Another Kimchi Adventure. . .

Today I realized I had lots of vegetables that would be great chopped up and naturally ferment into Kimchi.

when using cabbage and the right vegetables, combined with Kosher or Himalayan pink salt, no vinegar is needed and this natural method is more gut healthy

Ever since finding a milder version of Kimchi, at Northern Waters Smokehouse, a multi-faceted Duluth deli-sandwich specialty shop, I've been so intrigued and just love their  milder spin on this.

I've recreated something similar several times, but after this batch is gone, I think it'll be time for a trip over there to buy more of the Northern Waters version get myself back on track by reminding myself again what my original inspiration actually tastes like.
 
For the first part of the process, I chop-sliced the following into a big glass or non-metal bowl:

1 sm.-med. heavy green cabbage

1/2 sm. heavy purple cabbage
1 sm.-med. yellow onion
part of a purple onion
5-6 green onions
1/2 lg. green pepper
2 ribs of celery
2 carrots

Sprinkle 1/3c Himalayan pink salt over all of this and massage it into the vegetables for several minutes. It'll start pulling the water out and shrink the volume.

Let this just do its thing on the counter for a couple hours. Next add 10c of cold water and again massage the vegetables. Cover with a heavy platter to make sure everything is submerged and leave on the counter, if your kitchen is below 65°, or put in the 'fridge for 24 hours.

~ ~ Next Day ~ ~

Drain the vegetable and rinse well with fresh cold water, then let drain again. While this is happening, whisk the following ingredients in a small bowl:

2t finely ground black pepper
2t finely ground red pepper
1T granulated garlic
1T ground turmeric

1T ground ginger

1/3c soy sauce
2t sugar

Put the vegetables back in the big -washed and dried- bowl. Pour the sauce over everything and mix it all well, again with your hands, or a heavy wooden spoon. Fill quart jars. Be sure to push the vegetables down to release more brine. Use thick glass weights if necessary, to keep everything submerged.

Cover each jar with cheese cloth, using a rubber band to hold it tight on the jar. Or a circle of paper towel, secured with a canning ring or sprouting jar top. Not airtight - so gas can escape. Leave on the countertop 24-72 hours.

Check it each day and refrigerate when it until has the tang you like.

This will be best if chilled a week or so. It's fermented, so it will keep a while in the refrigerator. Great as a vegetable side dish, on a hearty sandwich . . . Lin

Coconut Tomato-Vegetable Bisque (with compound butter parmesan biscuits)

SO many vegetables!

This is what I started with. If you substitute English cucumber for the squash, it's very similar to the ingredients for my Gazpacho!

I only roasted those shown on the cookie sheet: squash, purple onion, carrots, cabbage, small tomatoes and garlic. The others have more delicate or fresh flavors, and are best with minimal cooking. 

Drizzle with single source EVOO, season with your favorite vegetable seasonings then roast until golden at 350° for 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut up the other vegetables and saute on low heat, starting with the green pepper and celery.

Saute in 2T each:
Better Than Bouillon-vegetable, EVOO, water. After about 10 minutes, stir in the cut up grape tomatoes and green onions. When it begins to bubble again, cover and move off the burner.

Stir in the rough chopped roasted vegetables, the can of stewed tomatoes, 1-2t coconut or brown sugar.

Simmer everything an additional 10 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender until it reaches the smoothness you want. At the end, blend in some fresh basil, then stir in 1 or 2 cans of coconut milk. I used 2 cans this time.

I made some biscuits, in a muffin tin, to go with this. Crack open a can of 8 jumbos, cut each biscuit in 4 pieces putting 3 in each paper-lined muffin cup in a 12 tin. 8 will be bigger ones with 4 being smaller, having only 2 biscuit pieces.

Top each with about 1T grated parmesan-romano cheese. Drizzle with melted butter seasoned with garlic salt, pepper, Italian seasonings. Bake until the tops are nicely browned. If there is extra butter, butter the tops when they are cooled a bit. . .Lin

Cherry Chicken Pasta Salad

1c chopped celery

1c chopped sweet onion

1/2c± mayonnaise

1/2c± Lemon-EVOO Dressing

salt and pepper

12oz. roasted chicken meat
3-4c al denté cooked pasta

Combine the chopped vegetables, cherries, dressing, salt and pepper; in a medium bowl, while cooking the pasta; to rehydrate and flavor the cherries. Drain the pasta then rinse well in very cold water. Drain well again, before adding to the bowl. Shake the lemon-oil dressing. Add that, the chicken and mayonnaise. Gently combine then check the flavors, making any needed adjustments. I always think of salads like this as strictly summer food. I was craving it and so glad I made it, for a nice change from heavy winter foods. . .Lin

Another Chicken Cacciatore Redux. . .

I've been making Chicken Cacciatore since the the late '60's!
I would splurge, and buy a copy of Women's Day and Family Circle once a month when grocery shopping. Back when my $20.00 grocery budget bought 4 bags of groceries for the week, and 20¢ for each magazine seemed extravagant. . .Money well spent. I'd read them cover to cover!

I found a recipe for it in Family Circle - and loved it - each time. Even though I made it a bit different from the time before. Sometimes serving over linguine, sometimes over Uncle Ben's 20 minute rice. You know I can't follow someone else's recipe, much less make it the same way twice. So, this one is similar, to that first one of the early '70's, same ingredients, but also way different with additions and different techniques.

This one was really fun. First time ever making a roux to thicken it, or adding kalamata olives, or serve it over gluten free, brown rice and millet ramen noodles! Mmmm!

So here it is, my latest rendition of the original Family Circle's Chicken Cacciatore. 

I started with a package of rotisserie chicken, only using 1# for this recipe! If you roast your own, let it cool enough to touch. Separate it into meat and another container of the skin, bones and tendons. Use that to make bone broth.

I froze all the skin, tendons and bones, shown here, on the right, and will use that for future bone broth.

24oz. baby portobello mushrooms

1 yellow and 1 orange bell pepper
5-6 sm. yellow onions
1 whole bulb of garlic, cut in half, horizontally

I roasted the mushrooms separately from the other vegetables. Slice them, spread on a big baking sheet, drizzle them with a good quality, single source, EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasonings. Chop, oil and season the vegetables. 

Roast everything in a 375°-400° oven, moving them and flipping if possible, so everything develops a bit of a char on all sides. Roasting pulled a lot of liquid from the mushrooms! Shown in the mug. I used a turkey baster to remove it before combining with the vegetables. It's a wonderful flavorful Mushroom Broth! Use it!

While the vegetables are roasting, make a golden roux, using 1/2c butter and 1/2c all purpose flour. I only used part of this, freezing the rest to thicken future soups, etc.

In a big pot, mine holds 6+ quarts, combine the following:

12oz. bone broth - mine was made previously

1 28oz. can diced tomatoes

5 bay leaves

mushroom broth

1-2t brown or coconut sugar

12oz. your favorite red pasta sauce

Gently stir all this together, with the roasted vegetables. Simmer 15 minutes or so. I kept one onion raw and added it now for a little different onion flavor and texture. When adding the garlic, squeeze the cloves out of their papery coverings  Cut them up a little.

Add the chicken and:
1c+ Kalamata (dark red-purple) olives

Simmer 5-10 minutes then check the flavors.
Add chicken soup base, or salt and pepper if needed, to wake up the flavors.

Cook as many blocks of ramen as you need. This is a wonderful, gluten-free, wheat pasta alternative I found at Costco. When cooked it's a lot like slightly curly angel hair pasta. I just love it! It's great in soup.

Since I'm not serving this until Sunday, just visualize how it will look plated, accompanied by a big green salad! This last photo shows everything simmered and ready to eat. It will taste even better with additional reheating. 

Be Bold! . . Be Adventurous! . . Happy Cooking! . .😁. . .Lin

Truffle Oil Seared Ahi Tuna and Vegetables

Ohhhh, my, I can't even tell you!

This was beyond spectacular. Every Foodie's Perfect Dream Dinner. . .

I put this 3oz. frozen Ahi Tuna steak in a pan with just a little oil, leftover in the pan, actually, from this morning's asparagus mushroom adventure.

Turned the heat up to medium high, for just a couple minutes, to give it a chance to thaw a bit. But, it started searing so well, I decided to just go with it, for an early dinner.

Again. . .Ohhhh, my, I can't even tell you! This was SO good! I seared the tuna for just a short time before adding a couple tablespoons of truffle oil and some rosemary seasoning. Then tossed in the leftover asparagus, mushrooms and onions from this morning. I flipped the tuna a couple times, stirred the vegetables, plated it, then after the photo, I added a drizzle of dill ranch dressing, fresh lemon juice, and several sliced jalapeño-garlic stuffed olives.

Need I say it again. . .

Ohhhh, my, I can't even tell you! . .Lin

Roasted Vegetables

 

3 med. purple Japanese sweet potatoes

Peel away the ends and any bad spots, leaving as much of the skin as possible. Cut in chunks and get them in some salted water as quickly as possible to avoid oxidizing and turning a nasty grey...

In a big bowl, whisk together:

⅓-½c good quality EVOO

1t± smoked garlic chipotle seasoning

a good shake of salt

1t dry tarragon 

Cut the vegetables shown, in chunks, into the bowl. Drain and pat the sweet potatoes dry, with a paper towel. Add them to the bowl and toss well. Spread out everything on parchment lined baking sheets and roast in a preheated 375° oven for 40 minutes. Move everything around, flipping the big pieces, then turn the oven up to 400° for another 10-15 minutes.

This was so good! I had it with small, seared, butter-cooked lamb chops, seasoned with Rosemary Seasoning. I made sure most of the mushrooms ended up on this plate and also added some beets I roasted earlier.

The rest of the roasted vegetables could be blended, then heated with coconut milk and pumpkin pie spice, for a nice squash soup. . .Lin

Beefy Onion-Mushroom Soup

1# Black Angus beef top round steak

fresh ground black pepper

2T aged dark Balsamic vinegar

2T EVOO

Cut the beef, across the grain in 1/2" thick slices.  Cut the strips into 1/2"-1" pieces.  Pepper them, add vinegar and oil, toss in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate a couple hours or overnight.

2-4T butter

2 stalks celery

1/3 lg. bell pepper

1c well cooked crispy bacon crumbles

7-8c cold fresh water - a little at a time

2-1/2# white and baby portabella mushrooms

1-3/4# Vidalia, purple and yellow onions

2T aged dark Balsamic vinegar

2T beef Better Than Bouillon

3/4c sour cream - optional

3T flour + 1/2c± cold water to make a roux

Sauté-stir-fry the beef in a little EVOO and butter, in a 5-6 quart pot. Add a little water to the pan, stirring to loosen all the browned bits, brown again and repeat the deglazing until the meat is nicely browned.

Cut the mushroom stems, flush with the bottom of the cap. Finely chop these, celery and peppers then add with the bacon. This gives the soup more texture and flavor. Sauté this 15 minutes, then add the sliced and onions and mushrooms - separately cooked, vinegar and soup base. I sautéed the mushrooms last and used a baster to pull out 1c of nice dark mushroom broth to add to the big pot before letting the rest evaporate until the mushrooms were cooked. 

Stir all this together, and stay with it during the browning stage. Simmer on low-medium heat until everything is nicely browned, adding a little water or more butter if needed. At the very end you could add a little red wine or Vodka if you'd like, for another dimension of flavor. Simmer and stir another couple minutes. Add the rest of the water and stir gently, cover and simmer for at least an hour on very low heat.

At the end, add the roux and bring back to a low bubble for 5 minutes, to thicken the soup, stirring the entire time.  Serve now, or uncover and cool a half hour before stiring in the sour cream. Heat it back up to serving temperature.

Plate with warm, crusty garlic bread or cornbread and a side of fruit or a mixed green salad. . .Lin

Onion Jam

I bought a tiny, dark jar of this once at a Farmer's Market.  It had been made with dark balsamic vinegar, red wine, purple onions. It was more caramelized and much thicker than mine.  I need to keep working toward something similar, but meanwhile, this turned out well.

2-1/2# onions - slice-chop
1 entire bulb of garlic* - peeled and sliced
1/2c good quality EVOO

Bring this to a simmer.  Cook and stir until the onions become translucent and barely brown.

*to easily peel this much garlic, separate the cloves, put in a jar and cover with water.  Microwave for about 15 seconds on high, then let them stay in the warm water a few minutes.  Drain, cut the stem ends off each clove and the skins should pop right off.

ADD: 

1/4c red wine vinegar
1/4c fig balsamic vinegar
2T brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1t black peppercorns
1t whole cloves
salt and pepper
2 bay leaves

Simmer this slowly, uncovered, stirring frequently. Cook until the onions become more translucent and the liquid evaporates to your desired thickness. It can be poured into clean, hot jars. If the jar seals, you can store it in the pantry.  Otherwise, it will keep several weeks in the 'fridge.

This is good on roasted chicken, a big burger, and so many things!  The other night I put a dab on top of cheddar cheese spread, on a flatbread cracker. Tonight I had a little bit spread on Pepperjack Chakes.

Be Bold - Be Creative!  Happy Cooking. . .Lin

Hearty Onion Mushroom Soup

I bought a bag of assorted onions at the grocery store and found cipollini's at our local Co-Op. I also bought 4 packages of mushrooms and knew this would either be for a special shrimp scampi, a stroganoff or a big pot of soup. Although I still have a lot of these ingredients...for now...Soup Won!

• 2+# purple, cipollini, white and yellow onions
• 6 big garlic cloves
• 2T rendered, strained chicken fat
• ¼-½t Penzeys Black and Red Spice
• 1-2t Rosemary Seasoning

• 12oz. washed, sliced mushrooms
• 10oz. scrubbed, unpeeled, sliced Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1-2T of rendered, strained bacon fat
• 3oz. sliced-cross-cut fresh spinach
• 1 quart homemade chicken bone broth

Saute' the onions and garlic in a cast iron skillet with the chicken fat.  Add the seasonings (the Penzeys spice is cayenne and black pepper) when everything's sizzling, and continue to saute' until the onions caramelize--they'll turn translucent, then brown and begin to stick to the bottom. Stir, and when they're as brown as you'd like, add about a cup of the broth. Stir, loosening all the brownings on the bottom. Turn off the heat.

In a 4 quart stock pot, combine the mushrooms, potato slices and bacon fat. Simmer and stir over medium heat. This will begin to stick a little, so add a little chicken broth once everything's a nice golden brown. Stir it well, then add the sliced spinach in a layer on top, but don't mix it in. Turn off the heat, add the onions in another layer to cover the spinach.  Cover the pot and just leave it for 10 minutes to steam the spinach.

Add the rest of the broth, stir gently to combine, turn the heat to low, cover and simmer at a very low bubble for another 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat until you're ready to serve.  This would be good with some crusty Italian bread or homemade croutons. Lots of warmth and flavor. Perfect for a chilly winter day. . .Lin

Purple and Orange Roasted Root Vegetables

10c scrubbed, chopped root vegetables

Today I used orange sweet potato, purple sweet potato, baby red potatoes, carrots and onion.  Cut these in appropriate sizes and shapes, remembering that carrot takes longer to cook than potatoes, so cut them a little smaller.  Put the chopped vegetables in a big bowl of salted, cold water, using about half a teaspoon of salt.  Mix to be sure each gets a little bath with the water the chloride + the sodium in the salt (NaCl) keeps them from browning.  Works wonderful for sliced apples also, when making pie.

Drain well in a colander and pat dry with paper towels.  Dry the bowl and pour in about ⅓c of EVOO, and season with a salt and pepper based seasoning.  Toss the vegetables in the seasoned oil, then put on a parchment paper lined jelly roll pan.  Use two pans for this many vegetables.  I made the mistake of crowding them onto only one.  They didn't crisp up the way I wanted since being so close, they sort of steam-roasted.  I can't give you an exact time either.  I'd say set the oven to 400° and when it's preheated, put them in and set the time for 12 minutes.  Take them out.  Using the overhang paper on each side, roll the vegetables to the center then rearrange them to be sure they're all coated evenly. Return to the oven until they're crisp on the outside and done in the middle.

It seemed I also used a little too much oil, which I corrected for this recipe, reflected in the amount above. If your vegetables are too oily, put them in a colander on top of a clump of paper towels. In spite of all this. . .they turned out well.

Cooking is art, but sometimes science prevails and teaches us a lesson 😊 This pairs nicely with meatloaf or grilled beef, chicken or fish. . .Lin

Fruit and Vegetable Harvest Soup

1 med. orange winter squash

1 med. acorn squash

1 big sweet potato

EVOO w/ salt and pepper

Wash everything.  Cut the squash open and remove the seeds.  Place as shown on the cookie sheet and rub the cut and open surfaces with the well seasoned olive oil.  Cut the sweet potato into big chunks.  Get all cut, peeled surfaces covered with the salty, peppered oil as soon as possible - it will keep everything from oxidizing.  I peeled the sweet potato, since it was an older one with lots of surface marks, but normally I'd just scrub and not peel, for more fiber.  Roast these in a 400⁰ oven for 20 minutes before adding the softer fruits and vegetables on another sheet. . .

3-4 assorted apples

1 med. onion

2 big carrots

2-3 stalks celery

2-3 heads of garlic

1 Bartlett pair

2T Better Than Bouillon - vegetable 
1T pumpkin pie seasoning

4-6c fresh cold water

2T organic buckwheat honey
¾c chopped fresh, or freshly dried parsley

Scrub, cut and coat all of these with the seasoned EVOO.  Put in the oven with the hard vegetables and continue roasting both an additional 1 hour.  Turn the heat to 375⁰ for the last 30 minutes.  Shut oven off and let everything cool.  

Scoop the squash out of the shells, squeeze the garlic out of the skins into a 4-5 quart pot.  Chop up the other roasted fruit and vegetables and add to the mix and season.  Pour in 4c fresh cold water, cover and simmer 20-30 minutes.  Add more water if needed, and blend with your immersion blender.  Stir in the parsley, taste and add salt, pepper, soup base or more pumpkin pie spice if needed.  I debated on adding a can of coconut milk, which would be really good, but that's not a harvest ingredient, so I'll pass this time. . .

Happy Harvest Everyone 😊. . .Lin

Updated Version of Millie's Cucumber Salad

My Mother-In-Law made this all the time for family dinners.  It was SO good, but really sweet.  Here's her recipe. . .

https://slowfoodhealthyfood.blogspot.com/2012/07/millies-much-requested-cucumber-salad.html

This version is way less sweet, using a healthier sweetener and lemon juice in place of the vinegar.  It's still a good idea to stick with a neutral oil, unless you really love the flavor of olive oil. . .if so. . .go for it 😉

5 pearl onions or equivalent

4 med.-lg. pickling cucumbers

1t dried cilantro

chopped chives or sliced garlic scapes

Lemon-Olive Oil Dressing *

add 1-2T pure Maple syrup to dressing - shake well
or use your favorite citrus vinaigrette dressing

1 med.-lg. vine-ripened tomato

Halve and slice the onions, rough peel the cucumbers, halve them lengthwise, and slice into a small-medium glass bowl.  Add dried cilantro and chives or garlic scapes, then pour about half a recipe of the dressing on top to marinate.  Gently stir several times over the next hour or so.  Add chopped tomato, stir again, and refrigerate an hour before serving.  This will keep several days, covered in the 'fridge. . .if there are leftovers. . .Lin

BIG Ajvar Meatballs

1½# lean ground beef

1# mild pork sausage

1 lg. onion - chopped

1c quick cook oats

1c Ajvar pepper sauce

2 lg. eggs

1t salt

1t black and red pepper

1t Penzey's Shallot Pepper

This started out as meatloaves.  Then as I was thinking of the people I often cook for, after having thawed the beef and pork, I realized none of them are crazy about meatloaf!  I also found myself mixing the ingredients, singing an old song from the early 1950's. . ."One Meatball"  That's when this morphed into BIG meatballs, that I can freeze and keep, or give away just a few at a time, rather than a whole meatloaf.  Bake these at 350° for 45-60 minutes.

Adding in the approximate weight of all the ingredients, these meatballs each weigh between 3-4oz.  I'll freeze them, then take out one or possibly two, at a time.  Heat them and serve over pasta, with sauce, or just chop them up and have them with vegetables for a quick and easy dinner.  Good pasta or vegetables,  sometimes all you need for dinner is One Meatball! . . . Lin

Onion-Mushroom Baked Chicken

3½# chicken thighs

1 skinny purple onion

4-8oz. fresh sliced mushrooms

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 pkg. dry onion-mushroom soup

fresh ground black pepper

½ can water

Skin the chicken and trim off all the fat.  Arrange in a 12"x 8" x 3" glass baking pan.  Put a cross-section of onion on top of each thigh, along with mushrooms, if you have them.  Combine all the remaining ingredients and pour over the chicken.  Bake at 375° for 15 minutes then drop the heat to 350° for another 45 minutes.  This creates a nice gravy so it's good with mashed potatoes and a side of steamed carrots and green beans. . .Lin

A Coconut Vegetable Curry

½-1 can garbanzo beans

½ sm. yellow onion-chopped

1 lg. garlic clove-minced

1T± coconut oil

I had some garbanzos leftover from the other day, so I decided to brown them up a bit in my cast iron stock pot with the little bit of onion, garlic and coconut oil.  You'll probably need to cover the pot with a splatter screen since the beans will start snapping and popping when they begin to brown.  Once they reach that point, turn off the heat and finish your vegetable prep.

4 sm. sweet potatoes
6 quartered radishes

1 lg. turnip

3 cloves garlic

¾c golden raisins

(dried figs, prunes, apricots)

2t± fresh minced ginger

2-3T AROY-D yellow curry paste

2-4c water
~ 4-8oz. AROY-D coconut milk

~ ½ bunch cilantro or Italian parsley

Scrub the sweet potatoes, but don't peel them, just cut off the ends and slice off any skin irregularities or dark patches.  If your turnip's been waxed, cut it in quarters.  This should make it easy to pop the thin layer of wax off the skin.  Since turnip skins are nice and thin, like carrots, you don't need to peel them, just scrub them well, once the wax is off.  The skin gives you a bit more really good vegetable fiber.  Mince the garlic and add these ingredients to the bean pot, down to, and including the water.  Simmer a half hour or longer until the vegetables are cooked as you like them.

Add the coconut milk, greens, simmer a while and then check the flavors.  Serve as is (or over rice, quinoa or angel hair pasta).  Oh, I  SOOO love a really good, well-balanced, curry!  😊 . . . Lin