Pork Tenderloin & Banana Pudding (Saturday May 16, 2010)

We had a few friends over for dinner and Janet made a feast!

She made some crab mushroom appetizers. They were good, but not exactly what she had in mind. Janet wanted to recreate a mushroom dish that Maro, our sister-in-law, made--but it turns out we had the wrong recipe.

We have decided to try to buy all our meats from local farmers. This is the first dish we've made using meat from Lewis-Waite Farm (which we get through our Community Supported Agriculture group).

Janet marinated a pork tenderloin using Ina Garten's recipe. It was so good!

I made some mashed potatoes and asparagus (which Janet picked up at our farmers' market) to go along with the pork.

Janet also made the most amazing banana pudding using the recipe from the Magnolia Bakery. She reduced the cream from 3 cups to 2, but I couldn't tell the difference from the original. It is so delicious!

Skate Salad and Fresh Pak Choi Kimchi

We went shopping at the Korean supermarket the other day, and I picked up a couple of bunches of pak choi to make a fresh kimchi from The Complete Book of Korean Cooking.

While Janet washed the cabbage, I minced kabocha pumpkin...

... ground sunflower seeds (a substitute for pine nuts), and chopped scallions (a substitution for leeks).

The pumpkin, seeds, & scallions are mixed with ground red pepper, ginger, garlic, salt, soy sauce, and sesame seed oil.

The pak choi is stuffed with the mixture.

Along with the kimchi we had fried rice, skate salad (the skate is from the farmers' market), and ojingo (dried squid in gochujong).

It's supposed to be eaten fresh, but the uncooked baby pak choi is a bit bitter for my taste. We stuck it in a jar and will see how it tastes after it ferments a bit.

Gochujong Bluefish (Saturday May 9, 2010)

We picked up some bluefish & skate from Seatuck at our farmers' market today. This was the first time Janet has had bluefish... she was a little unsure of it (based on me describing it as a strong-flavored fish), but since she likes sardines, herring, and salmon, I was pretty confident she'd like it (and she did!).

I briefly marinated (for maybe 10 minutes) it in a mixture of gochujong, sesame seed oil, mool yut (barley malt syrup), soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and hot pepper. I baked/roasted it at around 400 degree for about 20 minutes.

We had it with leftover rice & broccoli.

Sautéed Blackfish (Saturday Lunch, 1 May 2010)

We stopped by our farmers' market and picked up some blackfish and asparagus to have for lunch (along with some leftover rice).

I sautéed the fish in butter and olive oil with some lemon--and it was amazing! Last week we had skate from the market and we're going to try to make this a regular Saturday tradition.

The people who run the fish booth are very nice... They gave us a little reusable cooler bag for the fish--so we'll bring it back with us every week. And it's great to know the folks who are producing your food.

Rob Williams, owner & operator of Seatuck Fish

Short Ribs Provençale (Monday April 27, 2010)

Tonight we had some grass-fed beef ribs we bought from New York Beef at our farmers' market. It was braised for 2 1/2 hours in a Provençale-style along with potatoes.  For dessert we had leftover strawberry-rhubarb cobbler.

Zucchini Rice Gratin (Sunday, April 25, 2010)

I haven't left the house all day - this is very rare for me and I wasn't even that productive at home either.  It's been a very cold and rainy gray day. One thing I did do was make dinner.  I wanted to make Ina Garten's pork loin recipe but strangely, none of the grocery stores within walking distance had it in stock yesterday.

We just watched the documentary, Food Inc, and I'm a little grossed out by meat right now (this won't last, I'm sure), but I will tell you that this is changing the way Ethan and I think about food and what we purchase in the future.  Another food show we've been watching is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

Anyway, I made Zucchini Rice Gratin and a Shrimp Salad.  They didn't really go so great together, but were pretty good each on their own.

Zucchini Rice Gratin up close

For the Shrimp Salad, I made quite a few modifications.  I added some chili garlic paste as well as Sriracha sauce, I didn't add dill b/c I didn't have any, and I used one scallion instead of the red onion.

Shrimp Salad

Ethan made a delicious strawberry rhubarb cobbler for dessert - my favorite.  The strawberries were so good and fresh on their own.  I love that strawberries are in season right now. The rhurbarb came from our farmers' market.

Skate & Wheatberries (Saturday April 24, 2010)

This morning we picked up (among other things) some skate, ramps, and asparagus at the nearby farmers' market.

I fried the skate wings and made up a Provençal-style sauce out of the ramps (wild leeks), tomatoes, parsley, and capers. To go along with the fish, Janet made a wheatberry & sour cherry salad and I simmered some asparagus.

Lunch (Saturday April 17, 2010)

For lunch we had Bi Bim Naengmyeon noodles--which is a cold noodle in guchujang sauce. I pretty much love any dish that features guchujang (Korean spicy/sweet paste). The noodles were topped with asian pear, pickled radish, & sunflower sprouts.

We also had sigumchi namaul (spinach), kimchi, and some refrigerator radish pickles that I had made the day before.

The spinach & sunflower sprouts came from our local farmers' market.