Interlude: Apple day

Yesterday a group of friends and I took a trip up to North Salem for a day of apple picking, cider donuts, and trying to avoid driving over the hoards of children swarming the farm grounds. Apparently we weren't the only people in the city who had the idea. Nonetheless, the weather and scenery were gorgeous, and we made off with five free squash and enough apples to cook a delightful meal and stock our fridges for the rest of the fall.

the best apples are at the top of the tree!

apples for days

Arugula salad with apples, gorgonzola, walnuts, and craisins and latkes with applesauce. 

The latkes are made by grating together potatoes and onions, salting them and squeezing until very dry, mixing in just enough egg and cornstarch or flour to bind, and then deep-frying the patties. 

The applesauce is just diced apples, water, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest and juice cooked slowly in a lidded pot, mashing as the apples get soft and then continuing to cook until it thickens up.

Squash soup with apples and rosemary. I made the soup by roasting butternut and delicata squash and meanwhile sauteeing a mixture of onions, apples, garlic, fresh rosemary, and salt and pepper until soft and carmelized. Then I simmered it all together for a few minutes in veggie broth, pureed, and added cream, honey, and lemon juice to taste. We also made some croutons from stale sesame bread.

Apple & raspberry pie. The pie crust comes from smitten kitchen, and the filling is a mixture of thinly sliced apples and frozen raspberries, stirred with sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, fresh grated ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom. my friend Sophia made the beautiful lattice top, which we topped with turbinado sugar to make it pretty.

CSA week 16: tofu curry

Indian-style curry with tofu, green beans, and cauliflower. I make basic curry sauce  by sauteeing chopped onions, chilis, ginger and garlic (and sometimes pecans for richness) with salt, sugar, pepper, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and mustard seeds until soft and carmelized (i don't bother mincing because it's all going to get pureed). then I add chopped or canned tomatoes along with whatever powdered spices I'm feeling at the time - you can use pre-mixed curry powder or garam masala, or choose your own preferred balance of spices like cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, chili powder... cook for a few minutes to thicken it up, crushing the tomatoes as it cooks. Puree the whole thing til smooth and then add it (or part of it if you're making a small portion) back to the pan and cook to thicken it even more. Then add coconut milk, stir it up and adjust spices, and then you can cook whatever veggies you're using in it - adding water if it doesn't cover (it will re-thicken as it cooks).

CSA Week 16:

Kale, cauliflower, butternut, delicata, eggs, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, and corn.

CSA 15: Kale and delicata salad

Kale salad with spicy roasted delicata squash, apples, toasted pepitas, and goat cheese, with lime dressing.

CSA 15: Acorn squash salad

Roasted acorn squash filled with arugula, walnuts, and goat cheese with balsamic dressing.

CSA Week 15: Huevos rancherso

Huevos rancheros with sauteed kale, avocado, lentils, and homemade hotsauce.

Interlude: birthday macaroons

macaroons for my gluten-free friend's birthday. I followed this basic recipe, but I subbed in unsweetened grated coconut for a third of the volume to decrease the sickly sweetness, added coconut extract along with   the vanilla to boost the coconut flavor, and dipped the bottoms of the cookies in dark chocolate.

CSA week 15: thai red lentils and roasted cauliflower

Red lentils cooked with thai red curry paste and roasted cauliflower. I was all out of coconut milk, so in a desperate attempt to cool the heat of the lentil, I used almond milk. It was surprising delicious!

CSA 15: hot sauce

Desperate to use up all of the late-season hot peppers from the CSA, I decided to make and jar some hot sauce to use throughout the winter. I chopped up a bunch of heirloom tomatoes, a variety of chilis, an onion, and a bunch of cloves of garlic, and then roasted it all up. I pureed it with some salt, sugar, and cider vinegar in order to make it keep longer (lime juice isn't quite as acidic).

CSA week 15: bruschetta

Extremely easy, extremely delicious dinner: bruschetta made with toasted sourdough and heirloom tomatoes. I chopped up the tomatoes and mixed them with diced onion, garlic, basil, olive oil, balsamic, and salt and pepper.

CSA Week 15

cantaloupe, delicata, acorn squash, white and green cauliflower, corn, kale, eggs, chilis, bell pepper, and heirloom tomatoes

CSA week 14: Butternut, kale, and lentils

Warm salad with butternut squash, kale, lentils, red onion, and craisins, with a honey-mustard dressing.

CSA Week 14: Thai curry w/ delicata

Thai red curry with broccoli, delicata squash, tofu, and a handful of other veggies contributed by friends, enjoyed as a lovely Saturday night dinner after a long hike in Woodstock!I was too ravenous to get a picture of the curry, but I snapped a photo of some chili flowers while making the curry paste the day before.

I also made scrambled eggs with broccoli, scallion, and avocado for breakfast, accompanied by rosemary home fries and delicious crepes made by one of my fellow travelers.

Also unphotographed this week: two nights of roasted butternut squash with butter and brown sugar, with a side of broccoli.

CSA Week 14

red pepper, eggs, broccoli, delicata squash, butternut squash, watermelon, kale, heirloom tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers.

CSA Week 13: unphotographed

- tacos with black beans, onions and peppers, kale, homemade salsa, and guac

- roasted butternut squash & garlic kale

- kale w/ sunnyside up egg breakfast

CSA Week 13: Spanish tortilla with salsa and kale

Spanish potato tortilla with homemade salsa and kale. The salsa is the same easy, roasted variety I've been making all summer - just tossing chopped tomatoes, hot/bell peppers, onions, and whole garlic cloves in oil, salt, pepper, and sugar, roasting them, and then pureeing everything with some lime juice. The tortilla is way more unhealthy than I thought it was - it involves deep-frying slices of potato and onion on medium-low heat until soft, mixing them with enough beaten egg to bind it all together, and then refrying the cake on both sides til slightly browned. Though in retrospect I don't see why you couldn't steam the potato slices. The recipe I used cryptically warned "DO NOT REFRIGERATE," but I defied it and had delicious re-heated tortilla for breakfast.

CSA Week 13: Leaning tower of eggplant

Fried eggplant & polenta stacks with homemade marinara. Sadly, this is one of the few recipes I've made in years that I ended up not liking. It sounds great in concept, but something about the combination of textures really gave me the wiggins. I think it might be that whenever I eat eggplant I get squicked out  by the bites that are full of seeds, and the polenta's grainy texture made every bite feel like that.

CSA Week 13

wax beans, acorn squash watermelon, kale, eggs, onions, tomatoes, red pepper, hot peppers, potatoes. I traded out the corn for extra hot peppers because it's been less than great all summer.

CSA week 12: Dal with swiss chard

Red lentil dal with swiss chard. I made this using some leftover frozen curry base from a paneer makhani recipe that I made a few weeks. I simply boiled about a cup of lentils for a few minutes (red lentils are quick), stirred in some chopped swiss chard along with about a cup of sauce and some salt and lemon juice, and then cooked it for another few minutes until the chard was soft.

The curry base is made by sauteeing some roughly chopped onions, hot pepper, garlic, and ginger with some cumin, mustard, and coriander seeds (I usually partially crush them) and some salt (and optionally some chopped cashews to add some thickness and richness). Once everything is carmelized, add in some chopped or canned tomatoes and vegetable broth along with some curry powder and simmer for about a half hour to thicken it up. Then puree the whole thing in a food processor, adding coconut milk until you get a good balance of sweet/spicy. Adjust the salt and spices. You can turn this into curry but sauteeing some veggies until al dente and then simmering them in the sauce until they get soft, or make paneer curry by tossing in some browned paneer cubes, or stir it into lentils as I did in this recipe.

CSA week 12: Crispy roasted wax beans

Crispy roasted wax beans: a simple snack to satisfy a salt-and-oil craving when you're out of tater tots. Just roast the beans with some olive oil, salt, and pepper at 400 until brown and crispy.

CSA Week 12: Ratatouille and wild rice pilaf

Ratatouille and wild rice pilaf, a quick and easy meal to use up summer veggies. I roasted the ratatouille to make it lower-maintenance and get maximum caramelization on the veggies - bell pepper, red onion, white eggplant, tomatoes, and zucchini, with some salt, olive oil, and lots of black pepper. When everything was soft I stirred in some chiffinade'd basil. I also kept the pilaf simple: I sauteed the rice along with minced garlic in a mix of olive oil and butter until lightly browned, then cooked it with veggie broth and some juice from a can of tomatoes, and then stirred in some slivered almonds at the end. The chewy, crunchy rice was delicious with the silky, sweet ratatouille.

CSA Week 12: Snacks

Pickled cucumbers, pickled beets with honey and cloves, and cherry tomatoes.