I threw on a pot of water to cook the lentils, and heated a skillet to sauté some vegetables as a base for the lentils. I ended up with a great quick braise of onion, garlic, carrot and rutabaga (from our CSA) with white wine and herbes de Provence, to which I added the cooked lentils and a little balsamic vinegar. Thrown on the re-heated cooked pasta and garnished with crumbled goat cheese, another episode of clean-out-your-fridge-dinner is complete!

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Steel-cut oatmeal has been a long-time favorite Winter breakfast for me, but lately I’ve been branching out, inspired by the fact that we have a ton of other whole grains in our pantry such as oat groats, spelt berries, wheat berries, farro and rye berries.  These grains all came from Cayuga Pure Organics, a bean and grain farm located near Ithaca, NY that is a provider for our CSA.

I’ve been treating these grains the way I would treat steel cut oatmeal, and it’s my new favorite way to start off the day! Follow these instructions to turn any whole grain into a warm, hearty breakfast flavored just to your liking.

Instructions:

Heartier whole grains such as rye berries and wheat berries cook quicker if you soak them overnight prior to cooking. A single serving is about 1/2 cup of dried grain. Just measure out the grain and put it in a bowl covered by at least a couple of inches of water (preferably filtered). Cover, and leave overnight.  The next morning (or some hours later), strain the grain and put it in a heavy pot with water in a 2:1 water:grain ratio.  Don’t worry about using too much water as this type of grain doesn’t turn into a porridge, the individual rye berries retain their integrity so you can just strain the grain when it’s cooked through, or fish it out with a slotted spoon.

Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, until they tastes done.  These rye berries took about 40 minutes. They’re still al dente even after all that cooking, and they’ll pop in your mouth when chewed. At that point, you can add whatever flavorings you want, sweet or savory.   I like a touch a sweetness, so here I grabbed a small handful of raisins and sunflower seeds and it was perfect. Other great sweet options include maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, walnuts, almonds, cashews, fresh apples, bananas, etc.  For the more savory side, Alexa adds things like sesame oil, soy sauce, steamed vegetables, balsamic vinegar, and pine nuts.  What flavor combinations come to your mind? We’d love to hear your favorites, it’s going to be a long Winter and we’ve got a lot of grain to get through!

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I am a sucker for the polenta/mushroom combo, a flavor profile you’ve probably seen before on this blog. In terms of the mushrooms, I often choose shitake and maitake, which can be expensive, but worth it when you factor in the immune-boosting properties. Just chop them up, and sauté over medium/low heat with the tips of the garlic,  salt and pepper, thyme (if you have it) and olive oil. Mushrooms give of a lot of moisture when cooking, and I find that cooking slowly over low heat insures they soften up without burning.

The Tuv Ha’aretz Forest Hills CSA we belong to also organizes shares of grain, bean and flour from Cayuga Pure Organics, an Ithaca-based company. They offer both cornmeal (finely ground) and polenta (coarsely ground). If I’m planning on keeping the resultant cornmeal soft and smooth, I use the finely ground cornmeal. If I’m planning on baking it or cutting it into squares (like this other mushroom polenta recipe), I use the coarsely ground cornmeal. Either way, cornmeal is something you want to try to buy organic, since corn is often genetically modified and sprayed with tons of pesticides. It also keeps pretty much forever, so you don’t have to worry about it going bad if it’s kept either in the fridge or freezer. I find the ratio for creamy polenta is a little more than 2:1, so if I’m cooking 1 cup of cornmeal (which will serve 2 for a main course), I use about 2.5 cups of water. Bring the water to a boil, and whisk in the polenta. I like to use a flat whisk, but whatever you have that you can keep whisking with will be fine. If there are clumps, keep whisking, and it it becomes too think, just add more water. When the cornmeal has thickened, add the roasted garlic, salt, about a tablespoon of olive oil and more water if needed. Whisk until smooth, top with sautéed mushrooms, and voila – a delicious, vegan side dish!

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It’s not August until the tomato crop comes in, so it’s no surprise that this month’s Tigress Can Jam ingredient is the tomato. Fittingly, Golden Earthworm delivered 5 pounds of globe tomatoes with our regular vegetable share this week. Since I’m already getting a large share of plum tomatoes in a couple of weeks that will be devoted to “regular” canned crushed tomatoes, I wanted to have fun with these and try something I’ve been wanting to make for a while.  I have to admit, I was always a little reluctant to make homemade ketchup since it seemed quite labor intensive. But then I thought about how AWESOME it would be to top my NY State BOG burgers with NY State ketchup, and all hesitancy went out the window. In the recipe below, the tomatoes, onions and garlic are all from Golden Earthworm. In the end, it wasn’t that labor intensive. Sure there’s a food mill involved, and you steep spices in the vinegar before you use it, but these steps are worth it!

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

• 1.5 teaspoons celery seeds
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 whole allspice
• 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 4 pounds tomatoes, cored and chopped roughly
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 3 cloves garlic, halved
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt

1. Tie celery seeds, cloves and allspice in cheesecloth, creating a spice bag
2. Combine vinegar and spice bag, bring to a boil over high heat. When boiling, turn off heat, and let stand for 25 minutes. Discard spice bag.
3. Meanwhile in a large saucepan, combine tomatoes, onion, garlic and cayenne. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and boil gently for 20 minutes. Add vinegar and cook for 30 minutes.
4. Transfer mixture, little by little, to a food mill, cranking to extract all liquid. Continue until all the tomatoes have been through the food mill. Discard solids.
5. Return liquid to saucepan, and add sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and and boil gently until volume is reduced by half, and the ketchup thickens up. This will take around 45 minutes.
6. Prepare canner, jars, lids. Read THIS if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
7. Ladle hot ketchup into 1/2 pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles, adjusting headspace if necessary. Wipe rim, center lid, and twist on screw band.
8. Process in boiling water canner for 15 minutes. Remove and cool.

It really tasted like ketchup! I expected it to be more runny, or more tomato-y, but it was very savory, a little sweet, and actually tasted exactly like Heinz (in a good way). However, which would you prefer?! I’m so excited to be able to stock my pantry with this version!

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There really was nothing in the kitchen. Nothing that I could cook quickly, anyway. So it was either order in (which we do every couple of weeks) or starve (perhaps I’m being dramatic here…) By the time I got home from a busy clinic day, it was 9pm, and honestly I wanted to order in. I really did. But I was famished and I thought even ordering in would take too long. So I whipped together this filling, spicy, bowl of polenta and beans. (I really do cook a lot of polenta, right?) It definitely helped that I had a ripe avocado and pickled red onions to inspire me! And even though this epitomizes a throw-it-together-pantry dinner, I will definitely make it again. The whole thing took 15 minutes from start to finish!

Polenta and Bean Bowl

• 1 cup coarse corn meal
• 1 can black beans, drained
• Jarred salsa (we usually buy Green Mountain Gringo Hot or Medium)
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 garlic cloves
• Olive oil
• Pickled red onions

1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, and add 1 cup cornmeal, turn down heat, and stir for a few minutes until cornmeal magically turns into polenta. When thickened, stir in 1 T olive oil, and 1-2 cloves chopped garlic.
2. Meanwhile, heat beans with the salsa until heated through.
3. Serve the polenta topped with the bean mixture and garnished with sliced avocado and pickled red onions.

A note about canned beans: There has been A LOT of press about the safety of the Bisphenol-A (BPA) content of canned products lately. While I do tend to use BPA-free tomatoes in cartons (Pomi is my favorite), I do keep canned beans in my pantry for nights like this, and I probably will continue to do so. However, as part of our CSA this summer, in addition to our veggies, tomato, herb and garlic shares from Golden Earthworm, and a fruit share from Briermere, we signed up for a grain, bean and flour share from Cayuga Pure Organics. Actually, we were so excited that we signed up for 2 shares of each–we’ll be getting 2 pounds of beans, 2 pounds of grain, and 4 pounds of flour per month. So I will be experimenting with cooking many more dried beans over the next 6 months. I am super stoked to have virtually ALL of our food needs met by local, organic, sustainable producers. Go Tuv Ha’Aretz CSA!

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We’re leaving for a week in Paris tonight, and what is the one thing that I have to do before I leave? POST my February Tigress Can Jam recipe! This is going to be brief, considering I haven’t even packed for our vacation yet, but it will give you an idea about what I decided to make. I have made this original recipe (for Vietnamese carrot and daikon pickle) with great success, so I wanted to modify it to only use carrots (which we had in ABUNDANCE from our CSA) and to use some Thai peppers and kaffir lime leaves that a friend’s mother grows. Does adding Thai peppers and lime leaves make a Vietnamese pickle into a Thai pickle? You be the judge!

Sweet and Spicy Thai Carrot Pickles

Adapted from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

• 3 cups white vinegar
• 3 cups water
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 2 T grated ginger
• 4 lbs carrots, julienned
• Star anise, Thai red pepper, kaffir lime leaves

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids. (For step-by-step canning instructions, read THIS POST from Tigress.)
2. In a large saucepan, combine vinegar, water, sugar and ginger. Bring to a boil over medium/high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add carrots and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
3. Place star anise, halved thai chili, and/or lime leaves in hot jars. Pack vegetables into hot jars to within a generous 1/2 inch (1cm) of top of jar. Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover vegetbales, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary. Wipe rim. Center lid on rim. Screw band down until resistence is met, then a little further until fingertip tight.
4. Place jars in canner, ensuring that they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for another 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, them remove jars, cool and store.

The resultant pickles were not as spicy as I would have liked, but the texture of the carrots are great, and they are very refreshing. Fastest post ever.

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Salads don’t have to have greens; in fact, protein packed salads like this one can be quite filling and satisfying on their own. We have a delivery from our CSA coming this Tuesday (deliveries are once every 3 weeks during the Winter), and so our supply of fresh produce is sadly low, but I was able to scrap together this nutritious salad from odds and ends I found in the fridge and pantry.

• Grated carrots
• Chopped scallions
• Chopped parsley stems (don’t throw them out after you use the leaves! They’re great in salads and soups)
• 1 can of rinsed chickpeas
• 1 diced roasted beet
• 1 small clove of crushed garlic
• Feta cheese
• Olive oil, tarragon vinegar, salt and pepper

The traditional oil to vinegar ratio is 2:1 or 3:1, but I tend to like mine more vinegary than that, so I often do 1.5:1 but don’t get caught up on ratios, just eyeball it and let taste be your guide.  For this salad, I let the carrots, parsley stems, scallions and garlic steep in some vinegar, salt and pepper as I chopped the beets.  I then tossed in the chickpeas, oil, and finally the beets and feta. (Adding the beets at the end prevents the beet color from overtaking everything, though that’s somewhat unavoidable.)

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I always feel better after a simple meal of grain + veg + sauce. Especially in the winter season, with the plethora of root vegetables available, simple meals like this are only a roasting pan and steamer away. We had carrots and rutabaga left over from last week’s winter CSA share, which I roasted with with beets. All were tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper with a sprig of rosemary (I love the way the house smells in the winter with rosemary roasting in the oven).

The roast vegetables were served with steamed broccoli and that toothsome wonder, barley. When eating like this frequently, some people worry about getting bored with the same old thing every night. And the answer is SAUCES! I have a few standard sauces in my repetoire that can be mixed together on a whim, and used to top not only roast vegetables, but fish, tofu or tempeh.

Miso Sesame Sauce:

• 3 part sesame oil
• 2 part miso paste
• 2 part rice wine vinegar
• 1 part honey (or 1/2 part sriracha)

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