Posts tagged in my kitchen
Small Girl, Big Bite
A small girl's big adventures in food (and other things, but mostly food!)
I had a quart of yoghurt in the fridge that was about expire so I decided to try making frozen yoghurt. Into my Vitamix went the yoghurt (2% Fage), a bunch of frozen strawberries and a generous squeeze of honey. I used the tamper to help incorporate the strawberries and within seconds I had a soft frozen yoghurt consistency. Sure, it was a bit meltier than I wanted, but once I topped with my favorite dark chocolate chips from Whole Foods, it didn’t matter.
I put the rest in the freezer, so we’ll see how that turns out. Hoping that all the air that was incorporated by the mixer will result in a frozen yoghurt texture, but I very well may end up with a frozen block of strawberry-yoghurt! Will let you know.
So, I made ramp pesto the other night, using all the lovely ramps I got at the Union Sq Farmer’s Market. I had lovingly washed, cleaned and dried 2 bunches and promptly forgot about them in my crisper, but thanks to the Debbie Meyer Green Bags, they lasted a good 2 weeks! Seriously, those green bags really work.
Anyway, I wanted to use the ramps before I really ran out of luck and they rotted away. I decided to make a pesto, a lovely to preserve the pungent rampy flavor and make it last for many, many dishes.
Into the Vitamix went the ramps, olive oil, salt and pepper. In seconds, I had a lovely kelly green ramp pesto. It’s amazing how much the flavor intensifies! Super garlicky - use sparingly - but absolutely delicious.
I plan to use it on many upcoming meals. So far, I’ve used it to amp up my creamy tomato soup, but I think it would be lovely on top of pizza too. Stay tuned for how I use my ramp pesto.
Tonight I must tell you about my semi-homemade dinner, well it’s a barely homemade dinner, but sometimes you have to do what you have do. I am a big fan of Trader Joe’s Low Sodium Organic Creamy Tomato soup. I know, I know, soup out of a carton? But it’s really good. And not too many ingredients, which is a good thing. So, to bring it up a couple of notches, I did 2 things: 1) stirred in a bit of my ramp pesto (remember the ramps I got at the farmer’s market?) and 2) threw in a few Terra chips. I am obsessed with the “Exotic Harvest” chips: kabocha squash, carrot and blue potato chips. Truth be told, I wish the proportions were more equal (it’s mostly blue potato and carrot), but they are really tasty. So, there you have it, tomato soup with ramp pesto and blue potato chips. Yum!
My new breakfast shake: 1/2 cup almond milk, a banana, peanut or almond butter, frozen blueberries, a squeeze of honey. It’s quite delicious and turns a pretty aubergine color. Gotta change up the shake a bit, but keeping the base of almond milk, banana and a homemade nut butter - that’s the key to having it fill you up for hours. With a shake like this in the morning, I don’t need a mid-morning snack! It’s kind of amazing, you can really power through the morning.
Roasted garlic toasts! A perfect use of the garlic spread. Fresh bread, a little garlic love, olive oil, in the oven for a few minutes = yumminess!
I bought a 3lb bag of peeled Gilroy garlic from Costco. Why would I buy so much garlic you ask? Every few months, I like to roast massive amounts of garlic in olive oil, blend it and then have a deliciously sweet, mellow garlic puree to spread on bread, add to soups, stews, and spread on flatbreads.
I was excited to puree the garlic in my Vitamix, but apparently the mixture is so thick that it shorted my Vitamix! Oops. So I let it rest, added more olive oil and it was all good. It made a lot of garlic puree so expect to see it show up again somewhere. I put some in a little jar, cute right?
Apparently I was having so much fun that night that I also made some peanut butter in my Vitamix (and managed to not short my Vitamix that time). I think I prefer the flavor of almond butter better, but the peanut butter wasn’t bad. It was roasted unsalted peanuts, honey and salt. Not sure I’ll ever buy peanut butter again (unless I get lazy).
Every once in a while, I like to make some meatballs. By some, I apparently mean about 100. It’s only 3 lbs of meat, but somehow they magically multiply (not that I’m complaining!). That bowl of sauteed meatballs is the biggest bowl in my set of nesting bowls, just so you understand the scope of this meatball operation. This large quantity required a secondpot to cook them in. And at the end, it seemed like I was cooking for a family of 6 (or 8). Crazy, right? I froze most of the containers and now we’ll have meatballs for the next month or so. Yay!
Key Lime pie from Steve’s key lime pie in Red Hook + vanilla ice cream + mini dark chocolate chips = dirty good! Try it at home, kids.
So what did I do with the ramps from the Farmer’s Market? I made a ramp flatbread with porcini lardo and roasted roasted tomato puree for Easter brunch. It turned out deliciously awesome - the tomatoes were the perfect complement to the rich lardo and the ramps were perfectly crispy on top of the flatbread. I blended up the roasted tomatoes (in my Vitamix, of course!) and spread that on top along with a generous slathering of porcini lardo from my friend Jake Dickson, owner of Dickson’s Farmstand Store at Chelsea Market.
I also sauteed some ramps to go along with Merguez from Pino Prime Meats on Sullivan St - my favorite merguez in the city. I buy 2-3 pounds of it at a time and freeze it so I always have merguez when I’m craving it.
Thought you might like to see my Easter table setting? Got some cute hyacinth bulbs from Whole Foods as the place settings and favors. Of course, I spent a good 20 minutes debating which colors to get and how many, but that’s a story for another time. They filled the room with a lovely smell and they look so festive.
A confit of grape tomatoes, a thing of beauty (and deliciousness!). Can’t decide whether to blend them up in my Vitamix to make an amazing tomato sauce or just enjoy on top of a crostini topped with porcini lardo from Dickson’s Farmstand Meats. Perhaps I will do both!
