Mom's Homecooking: Very Veggie Fishloaf

This salmon loaf recipe was originally published on Cayenne & Carob March 18, 2008. I've since pumped it up with dark leafy green veggies and this definitely warrants an update. My mom still makes her original recipe and sometimes I can get away with making this souped-up version.

Baked Salmon Loaf
Adapted by Cayenne from The Greater Yukon Cookbook, Galena, Alaska

2 cups cooked salmon (either leftovers or jarred salmon)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup butter

Use butter to grease loaf pan and to saute whatever veggies you can find. At a minimum onion, celery and garlic work just fine. I am a huge fan of kale or swiss chard in this recipe. Just chop a cup or so, saute it briefly and mix with the rest of the veggies. You can also add some spicy peppers, like New Mexico green chilis. Or just throw in some hot sauce. I've also found feta to be a nice addition but you don't need too much 1/3 of a cup or less.

Mix your assortment of veggies with the egg and salmon flakes. Turn out into the loaf pan and press down so the top is flat. Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

The loaf shrinks up considerably and will feed 2-3 as a single main course or 4 if you add a big salad.

Weekend: Workshare at Clagett Farm

My first weekend in DC we completed a workshare at the Cheasapeake Bay Foundation's Claggett Farm. Two of my good friends reccomended this great farm where you can work for 4 hours in exchange for 1 share in their community supported agriculture food box. Two adults working a 4 hour shift on a Saturday morning mean we took home 8 pounds of 4 different kinds of squash, and 4 pounds total of green beans, okra, tomatoes, and all-you-can-pick herbs.

Our work on the farm included picking 3 different varieties of beans, cucumbers and cleaning up a rotting melon field. There were black widow spiders involved in that last task. By 1p we felt as though we definitely earned our workshare. I hope to be able to do a workshare once a month depending on if we can a ride out to the farm.

Clagett Farm

11904 Old Marlboro Pike
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
301.627.4662

CSA pricing: 600$ annually for new members (pick up in Dupont Circle)

Workshare info: workshare opportunities are available Thursday-Saturday. Call 301.537.3038 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the Thursday or Friday before the Saturday you would like to come to the farm. Bring a water bottle, work gloves, and a good hat to shield the sun. The farm is located approximately 30 minutes from Capitol Hill by car.

Directions: follow the driving directions written on the website

photo credit: Cayenne 09.04.10

Sunday Supper: Sorrel Pesto

Sorrel showed up in my organic CSA food box over the summer. In a pinch and short on time, I blended it up into a wonderful, tangy pesto. You are going to love how quick and easy this is after all that hard Thanksgiving cooking. Sorrel looks like a longer, skinnier spinach and it has a lemony taste. Read more about this magnesium and calcium-rich green here.


Sorrel Pesto
by Cayenne

Serves 2-4, freeze the leftovers

1 bunch sorrel
4 garlic cloves
2 handfuls shaved Parmesan cheese
3-5 tbsp olive oil (your favorite stuff)
1 handful pine nuts
Salt + pepper to taste

Wash sorrel as you would any other leafy green. No need to spin off the water. In a mini cuisinart (or whatever blending tool you have). Add handfuls of leaves, garlic, 1-2 tbsp olive oil. Whiz. Whiz. Whiz. Keep adding sorrel leaves and olive oil until a slightly dry paste is formed. Thin out the paste with a few tbsp of water. Whiz in the pine nuts. Taste. Add salt + pepper and cheese. Whiz. Throw over your favorite pasta. Maybe add some fresh tomatoes, olives, and parsley. I freeze the leftovers in small tuppers, they defrost well in the microwave.

These weeks are flying by, next week's Sunday Supper will be sweet and a bit more festive.

photo credit: Cayenne 08.16.09

Weekend: Growing Peppers

While the container tomatoes were a flop due to some wilty affliction, our peppers are thriving on the patio. These serrano beauties are not ripe yet and are only about 2 inches long. I doubt we can eat all 20+ peppers in one shot so I'm going to have to do some roasting/freezing in a month or so.

photo credit: Cayenne 07.22.09

Weekend: Porch Veggies

We have harvested ONE tomato and are eying our windfall of peppers, which are not ripe yet. See what our edible porch garden looked like a few months ago here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Next week will be a short blogging week for me because we are headed up to Yosemite for a 4 day backpacking trip, details coming soon.

photo credit: Cayenne 07.14.09

Radish and Butter Open-Faced Sandwich

I had a radish and butter open-faced sandwich this morning. Why? It all started when I asked my mom what to do with the pile radishes that were coming in our bi-weekly CSA box (thanks to J.R. Organics). She answered, "radish and butter sandwiches are delicious, one of my childhood classics." "Really", I asked with curled lip of bemusement. This morning, upon finding a loaf of day-old but freshly baked bread and a recent delivery of CSA bunch of radishes, I tried out her recipe:

Turns out blog-world also loves the radish 'n butter sandwich: MOG (pictured below), The Kitchn, and Mark Bittman "Bitten" NYtimes are a few examples.

photo credit: Cayenne 07.03.09 (sorry for bad lighting I'm using an unfamiliar camera); radish and butter pic from {frolic!}

Bread Machine: Apple Butter Jam

At the beginning of the month TEB fresh pumpkin apple butter. We brought it to a potluck with some freshly baked bread. It is delicious and easy to make in the bread machine.

Pumpkin Apple Butter
from The Bread Lovers Breach Machine

One 15-ounce can pumpkin puree (freezer find: roasted, pureed pumpkin)
3/4 cup (about 1 large) peeled, cored, and grated organic tart apple
1/2 cup apple cider (or apple juice)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3 tbsp unsalted butter

1. throw all the ingredients in your bread pan

2. set machine to the jam cycle and start

3. Meanwhile, sterilize your canning jars by boiling a big pot of water. When at a roaring boil add the jars and lid pieces. Let sit until you are ready to fill with the pumpkin apple butter mixture.
4. When you hear the bread machine beep, signaling the end of the cycle, carefully remove the HOT bread pan.

5. Stir in the butter until fully incorporated

6. Now you have two options: 1) while still hot spoon into hot, glass jam jars, cover and put in fridge for up to 2 months; OR 2) let cool and then spoon into plastic freezer bags and freeze (i'm sure it keeps for a long time - the pumpkin puree I mentioned above had been in our freezer for 2 years and it was still good)

photo credit: Cayenne 06.01.09

Earth Day 2009: Edible Porch Gardens

Happy Earth Day!

I thought it was going to be hard to surpass our switched from paper towels to cloth napkins last year but I think we've done it. The cloth napkin change has been permanent and now we use old newspapers for cleaning glasses mirrors and windows and reusable microfiber clothes for dusting. We have also been members of a CSA, J.R. Organics, the last year and have greatly enjoyed our biweekly csa boxes. More recently, we took the plunge and planted a few edibles on our porch as the next big "being green" step. Looking for some help on container gardening, check out The Bountiful Container by McGee and Stuckey.

On the left are our lovely, flowering tomato plants. We have two kinds heirloom and better boy, both from Whole Foods. On the right is our little Serrano pepper plant. Both the pepper and the tomatoes are going to grow up to 6 feet tall and so we planted them in large containers. TEB scrounged eucalyptus branches so we could make a support triangle for the tomatoes and I suspect we might have to do the same thing for the pepper. I mixed in a bit of compost with the organic soil, 1:7 ratio.

The compost bin was set up about 8 months ago and the 100 red wriggler worms that we got from a friend have tripled into a nice population of worms willing to eat about 1/4 of our organic kitchen waste, more on containing your kitchen scraps here. The rest we throw in our apartment complex's community passive compost bin. We get rid of about 1 bag of garbage a week and that feels great. Above, you can see our compost bin on our front porch behind our shade-loving, drier dirt herbs (sage, rosemary, and oregano).

Here is our compost bin after some cantelope fruit seeds were thrown in there. I highly recommend the Wriggle Wranch kit that has several stackable bins and comes with corn husk starter (order your worms separately or snag some from a friend like we did). In the San Diego area you can buy the WRANCH at the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am - 4pm.

photo credit: Cayenne 04.22.09

Red Cabbage Salad

Red Cabbage Salad
from NL

1 thinly, sliced red cabbage
1 lb grated carrots
1/3 cup lime juice
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoons salt
1 tbsp ancho chile powder
*chopped cilantro*

Toss all ingredients in a bowl together and let sit for 1 hour. This makes for a perfect side-dish for a picnic or bbq, but it is a little strong as a main dish and/or for days on end. I just dumped out a small container of this colorful salad, after it had been the fridge for a week. I have not experimented yet but I think some raisins or walnuts might be a nice addition.

*I left out the cilantro.

photo credit: Cayenne 03.11.09

Weekend: In Defense of Food

This weekend I finished reading Michael Pollen's newest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. The book is packed full of good information on eating well, eating balanced, and the history of FDA regulations on "food" labels. One of the points that Pollan brings up in the book is that Americans don't enjoy or value food as much as people in other countries. He cites that American spend 10% of their monthly income on food (MI) while Italians (Spanish and French too) spend closer to 17% of their MI on food and are far healthier than we are. I spend about 15% of my MI on food. Now that made me feel better about my costly CSA box from J.R. Organics Farm.

Another tip from Pollan: when buying beef you want to look for pasture-finished, not just "grass-fed", as it means the cows were fed grass in the feed lot too. Since we saw the above picturesque cows-grazing-in-the-pasture last weekend coming back from the desert, it seemed like the perfect illustration for this post.

Check out Pollan's website for a good list of links. I particularly like the Eat Well Guide where you can put in your zip code to find nearby farmers' markets, co-ops, green caterers and restaurants. There are 14 farmers' markets within 10 miles of my house!

Now if I can only figure out what kind of eggs to buy: organic, free-range, vegetarian fed, or grain fed? At the moment I always go for organic. Here is an interesting article on storing, washing, and keeping eggs.

photo credit: TEB 03.22.09 near Julian, CA

Quick Dinner: Curried Butternut Squash Soup

My CSA, J.R. Organics, provided the recipe and the squash for my first stab at a squash soup. The final product was tasty and I'm looking forward to the 3 servings I stowed in the freezer. 1 pot = 3 dinners! Check out the recipe on the CSA website.

Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
adapted (twice-removed) from the Silver Palate cookbook

3 Tablespoons Unsalted butter
1 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup sliced leeks*
4 Teaspoons curry marsala powder
3 pounds butternut squash* (~2 medium-sized squash)
2 sweet apples*, cored and chopped
4 cups vegetable broth (I used no-chicken broth)
salt and pepper, to taste cayenne pepper, to taste

1. Cook the onion and leek in the butter over a low heat until tender
2. Add the curry powder, cook for a minute (might need to add a splash of broth)
3. Add the stock, squash, and apples
4. Cover and bring to a boil
5. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook, covered, until the squash is tender
6. Puree by your favorite method and return to the pan
7. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper
*items from biweekly CSA

photo credit: Cayenne 01.15.09

CSA: Violet Podded Green Beans

My last CSA box had some beautiful deep purple green beans. I was so excited to cook them, which I did not too long after they arrived, but was disappointed to find out that the vibrant purple turns green after cooking. Good thing I took a picture so you can see these strange purple string beans of the violet podded variety. I just cooked them up any old green bean - steamed quickly and then smothered with butter, salt, pepper, and sprinkled with sliced almonds.

photo credit: Cayenne 11.17.08

Quick Dinner: Sauted Sage, Squash, and Shitake Mushrooms

I knew one day soon I would start writing a post and think "maybe I have already posted this recipe." Well, it happened today. I posted Squash Pasta 01.21.08 and now I have a little update with pictures! Here is a recap of the ingredients, see link above for more detailed recipe: 12 ounces pappardelle or fettuccine pasta; 2/3 stick butter, divided; 2 cups 1/2-inch cubes butternut squash; 8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced; 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage; 1 5- to 6-ounce package baby spinach; 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided.

I want to highlight a substitution using an ingredient that came in our CSA box last week - tatsoi the leafy green pictured above. The leaves are similar to bok choy but a quick google search revealed that it was an Asian salad green that is often eaten raw. Since there were a few notes saying that it tasted like bok choy I decided to use it in place of the spinach (I often substitute spinach with kale). I also added a few fresh, organic items from my local farmers' market, like the sage and shiitake mushrooms.

I threw the entire saute over a pile of Harvest Grains Israeli Cousous (for something else with HGIC see the Fig, Chicken and Israeli Cousous recipe here). The fall colors really make this plate up beautifuly and it is easy.

photo credit: Cayenne 11.16.09

Quick Dinner: Rabbit Pasta

I have been eating Annie's "rabbit" pasta since middle school. It was one of those easy-to-prepare foods that my mom let us cook when we were home alone. It sustained me through my high school swim team days and I turn to it now when I need something quick to cook.

All I do it follow the instructions on the box, substituting the milk for soymilk, and make sure to add in some additional ingredients to make it seem like my dinner did not come out of a box. Here are my favorites: Peace Pasta, Shells & White Cheddar, Shells and Real Aged Cheddar, and Alfredo Shells & Cheddar. See a full list of all Annie's Homegrown products here.

Now these are not dairy-free and Annie's does not have any vegan products, but substituting soymilk definitely helps on keeping the dairy levels low. I have a couple of favorite combos that all start with any of the above pastas.

1. broccoli and peas (fresh or frozen) - I always keep frozen veggies expressly for this purpose

2. tuna and broccoli - tuna can be a life-saver so I keep a couple of cans of chunked tuna in water in the pantry

3. chopped kale (or spinach) and edamame succotash - fall and winter months bring loads of kale in my CSA box. Since I cannot consume all of it fresh I braise or steam it, package it in plastic sandwich bags, and throw it in the freezer. Edamame succotash is a mix of edamame beans, corn, and roasted red peppers (pick some up at Whole Foods or Trader Joes).

N.B. I tried an Annie's SKILLET pasta mix the other day. Even with some serious tweaking - cooking up some onions, green peppers, and vegan protein ground meat - it was terrible. So bad in fact that TEB said even he would not even taste it. I was more willing to give it a try, probably b/c I put time into making it. It was bland and mushy. I ended up throwing the whole thing out.

Cream of Roasted Red Pepper Soup

One of the things I can do on the weekend to make the week less hectic, is to make a large pot of soup or casserole. I then save the left-overs for a weekday dinner and freeze the rest for later. We have been eating out of the freezer for the past week. One of things that came out was a red pepper soup that I made last fall. It was still good and the basil-spinach puree garnish, also frozen, I used on some fresh pasta that was sprinkled with cheese.

Cream of Roaster Red Pepper Soup with Basil-Spinach Puree from The Vegan Chef Click on over to The Vegan Chef to see the entire cream of red pepper soup recipe that I followed exactly.

At the time I had a freezer full of roasted peppers that we had picked up in New Mexico so I used those. I had no idea that they were super spicy so had to thin out the soup with more potatoes and ended up using it more as a dip for flat bread than as a soup. I recommend making a combination of 6 red bell peppers and 2 of the spicy New Mexico Chiles.

Basil-Spinach Puree:
This puree was pretty as a garnish but even better used as a sauce.
3 cups packed spinach leaves, triple washed, destemmed, and patted dry
1 1/2 cups packed basil leaves, washed well, and patted dry
3/4 cup packed parsley leaves, washed well, and patted dry
1/2 cup olive oil 3 T. water
1 1/2 T. nutritional yeast flakes (optional)
1 1/2 t. garlic, minced

In a blender or food processor, place all of the ingredients and puree until smooth. Thin with a bit of water, if needed.

photo credit: five x two by trAvelpig

Green Salad with Radishes and Manchego

Manchego goes very well with red wine. I will be making this salad for tonight's pre-concert under the stars dinner.

Green Salad with Radishes and Manchego
from Blueprint

10 cups mixed greens
4 radishes, ends trimmed and thinly sliced
2 ounces shaved manchego cheese

Wash and dry greens. Add radishes and manchego shavings to bowl.

Dressing
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Wisk above ingredients together. Slowly add 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Right before serving drizzle dressing on the salad and toss to combine.

Serves 6

11 Best Foods You Should Be Eating

After reading the NY Times article on 11 best foods, I decided to make an effort at incorporating more of the items below on a weekly basis.

11 Best Foods (items I eat are bold):
1. Beets
2. Cabbage
3. Swiss chard
4. Cinnamon
5. Pomegranate juice
6. Dried plums
7. Pumpkin seeds
8. Sardines
9. Turmeric
10. Frozen blueberries
11. Canned pumpkin

How many are you eating?

photo credit: Beets me by phxpma

Quick Dinner: Cabbage Salad

This cabbage salad recipe is so good that I have made it twice in the past week. I first made it for an asian-inspired dinner while we watched the opening ceremonies for the olympics. It went well with boiled potstickers. The salad is easily reinvented with buckwheat soba noodles, garbanzo beans, and tofu for dinner or lunch later.

Cabbage Salad
found via The Kitchn and built off their modifications from this recipe.

In a large bowl mix:
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 to 3/4 cup sliced and slivered almonds
1 head cabbage, cut in long strips
1 small red onion, thinly sliced

Dressing (add ingredients straight into a small mason jar so you can shake and store in the same container)
1/3 cup safflower oil
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1-2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Shake up the dressing, taste, and adjust the sesame oil or soy sauce as needed. To be honest I only measure the oil and rice wine vinegar so the sesame oil and soy sauce are just approximations. Pour dressing over cabbage and stir well. You can eat it immediately but it gets even better if you wait 30 minutes and is still good days later for a cold lunch. My mother used to make something very similar but with crushed up ramen noodles. I don't normally buy ramen noodles so just eliminated them from the recipe and I think I will keep it that way.

photo credit: cabbage by tina manthorpe

Being Green: Buying Organic

In an attempt to make the most of my food budget and to buy the most healthy foods I did some research on buying organic. A great resource is Cindy Burke's book, "To Buy or not to Buy Organic." I will be honest about the fact that I skimmed her book this weekend. Burke's concise overview of the organic industry and her breakdown of what to buy organic clearly sets you up to change your shopping list. Her take-home points are the "Dirty Dozen" or things you should always buy organic and the "Clean Fifteen."

Dirty Dozen:
1. strawberries
2. red or green bell peppers
3. spinach
4. cherries
5. peaches
6. nectarines
7. celery
8. apples
9. pears
10. grapes
11. raspberries
12. potatoes

Clean Fifteen:
1. asparagus
2. avocados
3. bananas
4. blueberries
5. broccoli
6. cabbage
7. garlic
8. kiwi
9. mango
10. onions
11. papaya
12. pinapple
13. shelling peas
14. sweet corn
15. domestically grown watermellon

An interesting point Burke's book brings up is that the US imports "organic" produce from China and that there are no standards in place to regulate international claims on produce being "organic" (pg. 53-4). Even more surprising is that Whole Paycheck is one of the biggest buyers of "organic" produce from China. Most likely the produce is used in frozen or preprepared foods but the lack of regulation is scary.

photo credit: organic strawberries by oso

Quick Dinner: Brussels Sprouts, Peas, and Soba Noodles

Last week, before leaving for Seattle, I was doing some pantry cooking trying to make it to Friday without going to the grocery store. I found a basket of fresh brussel sprouts in the fridge and went online looking for recipes. I'm a new convert to the eating of brussel sprouts. A friend brought over dinner this past year and she had roasted brussel sprouts. I have long shunned brussel sprouts, something about the smell while cooking. I tried the roasted, soft, carmelized brussels and immediately wanted to make some myself. My first brussel sprout recipe I found on 101 Cookbooks by Heidi Swanson, Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts Recipe. I followed her recipe exactly and only improvised at the end when I threw in some frozen peas, chopped garlic, and buckwheat soba noodles. I added shavings of parmasean and manchego before serving. This was a perfect one-pot-dinner and made for a great cold lunch the following day.

photo credit: roasted brussel sprouts by ddot