Monthly Archives: March 2018

Lamb Meatballs: a twist on the Easter feast

 
Yes, the day before Easter is a little late to be making menu decisions, not to mention those that definitely require a trip to the grocery store. That said, you might want to live on the edge and make that store run because these are just plain tremendous.
 
Lamb and mint are familiar players at the Easter table, but not in meatball form. When you
taste these, however, you’ll wonder, “Why the hell not?” Even better than being delicious, these are beyond easy, requiring only one semi weird ingredient. I’m talking about you, harissa. Much as I love you, however, you can be replaced. The only change I made to the original recipe was to scale it up slightly. I also made them easier and healthier (you’re welcome) by baking them instead of frying them. This technique comes straight from our favorite buffalo chicken meatball recipe. 
 
There’s not much else to say about these. If you can’t make them for Easter I strongly suggest making them for some other occasion. I suspect they will go very well with leftover Easter candy.

Lamb Meatballs with Yogurt Sauce

Adapted from Matt Jennings Homegrown
 

Ingredients:

For the yogurt sauce:
  • 2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt 
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely minced 
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill 
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint 
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper 
For the meatballs:
  • 2 pounds ground lamb 
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten 
  • 3/4 cup fine fresh bread crumbs 
  • 1 large shallot, minced 
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon harissa (or sambal oelek, siracha or another red chile paste) 
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (or ground cumin)
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
 For garnish (totally extra credit but totally worth it):
  • Toasted sunflower seeds
  • Pickled chiles, homemade or store-bought

Method:

Preheat oven to 400.

Make the yogurt sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, garlic, 2 tablespoons of the dill, and 1 tablespoon of the mint. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

Make the meatballs: In a large bowl, combine the lamb, egg, bread crumbs, shallot, harissa, salt, cumin, and pepper and mix well with your hands. Shape into golf ball sized meatballs, dipping your hands in cold water as needed to keep the mixture from sticking.

Assemble meatballs snugly in a lightly-oiled  13″ x 9″ baking dish (or any other combo of baking  dishes that work) so they touch each other. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes until they look yummy and done.

Spoon some yogurt sauce into the bottom of four bowls. Top with a few meatballs, and garnish with the remaining dill and mint, the sunflower seeds, and a few pickled chiles.

Serves 6 as a main course, our 4 with lotsa leftovers.

Spring Chicken Soup

 

This recipe is straight outta Steamboat from Tania, Bring It’s Rocky Mountain correspondent. Along with her husband, she invented this by merging three Thai recipes. As Tania  says,  “It can be tweaked anyway you want, but it is pretty amazing as written.” She also admits it’s a pain in the butt to make, but it’s really nothing more than a a few rounds of chopping sautéing and stirring. 

What I love about this soup, beyond it’s sheer freshness, is the way it builds in the pot, kind of like stone soup. I guess this is how Stone Soup would evolve in a community with really well stocked veggie drawers. It features a lot of greens, and can handle a lot of flexibility. That said, the first time I made it I was missing key ingredients—fish sauce, mint, red peppers—and used the wrong mushrooms and imposter jalapeños. (It’s New Hampshire. It happens).The result was ok but underwhelming. The next time I made it, with the right stuff, it got the kind of unsolicited rave reviews I NEVER get from soup.

There are no amounts listed for the fresh herbs, but be generous with them, according to your taste. If you want to freelance, I suggest doing it on the amount of oil and butter used at each phase, using whatever amount looks and feels right to you. It makes a lot, so as you reheat it during the week, give it fresh cha-cha  by adding more ginger, garlic and lime. 

Spring Chicken Soup

Courtesy of Chuck and Tania Coffey

Ingredients:

  • 8 cups of chicken stock
  • *olive oil
  • *butter
  • 1 ½ lb boneless/skinless chicken breasts
  • 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 3” ginger root peeled and minced
  • 2 red peppers sliced thinly
  • ¾ lb shitake mushrooms sliced
  • 3 limes (skin from one lime)
  • ¼ c fish sauce
  • fresh basil
  • fresh mint
  • fresh cilantro (leaves and stems)
  • 3 jalapenos diced
  • 2 fresnos cut in rings (easterners, you are forgiven if you can’t track these downw)
  • 2 cans coconut milk
  • 1 1/2 T brown sugar
  • red pepper flakes to taste
  • 11 oz  baby spinach (1 entire plastic coffin)
  • i package straight cut rice noodles

Method:

Pour all the stock into a big pot and heat on medium high.

Grill chicken (or cook up however works for you) 8-10 minutes per side. The breasts are undercooked because they are going in the soup.  When cool enough to cut, cube into 1” pieces and add to soup.

In a nonstick pan heat 1 T butter and 1T olive oil and cook garlic and ginger until fragrant.  Pour into pot.

In a large nonstick pan heat 2 T butter and 1T olive oil (I used less here) and cook mushrooms until fragrant and starting to brown. Add a half cup or so water to the cooking mushrooms if they seem dry.  Add to soup.

Add 1-2 T butter to pan and cook red peppers until slightly soft. Add to soup. You’re done with that pan now.

Grate the skin of a lime into soup. Add juice of 3 limes and the fish sauce to soup.Cut stems of cilantro into ½” pieces and add to soup.
Slice fresnos and mince jalapenos and add to soup.
Add coconut milk, red pepper flakes to taste and  brown sugar.
Chop basil, cilantro and mint leaves and add to soup with all of the spinach (you really have to use a big spoon to get it all in there).
Cover soup partially and cook until the spinach wilts (this happens fast).
In another pot bring water to boil and cook rice noodles according to directions. (alternatively serve this over jasmine rice)
To serve put noodles in a bowl and cover with soup.  Add red pepper flakes to taste.
The soup gets better the next day especially if you add a bit more garlic, ginger and jalapeno.

Looking for other fresh spring recipes? How about minty snap pea salad, or of course Marcharitas. And because it’s the confluence of soup season and sugaring season—what we lack in peppers around here, we make up for in maple—don’t forget maple oat breakfast bread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Splash of Sunshine: Citrus Roasted Fennel and Red Onion

Roasted winter vegetables cheer right up with citrus cha cha.

This recipe is a shout-out to my Auntie Tina, who lives high on a hill in Marin County, surrounded by her beautiful garden. When I think of her, I think of sunshine and a warm smile. That’s what this dish does for me on a gray winter day, or, as is now the case, a gray spring day. The fact that I used clementines for this (her full name is Clementina) makes the dedication feel all the more appropriate.

Citrus is a sign of hope and cheer. Roasted citrus is not for everyone. You love it or you don’t, and you know who you are. I love it (chicken or broccoli roasted with Meyer lemons? Yeah baby!) After being served  this amazing roasted chicken with clementines, originally from the Jerusalem cookbook,  I took a brief tour of the interwebs and found a salad featuring a similar combo.

Molly Stevens’ creation has inspired many subtle riffs and tweaks. My favorites include: adding pomegranate arils before serving; swapping navel oranges for Satsuma or blood oranges; adding fresh, peeled rounds of said oranges after roasting; and adding some zap with a splash of a sherry vinegar before serving. Do what you like, and enjoy this bit of roasted sunshine. Serve it with love and a smile, just like Auntie Tina would.

 

The pre-roasted look

Citrus Roasted Fennel and Red Onion

Serves 4

  • 1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs (about 1 pound untrimmed)
  • 1 medium red onion
  • 3 clementines (or 1 large navel orange), scrubbed.
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 400 degrees F (375 degrees convection). Line a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (this prevents the oranges from sticking to the pan).
  2. Trim the fronds from the fennel. Stand a bulb on its base on the cutting board and cut it in half lengthwise, cutting from the core end to the stem end. (If the bulb is more oblong than round, as some are, you will create two halves that are thinner and flatter rather than thicker and bulbous.) Use a paring knife to remove most of the core from each half (no need to get it all out). Lay each half flat on the cutting surface and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick crescent-shaped slices. Toss onto the baking sheet and repeat with the second fennel bulb if you have two.
  3. Cut the onion in half, cutting from root to stem end. Peel and remove the root end from both halves. Slice the onion halves crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick half-moons and add to the fennel.
  4. Next, slice 2 clementines into ¼ inch rounds. (If using large orange, first cut off the ends and use them for juicing at the end of the recipe.)
  5. Add sliced clementines to the fennel and onion. Drizzle the olive oil on top and season well with salt and plenty of pepper. Toss to coat and arrange in an even(ish) layer on the baking sheet.
  6. Roast, stirring with a spatula after 15 minutes to ensure even cooking and again every 10 minutes or so. The vegetables close to the edge of the pan will brown more quickly than those in the center, so stirring and then shaking the pan to restore an even layer helps everything cook at the same rate. Continue roasting until the vegetables and orange are tender and the outer edges are beginning to caramelize, 25 to 45 minutes.
  7. Transfer to a serving dish, ideally a wide, shallow bowl. Let cool for at least 15 minutes or to room temperature. Cut remaining clementine in half. Squeeze the juice of one half over the salad and taste. If it tastes a little flat, add a pinch of salt and squeeze the other half clementine over it. *Drizzle with a little of your best olive oil and serve warm or at room temperature.

* if you want to fancy it up with a vinaigrette, squeeze the orange ends or halved clementine for 1 Tbsp juice. Whisk with 1 tsp sherry vinegar and a pinch of sea salt. Slowly whisk in 2 tablespoons olive oil. Drizzle away!