That's a Dilly of a Pickle!

Hi diddily ho bloggerinos!    We're both huge fans of pickles, and since we got a few kirby cucumbers in our last share, it seemed like the perfect time to try to make them. We searched the interwebs for some recipes and settled on this one and this one, plus we added a few of our own spices.

Start by washing your cucumbers, and making sure they don't have any dirt on them. Since our jars are still full of kimchi and saurkraut and we don't have canning supplies, we just used a plastic container with a lid.  Any airtight container should work, as long as it's been sterilized.

For the pickling liquid, we mainly followed Alton Brown's suggestions...mixing up a brine, though we did add a splash of vinegar.  For spices, we roughly chopped up about 6 cloves of garlic, and added in red chili flake, mustard seeds, carraway seeds, black peppercorns and a whole bunch of dill.

Once your spices are in your container, stuff your cucumbers in there.  You want to make sure they are nice and snug in the container.  Then, pour in your brine so the cucumbers are completely submerged.  If the cucumbers are nice and snug, they're less likely to float to the top when you pour in your brine.  Then just place your lid on the container, and make sure you get as much air out of it as possible.

Now you'll have to be patient, and let your cucumbers pickle.  Store them in a cool dry place.  We just placed ours in one of the kitchen cabinets, away from the stove.  After about 3 days, you'll notice bubbles rising to the top of your container.  This is proof that fermentation has begun, and you're on your way to having pickles!  If you notice any scum forming in the top of your pickling liquid, wipe it off immediately.  We noticed some white film on one of our pickles, so we wiped it off with a paper towel that was soaked in a little vinegar.

Fermentation should be complete in about 6-7 days, once the bubbles stop rising and your pickles taste sour.  Then transfer them to the refrigerator, and start to enjoy them!  If any of the pickles get soft or start to smell funny, you should discard them.  Ours came out nice and garlicky, with a slight heat to them.  They're the perfect snack or or sandwich companion!

Part I: Gravlax

Back in December, I caught Chuck Hughes' Christmas special on The Cooking Channel, and I watched him make gravlax.  It seemed simple enough, and we had the many of the components on hand (aside from the salmon), so why not try it out?

We put my mortar & pestle to use to crush the szechuan peppercorns, and to mix up the salt, dill and brown sugar.  I only had Kosher salt on hand, rather than coarse salt, so if that is the case for you, I'd recommend using a bit less salt than the recipe calls for.

For your salmon, either buy 2 filets, or buy 1 that you'll cut in half.  You want to have 2 pieces of salmon that are mirror images of each other so you can sandwich them, one on top of the other.  Take your salt/sugar/dill mixture and crust both pieces of salmon.  The thicker parts should get more salt/sugar/dill.

Sandwich the salmon together with the salt/sugar/dill mixture in the middle.  Tightly wrap your salmon sandwich in plastic wrap, and place on a cookie sheet.  You'll want to place another cookie sheet on top, then place it in the fridge with about 1lb. of weight on top.

Let it sit in the fridge for 24hrs.  You'll notice a lot of liquid will seep out, and the flesh of the salmon will darken and lose its translucence.  When that's happened, your gravlax is ready!  Just remove all of the salt/sugar/dill, rinse off the flesh with water, and pat it dry.  When you're ready to eat it, just slice off pieces on the bias.

Now we know what you're thinking...what do I do with a couple hunks of cured salmon?  Well, for part II of this post, we'll show you we made our own bagels, and how to build the perfect breakfast bagel.  You should "Like" our Facebook page to get instant updates too.  Stay tuned!

Welcome to the Jungle [Curry]

I'm pretty sure I won Justin over on just our 2nd date when we ended up at Little Serow for dinner.  If you're not familiar, it's a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place, behind an unmarked door, that was named one of Bon Appetit's 50 best new restaurants last year.  If you're lucky enough to get a seat, you're in for 5-7 courses of delicious northern and northeastern Thai food.  This isn't your typical coconut curry and pad Thai that you get in most Thai restaurants.  Instead, the flavors are tangy, and progress in heat.  The ingredient I was most surprised to find was dill.

It was only a matter of time before we attempted to recreate this cuisine at home.  We decided to make a jungle curry, native to northeastern Thailand.  Coconuts don't grow in that region, so this curry ends up looking more like a broth.

We started by prepping our veggies; some magda squash, globe squash, baby bok choy, and snap peas, green onion, all fresh from the share, along with some white onion, dill and cilantro.

 Then we fried up some shallots that would be used as a garnish.  Just slice them then, and drop them into some hot oil.  You don't have to bread them or anything.  Keep your eye on them though.  They fry up quick.

We heated our wok with some vegetable oil and tossed in a couple cloves of chopped garlic, a healthy squeeze of sriracha, and a couple chopped dried chiles.  Once they became fragrant, we tossed in the bok choy, and started to build the broth.  I didn't have any curry paste on hand, but I did have some amok curry powder from a past trip to Cambodia, so we tossed that in instead.  We also added a bit of brown sugar, some oyster sauce, and a bit of fish sauce.  Now, the smell of fish sauce is not appealing at all, but it adds a nice salty and tangy flavor to a lot of southeast Asian dishes.

From here, we started adding in the squashes, onions, snap peas, and some chicken broth to round out the broth.  As everything continued to simmer together, we added in our cubed chicken.  Within minutes, the We plated up the curry, garnished with the cilantro, dill, and fried shallots.

It was really, really good, and very different from typical Thai food such as peanut satay.  The squashes were especially yummy as they soaked up all the complex flavor from the curry, while the heat didn't overwhelm their nutty taste.  I have to say...it was a pretty close rendition to a dish we enjoyed at Little Serow last summer, and much quicker than waiting in line for a table.

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

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.

CSA Day!

We're back to our normal bi-weekly share pick ups, and couldn't be more excited with the goodies we picked up today.

I know Justin is most excited about the ramps, especially since we've been seeing them everywhere.  And we've got big plans for the chicken.

We made quick work of the asparagus, simply roasting them with salt and pepper, and giving them a little squeeze of lemon juice to finish them off.  They were paired with grilled lamb chops, with the curry cream sauce we made at Easter.

Gimme Back That Filet o Fish

Since the meats we got in Tuesday's share were all frozen, we made a quick stop in Eastern Market to pick up a protein to go with some of our fresh veggies.  We decided to go with some nice salmon filets, atop a parsnip and turnip puree, with a side of red kale.  Luckily the salmon was not as annoying as this fishy.

So let's get cookin'!  The puree took the most work, so I got to peeling the parsnips and turnips, while Justin chopped them.  After a little salt and pepper, those went into the oven to roast.

While the parsnips and turnips were roasting, Justin made the brown butter.  If you haven't made it before, its a very simple technique that adds a great nuttiness to your food.  You just melt some butter in a pan and let it caramelize until it turns brown and tastes nutty.

As soon as the butter browned, we added some black mission figs cut side down, and half of a red onion, and let them cook down and get coated in the delicious butter.  Once the turnips and parsnips were roasted, those were added to the brown butter, figs, and onion.  We kept it all in the pan for just a few minutes, to allow everything to be coated in the butter, and let the flavors kind of meld together.

Then it was time to puree!  If you don't have an immersion blender, you should really consider getting one.  We've used it to make sauces, soups, purees, smoothies and shakes.  Its such a versatile tool and it doesn't take up a lot of space.  Anyway...back to the puree...

The only other thing we added to the puree was some flat leaf parsley and a touch of heavy cream.  The figs added a nice sweetness, but the tang from the turnips still came through.

While the puree rested, we got to the rest of the meal.  Justin seasoned the salmon with some smoked applewood sea salt, lemon salt, a touch of cayenne, some brown sugar, and some fresh dill and thyme.  We popped those into the oven for about 12 minutes, and they came out perfectly cooked.

While Justin took care of the fish, I got to work on the red kale.  Using the same pan that we browned the butter in, I sauteed a shallot and some garlic.  Then I tossed in the kale and let it wilt down a bit.  I noticed the shallot and garlic were starting to stick to the bottom of the pan a bit, so I deglazed the pan with a little lemon juice and red wine vinegar to give it a little tang, and to pick up all the buttery bits at the bottom of the pan.

By the time the kale had wilted, the salmon was ready.  We're getting a lot better at this whole timing thing!  Everything came together wonderfully!  The salmon had a nice sweet, smokey, herby taste, while the puree was sweet with a hint of tang, and the kale gave us some crunch.

CSA Recap

Happy MLK Day, and Inauguration Day!  For as close as we both live to the Capitol, all we could hear were sirens all morning.  In preparation for our next share tomorrow, its time for a recap of how we used all the food from our previous share.

If you remember, here's what we picked up last time...

And here's what we cooked up...

• Thai Peanut Stir Fry
• purple carrots
• broccoli
• spinach
• sweet potato
• dill
• Spaghetti Squash (we spared you ANOTHER post about spaghetti squash)
• pork sausage
• Stuffed Pork Loin & Butternut Squash Polenta
• gold rush apples
• butternut squash
• Sausage Egg Scramble & Home Fries
• pork sausage
• potatoes
• Bison Steak & Kohlrabi Fritters
• bison NY strip steak
• kohlrabi
• spinach
• bibb lettuce
• romaine lettuce
• Turkey Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries
• dill
• sweet potatoes
• Pain Perdu (like fancy french toast) & Hash Browns
• pink lady apples
• onion
• potatoes

The only thing we haven't used up is the head of cabbage, though we have plans to try another kimchi recipe.  Fingers crossed we don't get another one in tomorrow's share.

Flippin' Burgers

When I first really got into cooking, I was (and still am) a fan of Rachael Ray.  Her recipes were easy and used common, everyday ingredients, and she made cooking look fun and easy.  And it turns out Justin had a bit of a crush on her too (which I can kinda see, she rescues pitbulls, can cook, and has delightful catchphrases such as "yum-o").  Anyway...one of the few recipes of hers that I still make are her spanikopita burgers.  The spinach and onions keep the turkey juicy, and the feta gives the burger a nice saltiness.  To kick up the Greekyness, I like to top them with homemade tzatziki.

So here goes...

Start by chopping up some red onion and garlic and get that sauteing in a pan.  Once they become really fragrant, and the onions are translucent, set them aside to cool.

For the spinach component, I take the easy route and just use frozen chopped spinach.  Once its defrosted, you'll want to wring out all the water so your burgers don't become soggy.  Just like I did with the kohlrabi the other night, you'll want to put the spinach into a dish towel, and just wring it out.

You'll be surprised by how much water comes out of the spinach.  To quote Justin, "The spinach is peeing!"  Yes, we're like 5 year olds sometimes :)

Once you've gotten as much water out of the spinach as you can, toss it in the bowl with your ground turkey.  Then you add in some feta crumbles, and the spices.  This time we went with salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, a little rosemary, and some dill.  Now its time to get down and dirty and mix everything together so all the ingredients are evenly distributed.  Then you're ready to make your patties and cook 'em up!

While the burgers were cooking, we made the tzatziki.  I like to grate the cucumber so its easier to get the water out of it, but Justin took the time to slice it really thin.  If you have a decent amount of time on your hands, you can sprinkle the cucumber with salt and let the water leach out of it.  But if you're making it while the burgers cook, you can squeeze out the cucumbers just like you did with the spinach.  Otherwise your tzatziki will be runny, and nobody likes runny tzatziki.

My mini food processor was the perfect size for the amount of yogurt we had left.  We just used non-fat plain yogurt on hand, but I prefer to make it with Greek yogurt.  It just adds an extra bit of tang, and its a little thicker than plain yogurt.  Regardless, either will work just fine.  So into your food processor, toss the yogurt, some garlic, the cucumber, fresh dill, a splash of lemon juice, and some salt and pepper.  Puree it all together until the garlic and cucumber are finely chopped.  And there you have it.  Piece of cake!

Sometimes when I make these burgers, I like to make a little salad to top the burgers.  This usually consists of sliced tomatoes, pepperoncini, red onion, and some arugula, dressed lightly with olive oil and red wine vinegar.  The only thing I had on hand this time were the pepperoncini, so I just sliced up a few for a little added spice.

And because you have to have fries with your burgers (I'm pretty sure there's a rule written somewhere to that effect), we made some sweet potato fries as our side.  And we had plenty of extra tzatziki leftover for dipping!