Snowstorm Simplicity: Lime Curd, Squash Soup, Maple Candy…

This epic series of blizzards has meant a lot of time cooped up indoors here in DC.  I’ve also found it a great excuse for doing a pantry/freezer/fridge audit.  Oh, sure, there have been stores open intermittently over the past several days, but I’m having more fun challenging myself to make do with what I have.  This has translated into a large number of simple, yet very satisfying dishes.

Fried Potatoes with Avocados and Sardines. This first one is kind of a cheat: I don’t always have avocados around, so I made sure to buy some before the storm hit.  Yes, I know this sounds like a weird combination, but I drew my inspiration from Alton Brown’s adaptation of a traditional Spanish recipe for sardines and avocado on toast (I thought potatoes would be a good alternative for someone looking to reduce her gluten intake).  I love tinned sardines, especially the ones that are lightly smoked and stored in olive oil.  The oily saltiness pairs really well with the avocado.  Simply fry up some thin-sliced potatoes and top with lightly mashed avocado pieces and drained sardines.  Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and (optionally) some lemon zest.

Lime Curd: I ran out of flour early in the weekend, but still I wanted to whip up something sweet (ModernDomestic’s snowbound sweet tooth is contagious).  Fortunately, like most people panicking about the blizzards, I had remembered to stock up on eggs, butter, and sugar.  I also had a bag of limes.  So I made this fantastic lime curd tart recipe from Ina Garten, minus the tart.  If you have any kind of citrus, plus basic staples, you can make a delicious curd without leaving your house.  One thing to keep in mind: the acid of the lime juice will temporarily curdle your eggs, but stirring and heat will make everything re-integrate.  I love eating lime curd on a piece of slightly stale multigrain bread, but it’s also fantastic with vanilla ice cream.

Squash Soup: Got a squash sitting around?  Well, I usually do.  Maybe it’s just me, but I find it difficult to resist buying pretty squashes at the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market since that’s basically all there is during the winter, so I end up with squash just sitting around for weeks.  A perfect thing to dispose of in my blizzard audit.  I peeled and seeded a kabocha squash, cut it into quarters, and put the quarters in a dutch oven along with a few cups of chicken stock and a little olive oil.  I put that all in the oven at 300°F and forgot about it for a while.  When I pulled it out, I added salt, pepper, a little maple syrup, and the last of a batch of butter-sauteed onions that had been sitting in my fridge.  I pureed it with a mixing wand and topped with a snowdrift of grated parmesan.

Maple Taffy: If, like me, you have a Quebecois friend, you will call this tire sur la neige.  Otherwise you might call it “that maple candy they make in Little House on the Prairie.”  It’s so simple, but so much fun.  You just boil maple syrup until it reaches 240°F and pour it in little squiggles over a bed of clean, packed snow.  Use a stick to pull up the cooling, sticky syrup and suck on the candy (or just pick up the cooled pieces with your fingers).  And if you go too far and boil the syrup too long, you’ll end up with maple sugar.  Not a bad alternative.

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Roasted Kabocha Squash and Celeriac Soup

I came up with this recipe not because I’ve ever heard of celeriac being used in combination with squash, but because I didn’t really have any other vegetables around.  But it seemed to me that the sweetness of the kabocha would pair well with the bright flavor of the celeriac.  Squash and pumpkin soups can be so heavy, so getting some brightness in there seemed like a good idea.

First I roasted chopped pieces of kabocha and celeriac until everything got good and browned.  Then I combined it with sauteed onions, chicken stock, wine, ginger, and a little butter.  No cream, although that’d be an option if you wanted it to be richer.

Roasted Kabocha Squash and Celeriac Soup

1 small kabocha squash
1 large celeriac bulb
1 large onion
1 clove garlic
1 tsp chopped fresh ginger
32 ounces chicken stock
1 sprig rosemary
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
butter
white wine
salt and pepper

1. Peel kabocha and celeriac and chop into medium-sized chunks.  Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little balsamic vinegar and roast in a 400° oven for an hour or so.
2. In a stock pot, sautee chopped onion, garlic, and ginger in olive oil until translucent.  Deglaze with white wine.  Add rosemary sprig and roasted celeriac and squash.  Add chicken stock and simmer.
3. Remove rosemary sprig and use an immersion blender to blend everything is very smooth.  Add water, wine, or chicken stock if the soup is too thick.  Add a few tablespoons of butter and salt and pepper to taste.

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Weekend Photos: Fantastic Fall Produce

I’m loving the farmers markets right now.  True, the wild color and lushness of summer produce is gone, but the fruits and vegetables of fall are just so satisfying.

Romanesco cauliflower. Fall is a great season for brassicas.

Walnuts!

Squash is everywhere. There are little squashes...

...and big squashes!

The humble parsnip does not get enough love, I think.

Blue sky, orange trees. Love my street.

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Summer Round-Up: Nightshades and Cucurbits

Alright, so I’ve reviewed all my tomatoes and all my root vegetables for the year.  And yet there are STILL too many veggies left for one more post.  I’ll start with the remaining members of the nightshade family, then move on to cucurbits.  Tomorrow I’ll finish up with brassicas and herbs.

Señorita Jalapeño Peppers: All my peppers did poorly this year, stunted by the spring rains I suppose.  But the Señoritas (a milder version of the jalapeño) managed to bulk up a bit by the end of the summer and produced a lot of peppers.  I think I’ll plant these again next year.

Bell Peppers: I had two varieties, California Wonder and Gourmet Orange.  They were severely stunted, and stayed that way.  Each produced exactly one miniature little bell pepper.  If I do bell peppers again next year, I need to keep the plants indoors longer or start them later.  Or maybe just buy someone else’s starts.  Or maybe give up on bell peppers altogether.

Cayennes: These were how I knew everything was truly stunted.  I’ve been growing cayennes and saving the seeds for three years now, and usually they produce two-and-a-half foot bushes with dozens of peppers apiece.  My cayennes this year were tiny and produced only a few peppers.  They also were a little choked by weeds.  But I have such a tradition of growing cayennes that I will have to grow them again next year.

Banana Pepper: Like the Señoritas, my banana pepper plant bounced back after a bad start and ended up producing several long yellow-green beauties.  I may try a different variety of non-bell sweet pepper next year, though.  People seem to love the Jimmy Nardello pepper, so I might try that.

Eggplants: I started one eggplant from seed, and it got stunted into oblivion.  I also ordered one eggplant start (variety: Hansel) through the mail.  It survived, but produced only two itty bitty fruits.  I think it’s pretty clear that I put the eggplants out too early, but my big question next year will be whether to try again.  High quality eggplants are relatively cheap at the market, so it makes less sense to use up a lot of space growing this fussy member of the nightshade family.

Mexican Sour Gherkins: What a star!  These unique little cucurbits were totally easy to start from seed, and did very well through all the weird weather we had this summer.  I had three vines, which quickly took over a fence with their tendrils (but still let plenty of light through).  Every week the vines produced handfuls of little miniature cucumbers, which were a fun snack and quite a novelty among my friends.  I will definitely grow these again.

Crookneck Summer Squash: These were easy enough to grow from seed, but sadly they succumbed to some disease or another after producing only two squashes.  True, the flavor was fantastic – far better than something from a grocery store.  But given how cheap squash is at the farmers market, I think I probably won’t try growing this again next year.

Zucchini: Same deal as the summer squash, only more so.  I got exactly one zucchini (zucchino?) from the two or three bushes on the zucchini hill, and then everything withered and died.  Maybe it was disease, maybe it was squash borer, I don’t really know.  But zucchini is plentiful and cheap at the market, so there’s no reason to take up a lot of space in my own garden with something that seems pretty vulnerable anyway.

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Sunday Photos: Eastern Market

I went over to the Eastern Market area to stop by Hill’s Kitchen, a fabulous kitchen store where I knew could find a wedding gift for my friend getting married next week.  Then I headed over to the market itself.  Eastern Market is probably the closest DC comes to my hometown market that I profiled last week.  Between the meats and cheese in the newly re-opened indoor building, and the local produce in the stalls outside, it was a good opportunity for food gawking.

Eastern Market corridor o' produce.

Squash, zucchini, and tomatoes.

Heirloom tomatoes.

Apples and nectarines.

Vegetable seedlings for sale! I wasn't sure I'd be able to find starts for my fall garden, but there they were. I got Brussels sprouts.

The new Eastern Market hall.

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Touring my Garden Plot

Welcome, Kitchn readers!  My garden was part of The Kitchn’s Great Outdoors series yesterday.  I only wish my fab new camera had arrived by the time I took the pictures featured in the post.  I’ve been giving the camera a whirl and will have some garden photos tomorrow.  But another fun feature is the ability to take video clips:

Happy 4th of July, all!

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