The Cooking Adventures of Chef Z & MB

Hi Guys!  Chef Z & I talked about it and it made much more sense to give an overview of our culinary adventures during the week rather than just what I reheated in a microwave.  Those pictures will still be included of course, but they will be sprinkled throughout.

This week we started off drying some herbs.  This is an incredibly easy method of preservation if you have a dehydrator.  Simply remove the leaves from the stems, rinse and dry, then place so that they are not touching on the screen.  Dry on the "herb" setting.  Ours says that's approximately 95 F.  We have done this with quite a few herbs and it is great since we will have organic/sustainable herbs this winter for stews and slow cooker meals!

Homemade Spicy Dill Pickles were also made this week.  3 large cucumbers, I've found, make 6 jars.  Here are 3 waiting to be processed in a hot water bath.  This recipe uses the traditional combination of equal parts apple cider vinegar and water with canning salt and whole mustard seeds as the brine.  While the brine is brought to a boil, the jars are packed with a sprig of fresh dill, 1-2 hot dried chili peppers, and 1-2 cloves of garlic.  On top of that goes tightly packed cucumbers that have been cut to the same size.  Instead of pickling lime, I have been using the Ball Pickle Crisp Granules that are sprinkled on top of the cucumbers as according to the directions on the container.  We will see if this method works as well as the traditional lime.  The cucumbers are then covered with the brine and sealed.  These are water bath canned for 10 minutes.  In approximately a month we will try them out!

Chef Z here!  This is what I like to call "This is what a CSA dinner looks like".  This was created for MB and my anniversary dinner.  We had some filet mignon left over from a bulk meat order, some fresh baby vegetables, fingerling potatoes, and crispy onion. The potatoes were blanched then fried in vegetable oil. The vegetables were blanched, then sautéed in garlic butter. I just seasoned and grilled the filet, I let the sauce do the rest of the work. The sauce was a reduction of some lamb jus that I had left over from braising. In order to balance the gaminess, I added red wine and a little beef stock then reduced to coat the back of a spoon. The crispy onions were lightly floured, then tossed into the oil used to fry the potatoes. This meal turned out great and, considering the quality of the beef, ended up costing us very little. I would guess that it ranged anywhere from 7-10 bucks a plate. At a restaurant this plate would easily cost you 50-60 dollars, gourmet at home.... YUM!!

In an attempt to use up some of our raw milk and CSA eggs, I made whole wheat pancakes topped with Raspberry Jam.  Yummmm.  Not entirely CSA but very very tasty.

In an effort to preserve more of our bounty for this winter, the cabbage was steam blanched in a steamer basket for 3 minutes then soaked in ice water for 5 minutes. (Side note from Chef): this technique is called shocking. What this does is stop the cooking process so that as you vegetables cool waiting for the next step, they do not turn to mush. Even when freezing, you vegetables will continue to cook in the freezer, shock them and viola, perfectly cooked vegetables that still have a little crunch to them!! After it was soaked and cool, it was laid on towels to dry out, then placed on a baking tray to "flash freeze" in our freezer.  Once the cabbage was hard to the touch, it was taken off of the baking sheet and placed into freezer bags.  This cabbage will work well in soups, stir fries and in slow cooker meals.  It won't be as crispy as fresh cabbage but it will be a great addition to our winter meals and it will keep our grocery bills down!

Since I had a HUGE zucchini to use up, I searched online for a recipe that would be a different use aka other than zucchini bread.  On The Kitchn I found this recipe for Zucchini Butter.  I made some changes like exchanging shallot for onion and adding garlic.  For my version, I also used straight olive oil and no butter.  In one word, DIVINE!  It was so delicious I almost ate it all on the spot right out of the pan!  It was a great addition on crackers and corn muffins.  I wish that I had used it as a spread on a sandwich or burger!  Nom, nom, nom!

Squash & Zucchini were also preserved this week using the shocking and flash freezing method discussed for the cabbage.  The cooking time was found in Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006 and worked fairly well.  This make me happy to know we have preserved a summer veggie that we can throw into vegetable medleys and stir-fries all winter long without having to buy out of season produce!

This is Basil Puree.  All that it is -- fresh basil, garlic scape and olive oil.  This was blended and then frozen with a little olive oil on the top.  It can be used as a pesto base, as an addition in a sauce, or as a method of seasoning.  This keeps that fresh basil taste year round!

Another Chef Z dish (you can tell by the white dishes) -- We have farfalle pasta cooked in a garlic cream sauce, fresh cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and a rack of lamb with a lamb just reduction. Remember that jus I made for the beef? Well, to add more lamb flavor I took the pan that I seared the lamb on and deglazed with white wine. I scraped the pan with my tongs to get up some of the tasty bits stuck to the bottom, then added the remainder of the jus. I would have preferred to use a rich red wine, but you work with what you got. Turned out pretty freaking tasty, the cherry tomatoes were the highlight of the dish for me though, seriously like crack in tomato form.

Using the bits and pieces removed from the lamb that Chef Z fabricated above, a Panang Curry was made with a small can of the curry mixture from Mama MB's favorite Asian market mixed with coconut milk & onions.  This was served over sushi rice with roasted Romanesco.  So spicy but sooo good.  I had to eat this meal with a HUGE glass of milk.  The great thing though was that it was really filling, plus, the leftovers freeze really well for a second in a rush meal!

Lastly for this week, a Spanish Torta (potato & egg omelet) was created using the recipe from Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006 using CSA eggs and potatoes with caramelized onions and garlic.  This was served with steamed broccoli and green beans from this weeks share.  It made quite a bit but the great thing about this meal is that it can be eaten at breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Tune in tomorrow to see what we get to cook with this week!