Plum Semifreddo

Dear lord, the heat!  After the torrential rains of late June, the sunny skies are a blessing, but how I wouldn't love to be on a lake most days right now!  A vacation to slightly cooler, Northwesternly climates is just around the bend.  So in the meantime we make due with some chilly desserts to beat the heat.  A batch of beer ice (recipe coming soon, I swear...) left me with several egg whites to use up.  And this semifreddo recipe had just happened to catch my eye a few days earlier.

I have a soft spot in my heart for plums and plum jams.  For years, Gramma made the most amazing jam out of fruit from her backyard.  The nostalgia was worth the brief time standing over that simmering fruit in a scalding hot kitchen.

Everything comes together wonderfully quick; the rest is all self control as the dessert freezes.  With its healthy dose of heavy cream and sugar, this dessert is by no means light, but the texture will deceive you.  This semifreddo is a cloud spike with ribbons of tart plum. 

adapted from bon appetit

serves 8

The Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds red plums, pitted and cut into chunks
1 black cardamom pod, crushed
1 cup sugar, divided
Kosher salt
3 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chilled heavy

The Process:

Mist a 9x5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray and line with plastic wrap, leaving a generous overhang on all sides. Chill until ready to use.

Combine plums, cardamom, 1/3 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until plums release their juices, about 5 minutes. Uncover and cook until plums soften and start to fall apart, 6–8 minutes longer. Let cool slightly. 

Purée the plum mixture in a blender or with an immersion blender until very smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl, pressing on solids to extract as much pulp as possible. Chill. Set aside 1 cup purée for serving.  The rest will be folded into the semifreddo.

Whisk egg whites, a pinch of salt, and remaining 2/3 cup sugar in a double boiler or a medium heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let bowl touch water). Heat, whisking constantly, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch, about 4 minutes. Remove bowl from saucepan. Add vanilla and, using an electric mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment set on high speed, whisk until mixture is tripled in volume, glossy, and completely cool, about 10 minutes.

 

In  another medium bowl whip the chilled cream until soft peaks form. Fold 1/3 of whipped cream into the  egg whites mixture until just combined. Fold in remaining whipped cream until just combined. Fold in plum purée, leaving large streaks throughout mixture.  The mixture will continue to mix and marble when poured in to the loaf pan. 

Transfer mixture to prepared pan and smooth top. Fold plastic wrap overhang over top and freeze until firm, at least 8 hours.

Unwrap semifreddo and using plastic overhang, gently lift from pan. Invert and slice into 1" portions.

Spoon reserved plum puree over top and serve

Osso Buco Style Sea Bass with Herb Whipped Potatoes and Orange Gremolata

The seafood adventure continues!  What started out as an attempt to enjoy more seafood at home has since tranformed into an all out culinary challenge.  Each week, Ross picks a day to stop at the fish monger on his way home from work.  Whatever strikes his fancy that day while perusing the tanks and ice trays is destined to become dinner.  He'll text me what he picked up.  And I have the thirty minute or so bus ride home to decide what to do with it...using only what we have at home at the time, cause ain't nobody got time for last minute grocery trips.

All week I was thinking fish and chips.  In all the baked and breaded glory.  Served with lemon garlic aioli.  I couldn't shake that meal from my head.  So what does Ross pick out?  White Sea Bass.  One of the firmest meatiest fillets out there.  Such sacrilige to bread it up and bake it.  This was a fillet that demanded a meaty treatment.  No poaching or en papillote.  No... it wanted to be seared, grilled, broiled, or...braised.

The cooking method eluded me at first after pondering the fish for a while.  But the idea of a gremolata jumped into my head immediately.  Several types of citrus awaited to be used up at home.  But poaching was out of the question.  And the charcoal grill would take to long to get going.  After poking around for gremolata inspiration, I came across a halibut served osso buco style.  The rich, salty tomato and veggie broth sounded like it would stand up to the meaty fillet.  Spike with the bright gremolata?  Sold.  And I still was able to use up a portion of our CSA potatoes in the process.

adapted from Bon Appetit, via Epicurious.

serves 3

The Ingredeints:
for the "Osso Buco"
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 stalks celery, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1/4 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes w/ juices
juice of 1 orange
zest of 1/2 a lemon
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp crushed thyme
1 bay leaf

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb white sea bass, skin removed and cut into 3 portions
salt, pepper and cayenne

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp butter

for the whipped potatoes
3/4 lb russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 cloves of garlic, halved
2 Tbsp salted butter
2 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

for the gremolata
2 Tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley
zest of 1 orange
2 cloves of garlic, minced

The Process:
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the celery, carrots, onion and garlic.  Saute, stirring frequently, until the veggies are tender and beginning to brown, about 7-10 minutes.  Add the tomato paste and heat through, about 30 seconds.  Add the white wine and simmer until reduced by about half, an additional 5-7 minutes.

Add the broth, crushed tomatoes, orange juice, salt, zest, fish sauce, thyme and bay leaf.  Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until the liquid is reduced by 1/3...about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil and add the potatoes and garlic.  Cook until tender, about 25 minutes.

For the gremolata, combine the zest, garlic and parsley.  Mix thoroughly and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350

In another pan, heat the remaining oil over medium high heat.  Generously season the fillets with salt pepper, and cayenne.  Sear the fillets until browned, about 2 minutes per side.  Remove to a warm plate.  Add the balsamic vinegar to the same pan and simmer for about 1  minute, reducing slightly.  Add the vinegar to the vegetable sauce.  Melt the butter into the sauce.  Remove the bay leaf and transfer the mixture to a 9 x 13 baking dish.  Set the fish on top.  Bake, uncovered for 10 minutes, or until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily. Set aside to finish the potatoes.

Drain the tender potatoes, reserving some of the cooking liquid.  Return to the potatoes to the pot along with butter and whip with an electric beater set to low, or mash by hand.  Add reserved liquid by the Tbsp until the desired consistency is achieved.  Stir in the herbs.

to serve:
Spoon 1/3 of the potatoes onto a dinner plate and spread out slightly.  Top with one of the fillets and spoon the vegetable sauce over top.  Garnish with a generous sprinkle of gremolata.

Apple and Kohlrabi Salad with Roasted Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Vegetables are coming out of our ears!  I absolutely adore taking on the challenge of a full CSA share for two people, but even when most lunches consist of huge leafy salads, a full share can be a bit much to swallow.

This week we were treated to a wonderful treat though...4 pints of the juiciest, brightest red strawberries.  Last season had been so miserably dry that the farm's berries didn't stand a chance.  This year, with the ridiculous amounts of rain pouring through, the berries are bursting.  A good portion have already been frozen for later use.  What berries haven't already been devoured made it into this salad.  The mixed greens and kohlrabi were also courtesy of our CSA.

The inspiration for the vinaigrette came from a visit to a local oil shop where I sampled the most amazing 25 year aged balsamic vinegar.  It was so wonderfully sour, rich, earthly and sweet I could have eaten it with a spoon.  Alongside stood several other tuns full of rich balsamic and fruit blends.  I couldn't decide.  Start simple and with the basics.  High quality balsamic vinegar has ruined me...

And the combination of apple and kohlrabi has been bouncing around in my head for a while.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The recipe is my own

serves 4

The Ingredients:
8-10 ripe strawberries
1 Tbsp diced shallot
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1 small Granny Smith apple
1 cup water
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 medium kohlrabi
4 cups mixed greens

The Process:
Preheat the oven to 400

Pick out the 4 smallest, ripest strawberries, and set aside.  Hull the remaining berries.  Place cut side down on a lightly greased pan.

 Roast to 10-12 minutes or until the berries are soft and juice is beginning to seep.

In a large glass, combine the shallot, oil, vinegar, salt and roasted strawberries.  Puree with an immersion blender until completely smooth.  Strain through a sieve to remove any pulp and seeds.  Set aside.

Combine the water and lemon juice and set aside.

Halve and core the apple.  Thinly slice into wedges and place in the lemon water.  Peel the kohlrabi and similarly slice into thin wedges.

Toss the mixed greens with half of the vinaigrette.

 Divide greens among four salad plates.  Arrange 1/4 of the apple and kohlrabi in a fan shape on each plate.  Using the reserved strawberries, cut four or five thin slices with a paring knife lengthwise through the berry, leaving slices attached just below the hull.  Gently fan out the slices.  Place the berry garnish on each plate.  Drizzle with remaining dressing

Coconut Brown Sugar Ale Cookies

Desserts have been few and far between as of late, haven't they?  I've had many an ice cream recipe bouncing around in my head, but not the time to concoct them.  Cookies, though... I always have everything I need on hand for cookies.

I encountered this recipe last Thursday during a Craft Beer and Bites event at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  Little soft sugar cookies were served to be paired with many of the brown ales and stouts provided.  They had all the best flavors of an oagtmeal raisin cookie, only without the oatmeal and raisins.  They were wonderfully soft, lightly spiced and so buttery.

Eager I whisked the recipe home, but discovered the only brown ale I had was coconut brown.  We used a bottle of our home brewed beer, though Kona Brewing Company makes a wonderful coconut brown ale: Koko Brown

cookie base recipe courtesy of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

yields 3 dozen

The Ingredients:
12 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup coconut brown ale
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 flaked unsweetened coconut, coarsely chopped

The Process:
In a large bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar and mix until well combined.  Add the yolk and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy.  Add the beer and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together both flours along with the baking soda, baking powder, salt, cornstarch and cinnamon.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined.

Pour the coconut into shallow bowl.  Using a heaping tablespoon of dough, form a ball and roll into the coconut, coating completely.  Place the balls on an ungreased baking sheet, spacing cookies about 2 inches apart.  Place cookies in the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and golden around the edges.  They will deflate slightly as they cool.  Allow to cool slightly on the baking sheet.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Stir Fried Noodles and Steak

The wonderful thing about flank and skirt steak?  It used to be such a wonderfully cheap cut of meat that nobody wanted.  Sort of like chicken wings.  And then somebody caught on to how awesome this under appreciated cut of meat is.  Now I'm lucky if I can find the darn steak for under $8 a pound, if our butcher or grocer even has it in stock at all.  Ah well.  Other thin cuts of beef work equally as well when quickly fried and sliced across the grain.

adapted from Bon Appetit

serves 4

The Ingredients:
2 Tbsp sliced almonds
8 oz soba noodles
1 Tbsp sesame oil
12 oz skirt or flank steak
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 green onions, whites and greens separated, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch knob of fresh ginger, minced
1 large head of bok choi, coarsely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled, thinly sliced on the diagonal  
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce  
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
1/3 cup vegetable broth

The Process:
In a small, dry skillet set over medium heat, dry roast the almonds until evenly toasted.  Set aside.

Bring  a large pot of salted water to a boil, and noodles and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente, about 6-8 minutes. Drain.  Rinse in cool water and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season steak with salt and pepper and sear until charred in spots, about 4 minutes per side. Remove form heat and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Thinly slice against the grain.

While steak rests, wipe out skillet and heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add onion whites, garlic, and ginger; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add bok choi and carrots. Saute, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes.

Whisk oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and broth together in a small bowl. In a large bowl toss together noodles, sauteed vegetables, almonds and onion greens.  Drizzle with dressing and stir to coat.  

Serve with steak.

Turkey and Red Bean Soup with Rainbow Chard

The peak of summer is upon us, with all of its muggy, hot glory.  So why does my mind drift to soups and chili?  I suppose the fixation has a lot to do with a small test batch of red chili beans that found its way into our CSA box last week.  The farm included a great recipe for a radish and bean salad, but I couldn't shake that thought of chili...

This dish didn't end up nearly as thick as most chilies I prepare, and I'm okay with that.  The addition of chard makes if far more reminiscent of a minestrone anyway.  But the flavors are all tex-mex.  If you'd rather not hover over the stove on a hot summer's day, this soup can be prepared in the crock pot as well.  Just plan on adding the chopped chard leaves right before serving.

The recipe is my own

Serves 6-8

The Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup dry red chili beans
1 Tbsp oil
20 oz ground turkey
2-3 bulbs green garlic
1 small onion, diced
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1 bunch rainbow chard, leaves and stems separated
1 - 8oz can tomato sauce
6 cups vegetable or chicken broth

The Process:
Remove any pebbles or grit from the beans.  Rinse.  Place in a large bowl and cover with cool water.  Soak overnight.

Drain the beans.  In a large saucepan set over medium heat, bring about 5 cups of water to a boil.  Add beans, reduce to a simmer and cook about 45 minutes or until beans are tender.  Drain and set aside.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add the turkey, onion and garlic.  Cook, stirring frequently until the turkey is cooked through and crumbled.  Add the cumin, chili powder and oregano.  Stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Coarsely chop the chard stems and add to the pot along with the broth, beans, salt, bay leaf and tomato sauce. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Coarsely chop the chard leaves.  Add to the soup and simmer for an additional 2-3 minutes, or until the chard has wilted.  Remove bay leaf and serve immediately

Baked Coconut Curry Shrimp

The seafood pact Ross and I made is still going strong.  Shrimp hasn't made an appearance on our menu, which is odd given how we usually have some frozen on hand at all times.

The shrimp was picked before the recipe.  Jumbo and shell on.  I briefly toyed with a few Cajun inspired grilled recipes, but given our luck with the weather, an indoor meal was probably best.   We've both been itching for something breaded as of late, a splurge against the all of the CSA veggies we've been enjoying.  This baked version made the guilty pleasure a little more forgiving.  Quite frankly, it really didn't need any deep frying anyway.

The breading and cooking process itself is super quick.  The shrimp can ready in about 20 minutes.  However, if using shell on jumbo shrimp, plan an giving yourself a bit more time.  The peeling, deveining and butterflying can be a bit tedious and time consuming.

the recipe is my own

serves 3-4

The Ingredients
1 lb large raw shrimp (13-15 count)
2 eggs
1/3 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
1/3 cup panko
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt

favorite dipping sauce to serve

The Process:
Preheat the oven to 425

Peel the shrimp, leaving the last segment on the tail intact.  Slit the back of the shrimp and remove the vein.  Cut deeper along the center back to the tail segment, and gently splay the shrimp open.  Rinse and pat dry.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs.  In a second bowl, combine the coconut, panko, flour and seasonings.  One at a time, dip the shrimp into the egg and press into the coconut coating.  Lay the shrimp, butterflied side down, on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Lightly mist with additional oil.

Bake until the shrimp are opaque and begin to curl, about 10 minutes.

Serve with dipping sauce.