MULTI-STEP/MULTI-COMPONENT/OBNOXIOUSLY-COMPOSED OMNIVORE DISH

Now that's a goddamn title.

Smoked tomato puree

Slice a pound of campari tomatoes into 8 wedges each. Toss with olive oil and sea salt and broil for 12-15 minutes or until skins are blackening and tomatoes have collapsed and reduced significantly.

Over high heat, saute the sliced white/light green parts of a bunch of scallions in olive oil along with 2 smashed garlic cloves. After 5 min or so, grate in a couple of passes of lime zest, squeeze a shot of lime juice, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, white wine, small fistful of flat parsley. Let cook for another 5 minutes on high, then add 3/4 cup of olive oil and reduce to med. Stir, cook for another 7 min or so. Add wine or water if it begins to stick. Add a few drops of blood orange olive oil and puree with immersion blender.

Corn Puree

Cut kernels from 4 ears sweet corn. Rub cobs with olive oil and roast until beginning to blacken/smoke (turn every 4 min or so).

Saute kernels in dry cast iron skillet until browned. Set aside 3/4 cup kernels. Add drizzle olive oil, half chopped onion, several cloves garlic to skillet. Cook 5 minutes or so, then add dash chipotle powder, salt, pepper, flat parsley. Cook to combine flavor, rest.

In stock pot, saute 1 sliced onion in olive oil. Add a clove garlic, roasted corn cobs and several whole rosemary stems. Cook until onion is beginning to soften. Add water to almost cover cobs. Add sauteed kernel mixture. Boil until liquid is reduced by 1/2. Add 1/2 cup heavy cream, then puree with immersion blender, season with salt/pepper. When seasoning is correct, add 3 tbsp very thinly sliced green onion.

Roast Shiitake mushrooms

Thinly slice 4-6 shiitake mushroom caps. Toss with scant olive oil and roast for a few min until chewy. While hot, splash grapefruit white balsamic, salt, pepper. Toss, shuffle, mix, etc.

Herbed red skin potato "chips"

Thinly slice (1/8-1/16") several med red skin potatoes. Rub with olive oil. Arrange in single spaced layer on baking sheet and sprinkle with generous finely minced rosemary, thyme and parsley. Broil until beginning to brown. Grate on scant parmesan. Roast another minute or so to crisp tops. While hot, salt, pepper, sumac. Rest.

Marinated purple asparagus

Steam quartered asparagus spears until tender/crisp. Toss with splash grapefruit white balsamic, blood orange olive oil, thin sliced green onion, salt, pepper.

Pan sear 4-5 oz filet and 3 large sea scallops; season.

To serve, puddle of tomato puree, then roast potato, shiitake, then thin fan of thin sliced filet. Lay stack/fenceline of asparagus to divide plate. On other side of plate, puddle of corn puree, roast potato slices, scallops on top. Drizzle of corn puree across beef, tomato puree across scallops. Garnish both sides with roast corn kernels, thin sliced green onion, finely minced italian parsley stems.

Pork Roast???!!!!!

Yeah, so I just don't want to forget this one. Big hit, used a cool technique.

In cast iron, brown 3.5 lb pork roast on all sides. Salt, pepper, rest 15 minutes.

Pressure cooker braise...1/2 head garlic smashed, 2 small tart apples, onion-heavy mirepoix. Braising liquid is 3-1 chicken broth/dry vermouth (could also use dry white wine). PEPPER, sea salt, hint cloves, hint allspice, strong hint chipotle powder, 1.5 tsp mustard seeds, bay leaves, fistful of flat parsley stems bound with twine. Total braise time @ 1.25 hr.

Remove roast, cover with foil, rest until ready to serve.

Remove bay leaves and parsley bundle from braising liquid. Add 3 smashed garlic cloves and boil until reduced by 1/3. Add splash cider vinegar, 1/8 tsp liquid smoke. Puree until smooth with stick blender. Whisk in 1/2 stick cold butter cut into chunks. Season and maintain simmer.

Slice loin and chunk the rest of the roast. Dunk each piece in sauce, then arrange on serving platter. Serve sauce on side.

Served with: Roast root/autumn veggies, spaetzle, smoked apple/sage veggie sausage and sour cream.

Sunchoke soup

Ok, so first of all, sunchoke (not jerusalem artichoke) only because it's easier/quicker to type.

Divide 3 lb sunchokes in half. Roast half in very hot oven after tossing with olive oil, salt & pepper. About 45 minutes. Should be dark, crispy outside with soft inside. Set aside to cool.

Slice remaining sunchokes 1/2" thick.

In stock pot over med high heat, heat splash of olive oil. Add 6 smashed/rough chopped garlic cloves and 2 chopped red onions. Saute 5 min and add sunchokes and a tied bundle of 12-15 thyme stems. Cook 7 min then add 6 1/2 cups veg broth/stock and a cup and a half of dry vermouth. When back at a simmer, cook for 20 min or so until sunchokes are tender. Roughly whack up the roast sunchokes and add them to the soup.

At this point, taste and season with sea salt, black pepper, smoked paprika and a dash of cayenne. With stick blender, pulse until soup is a thick puree with plentiful chunks. Add 2cups half & half and pulse just until color is homogenous.

Add 2 tbsp stripped fresh thyme leaves and several generous splashes of cream sherry or spanish sherry.

Allow to rest for at least 30 min before serving to allow flavors to develop. Serve hot with a splash of sherry and a dusting of smoked paprika.

(Note: this was made with sunchokes only hours out of the dirt in our front yard and thyme I snipped out back. I can't guarantee it would be the same with older/store bought sunchokes. And I wouldn't recommend it at all with dried thyme.)

Stuffed Roast Delicata Squash (Thanksgiving dinner in a shell)

Delicata squash are awesome because (unlike most Winter squash) they are a reasonable size and have an edible skin. Their flavor is less sweet than butternut or acorn.

Take two delicata and halve them lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and guts. Lay them cut side down in a dish with about 1/2" of water and microwave on high until slightly tender (8ish minutes?).

Meanwhile, make the stuffing. For the onions in the stuffing, I used the caramellized onions that we make in large batches and keep in the fridge. If you don't have any on hand, start by slow cooking sliced onions in a very little veg oil until they are nearly melty. Set the onions aside and clean out the pan. Now, over medium heat, saute about 3 ribs of finely chopped celery, a cup and a half of roughly chopped fresh cranberries, and a few smashed/chopped cloves of garlic in as much butter as your conscience will allow (I used about half a stick). Cook until the celery is translucent and the cranberries are getting jammy and add the caremellized onions and a big splash (1/2 cup?) of vermouth. Cook until the liquid evaporates and add about 3/4 cup of nuts. I used walnuts, but pepitas, pecan, or pine nuts would be good too.

Stir briefly, then add 3-4 cups of rough chopped bread. I used rye/pumpernickel swirl because it was in the freezer and it turned out beautifully. I would definitely recommend a darker crustier bread for this. Fold in the bread and let the whole works cook for 5 minutes or so over medium heat. The bread will shrink and condense. Finally, add 3-4 tablespoons of minced fresh herbs. I used Italian parsley, sage, rosemary and (wait for it....) thyme. Mix thoroughly to incorporate the herbs, season with a little sea salt and a generous amount of black pepper and set aside to cool.

When cool, fold in a crumbled 4oz log of fresh chevre. Stuff your pre-steamed Delicata halves generously, pressing down to condense the stuffing into the cavity.

Bake at 400 until the tops get crispy (about 25 min). Eat it on a bed of mashed potatoes and you will never miss turkey again.

Please-don't-kill-my-cat southern greens

Ok. So the challenge was to make traditional southern style greens without the pig parts.

A ham-hock in a pot of greens delivers several things: a shot of salt, a smoky flavor and the magic umami. So, like Brad Pitt in Moneyball, I tried to replace one awesome player with a composite to approximate the result.

I used red wine vinegar as a base. Vinegar is pretty traditional in southern greens. I started with probably 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar. To that I added my umami ingredient, soy sauce. Maybe a tablespoon altogether. For smokiness, I used liquid smoke. It is much more legit a source of smoke flavor than most folks realize. Finally, I used some fennel seed, sage and pepper flakes to simulate the flavor profile of a good sausage. I also added some smoked paprika for a multi layered smoke flavor. All of this was mixed together and held to the side.

To make the greens, I took two big bunches of kale and one of collards and removed the mid ribs from each leaf. I then roughly chopped them all. Put a pot of water on and blanch all of the greens for about 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.

While the greens drain, heat some oil in the largest pot you've gotn (med-high). Add two medium or one large sliced onion, a sliced (unseeded) jalapeno and several chopped cloves of garlic.

When the onion is pretty much translucent, add the greens and a splash of veg broth. Add your magic pig-part mimic solution and two or three chopped roma tomatoes. Lower heat to very low and cover. You are now in for a very long ride.

Let greens cook for 3-4 hours. Check, and stir occasionally. If they are getting dry enough that they might burn, add some veg broth. Avoid any additional seasoning since you are essentially reducing a large volume of food. Perfectly seasoned food that is reduced will be overseasoned.

After 3-4 hours, the volume in your pot should be reduced to half or less of what you started with. At this point, you can taste and season. I used sea salt, fresh black pepper, tabasco and a splash of cider vinegar.

This could also be made with mustard, beet, or turnip greens. With any of those, you would not need to parboil the greens; just throw them fresh into the pot with the onions/garlic etc. If you choose to make this with all collards, boil the greens slightly longer.

Raw veggie chick pea salad

Ok, sorry no picture with this one.

Julienne the following:

One carrot, half a red pepper, 4 radishes. Slide 2 ribs of celery and half a cucumber pretty thin (1/8" or so). Thinly slice one green onion all the way down to the root. Dice 3-4 roma tomatoes. Toss all together in a bowl with one can of drained/rinsed chick peas. Squeeze juice of one lemon into the bowl along with 3-4 tbsp of Goddess dressing (I used homemade, but Annie's would be good too). Toss and top with basil or flat parsley chiffonade.

Not exactly high cuisine, but really yummy power food.

I will post the Goddess dressing recipe tomorrow.

More posts to come when we begin to get our Arganica deliveries!