This Weeks Drop Off Dinners– November 13, 2013

On Wednesdays we cook and drop off food for a handful of families. Todays Menu– Grilled Brussel Sprouts with Pickled Ginger, Egg Salad with Celery, Chanterelle and Black Rice, White Beans and Baby Beets, Green and Red Tomatoes with Leeks, Wood Grilled Rockfish with Sorrel and Lemon, Oatmeal Sunflower Bread, Chocolate Pudding, Tiny Chocolate Chocolate Drop Cookies Breakfast: Brown Rice Pudding with Golden Raisin and Pistachio, Ginger Fig Bran Muffin

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Wedding at 1508

Last Saturday and dear friend got married in our library with about 20 friends and family in attendance.  After the brief ceremony we passed food, refilled cocktails and then sat down to a multi-course dinner which included chanterelles, truffles from Burgundy and of course chocolate wedding cake.  Joyful celebration! IMG_6760

Last Dahlias of the Season

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Last Friday JT who works with me spent a few hours driving to pick up the last 25 stems of A la Mode Dahlias for the year.  Just one stem of these creamy beauties in a centerpiece makes a huge impact.  I judiciously spread the blooms between my two weddings last Saturday.  Lucky for me Kate Headley stopped by with her camera around the same time  JT returned with the flowers.  Check out  Kate's blog to see the rest of the images.

It has been an amazing dahlia season.  I have been fortunate to get my hands on hundreds of dinner plate dahlias (the really really big ones) from local growers Andrea of LynnVale Studios and Don of Don's Dahlias.  My remorse about the end of dahlia season should be somewhat relieved tomorrow when I get the first coral peonies of the season from Chile and white anemones with black centers from upstate New York.

Heart Healthy Class with Davina Sandground

01SidracookbookPhoto Erik Johnson Davina and I did another nutrition workshop on Friday.  The format was a bit different than previous classes.  Previously we have done a cooking demonstration in conjunction with a lecture– this time Davina gave an eloquent and informative talk about heart health exposing common beliefs about cholesterol as myths and  explaining the importance of including and excluding certain foods in your diet for a healthy heart.  We prepared a lunch filled with heart healthy foods.

We are doing another session of the class again on Saturday November 16– Let me know if you would like to join.

LUNCH- recipes below

Starters: Beet and Celery Juice, Pomegranate and Quinoa Salad with Curly Parsley, Roasted Sweet Potato with Avocado and Chive, Sardine on Walnut Cracker with Lemon and Flat Leaf Parsley, Roasted Broccoli and Shallot

Main: Wild Salmon with Kidney Beans, Basil, Spinach, Black Rice and Sorrel

Dessert: Banana Cake with Chocolate Ganache, Coconut Cream, Walnuts and Almonds

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Recipes

STARTERS

Beet and Celery Juice (about 1/4 beet to 3/4 celery)

Pomegranate and Quinoa Salad (2 cups pomegranate, seeds from 1 pomegranate, 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste)

Roasted Sweet Potato with Avocado and Chive (Heat oven to 375 degrees, slice sweet potatoes into rounds 1/8" thick and season with grape seed oil, salt and pepper.  Place potato on a sheet tray and roast until tender, approximately 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and serve topped with a small slice of avocado and chopped chives)

Sardine on Walnut Cracker with Lemon and Parsley (Cracker: 1 cup finely pureed walnut, 1/2 teaspoon yeast fresh or dried dissolved in 3 tablespoons water,  1/2 teaspoon salt, pinch of sugar, 1/3 cup spelt flour– combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead until thoroughly incorporated. Place dough on a piece of parchment paper and roll till paper thin.  Bake in a 350 degree oven until golden brown.  Once cool break crackers into sardine sized pieces. Sardines: Season with salt and pepper.  Heat a heavy bottom skillet over high heat.  Lightly coat the pan with grape seed oil.  Place sardines in the hot skillet and cook until skin is crispy, approximately 2 minutes.  turn sardines over and cook until the other side is crispy approximately 2 more minutes.  squeeze a little lemon on top, finish with chopped parsley and place on a cracker)

Roasted Broccoli with Shallots (Peel shallots to remove skin.  Coat with grapeseed oil and roast in a 375 oven until tender and browned.  Cut broccoli into small florets, remove the stalk, peel stalks and cut into rounds about 1/4 inch thick.  Season broccoli with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in 375 degree oven until tender and the edges are slightly browned.)

MAIN

Wild Salmon with Three Beans, Spinach and Black Rice

Salmon:  wild salmon, grapeseed oil, salt and pepper

Pat the fish dry with a paper towel and then score the fish skin.  Do this by making a row of x's across the skin being careful not to cut into the flesh.  This will ensure that the fish will not curl up and will cook evenly.  Season the fish with salt and pepper.  Heat a heavy bottom skillet over high heat and add enough grape seed oil to just coat the bottom of the pan.  Place the salmon skin side down and cook until the skin is crispy and brown, approximately three minutes.  Flip the fish and cook the other side and cook for approximately three additional minutes.  Take care not to overcook!  The fish should still be pink in the middle.  Also remember that the fish will continue cooking a bit even after you remove it from the heat.

Three Beans:  tomato, olive oil, salt, pepper, beans, basil

We used kidney beans, red lentils, giant white lima beans and local tomatoes.  If using a variety of beans you must cook each individually since they each cook for a different amount of time.  A quicker version would be to use BPA free canned beans and tomatoes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Cut tomatoes in half and season with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Place cut side down on a sheet tray and cook until skin becomes loose from the tomatoes.  Remove from oven, let cool and remove the skin.  In a large bowl mix the beans, tomatoes and add fresh basil. Add additional olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.  This can be reheated but is also delicious at room temperature.

Black Rice: forbidden black rice, water, salt, pepper

In a heavy bottom pot with a tight fitting lid add 1 cup black rice and 1 3/4 cups water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 45 minutes.  Turn off heat but leave lid on for an additional 10 minutes.  Fluff rice with a fork and season with salt and pepper.

Spinach with Roasted Garlic: garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, spinach

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Separate the whole heads of garlic into individual cloves leaving the papery covering intact.  Lightly coat the garlic with olive oil and place in oven until the cloves are soft to the touch, approximately 15 minutes.  Remove the garlic from the oven, let cool and remove the skin.  Look for a sprout running through the clove, cut the clove in half lengthwise and remove the sprout with your fingers or a small knife.  Some garlic will not have a visible sprout so this last step may not be necessary.  Roughly chop garlic.

Place spinach on a sheet tray and season with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Mix with your hands and incorporate the chopped garlic.  Place in oven for approximately two minutes.  Remove when the spinach around the edges of the pan is cooked.  Stir the spinach thoroughly.  The heat from the spinach that is cooked will cook the remaining spinach on the pan.

DESSERT

Banana Cake with Chocolate Ganache, Nuts and Coconut Cream

Banana Cake:  2 ripe bananas pureed in a food processor, 1/4 cup whole grain flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil, 2 tablespoons water

Combine all ingredients until just thoroughly incorporated, take care not to over mix.  Cook in individual silicon molds or in cupcake pans.  For the class I served very small portions- yielding approximately 12 individual cakes from this recipe.  Bake in a 350 degree oven until a toothpick tests clean.  This will take approximately 10-20 minutes depending on the size of the individual cakes.

Chocolate Ganache: 1/4 cup almond milk, 4 ounces 87% dark chocolate cut into small pieces,  1 tablespoon maple syrup

In a small pot bring almond milk to a boil.  Turn off heat and mix in chocolate and maple syrup.  If made in advance store in the refrigerator and reheat over a water bath when ready to use.

Coconut Cream: 1 can coconut milk, inside of two vanilla beans

Refrigerate can of coconut milk for at least a couple hours.  Open can without turning it over.  With a spoon scoop the top thick part of the coconut milk into a bowl and discard the watery part on the bottom.  To remove seeds from a vanilla bean using kitchen tongs run the bean through the flame from your stove several times.  Place bean on a cutting board and with a sharp knife gently split bean from top to bottom.  With the sharp knife scrape the inside of the bean to remove the seeds.  Thoroughly combine the coconut and the vanilla.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Walnuts and Almonds: roughly chop

To assemble: Top cooled cakes with ganache and sprinkle with chopped nuts and serve with coconut cream.

Scouting for Dinner in the Field

IMG_0774 IMG_0744 IMG_0741 IMG_0729 We have been talking to Andrea from LynnVale Studios for awhile about doing a dinner in the field at her breathtaking farm.  Our first food/flower collaboration will be in conjunction with an upcoming sold out Little Flower School Class.  Before the first dinner we are already anticipating events in the future.  We visited the farm yesterday to scout and decided if the weather cooperates we will set the table in a walkway between dahlia beds, which will be in full bloom by the dinner date– mid September.

Fresh New Garlic

new garlic First week of the season for Path Valley Cooperative new garlic.  This is mature just harvested garlic– slightly sweeter, moister almost creamy when roasted and milder.  I find that you can use nearly twice as much as stronger garlic that has been dried for storage.  New garlic should be available right now at your farmers market.

Urban Land Maps, Food Production on Vacant City Lots

Early-Bird-Farm 596 Acres is an organization in New York City that builds online tools to identify and facilitate community access to vacant public land.  The result–– 16 new community gardens and urban agriculture projects in Brooklyn.

Is there an empty lot in your life that you'd like to know more about? Tell us about it and we'll look into it!

596 Acres maps are being afixed to vacant public lots throughout the borough and made available at select locations. If you have a suggestion for where maps should be made available, let us know.

Are you working on getting access to a vacant public lot? We can help. Contact us and let us know what you are doing.

They are involved in partnerships with similar programs in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New Orleans.

The blog Civil Eats has an information packed article about this mapping movement.

Tiny Late June Wedding

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In June we had the pleasure of doing ceremony flowers and then hosting the reception dinner for a tiny wedding– 10 total.  The couple and their friends flew in from Nashville for the celebration. Karson Butler Events coordinated and I had the pleasure of working with Jacqueline of Readyluck for the first time.  Fun night, more photos here.