Gazpacho with Scallop

Normally I'm not a gazpacho man. Sad, but true. But we're in the thick of summer, and when I came back from the garden with tomatoes, a green pepper (I'm letting the bulk of the bell peppers ripen further.), garlic, and cucumbers I just couldn't help myself. So I did what any self-respecting person who has eaten in Jaleo or Cafe Atlantico (mini bar technically, but close enough) would do and googled Jose Andres and gazpacho and then began pouring through the links. After reading this post I didn't have much of an interest in posting on the subject here. That one seemed just about perfect. But I couldn't help myself and here we are.

I kept it simple, with just the aforementioned ingredients and salt, pepper, a slice of bread (no crust), olive oil, and red wine vinegar. As tempting as it was to add a serrano and throw in some chopped basil, I just didn't have the heart--some things are sacred. The tomatoes were blanched and peeled, the cucumber skinned, and everything that could be was cut into chunks and went into the blender along with some extra water. After being blended and the seasonings adjusted it went through a strainer (the one pictured above) and chilled in the fridge.

Because I can't leave well enough alone, for serving I added one huge sea scallop I had picked up at Kate's Fish in the West Side Market. They were scaringly fresh, and all it took was some salt and pepper and a quick sear in some bacon fat (Surely a Spaniard would forgive the addition of scallop if it was cooked in pork fat?). Not quite cooked through, it went perfectly with the soup both right off the heat and also after being cooled down to soup temp in the fridge--I tried both ways. With a drizzle of olive oil, this will be a solid dish for summer company.

Not too rich a red--I used a lot of cucumber.

A Local Lunch

Freshly dug potatoes and harvested cabbage along with some Plum Creek humanely raised veal cutlets. A nice, simple lunch.

I rarely order veal at restaurants. Even with ethical stuff out there, I usually pass and go with other meats. But I love Plum Creek, a farm in Valley City about 45 min outside of Cleveland, and I reference it all the time--usually regarding eggs and poultry. After visiting the farm a few weeks ago, learning that it's been in their family since the early 1800s, and seeing how they're keeping it going (and grabbing a drink up the street at the Jump'n Frog), it's been nice to stop by their stand at the Market and chat. (That's not to say that I hadn't been bugging them at their stands at two of our local farmers markets for the past 2 years.) Once at their Shaker stand, it doesn't take long for Amie's dad, who's responsible for the farm's dairy and the veal, to make sure you don't forget that they have veal for sale. I've stayed strong for a while, politely declining the meat, but this time he made me a deal I couldn't refuse. So I took the frozen (sometimes it's available fresh) cutlets home and thought about them for day. Saturday turned to Sunday, the veal thawed, and this is what I came up with.

The veal cutlets were given a standard coating. First, they were patted dry and seasoned with salt and pepper. Then a quick dip in AP flour, followed by a swim in a beaten egg from the same farm (Which is interesting in context--at the farm the chickens seemed to love hanging out with the baby cows that were nursing on their mom. Little did they likely know they would sort of meet again on a plate.), and then another dip in Country Gristmill cornmeal. The coated veal was briefly (very briefly) sauteed in a mix of about 3 parts canola oil to 1 part butter. They then rested on a paper towel until being served.

And the sides, much less exciting, but still very good. For the garden potatoes it was easy. Dug this morning, cooking them was all about doing no harm. All it took was a quick steam followed by a light dusting of salt. They were rich enough on their own that butter was unnecessary.

The cabbage didn't require much work either. Just a quick saute in olive oil with salt and pepper. No caramelization, no covering and letting it cook down, nothing special. Just lightly sauteed cabbage that was flavorful, tender, and crisp.

This lunch made me happy. A squirt of lemon juice may have been a nice addition, but lacking that I just put a small piece of butter on the still warm veal. That's all the sauce that was necessary (although I wouldn't have pushed a ladleful of veal stock off the plate).

Folks around here are big on the connection from farm to table. It doesn't get much more connected than this.

And I didn't only harvest potatoes this morning:

When is this guy going to run out of tortillas?

Never, I'm afraid. They're just too convenient. Pictured above are tacos with a classic combination of blanched green beans and potatoes--the beans from the garden and the potatoes, Yukon Golds, from the Market. The mix is normally found in enchiladas or tamales, but I just didn't have the patience to defrost some of the wonderful Sonoran style enchilada sauce my (soon to be ex) next door neighbor made for me almost a year ago. And tamales, despite a deep curiosity and love of Mexican cooking, the ones available at Orale in the West Side Market are just too good to justify me bumbling through making them myself (although I have been looking for an excuse to buy a tub of lard at one of the local Mexican grocery stores).

In addition to the potatoes and beans I included some blanched and chopped early cabbage and sliced green serrano pepper, both also from the garden, grated raw cheddar from the Market, a few splashes of Tapatio, and some creme fraiche. Not much visible color contrast, but it was delicious nonetheless.

And the cucumber salad--my take on sunomono I've enjoyed at Japanese restaurants. Here it's just a diced, seeded garden cucumber (marketmore), salt, pepper, and white wine vinegar. It marinated for a few minutes and was refreshing in its simplicity.

Pasta with Lamb-Tomato Sauce

Curry flavored pasta with a ground lamb-tomato-onion-carrot-squash-basil sauce. There were some chili flakes in there too. Lamb, carrots, and onion from the farmers market, canned tomato from the West Side food co-op, Italian heirloom squash and basil from the garden, and homemade pasta.

Short posts lately, and not too many this week either. It will be the trend for the next few weeks while The CFT relocates. Not sure whether it's a move up, down, or sideways, but the new place will be mine, complete with peaches, black walnuts (at least for the remainder of the season), mint, concord grapes (that will be replaced with a more worthy berry), a chicken coop that predates me, and enough work to warrant a 40 yard dumpster (not to worry--I'm saving/repurposing what I can). In the meantime, please bear with me.

Bean counting

Bean sorting, more accurately. Haricot vert of varying sizes. Some as small as a thumbnail, others as long as a pencil. Such is the problem of having a job--it's tough to harvest green beans as they're ready. So, in addition to getting some of them when they're just right I also wind up picking some large and some small.

Now to eat them. The super-minis are great to snack on raw. For the large ones it will likely be a cold soup like a vichyssoise, except with the beans subbing for the leeks, and maybe some onions added for good measure. And for the two piles of wonderfully sized beans, they'll be blanched and used all sorts of ways--as a side, in a salad, in lieu of a salad, etc. I hope they reappear here in their various guises.

As for that basil in the glass in the background, I haven't found a better way to store the stuff than exactly like a vase of fresh cut flowers. On the stem with the stems in water, kept in a shady spot. Sometimes this method works so well that the basil will sprout roots.

Pork Soup Lunch

Pork chunks wok cooked with cumin in a chicken stock broth with potatoes, carrots, onion, dried chiles, and summer savory. Soup on a hot day. I don't know why, but it works.

Almost French

Four simple courses, starting with the cheese above. For reasons mentioned in the last post, there will likely be more brie in my future. The wine is from the Market Avenue Wine Bar (50% off takeaway wines), which is sadly moving (closing?) in the near future. A biodynamic Cotes du Rhone winds up being about $16--not bad for a decent bottle. The bread source, unfortunately, is not worth mentioning.

Above is a classic vichyssoise (French or not), cooling in a sink half filled with water and ice packs. I followed a Julia Child recipe, available here. Basically it was just boiled leek whites and peeled potatoes pureed in a blender. I thinned with chicken stock from Souper Market, a local mini-chain of soup shops. They've got it to go fresh or frozen. While it may not have been the best stock in the history of stocks, it was definitely serviceable and beats boiling bones in 90+ weather (others around here have been braver). After blending I added just a bit of creme fraiche (maybe a tablespoon for four decent sized potatoes worth of soup) and seasoned aggressively with salt and pepper. Topped with some fresh chives it was perfect for the summer. Reaction from co-diner after tasting: "What kind of cream soup is this?" It took some explaining.

The fish course was meant to be sole meuniere made with whatever looked good at Kate's (see their writeup here, while it's available). Flounder seemed appropriate. Tom the fishmonger suggested cooking it Charleston style (is there really such a thing?), meaning hatched and cooked whole. I gave it a shot, first seasoning the whole headed and gutted fish with salt and pepper and then dipping it in flour before pan frying in a mix of butter and canola oil. After it was browned it went for a quick trip in a hot oven to cook through.

After it was cooked and resting I wiped out the pan and melted some butter with lemon juice and parsley. The fish was taken off the bone at the table and served with a wedge of lemon and some zucchini batons that were sauteed in butter with salt and pepper.
And finally, garden salad greens with fresh local blueberries. The vinaigrette is Dijon mustard, shallot, cider vinegar, honey (it's the year of the honey bee after all), olive oil, and salt and pepper. While I nearly always whisk a vinaigrette or shake it up in a closed jar, I did this one in a food processor and was pleased with the emulsion--it was even worth having to clean the processor. Next time I'll puree the blueberries with the vinaigrette, as the plump berries on the lettuce leaves were tasty, but a bit awkward.

Now, to learn desserts . . . .

If you send it, I will eat it (and post about it), probably

Or, how I am happily pimping The CFT for 1 kilo of cheese (brie, specifically) while being all about disclosure and transparency. It started like this:

Hello,

While looking for blogs on food, wine and cheese I came across your website and found it very interesting. I’m contacting you on behalf of Ile de France, a French cheese importing company . . . .

First I was flattered, then intrigued, then thought it was a scam, and then intrigued again. So I followed up on the comment and, as promised, UPS showed up with my cheese. The box (nice and reusable):
The cheese:
And the catch:

. . . just remember that you need to mention the source and place a link to our website.

To get that out of the way, it's from Ile De France, and here's their website.

The first thing I did after getting the package was eat the majority of one of the wedges on crackers. Very good, especially once it warmed up to room temp.

I got to work on the rest of the wedge at dinner time. The pork is from Country Gristmill, local Amish farmers. It's good pork. I took a boneless chop (normally I go with bone in, but that's what I saw first at the Market), cut a slit in it, and jam packed it with a slivers of the brie and some basil leaves. After patting the stuffed pork dry with a paper towel, I seasoned it with salt and pepper and seared it in a little canola oil. The chop then went in a 450 oven until it was cooked med. rare/med. No need to brine the pork here, as masking the porkyness would be a shame. The rendered fat on the chop and the velvety melted cheese melded great, especially with the basil adding some freshness.

The potatoes are some local red potatoes, cooked and mashed with the skin and some fresh garlic (the garlic was boiled with the potatoes). As I was mashing them I added the remainder of the brie wedge, some cream, summer savory, butter, and salt and pepper. It worked very will with . . .

The broccoli, which was simply steamed with a little butter and salt and pepper on top. Combined with the potatoes it was like a a nice take on broccoli with cheese sauce. Even though I harvested the broccoli a day or two too late, it still beats the grocery store.

And the broken sauce was just some port cooked down in the pork pan with some butter added at the end. It may not be pretty, but it contributed. And with no stock on hand it was the best I could come up with.

So that's it. I must admit that I was ready to rip on the cheese. Honestly, I wanted to rip on the cheese, and had even thought about some choice words before receiving it. It's from a big producer that overflows the internet with videos and annoying product placements and chef endorsements. But it was very good. Not the most gooey, transcendent cheese I've ever had, and the packaging smacks of mass production, but still, very good. The bottom line for me is that if I'm at a grocery store and need a snack, I'd consider getting a wedge of this along with a baguette (Soon I hope to do a blind taste test with this and other grocery store double creams, along with one "artisan" variety, to see how things stack up--I'll post the results if I do it.). I'd even unabashedly put a wedge of the Ile De France on an after dinner cheese plate . . . at least until we start producing some brie style cheese around here.

And here's a gratuitous meat shot:

Quick summer squash (zucchini) pasta

Simple summer pasta for when there's an abundance of basil and squash. Not a bad problem to have (at least as far as the basil goes). This squash was from a start I picked up at the the Crown Point Ecology Center's plant sale. It's a Costata Romanesca Summer Squash, an Italian heirloom. The plants are big, the yield average, and the taste great. It also holds up well in cooking (I might try a curry with the next one). If you like summer squash, and don't want to be buried in them to the point where the neighbors run into the house when they see you headed their way with your bounty, this variety might be a good choice. Just get some seeds before the breeders ruin it.

Ingredients:
- Squash, cut into half moons
- Pasta (here from Ohio City Pasta)
- Bacon (I used some from a vendor at the Market who seems to specialize in lamb--very good lamb. It shocks me how different everyone's bacon is, even if most of them are using happy heritage pigs.)
- Basil, sliced up
- Thyme, taken off the branch
- Salt and Pepper
- Parmesan (optional, like everything else)

Method:
- Cook pasta like normal (in heavily salted water)
- While the water is getting ready for the pasta cook bacon until crispy
- Once bacon is crispy remove and cook the squash in the bacon grease with salt, pepper, and thyme (the squash is more caramelized than it looks)
- When pasta is ready add it along with the (crumbled) bacon to the now cooked squash in the thyme/bacon grease mixture
- Give everything a quick toss and top with lots of basil
- Add some cheese if you'd like and enjoy

Couldn't come together much quicker, especially with fresh pasta. As long as the pasta is damp when added to the squash there's no need for additional liquid. But I saved some pasta water just in case.

Eggs eye view

Or, breakfast for lovers of heat. This is a dish a friend of mine likes to have for breakfast when she's sick. It's a normal breakfast, but it'll clear the sinuses.

Eggs. Plum Creek eggs, Ohio Family Farms cream, Snake Hill Farm Siskiyou immature onions, dried chilis de arbol, garden basil, butter, and salt and Urban Herbs tellicherry pepper. I sauteed thinly sliced onion along chilis (seeded and pulled apart) in some butter with a little salt. Once the onions softened I added eggs that had been stirred to combine the whites, yolks, and a little cream to the pan. Stirring constantly, I cooked the eggs over low heat, adding some salt and ground pepper while they were cooking. Once everything was just about cooked (but still very soft), I added a little basil chiffonade. The basil brought out the best from the onions and chili, and generally made everything smell nice.

Potatoes. Small red potatoes from the Shaker Market, shallots from the same place, Parker's pancetta, underformed (green?) garlic from the garden, hot red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. I started by rendering small lardons of pancetta in a cast iron skillet. Once the pancetta was rendered I added cut up potatoes (with the skin still on), sliced shallot, pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. I put the whole pan in a 450 oven for a good ten minutes, and then under the broiler for about five more minutes. After the potatoes were cooked just about right I turned off the broiler and added smashed and minced garlic to the mix, stirred, and left the whole thing in the still very hot oven (with the heat off) for about five more minutes. Everything was crispy, but nothing was bitter.

And that was it. With some toast and tea it's a pretty acceptable breakfast that's ready to go in around half an hour.

A ceviche like no other?

Hog snapper, diced beets, early garlic, cilantro, lime and lemon juice, salt and pepper, a dash of Tapatio.

You can see the acid starting to cook the fish. I love ceviche, and usually go with shrimp in a mix including tomato, red onion, and chilies. But I used what was around, and it was very enjoyable.

And, Ms. Ohio Mom, here you go. While I'm normally not a chain mail kind of guy, I'm no Spice Hound either:

From Cooking in Cleveland . . .
The rules are as follows:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Randomly me ....
1. I just bought a house because it has 3 peach trees in the backyard
2. I miss watching local professional ice hockey
3. One of my guilty pleasures is the Taco Bell 7 Layer Burrito with 2 (or 3) fire sauce packets
4. While I love hot dogs with mustard, and even the Chicago dog, the smell of ketchup on hot dogs makes me a bit nauseous
5. My dream as a child was to be a short order greasy spoon chef (The dream lives on.)
6. I'm not sure I'm ready to tag six people, but I may be soon

Liver (with onions)

Damn Rule #30, this really is liver with onions (see the picture below). It's pretty good stuff. Loosely adapted from The Silver Spoon, here it is:

Ingredients:
- Chicken livers (Here 6 from Plum Creek--they couldn't be fresher, and the farm is idyllic)
- Onion, rough dice (I used the short side of half an onion)
- Sage (a truly hardy perennial around here)
- Port, not too much (scant half cup)
- Vinegar (Red wine)
- Egg yolks (Also from Plum Creek, 2 of them here. An equal amount of cream would have worked too.)
- Sage, torn into pieces
- Lemon juice (Doesn't take much.)
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
- Baguette (from Zoss the Swiss Baker)
- Fat (For sauteing. I used bacon fat.)

Method:
- Cook onions with a bit of salt in bacon fat until soft
- While onions are cooking dip cleaned livers (these came pretty clean) in vinegar and pat dry
- Once onions are soft add livers and most of the sage along with the port and salt and pepper
- Cook until livers get some color and port reduces
- Remove livers from pan, keeping the pan on the heat with the onions and port cooking down
- Chop livers (which should be medium rare/rare) and then add them back to the pan until just cooked through
- While chopped livers are finishing cooking, mix egg yolks with lemon juice in a separate bowl
- Once livers are just cooked, place them in a food processor (or mash up if you did a better job than me with the onion dice)
- Puree (or smash) livers, and then add some of the still very warm liver mixture to the egg yolks and lemon juice
- Place the rest of the puree in a bowl, and add the egg yolk/lemon juice/some liver mixture to the rest of the puree and stir well
- Let the mix sit for a short bit while you drizzle slices of baguette with olive oil
- Toast baguette slices (I used the grill side of a cast iron griddle.)
- Scoop some liver mix on a baguette slice, garnish with some sage, and serve

I enjoyed this, and frankly I may have overindulged. It was like returning to Montreal, where livers of all sort seem to fall from the sky.

Just look at the hot mess below:

What to do with all those beets?

Shredded beets and carrots, minced onions, cilantro, lemon juice, and salt. The Chioggia beet is from the garden and is pictured below (as promised nearly a year ago). The cilantro and carrots are from Rootstown Organic Farm. The recipe came from Monica, the lady who runs Muddy Fork Farm, a transplant to Wayne County, Ohio from Cali, Columbia. She says this is a common first course in her area of Columbia. I can see why.

I used a Japanese Mandoline for the beets, and was first concerned that I should have gone for a finer julienne (it's easy enough to switch blades), but this worked out well. With a beet like this one, i.e. one that does not bleed red all over the place, I think this salad could be made ahead of time and left to sit in fridge until you're ready for it. Nice and cold, it's ridiculously refreshing. But just because I can't leave anything alone, I'll probably add chilies the next time I make this.

The True Baked Alaskan

As a guy who once lost a lady to a fellow from Kodiak Island, it may be surprising that I happily eat so much food from up that way. Maybe it's therapeutic? It's certainly tasty.

Roasted Alaskan would be a more appropriate name for the halibut (purchased at the usual place). It was seasoned and then went onto a hot, butter greased cast iron griddle in a 425 oven. A small frond of fennel (a little bigger than the one in the soup) was placed between the griddle and the fish skin, and another fennel frond was laid atop the fillet for roasting. 10 min, give or take, and it was perfect.

On top of the fish is some caramelized fennel (idea courtesy of Bar Cento), done up just like onions. A fennel bulb was sliced and then slow cooked in some butter with a pinch of salt. I'll be making them lots more, as it's a great alternative to caramelized onions.. The fennel was from Salash Farm over at the Shaker Market. They have great stuff, early.

The carrots were cooked in more butter. Slow cooked over a low flame in a covered omelet pan with a leaf of sage in there for some flavoring. They were great little carrots, from Rootstown Organic Farm.

And the soup. My take on vichyssoise (idea kind of stolen from a Plated Landscape Dinner). Lots of garden stuff in there. I peeled and cubed some potatoes (not quite yet from my garden), covered them by about an inch with water, added some salt and boiled until they were getting soft. Then I threw in some sugar snaps from the garden along with some chopped stems from the fennel (so the fronds, stems, and bulb were used--very full circle). Two minutes or so went by and I added arugula and mint (both also from the garden). About another two minutes and then everything went into a blender with just a touch of creme fraiche (could have been omitted) and aggressively seasoned with salt and pepper. It was enjoyable hot and cold. It's a good, simple soup, and infinitely adaptable.

Also, great music again on Case radio -- Latin Perspectives. Good stuff.

Tacos again?

If you're one of the two people who read this blog semi-regularly, you could have seen this coming. The clues were there. Extra corn tortillas from a few posts ago, and a protein heavy meal last post. Too bad there are already so many taco blogs (that last one is close enough).

Above is leftover Millgate Farm ribeye (diced and cooked with salt, pepper, and Bragg's), diced sweet onion, shredded arugula from the garden (we'll see if it's cut-and-come-again), and shredded Meadow Maid cheddar (picked up at the Shaker Farmer's Market, it's made from raw, organic, grass fed cow milk, and a fair deal at $5 a block). Before eating I added some creme fraiche (homemade from Ohio Organic Family Farms lightly pasteurized heavy cream--available at Country Gristmill at the Market--and a bit of my last batch that was made with Vermont Butter & Cheese Company creme fraiche, instead of buttermilk, as a starter) and Tapitio.

I love tacos.

And to go on the record for cheese on tacos. I used to not be for it, and secretly looked down on those who went heavy with the shredded cheese. To me a good taqueria taco has meat, some diced onion, and cilantro and is topped with a squeeze of lime and maybe some hot sauce. But I've been evolving. I still won't ask for a side of cheese at a taqueria (which isn't a problem around here because there's not really one worth discussing, even if Mi Pueblo, the West Side one, does in a pinch), but at home anything goes, especially with the inauthentic tacos I so enjoy. All that being said, I'm still not ready to shred Parmesan on my seafood pasta (but risottos are fair game).