Carrot Green Pesto! - Oh I don't know why.

You can totally eat top bit of the carrot! - you know, that green stuff that everyone swears you can’t eat because rabbits don’t eat them? Turns out rabbits aren’t especially discerning gourmands. Well... at least Google tells me you can eat them. I haven’t gotten sick yet, so it’s got to be at least partially true... right? 

Okay, so I’m not really endearing you to my cooking ability and reassuring you that I have any idea whatsoever about the subject I’m writing about - but I assure you that carrot greens make for a fantastic addition to a number of dishes. 

One of my favorite things to do to test out any new greany-leafy thing is see how well it works in a pesto. It’s a remarkable sauce that is quite easy to make and is a big hit at parties - or so I’m told. I do spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen. I like to imagine it’s a big hit at parties at least. I like it. that’s what really matters. 

Anyhoo, point is: You shouldn’t throw away your carrot greens - fresh greens make a rather fantastic pesto. 

Rotini in Carrot-Green & Parsley Pesto

• Olive Oil
• Parmesan Cheese
• Pine Nuts, or Almonds (finely chopped)
• Carrot Greens (roughly chopped)
• Parsley (roughly chopped)
• Salt & Pepper
• Rotini (cooked)

Hey, Notice I didn’t put any amounts in? That’s because this is something you can make to your own standards & tastes - you can make it thicker by using a higher greens to oil ratio, or vice versa. Besides, if you’re always using proper measurements you’re never going to develop a real flair for cooking. 

For the record, the thicker pesto is better for incorporating into pesto-cream sauce, the thinner better for heating up in a pan to quickly toss your pasta in.  

So we’re gonna make the thin stuff!

The process is the same either way, so let’s get to it:

Oh yeah, you’ll need a blender.

• Put a little bit of olive oil down the bottom of the blender.
• Take your greens and your parsley. Put them in that same blender.
• Add the cheese (or don’t - if you don’t eat cheese, you probably shouldn’t add it)
• Take the middle of the lid of the blender out, you need this bit open so you can add more oil.
• Start with a few pulses of the blender.
• Set the blender to a low setting, slowly drizzle olive oil in until everything flows smoothly.
• Pour the mixture out into a bowl.
• Fold in nuts
• add salt and pepper to taste.
• Heat the pesto up in a pan over low heat - just slightly
• Add the freshly cooked & drained pasta. Toss in pesto.

A couple of variants I’d like to touch on:

• I like to add lightly sauteed veggies, roasted garlic, & bacon to this mix.
• As I mentioned before - a slightly thicker pesto mixed with a cream sauce makes a great pesto cream sauce.
• You can totally add whatever herbs & spices to this mix to make it your own - Basil is the classic, of course - but I ran a special using Cilantro pesto once and everyone seemed to like it.

So there you go! Carrot Green Pesto. Enjoy!

Flatbush Farm Share: Week 1

So I Signed up for the Flatbush Farm Share - or, more accurately, Julie signed us up for it. We're getting our second shipment today but I wanted to write a little bit about what I did with the first week's delivery.

J says she always wanted to sign up for some sort of CSA, but wasn't confident enough in her cooking ability. With me in the house, she somehow found the confidence (or rather, confidence in my ability to figure something out)

So; last week comes around and I find myself with a couple of rather large bags full of vegetables. The run-down looked a little bit like this:

Field Green Mix
Boston Bibb Lettuce
Zucchini
Kale
Carrots w/ greens
Turnips w/ greens.
Parsley

It was a pretty interesting mix, at first I had no idea what to do with any of them, in fact: I haven't used all of it up yet.. but I've come up with some pretty interesting recipes out of the mix.  So far I've made a salad using the Turnip & Field Greens, Rotini tossed in a pesto made with the carrot greens, Beef & Chicken stew made with the Carrots and Turnips, and some rather decent dishes of sauteed Kale and Zucchini to go with a giant pot of Jalapeno Mac & Cheese. I'll be posting the recipes written up properly in the next couple of days, and give you guys some updates on the new shipment - which I'm finding myself increasingly excited about.

Anyway, to hold you over: here are some turnips. 

Tacos! (In Case You're Wondering, I Made Them Today)

So, I've been following food carts of late. Specifically I've been eating at just about every hispanic/latin-american taco truck I see. I've taken my time observing what goes into the food they serve and I've been trying to apply it to the "Mexican" food I make.

Today I faced a sort of conundrum. One I'm sure most people have run into. I was hungry, I didn't have much in the house, and I was tired - and I didn't want to put too much effort into anything. So, I said to myself: what better for quick food than food cart food?

So, here's what I made:

Really Quick Taco Recipe:

Ingredients:
Corn Tortillas
Ground Beef
Chili Powder
Cumin
Salt
Pepper
Onion (Small Dice or Brunoise)
Cilantro (You can rough chop it, I chose to go with a Chiffonade)
Lemon, cut into wedges.
Hot Sauce.
Queso de Papa (Shredded) 
Olive Oil.

I cooked this entire meal on a griddle.
(Just so you know)

Step I: Heat up the pan with a little bit of olive oil.

Step II: Sweat the onions.

Step III: Add the Cumin, Chili Pepper, and Pepper.

Step IV: Add the Ground Beef.

Step V: Turn with wooden spoon or spatula, cook to well done.

Step VI: Remove the beef mixture.

Step VII: Quickly heat up the corn tortillas on the griddle. (both sides)

Step VIII: Lay the tortillas out, top with a bit of the ground beef, then add the onion, cilantro, hot sauce, lemon juice, and cheese.

Step IX: CONSUME.

So... there you go, that's what I did today.

Pop Ups; or: Industry Buzz Words Abound!

I was going to try to write something, but you know - after watching Top Iron Chopped Chef the other night and hearing all these buzzwords about pop-up restaurants, I got bored and decided to come up with some of my own, here's a short menu for one, let me know if you'd eat at it:

B's Burgers

(or Burger Joint Concept #1) 

SANDWICHES:  

THE BRATTY

Bratwurst in burger-form. Seared on our flat top and served on a hard roll with dijon mustard. 

THE LAMBURGER

Lamb shoulder ground into a delicious patty - seasoned and seared on our flat top and served on fresh foccacia with lettuce, onion, tomato, and tzaziki. 

THE NUMBER 1

Classic hamburger, served on a potato roll with Irish cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayo. 

THE GRILL

Chicken. Marinated in olive oil, lemon, rosemary, and sea salt. Seared and served on a potato roll with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. 

THE FRYER

Chicken - again. Brined overnight, breaded, and fried. Served on a buttered hard roll with house-made dill pickles.   

THE PORK SANDWICH

Pork - for a change. Marinated in a blend of spices, seared on our flat-top and served straight up on a hard roll. 

THE BAP

Back Bacon on a buttered, toasted potato roll. 

NOT SANDWICHES:

ICEBERG WEDGE

Iceberg (as evidenced by the name of this entry) sliced in a vaguely-wedge shaped... wedge, and topped with cheddar cheese, back bacon, and ranch dressing.

ARUGULA AND GOAT CHEESE

Arugula, tossed in lemon juice, served with goat cheese and candied pecans. 

GIANT CHUNKS OF CHICKEN

Chicken Nuggets, coated in panko bread crumbs, fried to a crispy golden brown, and served with Thai chili sauce and Garlic Aioli. 

THE WHOLE FILLET

Fillet of fish, battered and fried. Served with classic remoulade. 

SIDES:

BAY FRIES

Thick cut house-made french fries.

SWEET CORN FRITTERS

We take delicious corn, batter it, and deep fry it.

HOUSE SALAD

Field greens tossed in citrus vinaigrette. 

THE SAUCES:

House BBQ, Honey Mustard, Remoulade, Garlic Aioli, Thai Chili, and Tzaziki.

BURGER GUIDELINES.

Hamburgers! Hamburgers hamburgers hamburgers. If you find yourself ever in the city of Hamburg, remember that the Hamburger Sparkasse does not sell food. It is a bank. Why would they sell hamburgers in a bank? That’s crazy talk.

I wish I had something more practical to say, but honestly the topic has been done to death. What input could I honestly have? Well I’ve been thinking about what goes into a good ‘burger quite a bit recently. The “Steakhouse” I until recently worked in moves mostly half-pound burgers, instead of the $45 steaks, and it was tied at the hip to a “fast casual” (ooh! Restaurant industry buzz word!) burger joint designed by a certain talked-about meat purveyour in the New York/ New Jersey area.

They put pork roll on the burger. They sliced it too thin. That was a disappointment. The burger itself was good, though. I started to eat there regularly, but wound up just getting the burgers with American Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, and Mayonnaise. I had a discussion at one point with the guy who ran the joint day to day about the bread they used. Potato bread makes a good burger bun in my opinion, they toasted theirs - but without butter. For the life of me I can’t understand why you wouldn’t put butter on a hamburger bun.

This one time, I made a hamburger at work: 8 oz. patty, cooked medium, on a garlic-buttered, toasted brioche roll with 4 cheeses - pepper jack cheese, cheddar cheese, swiss, and blue cheese dressing.  I topped it with lettuce, tomato, and onion. It was delicious.

Anyway; Since I’m so awesome, I figured I’m qualified to go off on what makes a good burger:

You want a solid, but not too dense bun.

Brioche and Challah are what you’ll find in a lot of burger places nowadays, the sweetness pairs decently with the savory burgers. Sourdough or Rye slices are good if you’re just using slices (for a patty melt or what have you) Ciabatta or Portugese Rolls I’ve found tend to be too dense and chewy to pair well with the burger. For small burgers or sliders, go with the potato roll.

Also, Butter the roll and toast it. In a toaster oven, or the regular oven... (the butter would … you know… probably drip into your vertical toaster… but you probably kind of figured that.)

GET SOME DECENT MEAT. Skip the frozen patties. FOR SOME REASON EVERYONE IN NEW YORK CAN'T SHUT UP ABOUT PAT LAFREIDA, THERE ARE OTHER BURGERS IN THIS WORLD. JUST GET SOME DECENT MEAT.
Try the Farmer's Market.

Salt the burger before you cook it - this is important.

Cook your burger to medium / medium-rare.
Here’s how you tell without cutting:

With one hand take your middle finger and thumb and press them together.
Using your index finger from your other hand, poke the muscle connecting your thumb to your wrist.
This is how a medium-cooked piece of meat feels!
 If you move your thumb to your index finger, that’s medium-rare.
Move it to your ring or pinky, that’s medium-well and well.
Remove your thumb from your fingers and that’s rare!
I was super excited to write that! (could you tell?)

Honestly, though - if you eat a burger cooked more than, oh say, medium - you should be very, very ashamed of yourself.

Melt your cheese:

Think about what toppings you’re going to put on. Does your cheese go with them? Do you have mustard and pickles? Skip the blueberry stilton. … etc. etc. you get where I’m going with this.

Choose your toppings wisely:

Well, not really - have fun and experiment, but overloading can take the joy out of eating the burger, especially with smaller patties. The more substantive the burger the better to pair with loads of crazy excess, but seriously: eat a vegetable people. Veggies are good on top of burgers, grilled onions - lettuce - tomato - coleslaw - all delicious!

There you go. I've seen so much written on hamburgers lately that I can't bother with anything else anymore.

Also! Hi! I'm going to start posting on this thing again! thanks for reading.