Beef and Garlic Scape Stir Fry

I think this is my first truly seasonal recipe. Garlic scapes are essentially the stem of the immature garlic flower. They have this nice crisp texture, similar to asparagus, with a mild garlic finish. They're perfect for stir fry.

In other exciting news, this garlic bulb was one of the first items I picked from my garden plot! This also went into the stir fry.

HOW TO:

Roughly slice and set aside ginger, garlic and scallion whites. Thinly slice the beef against the grain and marinate with soy sauce, sesame oil, turbinado sugar, salt, cornstarch, and a touch of rice vinegar or cooking wine. Slice the scapes as thinly and as diagonally as possible so they're able to cook quickly. Sauté the ginger, garlic, and scallion in some oil. When fragrant, turn the heat on high and add the beef. Cook until almost fully cooked and remove from the pan. Add the garlic scapes, a little water, and cover with a lid. Cook for a couple minutes until the scapes are tender, add the beef back to the pan, stir together, and serve.

Roasted Black Sea Bass and Homegrown Broccoli Greens with Pancetta

My boyfriend and I have a little farm plot down in Battery Park, and the greens of the broccoli we chose to plant are edible and tender. Since this is the first time I've ever made or eaten broccoli greens, I figured I'd sauté them with garlic and pancetta to make sure they'd be extra tasty. Surprise surprise (not really), they were good. Not bitter with a texture similar to kale, they were a great vegetable side to the main course: black sea bass. 

I bought the sea bass from that great fishmonger at the Union Square Greenmarket, P.E. & D.D., seasoned them everywhere with salt and pepper, stuffed them with sliced organic lemons and rosemary that I also picked up the greenmarket, and finished them with some olive oil before putting them in a 425ºF oven for 17 minutes. It's a simple and really tasty way of making individual fishies.

Pork Tacos

So that roast pork shoulder I made earlier is ideal for tacos. Just chop it into small cubes and fry it up. The pork is naturally fatty, so no extra oil is needed. I served it on fresh corn tortillas with avocado, cilantro, red onion, a little radish, and some limes to garnish.

Roast Pork with Black Beans and Corn, Tomato, and Roasted Red Pepper Salad

I'm on this serious Mexican kick. This was my attempt at roast pork, and it was mighty successful. I made a dry rub of salt, pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, a little cinnamon, and a bit of curry powder. I'm probably missing something, but that covers the main players. Then the pork shoulder was marinated overnight in a smoothie of chipotle chilies, pineapple and lime juices, garlic, onion, and jalapeño. Roast for 4 hours at 315ºF and...

To round out the meal, I made black beans from scratch and a spicy corn, tomato, and roasted red pepper salad. To make the beans, soak them overnight in enough water to cover by 2 inches. Rinse and drain the beans. Sauté garlic and onion in a large pot until lightly browned. Add the beans and cover with water or stock. Add a bay leaf, salt, and pepper and simmer for a couple hours until tender. In the last 15 minutes or so, add some chopped garlic and cilantro.

The corn salad is pretty basic. Cook corn on the cob and remove the kernels. Toss with chopped cilantro, red onion, jalapeño, tomatoes, roasted red pepper, and lime juice. To roast the red pepper, place it directly on the gas burner and rotated it when the skin blackened. Place the pepper in a tall bowl and cover with plastic wrap. After 20 minutes or so, the skin should peel off easily.

I served this all with some tortillas from Nixtamal and some left over guacamole from my pre-dinner snack. Part 2 of the Mexican dinner series will be coming up shortly.


http://www.tortillerianixtamal.com/

Pasta with Ricotta, Spring Peas, and Pancetta

I really like peas. It kind of took me by surprise too, I mean who likes peas? Seriously though, nothing tastes better when they're in season. There are some great organic growers at the Greenmarket in Union Square that I like to buy them from. They're only around for a few weeks in the very beginning of summer and after that, nada. Picture my really sad face. Anyway, this dish is in honor of pea season. It's pasta with peas (obviously), sheep's milk ricotta, pancetta, garlic, onion, and some lemon.

HOW TO:

Fresh peas come like this:

So they require some shelling. I recommend doing this with a nice glass of white wine. Afterwards, voilà!

Brown diced pancetta in some olive oil. Remove from pan and sauté garlic and shallots (I used red onion here) in the remaining oil. Return the pancetta after lightly browned. Meanwhile, cook the peas in some salted, boiling water for 4 minutes, and start cooking the pasta. Drain and transfer the peas to the pan with the pancetta. Lightly smash the peas. Season with salt, pepper, and the zest of one lemon. Turn the heat on low and add the sheep's milk ricotta. Add some pasta water to thin out the sauce. Toss in the pasta and mix to combine. Finish with some lemon juice to taste.

North African Meatballs with Couscous

I have to give credit where it's due. I had help with this one. I'm a little ashamed to say where it came from though. Ok...I was bored and channel surfing when I came across Melissa d'Arabian making "North African" meatballs in this tomato based sauce, and it looked pretty tasty. I've never watched her show because the terrible title, Ten Dollar Dinners, really puts me off. That particular episode was interesting though, so of course I had to give it a shot. With my excellent instruction-following skills, I pretty much used her recipe as a guide. Besides the general no measurement of everything, I made the following adjustments.

Sauce:
More onion and garlic
Red wine, not white
Turbinado sugar instead of brown
Waaaaaay more cinnamon. That was an accident, but I have no patience for measuring so I just dumped lots of red pepper and cinnamon in. That was before I saw it was supposed to be a pinch. Oops.
Cumin
Bay leaf

Meatballs:
Lamb instead of beef
No tomato paste
No cinnamon (too much in the sauce)

I topped the whole dish with pistachios and I have to say, it was pretty awesomely delicious. The sauce wasn't too heavy on the cinnamon at all and the lamb meatballs were really tasty. I want to try this again with fresh tomatoes and more olives. Oh, just a note, this was definitely over $10 bucks to make. I don't know what food prices this lady is using.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/north-african-meatballs-recipe/index.html

Dinner: Chinese Edition

Chinese food is a good go-to for me when ever I have lots of left over chicken or when I'm out of ideas for something to make for dinner. One of my childhood favorites is a dish my grandma came up with. It's a simple mix of stir fried beef, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and green onion. It may sound like a strange combo, but it tastes delicious and is perfection over rice.

Another simple, always-tasty dish is chicken stir fry. It is pretty much what is sounds like: marinated, diced chicken with green beans, red pepper, and carrot. (Pardon the picture. It was half eaten with I took it.)

HOW TO (Beef):

Thinly slice steak against the grain in 2 inch or so length pieces. Marinate in a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, turbinado sugar, salt, pepper, a bit of cornstarch, and a liiittle brown rice vinegar and set aside. Meanwhile, dice 6 to 8 scallions, keeping separate the white parts from the green. Chop 4 medium to large tomatoes into inch size pieces. 

Start by scrambling 5 eggs in a large pan. Remove when almost cooked through. Turn the pan on high and add the marinated beef. Also remove when almost cooked through. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the chopped tomatoes, the diced scallion whites, a small spoonful of turbinado sugar, and some soy sauce. Let cook for 5-10 minutes until the tomatoes melt into a sauce. Add the beef and egg back into the pan letting everything simmer for another 5 minutes or so. Remove from pan and garnish with scallion greens.

HOW TO (Chicken):

Marinate diced chicken in a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, turbinado sugar, salt, a bit of cornstarch (see a pattern?). Roughly chop 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, thinly slice 3 or 4 scallions on a long diagonal, setting aside the green parts, and prepare 3 or 4 slices of ginger. Also slice 2 carrots, blanched green beans, and a small red pepper into similar size strips.

On medium heat, start by frying the garlic, ginger, and scallion whites in a little oil until fragrant. Add some hot chili paste, turn up the heat and stir fry the chicken until cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan, add the carrots, green beans, and red pepper. Stir fry slightly until just cooked. Add the chicken back in along with a slurry of corn starch, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, sugar, and brown rice vinegar. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Garnish with scallion greens.