roasted

Ridiculous Roasted Marshmallow Blackberries

June 23, 2014 by arfoodie

Organic blackberry by North Pulaski Farms. Marshmallow by Kraft.

I went to a local farmers’ market yesterday for the first time in I-don’t-know-when, other than a couple months ago when we had the Blogger Bake Sale at the Argenta Farmers’ Market. And I didn’t get to look around that day.

Honestly, I just can’t get up that early and get presentable on Saturdays. (Yeah, yeah, the Argenta one goes until NOON. Still.)

We had just rolled in from a vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Although I cooked whenever possible, we still had eaten more than our share of road food.

I recalled that the Bernice Garden Farmers’ Market runs until 2 p.m. on Sundays, offering a chance to load up on some cleansing fruits and veggies. Usually, this is my after-church crash-nap time. But, since I had just been sitting in a moving vehicle all day, I was daisy-fresh. Ish.

It was my first time to the Bernice market. I saw some newcomers to the market scene (North Little Rock Community Farm, which I’ll write more about soon), as well as some familiar faces, including Kelly Carney, owner of the all-organic North Pulaski Farms. I came away from his booth with some special breed of cucumbers and a carton of the biggest, most amazing-looking blackberries I’d ever seen. Did I mention they were organic?

Of course, the whole purpose of the trip was to make some healthy fare. That would be on the menu all week, what with all the squash and zucchini and onions and such I had picked up. I unpacked the camping goodies from our trip while I snacked on the blackberries. Marshmallows. Toward cabinet.

Full stop.

This could be something.

Progression of inspiration.

I fiddled with a marshmallow. I broke it open, kind of unrolling it from one end to the other so it would be long and thin. A muse descended and guided my hand, placing a ripe berry in the middle.

Munch. Amazing.

Then the gas cooktop caught my eye.

Soon, I had pierced another marshmallow-wrapped berry with a chopstick and was roasting it. A roasted marshmallow. With a berry inside.

Munch. Even MORE amazing.

Roasted marshmallow blackberry with balsamic. Oh, how it wanted a mint leaf!

Soon, my daughter caught on to the awesome and we roasted several. I drizzled a bit of balsamic on one, and that was over.the.top. It wanted a mint leaf, but alas, I had none.

I’ve made a couple healthier things with my market finds today. But I had to share this. It’s just so ridiculous, it’s awesome.

Poblano Quinoa Cucumber Bites with Cumin Vinaigrette

March 2, 2014 by arfoodie

Attendees at the North Little Rock Vitamin Shoppe’s Share the Health event loved these Poblano Quinoa Cucumber Bites with Cumin Vinaigrette.

An aside…

This title reminds me of a silly page I want to do someday on this website. I want to have a “fancy food name generator.” It will have a series of food words that go something like this: adjective noun noun noun with a(n) adjective noun noun. Refresh the page and you’ll get something like this:

Crispy Tomato Kumquat Compote with a Creamy Asparagus Sorbet
or
Savory Watermelon Kimchi Pizza with a Chilled Habañero Reduction

Anyways.

This weekend I participated in the national “Share the Health” expo held at Vitamin Shoppes nationwide, setting up camp at my local store in North Little Rock. While others demonstrated taekwondo and sold bikes, I whipped up samples of this tasty quinoa salad. Even the healthy-food averse were converted. Hallelujah!

I served the salad cold atop tiny rounds of fresh cucumber, but it could be served as a meal component or salad all by itself, warm or chilled. Enjoy!

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Poblano Quinoa Cucumber Bites with Cumin Vinaigrette
Serves 30 as an appetizer, 8 as a main dish or salad

1 cup quinoa, uncooked
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
2 Poblano peppers
1 Red bell pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
2 T. dried parsley (or 1/4 c. fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped fine)
2 tsp. ground cumin, plus extra for garnish
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
2 cucumbers
Optional: Fresh parsley or cilantro for garnish

If the package states to do so, rinse and drain the quinoa. In a medium pot, heat the quinoa by itself over medium-high heat a minute or two, stirring occasionally, until slightly toasted, then add the broth and the garlic clove. Bring just to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook according to package directions, probably about 15 minutes, until the quinoa is done and all the liquid is absorbed.

Meanwhile, roast the poblano peppers. If you have a gas cooktop, this can be done there. Place one or both peppers directly on a burner and turn on the flame. When one side is charred, turn carefully with heat-resistant tongs. (Turn on the vent if you have one!) If you do not have a gas cooktop, you can do this under the broiler of your oven. Place the peppers on a baking sheet just under the broiler. Stand nearby and watch, turning with tongs when the top is charred. With either method, when all sides are charred, place the peppers in an airtight container such as a plastic storage bag or rigid container with a lid. Allow the peppers to steam while you continue.

Chop the bell pepper, which we’ll use raw, into small dice. You can do this by cutting the pepper in half, carefully removing the white membranes and seeds with the tip of your knife, and slicing the pepper halves into very thin strips, about 1/8″ thick. Line the strips up and cut into small cubes. Place in a large bowl.

By now your poblanos are ready to peel. Hold them under running cool water and scrub off the charred skin. If some skin wasn’t charred and doesn’t want to come off, don’t worry about it. Now dry the poblanos and cut the flesh into small pieces with the same method as the bell pepper. (Yeah, it will be more floppy, but it’s floppy deliciousness.) Add to the large bowl.

In a jar, add together the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, herbs and cumin. Shake to combine, taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Keep it in the jar for now.

When the quinoa is done and still warm, turn it out into the large bowl and gently mix it with the peppers, being careful to not crush the quinoa. Pour the vinaigrette over the mixture and fold it in gently. If possible, let this stand, covered, in the fridge for at least 4 hours before using.

When you’re ready to serve, slice the cucumbers about 1/4″ thick. Sprinkle sparingly with kosher salt. (Skip the salt here if these will sit out a while, or they’ll weep.) Find the garlic in the salad and remove it. Using a small spoon or melon baller, place a small amount of the salad on top of the slices. Sprinkle with another bit of kosher salt and a dash of cumin. Add a small sprig of parsley or cilantro if you like.

Prettied-up option that I skipped during my show: Before slicing the cucumber, use a vegetable peeler to make four or five stripes evenly around it. When you cut the slices, they’ll have a cool pattern and they’ll be easier to eat if the peel is tough.

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I so enjoyed making new friends at this show, especially those of you who had questions about how food changes can affect your health. I hope I can be of service to you. Stay in touch!

New (Old) Cookbooks and Sage-Garlic Roasted Chicken

September 15, 2009 by arfoodie

Obviously, I am still working out exactly what all Fancy Pants Foodie is and will be. But one of the things I will most likely always do is show you what I’m cooking, and what I learned from it. Tonight, you get to learn from both my success and my mistakes!

Recently, my friend Beth was participating in a fundraiser for her church that involved selling donated cookbooks. Upon getting her email with the available list, I “ordered” my stack of cookbooks, which I read like trashy novels. Not that I read trashy novels, but if I did, I would read cookbooks the same way. Anyway.

Beth recommended two that were not on my list, both by Pam Anderson, former executive editor of Cook’s Illustrated, a foodie favorite. (If you haven’t discovered the magazine yet, it’s worth clicking the link and picking up at least a trial issue.) The first book, humorously titled How to Cook Without a Book, focuses on learning techniques and simple formulas for making just about anything with what’s in your fridge and pantry at that moment. I like this approach very much, and it’s actually what I have tried to do myself over the years. Learn a basic technique — most of mine from the good ol’ Better Homes and Gardens basic book — and roll with it for years to come.

TPRcover

The second book, The Perfect Recipe, is Pam’s version of a research journal for home cooks. She took several basic recipes, from macaroni and cheese and burgers to cornish hens and prime rib, and tried them several different ways to find just the right technique. It’s interesting to read how she made batch after batch of burgers, experimenting with making the ground beef herself, and seasoning the beef at different stages in cooking, to report the best results to the reader. Then, for each final recipe, she outlines a basic, illustrated technique, with a few fancied-up variations afterward.

In The Perfect Recipe, Pam offers a simplified roasted chicken that makes it, as she categorizes, an “Everyday Classic.” Hmmm. I’ve done this before, but not lately. Chicken doesn’t seem the means by which to get Fancy Pants. But finally, I dared to step outside my rut of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and purchased a whole “roaster.”

What makes this recipe different is that the bird is not exactly roasted whole, but butterflied. This means getting out your best pair of kitchen scissors (neither of mine were really great) and cutting out the backbone, then flattening out the bird for roasting. This cuts down quite a bit on cooking time and makes it much easier to carve and serve. (Note: The video linked above has you take out the keel bone, which is fine, but not necessary. I didn’t, and neither did Pam.)

After I had rinsed, dried, cut, and flattened said chicken, my husband enters the kitchen. He looked at the bird. He looked at me.

“Why is the chicken spread eagle?”

“It’s not,” I replied. “It’s spread chicken.”

Here’s my version based on Pam Anderson’s technique, using the ingredients I had on hand:

Sage-Garlic Roasted Chicken

3 to 4 lb. whole roaster chicken
1 large garlic clove
6 – 10 leaves fresh sage
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 500 degrees and position top rack to be about 12 inches from the top element. Butterfly the chicken, rinse with cool water and pat dry. (See video for technique.) Place chicken on a large jelly roll pan or roasting pan. Tuck wings under the bird so they do not burn. Loosen the skin around the breasts and legs so that you can get between the skin and meat.

Crush garlic in a press or mince finely, and mince the sage. Mix these in a small bowl with the salt and pepper. Spread this mixture under the skin of the chicken.

Rub the skin all over with oil, and season with a bit more kosher salt and pepper. (Any further seasonings will burn in the high heat of the oven.)

Roast for about 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 165 degrees. The skin will be a lovely, medium brown and the juices should run clear.

Remove from oven and loosely cover with foil to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

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OK, that sounds all peachy and lovely, right? Wondering why there are no photos today?

Actually, there should be. The chicken itself was beautiful. I was just too distracted (and hungry!) by all the shortcomings along the way.

First of all, the battery on my really good Polder meat thermometer is dead. I should replace it immediately. But I haven’t. So.

I took the bird out a little early, thinking it looked done. My ghetto turkey-frying thermometer said it was. After throwing together some sides that did NOT really turn out well (that’s another story for another day), I got the table ready and turned to my lovely birdie for carving.

Still red in the middle. Sheesh!

Not one, but TWO baking sessions later, I finally got it done. Thirty minutes left alone would probably have done it. Or, for a larger bird (which mine was), you can start it breast-down and flip it halfway through. Prolly shoulda tried that.

The other problem, Pam actually experienced herself. From The Perfect Recipe:
The broiling method also took some fine-tuning, for my first attempts set off two smoke alarms.

I didn’t set off any alarms, but the house definitely had a mystic aura for an hour or two. Someday I’ll have an oven with an outside vent, but for now, these things will just have to happen. The same thing occurred with my famous broiled steak from years ago. Darn tasty, but smokes up the house something awful.

What else did I learn?

That even when things get messed up, they can still come out tasting glorious. It really was, even if all the side items were cool by the time we sat down to eat.

The chicken was moist, and the sage/garlic mixture really permeated the meat. The leftovers will make a great shredded chicken somethingorother tomorrow.

More soon!

P.S. If you Twitter, please follow me… @arfoodie. Not only will you get notices of blog updates, you’ll also get local foodie news and updates, as well as the occasional random ROT (river of tweets) of useful foodie tidbits and links.

At the Market — Peppers from Sparkling River Farm

August 30, 2009 by arfoodie

Hubby and I have decided to develop a new fragrance. I’m sure it will quickly outsell Chanel No. 5, Cool Water and all those other silly scents combined.

It’s this….

Smoked Peppers

I think I’ll just hang it on a string around my neck. It’s that good.

Zi6_0877 Meet Fred Gray of Sparkling River Farm in Mt. Olive. He and his wife Toni are certified chileheads (OK, the business card says “Pepper Rancher”) who supply Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market attendees, as well as other markets around the state and in Memphis, with some of the best pepper products around.

Saturday, we found the pair with a wonderful array of fresh peppers, from sweet to hot. But the products that will keep me coming back were the ones they created from these peppers.

Market attendees could buy fresh roasted peppers in bags, roasted on-site in a tumbling basket contraption right there by the tent. If you’ve ever purchased roasted peppers in a jar, or even (like me) gone through the trouble of roasting your own on the gas stovetop, you should give these super-fresh babies a try.

There were sauces (do you realize how few people actually MAKE good pepper sauce themselves?!?) and other goodies, but I have to come back to the smoked peppers. Oh, the smell is drawing me back…

Toni told me about Fred spending the day out in the farm’s smokehouse, and coming back inside steeped in the incredible aroma of peppers and hickory. And yes, she said it still smelled good to her, too, although they both said the smell disappears after being in it a while.

Of the two varieties available at the tent on Saturday, the first is a sweet variety made of Marconi peppers, which can be used, according to their website:
Whole pod (reconstituted) in soups, meat sauces, casseroles, pasta dishes; ground pod in above plus rubs, wet rubs, chile pastes, marinades and in ground pepper dispenser on table top. Also called vegan-jerkey!

The second variety, which we took home and decided to carry around with us like sachets of smoky goodness, was the Cayenne pepper. Their website recommends using this pepper:
Whole pod (reconstituted) in soups, meat sauces, casseroles, pasta dishes; Infused oils and vinegars; ground pod (dry) in above plus rubs, wet rubs, Chile pastes, moles, marinades, Bar-B-Q sauces and in ground pepper dispenser on table top.

Um, yes. All of it. Today, please.

So far, I have snipped a tiny bit and infused it into a cream sauce I made for the handmade Chipotle pasta purchased from Argenta Market (I’ll get to them another post!). Tomorrow, I’ll go old school/new school on a crock pot of beans with bacon and one of these bad boys. And cornbread. Nom.

Meanwhile, as it gets used up, I’ll continue to just open the bag every hour or so and take a deep sniff. You think I’m kidding.

Over the next few days, I’ll introduce you to more of the vendors at the Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market. One of the purposes of this blog, I think, will be to encourage you to step out and try a few new things, especially in the area of whole foods or slow foods. Fewer boxed things. More things that were recently growing, and growing locally.

I’m certainly not completely there myself yet (I recommended shortening in a previous recipe, for goodness’ sakes), but I’m getting there. Come with me, it’s yummy!

Coming soon: Incredible local pickles, cheese, bread and more. And monthly farm-fresh goodie baskets you can pre-order. We’ll eventually get back to Morgan’s Ratatouille.