Summertime Sweets

Tonight's dinner was super simple...we threw some steaks on the grill and mixed up a simple salad (for those of you at home playing the 2 Hungry Hearts drinking game, take a drink every time we make a simple salad) of green leaf lettuce and sliced fennel...all items from our share.  We topped the salad with some toasted walnuts, and dressed it with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, some thyme and fennel fronds.  The sweetness of the white balsamic balanced out the fennel quite nicely.

But let's get on to the main event.  If you thought the salad and steak were easy, wait till you feast your eyes on this dessert.  It couldn't be simpler!

We only had 2 stalks of rhubarb, so we tossed in some quartered strawberries too.  Strawberries and rhubarb are a winning combination; the sweetness of strawberries balancing out the tartness of rhubarb.  Since we had the strawberries, we just cut out some of the sugar the recipe called for.  Anyway...just chop up the rhubarb and strawberries, and toss with a bit of lemon juice and sugar.

In a separate bowl you'll make the topping.  Rather than just use panko, as the recipe calls for, we also threw in some oats, along with cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, and some Chinese five spice, since we didn't have allspice on hand.

Butter the bottom of your baking dish, and spread some of your topping on the bottom to make a nice little crust.  Then layer on your strawberries and rhubarb so they're evenly distributed.  Top it off with the rest of your topping, along with your chopped almonds.  Then cube up some butter and dot the top.  Make sure the butter is spread out evenly too, so it melts over the whole dish.

Then just pop it into a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  You want the filling to start to bubble, and the top to be golden brown and crisp.  Let it cool for a few minutes, and then dig in! As our friend Jeffrey Zakarian would say, "Yummy!"

Burgers. Beets. Battlestar Gallactica.

Tonight's post is dedicated to Dwight Shrute and the end of The Office.  We're pretty sure our beets came from a farm in Virginia, but Scranton isn't too far from DC, so I guess there's a slight chance they came from Shrute Farms.

This week's share gave us some Polyface ground beef, which we are always excited for. With the warm summer weather, burgers on the grill sounded like the perfect dinner.  We still had some umami dust on hand, and since Umami Burger isn't DC yet, we had to make our DIY version.  This recipe was our inspiration.

The twist this time around was the oyster mushrooms and onions in a port reduction that topped the burgers.

It's a really simple way to elevate any meat, whether it's a burger or a piece of steak.  Start by slicing and dicing your mushrooms and onion, and saute them in some brown butter.

Once they've softened, you'll add about 1 cup of port.  Here's where you'll deglaze your pan, making sure to scrape up all the tasty bits that are stuck on the bottom of your pan.  Then just let the liquid reduce down, stirring occasionally, until you have a thick glaze on your onions and 'shrooms.

We tucked our patties into some lettuce leaves, topped them with the port 'shrooms and onions, and some crumbled bleu cheese.

Since we didn't have any sweet potatoes for fries, we decided to make beet chips again to accompany the burgers.  They're super simple, and add a sweet, crispy component to the meal.  I would advise using a mandoline to slice them, if you have one, so that each chip is the same thickness.  Otherwise, take your time slicing and use a really sharp knife.  We used the beet greens to make a simple salad for a little extra roughage.

The beet chips, along with the port, added a nice sweetness that balanced out the rich umami flavors of the burgers.

And if you use your imagination a little, doesn't my plate kind of look like Dwight?

CSA Recap

Who's ready for a recap?

• Lamb Chops & Roasted Asparagus
• asparagus
• Sausage & Ramp Risotto w/ Salad
• ramps
• oyster mushrooms
• bibb lettuce
• Grilled Lobster & Ramps
• ramps
• Beer Can Chicken w/ Butter Braised Radishes
• chicken
• radishes
• Strawberry Shortcake
• strawberries
• Cod w/ Lemon Dill Beurre Blanc & Sauteed Spinach
• dill
• spinach

Coconut Macaroons

It feels like it's been a while since we posted something, so here's a little Sunday treat!  Also, 2 Hungry Hearts now has a Facebook page, so click over and 'Like' the page.

Since starting on our Paleo kick, we haven't really had many desserts (except on our cheat days!) since desserts typically include sugar.  While coming up with our Easter menu, we had planned to make coconut macaroons (though if you read that post, you'll know that we fell asleep...whomp! whomp!).  So, since we didn't make them then, we're making them now!

We had found a recipe online, but Justin didn't really like it...so we made up our own recipe.  So for the first time, you'll actually get a recipe out of us:

2 c. unsweetened, shredded coconut
1/2 c. coconut cream, or coconut milk
1 egg + 4 tbsp liquid egg whites (or just 1 egg + 2 egg whites)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
a generous squirt of honey
pinch of kosher salt
chocolate (if you want to dip your macaroons in it)

All you have to do is mix all of the ingredients together (minus the chocolate).  Then just spoon the mixture onto a cookie sheet into whatever size macaroons you'd like.

Then pop those babies in a 325 degree oven for about 25 minutes.  They'll get to be a toasty, golden brown color.

The amount of honey you add will determine how sweet your macaroons are.  Ours were on the less sweet side, but I still feel like I'm eating dessert.  And if you want to add some chocolate, now would be the time to  dip your macaroons in some melted chocolate, let it set, and enjoy!

Oh My Cod!!

We've been eating a lot of meat lately, so we thought it'd be a good idea to lighten things up and have some fish tonight.  With the dill from our share, we decided to make a lemon dill beurre blanc sauce.

We started by sauteing a couple cloves of garlic and half a shallot.  Once these were fragrant and translucent, we added a cup of white cooking wine, and just let it boil for a bit.

Once the liquid has reduced down almost completely, and the shallots and garlic are glossy, whisk in your butter.  As the butter melted, we also added in the dill, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

At this point, your sauce is pretty much done.  Just season it with salt and pepper, and set it to the side.

For the fish, we kept things simple and seasoned it with lemon zest, lemon salt, pepper, cumin, dill, and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Then just pop those babies into the oven at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes.  We used cod fillets, and they came out perfectly cooked and flaky.  But you could use any other mild, white fish.

To complete the meal, we sauteed up some spinach with a little garlic, onion, and red chili flake.  The spiciness of the spinach balanced out the rich, tangy beurre blanc sauce.  It was a light, quick meal, perfect for any summer night.

Strawberry Shortcake

When it comes to desserts, I'm much more apt to choose a fruit-based dessert over some decadent chocolate delight.  For one, chocolate, especially rich, dark chocolate, makes me sneeze.  And I just prefer a lighter, less sweet dessert.  So what better way to use our quart of strawberries, than to make a strawberry shortcake?

It was perfect timing because Justin received an email from Food & Wine with their 20 top strawberry recipes, which included a shortcake recipe.  It came together pretty quickly, and in no time, we were chowing down on dessert.

Justin took care of the strawberries, slicing them in half, and macerating them with some sugar, orange zest, and grated ginger.  The orange and ginger were our added twists, and added some brightness to our strawberries.

As for the shortcakes, mix the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together.  Using your fingers (or a pastry blender if you have one), mix in the cold butter.  Once the butter is incorporated, add in your cream, and mix with a knife until the dough clumps together.

At this point, the recipe has you pat the dough into a round cake pan, but we decided to make individual little shortcakes.  Once you form them to your desired size, place them on a baking sheet, brush on a bit of cream, and sprinkle a little sugar on top.  Then just pop 'em in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, or until they're golden brown on top.

While your shortcakes are cooking, you can make your whipped cream.  In a bowl you'll need your cream, some vanilla, and some sugar.  If you want a good arm workout, you can whip it by hand, but we opted for the hand mixer.  In less than 5 minutes, we had some delicious, homemade whipped cream.

Once the shortcakes have cooled a bit, slice them in half horizontally, spoon on some strawberries and whipped cream, and top with your shortcake cap.  We also added a bit or orange zest to garnish.

It was so easy, and so delicious.  It's the perfect summer dessert!  The hardest part was waiting for the shortcakes to cool!

Beer Can Chicken

Ah the infamous beer can chicken, AKA redneck duck confit.  Legend has it that at a BBQ competition some guy was waiting for brisket to cook overnight. He grew hungry while drinking some brews, and decided to cook himself up a chicken to snack on.  In his drunken state he accidentally set the chicken on his beer, and the beer can chicken was born.  Contrary to popular belief, the reason the chicken is so moist and delicious isn't from alcohol vapors or anything like that.  Sitting upright lets all that tasty skin fat render down the breast meat making it all tender and delicious!

After patiently waiting 3 whole days for our chicken to defrost, we were FINALLY able to cook it.  And with the weather warming up, we've been using the grill a lot more lately, so we decided to try out some beer can chicken.  This isn't a quick meal, like our last few have been, but it's totally worth the wait.

Start by procuring a can of beer.  We used Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout, since we had it on hand, but you can use whatever you want.  Reserve about 1/4 of the can for your rub, drink about 1/4, and leave the other half in the can.  Then we chopped up some garlic, rosemary, and oregano, and added that to the can with a bit of your dry rub ingredients.

For the rub, we used that 1/4 can of beer we reserved, some grapeseed oil (or whatever oil you have on hand), paprika, cayenne, cumin, dried sage, dried thyme, salt, pepper, and some secret hobo spices (we can't tell you ALL of our secrets!).  Before mixing the wet and dry ingredients, we put some of the spice mixture into the beer can (mentioned above), and saved some to sprinkle on the bird before we put him on the grill.  Then just get your hands dirty and rub your mixture all over the chicken, making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies.

Then you'll want to carefully insert the beer can into the cavity of the chicken, and stand him upright in a foil roasting pan.  You'll want to pull his legs forward and tuck his wings forward.  This will help him balance and sit upright.  Just like roasting a chicken in the oven, filling the cavity will help keep the breast meat moist and juicy, and having the metal can inside helps cook the bird from the inside out.

The most important part of the process is to use indirect heat, cooking him low, and slow.  For our grill, we only turned on the outer burners, and placed our chicken in the middle.  The other tray you see in the picture is filled with some water to help evenly distribute the heat.  If you own a fancy grill with a built-in thermometer, you'll want it to heat up to 225-245 degrees.  If your grill doesn't have a thermometer like ours, you can just wing it! (pun intended).

While the bird was cooking, we sat back, relaxed, and patiently waited.  We were starting to get anxious so we made our side dishes.  We made some sweet potato fries, and butter braised radishes.  Both sides were extremely simple.

For the radishes, cut off the ends, and quarter them.  And you can slice up your sorrel.

Then melt some butter in a pan with some stock.  We used all the stock we had for our risotto, so we just used some water.  Once it's melted, toss in your radishes, season with salt and pepper, and just let them cook.

Once the butter sauce thickens, you can take them off the heat.  This took about 15 minutes.  Then just toss them with the sorrel.   I never would have thought about eating warm, cooked radishes, but they were surprisingly tasty.  Obviously the butter helped in the taste department, but warming them also took some of the spicy bite out of them.  They were still on the crunchy side, which I liked, and the sorrel gave it back some of the freshness that the cooking process removed.

It ended up taking about 2 hours to cook our bird.  But it was well worth the wait.  The skin came out nice and crispy, the meat and juicy and tender, and there were plenty of drippings to make a delicious pan sauce.

We poured the drippings from the pan, and whatever beer was left in the can into a little skillet, added some cream, and whipped up a tasty little gravy.

Our beer can chicken dinner wouldn't be complete without a beer to drink, so we cracked open a bottle of Taster's Choice, a collaboration brew between DC Brau (our local brewery) and Ska Brewing, from CO.  They teamed up the ska band, The Pietasters, to make a coffee doppleback brew.  It was a delicious pairing to our chicken.


Overall, the meal came out delicious, it was a hearty and rustic meal, that packed a flavorful punch.  This is a great meal for summer get togethers because it starts with cracking open a beer and the grill does all the work while you continue the drinking and merriment with your friends.