Middle of the Road

Well, I cooked dinner for the first time in quite a while today. (Actually in hindsight I made breakfast, lunch smoothies, and dinner, which makes this perhaps the greatest kitchen day since Thanksgiving?) And I made dinner last night? Wow.

Today was Fresh Herb Falafel from Bon Appetit, including the shredded cabbage salad and spiced green tahini sauce. It was all excellent!

If I ever make this again, I’ll either make twice as much falafel or half as much salad and sauce.

You’d think I would have some crops from our front yard garden that would feed the family… You know, tomatoes lettuces and the like. We had some strawberries but I think the kids preferred the big ones shipped in from California.

Instead, we had a monster crop of habaneros.

Made the habanero hot sauce based on Rick Bayless‘s recipe… Pan roasted garlic, onion, carrots, Apple cider vinegar. Processed in 1 pint jars (couldn’t find smaller ones in a pinch), ten of them.

When I planted some small rhubarb plants in the fall of 2012, I had grand plans for what we’d do with the rhubarb. This is the first year for harvest, and we’ve only made one thing, which unfortunately didn’t turn out all that good (wet baked goods… either we messed up the recipe or the recipe was messed up!).

Both Lesya and I saw this recipe for rhubarb chutney in a recent Fine Cooking magazine and decided it might go well with the fromage frais cheese that I like to make. It’s a powerful chutney with bold flavors… I’ve only had a few tastes but I think it might be a winner.

1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 bay leaves
1.5 tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed
1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp kosher salt
3 T canola oil
3 large shallots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1 T yellow mustard seeds
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2/3 cup honey
3/4 lb rhubarb, trimmed at cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup golden raisins

In a 3-quart pot, bring to a simmer the [cider vinegar, bay, coriander, fennel, cinnamon, and salt]. Remove from heat and steep for 15 minutes (I did longer).

Heat the oil in a skillet and sweat the shallots, mustard seeds and red pepper flakes, stirring, 5 minutes or until softened.

Stir the shallots and honey into the vinegar and again bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and cinnamon. Add rhubarb and raisins, cooking over low heat (limited or no stirring) until the rhubarb is starting to fall apart, 10-15 minutes.

Picked up my first-ever haul of ramps yesterday and I couldn’t wait to make something… anything… with them. So for breakfast today it’s scrambled eggs with lightly sautéed ramps.