Italian Sausage Shepherd's Pie

This is a wonderful meal that is really quite easy to prepare.  Everyone will be impressed by the twist on this old classic.

• 4 carrots chopped bite sized
• 2 parsnips chopped bite sized
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 6 Italian Sausages Sliced into 1 inch Pieces
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 cups water
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
• 4 tbs soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• leftover mashed potatoes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a bowl toss parsnips and carrots with 2 Tbs olive oil.  Sprinkle vegetables with salt and bake on a cookie sheet until fork-tender; about 25 minutes. 

Meanwhile, heat 2 tbs olive oil in large skillet. Add onion and garlic and saute until just tender and then add sausage. Cook sausage until browned and onions are caramelized.  Add flour and stir for 1 minute on medium heat. Add wet ingredients and stir until bubbling. Add roasted veggies and stir.

Pour into baking dish and cover with mashed potatoes. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for 30 minutes or until potatoes begin to brown..

Cooking definitions:

saute- To cook food quickly, using a small amount of fat/oil  without browning.  It helps cook flavors together. It is important not to over crowd ingredients when sauteing. 

fork-tender- When something is cooked to the point that a fork easily penetrates it all the way through.

Heavenly Tomato Soup

This is a family favorite.  It is so easy and quick.  Unlike a lot of soups who take hours for flavors to develop, this is a quick jaunt from pot to bowl. You can top it with chicken, tofu, or shredded beef.

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 carrot chopped
• 1 med onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/4 c flour
• 28 oz can of whole tomatoes or 3 pints of your canned tomatoes or 4 1/2 cups peeled cored chopped fresh tomatoes
• 16 oz vegetable/chicken broth
• 1 tbs Italian herbs or 6 leaves fresh chopped basil
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in pan and add carrot, onion and garlic.Saute until onion is tender. Add flour and stir till veggies are coated.  The little bit of flour helps to cut the acidity a bit and make the soup thicker.

Add tomatoes, stir and heat through.  Add broth and spices. break up tomatoes and simmer covered, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.  

Puree soup in small batches in blender or with immersion blender in the pan.  Add cream, heat through and serve.

Cook's Notes

• If it is still too tart I add 1 tsp brown sugar/honey/agave nectar.
• Add 1/4 c Parmesan with cream for a spin.
• add minced sun dried tomatoes with herbs for a little kick.
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes really makes it zippy.

Swiss Chard Pie

Tourte de Blettes a La Nicoise
by Richard Olney

Ingredients:

• Provencal Pastry Dough
• 2 lb Swiss Chard, parboiled, squeezed dry, chopped
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 freshly grated parmesan
• 1/4+ teaspoon salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Prepare the Provencal Pastry Dough and chill for about an hour (this adds two hours to your prep as the dough must rest and hour before chilling).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl combine chard, eggs, cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Using your hands, mix thoroughly.

Lightly oil 10 inch round baking dish. Roll out 1/2 your dough on a lightly floured  surface. Drape over the edge of your pan and press into the bottom evenly allowing edges to hang over slightly. 

Mound chard filling in the center and push out to the edges. Roll out remaining dough and transfer to the top of the pie. 

At the point you can do one of two things:

• trim the edges before pinching the top and bottom together.
• OR, if you like crust, roll the edges and pinch for a nice crispy edge.

Crimp your edges of the pie.  Use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut four or five steam vents in the pie top.  Brush the surface of the rim lightly with oil.

Put in the oven and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Cook's Note:

You can always try to get creative with pie edges.  Look around your kitchen for something that will leave  an interesting design.  Look at your trivets, spoon edges, etc.

Parboiling is the process of dropping something into boiling water.  you allow it to cook until it just begins to soften and remove BEFORE it is fully cooked.  Essentially you are beginning the cooking process and finishing it elsewhere.

Pears Canned in Light Syrup

Ingredients
For every quart you are canning, you will need:

• 2 1/2 pounds of excellent pears
• 2 tbl. lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup sugar

Put the sugar and water in a pot and bring the mixture slowly to the boiling point. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Keep your pot of syrup on a low heat and cover. This keeps it from evaporating.

Peel and quarter your pears, removing any seeds with a melon baller or a spoon. Put them in sterilized canning jars.  Immediately pour the lemon juice over them to avoid discoloration. Fill the jars with hot syrup leaving 1/2 inch of headroom and process for 30 minutes in a boiling water bath.

You can use this over desserts, on salads, or by themselves.
These are very lightly sweetened.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

So bread pudding is one of my favorite desserts. I have long looked and tried different recipes to satisfy me, and this chocolate version is wonderful!

Ingredients:

1 c heavy whipping cream

1 1/2 c half and half

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cocoa powder

4 c 1 inch cubes bread

1/2 c sugar

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/2 c chocolate chips

1. In saucepan heat heavy cream and 1/2 the half and half. Stir constantly on low heat so as not to burn. Add cocoa powder and stir till completely blended and heated. Remove from heat and add remaining half and half.

2. In separate bowl whisk together eggs and yolks. Add sugar and vanilla whisking until golden and bubbly. Slowly add hot mixture and mix till well blended.

3. Now add you cubed bread and toss. Add your chocolate chips and toss. Allow to soak for an hour to absorb the custard.

4. Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 8x8 baking dish with butter. Add your mixture and bake for 40 minutes.

Stick this in the oven as you serve dinner to be ready and waiting by evening dessert. Serve warm with whipped cream!

Cook's tip

Bread note: You can use any bread, but using an egg bread makes this even more "cakey".

Chocolate note: You can use any kind of chocolate you want here. Remember that white chocolate is super sweet!

Variations:

White chocolate and Macadamia nuts

Dark chocolate and walnuts

No chocolate, double the vanilla and add 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg to cream mixture

Italian Style Fish

This recipe was easy and had that good for you feeling. Wonderfully light and perfect served with greens. Very low fat filled with fresh goodness

Ingredients: serves 4

4 fillets of Orange Ruffy, Halibut, or Tilapia

1/2 c chopped Italian parsley

1 clove minced garlic

1/2 crushed red pepper

2 tbs minced shallot or onion

8 callamata olives quartered lengthwise

2 c diced tomatoes

1. Salt and pepper fish. Put olive oil (enough to really coat the bottom)in fry pan and get hot. Fry fish in hot pan (this will put a nice brown on the the fish) till opaque (about 3 minutes per side).

Set fillets on serving platter or plates.

2. In the same pan heat 1 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs butter. When melted and sizzling add parsley, shallot, crushed red pepper and garlic. Saute for 2 minutes.

3. Add olives and tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes are soft and the mixture is slightly saucy. You may with to add a few tbs of water during the process if you like it a little runnier. Spoon over fish and serve.

Cook's tip: Never add anything to cold olive oil on the stove. It will absorb it and get greasy. Using a hot pan will put a nice sear on things keeping juices in.

Turnips and the "Knowing"

For those of you in the Eugene area and for some of you out there in the nether sphere, a handful of sunny days have awakened something in you. Yes, spring is just around the corner! Its vitality has awakened in me the desire for vital foods fresh from the field. While it’s not exactly grim here at the farm, we have little out in the field.

Turnips in the field. Greens identification (left)

Yesterday I wandered out and took a look at what we had. Beets, chard, kale, arugula going to seed, garlic, and turnips. I pulled up some turnips and headed in. I’m new to turnips and so I consulted Mrs. Joy who informed me it was a perfect complement to fowl and whatever you could do to a potato, you could do to a turnip. She advised peeling down into the red zone to avoid bitterness and that over baking gave them a cabbagey taste. Hmmmm…

I thought for a moment, then opted for investigation. I decided to bake them for my initial journey with these plump rascals, so I peeled them. When I smelled their white flesh it had a sweet aroma with a hint of that parsnip spiciness. I chopped them into bite sized chunks and threw them into an 8x8 baking dish. I again smelled them and it came to me just like that: apples and coriander. Ya it was weird, but I’m into this inner knowing lately so I figured we have 500 of these, why not! I salted the turnips like I would potatoes, sprinkled with ground coriander, threw a cubed gala apple on top, and put them in at a very hot 400 degree oven.

About 40 minutes later I checked and they were almost done.

I grabbed a large amount of Kale and headed in. Usually we just steam the Kale and eat with a little Balsamic vinegar, but I wanted to do a little more and crown my turnips with it. I consulted the web and found an article with a woman who didn’t like Kale much; as a matter of fact she described it as scary! “Hmmmf! Enough of this, I am returning to the inner knowing!”

Turnips in the field. (right)

Don’t be afraid of Kale, it’s perfectly wonderful and so beautiful this time of year. I threw some oil in a pan with some chopped garlic and stared at my spice cabinet. "Trust the knowing, trust the knowing, trust…" I threw in a tablespoon of curry powder, ½ teaspoon of cumin, some fresh cracked pepper, ¼ teaspoon of chili powder, a dash of ground sage and hoped for the best as I stirred it into the oil. I had cut the Kale into large bite-sized pieces and as the fabulous aroma of my spice blend filled the kitchen, I tossed it in the pan with 1 cup of water. After it was steamed about half way to my liking I opted to lightly salt, throw in about 3 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar and just 2 ounces (about half one of those tiny cans) of tomato paste. I was feeling good, almost giddy in my adventure. As a matter of fact I lighted on the memory of just yesterday finding Black Eyed Susans throwing flowers at the base of their withered stalks and of the bee that came to visit me; the memories coupled with the freedom of the inner knowing were quite intoxicating.

I laid the turnip dish on the plate and piled it with Kale. When J and I sat down to eat I lost a bit of my confidence for a moment, but when we tasted it, what a delight. The flavors all blended so well! The turnips were incredible. They melted in your mouth and the occasional apple was scrumptious. I was so inspired, I wrote this blog post ... lol.

Turnips at table. Remove the skins into the

red zone to avoid bitterness. (below)

And the point to this diatribe? As we move into spring I strongly encourage you to grab its vital energy, something new for your table, and play with it. Trust your inner knowing and see what it shows you. Consider it vital to your mental condition to engage in a fresh way with your food.

Creme Brulee

Don't be intimidated!  This recipe is easy and tastes great.

2 cups 1/2 and 1/2
1/3 cup sugar
5 egg yolks (slightly beaten)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Heat 1/2 and 1/2 gently on low in a saucepan.  Be careful not to burn it. 

While you are heating your 1/2 and 1/2, in a mixing bowl add slightly beaten yolks, sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Stir with a whisk until combined.  Once your 1/2 and 1/2 is very hot (almost bubbling) you can begin to add it to the yolk mixture.  Do this in 3 parts, stirring after each addition, until your sugar is dissolved.

Skim off the foam from the mixture using a large spoon. 

Set 6 ramekins in a shallow baking dish.  Pour hot mixture into ramekins.  Make sure to leave about a 1/4 from the top empty.  Next pour VERY HOT water into the baking dish so that the water is about an inch up the sides of the ramekins.  This will help the custard not to burn and cook evenly. (If you spilled a little custard as you were pouring --as I always do-- no worries.)

The above photo is just after removing from the oven.

Bake for 50 minutes at 325.  When a knife is inserted into the custard it should come out almost clean.  Custard will continue to cook after you remove from the oven.  Remove hot ramekins from baking dish.

Chill overnight or at least 4 hours.


For Tops
Sprinkle the tops of your chilled custards (just before serving) with about a teaspoon of sugar.  Using a kitchen torch slowly melt the sugar atop the Creme Brulee.  This may sound intimidating, but once you've tried it you will see how easy it is to do.  The sugar will crystallize and harden from the flame, creating that restaurant finish.