Clarissa Makes Applesauce?!?!

Anyone who know me well knows the one food I HATE more than anything is cooked apples. Just the thought alone sends shivers down my spine. Apple sauce, apple pie, baked apples, ugh. My husband says this makes me un-American. 

So here's the dilemma. We have a million pounds of apples from our farm share. We have shared them with family and friends but there are still too many left behind. So for Calvin, because I love him, I am making him some homemade apple sauce. I hope it's good, because lord knows I will not be trying this one myself.

Applesauce

18 apples

1 lemon 

1 cup of water

1 heaping teaspoon of cinnamon

pinch of salt 

1/4 cup of Agave (or sugar is fine too)  

Place the juice of one lemon and a cup of water in a pot.  Peel and chop the apples. 

This is clearly the most annoying part...

 

Place the chopped apples in the pot. 

Add cinnamon, a pinch of salt, agave and stir. 

Place on medium high heat and bring to a boil. 

Then turn the heat down and let the mixture summer for about 20 minutes. Blend with a hand blender, food processor or food mill. Let the applesauce cool before storing. 

Roasted Tomatillo and Tomato Salsa

Our farm share this week was an end-of-summer treat. We ended up with a ton of tomatillos and tomatoes. So today's experiment is a roasted salsa. By roasting the heck out of all the ingredients they'll reach their full, sweet potential (and the smell coming from the oven is pretty delightful too). 

Roasted Salsa

tomatillos

tomatoes 

jalapeño

onion

2 garlic cloves 

lemon or lime juice 

cilantro

salt and pepper 

Preheat the broiler on high and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

How pretty does that look?

First husk and wash the tomatillos (they can be sticky). Cut and quarter the tomatoes and tomatillos. Dice one onion. Smash 2 cloves of garlic and add to the pan. Quarter a jalapeño (I removed the seeds and ribs for less heat but you can add them in if you like it hot). Drizzle with olive oil and generously salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until charred. 

Let the vegetables cool for a bit before adding them to a food processor. Add the juice of a lemon or lime and a big handful of cilantro. Purée until you get the texture you like. You can always add water for a thinner salsa if you prefer. Taste for salt and pepper. Store in a jar and enjoy!  

Sunday Dinner

Calvin and I were talking on the train about traditions we want for our family and one of the things we both said was Sunday dinner. On this particular Sunday, Calvin is stuck at work all day so I thought I'd treat him to a Sunday dinner when he gets back. Today I'm making Moroccan inspired chicken in the slow cooker. It can hang out for a few hours and make the house smell divine for when Calvin gets home. 

Being the deadbeat that I am and not wanting to go grocery shopping, I may have substituted some ingredients on the list below.  In a perfect world, I would be making the recipe I am posting.  But in my not so perfect world, well, f that.  So I used chicken drumsticks, no apricots, no cilantro (I used some mint and scallions instead) and everything turned out okay.  No one was hurt and life went on. 

Moroccan Inspired Chicken 

Bone in chicken thighs

1 Onion

1/2 a cup of Greek olives 

Chopped tomatoes (most recipes call for chicken stock instead, but I like using tomatoes) 

1/2 a cup of dried apricots

Parsley 

Cilantro 

1 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 a teaspoon of coriander 

1 teaspoon of turmeric (less for flavor and more because I've been reading all about its anti-inflammatory magical powers)

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of cayenne

1/2 a teaspoon of ginger
1 bay leaf

Salt

Pepper

Combine the chicken thighs with the onion, cumin, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, cayenne and turmeric and season with salt and pepper.  Add the tomatoes and a bay leaf and cover and cook on high for 2 hours. 

Stir in olives and apricots (you can add chickpeas, but somehow I didn't have those either).  Cook for another hour.

Serve over rice, quinoa or couscous.  You can sprinkle some toasted almonds on or garnish with fresh herbs and a little lemon juice. 

Fruit Leather

I had my first recipe request from my friend Dierdre.  Last year I made a lot of fruit leather, yet somehow I kind of forgot about it until Dierdre mentioned it.  Our last delivery from the CSA was filled with plums (too many plums for Calvin and I to eat) and so plum fruit leather is about to happen.  I think I am also going to throw in some blueberries before they go bad.  I have also made fruit leather with apples and cinnamon, pears and cilantro, strawberry and mint and some others that I can't remember at the moment. But today, its all about plums.  

Plum and Blueberry Fruit Leather
plums (I had enough to fill a baking sheet)
blueberries
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/4 cup of sugar (I have also used agave or honey in the past or nothing at all if the fruit is extra sweet)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice the plums in half, remove their pits and place on a baking sheet.  Bake for about 15 minutes.

Put the plums, blueberries and lemon juice into a food processor (you can use a blender if you don't have one) until a smooth puree forms.  Add sugar and puree again.  

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pour the mixture on in an even layer. 

Make sure you use an oversized piece of parchment paper so that your fruit leather doesn't stick to the side of your baking sheet.

Let the fruit dry out in the oven for as long as it takes to form fruit leather.  If your oven has a low setting, you can put it on 140 degrees.  My oven's lowest setting is 170, so I periodically turn the oven on and off while the fruit leather dries out.  This process can take a long time, so feel free to just leave it in a cool oven and let it hang out all day and over night if it needs to dry out more.  The batch I made today was pretty thick, so I let it dry out for 2 days.

Once the fruit leather is done (it should feel tacky but not sticky) you can start to cut it.  I roll it up in the parchment paper and cut it into 1 inch strips using a scissor or a pizza cutter.  Store in a ziploc bag!

Baby Ganoush: Baba Ganoush made with baby eggplant. So cheesy right?

I have always loved eggplant, so when Calvin brought home a million little purple beauties from our CSA I was thrilled. So today I am making baba ganoush, a creamy, decadent, eggplant dip that is a major crowd pleaser and yet really simple and easy.

Baba Ganoush
20 baby eggplants or 2 large eggplants
1/4 cup of tahini (use more or less on your taste preference)
juice of half a lemon
olive oil
4 cloves of roasted garlic (I prefer to use roasted garlic over raw garlic.  If you use raw garlic, use 1 clove instead)
1 teaspoon of cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Before

After.  They aren't so cute anymore.

Prick the eggplant with a fork and roast in a 375 degree oven until nice and soft (you can use the same technique when using a large eggplant).  Let the eggplant cool, and cut open to scrape the meat of the eggplant away from the skin.  Put the eggplant in the food processor.  Add tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, parsley, salt and pepper.  While the food processor is running, drizzle in olive oil until you get a creamy consistency.

Peeling these babies was a labor of love (and plenty of skin ended up in the food processor).  I suggest using a larger eggplant to make life easier.  Just cut them in half and scrape with a fork.

Serve with sliced cucumber, radishes, pita, chips or anything else you have on hand. 

I was saving this for Calvin, but it may not last that long.

No Noodle Lasagna

Lately, all I want to eat is cheese.  Great idea, right?  Not really.  So I needed a way to satisfy that craving without the guilt.  Last week from our farm-share, we got enough zucchinis to feed a small army, so I decided to make a zucchini lasagna.  I have had enough cheese lately, so I am going to make a cashew cheese to satisfy this craving.  To be honest, this is the first time I am making this dish with zucchini.  Normally, I use eggplant (which is DELICIOUS, and ends up being a cross between lasagna and eggplant parm, without the parm).  If you decide to use eggplant, just bake the slices of eggplant first for about 10 minutes.  Fingers crossed this all turns out alright...

Cashew Cheese

1 and 1/2 cups raw cashews

1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

Water

First, soak the raw cashews in water for approximately 3 hours. Drain the water and put into a food processor with lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper.  Start to run the food processor and drizzle in water through the feed tube.  Do this slowly, stopping to check if the consistency is to your liking (think ricotta, not cashew soup).  I use this all the time in recipes instead of cheese.  You'd be amazed how good it is!

I like to stock up on raw cashews at Trader Joe's and store them in the freezer.

No Noodle Lasagna

4 small zucchinis or 3 large

Cashew cheese

Tomato sauce (I made my own, but feel free to use a jar to make life even easier.  For the recipe, check out my Pizza Party post).

1 egg

Pre heat the oven to 325.  Slice the zucchini thinly (I did not cut them as thinly as I should have), sprinkle with salt and set aside on paper towels to drain.

To assemble the lasagna, start by putting a little sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. (Please ignore the dish I am using. Normally I would be using a square baking dish, but we cooked for friends and lost our dish forever.  Ever heard of a round lasagna? Me neither.  This is gonna be weird.) 

Next, put a layer of zucchini slices.  Then add a layer of cashew cheese.  Repeat this pattern, sauce, zucchini, cheese, until you reach the top (make sauce your final layer).  Cover with foil and bake for about 45 minutes.  Remove the foil and, this may sound strange, but pour a lightly beaten egg over the top and bake for about ten minutes more.  This egg is going to give the illusion of a cheesy layer and will taste delicious, and somehow not eggy at all.  If this seems too odd for you, then skip it. But if you do skip this step, then I will judge you for being small minded and ridiculous.  Okay that's not true, but just try it.

Let the lasagna sit for a few minutes before cutting into it and serve with a simple salad.  

Fish Cake Friday (except it's Sunday, but Friday sounds better)

It's Sunday and my mom is coming to NYC for a visit.  I thought I would make us some lunch before we go out on the town.  I decided to make a favorite in our house, fish cakes.  For today's recipe I am using tilapia.  Tilapia is incredibly mild, so this preparation adds lots of flavor to the fish.  They are simple and can be prepared ahead of time, which is always great when you have guests.  I am serving this with some (leftover) cabbage slaw.

Fish Cakes
4 Tilapia filets
1 egg
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
1 heaping tablespoon of mustard (I use whole grain mustard, but any dijon or spicy mustard would work too)
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/3 cup bread crumbs*
Salt
Pepper
(If I had parsley, I would chop some up and throw it in here too, but I don't, so I won't)

*I make my own "lazy" bread crumbs.  All I do is toast Udi's gluten-free bread, and let the food processor do the work. 

      

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Place the tilapia on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake (with nothing on it) for about 10 minutes, or until the tilapia flakes easily with a fork. Once the tilapia is done, remove it from the oven and set aside to cool.  

In a large bowl combine the egg (lightly whisked), mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Once the fish is slightly cooled throw it in the bowl and use a fork to flake the tilapia. Mix all of the ingredients together and add the bread crumbs.  If the mixture seems too wet, add a bit more bread crumbs.  If the mixture seems too dry, then add some more mayonnaise.  

Now comes the fun part.  Get your hands dirty and start to form the fish cakes.  If you are unsure of the size, use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to keep your cakes uniform.  Once you have formed the cakes into the shape you like, place them on a plate.  Cover the plate with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, but up to several hours (this will help your cakes stay together when you cook them).

When you are ready to cook, preheat a large pan with enough coconut oil to coat the bottom.  Once the oil is hot (medium/high heat), place the cakes into the oil (I do this about 4 at a time, so you have to do it in batches).  Let the cakes cook for about 3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown.  Cook them on the other side to achieve the same color.  Remove and drain on a paper towel (if your oil is nice and hot these fish cakes will not be oily at all, if they are too oily then you need to turn up the heat).  

When ready to serve, drizzle some lemon juice over the fish cakes and give them an extra pinch of salt.      

What to do with all those vegetables...

It's delivery day for our CSA again, and this week we didn't put all of those delightful veggies to use.  Before Calvin comes home with a new boatload of produce, I though I better use up what we already have.  

One of my favorite things to do with leftover vegetables is to make stock.  I often just make veggie stock, but today, I am making chicken stock.  Last week we had a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.  When we finished it, I took the carcass and froze it for just such an occasion as this.  Stock couldn't be easier, and you really can make it with anything you have on hand.  So when you have wilted celery or a bag of baby carrots looking all sad, throw them in a pot of water instead of throwing them away.  Trust me, homemade stock is easy, cheap and tastes way better then the store bought stuff.

Here's what is in my stock today...

Chicken Stock
3 onions
1 head of garlic (sliced in half, I don't even peel it)
5 carrots
2 celery sticks
1 chicken carcass 
2 green peppers 
Cilantro
Whole peppercorns
Kosher salt
2 bay leaves
(There may be a vegetable I forgot, but you get the idea).

Put all of the ingredients in a large pot of water.  There is no need to chop the vegetables uniformly or carefully since they are all going to get drained out anyway.  Bring the water up to a boil and then turn down the heat.  Let simmer on low for at least 2 hours, but feel free to cook for longer if you have the time.  

Let the stock cool off and skim any fat that has risen to the top before straining out all of the ingredients.  Then place in the fridge.  Once it has been refrigerated you can remove any remaining fat from the top. With veggie stock, you can skip all this skimming nonsense. 

One for the fridge and one for the freezer.

Stock has a million uses beyond soup.  Today's CSA bounty includes collard greens so I am gonna cook them using this stock. I use my homemade stock to make quinoa or rice taste better.  I love using it to make risotto.  I do of course use it for soup too and butternut squash soup is one of my favorites or white bean and kale soup is a nice easy dinner.  Keep it the fridge, or feel free to freeze it for a rainy day.  

Not Your Average Fried Zucchini

Being a part of a farm share means finding a variety of ways to cook the same vegetables when you get a lot of them.  With so many zucchinis, I decided to try something I have never made before... fried zucchini. I breaded them with gluten-free bread crumbs and parmesan cheese and fried them in coconut oil. Although they were messy, they were really delicious.  For this particular dinner they were accompanied by a cabbage, scallion and cilantro slaw and baked dover sole with lemon.   

Fried Zucchini
3 small zucchinis 
1 cup of parmesan cheese
1 cup of bread crumbs*
2 eggs
Coconut oil
Salt and Pepper

*For this recipe I made my own gluten-free bread crumbs and also grated a chunk of parmesan in the food processor.  You can use any bread crumbs you have on hand, including Panko, and pre-grated parmesan will work just fine!

Slice the zucchini into 1/2 inch discs.  Combine parmesan and bread crumbs in one bowl.  In another bowl, gently whisk the eggs.  

In a large non-stick pan, heat enough coconut oil to coat the bottom.  (Let this get nice and hot before adding any zucchini). Once the coconut oil is hot, turn the temperature down to medium.

Dip each zucchini disc in egg and then in the bread crumb mixture, being sure to coat both sides.  Set aside on a plate and continue.  

Fry each disc for about 2-3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.  (Be sure not to over crowd the pan).  Drain on a paper towel, sprinkle with salt and enjoy!  

WTF is for dinner?!

When Calvin left for work this morning I told him that I would make dinner.  When he came home I had nothing.  Nothing cooking, nothing planned and no clue what to do.  

The fastest thing I could think of was pesto, until I realized that we had a tiny bit of basil.  So I thought about what other green vegetables we had, which wasn't much.  Until I found the frozen peas and frozen spinach.  Sounds weird right?  I promise, it's good.  I am a firm believer that pesto can be made with almost anything (any vegetable, any herb, any nut).   You can make it with cheese or without.  You can even make it without olive oil if you want.  On this particular day, here is what I made it with.

I Got Nothin' Pesto

Handful of frozen peas

Handful of frozen spinach

Handful of Parmesan cheese
Small handful of Pine nuts 

(there was extremely precise measuring involved for this)

Pinch of salt and pepper

The juice of 1/2 a lemon
Olive Oil (about 3 tablespoons)

Water (about 1/4 cup)

Add olive oil and or water until you have a nice, thick, saucy consistency.

First I threw in some big chunks of parmesan into the food processor.  Then I threw in all of the other ingredients, except the oil and water.  I mixed those until everything was well combined.  I slowly drizzled in olive oil to loosen the mixture (I would guess I used about 3 tablespoons). And then to save on calories, I switched to water. 

On this night I used the pesto on Bionaturae Gluten Free Fusilli. It's our favorite gluten free pasta and has an amazing texture. Once the pasta was cooked, I drained it and put it back on the stove on low heat and poured the pesto over until all of the pasta was coated.  You can use this on any pasta, on chicken, on seafood or even on grilled vegetables.  And trust me, you can make pesto with just about anything in your pantry!