Spring Panzanella

A panzanella is an Italian bread salad.  It's perfect for the Spring and Summer months when fresh vegetables are readily available.  This is a great way to use fresh, homegrown tomatoes and herbs from your garden.  The simplicity of this salad lets the flavor of each ingredient shine.  You can use whatever veggies you like, but for me, it must always have some kind of bean or pea, tomatoes, and fresh basil...along with the bread, of course.

It's best to use bread that's a few days old for this, as older bread will make for sturdier croutons.  However, it's not totally necessary.  We used some homemade bread that we made fresh.  Just let it cool for a while before you attempt to cut it up into cubes.  

For the croutons

5-6 cups of bread, cubed

2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

half a cup of grated parmesan

1/4 cup olive oil

salt & pepper

Just toss all of these ingredients together to coat well & bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, turning once or twice.  Set aside to cool.

For the salad

2 ripe tomatoes, diced

1 can of chick peas

1 small bunch of asparagus (boil for 3 minutes & rinse with very cold water & then cut into inch and a half sections)

1 can/jar of artichoke hearts in water

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup crumbled feta 

For the dressing

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

juice from half a lemon

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

black pepper

Ideally, this would be served with a nice, big glass of valpolicella.

A Local Okra Valentine's Dinner

Sorry we've been so slack lately with posting.  It's not for a lack of delicious meals though, I can assure you.  We've been a little busy around here with all sorts of things, one which happens to be planning a wedding!  We've also had the pleasure of dining with friends quite frequently, which is always fun.  Thanks Michelle & David and Lauren & Shil!

Tore and I have a tradition to stay in on Valentine's night.  Right from the beginning we loved to cook together, so what better way to celebrate Cupid's commercial holiday!  We typically like to do hors d'oeuvres or tapas, small plates, whatever you like to call it.  This dinner was no exception.  We planned the meal around making one of our favorite dishes...gravlax.  Basically, it's Scandinavian cured salmon with lots of dill.  It's ridiculously easy to make, but it takes several days to cure.  

Menu

Gravlax with boiled egg and mustard-dill sauce

No-knead bread

Parsley pesto-stuffed cremini mushrooms with grape tomatoes

Picholine olives marinated with olive oil, pink grapefruit and fresh marjoram

Aged Vermont cheddar

Camembert

So, we obviously didn't make that cheese or get it locally, nor did we catch the salmon from a local stream.  BUT, we made the gravlax ourselves with wild-caught salmon instead of just buying it in the tiny little package at the grocery store.  If you like smoked salmon, you'll love gravlax, so try this out.  It tastes a billion times better and you definitely get more bang for your buck.

To make the gravlax:

Cut a large salmon filet in half

Rub (very generously!) both sides with a mixture of equal parts salt & sugar

Add black pepper to taste

Put the two pieces on top of one another so that the flesh sides are touching with a large bunch of dill between them

Cover tightly with foil

Place a brick, a heavy casserole dish, etc. on top of the foil and refrigerate for 3 days

You will want to pull it out and drain the liquid after the second day.  

To serve, just slice very thin pieces off the skin & discard.  

Mustard-Dill Sauce

4 tablespoons plain yellow mustard

1 bunch of dill

juice of one large lemon

2-3 tablespoons honey

3 -4 tablespoons olive oil

salt & pepper

This sauce could also be used for a salad dressing--just add some white wine vinegar.

French Onion Soup with Home-made Country Bread!

We have been wanting to make our own bread for a long time, but the one and only time we tried, we ended up with 'flat bread'. It was tasty, but as you probably guessed, it didn't really rise.

Recently, we were introduced to a recipe for a 'no-knead' bread, so we thought we'd give it a shot. Big ups to Shane for the passing along the recipe and giving some helpful tips. See the recipe here.

The following modifications were made to the recipe, copied directly from Shane:

1) Use 1 cup of whole flour and two cups of unbleached white.

2) Put the water in the fridge for a few minutes, then do the mixing in a food processor with a metal blade before resting and rising the dough.

You can also make baguettes, which we will try next time once we get a pizza stone:

Cut the risen dough in half and form it into baguettes, & bake at 450 on a pizza stone for 22 minutes.

It really was easy, but you must realize that the most important thing is giving it time to do what it has to do. The only other problem is that it can get messy, as you can see here:

Recently we made some venison stock from some bones left over from a couple of roasts that we had. Since French onion soup usually calls for beef stock, I thought the venison stock would make for a very interesting variation. I used a recipe from a cook book that I have, but changed a few things along the way. The key to this soup is slow cooking the onions. Keep in mind that this isn't something that can be made quickly.

French Onion Soup with Venison stock and Beer

1 tablespoon olive oil

half a stick of butter

5-6 yellow onions

2 cloves garlic

1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon sherry

1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2/3 cup good beer, not a stout or porter (we used Sammy Smith's Winter Welcome!)

6-8 cups venison broth

salt

black pepper

Halve and slice the onions, finely chop the garlic, and remove the thyme leaves from the stems. Add the olive oil to a large heavy pot and then the butter. When the butter has melted, add the onions and garlic. Cook over medium heat for 5-8 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the onions begin to soften and then stir in the thyme.

Reduce the heat to very low and then cover and cook the onions for another 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently, until they are very soft and golden yellow.

Uncover the pot and increase the heat slightly. Stir in the sugar and cook for 5-10 more minutes until they start to brown. Add the sherry and increase the heat again and continue cooking, still stirring frequently, until the onions turn a deep, golden brown--this could take up to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, put your stock in another pot and bring it to a boil.

Stir the flour into the onions and cook for about 2 minutes, making a roux. Gradually and slowly pour in the stock. Now add the beer, salt, and black pepper and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Serve with crostini. Slice country bread and cover with grated parmesan cheese and bake until cheese is melted and bread is crispy.