baked salmon and kale with olives and tomatoes

I picked up some salmon yesterday, so was looking through my cookbooks for new ways to cook it (since Noah moved into town, barbecuing seems to be implausible). I adapted a recipe of Jamie Oliver's from the Naked Chef cookbook (since neither green beans nor cherry tomatoes are in season) and this ended up being one of the quickest and easiest - and tastiest - meals I have made in a while.

This is my version:

1 bunch kale, washed & ripped up

4-5 canned tomatoes, roughly chopped

small handful of sundried tomatoes, chopped

2-3 squeezes of anchovy paste (or real anchovies, if you have them)

olive oil

10-20 kalamata olives

salt & pepper

salmon

lemon juice

Heat the oven to 475 F with a roasting pan inside. Toss the kale with the canned tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, anchovy paste, olives, and about 2 T olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Take out the roasting pan and brush the bottom with a little olive oil. Put the salmon in one end of the pan and sprinkle generously with lemon juice. Put the kale mixture in the other end of the pan. Roast for 10 minutes. Serve over couscous (rice would probably work too, but couscous is way faster!) spooning the juices from the pan onto the couscous.

I am *definitely* making this one again. It took maybe 15 minutes, tops, and the strong flavours of the tomatoes and olives worked really well with the kale.

Kenneth is right now making rhubarb pie with the last of the rhubarb from our garden. I'm so glad I met someone who knows how to make pies!

-Kathy

lunches and sides

Box day! Strawberries strawberries strawberries! I think the $20 was worth it just for the fresh strawberries. Yesterday was our first day of the summer fruit box, too, so we got a double batch. And fresh cilantro/coriander - when we unpacked the box, the smell filled the kitchen.

Lately I haven't been posting much because, while we've been using up the box, it has mostly gone to lunches and sides rather than full meals. We're starting our usual summer rotation of lunch salads - we make a few salads to have in the fridge, then add a new one every day, so each lunch we have a choice of three or four, and don't get sick of any particular one. The cabbage has gone mostly to coleslaw (yes, still - was that from two weeks ago? We still have some...sigh) and the greens are good just as they are, or with a little oil and vinegar drizzled over. (One day I ate three bowlsful for lunch - starved for fresh-tasting greens after winter wilts.) Beet greens and asparagus were just steamed lightly and served as sides. This time of year we keep things simple - everything tastes good just on its own.

Last night Kenneth made two different curries with fresh green onions and fresh cilantro. This morning we had waffles with strawberries. I love this time of year!

-Kathy

veggie spring rolls

I was at a loss for dinner last night - lots of good stuff in the box, but most of it seemed to be more appropriate for 'sides' rather than 'mains'. I'm halfway through Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (the Taproot 'book club' book) and had just finished the chapter in which they hosted a big birthday party and made spring rolls for their vegan friends. So I was already thinking about them, uncertain whether that would be enough for dinner or what I would serve them with, when I pulled out a mystery jar from the box. On opening it, I discovered it was plum sauce! The universe conspired - spring rolls it was.

They're easy, if a bit fiddly, to make, and much easier if you follow the directions in Kingsolver's book by rolling the rice paper wrap bit by bit, rather than trying to roll it around all the stuffing at once (which is how I used to make them). I'll write out what I put in them, but you can experiment with stuffings of your own.

Spring rolls

rice paper wraps

1-2 carrots, julienned

cucumber, julienned

radish, julienned

pea shoots, stripped off the tough stems

lettuce

dipping sauces: plum sauce, soy sauce, thai sweet&sour

Get everything ready. Place a wrap in a shallow bowl or pan of water, as hot as you can stand. When it softens, put it on a plate and cover it with lettuce leaves. Starting at one side, put in a filling, roll the wrap a bit, put in another filling, until you run out of fillings or wrap. Seal the wrap closed with the last bit of rice paper, then place on a platter covered with a damp cloth until ready to serve. Serve with a variety of dipping sauces.

It made for a light, but tasty dinner. Ria liked the dipping but just licked off the sauce rather than biting the spring roll!

-Kathy

rhubarb muffins; stir-fry

Monday I made the rhubarb muffins from Simply in Season for breakfast (I'm mildly ashamed to admit I used frozen rhubarb - we still have some left from last year! - but I didn't tell my guests).

After a day of walking around Halifax, for dinner I made a quick stir-fry, using up most of the leftover ingredients in the fridge. I sauteed a bit of garlic and some grated ginger in peanut oil and soy sauce, then added Taproot bok choi, Taproot green onions, a few Taproot pea-shoots (though we still have some left), broccoli, celery, edamame, chick peas, and cashews. For the sauce I combined more soy sauce, rice vinegar, worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and a bit of sugar, then drizzled some sesame oil over top just before serving.

For desert we have a repeat of the rhubarb filo pastry. And we've still got rhubarb left!

There. I think I'm caught up. Box day today. I promise I'll be better at posting from now on - I'm home with no guests for the forseeable future.

-Kathy

pulled pork and coleslaw

Three of my guests left Saturday, then three more arrived Sunday - it actually worked out really well, since we wouldn't have had enough room for all the people I had cheerfully invited to come 'since you're already down East for the Fredericton conference' if they had all come at once. Saturday was actually a great day (despite the weather forecast), and we finally got the garden in: tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, basil, peas, beans, coriander, lettuce, swiss chard, cucumbers, zucchini, spinach. Hopefully you'll see all of these appear in the blog during the summer!

Sunday I tried cooking the pork shoulder we got in the meat share. I combined two recipes to make BBQ pulled pork, and then served it with a simple coleslaw (cabbage, grated carrot, dressing of mayo and cider vinegar). I served the pork on the zucchini rolls from Simply in Season (we had frozen zucchini) - they are fantastic.

BBQ pulled pork:

rub:

1 T paprika

1 T brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cayenne

Coat roast with rub. Spray with oil. Let stand 30 mins. Cook on BBQ over indirect medium heat 3-4 hours. Rest 20 minutes. Pull apart. Stir into sauce & reheat:

Sauce:

1 onion, chopped

1 T oil

2-3 T cider vinegar

2-3 T brown sugar (more to taste)

1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup red wine

2 T Montreal steak spice

2 T worcestershire sauce

1 T lemon juice

Saute onions in oil. Add other ingredients; simmer until bubbly and thick. Add pulled pork. Serve over buns or rolls.

The pork is fairly spicy, so cut the spices in the rub or add sugar to the sauce if it's too hot for you.

-Kathy

nettlekopita; pea-shoot salad; rhubarb filo pastry

On Friday more guests arrived - my undergraduate professor and mentor and my undergraduate writing-centre assistant boss - a couple who are very good friends now. They always have us over for sumptuous dinners (my prof spent some time in Sardinia and is an excellent cook) so I wanted to do something fancy. The dinner was almost entirely local - it was fun trying to make something tasty out of such good ingredients!

Appetizer:

nettlekopita - I got a recipe off the internet, but it wasn't as good as the one my friend made a couple of weeks ago. So I'll post hers when I get the chance. Still, mine tasted okay and everyone was impressed that nettles could taste good.

Main:

Pancetta-cooked Atlantic scallops with giant mushrooms and Taproot green onions

Garlic & green onion mashed potatoes

Pea-shoot salad

For the potatoes, cut them in small pieces and boil until a fork can be inserted easily. I leave the skin on - it tastes good, and it's the most nutritious part! Drain and mash, adding 1 clove crushed garlic, 2-3 green onions (chopped), about half a block of cream cheese, 2-3 T of butter, and enough milk to make them creamy (don't overdo the milk - 2-3 T should do it).

For the pea-shoot salad:

bowl full of pea-shoots, washed and torn

1/2 cup edamame beans, cooked tender-crisp and cooled

1/4 cup goat's cheese, crumbled

dressing:

2 T olive oil

3 T lemon juice

1 T sugar

Dessert:

Rhubarb filo pastry

This is one of the easiest desserts to make, and a good way to use up filo (phyllo?) from the nettles. Spread some tinfoil on a baking sheet, then spread out a couple of sheets of filo. Brush with melted butter. Repeat until you have 6-8 sheets of filo. Dump some chopped rhubarb (fresh from our garden!) in the centre, and pour some sugar overtop (about a cup?). Fold filo around the rhubarb and seal with melted butter. Brush more butter overtop. Cut a vent or two in the top, then cook at 350 until golden and crispy.

-Kathy

Lemon pasta; carrot salad

Hi all! I've been away conferencing, and then we've had guests all week, so I've been away from the blog. But I'll try to put up a few posts covering the past weeks, to catch up.

Other than take-away fish&chips and fried clams (hey, you have to treat non-province guests to them!) and some bbq's, I made a lemon pasta last week with some of the box treats. We also had some broccoli so I added that.

1 bunch asparagus, washed, cut in 1-inch pieces; tips reserved

1 head broccoli, cut in 1-inch pieces

2 T olive oil

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1/2 can chickpeas

freshly grated parmesan

salt & pepper

fettuccine or similar, cooked al dente

Simmer the lemon zest in the olive oil; add lemon juice. Toss in the asparagus and broccoli until just tender. Stir in the chickpeas. Add 1/2 parmesan (about 1/4 cup); toss with cooked fettuccine. Top with rest of parmesan, salt and pepper. Quick and easy - and tasty!

We've also been eating salads for lunches. I won't post the broccoli salad, because we didn't get it in the box, but the carrot salad is also good (and looks nice with the rainbow Taproot carrots):

2-3 grated carrots

1-2 handfuls of fresh herbs, chopped (I used chives and thyme, which survived the winter in my garden)

1 T olive oil

2-3 T red wine vinegar

fresh pepper

This keeps for days in the fridge and only gets better as the flavours meld.

-Kathy