Ovens of Brittany Wild Rice Salad


Takes about 40 minutes
My adaptation of a classic recipe from the Ovens Of Brittany restaurant. We made vats of the stuff when I worked there. The original recipe calls for snow peas, but lightly cooked sugar snaps are even more delicious!

Salad:
2/3 cup wild rice
1/2 cup white rice
3-4 scallions, thinly sliced diagonally
1/2 pound sugar snaps, stringed, blanched until they’re just bright green, and cut in half or thirds
1/2 cup raisins or currants
one 8-oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained
3/4 cup salted roasted cashews (or sub in chopped almonds, peanuts, or your favorite nuts)

Dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons soy sauce or liquid aminos
1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
one medium clove garlic, minced or put through a press
juice of one half lemon
juice of one half orange
a few dashes of Tabasco

For serving: lettuce leaves and orange wedges, if desired

You’ll cook the rices separately: the wild rice in about 1 1/3 cups water, with a pinch of salt, until tender, about 20 minutes. The white rice in about 3/4 cup water, with a pinch of salt, for about 15 minutes. Combine the rices in a large bowl and let cool. Add the other salad ingredients.

Whisk the dressing ingredients together until smooth, and pour over the salad. Mix well, and serve over lettuce leaves, garnished with orange wedges. This salad keeps well in the fridge for a few days, but tastes best at room temperature, so if it’s been chilled allow a little time for it to warm up before eating!

Summer 2021 CSA recipes

Rhubarb custard crumb cake

This recipe is based on Nicola Lamb, #17 on her Kitchen Projects substack. I’ve put the ingredients into American measurements for those without  the handy kitchen scale so common in British kitchens!

There are 4 components to this cake: roasted rhubarb, pastry cream, crumbs, and cake. Nicola recommends making the rhubarb & pastry cream the day before making the cake.

Roasted rhubarb:
300g – about 10-12 oz. rhubarb, rinsed, trimmed and cut into 3-4 inch lengths
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water or orange juice
grated zest of half an orange (which can provide the juice)

Pastry cream:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
scant 1/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or vanilla bean paste

Crumbs:
7 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Cake:
1 stick plus 2 teaspoons butter, room temperature
scant 1/4 cup sugar
scant 1/4 brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature (you can sub 1 egg + the 3 whites separated from the yolks for the custard)
1 cup flour, very lightly scooped into the cup
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup sour cream

Rhubarb: Heat the oven to 350° Toss together the rhubarb, sugar, orange juice and zest, and transfer to a shallow baking dish (like a pie plate) where it will fit in one layer. Roast for about 15 minutes until the rhubarb is tender but not mushy. Cool, cover, and refrigerate overnight.

Pastry cream: In a medium saucepan, heat the milk until just steaming. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together in heat proof bowl. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture in a steady stream while whisking. Scrape back into the saucepan and heat, stirring, until thickened. Try not to let it boil, but if it starts, stir vigorously. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla. Rinse the bowl, and transfer the cream into it. Gently press a sheet of plastic wrap or waxed paper onto the surface of the cream, and refrigerate overnight with the rhubarb.

Crumbs: Melt the butter. Mix the sugar, flour, salt, and spices in a bowl,  pour in the butter, and stir with a fork until it forms crumbs. Refrigerate while you make the cake.

Cake & assembly: Heat the oven to 350° Line a 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper.  Cream the butter and sugars together either by hand or in a mixer. Add the eggs – it will look curdled but don’t worry about it at this point. Combine the flour, baking soda and powder, and salt in a small bowl, and mix into the butter-sugar-egg mixture. Remove form the mixer and fold in the sour cream with a spatula.

Spread the batter into the baking pan and smooth it. Dollop the pastry cream on top, and arrange the rhubarb on top of that. Crumble the crumbs over the top, trying to leave some of the cream and rhubarb showing (mine didn’t, much).

Bake for 40-50 minutes – Nicola says until there’s “only the slightest hint of wobble in the center”. Cool for 1-2 hours if you want it to cut neatly, and not squish.

Rhubarb-orange soda made from the rhubarb roasting syrup

Blueberry Buttermilk Pie

I put together two recipes to make this pie – one I thought had too much butter, the other too much sugar. I think I got to a happy medium, although I still want to try reducing the sugar in the filling maybe a bit more (3/4-2/3 cup), to see if there’d be more tang from the buttermilk.

Crust: (a.k.a. Deb’s no fail piecrust)
1 1/2 cups flour
good pinch salt, unless you’re using salted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup butter, either salted or un- (1 stick, 8 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening or lard
1 tablespoon sugar
2-4 tablespoons cold water

Filling:
1 cup fresh or thawed frozen blueberries (see note*)
3/4 cup flour, divided
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) salted butter, melted
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
A few grates of fresh nutmeg; about 1/2 teaspoon

Make the crust: measure the flour, salt and sugar into the bowl of your stand mixer (my favorite method), your food processor, or a mixing bowl. Slice the butter and shortening over the top and combine with the flour mixture, using the paddle attachment of the mixer, by pulsing the processor, or using a pastry blender, 2 knives or your fingers, until you have a crumbly mixture with no butter lumps bigger than currants. With the mixer or processor running, or while stirring with  fork, drizzle in the water by tablespoons, until the mixture just starts to come together in clumps. Stop before you have one big ball. Turn the crust out onto a floured surface and knead lightly to bring it together. Gather it into a ball, flatten into a disk, wrap (in plastic, wax paper, one of your reusable snack/sandwich bags), and chill for about an hour, and up to 2 days.

When you’re ready to bake, roll out the crust and fit it into a deep 9-inch pie plate and crimp the edges. Set it in the freezer or fridge to chill while you make the filling.

Heat the oven to 425° with a rack in the bottom third. Place a baking sheet or pizza pan large enough to hold the pie and catch drips on the rack, and let it get hot too.

Make the filling: Toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup flour. Combine the remaining 1/2 flour and sugar in a bowl, and whisk in the melted butter. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg. Pour in the buttermilk and vanilla, and grate in the nutmeg. Pour the filling into the crust – it helps to take it out of the freezer, first <grin>.  Sprinkle the blueberries on top. Place the pie on the preheated baking sheet, close up the oven, and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350º, and bake for about 25 minutes until the filling is set.

*note: Usually when you thaw frozen blueberries you get a lot of blue juice that really dyes the dish. I tried the thaw-the-berries-in-a-strainer trick, and that worked great. I was surprised how luscious the frozen berries were baked in the filling!

Turkey shiitake lettuce wraps

Serves 4
Prep time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

one salad turnip, cut into matchsticks
a good pinch of kosher salt
drizzle of toasted sesame oil
8 oz. shiitake mushrooms
1 tablespoon butter
3-4 tablespoons hoisin sauce, divided (you can purchase or make your own)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground turkey
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
3-4 scallions, sliced thinly into rounds
12 leaves of lettuce cleaned
A handful of chopped roasted peanuts, Siracha, soy sauce, more hoisin – for serving

Toss the turnip and salt in a small bowl and set aside for topping.

Rinse the mushrooms, taking care not to soak them. Trim the stems – or remove them and save for veggie stock (I find shiitake stems to be a bit tough), and slice. Melt the butter in a wide deep skillet and and sauté the mushrooms till they’re fragrant and lightly browned. Drizzle in about 1 tablespoon of the hoisin sauce, and remove to a plate.

Wipe out the pan, add the vegetable oil and the ground turkey and cook, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon, until the meat is nicely browned. Add the remaining hoisin sauce, peanut butter, soy sauce and sesame oil, and mix. Add the scallions, remove from the heat, and stir in the reserved mushrooms.

Serve warm with the lettuce leaves, turnip matchsticks, and other toppings.

Wraps in progress – turnip matchsticks, pack of ground turkey, sauteed shiitakes

 

Greens & cheese pie

This pie is kind of a production, but worth it – even greens haters will eat greens tucked into a crust, with plenty of cheese! You can use purchased frozen puff pastry, or try making your own – here’s a suggested recipe from Epicurious. You’ll need about two pounds of greens altogether.

Serves 4-6
Prep time: 30-45 minutes, excluding making your own pastry
Baking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large (or 2 medium) bunch spinach (1 to 1 1/2 pounds) rinsed and stemmed
1 bunch escarole (about 8 oz.), separated into leaves and rinsed
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced or put through a press
salt and pepper to taste
freshly grated nutmeg or about 1/2 a teaspoon ground
1 1/2 cups of ricotta, preferably whole milk
2 eggs, one to go into the filling, one for egg wash
1 cup grated cheese of your choice (Gruyere; cheddar – pepper jack is good if you like some spice; crumbled feta is traditonal)
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
one box – 17 oz. – frozen puff pastry, thawed

Heat the oven to 400° Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and submerge the spinach and escarole, just long enough to wilt them. Pour into a colander set in the sink, and run cold water over the greens to cool them. Let drain, then take handfuls and squeeze out most of the water, transferring the greens to a cutting board, where you’ll chop them.

Melt the butter and olive oil in a wide deep skillet over medium heat, and add the onion. Cook for a few minutes, till they’re starting to look translucent, and add the garlic. Stir and cook for a few minutes, then add the greens. Cook until any remaining liquid is evaporated, season with the salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and transfer to a bowl to cool. Stir in the ricotta, one egg, grated cheese, and pine nuts.

Line one or two large baking sheets with parchment. In a small bowl beat the egg with 1-2 tablespoons of water to make the egg wash. Unfold the puff pastry sheets on a floured surface, and roll each out to about a 12-inch square. Place a square on the baking sheet, and brush all over with egg wash. Place half the filling in neat ribbon about 4 inches wide in the middle of one of the sheets leaving about a 2-inch border at the top and bottom. Fold in the top and bottom, flop the left side over the filling, and roll the pastry over, pinching to seal, and placing the seam side down. Brush all over with egg wash and cut 2-3 slits in the top. Repeat with the second sheet of pastry, on the same baking sheet if it will fit, or on your second sheet.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until puffed and brown.

Classic wilted spinach salad with bacon

spinach salad

From DebsLunch
Feeds 4 or more depending on what else is being served
Takes about 30 minutes

Approximately 2 pounds spinach, kale, argula, or other greens: lettuce, or cabbage; stemmed if necessary, washed, dried, and cut or torn into bite size pieces (cabbage can be shredded)
8 strips (half a pound) of bacon, sliced into 1-inch pieces
1/4 – 1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 – 4 TBLS brown sugar
1/2 of a red onion, sliced thinly
2 hard boiled eggs
1/2 pound of asparagus, roasted or steamed
lots of freshly ground black pepper
Croutons

Put the greens in a large heat proof (metal or glass) bowl. Cook the bacon until crisp and, using a slotted spoon, remove to paper towel to drain. Pour off all but 4 TBLS of the bacon fat from the pan. Add the vinegar and sugar, and cook until the sugar is dissolved. Boil until a bit syrup-y. Add the onion at the last minute if using. Take the dressing off the heat and pour over the greens. Add the bacon bits and toss. If the greens do not wilt as much as you would like, put the bowl over the warm burner and toss until the salad is more wilted (this works best with a metal bowl). Grind in the pepper and toss again. Top with the asparagus, boiled eggs, and croutons.

Cheater’s many greens Caesar salad

Amara kale
Photo from Territorial Seed Company

Make enough for about 6 – 8 people
Takes 30 minutes
About 2 pounds of greens – roughly 1/2 the spinach, some of the Amara kale, and Argula from this week’s box
a hunk of old bread, about 2 – 3 slices
1 – 2 TBLS olive oil
2 – 3 whole cloves of garlic
2/3 cups mayonnaise
juice of 1/2 a lemon, or a little more to taste
another clove of garlic, minced or put through a press
a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 – 1 cup grated Parmesan
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Wash and dry the greens, and tear them into bite size pieces. Place in a bowl with room for tossing. Tear the bread into rough cubes. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and fry the bread in it along with the garlic cloves until nicely toasty. Let cool slightly and then dump into the salad bowl. For the dressing, [This is the cheater’s part] whisk together the mayo, lemon juice, crushed garlic, and Worcestershire sauce. Add a handful of Parmesan, and taste – add more lemon, cheese, Worcestershire – what ever you think it needs (I sometimes sneak a pinch of sugar into the dressing). Toss the salad with a liberal amount of dressing, adding more Parmesan, and salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning and when you like it, serve.

Potato chorizo tacos with radish slaw & pickled onions

Based on J. Kenji López-Alt – Serious Eats

Makes generous 4 servings
Takes about 40 minutes

1 pound potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 3 large potatoes)
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 pound chorizo or turkey chorizo, or vegan chorizo
5-6 radishes cut into matchsticks
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
juice of half a lime
2 teaspoons sugar, divided
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons rice or cider vinegar
half a purple onion
1 bay leaf
5-6 pepper corns
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6-8 warm soft corn tortillas
Optional: Homemade or store-bought salsa, avocado, and sour cream for serving

Heat the oven to 400°. Place the potatoes in a bowl, and toss with 1 tablespoon of the  vegetable oil, few good pinches of the kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment, and roast in the oven until they’re nice and crispy, about 20 minutes.

Put the radishes and cilantro into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Mix 1 teaspoon of the sugar, mayonnaise, and lime juice, pour in, and toss, grind in some black pepper and taste for seasoning. Set aside till serving.

Put the sliced purple onion, bay leaf, and pepper corns into a small bowl. Combine the vinegar and the remaining teaspoon of sugar in a spouted glass measuring cup. Heat in the microwave for about 40 seconds to a minute to dissolve the sugar, and pour over the onion. Set aside to pickle until serving.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a medium non-stick or cast iron skillet, and add chorizo and cook, stirring, and breaking up the meat with a spoon. Continue cooking, stirring and tossing frequently, until all the liquid has evaporated, the chorizo starts sizzling, and eventually is quite dry and well-browned, about 15 minutes.

Transfer the potatoes to the pan with the cooked chorizo. Toss to combine and check seasoning. Serve chorizo and potato mixture immediately with tortillas, slaw, and pickled onions, and optional toppings.

Note: you can heat the tortillas in the microwave, wrapped in a dish towel, or heat them in the basket of vegetable steamer.

Sprinkle cake

Adapted from Molly Yeh  – this recipe appears in her cookbook, Molly on the Range. Even when I was young I was never as cute as Molly, but I have overcome my initial envy, and come to love her!

For the cake:

  • 2 1/2 cups flour (I used unbleached, but I bet cake flour would produce a softer cake)
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder (upped a bit from Molly’s)
  • 1 cup – 2 sticks – unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 4 egg whites, also room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon clear vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles, and as Molly says, artificially colored cylinders that you’ll find in the baking aisle at any grocery store; don’t use nonpareils, colored sugar, or anything naturally colored!

For the frosting:

I did not use Molly’s recipe here – it seemed to have way too much butter in proportion to powered sugar

  • 12 tablespoons, 1 1/2 sticks salted or unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 cups of confectioners sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • pinch of salt (omit if you use salted butter)
  • 1/4 cup milk, half & half, or cream

Makes a 3-layer 8-inch cake or 24 cupcakes.

Heat the oven to 350° Grease three 8-in. cake pans, and line the bottoms with wax paper or parchment rounds, OR line two 12-cup muffins tins with paper liners. If you only have one muffin tin, you can store the extra half of the batter in the fridge while the first half bakes.

Make the cake: Combine the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl –  a whisk works well for this. Cut the butter into chunks and drop it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, and beat for a few minutes. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, 2-3 minutes. (you can do this with a handheld mixer or by hand, but you’ll need a good mixer and strong arms!) Add the egg whites one at a time (or as close to one at a time as possible – I was pouring the whites in from a plastic container where they’d been saved, and had to guess, but it worked OK!) and beat well after each addition. Measure the milk in a spouted measuring cup, and add the extracts, then, with the mixer running, add the flour and milk to the egg mixture in 2-3 alternating  addition. Finally fold in the sprinkles, and divide the batter into your cake pans or muffin tins.

Bake for 25-30 mins, until a toothpick stabbed into the center comes out clean – start checking at 20 minutes.

Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes then invert onto wire racks to cool completely.

Make the frosting: Cut the butter into chunks and drop it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, and beat for a few minutes. Add the sugar, vanilla, salt (if using) and the milk. Cover the mixer with a dish towel, hold on, and beat until the sugar is moistened – you’ll know because the sound will change. Remove the towel, scrape the sides of the bowl, and add more milk or water carefully – by teaspoons – until you have a good spreadable consistency. Beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes to get it really nice and fluffy. Frost the cake or cupcakes and decorate the tops with more sprinkles. Set in the fridge to set the icing, but tastes best if you let it come back to room temperature before eating.

Made for a part zoom, part in the flesh, baby shower for a mom-to-be of twins, Spring 2021

zoom portion of the shower

Banana Streusel Muffins

We had instant summer here in Wisconsin this week, and that meant I bought the bananas too ripe to last. We really only had one day when it got up close to 80° and today it’s chilly and rainy, but still, on Thursday morning there were 7 getting-almost-too-ripe bananas in the  fruit bowl, so I made these muffins.

For the streusel:

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 4 tablespoons butter (half a stick)

For the muffins:

  • 1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 small)
  • grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1 1/2 cups flour (I used unbleached white but some whole wheat would probably be good)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine grain salt, or a nice pinch of kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar

To make the streusel, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Slice in the butter and use a pastry blender or your fingers to cut in the butter until you have large crumbs.

Heat the oven to 375° and grease or line a 12-well muffin tin with papers.

Mash the bananas, and transfer them to a 2-cup spouted measuring cup. Add the lemon zest, and the sour cream, egg, and melted butter, and mix.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Make a well in the center, and add the banana, sour cream, butter mixture. Mix just until all the flour is moistened – a few lumps are OK.

Divide the batter into the muffin tin (I got 9 large muffins, but YMMV), and top each muffin with about 2 tablespoons of the streusel.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes until firm and brown.

Based on a 1997 State Fair Baking Contest recipe in the NYT; Originally posted April 2021