Tomatoes & Shell Beans

I don’t remember eating black-eyed peas as a child, but somewhere along the line, I developed an intense love for them. They sell them fresh at the farmer’s market in the mountains and I experimented with them a few times many years ago, but couldn’t quite figure out how to cook them properly. No one in my family knew what to do with them, so after a few discarded batches, I gave up.

A few years later, I was living on my own and discovered that they sold them during the summer at one of my local Whole Foods stores.  I figured out how to turn them into hoppin’ john, which became my regular summertime lunch from then on. It took some time, but I eventually convinced Jeff that yes, he does like shell beans, and also, hoppin’ john does in fact make a delicious and satisfying meal.

Broccoli Two Ways

Broccoli shows up on our plates frequently at our house; it’s one of the veggies J & I both love. Though we usually eat it unadorned – simply steamed with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, I do sometimes need to spice it up, especially out of season when the broccoli available is a little limp. These are two recipes that I love. They take a little extra effort but make the broccoli the star of the meal.

The herb flavor of this recipe is pronounced and somewhat unexpected. I don’t find the garlic flavor overwhelming, but I am a garlic lover. Whenever I make fresh breadcrumbs I make extra and stick them in a bag in the freezer. That way I can pull them out the next few times I need them without digging out the food processor.

Market in the Fall

After last night’s last minute novel.. whew, that’s a tongue twister!, I feel the need to keep this short and sweet. Luckily I have the perfect photo of a dish that needs no recipe.

Hopefully this inspires you to grab some of your favorite root vegetables (fingerling potatoes, butternut squash, and turnips in our case) from a farmer’s market near you, toss them with some olive oil, chopped rosemary & garlic, and coarse salt & pepper, and roast them at high heat until tender. You won’t be sorry!

End of Summer Corn

I haven’t had corn nearly enough this summer. It’s one of those items that I never eat out of season because it’s just not even the same species. When I saw some fresh local corn was still available last week, I knew I’d use it in this recipe. I made it over the weekend and ate it as a base for a lunch for a few days. I halved the recipe and used the BEST black forest bacon from Whole Foods. I wish I’d pureed a little more than half of it, because it was still a little chunkier than I had imagined it being. However, for a creamed corn without the cream, I’d say it was a real winner. Coincidently, this appeared in the Cooking Light’s “Best of” edition this September as the best grain side dish. I guess there’s a reason it won the title!

Creamed Corn with Bacon and Leeks
Serves 6

6 ears corn
2 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 slices bacon
1 cup chopped leek

Cut kernels from ears of corn to measure 3 cups. Using the dull side of a knife blade, scrape milk and remaining pulp from cobs into a bowl. Place 1 1/2 cups kernels, low-fat milk, cornstarch, sugar, salt, and pepper in a food processor; process until smooth, scraping sides.

Cook bacon in a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat until crisp, turning once. Remove the bacon from pan, reserving 1 teaspoon drippings in pan; crumble bacon. Add leek to pan, and cook 2 minutes or until tender, stirring constantly. Add pureed corn mixture, remaining 1 1/2 cups corn kernels, and corn milk mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 3 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Sprinkle with the crumbled bacon just before serving.

From Cooking Light

Two Non-Recipe Recipes

It’s so good to be back in the kitchen! I overdid my planning a bit this week and pulled out more recipes than I’ve had time (or appetite) for. Hopefully we’ll get hungry before the ingredients go to waste. 

When I saw green tomatoes at the market on Saturday I realized that I hadn’t made them yet this summer. So we had fried green tomatoes and some other veggies one night. They are just sliced, salted and peppered, coated in cornmeal, and fried in some olive oil. I love mine with goat cheese and honey on top. I convinced J to try the honey and he wasn’t so sure about it, so I guess it might be a personal taste. But hey, I thought I’d throw it out there. This was our first use of my new cast iron skillet. The whole not using soap thing is still a little hard for me, but I’m looking forward to using this skillet for cornbread, fried chicken, and my favorite blackberry cobbler, among other things I’m sure. 

You say butter beans, I say lima beans

I couldn’t help it. I let out a squeal when I saw limas at the market on Saturday. In fact, it might have been more of a yell. It just felt like I’d been waiting forever for them! I’m always so excited to try new recipes that there are very few repeat performances at our house. This recipe, however, gets a workout every summer. I’ve never had them cooked any better than this.  I use fresh limas and skip the soaking. They need a little bit less water than the dried, maybe about 1 3/4 cup instead of 2 cups.

Country Lima Beans
Serves 8

2 cups dried lima beans (about 1 pound)
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 bacon slices, chopped
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup finely chopped carrot
2 cups water
2 tbsp. butter, softened

Sort and wash beans; place in a large Dutch oven. Cover with water to 2 inches above beans; cover and let stand 8 hours or overnight. Drain the beans. Return beans to pan; stir in salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 300ºF. Cook bacon slices in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan with slotted spoon; set aside. Add onion and carrot to drippings in pan and sauté 5 minutes or until golden. Add onion mixture, bacon, water, and butter to bean mixture in Dutch oven; stir well. Cover and bake for 2 ½ hours or until beans are tender, stirring every hour.

From Cooking Light

Parmesan Chicken and Sauteed Potatoes

Apparently I am still a child and like to keep all my food groups separate on my plate. Plating is not my strong suit… I’m usually too worried about what the food tastes like to care what it looks like.

This chicken takes basically no effort and is much tastier than plain sauteed chicken breasts.

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken

Serves 6

6 tbsp. butter, divided

3 large eggs
3 tbsp. honey Dijon mustard
2 cups panko (about 3 ½ oz.)
1 ½ cups grated Parmesan cheese (about 4 ½ oz.)
1 ½ tsp. salt and 1 tsp. ground black pepper
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, butterflied
Preheat oven to 500ºF. Butter large rimmed baking sheet with 2 tbsp. butter. Melt remaining butter in a small saucepan and set aside.
Whisk eggs and mustard in bowl to blend. Mix panko, Parmesan, salt, and pepper in large bowl. Dip chicken into egg mixture, then panko mixture, coating generously. Place on prepared baking sheet. Drizzle reserved melted butter over chicken. Bake until brown and cooked through, turning once, about 10 minutes.

From Bon Appétit 

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Clarified butter is basically butter with the milk solids removed. This creates a higher burning temperature which means you can use it to saute with. It couldn’t be easier – melt the butter and skim off the white stuff that floats to the top (some will sink… when you pour the butter out of the pot you can just leave it behind.) This is a picture after I had already removed the solids.

Yukon Gold Potatoes Sautéed in Clarified Butter

Serves 8

3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
¼ cup clarified butter
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
Place potatoes in saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 2 minutes. Drain and let stand for 2 minutes.
Heat clarified butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add potatoes to pan; reduce heat to medium, and cook 20 minutes or until tender and browned, stirring occasionally. Stir in parsley and remaining ingredients; cook 30 seconds.
Clarified Butter: Place ½ cup butter in saucepan over medium-low heat; cook 5 minutes or until completely melted. Skim solids off top with a spoon and discard.

From Cooking Light