Orzo with Spinach, Blue Cheese and Pumpkin Seeds

Downtown Farmer’s Market Salt Lake City, Trader Joes’s, a random yard sale, Costco and Cali’s Natural Foods all took a share of my money last Saturday. My friend Teri and I bypassed 20 odd Park City garage sales—you can see where our priorities lie—for it was opening day for the Farmer’s Market. It was my first trip to Trader Joe’s since they opened last fall and since we were at Costco, well Cali’s was in the same block. The yard sale was on our path.

I spread almond butter on the the heels of Crumb Brothers Honey Raisin Rye bread this morning.

Clifford Family Farm eggs with same bread inspired Sunday’s French toast.

From now on, I’ll be visiting our local Wednesday Park City’s Farmer’s Market which also opened last week—that is until later in the summer, when the abundance of ripe fruit calls me for another venture to the big city.

Our favorite farmer and skier, John G was in Salt Lake with his flatbread truck. But we saved his arugula and lettuce mix for the Salt Lake shoppers.

That’s because our Ranui Gardens CSA is up and running starting today, which means we get our weekly box from John. This also means I will be posting 2 recipes a week until October. Yippee! Enjoy all the new recipes and be sure to Search the Archives for more ideas for what to cook with your produce. I love feedback—leave comments as you feel it.

It’s hot. Especially for Park City. Right now the thermometer reads 83 degrees F. in the shade. Air conditioning is opening the front door, which late afternoon is the east facing shady side of the house. Hot means easy stove-top don’t-turn-on-the-oven cooking.

Orzo with Spinach, Blue Cheese and Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup orzo pasta

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 large bunch spinach

1 tablespoon grapeseed oil

1 head green garlic, finely chopped

zest of 1 lemon

2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

1/3 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Red pepper flakes

Real Salt

Bring about a quart of well-salted water to a boil, stir in the orzo and let the water return to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the orzo pasta is cooked with just a slight resistance to your tooth. Drain the orzo, put it in a bowl and drizzle with the olive oil.

While the orzo is cooking, prepare the spinach. Wash it several times to make sure there is no gritty dirt remaining. Remove and discard the stems. Chop the leaves into 1-inch size pieces.

In a large skillet, heat the grapeseed oil with the green garlic until the garlic turns to golden, 1 to 2 minutes.  Add the spinach and sprinkle with salt.

Stir and toss until the spinach has wilted, then add the cooked orzo to the pan, along with the lemon zest. Stir in the blue cheese and pumpkin seeds, continuing to stir until the orzo is heated through and the cheese melts. Season with a good pinch of red pepper flakes, taste for salt, seasoning with more if you think it is needed. Serve immediately let cool and serve in 20 minutes.

Makes  3 to 4 servings.

Notes:

• Use plain orzo for a pretty contrast of green and white, or use tri-color orzo for a jazzy kaleidoscopic dish.
• Extra virgin olive oil for flavor, grapeseed oil for high-heat cooking.
• Use baby spinach instead of chopped larger leaves.
• Substitute feta or goat cheese for the blue cheese if that’s what you have on hand. Or skip the cheese altogether if you or your guests are not eating dairy.
• Chopped parsley or a sprinkling of fresh (or dried) herbs such as oregano or marjoram are a nice addition.

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Real Salt, Summer Savory and Garlic

Real Salt, Summer Savory and Garlic

Let’s talk about salt, the mineral that we eat, critical ingredient in cooking, enhancer/improver of food, sodium chloride, sprinkled throughout world history for many reasons more than culinary.

Is all salt the same NaCl, sodium chloride, be it table salt, kosher salt, flake salt, rock salt or sea salt?

Technically and chemically yes, salt is salt, but there is more to salt than sodium chloride, and I’d like to convince you to go think that way when it comes to buying, seasoning with, eating and enjoying salt.

I think I have known for a long time that salt is not all the same, that industrial refined sodium chloride is different (and less healthful) than salt that’s allowed to keep more of its natural qualities, be it mined salt or evaporated salt. A couple of years ago I attended a salt tasting workshop in Portland, Oregon. Our “selmelier” was Mark Bitterman, who showed us in a short two hours how geography and environment (terroir) and production methods can affect the crystallized shapes, flavor, color and mineral makeup of salt. We tasted more than 20 salts, including flaked salt from Japan, evaporated over fire, fine delicate grey salt skimmed from the sea and evaporated by the sun, and pink rock salt mined in Pakistan.

Then I read his book, Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes. Bitterman teaches readers how and why and to appreciate salt’s diversity, especially when it comes to the kitchen. He talks about the craft and history of salt, with sidebars about our sense of taste, the science of salt and its relationship to our body, and the iodization of salt. Since reading his book, I have expanded my pantry to include some wonderful “finishing” salts. I love the sweet flavor of Murray River flake salt from Australia on fresh vegetables and the aromatic way black truffle salt dresses up potatoes and eggs.

For a good personal tasting illustration, try fleur de sel from France contrasted against Morton kosher salt, a tiny pinch of each salt baked as a finish on a buttery chocolate shortbread. See for yourself.

Why do I specify Real Salt in many if not most of my recipes? It’s a good cooking salt, for pasta water and baking, any time the salt will dissolve in the food. Real Salt is mined in Central Utah, near the town of Redmond. It comes to us unrefined, with more than 60 trace minerals intact. It is not processed by heat nor does it come from a huge industrial plant that makes sodium chloride mainly for fertilizer and deicing. (I am not paid by Redmond Trading Company to say this, nor do they give me free salt.)

I like the sweet (as opposed to bitter) taste of Real Salt and its slight pink color, and the calico flecks of brown and grey from the extra minerals. (But, give Real Salt the chocolate shortbread taste test above and you’ll hopefully see why there are better tasting salts for supplying the final “finish” sparkle to food.)

My friend Teri excitedly called me a couple of weeks ago about a salt recipe with fresh herbs and garlic. She listens to The Splendid Table on NPR religiously every weekend and had just heard Sally Schneider describe Tuscan Herb Salt. I missed the initial airing of Sally’s conversation with host Lynne Rosetto Kasper, but not to worry–The Splendid Table is easy to hear later as a podcast and the website has the recipe links and more. Teri knew Sally’s recipe would be fabulous with most garden-fresh herbs. Here is my version with this week’s Ranui Gardens CSA summer savory. Try it on fresh sliced tomatoes or lightly steamed green beans.

summer savory salt

Real Salt, Summer Savory and Garlic

1 clove garlic, peeled

2 teaspoons plus 4 teaspoons larger flake salt (like kosher)

½ cup fresh summer savory leaves

Drop the garlic and 2 teaspoons of the salt into the work bowl of a food processor while the food processor is running and process until the garlic is uniformly chopped. Add the summer savory leaves and pulse until the leaves are well chopped. Transfer to a baking sheet and mix in the remaining salt. Let the pan sit out for a few days until the herbs and garlic are obviously dry. Store in a jar.

Makes about 1/3 cup.

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Yogurt Cheese with Garlic and Parsley

Yogurt cheese is easy to make—it just takes preparing ahead—18 to 24 hours. So if you want yogurt cheese for tomorrow—make it today, if you want yogurt cheese for today—too late, too bad. This recipe uses parsley, because that is in our box this week. If you have that freezer stash of basil pesto, it is perfect for flavoring yogurt cheese; mix in 1/4 cup of pesto in place of the garlic and parsley. You can use other herbs too—cilantro, basil, dill—depending on what you have or prefer.

In the era when many were cooking their way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes One and Two, I was throwing dinner parties and cooking out of Anna Thomas’ Vegetarian Epicure, Books I and II.  Know that it’s true when I say that Anna’s recipes were just as time-consuming and calorific as Julia’s. In 1996, Anna published a new cookbook, with dinner-party ideas and recipes of a lighter fare—this Yogurt Cheese comes from her The New Vegetarian Epicure.

1 quart high-quality plain non-fat yogurt (no starch or gums added)

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

1/8 teaspoon Real Salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Line a large sieve of colander with a triple thickness of damp cheesecloth, Dump the yogurt onto the cheesecloth and place the sieve or colander over a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate about 18-20 hours. Check under the sieve, especially in the first hours, and drink or throw away (sic) the whey that has drained into the bowl.

Turn the thickened yogurt cheese into a bowl and mix in the garlic and parsley, or pesto, as well as salt and pepper, to your taste. If you have the time, refrigerate for a few hours before serving, letting the flavors meld.

Serve with crackers or crostini, as an appetizer, or with baked Ranui Charlotte potatoes for dinner.

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Cream of ‘Mess o’ Greens’ Soup

More than a dozen years ago, Deer Valley co-hosted a fundraising event for Red Butte Garden,  a part of the University of Utah. Rotating through Snow Park Lodge’s banquet rooms, turned into classrooms set with portable demo kitchens complete with mirrors and gas stoves, guests enjoyed 3 Deer Valley chefs cooking 3 separate menus, all featuring fresh herbs.

I was one of the “Chefs for All Seasonings” teaching the half-hour classes—and keeping with the herb theme, I made oatmeal rosemary scones, peppercorn and pear tart, and basil ice creams, both plain and chocolate. Another chef followed his Southern heritage and taught pan-fried catfish with cornmeal and thyme, red beans and rice and mess o’ greens. Even though I’d lived in the North Carolina mountains for 2 years, I think that was the first time I heard that term used to describe a bitter-tangy-sweet mixture of greens, like collards, mustard greens, kale etc. If you come from the South, your mother probably made mess o’ greens flavored with salt pork or bacon, cooked for hours on end.

Well I love my greens, and I always make them on New Years Day to insure a profitable year, but I cook them without meat and only until they are just tender, about 15 minutes.

Here is a warming soup to welcome the first real freeze of the fall, and to use several of our CSA veggies of the week: potatoes, leeks, onions, garlic, jalapeño pepper and Ranui mess o’ greens. It’s also a vegan recipe, with cashew milk instead of milk or cream. Serve with corn muffins–I recommend the recipe from my cookbook if you don’t have a favorite corn muffin or cornbread recipe.

Cream of Mess o’ Greens Soup

1 cup raw cashews

1 cup plus 4 cups vegetable broth

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 leeks, white part mostly, cleaned and sliced into rings

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeño pepper, seeds and veins removed, chopped

2 medium potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/2-inch dice

5 cups mess o’ greens, with the stems stripped and discarded

1 teaspoon Real Salt

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, optional

In a blender, whir the cashews and 1 cup of the vegetable broth until smooth, about a minute.

In a large soup pot or pressure cooker over medium flame, heat the olive oil. Cook and stir the leeks for a minute; add the onions and cook and stir another minute or so. Add the garlic and jalapeño pepper, the remaining 4 cups of vegetable broth, the potatoes and the mess o’ greens. Add the salt. Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Alternately–if you use a pressure cooker, lock the lid in place, and over high heat, bring to high pressure. Lower the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for 6 minutes. Allow the pressure to come down naturally or use a quick-release method.

Stir in the reserved cashew “milk.” Remove from the heat. Puree the soup with an immersion blender directly in the pot, or in the regular blender (in batches.).

Season to taste with salt and the optional lemon juice—to intensify the flavor.

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