Fresh Tart

Happy New Year! It's time for vegetables! I know that I don't really need to explain why, given universal post-holiday puffiness and such. For me, all sorts of high-carbohydrate, gluten-free grainy flours made their way into my diet and while festive, I certainly noticed how 1) tired, and 2) starving it all made me feel.  Sometimes it takes little reminders that what works best - and for me that's not just gluten-free, but primarily grain-free eating - is exactly what works best. Hey.

As a bonus, all of the foods that make me feel and look like myself - high quality meats, fish, vegetables, eggs, nuts, fats, and small amounts of dairy and fruit - are all of my favorite foods anyhow.

So 2013, let's lead off with soup! I'll confess I didn't plan this one out, it sort of made itself out of the fridge. I'm quite sure that you could use vegetable broth, and skip the chicken, and enjoy this as a vegetarian treat. Dried porcini mushrooms make the broth - and everything - delectably meaty, for very little effort. When you're making up a soup, keep in mind that the most satisfying soups are texturally layered - this version is brimming with tender chicken, chewy mushrooms, crisp broccoli, with crunchy nuts to finish. That's how I like it! Kablam!

I hope you all enjoyed holiday time with family and friends. We hosted Christmas Eve here with my mom and sister Stacey. Escargot, beef stroganoff, braised cabbage with caraway seeds, and baked lemon pudding made up our holiday feast and uff da, it was indeed a feast.

Christmas Day we made our annual trip out to my aunt Mary & uncle Bruce's lovely farm west of Willmar. More beef - rib roast, yes! - snuggled up against mashed potatoes, beets, Brussels sprouts salad, topped off with my aunt Marge's famous cheesecake for dessert. More uff da. So worth it. So much sparkly, cozy fun!

I'd say the tree is put away and everything is back in its usual place, but...hell no. We also hosted a New Year's Eve party, and my birthday is tomorrow, so sometime this coming week will have to do. In the meantime, here's to a delicious and healthy 2013! Fresh Tart turns 7 years old tomorrow, pretty crazy, thank you so much for reading along with me for all these years!

xo Stephanie

Mushroom Soup with Chicken, Broccoli & Pumpkin Seeds
Serves 4

I'll confess that I gilded the lily by adding fried sage leaves as a garnish along with the pumpkin seeds and mushrooms. Totally not necessary, but if you're as crazy about fried sage as I am, fry it in the butter you toast the pumpkin seeds in (sage leaves first, remove them, add the pumpkin seeds, toast away) until a little bit browned. Killer.

1 c. + 1 quart chicken broth
1-6 oz. package dried porcini mushrooms
5 Tbsp. butter, divided
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled & chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp. dried thyme
sea salt
1/2 c. heavy cream (optional)
handful arugula leaves (optional)
1 c. broccoli florets
1 c. bite-size chicken pieces (I pulled apart a rotisserie chicken)
1/2 c. raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
freshly ground black pepper

In a small saucepan, heat 1 c. chicken broth until steaming. Remove from heat and stir in porcini mushrooms. Soak for 30 minutes until mushrooms are soft. Scoop mushrooms from broth with your hands, squeezing liquid back into the pan. Chop mushrooms and set aside. Strain broth through a coffee filter into a small bowl and reserve.

In a large saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp. of the butter over medium heat until melted and foaming. Str in onion, carrot, celery, garlic, dried thyme, and a pinch of salt. Stirring occasionally, saute vegetables until beginning to soften, 8-10 minutes. Stir in the reserved mushroom soaking liquid and quart of chicken broth. Simmer broth and vegetables until vegetables are tender, 10-15 minutes.

While soup simmers, in a small skillet, heat 1 Tbsp. butter over medium heat until melted and foaming. Stir in pumpkin seeds and toast seeds, stirring frequently, until seeds are golden brown. Transfer seeds to a paper towel-lined plate and sprinkle lightly with salt. Set aside.

Add remaining 2 Tbsp. butter to skillet and return to medium heat. Add the chopped porcini mushrooms and a pinch of salt and saute until starting to crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a blender, puree vegetables and stock in batches with arugula leaves (if using), returning pureed soup to the saucepan.

Heat the pureed soup over medium heat until simmering. Add broccoli and cook for 5 minutes, until broccoli is tender-crisp. Stir in cream (if using) and chicken and heat for a couple of minutes. Season to taste with salt. Serve hot with toasted pumpkin seeds and sauteed porcini mushrooms, topped with several grinds of black pepper.

What to bake when you prefer the salty over the sweet? And you're busy? (And you can't eat gluten?) These easy beauties, which have become everyone's favorite Christmas cookie, including mine.

The original recipe caught my eye a few years ago as the Minneapolis Star Tribune's 2009 Cookie Contest Winner. If you love almonds and caramel and butter and Christmas, you'll be as smitten by these decadent cookies as the Strib'stasting panel clearly was (their verdict: "love" and "beautiful").

As a gift to the baker, these are bar cookies, which Minnesotans know are the most magical (and easy!) of all. Other than allowing time for the shortbread crust to chill before baking, they come together in minutes. After they cool for awhile, cut them into tidy triangles, pour yourself a glass of milk, and dig in.

Despite their simplicity, the triangles are elegant on a cookie plate AND disappear blessedly quickly. You can focus on how nutritious almonds are to lull yourself into cookie complacency, but a cookie isn't Christmas without a hearty dose of butter and sugar, and these are no exception.

Thank goodness!

Recipe for Almond Triangles at TC Taste/Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Braise a pot of beans one day, eat well for the next several. It's the laziest, most delicious way to fill a week with food that I can imagine.

Day 1 eat a bowlful of beans, on their own or alongside a roast or spooned over rice.

Day 2 fry some beans until crispy and top with sauteed greens and a poached egg.

Day 3 puree some of the cold beans with garlic, fresh lemon juice, and olive oil and eat the spread with chips or smeared generously on grilled bread.

Day 4 puree some of the warm beans with chicken or vegetable stock and eat piping hot as soup, topped with crispy Brussels sprouts and toasted walnuts (fry sliced Brussels in hot olive oil/butter combination).

Your ideas? Share them!

The soup pictured is made with chickpeas, although the foolproof recipe - via Cafe Levain chef Adam Vickerman - is written for white beans. His technique works for whatever beans you like, so experiment away! (Leftover beans freeze beautifully, by the way.)

Original recipe for Braised White Beans at TC Taste/Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

While you're busy baking holiday sweets, don't forget a nod to the savory. Homemade crackers are a thousand times tastier than their boxed counterparts (just like cookies!) and are a breeze to whip up. The cheesy, nutty crunch of these almond-meal cheese crackers needs no topping, just a measure of discipline to not inhale a panful in one serving. A salty corner here, a browned edge there, and snip, snap, gone.

This recipe is a terrific base recipe, delicious as is as well as highly customizable. The best part of cooking is making a dish your own, right? If you're new to cooking, it's important to follow recipes exactly while you get a feel for how things work. But as you taste and learn and understand the basic science, I'm all for playing around with seasonings, experimenting, whether to use the ingredients you happen to have on hand or to try something completely new. I happened to be feeling nostalgic about the rosemary in my fridge, as it's the last taste of my garden, so I added minced rosemary - and several grinds of black pepper - to the mix.

Lovely.

Recipe for gluten-free/grain-free Cheese Crackers with Rosemary & Black Pepper at TC Taste/Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

One of my favorite New York food treats is to inhale pork in many forms at Momofuku Ssam Bar. The Bo Ssam pork shoulder is particularly delightful, served whole and fall-apart-glistening for the table to share. Everyone grabs tongs and snaps at the meat like a pack of well-dressed wolves, filling lettuce leaves with slabs of silky shoulder topped with sticky rice, raw oysters (!), kimchi, and a bright blast of ginger scallion sauce. As gorgeous as that pork shoulder is - and it is a stunner, not to be missed - this last trip it was the addictive ginger scallion sauce that I couldn't stop thinking about.

Luckily, I possess the Momofuku Cookbook and just looked the dang stuff up when I got home. It's a snap to make and I am not exaggerating when I say that its sparkle belongs on everything: noodles, all vegetables, scrambled eggs, rice, tofu, soups, all meats, your finger. So. Good. (After a little googling, I find I'm not the only one obsessed with the stuff: Sarah Gim's take on Tastespotting blog and Francis Lam's "explosive" version on Gilt Taste, which I also can't wait to make.)

For the photo, I tossed the sauce with hot rice noodles, ladled a bit of rich chicken stock into the bowl, and added a few pickles and crushed peanuts for crunch. Let's call that dish Five-Minute Comfort, because that's exactly how long it took to make (given already prepared sauce and a stash of chicken stock in the freezer). The other dish is chopped Brussels sprouts stir-fried with some of the sauce, topped with cubes of crispy fried tofu, topped with more sauce and a few dashes of toasted sesame oil. I dub that dish 15-Minute Comfort.

I ate them both right after the pic (separately and then tossed together, yes!)...snip, snap, gone.

Recipe for David Chang's Momofuku Ginger Scallion Sauce at TC Taste/Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Remember August? It sure was pretty...

August 9, in fact, was the Outstanding in the Field farm dinner at Little Foot Farm in Afton, Minnesota. Little Foot raises heritage breed hogs so it's no surprise that this dinner was a celebration of pork, pork, and more pork.

Thanks to chef Mike Phillips of Three Sons Meat, Inc., it was spectacular indeed.

I had the privilege and pleasure of working at the event this year instead of just attending it. I pitched in to help host chefs Mike Phillips and Scott Pampuch make and serve about 50 million pounds of pickles and condiments to enjoy with all of those beautiful courses of pork. 

While the guests gathered and enjoyed cocktails in Karen Weiss and Sally Doherty's picture-perfect farm yard...

...the hogs got frisky...

...and the crew set the signature Outstanding in the Field table.

Coppa. Glorious.

Afternoon showers meant a bit of a rush to set the table...

...with pickles! Okra, beets, peppers, cukes, rhubarb, green beans, corn, chanterelles, on and on.

It takes a village to serve charcuterie to 150 people.

Just...wow.

Kielbasa's on the grill. These beauties were plated with kimchi...

...as fast as pork-greased lightning by Scott and Mike.

The one vegetarian at the dinner ate very, very well. Kimchi and pickled corn with a poached egg? Yes, please!

That's Mike, slicing one of the three golden, crackling porchettas, plated and served with sauerkraut.

Huge thanks to my left and right hand ladies Emily Anderson...

...and Kathy Yerich for working their butts off AND being a total blast. Oh how I love those gals.

Stunning Laughing Loon Farm and Minnesota Peach Farm tomato salad with grilled kale was a welcome refresher after three courses of pork. Those bowls came back very empty!

As the sun set...

...little jars of roasted fruit topped with toasted oat crumble, whipped cream, and magical sugar-glazed grapes, prepared by pastry chef Kelsey McCreight, wrapped the meal.

Another dreamy farm dinner for the books. Huge thanks to Mike Phillips, Scott Pampuch, and the whole crew for letting me help out. The highlight of my summer, without a doubt, both the event itself and the preparation leading up to it.

See pics from:
Scouting Little Foot Farm with Mike and Scott
Pig butchering/charcuterie making in preparation for the meal
Outstanding in the Field dinner 2011 at River Bend Farm in Delano
Pork Burgers!

When I got home, and unloaded the 50 million pickle jars from my car, I found...a gigantic tub of honey! Farm dinner spoils, nice. In honor of the buckets of delicious coffee that powered the dinner prep and clean-up, I made these coffee, honey, and cinnamon custards. I will not lie...they are divine.

Ode to OITF Coffee Custards with Honey & Cinnamon
Based on a Martha Stewart Living recipe
Serves 4-6

soft butter
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. milk
2 Tbsp. instant espresso powder
3 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1/4 c. honey
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Set out a 9x13 baking pan. Butter 4-6 oz. (or 6-4 oz.) ramekins and arrange them evenly in the 9x13 pan.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine cream, milk, and espresso powder and heat until mixture almost simmers. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, egg, honey, cinnamon, and vanilla. Whisk a bit of the hot cream mixture into the eggs, then whisk in all of the cream mixture until well combined. Ladle into the prepared ramekins. Set the 9x13 pan on rack in preheated oven, then pour hottest tap water into the pan until it comes 3/4 of the way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until the custards are set and jiggly, about 35 minutes.

Remove from oven and water bath. Cool to room temperature and serve or chill to serve later. To serve, run a knife around the edges of the custard and then flip over onto a serving plate. Give the plate and ramekin together a bit of a shake to loosen and the custards will slide right out.

Despite our first frost, there are still plenty of tomatoes kicking around! Make a double batch of this easy soup and freeze it for a mid-winter's treat. Or eat it all hot from the pot, which is a good plan too. I make this soup all season long by roasting tomatoes as I pick them, stashing them in the fridge, then at week's end simmering it all into a batch of soup. You could freeze batches of roasted tomatoes as well, see mid-winter's treat mentioned above.

It's always great fun to enjoy tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich so if that's what you're in the mood for - back-to-school and chilly nights and such - skip the croutons and cream and grill away with cheese and butter. Slide a slice of tomato or a smear of tomato jam into the middle of the sandwich for a vertically integrated tomato explosion. Killer.

I left the cream in the version pictured, then fried up socca (chickpea flour pancakes) to eat as a warm (gluten-free) flatbread with my soup. Bits of crispy sage, a sprinkle of garlic scape salt, lots of freshly ground black pepper, and an extra drizzle of olive oil made for a fast treat, one of my very favorites.

Recipe for Roasted Tomato Soup at TC Taste/Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

I had a blast chatting fall soups on Twin Cities Live this week! I specifically talked about Coconut Curry Sweet Corn Soup, but also brought along Pozole (pork braised with chiles and hominy) and a Chicken Vegetable Soup that's pretty much the perfect post-Thanksgiving soup (obviously made with turkey not chicken - please forgive me for mentioning Thanksgiving this early in September...).

It's nice to serve the Pozole with freshly fried tortilla chips. Then again, everything is nice with freshly fried tortilla chips.

It was fun for me to look back at my Farmily post for the Chicken Vegetable Soup recipe. We've had so many delicious times at my aunt Mary & uncle Bruce's farm!

Recipes for all three soups at Twin Citites Live.

Swimming in tomatoes yet? Even if not, make this gorgeous gazpacho anyhow - it's one of my very favorite versions of everyone's favorite summer treat.

Recipe for Gazpacho at Andrew Zimmern's Kitchen Adventures/Food & Wine Magazine.

When I was a little girl, I thought I'd really be a grown-up when I could eat soft-boiled eggs for breakfast, just like my dad. I was fascinated by the way he carefully tapped the top off with a knife, then sprinkled salt & pepper inside before scooping spoonfuls onto bites of seriously buttery toast (we are a buttery family). I only liked the whites of eggs at that stage of my life, so I was too apprehensive to tackle a whole egg for myself, but the elegance of it all definitely motivated me to learn to like the yolks, too.

And oh have I learned, ha! If you cut me open I'd bleed egg yolks at this point in my life. I kind of forgot about soft-boiled eggs for awhile, lured by the sexiness of poached (it feels very impressive when you first learn to poach an egg, even though it's the easiest thing in the world), but they are very much back in my rotation, especially during tomato season. It's hard to imagine a more humbly glorious breakfast than slices of perfectly ripe tomato, hot buttered toast, and a soft-boiled egg or two. The addition of smoked pork (ham or bacon) would be lovely but not necessary.

Recipe for Perfect Soft-Boiled Eggs at TC Taste/Minnesota Monthly Magazine.