Chicken Picatta

 

Chicken Picatta

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup semolina flour
• 1/2 cup mushrooms sliced thin
• 4 garlic cloves smashed
• ⅓ cup dry white wine
• 2 tbsp capers coarsely chopped
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• Chopped parsley

Butterfly chicken breasts into 4 cutlets and lightly pound each piece. Mix flours in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Working one at a time, place cutlets in bowl and toss to coat in flour. Knock off excess flour and transfer to a plate.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil and 2 tbsp butter over medium heat. Brown cutlets on both sides about 2 minutes each and remove to a plate. Add garlic, mushrooms and another tbsp butter to the skillet and cook, stirring often and reducing heat if needed to keep garlic from scorching, until golden brown.  Add wine and capers and cook, swirling pan and scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of skillet. Return chicken to pan and simmer with lemon juice until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon, about 2 minutes. Serve with fresh chopped parsley and polenta.

Blueberry Lemon Scones

Gonna need two to go

Blueberry Lemon Scones

• 4 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 T. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp. lemon zest, grated
• 1 cup + 1 T. unsalted butter, very cold
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 2 cups blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add sugar, salt and lemon zest and stir to combine. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles pea sized lumps. Add the buttermilk all at once along with the blueberries and mix gently with a wooden spoon until the dough holds together. If the mixture seems dry, add a little bit more buttermilk. Dust your work surface with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Divide the dough into two even portions. Using your hands, pat each portion into a circular disk about 1 1/2 inches thick. Place on baking sheet, sprinkle top with sugar and cut each disk into 4 wedges but leave the disc together. Bake until golden brown on top and done in center about 30 minutes.

 

Crab Stuffed Portabellas

Yes that is pretty much just a big pile of crab

These work better as bite sized rather than eating with a fork and knife.

Use cremini caps.

Crab Stuffed Portabellas

• 2 Portabellas stems and gills chopped fine
• 1 stalk celery diced fine
• 2 cups cleaned crab
• 1/2 cup onion diced fine
• 1 pickled jalapeno diced fine
• 2 tbsp oregano chopped fine
• 1/4 cup romano grated fine
• 2-3 tbsp mayo
• 4-5 tbsp bread crumbs

Saute onion in butter over medium heat until golden. Saute mushrooms until browned, saute jalapeno until dried. Mix with remaining ingredients and scoop into mushroom caps. Bake at 370 degrees until done. Serve hot.

 

Ginger Snaps

So much sugar

These cookies are nice and moist in the center and crisp outside.

And they taste fantastic.

Ginger Snaps

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 cup sugar

In a large bowl, beat brown sugar and butter until blended. Beat in egg and molasses. Combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves; gradually add to brown sugar mixture a handful at a time and mix well (dough will be stiff). Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Shape dough into 1 in. balls. Roll in sugar. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets.Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes or until set. Cool for 1 minute before removing from pans to wire racks.

Grape Currant Jelly

Perfect late night snack

Recently got a whole bunch of fresh grapes and currants. This is a jellied jam. The currant is pressed into a juice that jellies the grape jam and it’s tartness is a perfect match to the ripe table grapes.

It is pretty awesome.

To extract juice from fruit for every pound cleaned fruit mix with 2/3 cup water bring to a boil then simmer covered for 10 minutes then cool to room temperature. Strain juice through cheese cloth and let hang to drain. If pressed causes jelly to cloud. To form a jelly for every cup extracted liquid add 3/4 cup sugar and can like jam.

Grape Currant Jelly

• 9 cups halved ripe small grapes
• 2 cups extracted currant juice
• 5 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 Star Anise pods whole

Bring to a boil all ingredients and bring to a thermometer reading of 220 adjusting temperature to keep from boiling over. Makes roughly 4 jam jars.

Semolina Plum Coffee Cake

Any pattern works as long as it looks like this

This is a great coffee cake that takes advantage of fresh large plums.

Semolina Plum Cake

• 4 plums halved and pitted
• 1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp semolina flour
• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 13 tbsp butter room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• zest from 1 lemon
• 1/4-1/2 brown sugar
• Salt

Mix flours and baking powder with a pinch of salt. In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar until golden and smooth. Add egg yolks one at a time and beat in scraping down sides each time. Add eggs and repeat for each. Add vanilla and lemon zest and repeat again. Add flour mixture and mix until incorporated. Spoon into a greased round cake pan. Press plums into batter skin side down and cover top with sprinkle of brown sugar and bake at 350 until done about 1 hour.

Black Cod with Scallop, Fava and Porcini Sauce

Poach away little fishy, poach away

For this sauce use fresh porcini and double shelled fresh favas. Choose scallops that are roughly the size of a quarter. If black cod is unavailable, halibut, red snapper or trout will work well.

To quickly shell the second skin off a fava, place in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes then strain and submerge in ice water. Bean will then pop out of skin with a small amount of pressure.

To make truffle butter let a stick of butter come to room temperature, then finely grate a small truffle into it. Mix well, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until solid. Keeps for months.

Black Cod with Scallop Sauce

• 1 lb black cod fillets
• 8-12 scallops
• 1 cup shelled favas
• 1/2 cup finely diced sweet onion (walla walla best)
• 1 cup thinly sliced porcini
• 2 tbsp chopped thyme
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup grated romano
• 2 tbsp truffle butter

Season cod with salt and pepper. Over medium low heat melt butter and saute onions until beginning to brown. Add porcini and half the thyme and saute until mushrooms begin to break down. Add wine and deglaze pan. Bring heat to high and then simmer until wine has almost been absorbed. Add chicken stock, return to heavy simmer and poach fish until almost done, about 2 minutes per side. Remove fish to a plate and add favas, remaining thyme and scallops to sauce. Simmer until scallops are done, about 4 minutes then return cod to sauce and finish cooking, about 2 minutes more. Remove from heat, stir cheese into sauce and serve over black rice or polenta.

Rhubarb Compote

any type of cake will do

This is a good way to use up leftover cherries and rhubarb.

Rhubarb Compote

• 6 cups rhubarb chopped into 1/2″ pieces
• 3 cups cherries halved
• 2 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 1/2 cups sugar

Mix everything together in a sauce pan and let sit 15 minutes. Bring to a boil, then simmer until thick, about 15 minutes. Let cool for 2 hours before serving. Good on top of pound cake, ice cream etc.

 

Fava Puree

Break the hand made lavash any size you want

Again use fresh fava bean pods no longer than 4″. This works best if she second skin can remain on when grinding. The easiest way to tell is eat a raw one and see if the skin is tough and bitter or soft and peppery.

Puree of Fava Beans

• 3 cups shelled fava beans
• 2 tbsp black peppercorns
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
• 3-4 garlic scapes chopped roughly
• Olive oil
• Salt

Pour a little oil in a saute pan and heat on medium high. Toss in spices and scapes and toast until beginning to brown then add favas and stir to coat. Add 1 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil. Cook on high until all water is absorbed. Remove from heat and blend with enough olive oil to form a thick paste, about 1/4 cup. Season with salt serve hot or cold with more oil drizzled on top. Can also include romano.

 

Raw Fava Beans with Romano

Shave the cheese into any size that lives your truth

Fava beans are best served raw, tossed in good olive oil, black pepper and grated romano. They can be eaten whole as long as the outside skin has not grown tough enough to require removal.  Pick pods once they reach 3-4″ maximum. To get them at this early stage will require growing the beans yourself, since most farmers wait to pick them until the beans have gotten at least 5-6″ long.

To grow fava beans, plant seeds in the fall and over winter the crop for spring. This works for any region where the winters are somewhat mild. The plants can withstand a couple heavy snow storms as long as it does not last more than a couple weeks at a time. If winter is colder, the plants can be covered with a simple tarp and cage system to protect them. The plants will flower in early spring and it is imperative that they are pollenated before the average temperature is above 80 degrees. If it gets to hot the bean pods will not set. The plants grow about 6′ tall so they will need to be tied back and supported to keep them from falling over once the weight of the beans sets.