Author Archives: Lia Huber

Slow-Roasted Mechoui (Moroccan-Spiced Leg of Lamb)

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I was lucky enough to nab a leg of organic, sustainably-raised lamb from Montana’s Willow Spring Ranch at Shelton’s Market for this and was rewarded with succulent, juicy meat spiked through with Moroccan spice. To find a source for grass-fed lamb (and other meats) near you for your Easter meal, check out Eat Wild. Serve this with quinoa, mixed greens, sliced black olives, thick slices of orange, thinly sliced fennel and red onion tossed with the dressing from this salad here.

Slow Roasted Mechoui Lamb

5 garlic cloves
1/2 medium onion
1 small lemon, trimmed of top and bottom, quartered and seeded
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup pomegranate syrup (or 1/2 orange juice and 1/2 honey)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
5-6 pound boneless leg of lamb, trimmed of excess fat

Puree garlic through olive oil in a blender or food processor. Stir in salt. Lay lamb in a shallow dish or roasting pan and carefully pierce deeply all over with a paring knife. Slather on the marinade, pushing into the holes, then coat all over with any remaining marinade. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 325. Transfer lamb to a Dutch oven, cover and roast for 3-1/2 to 4 hours, until lamb is fork tender. Let rest for 20 minutes, then pull apart into large chunks to serve.

Serves 8

 

Make Corned Beef From Scratch … On Sunday

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You have to promise not to laugh when I tell you this, about how many years this corned beef recipe was in the making. I’d always wanted to make corned beef from scratch, but I have a tendency to forget about St. Paddy’s day until the day of, despite all the leprechauns and clovers sprouting up in every store. So given the grueling three-day rigamarole that’s normally involved in making corned beef, I missed out year after year.

And then I got really into my pressure cooker. One night, I was experimenting with pressure cooking spare ribs in the marinade I’d normally soak them in to see if the flavors permeated the meat (they did), and I thought … “hmmmm, I wonder if this would work for corned beef too …” So I jotted down a note to give it a try the following March.

Did I remember? No.

But I did the next year. The light bulb went off, and I got all excited and scurried off to the store on St. Patrick’s Day to buy myself a beef brisket. I enthusiastically rattled off to my butcher what I planned to do with the brisket, and he nodded knowingly and handed me a shrink-wrapped piece of meat. I eyed it suspiciously. “This is a brisket?” I asked. “Are you sure?” He nodded that same knowing nod. “Yep. That’s what you want.” So I went home, put my little experiment into action and pulled the meat out less than two hours later. It was succulent, it was flavorful … it was like sucking on a salt lick. He’d sold me a pre-brined brisket. So I missed out that year too.

Absolutely determined to get the bottom of my “hypothesis” (6-year old Noemi is throwing that word around a lot lately, with a science fair coming up), I marched back to that butcher the next day and made him sell me a straight-up, unadulterated brisket wrapped in good-ole butcher paper. And guess what? My little experiment turned out splendidly. Now, umpteen years later, I can finally state that you can forget St. Patrick’s Day until the day of and still have your corned beef too.

Carrots with Coconut, Lime and Cashews

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Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy came in the mail yesterday and I had about 40 recipes tagged within the first 40 minutes. This dish featuring carrots was one of them. I’ve been on the lookout for seasonal vegetable recipes that take a different direction than I might, while keeping everything short and simple for busy nights. This one from Deborah Madison hit that spot perfectly. I’ve embellished a bit to make it into vegan main dish, but you could pull back to the basic carrots, coconut oil and lime and serve it as a side dish. Either way, I cannot recommend  heartily enough.

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Ribollita

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Ribollita is a classic Italian recipe that puts day-old bread to delicious use. Not only is this soup easy and flavorful and light and hearty all at the same time … it’s even better made the day before and reheated.

ribollita

2-½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 cup carrots, sliced
1 cup onion, chopped
½ cup celery, sliced
3 sprigs thyme
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chipped Swiss chard
3 cups chopped kale
3 cups water
3 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
¼ cup tomato puree
1 teaspoon sugar
sea salt
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (19-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
12 ounces day-old Italian or French bread, torn into 1-inch pieces

Heat 1-1/2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add carrots and next 4 ingredients (through garlic) and cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until onion is tender. Add chard and next 8 ingredients (through tomatoes) and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes.

Place 1/3 cup beans in a bowl and mash with a fork until fairly smooth. Add mashed beans, remaining beans, and bread to soup. Cook 5 minutes until heated through. Ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle remaining 2 tablespoons oil over top of soup.

Serves 8

 

Roasted Asparagus with Poached Egg & Prosciutto

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I’ve been leaning more and more towards eggs as a quick meal, especially with the girls laying regularly nowadays. This is one of my simple go-to’s–meaty roasted asparagus spears topped with a luscious poached egg and crispy prosciutto. If you want to go meatless, saute some mushrooms and shallots in lieu of the prosciutto … mmmm.

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Crazy for Kohlrabi

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I spent over a quarter-century not having the fainest clue what kohlrabi was. The first time the root vegetable registered on my radar was in a friend’s garden when I asked what the Sputnik-like things were poking from the ground (a name that stuck for us Hubers). She answered “kohlrabi,” I went “huh,” and that was that. Until I spotted them, years later, at a farmers’ market and asked the farmer what on Earth she did with such a vegetable.

kohlrabi-whole
raw-kohlrabisteamed-kohlrabi
Whole kohlrabi “Sputniks” (top); raw kohlrabi wedges (bottom left); steamed kohlrabi wedges (bottom right)

I listened carefully, bought a few, then went home and followed her advice, steaming wedges of the bulb and dressing them with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Initially, the stinky feet cabbage-like smell turned me off while they were steaming (it’s actually the hydrogen sulfide emitted from all brassica oleracea vegetables–like broccoli and cabbage–when cooking), but all that was forgotten on first bite.

It had the texture of a perfectly cooked potato mingled with a raw carrot, and an earthy, complex, spicy-sweet flavor that was unlike any other root vegetable I’d tasted — like I’d added a dash of soy sauce or soaked porcini to the bowl. Wow, I thought. And so kohlrabi became a staple in my home. I steam kohlrabi for a snack; I make pickles from it; I roast it; and I substitute it whenever possible for potato.

How to Choose and Store Kohlrabi
You can see from the pic above that kohlrabi comes in both purple and greenish-yellow hues. When peeled, though, the flesh is always light green. Choose small to medium bulbs; I’ve found the larger ones to be more fibrous. Cut off the leaves as soon as you get home (you can zip them and use them like kale or chard), and you can store the bulb in the crisper for weeks.

How to Prepare and Cook Kohlrabi
Cut off the top and bottom, then peel off the outer layer with a Y-peeler until you get to tender flesh. I like to cut them into thin wedges for steaming or chunks for roasting. They’re also great raw; grate the bulb into salads or marinate matchsticks in brine and vinegar for quick pickles.

Give kohlrabi a try … these little Sputniks might just rock your world like they did mine.

 

Beef and Barley Stew with Kohlrabi and Carrots

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If you rifled through the Campbell’s soup labels I collected as a kid, you’d notice a heavy concentration of Beef and Barley Stew labels. It was my favorite soup. By far. Now, though, I’ve moved so far away from processed foods that it (sadly) just tastes salty and gummy to me. I’ve been meaning to concoct a homemade replacement for years, but somehow have never gotten around to it. Early in the new year, though, I had a pot of beef stock leftover from the holidays, some stew meat and carrots from my CSA, and an expanding enthusiasm for kohlrabi. It was time. If you can’t find kohlrabi, substitute potatoes, or another root vegetable like turnips or rutabaga.

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Simple Butter Lettuce Salad

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I can’t tell you how much I love this salad. Butter lettuce has a delicate, sweet crunch to it, and its crevices catch the nubbins in the vinaigrette perfectly. It’s crazy simple, and it’s the perfect accompaniment to Frittatas, Soft Scrambled Eggs, Simplest Roast Chicken, Crispy Curry Quinoa Cakes … you name it.

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A Holiday Cookie Exchange That Gives Back

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We’re heading to a holiday cookie exchange on Saturday (hence my cry for help on Facebook) that I’m really excited about. Our friends thought this type of party would be a great way to mobilize a bunch of people to help the community while having a lot of fun in the process. I could babble on, but I think I’ll just cut and paste the invite instead so you can see the details for yourself. Feel free to use it as a template for your own party!

We invite you to  join us for our annual cookie exchange.  Our hope is to again send you home with a wonderful assortment of delicious holiday cookies while at the same time working together to help make the holidays a bit better for others in our community.

COOKIES

The idea is for you to take home about half of the cookies you bring.  Together, we will put the other half into individual tins to be delivered to seniors and shut-ins.  So bring as many cookies as you want to bake!  And if you do not care to bake nor to take home any cookies, please just bring more of the items needed for the food pantry.

FOOD PANTRY

We are also asking for your help with gathering items for local food pantries.  Listed below are those items which they need most.

Beans + Rice:  We hope that as many of you as possible will bring large bags of black beans (10#), pinto beans (20#) and/or rice (20#), all of which may be purchased at Costco.  We will then work together to break down the large bags into smaller individual bags, which saves the food pantries a great deal of volunteer labor.

Senior bags:  The Healdsburg food pantry assembles bags for about 35 seniors in our community and they are always in need of the following items in individual packages:

  • fruit/breakfast bars (soft to chew)
  • instant oatmeal packets
  • fruit and/or pudding cups
  • hot cocoa
  • bar soap or soft soap in pump bottles
  • toothbrushes and toothpaste
  • cereal
  • jello + boxed pudding
  • macaroni + cheese
  • tuna fish
  • low sodium soups
  • peanut butter
  • dish detergent
  • toileteries: shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, deodorant
  • tea and coffee-individual sizes (like Starbucks)

We look forward to spending a fun and rewarding afternoon together and thank you in advance for your generous souls.

How cool is that? I’m bringing these oatmeal cookies as one of my contributions and would LOVE to know your favorite cookie/bar/brownie recipe. Leave a link below or on Facebook!

Need more creative cookie ideas? Alison recently when to a cookie exchange hosted by Food Bloggers Los Angeles. Here are some more recipes from our creative friends at FBLA:

FBLA 2013 Cookie Exchange Recipes

Non-Cookie Items

 

Brothy Lentil, Sausage and Farfalle Soup

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Take that name to mean anything you please … whether you make this soup out of chicken stock, turkey stock or vegetable stock, you can bet it’ll be scrumptious. What elevates this above a standard chicken (turkey … veggie) noodle soup are the copious amounts of carrots and celery, the beefy lentils, and the fun little topping of sauteed root veggies and sausage. PS – you can make this vegetarian and still have a super hearty soup.

1 quart chicken, turkey or veggie stock
1 onion, peeled and sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch wedges
6 medium carrots, peeled and cut on a bias into 1-inch pieces
5 celery stalks, cut on a bias into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 turnips, peeled and cut into a 1/2-inch dice (want to see a video of how to dice? Click here)
1 rutabaga, peeled and cut into a 1/2-inch dice
6 ounces loose Italian pork or chicken sausage
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1-1/2 cups sprouted lentils (or regular green lentils cooked until just tender)
2 cups cooked farfalle pasta (cooked 2 minutes less than instructed cooking time)
1 cup shredded chicken or turkey (optional)

In a large pot, bring stock, onion, carrots and celery up to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

While stock is simmering, heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat and swirl to coat. Add turnips, rutabaga and sausage to the pan and toss to coat with olive oil. Saute, turning occasionally and breaking up the sausage with a stiff spatula, for 12-15 minutes, until vegetables are browned on the outside and tender throughout. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Add the lentils, pasta and turkey to the soup pot and simmer for 3 minutes.

Serve each bowl of soup topped with a generous heap of root veggies and sausage.

Serves 6-8

Note: It’s super easy to make this soup vegetarian, and with the pasta and lentils, it’s still quite hearty. Just use veggie broth and omit the sausage and shredded meat.