Salade Nicoise-esque

I'd been thinking of making salade Nicoise for a while, especially during our recent heat wave.  Of course I got around to it as soon as it cooled off again.

I was reminded of this delicious salad after a recent lunch with the parents of one of the Mister's old college friends. They have a beach house in pretty Madison, CT.  We had a simple but beautiful and very French (the mother is French) lunch.  We had salmon rillette with dill, a lovely, green salad with red skinned potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, tarragon and dijon vinaigrette.  Of course, crusty bread and some delicious cheese to go with a chilled glass of white wine.  The perfect meal to sit on a porch on a sunny day and look out at rocky islands in the Long Island Sound.  I loved the potatoes, fresh herbs and that mustard dressing.

Just two days ago, after I'd gone to my first ever Moms' Meetup in New Haven, the Mister called to say that we'd been invited to meet some friends for dinner near the shore in Milford.  After a quick sprucing up of baby and me we headed for the shore.  We ate at The Little Stone House, a casual spot near Hammonasset Beach. I had seared scallops over a green salad with hearts of palm and a honey mustard vinaigrette.  Delicious!  It was especially nice to dine outside along a small inlet where we could watch cormorants diving for their suppers.

My salade Nicoise isn't classic.  There are no green beans or capers.  I made my own version that combines those two recent meals that I described.  I used romaine lettuce, red skinned potatoes, some sort of "black" tomato from our CSA share, hard boiled eggs, kalamata olives, tuna, cheese and some slices of a baguette.  The tuna was really good.  It was packed in olive oil with garlic.  It was so rich and totally unlike canned tuna.  Which is good because the Mister isn't really a fan of canned tuna.  I made my own honey mustard vinaigrette for it.  It's a pretty filling dinner but very tasty.  I may make it for lunch, today!

I should add that I never saw myself as a Moms' Meetup kind of gal.  But, when you move to another state and leave behind everyone you love and care for, you need help.  I was feeling fairly isolated staying home to care for our baby girl.   I met two women at the Meetup that I really liked.  They also were new to the area and it felt good to spend some time with new friends.  Here's to new friends and old ones, too!

Ethiopian Collard Greens-Ye'abesha Gomen

We've been getting collard greens in our CSA share lately.  The Mister and I stopped eating meat more than 2 years ago so cooking them with a piece of smoky ham was out.  M. suggested Ethiopian collards and I was more than happy to oblige.  I followed Saveur's recipe and it is so delicious. http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Yeabesha-Gomen-Ethiopian-Collard-GreensI made this recipe twice in 2 weeks.  The first time I made it with Alecha (vegetable stew), spiced lentils and a pretty decent injera.  The second time I made it with roasted beets and added the beet greens to the collards.  Each time it was very good.  

Injera is a stretchy flatbread that looks like a big crepe.  One large piece of injera is put on a platter and little piles of the other foods are put on top of it. The flavors of the food seep into the injera making it taste delicious.  Another platter of just injera is usually nearby so the diner can tear off pieces to scoop up the food.  Berbere is a blend of spices that seasons the meat and lentils dishes in Ethiopian food.  It makes the food hot and spicy and sooo good!

I've made Ethiopian food before and it was fine but this time it was much tastier.  I think the key was making the Spiced Butter http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Ethiopian-Spiced-Butter and the Berebere seasoning-http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Ethiopian-Spice-Mixhttp://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Ethiopian-Spice-Mix.  I roasted the spices and ground them in a coffee grinder.  We live in an apartment and the smell of the spices filled the whole house.  M. ran into one of our upstairs neighbor and he said the smells wafting from our apartment was making them crave curry.  

My injera took 24 hours. Much shorter than the authentic way of making it which entails making a starter and capturing wild yeast.  I couldn't wait that long.  Nor could I find Teff flour which is what injera is traditionally made from.  I made a whole wheat version with bread yeast and let it ferment overnight.  The texture was very good.  It was holey and stretchy like real injera.  The flavor wasn't quite right, it was more sour.  Still, it made for a good base for the lentils, vegetables and collards.  

I followed the recipe for the Alecha vegetable stew from my Extending the Table cookbook.  It's a basic recipe with cabbage, potatoes and carrots.  The lentils also came from Saveur-http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Ethiopian-Lentil-Stew.  All in all, these were great meals and I hope that we keep getting collard greens in our weekly share!

Creme de Laitue, or what to do with all. that. CSA. lettuce

You know what I'm talking about. Every week you get your CSA share and there are at least 3 or 4 heads of lettuce. We barely got through last week's share by making lots and lots of salad. On Saturday we got more lettuce. I realized yesterday that it was Wednesday and we hadn't even touched any of the lettuce.  There was no way we could eat enough salad to finish it before getting the next share. I remembered listening to a recent radio broadcast about Thomas Jefferson's garden.  He really loved his veggies, apparently. Lettuce, it seems, was a favorite of his. It came up that in Jefferson's time lettuce was frequently cooked.  Other than wilted lettuce salad I don't think I've ever had lettuce cooked. I'm so glad that I heard that little tidbit about cooking lettuce because it led me to Creme de Laitue, or cream of lettuce soup.

I did a little internet search for "cooked lettuce" and found a fair number of unappealing recipes.  Braised lettuce, for one (apparently it turns gray-ew).  Fortunately, I stumbled across a Martha Rose Shulman recipe in the N.Y. Times for Lettuce and Green Garlic Soup http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/health/nutrition/turning-up-the-heat-on-lettuce-lettuce-and-green-garlic-soup.html.  I changed it quite a bit since I didn't have green garlic and wanted to some herbs from our CSA (are you seeing a pattern here?).  I followed Ms. Shulman's recipe but used 4 garlic cloves minced, added chopped dill and basil at the end of cooking.  After blending the soup with an immersion blender I added a bit of cream (I had half and half but heavy cream would be very nice), maybe half a cup.  I sprinkled some cayenne pepper in and served the soup with some shredded parmesan.

The soup is a lovely spring green color and has more flavor than I expected from soup made from lettuce.  It reminded me of Marcella Hazan's escarole and rice soup in flavor.  It's elegant and delicious and I used up most of my Romaine and Buttercrunch lettuce.  I would definitely make this again when I am confronted with a surfeit of lettuce.  Which will probably be next week.

Lobster rolls at Lobster Landing

Saturday was cool and rainy so we stayed close to home. Sunday, however, was beautiful. The sun was shining and it was considerable less humid than it's been lately. A good day to drive to Clinton, CT on the shore to check out Lobster Landing. I'd been looking around for a good place to try Connecticut style lobster rolls. Basically, that means they are hot and made without mayonnaise. Just butter and lobster meat on a grilled roll. I've had lobster salad rolls made with mayo and enjoyed them but I can't help feeling like I'm getting more filler and less lobster. I remember finding a cart at the top of a steep hill in St. Johns, U.S.V.I. It was a lobster salad roll with water chestnut. It was good and welcome after driving a terrifyingly steep hill in a Jeep on a very hot, day in the Caribbean. I have to say, though, that I much prefer my lobster rolls made with butter.

Clinton, CT (what I saw of it) is a picturesque town with Victorian cottages lining the road on the way to the marina. Lobster Landing is right at the marina. When we pulled up to the tiny, weather-beaten shack the parking lot was packed. I thought that some of the cars may have been for the marina folks but the lobster shack was doing brisk business. There are 2 buildings. The one with the Lobster Landing sign with the dangling "O" is where customers can pick up live lobsters and fresh shellfish.  Another building is where you can get the rolls. They also make sausage and pepper sandwiches, hot dogs and have gelato and bottled drinks for sale. But, who wants hot dogs and sausage when there's lobster?

M. and I split a lobster roll, they're fairly large ($15, too). The roll was grilled and piled high with lobster. The butter was done with a light hand so the lobster roll wasn't greasy. The lobster itself was sweet and delicious. I saw baby E. eyeing our lunch with envy. Poor kiddie; too young for lobster still but some day!

Lobster Landing isn't a restaurant. It's basically a food stand, like you'd find at a county fair. There is only a porta-potty for rest room facilities. Plastic tables and chairs under a vinyl tent or outside picnic tables overlooking the water. The view of the marina is nice and the lobster rolls are worth the drive.

Homemade baby food

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am the mother of an 8 month old baby girl.  I decided that I would make her baby food when it was time for her to eat solid food.  Part of the decision to do this is my mistrust of baby food manufacturers and partly that I am cheap thrifty.  Making baby food is not difficult to do, less expensive and produces far less waste since there is no packaging.  Essentially, you are making purees.  You control what goes into it and how fine or chunky it is.

Always check with your child's doctor first before starting solids.  My daughter, E. was exclusively breast fed until she was 5 months old.  First I gave her rice and oat cereals.  She tolerated those well and I tried single fruits and vegetables, one at a time.  Her first solid foods were store bought little pouches of sweet potato or pear.  These are still great for when you're traveling since you can squeeze out what you want and reseal them.  But for home meals I make her food.

To make homemade baby food you'll need a steam basket, cooking pot and blender, or a special appliance for steaming and processing the food.  I was given one of these special machines but I was planning on just using a steamer and blender originally.  Buy the best produce you can; organic is best.  Since you're going to the bother of making your baby's food, don't buy food that pesticides were used on. I buy organic at the market or use produce from our farm share that was grown without pesticides.  Wash the food, cut it into smallish chunks and steam it.  Steaming preserves vitamins better than boiling in water.  You can bake some fruits and vegetables.  Apples, pears and sweet potatoes are particularly good baked because they caramelize a bit and taste sweeter.  Once the food is cooked, it's time to puree it.  You can use a blender or a food processor.  You can also use a food mill if that's what you've got.  My little machine blends the food up as well as cooks it.  I reserve the cooking water from the machine's bowl and add it a little at a time until I get the consistency that I want.  If you're using the steamer basket method just add water. Think apple sauce, that's how loose it should be.

Let the puree cool and pour it into molds.  I use ice cube trays.  I like the size of the cubes of food it makes.  Store the food in the freezer until it's solid and then remove the cubes to freezer bags.

To feed my baby I just take out a couple of cubes of different vegetables or fruits and put them in a microwavable bowl.  I heat it for about 40-50 seconds and stir in some oat cereal and water.  At first you should try single foods to make sure the baby can tolerate them.  Once you're sure the baby isn't allergic to any foods you can then combine those foods together into more complex tasting meals.  That's it!  So far, E. has had sweet potato, carrot, zucchini, pear, apple, broccoli, spinach and legumes.  I've made lentils and rice on the stove top and pureed them with vegetables for lentil-rice-sweet potato and split mung bean with basil.  Herbs (organic) and some spices can enhance the foods.  I've added cinnamon to apples, pears, carrots and sweet potatoes.  Just don't add any sugar or salt to the food.  It's not healthy for the baby and I think it's wise to let the baby taste food in an unadulterated state first.

On sleep (or lack thereof) and scapes

So, our 8 month old baby girl, E., woke me up at 5:30 AM today. Yesterday, it was at 5:00AM so I guess that's improvement. We've been working on her sleeping schedule. When she was just 2 months old she began sleeping through the night. I mean, sleeping from 10PM until 9AM without waking. She did this until she was about 5 months old. We got used to that and got cocky. Then, teething started and all bets were off. We moved to New Haven when she was 7 months old and changed everything on her. New house (rental), new room, new bed (she'd been sleeping in our room in a play yard bassinet, not in her crib). Needless to say, she wasn't sleeping well. Not at all.  We'd put her to bed at 7PM, she'd wake at 8, then again at 10, 2, 4 and eventually get up at 6:30 or so.  Ugh. I can see why this is a younger person's game. In desperation I searched the web for help and found a book that seemed like it might help.  I found The Sleepeasy Solution, by Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack.  I'm not getting paid to promote the book, just letting people know that it helped us.  The "solution" is a modified version of cry-it-out.  Previously, we'd been running into her room every time she made a peep in the night.  That wasn't working.  I'd rocked her, shushed her, nursed her, let her sleep with us.  None of that was working.  The first night we implemented the new sleep routine she cried for an hour.  During which time we'd go in to check on her about every 10 minutes to make sure she was okay.  She fell asleep just about after that hour of crying.  And she slept all night!  I awoke in the morning and immediately panicked.  Something must be wrong, she didn't wake all night.  Nope.  She was fine and still sleeping.  We still have nights where she wakes up but it's not more than once and she drops right back off again.  She does sometimes wake up earlier than we'd like, but that seems to have to do with her nap schedule during the day.  We're working on her napping, too.

I thought I'd show what I made with the onion scapes from our CSA share once I got her to sleep.  The scapes were totally foreign to me.  First of all, they were huge.  The longest one was more than 2 ft. long. Some of them were quite thick and they were hollow.  If you don't know what they look like, check out my previous post about our CSA share. I cut the scapes into short segments and cooked them in a hot, cast iron skillet in a little sesame oil until they caramelized a bit.  I served them with the last of my homemade tofu and sliced shiitake mushrooms that we got at the farmers market.  I made a thin sauce with mirin and tamari and drizzled it over.  It was a nice and simple meal.  The scapes were mild and reminded me of leeks.  Caramelizing them brought out a nice sweetness in them.

The cut onion scapes and shiitakes

The finished dish-yum!

CSA share

We got quite a haul in our first ever CSA share.  It's only a half share and since it's the first one of the season I didn't expect it to be so large!  We got 2 heads of romaine lettuce, 1 bib lettuce, 1 red leaf, small bunch of carrots, bunch of colorful radishes, onion scapes, bunch of spinach and potted basil plants (purple and Genoese).  It all looks so good!  The market was bustling this morning even though it was sprinkling rain.  The sun broke through while we visited the vendor stalls and it's turning out to be a gorgeous day.

                                                          Our farm share.  Isn't it pretty?

Scapes and radishes.

                                                                      Multigrain bread

                                                                  Shiitake mushrooms

It's going to be a delicious week!