Rhubarb Chutney

The CSA this week included 8 stalks of rhubarb. The natural reaction is "What on earth am I supposed to do with this much rhubarb?" So I'm making chutney.


Original recipe here: http://www.marthastewart.com/348836/rhubarb-chutney?czone=food%2Fspring-produce&gallery=275393&slide=284420&center=1009726


8 stalks of rhubarb, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 tbsp powdered ginger
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup wine
1/4 cup candied strawberries, chopped
1/2 cup sugar


1. Cook onion garlic, salt, and olive oil in a saucepan until the onions are translucent (~5 minutes)
2. Add the wine and strawberries, bring to a boil. Cook for 1 minutes
3. Add the sugar. Stir until it is mixed thoroughly
4. Add the ginger and half the rhubarb, let it cook at a simmer/low boil until the rhubarb disintegrates (~5 minutes)
5. Add the rest of the rhubarb, let it cook until the rhubarb is just starting to get soft (~2 minutes, maybe 2:30).


I might add a little bit less wine than that next time, I had to let it boil off for a bit. Otherwise, eat it hot on bread and cheese. I'll try this with roasted turkey as well tomorrow. But it came out really well.

Rhubarb Chicken

I joined a CSA. (Community-supported agriculture) For the next four weeks, I'm getting a small bag of vegetables and a fruit every thursday, and I'll probably add eggs and cheese next week as well. A small bag means 6 vegetables, an herb, and a fruit. A large would be 9 vegetables, 2 herbs, and 2 fruits.


This week's bag contained a head of broccoli, 2 stalks of rhubarb, a bunch of asparagus, a head of red romaine lettuce, a bag of ruby chard, radishes, parsley, and apples.

Tonight's meal was rhubarb chicken, in order to use up and re-cook the chicken left over from my last round of stock. The original recipe is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/chicken-smothered-in-rhubarb-recipe.html



~3/4 of a quart of boiled chicken (from the last time I made stock)
"Essence" - Emeril Lagasse's creole spice mixture, recipe to follow
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 stalks of rhubarb, cut up into 3/4 inch pieces
1 large onion - julienned
2 cloves of garlic
fresh parsley
1 cup white wine


- Heat a pot with oil
- Toss the chicken with the "essence" spice mix
- Put the chicken into the pan, let it fry for a few minutes
- Add the chicken stock. Let it sit for another few minutes
- Add the onions and rhubarb. Stir constantly until the onions are wilted and starting to brown
- Add the white wine, garlic, parsley. Cover the pot and let it sit for 30 minutes on low



"Essence" spice mix with my modifications. Original recipe at the link above.
2.5 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp salt
4 cloves minced garlic (if you're making this ahead of time, use garlic powder, but I didn't have any)
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tbsp oregano




I've never cooked with rhubarb before. I do like strawberry rhubarb pie, but I didn't have strawberries and I wanted something savory. This was phenomenal. I served it on a bed of chard and romaine lettuce from the CSA. If I weren't so lazy, I would make some wild rice (I still have some of the pink wild rice left, maybe tomorrow) to go with it. I used an old chardonnay that I had left in the fridge for the wine, and it came out as a really nice salad dressing all on its own. The chicken came apart as I stirred the onions in, so I ended up with a chicken salad. The rhubarb was perfectly mushy by the time it finished cooking. I might try adding apples next time.

Strawberry - Mint Salad

This one is easy, no cooking involved. And wow. It was a really nice change from a standard garden salad.


1 bunch of fresh mint leaves
1 lb of strawberries (Chopped)
1 package of mushrooms (Chopped) (I'm using baby bellos here)
slivered almonds
A handful or two of spinach
Vidalia onion vinaigrette

Strawberry Sauerkraut

It's leftover night! Time to re-cook the food that's been left in my fridge too long.


Ingredients:
 - Approximately half of the meat from a 3-lb whole chicken (boiled)
 - Half an onion
 - 3/4 lb of strawberries
 - 1 golden delicious apple
 - 1 lb package of sauerkraut
 - Caraway
 - Celery seeds


Directions:
(Using a BIG fry pan):

 - Chop the onion, start it frying
 - Chop the chicken to cubes about the same size, at it to the fry pan
 - Core and chop the apple, add it to the fry pan
 - Cut off the strawberry heads and any other bad bits. Once the onion starts to caramelize, add the strawberry to the fry pan
 - Add the package of sauerkraut to the fry pan.
 - Add caraway and celery seed to taste.
 - Let it heat up until you hear it sizzling a little bit. Let it steam off some of the extra water from the sauerkraut package if you want.


Serve it hot on a bed of leftover wild rice.





The timing's not critical, but I like my apples and strawberries slightly mushy but not murdered, and the timing worked out perfectly with the chop-while-you-go method.

Warning: This is not appropriate for eat-at-your-desk office environments.

Mashed Potatoes

My boyfriend's recipe, created to much acclaim for Christmas dinner:

Ingredients
 - Russet potato
 - 2 Yukon potatoes
 - 1 Red potato
 - 1 Regular sweet potato
 - 1 Garnett sweet potato
 - 1 Onion (we used red)
 - 1 bulb of garlic
 - 2 large spoonfuls of margarine


Directions
 - Chop the sweet potatoes into small (quickly-cooked) pieces, add to pot of water
 - Bring the water to a boil
 - While you are bringing the water to a boil, chop the rest of the potatoes and add them to the pot.
 - Peel and coarsely chop the onion
 - Start to caramelize the onion in a fry pan with olive oil
 - While the onion is starting to caramelize, peel and dice the garlic
 - As soon as you've finished dicing the garlic, add it to the pan with the onions
 - Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and move them to a bowl
 - Mash the potatoes
 - Stir in the onions, garlic, and margarine

Lentils with Rice

Ingredients
 - 1 packet green lentils
 - 1 package black lentils
 - 1 package red lentils
 - 1 yellow onion
 - 3 cloves garlic
 - 1 can kidney beans (15 oz)
 - 1 can pinto beans
 - 1 can red beans
 - 1 can diced fire roasted tomatos (28 oz)


Spices:
A LOT
 - black pepper
 - garlic powder
 - white pepper
 - thyme
 - paprika
 - nutmeg
 - oregano
 - basil

Directions
 - Soak the lentils for an hour, discard the water (optional step, I have trouble digesting legumes and this is supposed to make it easier)
 - Add 16 cups of water
 - Chop the onion, add it to the pot
 - Dice the garlic, add it to the pot
 - Rinse the beans thoroughly, add them to the pot
 - Add the spices
 - Cook on medium heat (so it doesn't boil over) until your fiancee tells you it's done. ("I'll know when I see it")
 - Don't cook the rice in the same pot because you didn't use a large enough pot the first time around.

A Little
 - Mustard
 - Cumin
 - Curry