CSA: Greensgrow Farm Share

Posted by Erin L. in CSA - Community Supported Agriculture and tagged with aubergine, basil, beet, beets, blog, brown rice, carrot, carrots, cheese, cooking, csa, cucumber, dinner, eggplant, eggs, entree, farm, farm share, farms, farmshare, feta, food, greensgrow, herbs, kale, mushroom, mushrooms, onion, parmesan, pasta, peach, peaches, pepper, Philadelphia, photo, pics, pictures, plum, plums, produce, radish, red pepper, rice, saute, scallion, scallions, shrimp, snap peas, spicy, squash, strawberries, strawberry, stuffed, Superior, tomato, tomatoes, vegetables, white wine, wine, yellow August 25, 2010

This summer, I had an especially good reason to be in my kitchen – my share from Greensgrow Farms. An urban farm tucked amongst residences off of Port Richmond’s Aramingo Ave., Greensgrow Farms is a shining gem of hope in the effort for more farm to table/home options. Lush latticed chain link fence surrounds a full city block of greenhouses, vegetable starters, fresh herbs, flowering & fruit plants – just about anything you could imagine to fulfill your urban gardening needs.

Every other week, my sister and I split a surplus of vegetables, fruit, & dairy from the self-serve farmstand. I had alot of fun exploring the freshest of ingredients, especially those I’ve never cooked with before. Along the way, I managed to capture some moments for your viewing pleasure and in the hopes of encouraging you to eat & buy local.

Urban Greenhouse

Courtesy of Cactus Dan

Plant Pots

Welcome to the Greensgrow CSA

CSA Week 1

(1) bunch each of Scallions & Asparagus - Week 1

(1) bunch of Radishes - CSA Week 1

Greensgrow CSA - Week 3

Beet, Carrot, & Squash Saute w. Brown Rice

CSA Week 9

Spicy Red Pepper Pasta (Superior Pasta Co.) & Pesto

Spicy Shrimp Stuffed Aubergine

I love every part of the current surge in farmer’s markets, CSAs, urban farms, eating local, and eating fresh. It feels good to be a part of the Greensgrow CSA and to cook with meaningful ingredients. I’m just as excited to be hosting a Farm to Table Dinner at Marathon in early October with produce supplied by and benefiting Emerald Street Urban Farm.

To Taste: Flavored Finishing Salts collabo w. Sunshine

Posted by Erin L. in To Taste ~ Recipe and tagged with bacon, basil, Blog Full of Jelly, breakaway, breakaway cook, chef, chicken, chicken breast, cook, cooking, craft, crystallized, eric gower, finishing salt, flavored, flavored salts, ginger, grey salt, healthy, herbs, jar, label, lime, mango, oregano, parsley, recipes, salt, salts, sel gris, strawberries, strawberry, Sunshine, thyme, tomato, tomatoes, Vimeo June 13, 2010

Sunshine turned me on to this awesome how-to video on how easy and rewarding it is to make flavored finishing salts. Eric Gower, the handsome personality behind Breakaway Cook, introduces diverse suggestions for ingredients to flavor moist sel gris. I’m beyond envious of his spice shelf and could watch his videos over and over and over.

Creative Use of Salts from Eric Gower on Vimeo.

Sunshine suggested and I agreed that this was a great inspiration for a crafty foodie collaboration! She had also found some mini jam jars that would be perfect vessels to store our new seasonings. We chose an afternoon during my week of leisure between jobs and got to planning our approach.

In the video, Eric Gower makes 4 different salts with lavender, matcha, smoked paprika, & saffron. We couldn’t get our hands on any of those ingredients, so we thought of great flavorings of our own. Sunshine finally located the sel gris at Trader Joe’s that is suggested as the base for our blends and we prepared our ingredients for blending. We heated the oven to about 275degrees and started drying our lime wheels, herbs, mango, & bacon:

Lime Wheels, Bacon, Herbs, & Mango

While our fresh ingredients dried in the oven, we set up the food processing attachment to the Cuisinart stick blender Dre got me for VDay. Quickest way to my heart is through a kitchen gadget! First up was some crystallized ginger we located on a last minute trip to the Asia mart. We ground it and added in about 2 T of the sel gris. A few more seconds of blending and we had so simply made our premier flavored salt.

Crystallized Ginger Salt

Luckily, we saved some fresh mango slices to sample the salt on. It was a perfect pairing!

Crystallized Ginger Salt on Mango

We still had some time to kill while our items dried in the oven. Sunshine found some really fun Victorian-inspired banner designs that we printed out as labels for our jars. We cut and arranged them on the lids with pencil-written names. One already filled and four more to go!

Labeled Salt Jars

The fresh herbs were first to be fully dried so we ground up the basil, thyme, oregano, & parsley. The result looked like a bowl of emerald-speckled diamonds and tasted amazing on fresh tomato slices.

Herb Salt

We whirled up our lime batch next, but I somehow missed getting a decent pic of it. Once the mango was crispy, we added it to two separate batches: one with just mango and another with the addition of bacon for a sweet & smokey approach. Both looked and tasted beautiful.

Mango Salt

Bacon Mango Salt

By this point in the afternoon, we’d downed quite a few Absolut Boston (elderflower & black tea vodka) and Arizona Lemonade cocktails. We moved the party to the patio to snack and focus on sampling all of our salts. I pan-fried chicken breast and sliced some more tomato as simple hosts for the variety of salty tastes.

Flavored Salt Sampling

They were all amazing but our stand-out favorite was definitely the crystallized ginger. We finished up our meal with sliced fresh strawberries… with salts, of course! I’m sure our cholesterol levels were staggering by the end of the day.

Strawberry w. Mango Salt

Even the Baby Kitty joined us for a great afternoon on the patio. She loves to stalk flies from the edge of the garden.

Baby kitty stalking flies

I’m so glad Sunshine stumbled upon this project as it is one of my favorites to date. We have alot of fun ideas on using our salts, so keep an eye out for exciting updates.

Flavored Finishing Salts

Check out Sunshine’s blog post on our crafty flavored finishing salts project on Blog Full of Jelly!

Restaurant Rewind: Date Night @ Sampan

Posted by Erin L. in Restaurant Rewind and tagged with arugula, avocado, bacon, beef, black beans, blog, blood orange, bulgogi, cucumber, date, dining, duck, edamame, food, garlic, hiramasa, kim che, lobster, Michael Schulson, pancake, pea shoot, pear, peking, Philadelphia, Philly, ravioli, restaurant, Sampan, satay, scallion, Schulson, shallot, short rib, shrimp, spicy, sriracha, taco, tamarind, tomatoes, truffle oil, wonton April 25, 2010

I love date night! On a Friday in early March (bear with me, I’m a bit behind), Dre & I made plans for dinner at Sampan, the new hot spot I’ve been dying to try. We walked into the bustling restaurant early for our 930pm reservation and sat at the bar for some cocktails. First on the drink list, and my choice, was the Blood Orange Martini w. Gin, Lillet, & Blood Orange. It a great balance of sweet & tart, but I was really jealous once I sampled Dre’s crisp Yuzu Sake Martini w. Gin, Elder Flower, & Lemon Grass. So far, so good!

Dre noticed that there was counter seating overlooking the energetic open kitchen. The hostess confirmed that a twosome was about to pay their bill and seats would be opening up. SCORE! What more could a foodie ask for than to watch the magic happen (under great lighting,too!). We got to know the cold line chefs, Matt & Onna, along the way and oggled the food porn they effortlessly executed. I’m always refreshed by a culinary team so dedicated to their craft.

Tuna w. Avocado, Puffed Rice, Flat Bread, & Spicy Sauce

Earlier in the week, I met Michael Schulson, the man behind Sampan, at a Philadelphia Weekly sponsored panel discussion on “Chefs, Bloggers, & the Blogosphere.” After the event, Chef Schulson graciously indulged my request for some personal menu recommendations. I definitely took his suggestions seriously! While we waited for each of our 7 carefully selected dishes to arrive, we sipped Sampan’s monster cocktail, the Scorpion Bowl – 64 ounces of rum, gin, white win, & fruit juice. It was really tasty, impressively strong, & lasted through the whole dinner. Our first dish, the Edamame Ravioli was light, tender, & perfectly enhanced with white truffle oil.

Sampan's Edamame Ravioli w. Truffle, Shoot, & Sake Broth

I always like to try different interpretations of the famous Philly Cheesesteak and we really enjoyed Chef Schulson’s version. The braised beef was rich & savory, accented with crispy shallots & Sriracha’s perfect heat.

Philly Cheese Steak w. Bao Bun, Shallot, & Sriracha

Next, a contrasting plate of cool freshness arrived. Chilled poached lobster nuggets laid under a simple pico of flavor-packed chopped tomatoes & garlic speckled with tender black beans for a perfect intermezzo between savory dishes.

Lobster w. Black Bean, Tomato, Garlic

I love bulgogi, so the Korean BBQ Beef Satay was a no brainer. Double-enforced skewers pierced tender ribbons of marinated medium-rare short rib topped with traditional kim che. They were a bit too pink for Dre’s liking, but that just meant more for me to savor.

Korean BBQ Beef Satay w. Short Rib, Bulgogi, Kim Che

The following dish may have be my favorite & the most interesting. I was excited to see the flavor combination & presentation of hiramasa, a sustainable substitution for yellowtail, bacon, arugula, & a pear kim che. The menu may tell you what you’re getting, but in most instances not how you’d expect to get it. From the deconstructed spicy tuna (see the photo above of Ona preparing this dish) to the current plate in front of us, Sampan’s surprises always seem to please. I really loved this dish. Beyond the interesting plating, the flavor blend was spectacular. I took the time to include a morsel of each element on my fork for each bite. The clean hiramasa fillets, painted with a peppery arugula puree, were a flawless palate for smokey bacon and sweet & spicy pear kim che. The portion was impressive and I still could have eaten another plate!

Hiramasa w. Bacon, Arugula, Pear Kim Chi

Another interesting take on a traditional dish was Sampan’s Peking Duck. The tender duck meat was pulled & served with foam in a small glass jar. The accompaniments included julienne cucumber, shaved scallion, & tamarind pancakes to build your own Peking Duck soft taco.

"Peking" Duck w. Tamarind Pancake, Scallion, Cucumber

Our final dish was a last minute decision and a menu item I’d been eyeing since before we made reservations – the Wonton Taco. The wonton wrapper, crisped in the deep fryer into a perfect hard taco shell, was stuffed with spicy succulent rock shrimp balanced with blood orange & avocado. We were one of a few tables left & we scarfed them before I could snap a pic.

Sampan’s energy and delicious cuisine were a perfect setting for another amazing date night with Dre. I couldn’t imagine anyone else I’d want to “mmm & ahh” over an impressive dinner with!

Next trip to Sampan – bahn mi & homemade ice cream!

To Taste: Baked Toni

Posted by Erin L. in To Taste ~ Recipe and tagged with baked, basil, blog, broccoli, butter, canned tomatoes, casserole, cheese, cooking, crushed, dinner, dish, food, garlic, mozzarella, mushrooms, olive oil, one dish, onion, parmesan, pasta, red pepper glakes, ricotta, rigatoni, S&P, shredded, tomatoes, ziti February 28, 2010

I prefer to cook what my dinner guest craves, so I indulged Dre’s request for baked ziti. I was low on spaghetti sauce and had some veggies that needed to be eaten. I blanched broccoli florets, sauteed mushrooms, onions, & garlic, opened a large can of crushed tomatoes, and warmed them together with seasonings in a saucepan.

Fat Rigatoni

While the sauce simmered, I decided on large rigatoni and boiled them until al dente in salted water. I like fat noodles when making baked pasta dishes as they tend to fill with your sauce when tossed. The jumbo macaronis for my Smokey Bacon Mac & Cheese worked great! I folded ricotta cheese & shredded mozzarella into the warm sauce, tossed it with the cooked rigatoni, and dumped it into a greased casserole. Once the sliced mozzarella I tiled on top began to brown & bubble, I pulled it from the over and served Dre a big, hot scoop of Baked Toni.

Baked Toni

Baked Toni

Crushed Tomatoes – (1) large can
Broccoli – (0.5) head, trimmed into small florets & blanched
Mushrooms – (1) cup, sliced
Garlic – (1) T, minced
Onion – (1) medium, sliced thin
Dried Basil – (1) T
Red Pepper Flakes – (1) tsp
S&P – to taste
Ricotta – (1.5) cups, part skim
Shredded Mozzarella – (1) cup, low moisture – part skim
Fresh Mozzarella – (6) oz, sliced (or enough to cover most of the dish)
Grated Parmesan – to taste
Rigatoni – (1) lb, cooked al dente & tossed w/ olive oil
Olive Oil – as needed

Heat about (2) T of Olive Oil in a saute pan. Add garlic & onion and cook until caramelized, about (5) min.
Add mushrooms & saute until browned on both sides, about (3) min per side.
Dump entire contents of the canned crushed tomatoes into a sauce pan. Add cooked mushrooms mixture, blanched broccoli, dried basil, red pepper flakes, and S&P. Stir and bring to a simmer.
While sauce simmers, bring a large stockpot of salted water to a rolling boil. Cook rigatoni until al dente, about (10-12) min.
Drain rigatoni and return to stock pot. Add a bit of olive oil & toss to prevent sticking.
Remove sauce from the heat and dump into a large mixing bowl.
Fold in ricotta & shredded mozzarella cheeses unti combine.
Add rigatoni and toss to coat completely.
Pour the rigatoni & sauce mixture into a greased casserole dish.
Tile sliced fresh mozzarella on top.
Bake at 350 degrees for (25) min or until the cheese is browned & the casserole is bubbling.
Let cool for about (3) min and serve with grated parmesan cheese.

To Taste: Chipotle Turkey Chili

Posted by Erin L. in To Taste ~ Recipe and tagged with adobo, black beans, cheddar, chili, chipotle, crock pot, dutch oven, kielbasa, onions, recipe, slow cooker, sour cream, stock, tomatoes, turkey November 28, 2009

The weather is getting cold and it couldn’t be a better time for my bi-annual batch of Turkey Chili. Each time, it’s delicious in its own way, but this round may be my best to date! It was smoky & spicy with a hearty texture from the mix of Ground Turkey & Turkey Kielbasa. I topped it with shredded Cheddar and Sour Cream and paired it with Egg Noodles for leftovers.

Chipotle Turkey Chili w/ Cheddar & Sour Cream

Chipotle Turkey Chili

Turkey Kielbasa – (1) package cut into half moons
85/15 Ground Turkey – (2)lbs, browned & drained
Chili Mix – 1/2 packet of Hot, Medium, 0r Mild
Sriracha – a few squirts
White Onion – (2) medium, chopped
Garlic – (2) T, minced
Crushed Tomatoes – (1) large can
Chicken Stock – (1) can, low-sodium
Black Beans – (1) small can
Chipotles in Adobo Sauce – (2) peppers from can, chopped
Worcestershire Sauce – (4) heavy dashes
Dried Parsley – (1) T

Brown the Ground Turkey in an oiled pan and transfer to Crock-Pot or Dutch Oven.
Saute Onion & Garlic in same pan with a tablespoon of butter until aromatic & translucent.
Combine Onions, Garlic, & remaining ingredients in Crock-Pot or Dutch Oven.
Cook on HIGH 3-5hours or LOW 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally until you can’t resist a bowl!

Leftover Lightning! Roasted Turkey, Zucchini, & Tomato Pizza!

Posted by Erin L. in Leftover Lightning! and tagged with Boboli, cheese, cooking, dinner, leftovers, mozzarella, pizza, smoked gouda, tomatoes, turkey, zucchini November 4, 2009

I’m enjoying the house to myself for an evening, which usually means I have to cram a bunch of relaxation & chores into one night. Amongst laundry, the World Series, & making homemade Apple Butter for Dre, I needed to make sure I had a good dinner to keep me going. I’ve been getting back into cooking on the regular, but kept it fairly easy this week as I’m battling the infamous flu. Luckily, I had plenty of leftovers to work with: Pizza Sauce from Lazaro’s delivery on Sunday (Mmmm, Garlic Knots!); leftover Dijon Turkey Tenderloin, Roasted Zucchini & Grape Tomatoes from Monday’s quick din; and, a leftover 8″ mini Boboli shell (leftover from last night as I pretty much ate this exact dinner). I layered the pizza with sauce, diced turkey, & veggies and topped with shredded Mozzarella & Smoked Gouda (my fave, still leftover from Make Your Own Pizza night). 10 minutes in the toaster oven on 450 and YUMMM!

Roasted Turkey, Zucchini, & Tomato Pizza via Leftovers

Family-Style: Labor Day BBQin’

Posted by Erin L. in Family-Style, To Taste ~ Recipe and tagged with bacon, BBQ, bell peppers, burger, butter, cheeseburger, corn, cucumbers, grill, Labor Day, pasta salad, romaine, tomatoes, triple smoked bacon, turkey burger September 13, 2009

I couldn’t make it thru Labor Day weekend without some BBQ action, so I dug deep into the freezer for some ground beef & turkey to make burgers. The budget was tight, so I did my best to work with what I already had, including fresh Plum Tomatoes, a variety of Bell Peppers, & Sweet Corn on the Cob from my Zern’s stop on Saturday night. I seasoned the burgers, tossed them and the corn onto a hot grill, & chopped veggies for a light, simple Pasta Salad. Friends arrived, beers were cracked, & BBQ action we had!

Labor Day BBQ

Labor Day BBQ:

Grilled Beef & Turkey Burgers – Topped w/ American, Triple Smoked Bacon, Ripe Plum Tomatoes, Romaine, Ketchup, Gulden’s, & Mayo

Balsamic Pasta Salad – 1lb of Mini Shells, Farm Fresh (non-waxed) Cucumbers, Yellow Peppers, Violet Hybrid Peppers, Ripe Plum Tomatoes, & Shredded Asiago – Dressing: 3T Balsamic (or any vinegar), 1T Olive Oil, S&P, Fresh & Dried Herbs, 1 tsp Hot Chili Garlic Sauce, 1 tsp Dijon Mustard

Grilled Sweet Corn on the Cob – Finished with Butter & Salt