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!  

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.

Quick Pickle

It is hard to explain how much I LOVE pickles.  I also love quick, simple recipes and here is one of them.  There are certainly a ton of more complex ways to pickle vegetables, but this is too fast and easy to pass up.  These pickles won't keep forever, but they will last for about 2 weeks in the fridge.  You can use this technique with any and every vegetable you have and really any variety of spices you may like.  It is a great use of all of our CSA vegetables.  I also love to use them as a homemade accoutrement to a Bloody Mary bar.  Yum. 

Pickled White String Beans

white string beans

white vinegar

water

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 tablespoon mustard seed

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

First blanch the string beans in bowling water for about three minutes.  Shock them in ice water to stop the cooking.  Once cool, place the string beans in a mason jar.  

I may have forgotten this step, which is why there are peppercorns and red pepper flakes floating around.  Oops.  

Add the spices and salt.  Then fill the jar halfway with vinegar and fill the rest with water.  Shake it up and put in the fridge.  They will be at their peak pickle in three to five days.  

Pickled Radish

radishes

vinegar

water

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 tablespoon mustard seed

Cut the radishes in half and add them to a mason jar. Add the spices and salt.  Then fill the jar halfway with vinegar and fill the rest with water.  Shake it up and put in the fridge.  They will be at their peak pickle in three to five days.  

Pure Food and Wine, at Home

Pure Food and Wine (http://oneluckyduck.com/pages/pure-food-and-wine)is one of my all time favorite NYC spots.  They are a raw and vegan restaurant.  Now I know that immediately may turn some of you off, but trust me, it is amazing.  My favorite dish there is their "lasagna", and so I thought I would share how to do it at home.  While I can't take credit for the recipe, which I will share, I will say that it is one of my favorite summer meals. Not turning on the oven in the summer is a dream.  The other great part about this recipe is that all the steps can be made well in advance.  I have even assembled the lasagna, without the garnish, ahead of time.  This makes it a great dish for entertaining and one that will certainly impress your company.  

Here is the link the recipe:
http://nymag.com/restaurants/articles/recipes/zucchini_lemonpignoli.htm

The one thing about the recipe that I change, is the Pine-nut "Ricotta".  Instead of this, I make Cashew Cheese.  It has a creamy consistency like ricotta and the cashews are way cheaper than pine nuts.  

Cashew Cheese

1 cup Raw cashews

1 tablespoons 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!