ChezCindy: Italian-style Giardiniera Vegetables

 

Once again with my CSA, I have a variety of vegetables and way too many for immediate use.  Especially peppers.  (I need to research more ways to use peppers.)  I decided to use a mix of the vegetables to make giardiniera.  The funny face on the sliced cucumbers is just a happy bonus.

Giardiniera is Italian pickled vegetables.  The translation roughly means "from the garden".  It is a mix of vegetables preserved in a spicy seasoned vinegar.  Long preserving is shelf-stable and can stay on a shelf for a year.  This version is a quick-pickle meant to stay in the refrigerator for a few weeks.  The quick-pickle still preserves the vegetables, extending their freshness and adding great flavor.  It is just not fully sealed for long shelf life.

Traditional giardiniera includes olive oil as a marinade for the vegetables.  I like to add the olive oil after pickling and once I serve the vegetables.  The marinated vegetables are great added to sandwiches and salads or just simply on a anti-pasta plate with some crackers and cheese.  

I used sliced cucumbers, sliced pepper rings, thinly sliced carrots, spring onions and garlic, seasoned with fennel seeds.  These are common vegetables found in giardiniera.  The seasoning can be spicy hot by adding crushed red pepper flakes, or using hot peppers.  Use what you have and have fun with the added spices.  

Here is how to make Giardiniera:

Choose a variety of vegetables such as peppers, onions, carrots, green beans, or cauliflower.  Cut the vegetables into small bite-size pieces.  Add them to canning jars, such as Ball or Mason, with the proper canning lids.  The recipe below can be doubled or tripled.  

1-pound vegetables, cleaned and cut into pieces or thinly sliced

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon dried whole spices, any combination

Place the cleaned cut vegetables into the canning jars, lightly packing to fit.  Combine the remaining ingredients in a sauce pan.  Bring to a boil, dissolving the salt and sugar.  Pour the hot liquid over the vegetables to cover them completely, filling the jar to 1/2-inch from the top of the jar.  Seal the jar tightly with the lid.  Allow to cool on the counter.  Place the cooled jar in the refrigerator.  Wait 24 hours before enjoying so that the vegetables have time to pickle.  The vegetables will develop more flavor as they age.  Store in the fridge for up to one month.  

To use the Giardiniera vegetables:  

Drain the vegetables from the pickling liquid.  Place the drained vegetables into a small bowl.  Drizzle 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil over the vegetables.  Top with a sprinkling of dried Italian herbs.  Serve with sandwiches or burgers, adding the vegetables as a topping.  Or mix in with fresh lettuces for a salad.  The marinated vegetables can also be plated with cheese and crackers for a first course or anti-pasta platter.  

ChezCindy: Capellini Pasta "Omelet" with Parmesan

 

This is one of the coolest new recipes I have tried in years.  Every ingredient is cooked in the same pan, layering in one after the other.  At one point I was thinking, this cannot be right as I poured the raw whisked eggs into the super hot pan with partially cooked pasta and pasta water.  But it came together to create a delicate egg and pasta omelet, much to my pleasant surprise.  

The key to success for this recipe is using a quick-cooking pasta like capellini or angel hair that cooks in 4 minutes.  And, also using a good non-stick skillet that is oven safe up to 400 degrees.   

The recipe is from a new cookbook Cookish by Christopher Kimball of Milk Street.  The book offers recipes that are seemingly "thrown together" for quick cooking.  I like the way the book is organized, offering 3-4 different recipes using the same main ingredients, just changing up the seasoning and spices, and adding one or two additional ingredients.  I highly recommend this book for new cooks and also for experienced cooks.  It is full of fresh ideas for delicious dishes.  

Capellini Pasta Omelet

5 large eggs

2 1/2 ounces finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

pinch of fresh ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for serving

1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion

6 ounces capellini pasta or angel hair pasta

3 cups fresh baby spinach

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  

Using a large measuring cup with a pour spout, whisk together the eggs, cheese and salt/pepper.  Set aside.

Working with an oven-safe 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, add in the 2 tablespoons of oil and the finely chopped onion.  Stir frequently to keep the onions moving and from browning, cooking until softened, about 3-4 minutes.  Next, break the pasta strands in half, adding them to the pan with the onions, carefully pouring in 3 cups of water.  Stir to combine the water and pasta to keep the pasta from clumping together.  Continue to cook until most of the water has been absorbed by the pasta.  This will take several minutes.  Add in the spinach stirring to combine until the spinach is wilted.  Next, give the egg mixture a stir as it may have settled a bit.  Pour the egg mixture into the hot pan, stirring continuously to combine with the pasta, water, and spinach.  Stir until it just comes together.  Stop stirring and cook on the stovetop for about 3-4 minutes, just until the sides begin to show some browning.  Transfer the skillet to the hot oven, baking until the omelet is set, about 3-4 minutes.  Remove the skillet from the oven.  Drape a towel or hot pad over the handle to remind yourself of the hot handle, allowing the omelet to rest for 6-8 minutes.  Loosen the edges with a spatula, sliding the omelet onto a cutting board to serve.  Garnish with additional cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.  Serve hot or warm.

I like serving this with some homemade salsa or fresh garlicky tomato sauce on the side.  Excellent dish for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  

Recipe adapted from Milk Street Cookish cookbook, 2020.  

ChezCindy: Grilled Broccoli with Soy Balsamic Dressing

 

My CSA farmer, Knife & Fork Farms , has been having a good season with broccoli.  She has been adding broccoli to our CSA bags for the last 4 weeks.  And these are not tiny supermarket broccoli crowns.  She is giving us the entire broccoli plant, with leaves and all.  I've learned that the broccoli leaves are really delicious when steamed and tossed together with quinoa.  

As much as I like broccoli, I needed to find an interesting new way to cook it.  For quick cooking, I have been steaming it in the microwave as posted here.  And I love this updated broccoli salad.  For something new, I decided to try grilled broccoli.  

This grilled broccoli recipe calls for the broccoli to be tossed in a simple dressing of soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.  The broccoli is placed in a grill basket and grilled over high heat for 12-15 minutes.  The dressing imparts an interesting flavor, almost Asian because of the soy sauce but not quite.  The seasoned broccoli would pair nicely with a grilled skirt steak and a side of steamed rice.  

1 or 2 large heads of broccoli, about 2 pounds

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided

Prepare a fire in your grill or set a gas grill to high.

Cut the broccoli heads into long pieces slicing through the stalk.  Set aside.  

In a large bowl, whisk together the soy sauce and the balsamic vinegar.  Drizzle in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, whisking vigorously.   Add the broccoli, using your hands to toss and coat evenly.  Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.  

Place a large grill basket, or 2 small, onto the hot grill.  Add the broccoli, in one layer as possible.  Grill for 6-7 minutes.  Using tongs, turn or toss the broccoli for even cooking.  Continue grilling and tossing for 6-8 additional minutes until the broccoli tips are crisp and browned, and the stalks are tender.  

Transfer the cooked broccoli to a serving platter, drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining kosher salt.  Serve hot or warm. 

Recipe adapted from New York Times Food

ChezCindy: Chocolate Brownie Buttons

 

The more than half missing brownie buttons shown in the photograph above is evidence of how delicious they are.  I made a tray of 24 "buttons" allowing them to cool before finishing.  I was elsewhere in the house when my chocolate-loving husband came up to me offering confession.  He stated that I might be alarmed by how many brownie buttons were gone from the cooling tray.  This is what I found, 14 of 24 eaten!  I was not alarmed, but simply amused.  

Good thing this recipe is easy and comes together quickly.  The recipe is from a Dorie Greenspan cookbook titled Baking From My Home to Yours.  The book offers great recipes and insight for every home baker.  It has beautiful photos of the baked items and is clearly written with tips for success.  

The brownie buttons are a rich "one-bite" sweet treat.  They are quite good on their own, but I like to top them with melted chocolate to take them up to the next level. 

Brownie Buttons

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

pinch of fine sea salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

2 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, 60% dark, chopped

1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg, room temperature

Chocolate Glaze

2 ounces white or dark chocolate, chopped

Working with a mini muffin pan with 24 wells, line each well with a mini muffin paper liner.  Set tray aside.

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter, chocolate, and brown sugar over low heat, stirring frequently to combine.  When the mixture is smooth and melted, remove the pan from the heat to cool for a few minutes.  

In a small bowl, combine the flour and the salt, stirring together.  

When the chocolate mixture is cool, stir in the vanilla.  Crack the egg into a separate small bowl.  Using a fork, lightly beat the egg.  Add the egg to the chocolate mixture, stirring until well blended.  Add in the flour, stirring until it is incorporated.  The batter will be smooth and glossy.  

Using 2 small spoons, spoon the chocolate batter into each paper-lined well.  Fill each well with 1 teaspoon of batter.  It will not look like much in each well, but you will have enough to fill 24 mini wells.  Place the tray into the preheated oven, baking for 12 minutes.  Remove the tray from the oven.  Cool for 20 minutes.  

Optional chocolate glaze:

Working with a small heat-proof bowl, place the chocolate into the bowl.  Place in the microwave.  Heat for 11 seconds, stirring after each time, until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  This will take several times to melt the chocolate.  When the brownie buttons are cool, use a small spoon to fill a bit of melted chocolate on to each brownie.  Top the melted chocolate with finely chopped nuts or rainbow sprinkles if desired.  Allow to the chocolate to cool and set up.  

ChezCindy: Crave-worthy Strawberry Drop Biscuits

 

I now consider myself to be a biscuit maker.  I have been baking since I was 8 or 10 years old, and I am only now finally able to make a tender biscuit worthy of craving.  

We were not a family that made biscuits for dinner or breakfast.  At Thanksgiving, we would pop open the can of ready-made biscuits.  In my adult years, I have tried many biscuit recipes, always using electric mixing tools thinking I was smarter than the recipe stating to mix by hand.  The biscuits were dense and tough, barely edible.  

This past year I have been taking virtual baking classes.  Sometimes the classes are just a confirmation that, yep, I already make that and it is great.  But most often I learn something new, even if it is just a small nugget of information.  The classes have been fun and something to look forward to every Monday night.  

One of the baking classes taught was biscuit making.  The instructors were real biscuit making folks from the South.  People who grew up with generations of biscuit making.  Passing down the skill from grandmother to mother to grandchild to great-grandchild.  So I watched with great interest.  No one used electric mixing tools.  Just relaxed time and patience, mixing everything with their fingertips.  As soon as the class ended, I was eagerly excited to try their recipe and process.  

I learned that making biscuits is all in the feel and touch of working the butter into the flour with your fingertips.  It is soft and gentle, kind of like an easy snapping of your fingers while immersed in flour and butter.  It is soothing, relaxing, and not hurried.  Once the butter is worked into the flour, you continue using your fingers to mix in the cream or buttermilk.  This is where it gets really messy, but it is right.

Key to successful biscuit making is to have all of your ingredients ready before you start mixing.  Because once you start, your fingers are covered in biscuit dough.  Stopping to measure out the buttermilk or to line the pan with parchment paper is a bit of a problem with doughy fingers.  Read the recipe, have the ingredients measured, the baking tray in place, and the oven pre-heated.  

This biscuit recipe is an easy one to begin with.  It is a drop biscuit, so there is no rolling out the dough, no cutting and shaping the biscuits.  You could make the biscuits without the strawberries and they will be delicious as such.  The addition of fruit is something nice to add if you have berries on hand.  Or you could add in shredded cheddar cheese for a savory biscuit.  That would be quite nice.  Try it once as is, and then make it your own.  

Strawberry Drop Biscuits

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

6 tablespoons cold salted butter*

4 large strawberries

5 tablespoons heavy cream

1/4 cup cold water

extra cream for brushing on the biscuits

turbinado sugar to top the sweet biscuits

Makes 6 large biscuits

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.  

Cut the cold butter into small pieces.  I like to start with a stick of butter, cutting out 6 tablespoons, (setting the remaining 2 tablespoons aside for serving).  Then cut each of the 6 tablespoons into 9 tiny pieces. 

Cut the berries into small pieces, roughly 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch, setting these onto a paper towel to absorb some of the excess liquid.  

Measure out the cream, and the cold water.

  

Working with a large mixing bowl,  add in the flour, sugar and baking powder.  Using your fingers, mix the ingredients to combine.  Add in the tiny cut pieces of butter, tossing them to coat with the flour mixture.  Begin working in the butter by using your fingertips to "snap" or rub the butter to combine it with the flour.  This will take 5-8 minutes.  The butter will no longer look like tiny cubes of butter, but will be mostly combined with the flour.  It should look somewhat crumbly.  Add in the diced berries, tossing them gently to coat with the flour/butter mixture.  

Make a well in the center of the mixture.  Pour in 4 tablespoons of the cream, reserving 1 for additional use if needed.  This is where it gets really messy.  With your fingers, mix the flour with the cream to create a shaggy dough.  Add in the 1/4 cup of cold water, mixing to gently combine.  The dough should be wet but not gloppy.  Add in the additional tablespoon of cream if the dough is still a bit dry.  This is the judgement part of making biscuits.  The dough should be held together with no dryness of the flour bits.  Stop mixing.  

Using a 1/3 cup measure, spray the cup with oil.  This will help the biscuit dough to slip out of the measuring cup.  Scoop the dough into the measuring cup, drop the biscuit onto the lined sheet pan.  Repeat with the remaining dough to form 6 large biscuits.  Using a pastry brush, gently brush the tops with additional cream.  Sprinkle a bit of sugar (turbinado raw sugar if you have it) onto the tops of each biscuit.  

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-16 minutes until deep golden brown.  Remove from the oven, cool on the sheet tray for about 5 minutes so the biscuits are fully set.  Serve warm with butter and honey if desired.  

* If using unsalted butter, add in 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt

ChezCindy: Asparagus Soup with Goat Cheese Toasts

The farmers markets are rich with asparagus and I have been fortunate to have gorgeous asparagus included in my CSA produce bag for the last 2 weeks.  Supermarket asparagus is fine.  But fresh local is heaven.  I generally roast or lightly sauté my asparagus with olive oil and a bit of salt.  Simple and delicious.  If you care to venture into the world of soup this is a delightful recipe representing the goodness of springtime vegetables.  The recipe is versatile in that you could replace the asparagus with other vegetables such as squash or broccoli. 

Spring Asparagus Soup

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons oil

1 cup onion, chopped

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided 

1 cup of Yukon gold or russet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 pound fresh asparagus

3 cups chicken stock, unsalted

3 tablespoons frozen peas

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Working with a soup pot over medium heat, melt the butter with the oil, swirling to combine.  Add in the chopped onions and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Cook the onions for about 5 minutes until softened, but not adding any color.  Add in the chopped potatoes, stirring to combine, cooking for another 5 minutes until the potatoes begin to soften, stirring occasionally to keep the potatoes from sticking to the bottom of the pan.  For the asparagus, remove the bottom woody part of the asparagus stems discarding that bit, cutting the remaining stalk into 2-inch pieces.  Add the cut asparagus to the soup pan, stirring to combine.  Add in the chicken stock, bringing to a boil.  Reduce the heat and cover the pan, cooking until the vegetables are soft and tender, about 15-20 minutes.  Turn off the heat and allow the soup contents to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.  

Using a blender, add the now slightly cooled soup contents to the blender, pureeing the until smooth.  Add in the frozen peas, continue pureeing until all is combined.  The peas will enhance the green color of the soup.   Taste the soup for seasoning adding in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon as needed.  Add in the fresh lemon juice with one last blend to combine.  Serve the soup hot with a swirl of sour cream and with a slice of toasted bread topped with soften goat cheese.

ChezCindy: Sumac Dusted Sweet Potatoes

 

Sumac is a spice associated with Middle Eastern cooking recipes.  It derives from tiny red berries, dried and crushed into a powder to add a citrusy bright flavor to foods, usually sprinkled on right before serving.  I love it paired with sweet potatoes, using just enough to wake up the sweetness adding a hint of bright lemon flavor.  It is also delicious sprinkled over cooked fish as a finishing spice to add a pop of color, especially on a white fish such as tilapia or cod.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of chopped herbs for a simple and stunning fish dish.  

This sweet potato recipe is more of a process than a recipe.  I sliced the potatoes with my Spiralizer, but you can slice with a mandolin or just use a knife to cut thin slices.  Using a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, add a tablespoon of oil, then place in the sliced potatoes in a single layer.  Sprinkle a pinch of salt evenly over the potatoes.  Cover and let them cook undisturbed for about 7-8 minutes.  Carefully remove the cover, flip over the slices to cook uncovered on side 2 until cooked through, about 3-4 additional minutes.  Cutting the potatoes very thinly allows for quick cooking.  If you want the potatoes to be more browned, allow to cook longer until your reach the desired color.  Remove the potatoes from the pan to a serving plate.  Sprinkle with a small amount of sumac seasoning.  Serve hot or warm.  Keep any left-over potatoes as a snack or added to a green salad.