfway there that day, anyway, so what's another 20 minutes?  I'd been wanting to learn how to can, so this was the impetus to get going.

Now my friend Mary and I are on a quest to fill said jars.  She'd helped with canning once before; I was a novice.  We mostly used information online, these two sites being particularly helpful:  All About Canning and National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Here is our first attempt--tart cherry preserves (step-by-step instructions on the first website above).  It was successful, we think.  The only difficult part, honestly, was waiting for the water to boil.  My burners have always been incredibly slow, and this involved quite a lot of water, so it was a long process, though fairly easy.

Now to do something with the other 20 lbs. of cherries, as well as the 25 lbs. of peaches ripening in boxes in the spare room.  Peach salsa or cherry butter, anyone?

Green Beans Galore

This morning I headed out to a friend's family's small farm in Michigan.  Thanks to their generosity, another gal and I each came back with two buckets full of green beans after about an hour and a half of work.  This afternoon I've been blanching and freezing them.  One thing I like to do with fresh beans is to make Szechuan Green Beans like they serve at J. W. Chen's (see the previous post).  I actually didn't remember the name of the dish when I tried to replicate it, but it turns out that what I did is pretty similar to recipes online.  You'll also find my attempt at their Honey Chicken later in this post.

Green Beans à la Mrs. Chen's

• 12 oz. fresh green beans (there's no good reason for that quantity, it's simply the amount I happened to get from CSA last week)
• 1-2 T sesame oil
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tsp. fresh ginger
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. sherry
• 1/4 tsp. sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Heat oil in saucepan on medium-high. Add garlic and ginger and sauté for one minute. Add green beans and cook, stirring frequently, until they are dark green and crisp-tender.  Stir in remaining ingredients and continue to heat for a minute or two.

Honey Chicken à la Mrs. Chen's 

For this, I started with an online recipe but made some major adjustments.  The sauce would easily work with stir-fried chicken instead of batter-fried.

• 1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken, cut into 1" pieces
• oil for deep frying

Batter:

• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup water

Sauce (some of the amounts are approximate; I was unaware of exactly how much I added of various things):

• 1 1/2 T. oil
• 1 T. ginger, minced
• 3 T. garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 c. honey
• 3/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 T. rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 T. cornstarch, mixed with 1 T. water

• Sesame seeds (to garnish)

1. Mix all ingredients for batter, cover, and let sit for 30 minutes.  Be ye not surprised, it will be fairly thin.

2. Heat oil to 350 degrees.  Coat chicken with batter and deep fry in batches until thoroughly cooked and golden.  Drain on paper towels.

3. To make sauce, saute ginger and garlic in the oil in a medium saucepan.  Mix in all remaining ingredients except cornstarch, stirring well.  Add cornstarch mixture and simmer until thick.

4. Coat chicken with sauce, and garnish with sesame seeds.  Accompany with rice.

Serves 4.

Apple-Butternut Squash Soup

I have the good fortune of having a friend whose family can produce a serious amount (read = 900 pounds) of produce in a season in their garden.  On more than one occasion I've visited said friend only to return with a butternut squash from their pantry, and this is what I developed the first time that happened.  It's become one of my favorite recipes--a thick, slightly sweet soup with just enough cayenne to provide a little heat.  It's also a great way to make something fresh in the dead of winter!

Apple-Butternut Squash Soup

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 2 green apples, peeled and cubed
• 1 large butternut squash (3-4 lb.), peeled, seeded, and cubed
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups apple juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4+ teaspoon nutmeg
• salt to taste
• sour cream to garnish
• optional ingredients: celery (be forewarned that it may leave strings), coriander, cumin, jalapeno peppers

1. Melt butter in large saucepan.  Saute onion and carrot for 5 minutes.  Add potatoes, apples, and squash, and saute for 5 more minutes.

2. Add stock, juice, and spices.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for approx. 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are very soft.

3. Puree in batches in a food processor or blender until smooth and return to saucepan.  If desired, adjust consistency with more stock, juice, or water.

4.  Garnish with sour cream and herbs.

Makes approximately 3 1/2 quarts.