Crepes filled with spinach and fondue-style spinach artichoke Dip

So this is how Les and I eat breakfast everyday. We break out the big wine glasses and garnish our breakfasts. Ha! Just kidding, but today I did get inspired. On Friday I had a cooking class at the farm and the talented Laura Robinson was our guest chef. She taught about cooking with ratios and how if you use simple ratios you can achieve different types of food. One of the items on the menu was a simple crepe, and we had so much crepe batter left over that I was able to bring it home and experiment with the fillings myself.

This recipe reminds me of the crepes I had when I lived in France, and also the crepes I made when I managed the Speckled Bird.

Recipe for the Crepe:

The Ratio: 1 part liquid: 1 part egg: 1/2 part flour

We had one girl in the class who was lactose intolerant so we used water for our liquid. Laura made a great handout for the class which some of the info is below.

Ingredients:

• 8oz Water (Liquid)
• 8 oz Egg (1 large egg is 2oz)
• 4 oz Flour
• pinch of Salt
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla (the vanilla extract we use was homemade by putting about 3 vanilla bean pods that you cut lengthwise into vodka and let stand in a mason jar for at least 3 months.)

STEPS
Weigh flour and add to blender along with other ingredients
Blend for 7-9 seconds, or until just combined
Let batter rest in fridge for an hour to ensure tender crepes
Heat 6-7” skillet over medium heat and grease slightly with butter
Add 1/8 cup of batter to pan, tilting to evenly coat the bottom
Let set untouched for about a minute, flip and cook 30 seconds longer

NOTES
1 egg = 2 ounces
1 fluid cup = 8 ounces
Refrigerate cooked, cooled crepes for a week or freeze for a month
If I didn't use the leftover crepe batter I wouldn't have included the sugar or vanilla in the crepe batter since it was a savory crepe

VARIATIONS
Use different liquid base – soy/almond/coconut milk, water, stock, juice
Add a couple of tablespoons of finely chopped herbs
Add ground spices (cayenne, cinnamon, etc)

WHAT TO DO WITH CREPES
Fill with leftovers
Layer with filling and slice like a cake
Use as a base in muffin tins and fill with custard
Use with any number of sweet applications
o Lemon curd
o Jam
o Sauteed apples
o Nutella

For our filling we used something totally different. for my next class on Friday "Cooking with Wine," I'm making a spinach artichoke dip. I was experimenting with it yesterday and had left overs. So I thought yum. Lets add the artichoke dip into the crepes with some of our left over fresh spinach. Yum.

Spinach Artichoke Filling (Fondue-Style)
For this recipe, we used homemade mayo (recipe below), but you can use store-bought mayo just as easily.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 8 1/2 oz. can artichoke hearts
• 1 cup home-made mayonnaise (see next recipe)
• 1/2 cup Meier’s White Table Wine (it's a local winery in Cincinnati)
• 1 cup grated gruyere cheese
• 1 cup fresh finely chopped spinach
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1 medium boule of bread (I made some homemade bread using the ratio of 5 parts flour: 3 parts water (plus salt and yeast). I also doctored it up with olive oil, subbed some local buckwheat and rye for standard bread flour.)

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Drain artichokes and chop finely. Mix gruyere cheese, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and oregano in a bowl. Set aside.
Gradually add wine to mayonnaise, blending well.
Fold Parmesan cheese mixture, spinach, and artichokes into the wine mayonnaise.
Place in an ungreased 1 quart baking dish and bake, uncovered for 25-30 minutes until hot and
bubbly.
Cut top of boule like a pumpkin. Leaving 1 1/2 inch thick crust, pull out the soft sourdough from the center of the boule, and pour mixture into bowl that is left.
Serve immediately with bread from the inside of the boule, crackers, or vegetables.

Home-made Mayonnaise

The Ratio: 20 parts oil: 1 part liquid (plus yolk)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 egg*
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (or any kind of acid; lemon, wine, lime, etc. - I used this because it's from a local farm in Indiana.)
• 1 tsp water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup light olive oil (can use any kind of oil; canola, vegetable, sunflower, etc.)
• 1 tbsp whey (optional) **

Makes 1 cup
In the bowl of a food processor or bowl, combine egg yolk, vinegar, water, and salt. Whisk until ingredients are combined.
Continuing to blend, stream olive oil drop by drop until it starts to look creamy. It is important that the oil is added very slowly. Once emulsion starts to happen add the oil in a very small
continuous stream.
Once 1/2 cup of oil has been added, oil may be added at a slightly increased speed. Keep
whisking until all oil is added and the mayonnaise sticks to the whisk. Store mayonnaise in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Mayonnaise will thicken more during the chilling process.

NOTES
** Lacto-Fermented Option - After making basic mayonnaise, stir in whey. Store in an airtight
container for 7 hours at room temperature before transferring to refrigeration. Fermentation will extend the mayonnaise shelf life from several days to a month or more. (I haven't tried this yet, but I want to. I'll have to make some farmer cheese to get the whey. That's for another day)
* You can also use just the yolk, if you do this, freeze your egg white until you can use it like in a meringue. I found using the egg white makes the mayo a lighter color and it seemed more creamy to me.

Because of the gruyere cheese and wine the artichoke dip has a rich winy fondue-taste. I got the ratios from the book Ratios by Micheal Ruhlman. Thanks Brian for getting this book for me! It's great and I highly recommend getting it if you like to cook/bake!

Lemon Cupcakes with Lavender Cream Cheese Frosting

One of my co-workers is leaving the farm (Gorman Heritage Farm) and for her going away luncheon I made some Lemon Cupcakes with Lavender Cream Cheese Frosting. This recipe uses some of our lavender, and I used the eggs from Findlay Market. I just love being able to cook more with local ingredients. I've actually started teaching cooking classes at the farm now that uses as many local ingredients as possible. I'm hoping to keep this more up to date with what is prepared in the classes. But for now, here is the cupcake recipe.

Lavender Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons lavender petals
• 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 pound (4 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted

Directions

I first infused the butter with lavender using the following method (the ingredients above account for the butter infusion process).

Infused Butter Method from Cupcake Project

* Slightly more butter than your recipe calls for. When you make the tea-infused butter, some of the butter will get stuck on the tea leaves and you’ll end up with less usable butter than you started with. How much more butter should you use? You’ll have to experiment. It will vary depending on the type of tea that you use and how good you are at pressing the butter out of the wet tea leaves. I found that I needed 1 cup of butter to end up with 3/4 cup of butter.

* 2 grams (or approximately 1 1/2 teaspoons) of whole-leaf tea per tablespoon of butter. As Robert says, “The key to flavor is freshness so be sure that you are using only tea that is highly aromatic and butter that has no off aromas or flavors.”

Instructions:

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter until just liquid.

2. Add the tea leaves.

3. Continue heating the mixture for about 5 minutes on low heat.

4. Remove from the heat and allow to stand for another 5 minutes or until the butter is discernibly tinted by the tea leaves.

5. Pour the mixture through a fine sieve, pressing hard on the tea leaves and then discarding them. This is the part where you will undoubtedly end up with some butter that you can’t get off of the leaves. I encourage you to press as hard as you can, but not to obsess about lost butter – it’s for a good cause.

6. Let the butter come to room temperature and then use it as you would regular butter in your baked goods.

via Baking with Tea – How To Get the Flavor of Tea Into Your Baked Goods ~ Cupcake Project.

Frosting:

1. Beat lavender-infused butter and cream cheese with a fork (if you have a mixer it probably would make it easier) until fluffy. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time; mix until smooth.

Lemon Cupcake:

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (about 3 tablespoons), plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in zest and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

4. Pipe frosting onto each cupcake, and sprinkle with lavender petals.

Adapted from From Martha Stewart Cupcakes, May 2009

via Lemon Meringue Cupcakes and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com.

via PrissyCook » Blog Archive » Lemon Mergingue Cupcakes.

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Falafel Wraps

I just recently moved to Cincinnati and into a house that has two ESL (English as a Second Language) Students. One is from China and one is from Saudi Arabia. So I'm really excited to learn how to cook food from their home towns.

My first attempt was falafel. I don't think it originated in Saudi Arabia, but Abdullah said that he has it in his country. So I tried it, and wow they turned out so well! They are so delicious. I'll have to do this recipe again! And to make it even better my friend Megan brought some hummus she made that has garlic and turnip greens. UM UM UMMM so good. I would have never thought to put turnip greens in hummus, but now I want to do it every time!

These guys are just so great looking that I had to take two pictures. So here's the recipe...


Falafel
Ingredients:

• 30 oz. can chickpeas, drained
• 2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoon coriander
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons self rising flour
• 2 tablespoons Tahini
  
• oil for frying (we used a Fry Daddy deep fryer... I think this is what made it work so well)
  

Preparation:

Mash together chickpeas, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, and salt first with a potato masher. Then I just dug in with my hands. It goes faster and you can smash each bean. When it's starting to come together and the beans are mashed up add the tahini and the flour. You want the result to be a thick chunky paste.

Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball.

Fry in oil at 350 until golden brown (2-5 minutes).

Serve in a pita (Abdullah had gotten us Pita bread to show us what they eat for breakfast) with Tzatziki, turnip green hummus, spinach, cucumber, and tomato

Tzatziki

• 2 cups strained yogurt
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cucumber
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• pinch salt

Fold in the cucumber and garlic into the thick yogurt. Sprinkle salt and stir in the lemon juice.

Green Tomato Pie

So I've always wondered what to do with all of my green tomatoes? It's getting cold and the sun doesn't hit my garden anymore. So I have tons of tomatoes on the vine that won't turn red. So what did I do?? I made a pie!

Ok I know it sounds weird, but it wasn't too bad. I think if I picked the tomatoes off the vine a little earlier then the skin wouldn't be as hard, but it was still a good use for green tomatoes.

This recipe was derived (lots of changes though!) from Food Network's Paula Dean recipe

The crust (not from Paula Dean)
1 1/4 cup flour
4 Tbsp cold butter
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

The filling

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
  
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 pinch cloves
  
• 5 green tomatoes and a dozen green cherry tomatoes, or enough to fill pie crust, thinly sliced

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

To make crust:

Add flour, sugar and salt and mix together. Cut in VERY cold butter into small pieces. Slowly add water while stirring with fingers until just together and slightly dry. Put in freezer for a couple hours to harden. Then cut pie dough in two equal parts. Roll out one half into a circle about 1/8 inch thick. Spray pie pan with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Then put rolled out pie dough into pan and set aside.

Mix sugar, flour, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a large bowl. Lay tomato slices in pie crust. Sprinkle mixture over tomatoes. (Overlapping will occur but tomatoes will shrink in size when baked.) Create Lattice and Pinch dough with fingers to seal edges. Then fold over the sides of the crust with fingers and make V shaped wedges with your fingers to make crust. Put pie in freezer for an hour to set.

Sprinkle lattice with sugar for a shine then cook pie at 375 for 10 minutes then 350 for 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Broccoli leaves and Squash Risotto

I finally was able to cook again! Yah! My friend Amanda Roelle was talking about fermenting vegetables at the Seasonal Salon and she asked if I could bring some veggies from Les' yard to ferment. So I brought back some peppers and some broccoli leaves. The discussion/demonstration went great! Amanda did a great job and made kimche out of the brocolli leaves and peppers (she added cucumbers, garlic, ginger, and salt also). But there was left over broccoli leaves so I decided to make myself a little dinner... Risotto it is! I bet a lot of people didn't even know that you can eat broccoli leaves, but umm they are tasty!

Broccoli Leaves and Pattypan Squash Risotto

Ingredients
4 large broccoli leaves sliced in thin strips
1/2 small broccoli head
large diced pattypan squash (it was from my garden)
1 hot pepper minced
1 tsp black pepper

1 T butter
1/4 c. onion diced
1 green onion sliced
2 garlic cloves
olive oil
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp Corriander
4 cups veggie broth
2 T red wine
1 tsp salt
1 cup risotto
1/4 cup amaranth seeds

mozzarella cheese to top (not shown in picture)

Directions:

1. Stir fry onions, garlic, butter and oil until just golden.
2. Add risotto and and fry for a couple more minutes until translucent
3. Add red wine.
   
4. Slowly add in 4 cups of veggie broth 1/2 cup at a time until risotto is tender but not mushy. After first 1/2 cup of broth add in the amaranth seeds.
   
5. While the risotto is being stirfried, stir fry up the broccoli leaves, broccoli, squash, mustard seeds, corriander and hot pepper until just wilty about 5-8 mins.
   
6. Combine both risotto and Veggies together. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Add Mozzarella on top for some extra tastiness.
   
8. Enjoy!

Serving : 4
Time: 1 1/2 hours prep and cooking

Foraging Walk

This post is going to be a little different. I'll start with a simple recipe (well kind of recipe), but
most of the post will be about all the plants I found out from a foraging walk that are either medicinal or edible. Check out the instructor's website. Her name is Nance, and I'm amazed at all the knowledge she has about the natural world. It was such a great time! I'm super psyched about foraging now, and one of these days I'm going to make an entire meal on things that I foraged. So stay posted. I also got a book on it, and I'm learning more and more each day. Also, if you click on the images they get bigger, and there is some really interesting details that you might not notice just viewing it small.

So for the sort-of recipe (it's perfect for a side salad)...

Yellow Sorrel and Mushroom Salad

4 sprigs of yellow sorrel (the first picture)
4 button mushrooms
1/8 c of raisins
1 1/2 T of pecan meal
2 green onions
balsamic vinegar

cut up the mushrooms and green onions, separate the yellow sorrel. Then mix all ingredients together. Sound easy? Yep! It is and super delicious!

Please realize that these are notes that I took a couple weeks ago and pictures, and my mind tends to be very forgetful. So before you go and eat or use any of the things I describe, do some research or ask an expert.

The first picture is yellow sorrel from my garden! I had no idea it was edible, and boy is it delicious. I had noticed a lot of it in my garden, but I thought it was clover. Luckily, I thought "oh I won't pick the clover because it's a nitrogen fixer for my garden." Come to find out it's not clover at all, but I'm happy I didn't pull it out. I have so much of it my garden, and it tastes like a lemon. Please don't confuse it with clover though. I just made Moroccan Mint tea today and added a little of the yellow sorrel in it to give it a hint of lemony goodness. In the book that I got, it says not to eat in excessive amounts because it is high in oxalic acid which excessive consumption may inhibit the body's absorption of calcium. The Chinese use this to clear fevers, resolve clots, and reduce swelling, and snake'sbit treatment. Nance suggested making a pesto out of it. I'll have to try that!


This is catnip, which is good in lemonades, is a sedative, and cats go kind of crazy about it. I'll have to bring some over for Mae (Les's cat). Wikipedia said, "Research suggests that in a test tube, distilled nepetalactone, the active ingredient in catnip, repels mosquitoes ten times more effectively than DEET, the active ingredient in most insect repellents,^[5][6] but that it is not as effective a repellent when used on the skin.^[7] "


This is Yellow Dock. The leaves and roots can be used as a liver tonic and sedative. The seeds are full of protein. In fact, if you were to live by foraging for your food, these seeds are one of the best ways (well besides meat), to get your protein which is hard to get when you are foraging.

This is Burdoch. The roots, leaves and stalk are edible, but you need to eat it early in the season on the the first year (it's biennial). It takes like artichokes. My book says the roots are good with sesame seed oil, ginger and soy sauce after the root is peeled and boiled (you might need to change the water twice because it can be bitter). You can also make mock celery soup with it.


This is another bienniel that you need to eat only in it's first year. So if it reaches the point of what it looks like in these pictures. You've waited too long. It's called Woolly Mullein. We had this in a tea with mint before we started the foraging walk. It opens up the lungs. You can soak the flowers in oil and it helps with ear infections. My book says that Native Americans lined moccasins with the warm woolly leaf.

This Yarrow or Milfoil. It is an antifungal. The flowers are delcious in tea. It helps sweat, heals cuts when added to oil. The book warns that it looks similar to poison hemlock so you need to get expert identification. The poison hemlock has purple spots on the stem.



These are prickly lettuces. This is very bitter, it's a mild sedative, and antifungal (Nance suggested I use this on my wart on my hand).

This is Chicory. In New Orleans they roast the root and add it to coffee. I should have Les try to use it in his next barista competition. The book also says that the young leave are edible, although bitter, and the you can combine the chicory blossoms with 1 pint of cottage cheese. Sounds interesting.


This one came as a surprise. It's a wild carrot but more commonly known as Queen Anne's Lace. I knew this one before because my dad is allergic to it. But the root has a carroty taste! This is another one that looks like a hemlock which is poisonous. So you need to be careful, but it should have a carroty smell. It is also believed to be a form of birth control, but Nance suggested to not test that theory. The book also says that the florets can be stripped and sprinkled over salads or in meatloaf. It's also a worm expellant. So if you are traveling abroad, this could be something good for you if you think you have worms.

This is mugwort or Artemesia Bulgeris. Nance burned some of this that she dried earlier in the season before we started. It suppose to clear the mind. It is also believe to turn a baby who is breach. It is also a bitter that can be used in home brews (Dad, maybe you could try this in your next beer batch)

I found this one in my garden also! It's Wild Spinach, lambsquarters, or goosefoot. Lots of names for this one. At the end of our walk we ate a wrap made out of this. We wrapped up mint, homemade cheese and wild tart cherry jam that Nance had made. Delicious!

This is Pepperweed, also called poor man's pepper. It is a substitute for pepper. My book also said that the tea from the leaves is said to restore sex drive also.

This is Smartweed or Lady's Thumb. It's called lady's thumb because the leaf looks like a person pressed their thumbprint into the leaf. This leaves are good in salads. This is another one that I see ALL over the place, and had no idea it was edible. The flowers are just beautiful!

This one another one that I see all over the place, and is prolific in my garden is Plantain or Buckhorn. These leaves can be crunched up and used to sooth cuts, burns, and stings. The seeds can be milled up for flour. The seeds are also a very mild laxative. The book also says that the tender young leaves can be used in salads while the tougher ones can be boiled in salt water.

And now here are just some pictures of the people I went on the walk with and Nance (the wonderful instructor). I know what you are thinking. Are they really eating things that are directly off of a train rails, with the run off everything? And yes we were but at our own risk. Nance said that if we were planning on feeding guests to not use the plants here, but this area had a great collection of the plants that she could point out for us to find other places. I'm sorry this was so long winded, but I really wanted to document what I learned, and I thought you might be interested too!

Happy foraging! Oh and if you are interested in what book it is Basic Essentials: Edible Wild Plants and useful herbs by Jim Meuninck.

Amaranth with Hardy Veggie Stirfry

While in Belize we would cook with Callaloo leaves as a leafy green. Andrea would tell me that most people just think this is a weed, but the greens and the seeds are actually quite healthy and tasty. Then low and behold, I come to Chicago and Dr. J (the women who started Black Oaks Center that we work with through ADPSR) told me she had a dream about giving me amaranth. So she brought some over for me. It was crazy because I had no idea that you could get Amaranth around here. She said that Amaranth grows all over their land. Supposedly Amaranth like buckwheat is a complete protein which is rare for a grain. So tonight I decided to experiment with what I had in my fridge. In Belize they told me you could use the seeds in baking bread, but I read the package and it said that it does well in numerous things. Last week I made a dahl soup and threw some of them in. Quite good. Probably my favorite soup I've made in awhile. Tonight I though hey lets cook it like couscous. It kind of looks like it anyway. And this is what I came up with...

Amaranth with Hardy Veggie Stirfry

Ingredients

2 cups veggie broth (use the broth made from veggie scrapes)
1/4 cup amaranth seeds
(i'd suggest doubling this recipe for the amount of veggie stirfry)

1/2 small onion largely chopped
1 zucchini thinly sliced
1/4 head of red cabbage chopped
1 small beet peeled and thinly sliced
handful of fresh spinach
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 T tumeric
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 T lemon juice

Start with boiling the veggie broth and slowly add amaranth seeds. Lightly boil seeds with veggie broth for about 25 mins. You might need to add more water. Cook until seeds are chewy but still firm and liquid is gone.

Heat oil in a wok. When almost to the point of smoking, add cumin seeds and poppy seeds until they become fragrant (about 2 mins). Toss in onions and garlic until golden. Add beets, cabbage, lemon juice, tumeric, and worcestershire sauce and cook for about 4 minutes. Add zucchini and cook for about 2 more minutes. Lastly add spinach. Cook until spinach is only slightly wilted.

Place stirfry on top of a layer of amaranth seeds.

Enjoy!!!