Simple. Fresh. Local

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup with Eggplant Fries and Parmesan Arugula

greencafeunr — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:42:19 +0000

Fresh heirloom tomatoes chopped up then seasoned with salt, pepper, basil and olive oil

Sliced eggplant breaded and baked into fries

Roasted tomato soup with eggplant fries and parmesan arugula.

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup
with Eggplant Fries and Parmesan Arugula

5 large and several cherry heirloom tomatoes, sliced
Eggplant
1 Egg
½ c Corn Meal
½ c Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Water
Sea salt & fresh ground pepper
Olive Oil
Basil
Arugula
Parmesan

Season the sliced tomatoes with salt, pepper, basil and a drizzle of olive oil. Bake at 375 for 10 or 15 minutes, I like to broil mine for a few minutes too so they brown and caramelize. While the tomatoes bake, slice the eggplant. Mix the egg, flours and water together in a bowl, add a little salt and pepper, and add more liquid or flour depending on consistency (this should be relatively thick, enough so that it sticks to the eggplant). Mix the sliced eggplant into the breading mixture and let sit for a few minutes. Turn the oven up to 425 and bake the eggplant fries for 15-20 minutes, or until they look browned and crispy. Take a handful of arugula, drizzle it with olive oil, salt and shaved parmesan and bake it for the last 8-10 minutes the eggplant is in the oven. During this time you should take the tomatoes out, let them cool some, and then coarsely blend them. Heat the mixture in a saucepan and keep it hot until everything else is ready for assemblage. Garnish the tomato soup with a couple eggplant fries (dip the rest of them in the soup) and parmesan arugula and enjoy.

Sautéed Vegetables and Beef Tacos

greencafeunr — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:02:23 +0000

I made these tacos two days in a row for a late lunch/early dinner. The first day didn’t make it to picture phase they were so good. I would also make them without the beef with just sautéed veggies and maybe add a little bit of flavorful cheese like gruyere on top. The stir-fry beef from our ranch was seasoned a few days prior, I think this adds really nice flavor and it was all ready cut into strips so the whole preparation was super quick. I borrowed some Greek yogurt from my roommate to put on top, an ingredient I found rather essential to pulling together a dish composed mostly of rich, savory and salty flavors. I would also use crème fraiche but any good, plain whole milk yogurt will do.

Step 1: prepare sprouted corn tortillas

Add the meat

And the sauteed veggies

Fresh, sweet cherry tomatoes

Finished with a dollop of greek yogurt

Sautéed Vegetables and Beef Tacos

2 sprouted corn tortillas
A couple strips of grass fed and finished stir fry beef
1 small eggplant
1 small yellow squash or zucchini
1/2 red onion
1 clove garlic
Handful of spinach
Handful of kale
Handful of cherry tomatoes
Greek yogurt, crème fraiche, or whole plain yogurt
Olive oil, sea salt and lemon juice
Chop the eggplant, squash, onion, and garlic and sauté in the olive oil (add the eggplant and squash first, then onions, and garlic last). Chop the spinach and kale, add to the other vegetables and cook until greens are wilted and the other veggies are browned–sprinkle with sea salt and lemon juice. Remove the vegetables; briefly sear the beef on each side (I like mine very rare so this only takes a minute or two). Warm the tortillas in a little oil and season with salt. Assemble the tacos as pictured or in whatever order you prefer, adding the halved tomatoes and yogurt as finishing touches.

Maine 2011

greencafeunr — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:44:30 +0000

My brother took beautiful pictures with his new camera while we were in Maine. Beautiful scenery, delicious food, endless activities, and so many good people we love characterized the trip. Most days we ran or hiked and played in the water. Dinners came from the farmers market or Terra Optima Farm where grass fed beef, whole chickens, sausage and bacon filled freezers, and payment was based on an honor system (a tray filled with money in the fridge). We ate our share of lobster, clams, mussels, cod and other seafood and also tried some amazing new restaurants, most notably Primo. We harvested blueberries out of our fields and blackberries from my cousin’s house and made raw milk ice cream with fresh delectably sweet tiny Maine strawberries, mint, and balsamic, dark chocolate and candied ginger. My mom made lemon blueberry cupcakes with lemony cream cheese frosting. We visited Chase’s Daily in Belfast weekly for their unbeatable farmers market and ate thin crust pizza and roasted vegetables. We hiked Precipice trail in Acadia, a trail that goes straight up a rock face by way of ladders and sketchy railings and drop offs. Eating popovers in Acadia is more traditional in my family than opening presents on Christmas day and my dad, Nick, and Jordan gorged themselves on five each for dinner. We celebrated at our friends’ incredibly beautiful wedding and Mari and I danced with a delightfully graceful and talented man who managed to make me look like I had rhythm. The end of trip was climatic with a hurricane canceling my flights, blowing over multiple trees, shutting off the power, and allowing us to hang out under a kerosene lamp with close friends as the wind and rain clamored against the house.

Cod Stew

Delicious with toasted bread and raw milk

Fresh, flaky, melt in your mouth cod

Cod Stew
Bacon ~5 strips
Cod~cut into smaller pieces
Tomatoes~several heirlooms
Corn~2 cobs
Kale~a nice big handful
Onion
Garlic~3 or 4 cloves
Sea Salt
Lemon Juice
This stew exhibits some of my favorite foods in a simple, easy dish. I cooked the bacon, then removed it and cooked the onion, kale, corn, tomatoes, and garlic in the bacon grease and added plenty of lemon juice until everything was a little browned. I removed the veggies and quickly seared the cod on both sides before adding in the tomato/corn concoction and the pieces of bacon broken into smaller pieces. I let the whole stew simmer and flavors mix until the cod was cooked to perfection (which doesn’t take too long) and its texture was as luscious and smooth as butter.

Lobster Feed

Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes

Turtles up river, no we didn't eat them

Look down to see up

Glorious Camden bay view

tiny quail eggs

Blueberry beehive

Dew frosted spider webs

Goodnight Moon

Harvest Meal

greencafeunr — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:54:00 +0000

We have a happy problem here: excessive fruits and vegetables. Tonight I made a big salad, roasted veggies, and a fruit cobbler with our bounty.

Roasted kale, eggplant, squash, peas, and fresh tomatoes with black sea salt, lemon juice and olive oil

Roasted veggies with romaine, pepper, cucumber and currant salad

Peas, romaine, kale, broccoli, mini tomato plants, squash and jerusalem artichokes

Romaine

Bountiful kale

Peas

Peach, nectarine, pluot, blackberry cobbler

Perfect summer dessert

Mateja, we love you so much, we're all thinking about you and sending our love, you're such an amazing girl stay strong

Last Supper

greencafeunr — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 03:32:54 +0000

Living on a ranch means getting used to life and death. What is invisible in a grocery store or restaurant becomes poignantly visible and unavoidable out here. Fortunately, most of the time we see life. Baby chicks, goslings, and kittens seem to appear every few weeks filling our home with fluff balls and cuddles. Unfortunately, if you are interested in raising your own meat for eating, killing is just part of the process. We raise animals out here to make sure they are treated fairly, honorably, and kindly. In short we take amazing care of the animals with the hopes that, when their time comes, they will take care of us in turn. And so, tonight is our goat boys last supper. We’ve loved and played with these pets for about a year and all of us are emotionally attached to these guys. Tonight is a sad night and we will miss our kids.

Evan

Eating their extra grain

Adam Sandler

Philipe and Right Nub

Roast and Patties

greencafeunr — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 21:30:52 +0000

I keep finding these old pictures of food that I forgot to post. This one is goat again, a meat I realize features prominently on here even though I don’t feel like I eat it that often. It’s hard to remember everything I did from a few months back, but I definitely used multicolor fingerling potatoes, shallots, oyster mushrooms, kale, celeriac, great big sprigs of sage, lemon, sea salt, pepper, and olive oil. This was a really nice, tender cut of goat albeit lacking in a lot of meat. It was a perfect meal for two. I added the kale during the last 15 minutes of cooking after coating it in the goat’s juices and that was the highlight of my meal. Crispy kale chips are one of my favorite foods and pairing them with the flavor of the goat was unbeatable.

The recipe for the quinoa patties is in my Super Natural Every Day cookbook in Reno so I don’t have it on hand, but they are a great way to use quinoa and other veggies and taste amazing with a grind of good sea salt and creme fraiche.

Some of my most cherished items: sea salt, bariani olive oil, quinoa, garlic, shallots, and my loose leaf teas

Lovely rainbow fingerlings

The goat, precooked, with fingerlings, shallots, celeriac, sage and oyster mushrooms

FInished roast goat with crispy kale

Frying the quinoa patties

Perfect with creme fraiche or greek yogurt and sea salt

Goat Legs and Margaritas

greencafeunr — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:17:02 +0000

I finally stole some pictures from my friend’s computer of a goat leg roast and margarita party date we had while it was still cold outside in Reno. I remember sitting down to this meal and feeling a bit glutinous, a bit extravagant and very spoiled. It was simply so beautiful and tasty. The rosemary from the garden was crisped and salty yet delicate and fragrant, and the potatoes, onions, and other root vegetables perfectly caramelized in the goat juices, while the goat itself was rare and moist with a salty, crispy exterior. We paired a simple salad with this meal and of course, the margaritas. I basically just blended mangoes, strawberries, lemon, ice and tequila, and a little coconut water. They are garnished with coconut palm sugar on the rims, sliced strawberries, and mint leaves.

Left Nub's leg seasoned with salt, pepper, lemon, olive oil, and rosemary. Surrounded by potatoes, onions, and other vegetables

Pouring the delicious drinks

Mangostrawberryitas

Goat leg, root veggies and salad

My First Benedict

greencafeunr — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:46:14 +0000

My camera slowly died over the last few weeks hence my posting absence. Luckily a few friends took some shots of the food we’ve been eating. One of the highlights was the salmon benedict we made while visiting friends in Santa Cruz. My friend’s boss caught the salmon, I brought eggs from my ranch, we made homemade hollandaise sauce, seasoned with lemon, rosemary and sea salt from the farmers market and ate it all on whole wheat English muffins. This was my first eggs benedict, for some reason I’ve just never ordered it or made it before, and now I’ll be hard pressed to find any benedict more delicious than this salmon creation. The eggs were perfectly poached and the salmon was moist and flaky and the hollandaise was rich and smooth and delicious.

Preparing the salmon with sea salt, lemon, and rosemary sprigs

Four perfect salmon eggs benedicts

Salmon benedict with little grilled eggplants

Impatiently waiting to start eating during the photo session

Rooster Roast

greencafeunr — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:13:13 +0000

Last night I roasted two roosters my mom brought me from the ranch. These little guys didn’t have much meat on them but they were incredibly delicious.

Pre-roasted with root vegetables

Fresh out of the oven

Crispy skinned, well-seasoned satisfaction

Rooster Roast
2 R0osters well seasoned with sea salt and lemon pepper
Fresh rosemary and sage
Purple and red potatoes
2 turnips
3 carrots
1 red onion
2 green onions
1 lemon
Olive oil
3 garlic cloves

Cranberry sauce
1 bag frozen cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup coconut palm sugar
Boil the water and sugar, add the cranberries and bring to a boil again. Let the mixture boil at lower heat for ten minutes and then cool in the fridge.

I seasoned the rooster with salt and pepper 2 days before cooking them. I heard this penetrates the skin and meat and lends to richer flavor. The oven was preheated to 400* the night of the roast. I chopped up all the vegetables (except for the green onion), tossed them in salt and olive oil and placed them in the baking pan. I set the roosters on top, stuffed the garlic under their skin, stuffed the cavities with rosemary and sage, and coated them in a drizzle of oil, then baked on one side for 20 minutes, flipped the birds over onto their other side for 20 minutes, and then flipped them again for the last 20 min. About 10 minutes before I took them out I added green onions and lemon slices to the pan. I let them rest for about 10 minutes before we ate them with good wine, salad, homemade cranberry sauce and bread.

The Vegetarian Myth

greencafeunr — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:20:04 +0000

My uncle posted this great video that briefly reiterates my beliefs about food. The author of The Vegetarian Myth is very eloquent, intelligent, straight forward and concise with her information, none of that sugar-coated, fact void dieting bullshit we so often hear in this country. I’ve recently found myself feeling exacerbated when I read or hear or see information about food that I already know. Sometimes I feel like I’m a little super saturated with information, like I’ve heard it before for a long time and I just want everyone to start eating and living well, and producing food with compassion so everyone can stop talking about local and organic food and just start living that lifestyle. But the need for information and advocacy is greater than ever before, and I thoroughly enjoyed this interview and will read her book even if I’ve heard/read/seen most of the information before. This video might challenge some of your preconceived notions and beliefs about food, in fact I hope it does.

On that note, I made delicious beef stir fry tonight from the cattle we raised on our ranch. I am just starting to dabble in quasi ethnic cooking, but I really kept it quite simple due to my inexperience and ingredient shortage. Still it was so satisfying and delicious. My camera is sadly malfunctioning right now so I couldn’t take any pictures, but here is my recipe:

Beef and Vegetable Skillet Fry

Grass fed beef (I used 2 big chunks of kabob cubes and cut them into strips)
2 garlic cloves
1/2 small red onion
2 tbsp. nama shoyu soy sauce (this is raw soy sauce)
1 tbsp. coconut palm sugar
1 bundle buckwheat soba noodles
1 ranch egg
Chopped green onion
Spinach
Hiratake mushrooms
Basil
Avocado
Meyer lemon juice
Sea salt and fresh pepper

In a hot skillet I sauteed the onions and garlic for a few minutes in olive oil. Meanwhile, the noodles were boiling in previously heated water. I added well seasoned beef strips to the skillet, briefly browned the beef on all sides, then added the soba noodles. I poured the soy sauce and sugar over the beef and noodles, then made a small space in the middle of the pan and added the egg. After scrambling the egg so that it was no longer runny I added about 2 1/2 cups total of the vegetables (mushrooms, green onion, spinach). The skillet was quite hot, so after just a few minutes (basically when the spinach wilted) I turned the heat off and garnished my dish with basil, avocado, a squeeze of meyer lemon juice and just a dash of sea salt. Like usual, all of the ingredients except the coconut palm sugar and the eggs and beef from the ranch came from the biggest little city’s most incredible grocery store: The Great Basin Food Co-op.