Category Archives: Dinner’s On

Container Gardening, Seasonal Cooking, Eating Local, Seasonal Recipes,

Arugula and Spinach Gnocchi

Posted on August 18, 2010 by plantsondeck| Leave a comment

arugula spinach gnocchiBetween last week’s spinach and this week’s arugula, courtesy of the Greensgrow CSA, a half pound of Champ’s tomatoes (Gold Nugget), and some POD oregano, a pretty wonderful gnocchi landed on the table this week.

You’ll want to blanch the spinach and arugula the night before you plan on making this meal. Gnocchi inspired by Marc Vetri, courtesy of il viaggio di vetri.

Arugula and Spinach Gnocchi with Marinated Tomatoes, serves 2

Ingredients for Gnocchi:
1/2 lb. spinach
1/2 lb. arugula
1/2 egg (be creative, strain off half the whites and half the yolk and you’re good to go)
1/4 c. flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
1/4 c. bread crumbs
pepper to taste

  1. The night before serving, bring a large pot of salted water to boil, add the spinach and blanch for 2 minutes. Add the arugula to the pot and blanch for an additional 1-2 minutes.
  2. Drain the spinach and arugula and dump it into an ice water bath. The shocking will preserve the super green color.
  3. Once the greens have cooled, drain them again and then process them in a food processor or blender for 3-4 minutes until very, very smooth. You can add a couple tablespoons of the blanching liquid if you need to. The consistency should be pretty mushy — like a wet batter.
  4. Place the spinach and gnocchi puree in a strainer and set over a bowl. Refrigerate overnight to drain off the excess moisture. This step is annoying, but critical — if you don’t you’ll have heavy spinach and arugula bombs rather than pillowy gnocchi.
  5. The next day, when you’re ready to make the gnocchi, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
  6. Place the spinach and arugula batter in large bowl and add the egg, flour, breadcrumbs, cheese, and pepper. Mix well, your hands are your best tool.
  7. Scoop the mixture into a sandwich bag, seal, and snip off a bottom corner edge of the bag. (Unless, of course, you have a pastry bag handy).
  8. Squeeze out little gnocchi-to-bes that are about 3/4″ in diameter onto a well-floured surface. Gently roll the balls around the flour until they’re evenly dusted.
  9. Drop the balls into the boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes.
  10. Scoop them out and cover with the marinated tomatoes (see below).

Ingredients for Tomatoes:
8 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved
a generous splash of balsamic vinegar
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. chopped fresh oregano
pepper to taste

  1. Combine ingredients and allow to marinate for 3-6 hours.
  2. Top gnocchi with tomato mixture.
  3. Pour a glass of wine. Eat.


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Deliciousness

Posted on August 16, 2010 by plantsondeck| Leave a comment
Charentais and Cake

Charentais and Cake

The mystery melon? That top-heavy Charentais? That muskmelon that emerged from saved seeds?

DELICIOUS!

This is why I garden. Stop by Smitten Kitchen for the cream cheese pound cake recipe. Blueberries courtesy of Grand Junction, MI — just 33 miles from POD’s roots.

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Greek Salad Pasta

Posted on August 2, 2010 by plantsondeck| 1 Comment

Greek Salad PastaGlorious Gold Nuggets (and Black Cherries and Isis Candies)! Over two pounds of sweet, sweet cherry tomatoes have made it onto our plates so far this summer. That’s good, not great. But we’ll take what we can get.

The latest crop met its match with the contents of last week’s amazing CSA share from Greensgrow. Delicious spinach pasta from Superior Pasta, POD cucumbers, POD oregano, and Boltonfeta from Hidden Hills Dairy all combined to make a pretty awesome spoof on the traditional Greek salad.

POD’s Greek Salad Pasta:

1 lb fresh spinach pasta, linguine
8 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 tbs. chopped oregano
2 lemon cucumbers, sliced thinly
1 small shallot, very thinly sliced
1/4-1/2 lb feta, crumbled
12-15 calamata olives, pitted and chopped
pepper, to taste
red wine vinegar, (optional) to taste

  1. In a large bowl, mix the cherry tomatoes and the chopped oregano.
  2. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add some salt. Dump in the fresh spinach pasta. Boil for 4-5 minutes.
  3. While the pasta bubbles, toss the shallots, olives, and feta with the tomatoes. Stir in some pepper and a splash of vinegar.
  4. Drain the pasta and pour the piping hot pasta over the cheese and tomato mixture. Stir thoroughly.
  5. Ladle into plates, top with cucumber slices, and season to taste.

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So Happy Together

Posted on July 16, 2010 by plantsondeck| Leave a comment

Ah, summer. This cucumber, mint, and tomato salad incorporates so many of POD’s favorite things:

6 oz. cherry tomatoes (in this case, Isis Candy, Black Cherry, and Gold Nugget)
5 cucumbers (in this case, boothby blonde and lemon cucumber)
mint
scant tbs. excellent balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt

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Cucumbers Collected

Posted on June 21, 2010 by plantsondeck| 2 Comments

Moroccan Bread SaladYum.

This bread salad (featuring POD’s own cilantro, parsley, Boothby Blonde, and True Lemon cucumbers) arrives courtesy of the amazing Casa Moro cookbook.

Of course, each bread salad is adapted to fit whatever ingredients happen to be on deck, but the spirit belongs to Moro.

Serves 2

1 pepper, roasted and peeled
3 c. bread, cut or ripped into small pieces
3 cucumbers, peeled and cubed
2 tbs parsley, chopped
2 tbs cilantro, chopped
1 tbs capers, chopped

Dressing
1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste with salt (a mortar and pestle work great here)
1 tsp pan-roasted cumin seeds, roughly ground
1 1/2 tbs sweet, excellent quality balsamic vinegar
4 oz tomatoes (canned are okay, but fresh would probably be better), pureed into a juice.
3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs argan oil (you can substitute some extra olive oil, but if you have a highly flavorful nutty oil, use it. This stuff ain’t cheap, but it’s oh-so-good.)
black pepper

  1. Toss the bread onto a baking sheet and stick it in the oven (heated to 425) for 5-10 minutes. Keep an eye on it until it’s lightly toasted.
  2. Slice the roasted red peppers into strips
  3. Mix the garlic paste with the cumin, vinegar, tomato puree. Whisk in the olive oil and argan oil. Whisk well. Taste for salt and pepper
  4. When your bread is toasty, transfer it to a large bowl and pour most of the dressing over it. Stir. Let it sit for a couple of seconds before adding the peppers, cucumbers, cilantro, parsley, and capers. Stir. Pour on the rest of the dressing, if desired.
  5. Yum. Yum.

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Green Goodness

Posted on June 9, 2010 by plantsondeck| Leave a comment

POD LettuceOh, summer. Oh, salads.

What you see here is merely the foundation for a delightful early summer salad with asparagus, peas, and prosciutto.

It was over 90 degrees up there on the roof this weekend. The lettuce got moved into the shade and dosed with daily helpings of cool water and somehow it (and some POD mint) managed to survive long enough to be put to a good and noble use.

Serves 2 hungry people. Adapted from Serious Eats.

Salad

¼ lb fresh sugar snap peas
½ lb fresh asparagus
4 cups spring greens
4 slices prosciutto
2 tbs chopped mint
Grated Parmesan cheese

Dressing
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, very finely minced
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Scant ¼ c. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

  1. Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add some salt.
  2. Remove the ends and strings of the peas.
  3. Chop the heads off the asparagus.
  4. Lay the body of the asparagus on a flat surface and using a vegetable peeler, shave strips lengthwise down the stalk. You’ll be left with about an inch of unshaved stalk where you’re hanging on to the thing. Toss that into the pile of asparagus heads.
  5. At this point, you should make some croutons if you want them.
  6. Fill a medium bowl with cold water, add a bunch of ice. Like 10 cubes.
  7. Toss the peas, and asparagus heads and tails into the boiling water. Let them boil. Oh so briefly. Like 3-4 minutes, maybe.
  8. Drain the vegetables in a colander and dump them into the icy water immediately. This will shock them, stopping them from cooking further and preserving that gorgeous green.
  9. Whisk the lemon juice, garlic, and mustard in a salad bowl. Whisk in the oil in a slow stream to emulsify into a dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  10. Toss the salad ingredients together in a large bowl. If you were feeling adventurous, and made croutons,  add them. Pour on the dressing and toss. Top with prosciutto and sprinkle with Parmesan. Devour.

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Totally Cheating

Posted on June 7, 2010 by plantsondeck| Leave a comment
broccoli salad

Mikey Likes It!

Generally, when you see a recipe on this blog, something came from a plant on deck.  Full disclosure: not this time.

We consider ourselves devoted omnivores, but there are a few vegetables that we both ban. Beets, for example, and winter squash. Lately, though, our horizons have been expanding and several previous disliked (by one of us) vegetables have entered into regular rotation.

Until last night, broccoli belonged in that banned category. Some of us have long-loved the cancer-fighting little green trees, others, not so much. As in, it’s never been prepared in the kitchen below the deck.

And then it appeared in our Greensgrow CSA share. Woo hoo! We simply had to do something with it.

And we did.

And it was liked by all.

Broccoli Salad (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Broccoli Slaw
1 head of broccoli
½ c. sliced almonds, toasted
1/3 c. dried cherries, chopped into raisin-sized pieces
2 spring onions, finely sliced

Buttermilk Dressing
¼ c. buttermilk
2 tbs. light mayo
1 tbs. cider vinegar
2 tbs. spring onion, finely sliced
salt and lots of black pepper

If you’re looking for the original recipe, seriously, got to Smitten Kitchen. If you’re looking for a recipe that made use of what happened to be in our kitchen (cherries from Traverse City, MI and spring onions from Philadelphia, PA), this was pretty freaking amazing.

Trim the broccoli into large chunks. Very thinly slice (as thin as you possibly can) the little heads, use as much of the stalk as you’re comfortable with. Mix in the sliced almonds, cherries, and onions.

In another bowl, mix the dressing together. Pour the dressing over the broccoli mixture. Taste for salt and pepper. Enjoy.

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Chiffawhat?

Posted on May 30, 2010 by plantsondeck| Leave a comment
Giant Basil

Giant Basil

The basil is coming in majestically and that means margherita pizza. Yum.

The key ingredient? Freshly snipped and chiffonaded ginormous basil (and homemade crust).

Stick that pizza on the grill, crack open a cold one, and enjoy the weekend.

Basil Chiffonade

Basil Chiffonade

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Turnip Puree with Roasted Potatoes, Crispy Onions, and Slow-Poached Egg

Posted on May 13, 2010 by plantsondeck| 2 Comments

This recipe is one of those very special “what do we have in laying around the house that’s edible” recipes. Sound familiar?

In our case that included delicious turnips foraged from the Headhouse Farmers’ Market (grown by Weaver’s Way Farm), old potatoes, much older pearl onions, eggs, and POD-grown pepper cress (that needed to be yanked to make room for the thyme and chives that were also purchased on Sunday.)

Turnips

Chopping Turnips

Turnip Puree with Roasted Potatoes, Crispy Onions, and Slow-Poached Egg

Slow-Poached Egg (courtesy of David Chang’s Momofuku Cookbook)

  1. Fill a big, deep pot with water and heat to 140-145 degrees, over low heat.
  2. Use something to keep the 2 eggs from sitting directly on the bottom of the pot. Like a cake rack or inverted ramekins or a handful of chopsticks.
  3. leave eggs in 140-145-degree water for 45 minutes.

Potatoes (while your eggs are poaching):

  1. Preheat the oven to 375.
  2. Cube (1 to 1 1/2 lb or so) potatoes into 1/2″ish pieces.
  3. Coat with 2 tbs oil (We had some duck fat reserved from Christmas dinner. It was delicious)
  4. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet, try to leave some room between each chunk so they roast rather than steam.
  5. Roast them for 25-40 minutes, until tender and toasty brown. Half-way through your cooking, flip the potatoes so they turn golden brown on several sides.
  6. Dump ‘em in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Crispy Onions

  1. Slice a small onion (or several pearl onions or shallots — whatever) thinly
  2. Fry until dark golden brown (watch them carefully once they begin to brown as they can become carbon slivers quite quickly) in a tablespoonish of oil. Pat dry with paper towel.

Turnips (while your potatoes are in the oven):

  1. 12 oz (or so). Chop off the greens and the little root. Wash. Chop into 1″ish chunks.
  2. Place in a pot with 1 1/2 c. milk (we used 1%) and bring to a simmer.
  3. Toss in 1 tbs rice, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, and a decent amount of black pepper.
  4. Simmer for about 15-25 minutes or until a fork easily pierces the turnip.
  5. Drain the mixture in a colander set over a bowl and save the liquid.
  6. Dump the drained turnips into a blender and puree until smooth. Add a little of the reserved liquid if you need to. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble:

  1. Place a big scoop of turnip puree in the center of your plate.
  2. Potatoes go on top of turnips.
  3. Crispy shallots go on top of potatoes.
  4. Gently crack your poached egg into a small bowl or ramekin and discard the loose white stuff. Place the egg on top of the potatoes.
  5. Sprinkle with roughly chopped pepper cress or peppery greens.

    Turnip Puree with Roasted Potatoes, Crispy Onions, and Slow-Poached Egg

    Turnip Puree with Roasted Potatoes, Crispy Onions, Slow-Poached Egg, and Pepper Cress.

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Chips of Deliciousness

Posted on April 7, 2010 by plantsondeck| 3 Comments

smitten kitchen kale chipsWho knew kale could be so tasty? The next time you find yourself craving the super green, give this a whirl (Thanks, Smitten Kitchen!):

Take a bunch of well-washed kale, about 10 oz (after you’ve dried the leaves, removed the thick stems, and ripped them into large pieces) and toss the leaves with about a tablespoon and a half of olive oil. Squeeze a scant half a lemon over the concoction, toss on some salt and cayenne (if you’re feeling in the mood for a kick), spread on a cookie sheet or two, and bake at 300 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until crisp.

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