If I could be great at making two things, it’d be a richly flavorful, brothy soup and a whole roasted chicken. Simple dishes done extraordinarily well are my ambition in the kitchen. The extraordinary is hard to see – it’s not pompous or fancy. Instead, …
To set the stage on this post, it requires a confession. One of my favorite guilty pleasures as a kid was those cheap premade chicken pot pies you’d find in the freezer section. To be completely honest, the frozen food section has never tempted me …
It’s the week of Thanksgiving! In the US, this is a holiday full of tradition. Most people have some expectation of what thanksgiving dinner looks like. We all have memories and experiences that are fun to repeat each year. It’s the one day a year that the traditional turkey dinner, complete with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy is served.
Beyond those four cornerstone dishes, families have traditions of sides that accompany dinner every year. A few years ago, Mike and I decided to try a recipe that I found in Bon Appetit, called the Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart. It was a hit! We’ve made it every year since. It does require a bit of work on a mandoline (ideally), but it is more than worth the effort. In fact, I always say that I’d make this any time of year because it’s so good!
If you’re looking for a new side that incorporates traditional thanksgiving flavors (squash, onion, sweet potato, thyme), but want a different take on these traditional ingredients, I think you’ll love this recipe.
This is a staple of our Thanksgiving table. For slicing the vegetables, a madolin is a must a finished looking tart and tender vegetables. Also, this is best baked in a tart pan, as removing the edge makes it possible to cut and serve.
Whisk whole wheat flour, salt, and 1 cup of all purpose flour in a large bowl to combine. Add butter and work into dry ingredients with your fingers, until the largest pieces are no bigger than a nickel. Drizzle 6 TBSP of ice cold water, working with your fingers to combine until a shaggy dough forms. Turn out onto a work surface and knead until only a few dry spots remain. Press into a disc and wrap tightly in plastic. Place in refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours but up to 3 days.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until about 1/8" thick. Transfer to the tart pan. Gently shape in the pan and trim excess. Freeze 15-20 minutes until firm or cover and chill up to 12 hours.
Filling & Assembly
Preheat oven to 350F and place rack in lower third of the oven. To a large skillet, add 2 TBSP olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and season with salt. Cook until very soft and deep golden brown 15-20 minutes. Add garlic and continue to cook for a total of 25-30 minutes until caramelized and deeply brown. Let cool.
Brush mustard over chilled dough, then sprinkle with cayenne. Stir cheese into caramelized onions and spread across crust in an even layer. Using a mandolin, thinly slice squashes crosswise. Thinly slice sweet potato and red onion in half lengthwise. Arrange vegetables atop the dough in concentric circles, with rounded edges facing up, starting from the outside edge and working your way inward. Drizzle remaining 2 TBSP olive oil over top and season with salt.
Bake until edges of vegetables are browned and crust is golden brown, 75-90 minutes. Melt butter and thyme leaves in a small saucepan and cook just until the butter bubbles. Brush over tart and sprinkle with flaky salt.
Inspired by: Bon Appetit
In most cookbooks or food blogs, you’ll find a list of “must have” tools and utensils. These are really helpful if you’re getting started. If you’re already a home cook, chances are high that you’ve discovered the tools that you need, based on what you …
We’re a couple weeks into a 90-day gluten free and very limited added sugar protocol. We’ve been working on our gut health and this is what was recommended for both of us based on lab work. Our functional medicine practitioner/RN shared that we don’t want …
Chips and salsa. One of the best food combinations out there. Thinking of them immediately conjures up memories of summer vacations near a lake or near a pool. Warm weather, light lunches that consist of snack type foods like this. It seems that salsa shines in the summer, but it’s not just a summer thing. Most of us love visiting Mexican restaurants and devouring the free chips and salsa. Taco night can be a summer dinner or a winter dinner. Maybe the summer version of taco night features grilled steak or other grilled meats. And the winter version features braised meats. Taco nights are always trending.
This past year, we visited my best friend and her family in Texas. One of their favorite tacos is lengua. They have a gas station / convenience store locally that serves amazing tacos, with lengua being one of the stars. So she decided to make lengua tacos one of the nights we were with them, and went all out with homemade salsas, guacamole, we even made homemade corn tortillas together. It’s one of the things we love doing together – preparing food and enjoying the feast together. The more effort that goes into it, the more rewarding it is. The salsa she made is one of those recipes that is a forever recipe. It’ll be the recipe I go to when I want homemade salsa. And frankly, it’s so easy and so fresh that I’m not sure why I would buy jarred salsa instead.
I’m consciously realizing that I’ve long been on a personal search for really good homemade salsa. I can recall making salsas from the cookbook of a local Mexican restaurant with this same friend in High School. I’ve made many salsa verdes, roasting tomatillos, onions, and jalapeños. Those have their place. But sometimes you just need a solid tomato salsa. Pico de Gallo is amazing – and on many occasions, I’d pick Pico over salsa, but sometimes you just need a solid salsa to satisfy. Sometimes, I crave a roasted tomato flavor and don’t want everything to be raw. And yet, the canned tomatoes that are cooked, just don’t quite do it. They’re a bit lacking in flavor for this use.
This recipe is that. It hits on the roasted tomato flavor, it’s easy to make, the roasted garlic is a distinct flavor, and it’s very easy to adjust the heat level (mild, medium, hot) by adjusting the number of serrano peppers you use and whether you remove or keep the seeds. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and as always, please share if you’ve come across great salsa recipes of any type – fresh, green, hot, mild, roasted, and raw. There is never one salsa to rule them all – there’s a place for variety of flavor and style, always!
If you're looking for an easy homemade salsa that's fresh, has roasted tomatoes and is easy to adjust the heat level, this is it!
Preheat oven to 375F. Arrange the tomatoes and onion cut side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Add the peppers and garlic to the baking sheet. Roast until the everything looks cooked through and has developed a nice char - about 40-45 minutes. Use the broil setting, if needed to develop extra char.
Remove from the oven and let cool a bit. Process in a food processor along with the salt and cilantro. That's it! Enjoy.
Inspired by: My dear friend and One Particular Kitchen
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Fall and Winter bring long-held family traditions of bird hunting. My dad grew up bird hunting with his dad, and my brother and I grew up doing the same with him. Since I was in grade school, I can remember October trips to central & eastern Washington in pursuit of game birds. With little exaggeration, I could probably rattle off every exit on interstate 90 between western and eastern Washington. We’ve worn that path well. My best friend often jokes come October, “I’ll see you in January.” Bird hunting has been my favorite past time as long as I can remember. It may have something to do with the limited window in the Fall that it’s available. In my mind Fall and bird hunting are inseparable.
Ring-necked pheasants are a nonnative game bird in the US. They were originally brought here from China. I know (on so many levels). You could call them an invasive species. But the same is true with brown trout. And each are especially beautiful creatures when compared to other upland birds and other game fish. Instead of the ideal of harvesting a beautiful native game bird with healthy populations, you could say I’m doing the ecosystem a favor by managing invasive species. And there in lies the dilemma of an upland bird hunter – wanting healthy populations of ring-necked pheasants (or chukar, who are also nonnative) to hunt and admire, and yet being torn in the reality that healthy populations of non-native wildlife is usually poor wildlife management.
Pheasant is one of the more popular game birds on the tasty scale. Pheasant, chukar, grouse, and quail tend to be favored game birds on the table. Like most wild game, it’s very lean and the leg meat is full of sinew and tendons. So you have to take care in how you prepare it. I’ve found that braising is a great way to prepare pheasant. Luckily cacciatore is both a tasty, popular Italian dish and uses the technique of braising. You can adapt this recipe to other game like rabbits or even turkey, or just prepare it with chicken. Cacciatore is a dish every home cook should have a staple recipe for – it’s a classic worth having in your rotation. This one is my “go-to.”
Cacciatore is a classic Italian dish where meat is braised with traditional ingredients of tomatoes, rosemary, onions, and wine. Every cook should have a cacciatore recipe in their bag of tricks - this is my "go-to."
First, cut the whole pheasant or chicken into 2 leg pieces, 2 breast peices, and 2 wings per bird. Season meat well with salt and pepper. Using a large enamel coated Dutch oven, heat oil over medium high heat until hot. Brown the meat on all sides, working in batches as needed. Once browned, set meat aside. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Next, add the celery and mushrooms. After these are soft, add the garlic and red chile flakes and cook until fragrant. Next, add the wine, deglazing the bottom of the pan. Add the can of tomatoes, crushing each whole tomato by hand. Add the broth and season with salt. Add the meat back to the pot and bring it to a simmer. Top with the rosemary sprigs and bay leaf. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the meat is tender and releases from the bone - about 1 1/2 hours or more, depending on the size of the bird. Discard the rosemary and bay leaf.
For the polenta, bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. Season with salt. Add the polenta slowly, whisking continuously to prevent lumps from forming. Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir for 15-20 minutes or until the polenta has thickened and the meal is tender. Remove from the heat and stir in cheese.
Serve the cacciatore over the polenta and garnish with parmesan cheese.
Inspired by: Steven Rinella and The Meateater Fish and Game Cookbook
In a previous post on blackberries, I covered the idea of gathering versus buying. Nature and community (friends, acquaintances, neighbors, etc.) can provide opportunities for free wild & whole food. As good managers of our homes, we should absolutely take advantage of these opportunities! I …