Pan Roasted Baby Artichokes

Baby artichokes were on sale, so I figured I'd give them a shot. Ever since The New York Times ran this article, I've been trying to eat more unusual vegetables more often. Artichokes are actually fun and pretty tasty to eat, but I have a problem figuring out how many of the outer leaves I should remove. In this case, I didn't remove enough so some pieces were a little tough. Oh well, you cook and you learn.

HOW TO:

Wash the artichokes. Remove as many layers of tough exterior leaves as necessary. Trim the top and stem off. Quarter and let the pieces soak in a mix of lemon juice and water. Mince garlic and parsley separately, and set aside. When ready, dry the artichoke pieces and place cut side down in a large pan preheated with olive oil. Let brown before turning the pieces. Toss in the minced garlic and season well with salt and pepper. Remove from heat, and garnish with parsley and lemon juice.

Raw Kale and Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese

My latest go-to salad. I know kale can be intimidating and texturally tough-looking, but after a brief marinade in some kind of acid (fresh lemon juice, or pomegranate vinegar in this case), it's just as crisp and tender as butter lettuce. Roasted beets are a great sweet balance to the tart kale leaves, and fresh chèvre rounds it all out.


HOW TO:

Wash beets well. Try to use fresh ones, i.e. not loose, tennis ball sized or smaller. Dry, cut off the tops, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Place them in a foil packet and bake for about 45 minutes at 375-400ºF. Remove beets from the foil, fork-test to make sure they are tender, and set aside to cool. Wash and soak kale, removing the tough main stem in the process. Dry the leaves well (hellooo handy salad spinner that I finally caved and bought) and chop into bite-ish sized pieces.

For the marinade, whisk together the juice of half to one lemon, a slightly greater amount of olive oil, salt and pepper. Add a little honey if the dressing tastes too tart. Throw in the chopped kale and toss to make sure all the leaves are coated. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, peel the cooled beets - the skin should come off easily just by rubbing. Cut them small chunks, and toss with a little lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Bring the salad together by plating the kale and beets, and crumbling some fresh goat cheese on top.

Octopus with Potatoes and Flat Bean Succotash

Octopus is the latest dish I've been ordering at seafood restaurants all over the city. I'm hooked, so I figured I'd give it a shot at home. Luckily, Eataly steams them for you in advance and sells them whole at the seafood counter because I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle steaming or boiling a whole octopus. My version is simply pan fried with multicolored potatoes. Oh yes, it was another successful experiment. Not as crispy as I would have liked, but I suspect a frier was involved in the restaurant versions.

I served this with a flat bean, spring onion, corn, and fava bean "succotash." It was a really delicious way to cook flat and fava beans, things I had gotten in my CSA that I normally don't eat.

HOW TO:

Cut pre-steamed octopus tentacles into large bite size pieces and sauté in a hot pan with olive oil until crispy. Remove from pan and add potatoes. Cook until brown. Add the octopus back in, season to taste, and finish with parsley and lemon.

For the succotash, prep the vegetables by peeling the fava beans, cutting the flat beans into inch long pieces, cutting the corn off the cob, and slicing the spring onions on a long diagonal. Add the flat beans in a large pot or high pan with butter, a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until almost tender. Add the corn, fava beans and spring onions to the mix. Sauté for about 3 minutes or until everything is tender.

Ribs with Spicy "Pickled" Cucumber, Red Cabbage Slaw, and Sesame Paste Green Beans

Um, what can I say. The ribs were rubbed with almost every spice in the pantry and finished with some barbecue sauce from Whole Foods. I regret not making my own sauce, but Monday night is not the ideal time to be experimenting. The cucumber was marinated with brown rice vinegar, turbinado sugar, salt, garlic, chili paste, and sesame oil. The slaw was red cabbage, red onion, and carrot in a light dressing of lemon juice, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard seed, mustard, and a little mayonnaise. The green beans were simply blanched and served with a sesame paste dipping sauce (sesame paste, sesame oil, garlic, brown rice vinegar, turbinado sugar, salt, and soy sauce). It's probably my favorite way of eating green beans...totally reminds me of my childhood.

HOW TO:

Start with a rub. I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper, turbinado sugar, curry powder, a little cinnamon, cayenne, and cajun seasoning. I probably forgot something. There may have been a little chili powder as well. Marinate overnight in a ziploc. In the morning, add some barbecue sauce and marinate until dinner time. Bake at 325ºF covered with foil for two hours, flipping and basting halfway through. Raise the temperature to 475ºF, remove the foil, baste one last time, and bake for 15 minutes.

Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese and Pistachios

The combination of earthy and sweet beets with tangy goat cheese and crunchy pistachios is fantastic, and they make for a great side dish.

HOW TO:

Wash, dry, and cut off the tops of the beets. Toss with a little salt, pepper, and olive oil, and roast at 375ºF in a foil packet for about 50 minutes or until fork tender. Peel off the skins when cool and cut into cubes. Season, toss with olive oil and a little bit of lemon juice, and set aside. Blend goat cheese with a little milk until whipped together. The beets can be served either topped with goat cheese (above) or mixed together. The mixed version is easier to serve, but it turns slightly unappetizingly highlighter pink. Garnish with pistachios.

Snack Time: Crispy Buttered Jerusalem Artichokes

You may ask, "What the hell are Jerusalem Artichokes???" Good question. I first found them in my CSA share last summer, and after a few weeks they found their way into my garbage because I had no idea what to do with them or even what they were. Turns out Jerusalem artichokes, aka sunchokes, aka those weird brown things are the roots of sunflowers! That's all fine and dandy and interesting, but after I finally figured out what they were I still had to find a way to make them delicious. After a few months of sad experiments and chucking these seemingly unappetizing tubers into the trash (sorry Farmer Zaid!), I decided to bust out the ultimate cooking weapon: butter. I should have thought of this sooner, because almost everything tastes delicious fried in butter. Lo and behold, they were phenomenal. Crispy and salty with a tiny bit of chewy bite to it, they're surprisingly addictive.

Buttered Sunchokes:

Wash and dry. Thinly slice the sunchokes, about 2 cm thick and on a diagonal if they're small. Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a non-stick pan, enough to coat but not drown the sliced sunchokes. Throw those bad boys in, put the heat on medium, add some salt and pepper, and cook until nice and crispy on both sides. It works better if you start removing the slices as they're done, but try not to eat them all as they come out of the pan.