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

Ramp It Up!

Ramps.  They've been the talk of the town over the last couple weeks around DC, so we were really excited to get them in our share, and see what the fuss is all about.  We searched around, and found a recipe for sausage and ramp risotto that sounded mighty tasty, not to mention we had 95% of the ingredients on hand.  It's not a Paleo-friendly meal, but with the gloomy, rainy weather today, a comforting risotto fit the bill.

You'll want to start by cleaning your ramps.  They have a thin film over the bulbs, similar to a green onion.  You can just peel that off, rinse away any remaining dirt, and slice off the roots.  Then you're ready to go.  We only needed about half for the risotto, so we'll use the remaining ramps for dinner another night.  Woohoo!  So we sliced the entire thing, from bulb to stem to leaf, into thin slices, in preparation for the risotto.

The next step was to melt some butter in a pan, and brown up your sausage.  We used the rest of the mild pork sausage we had left from last week's share.  You'll want to cook this in the same pan that you plan to cook your risotto in.  Once the sausage is cooked through, toss in your ramps.  We also used half of the oyster mushrooms from our share to add a nice, earthy flavor.  While the sausage, ramps and mushrooms were cooking up, I heated our stock in a saucepan.  That way when we are ready to add the liquid to the rice, we're adding warm liquid.

Let everything cook together for about 5 minutes, to let the flavors start to meld together, and so the ramps and mushrooms can cook down.  Then you're ready to add your rice.  Justin prefers to use carnaroli rice, but he couldn't find any at the grocery store, so we settled for arborio.  Dump your rice into the pan, and stir it around so it gets coated in the butter and sausage grease, and so it can toast up a bit.  This gives it some added flavor.  Then you want to add your alcohol.  The recipe calls for vermouth, but we didn't have any on hand.  So we used a combination of marsala wine and sherry cooking wine.  Pour that in, deglaze your pan, and let the rice absorb the liquid.

Now comes the hard labor.  Once the rice has absorbed the liquid, you'll add about a 1/2 cup of stock to your pan while continuing to stir everything.  Once the liquid has been absorbed, add some more.  This cycle of stirring and adding liquid continues for about 30-45 minutes, until the starch has seeped out of the rice, you have a creamy consistency, and the rice is al dente.

Once your rice is al dente and creamy, add in your parmesan cheese, and season with salt and pepper.  You probably won't need much more salt since the cheese is salty, and there is probably salt in your stock.  So tread lightly.  We did add a touch of truffle salt for that extra umami kick.  Once you've stirred in your cheese, and it's seasoned to your liking, you're ready to serve!

We reserved some of the sliced ramp leaves to garnish our risotto.  They added a fresh, zesty component to the dish.  To accompany our risotto, we made a simple salad using the bibb lettuce, some red onion, carrots, and apple.  It was the perfect comfort food for this rainy day.

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.

CSA Recap

Helloooo!  Apologies to our loyal followers...I know we've been a bit silent over the last couple weeks, and that was not intentional.  Justin and I were over in China for the last couple weeks, and had been planning to post a few things while we were gone, until I was reminded that China blocks Google and blogs.  Whomp!  Whomp!  We'll have a recap of some of the delicious things we ate while we were traveling, but I still need to get settled back in first.  So let's pick up where we left off...our CSA recap...

And here's how we used everything...

• Chicken Marsala & Roasted Turnips
• shitake mushrooms
• oyster mushrooms
• turnips
• green onions
• Steak Frites
• sweet potatoes
• Roasted Chicken (like this one)
• whole chicken
• Kale & Bacon Frittata (sorta like this one, but with squash on the bottom)
• kale
• squash
• green onion
• Pork Chops with Mango Salsa
• green onion
• romaine
• watercress

We ended up just eating the peanuts while watching some basketball, and the potatoes were used for some home fries for a weekend breakfast.  We'll get back on track with our regular posts...promise!

CSA Day AND Chicken Marsala

That's right...you're getting a two for one deal tonight!  So let's get things started.

Here's what we hauled in today...

We're really excited about this whole chicken.  The peanuts and potatoes will be a little trickier since they are both off limits with the Paleo diet, but since we allow ourselves one cheat day, we'll find a way to incorporate them into meals then.

Now...for tonight's dinner, we whipped up some chicken marsala and roasted turnips.

We started by making a "marinade" for the chicken.  I use that term loosely since it wasn't your typical saucy marinade, but that's how the recipe phrased it, so that's what I'm sticking with.  We started by slicing and dicing some green onion (since we didn't have shallots), white onion, garlic, thyme, rosemary (our little twist), and sage, and adding in a bit of grapeseed oil.  Then we layered in our chicken, making sure each piece was nicely covered in the aromatics.

The recipe says to cut your chicken into chunks, but we went more with cutlets.  So I stacked them up, making sure to get the onions and herbs in between each piece, and let them sit for about 10 minutes while we prepped the turnips.  We kept them simple and just roasted them up, similar to how we did the cauliflower here.  Once the chicken had a chance to marinate, we browned them in a pan, and then popped 'em into the oven just to stay warm (so turn your oven no higher than 200).

Using the same pan, we added the remaining onions and herbs to the pan to soften, and then added in the mushrooms.  We used both the oyster and shitake mushrooms that we picked up in our share.

Once the mushrooms have cooked down, add in your marsala wine to deglaze the pan.  Be sure to scrape up all the delicious brown bits that may be stuck on the bottom of your pan.  If you use a non-stick pan like we did, you won't have to worry about those stuck-on bits.

Once the alcohol has cooked off, add in your chicken stock.  Give everything a good stir, and be sure to season your sauce with salt and pepper.  Then you just let it simmer and reduce for about 10 minutes.  Up until this point, it was Paleo-friendly.  But we had to add a tiny bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce.  The recipe called for arrowroot as the thickening agent, but we didn't have any on hand.  Considering there was only about 1/2 tsp of cornstarch, I'm going to say this was still Paleo-friendly.

Once your sauce has thickened to your desired viscosity, you can toss your chickens in so they can absorb some of the sauce.  Then you're ready to serve!

CSA Recap

I know we've been a bit M.I.A. these last couple weeks, and we kind of fell off our Paleo wagon.  But with a new share coming our way tomorrow, we're ready to re-focus and get back on the Paleo train.

Here's what we made with our last share:

• Butternut Squash Soup & Salad
• Butternut Squash
• Bibb Lettuce
• Green Onion
• Granny Smith Apple
• Ode to Ray's Hell Burger & Sweet Potato Fries
• Ground Beef
• Bibb Lettuce
• Sweet Potato
• Whole Roasted Chicken & Baked Sweet Potato
• Sweet Potato
• Green Onion
• Brunch
• Kale
• Spinach
• Green Onion
• Fuji Apple
• Granny Smith Apple
• St. Patrick's Day Feast
• bacon
• potatoes
• Salmon with Spinach & Kimchi Brussels Sprouts
• spinach
• green onion

We still have an apple, a few green onions, and a couple potatoes left, but I'm sure we'll find a way to incorporate them into some upcoming meals.

CSA Day!

Woop! Woop!  It's that time again!  It's the last share of the season, and it's a good one!  We're happy to report we did not pick up another cabbage tonight.  Although with St. Patty's around the corner and our last cabbage dish turning out so delicious we wouldn't have minded. We did score plenty of greens though, and some great meats.  Take a look!

We were hoping for more sunchokes so we could make the kale and farro dish again, but we may have to make a special trip to the store.  We're working on planning out exactly how we want to use everything, so if you have any ideas, send 'em our way!

CSA Recap

It's that time again...time for our bi-weekly recap of how we used our CSA goods.  As a refresher, here's what we picked up

And here's how we used our goods:

• Oyster Bahn Mi
• oysters
• cilantro
• Steak with Chimichurri & Rutabaga
• rutabaga
• cilantro
• romaine (we made a salad on the side)
• Gnocchi
• potatoes
• oyster mushrooms
• romaine (we made a salad on the side)
• Chicken Piccata & Polenta with Kale
• kale
• Trout & Spinach
• trout
• spinach
• shitake mushrooms
• cilantro
• Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
• cabbage
• onion

Tomorrow's share is looking to be a good one, so stay tuned to see what we bag!

Red Carpet Sunday Dinner

Though we're trying to eat a little more healthy these days, every now and then you need a comforting, rich Sunday dinner.  Since we had potatoes from the share, we went with gnocchi in a rich cream sauce.  Making your own gnocchi may seem daunting, but its actually fairly simple.

To start, poke your potatoes with a fork so the steam can escape, and pop them in the oven for about an hour.  You want them to cook up, and for the moisture to escape.  Otherwise your dough will be sticky and heavy.  Once they're out of the oven, peel them, and push them through a ricer, if you have one.  We don't, so we just made sure there weren't any big lumps of potato.

To the potatoes, you'll add a couple egg yolks, some flour, grated cheese (we used pecorino), and some salt.  Since we were going all out, we used a combination of kosher salt and truffle salt.  Gradually add the flour in, as needed.  You want the dough to pull away from the bowl and not feel sticky.  When you reach that consistency, stop adding flour, and start rolling out ropes of dough.

Then you can start cutting the ropes into the gnocchi.  We put our gnocchi board to use to give each one the little ridges, but you can also just roll them down the back of a fork.  Place them on a floured tray or plate until you're ready to cook them.

 Cooking them is really simple.  Just boil a pot of water, as if you were making any other kind of pasta.  Be sure to salt the water too.  Once it's boiling, drop in a bunch of the gnocchi.  You'll probably have to do a few batches so you don't over crowd the pot.  They'll tell you when their done by floating to the surface.  Fresh pasta takes a little longer than dried pasta to cook, about 3-4 minutes instead of the two or so for the dried.  Then just scoop 'em out and place them in a bowl until you're ready to toss them in your sauce.

For the sauce, Justin whipped up one of his signature sauces.  It starts with some brown butter, shallots, and garlic.  Then you add some cream, pecorino, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and sage.  We also added a splash of truffle oil.

Once all of those flavors melded together, we were ready to add toss the gnocchi in it.  We saved a bit of the starchy water the gnocchi was cooked in and added some to the sauce.  The sauce had started to thicken anyway, but the starchy water also helps the sauce adhere to the pasta.  So you should do this anytime you cook pasta.  Once the water was mixed into the sauce, we dumped the gnocchi into the pan so they could get coated in the sauce as well.

To finish off each plate, we sprinkled on some crisped guanciale, a little more pecorino, and some fried sage.  It's such a rich, and filling dish, but so full of flavor.

This was a perfect dish for Oscar night, it had the glitz and glam of Hollywood from the truffle, and was hearty and comforting just like a night on the couch.

CSA Day!

Hooray for CSA day!  Today's share is a little smaller than what we've been getting, but we have plenty of leftovers from our Chinese feast yesterday to help fill in some of the gaps.

So here's what we picked up...

The infamous cabbage is back!  I'm not sure what we'll do with it quite yet, but hopefully we can come with something other than sauerkraut or kimchi.  The oysters came pre-shucked, so my paring knife will be spared any further damage.  To Justin's credit, he did replace my paring knife with a much higher quality one :)

We'll be turning to our trusty cookbooks, the interwebs, and our own creative minds to come up with delicious uses for all these tasty ingredients.  Stay tuned!

That's What Its All A-Trout!

And we're back from out little weekend hiatus.  So tonight we bring you some cornmeal crusted trout and farro with kale and sunchokes.  We weren't really sure what to do with the sunchokes when we got them in our share.  Neither of us had cooked with them before, so we turned to the interwebs for some assistance.  We came across this recipe that not only used the sunchokes, but also put our kale to good use as well.

If you're not familiar with farro, its a delicious little grain.  You cook it like rice until it gets tender.  It has a nice nutty flavor too.  So while the farro was cooking, we started on the other components of the dish.

We sliced the sunchokes and boiled them for about 10 minutes in some salted water until they were fork tender.  Then the kale was boiled for a few minutes, followed by sauteeing the onions in some butter and oil.

Then it was time to slice the sunchokes into smaller pieces, and pan fry them in a little olive oil and vegetable oil.  It didn't take long for them to become golden brown...maybe a few minutes on each side.  Then we tossed in the oyster mushrooms for a few minutes.

Then we tossed the other components back into the pan, including the cooked farro, and gave it a good toss, so everything was coated in the remaining oil in the pan.  All the flavors melded together, and we just added a little salt and pepper to season everything.  We did put our own spin on the recipe by adding a little bit of our porchetta.  It gave our side dish a nice savory, salty component.

While the finished the farro, Justin got to work on the trout.  He pulled out the few pin bones in the filets, then did a simple coating of salt, pepper, cornmeal, and secret hobo spices.

They went into a pan of melted butter, skin-side down, for about 4 minutes while the skin got nice and crusty.  With a quick little flip, it only took another 4 minutes for the other side to cook through.

It was a light, rustic meal.  I felt like I should've been sitting in a log cabin, in front of a roaring fire eating this meal.  With a little squeeze of lemon over the fish, the meal was complete!