#FoodiePenPals

This was my first month taking part in #FoodiePenPals, an awesome foodie care package started by Lindsay at the The Lean Green Bean. In a nutshell, #FoodiePenPals is an opt-in $15 a month foodie penpal box program.  After filling out a simple form, Lindsay pairs you with a fellow food lover for a surprise care package.  You can learn more and sign up for this super initiative here. 

Actress, foodie and fellow fitness freak, SexyFlexi, was given my name in April. After a quick email exchange on tastes and aversions, the box of goodies above arrived. What FUN it was to receive. I found myself double checking the foyer for a package in excitement--it was a Christmas morning kind of feeling.  

The box was spot on in terms of my approach to food. Healthy but fun snacks (i.e. REAL veggie chips, a small package of cookies for a treat, etc.), a jar of soup (my favorite meal!), and tea with honey sticks which I can't wait to bring to the office.  The three best surprises were: 

1. An Avocado from SexyFlexi's local farmers market: I feel a little guilty purchasing vegetables that are not local to the North East.  For this reason, I went a year without a banana, and think of avocado as a "special" treat.  Is this a bit hardcore? Yes.  Does this keep me motivated to mostly enjoy my local CSA farm share vegetables? You bet.  Oh sweet avocado, I stare at you daily waiting for you to ripen.  Major points for SexyFlexi for finding a way to send produce.  I struggled with this when creating my own #foodiepenpals box. 
2. M&W Gourmet Lemon Honey Roasted Almonds: Oh. My. Lord... These nuts are insanely good. I MAY have had a handful in the middle of the night.  I MIGHT have not told my husband about them so I could have them all to myself.  I DID email my penpal in awe.  The company calls these "healthy fruit loops", which sounds odd I know but is spot on.  I will get my hands on more of these.  I will.
3. A handwritten recipe and dry powder ingredients for a vegan chocolate cake: How cute and creative is that?  I'm making the cake as a surprise for my hubby the night before I go back to work after maternity leave.  

Can't wait for next month, and to stay in touch with SexyFlexi!

#FoodPhotography - Roasted Beets

I've been savoring my last few weeks on maternity leave with the little guy and blogging has fallen off my radar.  The summer CSA share and farmers markets are just around the corner, and I'm looking forward to more time in the kitchen.

In the meantime, I'm hoping you enjoy this #FoodPhotography of roasted beets.  Stay tuned, there is a sunchoke risotto post coming which you won't want to miss!

#FoodPhotography: Roasting Beets

 

Sunchoke (Jerusalem Artichoke) & Mushroom Soup

My new found love, as you may know, is the Jerusalem Artichoke (a.k.a. Sunchoke).  Watch out kale, watch out, because I'm starting to cheat. This nutty, perfect to roast, easy to prep, lesser known root veg may be edging you out as my favorite.

The nutty flavor lends itself to good paring with mushrooms.  So when we opened the Montauk house last weekend, I tried my hand at a new soup recipe.  (Did you process that? We... opened... the... Montauk... house!! Hooray!)

Healthy, but complex, I hope you enjoy it.

Jerusalem Artichoke & Mushroom Soup 
Ingredients

• 3 cups of cleaned, roughly peeled (remove major nubs) and chopped Jerusalem Artichokes / Sunchokes
• 1 - 1.5 cups of cleaned, chopped mushrooms 
• 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 3 cups of broth / stock (beef would be great here, but I had homemade chicken stock on hand)
• Salt & Pepper

 Directions

• Cover the Jerusalem Artichokes with water in a pot, and boil over medium heat until tender (15 - 20 minutes depending on the size of your chop)
• Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pot and saute the mushrooms until glistening, adding the garlic in 3/4ths of the way through
• Salt and pepper the mushrooms to taste
• Add the tomato paste and stock, stirring to mix
• Drain the sunchokes and add them to the main pot
• Puree using an immersion hand blender or by transferring to a blender in batches
• Top with herbs and a poached egg and serve

Soup with a half submerged Poached Egg

Carrot Ginger Soup with Coconut Roasted Shrimp

Carrot and ginger are making their second combined appearance here on Lauren Living Locally. If you happen to be a regular reader, you'll remember this conversation where a fellow CSA loving neighbor and I dorked-out over veggies, farm shares and kale at a holiday party. This soup was for him and his growing family, after he and his wife welcomed a second precious baby girl with the fullest head of hair.

After we had our son earlier this year, he dropped off the most *SCRUMPTIOUS* beef stew, brimming with 18 hour braised root vegetables.  It was absolutely divine, and I am yet to produce a stew anywhere near as delicious, despite having literally the exact same ingredients at my disposal.  I love a cooking goal, and that stew is high on the target list. 

Hoping to return the post-baby meal delivery favor, I wanted to make a CSA-based meal that I knew he wouldn't make himself.  Using the shrimp from this Food & Wine recipe, and my take on a yummy flavor combination you have Lauren Living Locally's version of Carrot & Ginger Soup with Coconut Roasted Shrimp.  The samples tasted while prepping were yummy, and early reviews via text message were positive! 

Carrot and Ginger Soup with Coconut Roasted Shrimp 
Ingredients

• 4 cups of cleaned and roughly chopped carrots
• 1 white onion, diced
• 2 shallots, minced
• 3 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth 
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 12 extra large shrimp, cleaned with tails on
• 1.5 tablespoons of coconut shreds
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• Pinch of cayenne
• Salt & Pepper

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• In a large soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat
• Add the onion and shallots, and saute until glistening
• Add the tomato paste and ginger and stir to combine
• Toss in the carrots, and cook for two minutes
• Cover the entire contents with the stock, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer over low heat cooking with the top on until the the carrots are tender (15-20 minutes depending on the chop of your carrots)
• Blend with an immersion hand blender or transfer to a food processor
• Once blended, return to the pot and stir in the coconut milk
• Keep warm 
• Meanwhile, toss the cleaned, tail on shrimp with the olive oil, salt and pepper, cayenne and shredded coconut
• Line a tray with parchment paper, and bake in a 400 degree oven for 7-9 minutes until pink
• Serve the soup topped with the coconut shrimp and a side of chunky bread

Soup en route 

Carrot Ginger Salad Dressing

As part of Operation July (a.k.a. feel good about my body 6 months after birth), I am on a vegetable-based lunch mission. It has taken a bit of discipline to have enough creative and quick to make options on hand, but I'm getting better at it.

I'm washing and bagging my own lettuce mix (radicchio, endive and red leaf), storing chopped vegetables to easily scoop on salads, hard-boiling a dozen eggs on the weekend, and always making sure I have ripe avocado and good steaming vegetables on hand.

The real breakthrough has come by stocking up on homemade dressing. Prep on Sunday is leading to saved time mid-week AND a good variety making the vegetable lunch mission sustainable. Sesame vinaigrette, shallot lime... and today's flavor, Carrot Ginger.

As you know from this post, I'm a Japanese food fanatic. The winter CSA is carrot and garlic heavy, so the timing is perfect for my take on the staple Japanese dressing. I've made a lot of carrot ginger dressings, (this, that and the other one) and now have my personal perfect recipe down. The key is 10 minutes of extra work, boiling the carrots to soften them. It makes all the difference. Enjoy!

Carrot and Ginger Salad Dressing 
Ingredients

• Juice of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1 orange
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1.5 inches of fresh ginger, peeled*
• 1.5 tablespoons tahini
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3-4 medium to large carrots 
• 1/3 cup reserve cooking water

Directions

• Clean the carrots, roughly chop them, place them in a small pot and cover with water
• Bring to a boil and cook over medium low heat for 10 minutes
• Drain, reserving 1/3 cup of cooking water
• Add all the ingredients to a food processor, and blend until smooth

*Love this trick: The easiest way to peel ginger is with a teaspoon.... the skin slides off!

The latest batch of dressings, Carrot Ginger on top!

Roast Chicken with Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes)

I love artichokes. The flower-like symmetry, the tender layer of "meat" on the leaves, the delicately cupped heart, the gorgeous purple and green hues... Perfection.  In fifth grade, the tradition at my school was for each student to create their favorite food in clay. I sculpted, fired and glazed a particularly UN-symmetric, NOT so gorgeous artichoke and proudly displayed it on parents night in a sea of ice cream, spaghetti and pizza.

So imagine my delight last year when receiving the CSA announcement about an upcoming delivery of Jerusalem Artichokes. I was surprised it was a local possibility, but hey an artichoke is an artichoke... right???

Then these guys showed up:

Not purple, nor green, and certainly not symmetrical or flower-like!  A brown, ginger looking root bulb.  A total misnomer.  Yet... there must be something in a name because I loved them. Nutty, perfect to roast, great with a little caramelizing and as I learned with a little experimentation, not nearly as daunting to prepare as their appearance would suggest.

This recipe for a roast chicken (thanks mummy!) with Jerusalem Artichokes, aka Sunchokes, is a cinch to prepare and gorgeous on the table.  If you only want to prepare the Jerusalem Artichokes, omit the chicken and other veg, and just include the lemon, rosemary olive oil blend.  Next up, Jerusalem Artichoke soup.

Roast Chicken with Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) 
Ingredients

• One whole chicken (3-4 lbs for four people)
• 2 cups of washed, roughly cleaned* Jerusalem Artichokes and other root vegetables
• 1 lemon
• 3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper

*I have cooked these guys both fully peeled, and roughly cleaned and enjoy them more with a little skin.  They are softer than potatoes, so the skin keeps them in tact.  To save time, cut off any particularly dirty or bulby bits, scrub clean and peel slightly for an uneven appearance

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 375
• Remove anything from inside the chicken.  Rinse the chicken in cold water, and pat dry with paper towels
• Meanwhile, blend 1/3 - 1/2 cup of olive oil (1/4 if just doing Jerusalem Artichokes) with the juice of one lemon and the leaves off three sprigs of rosemary until mixed
• Rub 3/4ths of olive oil rosemary blend outside the chicken and in between the skin and body
• Toss the vegetables (I used two cups of Jerusalem Artichokes, carrots and turnips because I didn't have enough of the star vegetable) with the remaining olive oil blend and arrange in a single layer in a roasting pan
• Position the chicken on top in the middle of the pan (on a rack if you have one, not on a rack if you don't)
• Salt and pepper the entire pan
• Roast for 20 minutes per pound, plus an additional 15 minutes (i.e. 1 hour 35 minutes for 4 lb bird)
• Remove from the oven, and use a meat thermometer to check for 180 degree internal temperature

About Jerusalem Artichokes 

The Jerusalem Artichoke, also known as the sunchoke, sunroot or earth apple, is native to North America (not Jerusalem!).  The origins of the name are unknown, but as a part of the sunflower family it is assumed that over time the name girasole (Italian for sunflower) may have been changed to Jerusalem.  As a CSA loving-friend told me, the most interesting fact about this tuber is that it stores the carbohydrate inulin, instead of starch, making it a great alternative to potatoes for diabetics.

Before

After

Cayenne: The Simple Spice

A good friend of mine's father claims cayenne pepper is the family secret ingredient in most meals. Crab cakes, chili, pasta, eggs...you name it and cayenne is there in some form.

When my stepmother feasted her eyes on my CSA winter vegetables last night she drooled and quickly prepped them for a simple and scrumptious roasting. Black radishes, jerusalem artichokes, carrots, parsnips ... and cayenne. The secret and simplest addition.

Cayenne Roasted Vegetables 

Ingredients

• Peeled and bite size chopped root vegetables such as black radishes, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes, and parsnips
• Cayenne pepper
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400
• Toss the vegetables with olive oil to coat (@ half a tablespoon per cup of vegetables)
• Season with salt and pepper
• Sprinkle with cayenne pepper: 1/4 a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon depending on your love of spice
• Roast for 35-45 minutes tossing twice midway