Butternut Squash, Rosemary and Bleu Cheese Risotto

Autumn is here - hoorah, hoorah! Time for soups and roasts, baked goods and casseroles, root vegetables and squash. Time for nostalgia, walks in the woods, mulled cider, apple picking and donuts. Perhaps this poem by Bliss Carman (1861-1929) can express it better:

A Vagabond Song

There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood -- 

Touch of manner, hint of mood; 
And my heart is like a rhyme, 

With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time. 

The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry 

Of bugles going by. 

And my lonely spirit thrills 

To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills. 

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir; 

We must rise and follow her, 

When from every hill of flame 

She calls and calls each vagabond by name. 

Yes, for two native New Englanders, autumn is a special time, "native to our blood," and this wonderfully creamy and flavorful risotto, made with butternut squash, rosemary and bleu cheese, seemed like the perfect way to celebrate its arrival. 

This particular recipe, one from Bon Appetit (February 2005) was just sitting in our Epicurious recipe box waiting to be discovered on this fine first full day of fall. And how perfect it is for Meatless Monday as well! Just taste it, and you will understand. 

Butternut Squash, Rosemary, and Bleu Cheese Risotto

adapted from this recipe on Epicurious.com

Ingredients:

5-6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 pound butternut squash, peeled, halved, seeded, diced (about 3 cups)
1/2 tablespoon butternut squash seed oil
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, diced (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (divided)
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cups baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup crumbled bleu cheese

Bring chicken broth to a low simmer over medium heat. In a large bowl, toss diced squash, butternut squash seed oil and olive oil. Spread squash over a cookie sheet and roast at 425 for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until translucent and tender, about 5 minutes. Add squash and 1/2 amount of rosemary, and stir until coated with butter; cook another 2-3 minutes. Add rice and stir 2-3 minutes. Add wine and simmer until evaporated, about 2 minutes. Add 4 cups warm broth and bring just to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until rice starts to become tender. Add remaining broth by 1/4 cupfuls, stirring often, until rice is to desired tenderness. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in spinach and half and half, and again, season to taste. Remove from heat and stir in bleu cheese and remaining rosemary. Serve hot.

Kale and Leftovers Soup for Secret Recipe Club

Thank goodness for Secret Recipe Club, because the way this month has been, without it we would hardly have any new blog posts! But belonging to SRC is a commitment, so we had to cook and we had to post, and we're happy about that. In SRC, members are assigned other blogs, and they choose and make a recipe from that blog. This month, we were assigned Kate's Kitchen.

Kate says she lives to eat, and when you check out her list of labels, she utilizes all kinds of ingredients to make all sorts of culinary creations, with her husband Connie as her sous chef and "Chief Taster." We love it! Browsing through Kate's recipes was an amazing trip - from Agave Negro (a delicious-sounding cocktail that is definitely on our to-do list) to Zucchini Ribbons (made with lemon and basil - yum!) - and we had a tough time choosing. But in the end, it was the neighbor's garden that made the decision for us.

Yes, James' Sunflowers and More came through yet again, via a text from Barb asking if we could use some kale. Um, yes, please! It is a super-food, after all! So with kale in hand and in mind, we took another peek at Kate's Kitchen, and found this recipe for Kale and Sausage Soup. And we made it on one of those perfect early-fall days when it was sunny and in the low 60s.

The recipe called for sausage, and by luck, we had two links of Italian sausage left over from a quick sausage, peppers and onions dinner we had made a few days earlier. It didn't call for chicken, but we had some of that left over from a roasted chicken dinner we enjoyed (when we used the carcass and some wilting veggies to make a homemade stock) and thought, why not throw it in? So our version is "Kale and Leftovers Soup," and we loved the results. Here's to a great start to soup season! Thanks, Kate!

Kale and Leftovers Soup

slightly adapted from Kale and Sausage Soup from Kate's Kitchen

1 tablespoon olive oil

4-6 ounces (about 2 links) Italian sausage, removed from casing

2 garlic cloves, minced

3-4 new potatoes, peeled and finely diced

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

5 cups homemade chicken stock (or canned, if necessary)

chili powder, to taste

cumin, to taste

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 cup cooked leftover chicken, diced

2 cups chopped fresh kale

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Crumble sausage and cook in oil until browned. Add minced garlic and diced pototoes, and cook until garlic is fragrant. Add tomatoes and beans, and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add stock and seasonings to taste. Add chicken and cook for at least 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender and meat is warmed through. Add kale and cook an additional 8-10 minutes, until kale is tender. Enjoy!

What Are Those? - Mexican Sour Gherkins

As promised, here is a picture of the other never-before-seen produce Amy found at the Billings Forge Farmers Market:

These things that look like teeny-tiny watermelons are Mexican Sour Gherkins. They are a type of cucumber, as you can see in this picture:

We ate them as-is, and they had a sort-of bitter (sour, we suppose), kind-of citrusy, cucumbery taste. We hope we find them again, because if we do, we'd like to pickle them, or put them in a salad, or even use them as a garnish for a Bloody Mary. Yum!

Tomato Therapy

We know we keep saying we're tired, but it's the truth. Teaching isn't easy, and today after school, long before Chris even got home, Amy briefly hit a wall. She needed therapy. She tried retail therapy, but since the last paycheck she saw was in June, that wasn't going to work. Thankfully, though, therapy did arrive, in the form of slightly over four pints of cherry tomatoes from across-the-street neighbor, Barb, and her grandson James, of "James's Sunflowers and More," our friendly neighborhood farmstand (who even donate half of their proceeds to charity!).

We were worried that we wouldn't be able to do our annual cherry tomato roasting, since our own so-called garden is in a such a state of disarray, given that we were away for most of the summer. But in the last eleven years, if there is one thing we've learned, it's that we can count on our neighbors.

It took an hour and a half to wash and halve all those tomatoes and peel a head of garlic, but that was the point - that's the therapeutic part. Amy's always loves doing those type of tasks, you know, the ones you do over and over without having to think, like knitting, cross-stitching, filing, and apparently, halving over four pints of cherry tomatoes.

And right now, the oven is doing all the work and she's feeling much better, enjoying a well-deserved glass of wine and thinking of all the summery yumminess this past hour and half will provide in the dead of winter.

Our "recipe" for oven-roasted cherry tomatoes can be found here. And Barb and James? Thank you thank you thank you! We'll be bringing you a couple of jars to enjoy once they are done.

Purple Green Beans with Black Garlic

During a last hurrah outing the Thursday before school started, Amy stopped by the Billings Forge Farmers Market in Hartford. Why did it have to be a "last hurrah"? Alas, this market is only open on Thursdays from 11 to 2, and that's pretty much prime school time, so we can never make it. But we have a soft spot for this particular market, because it is located in Frog Hollow, the Hartford neighborhood where Chris lived for ten years before we bought our house. 

During that time, Frog Hollow was in need of some revitalization, and the Billings Forge Community Works brought just that, transforming an old forge in an urban neighborhood into a true community force. Partnering with one of the best farm-to-table restaurants in Connecticut (and neighborhood employer), and consisting of a studio/community space, a teaching kitchen with a bakery/cafe, a community garden, apartments, and a youth program in addition to the market, the Works is doing a world of good. 

So, for the last time for a long time, Amy headed to the market before meeting friend Joanne for a grown-up lunch (also, for the last time for a long time). And she found something she had never seen before! Purple green beans! They turn green when you heat them! So here they are: purple green beans that we sauteed in ghee and tossed with black garlic for a delightfully interesting (and colorful) side dish made with odd ingredients. 

For information about the Billings Forge Farmers Market and all the great things happening at Billings Forge, go here or here. And stay tuned, because there is one other thing she bought at the market that she had never seen before, and we will tell you about it soon.

Purple Green Beans with Black Garlic

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon ghee

1 pound purple green beans

4 cloves black garlic, roughly chopped

Snip the ends of the beans and cut them in half. Melt ghee over high heat in a large saute pan. Toss in beans and allow to cook, untouched, for 4-5 minutes, until nicely seared. Add the garlic and toss. Cook another 4-5 minutes and serve hot. 

Tomato Bread Pudding (aka Rachel Ray FAIL, or DON'T Try This at Home)

Amy writes:

Monday was the first day back for teachers, and while most of you don't have sympathy for us, and only a few of you have empathy for us, we were tired. It was only professional development, but it was exhausting to hear how the new plan, based on state guidelines, of how we teachers are going to be "rated." I'm not going to go into that. But Tuesday was the staff potluck bar-b-cue and on the way home from school on Monday, I couldn't even bring myself to stop at the store. 

I got home, changed into pajamas, and wandered around the kitchen, racking my brain wondering how I was going to keep up my culinary reputation among my co-workers when I had almost no ingredients and no creative energy. Then I spotted that loaf of Italian bread I just had to buy on Saturday that was so far untouched. I could make a bread pudding (please, Lord, let me have some milk and eggs). 

Of course, the milk was spoiled and while Chris wasn't yet home, so could stop for me, by this time I had my eye on the pile of garden tomatoes (some ours, some from the neighbor) on the windowsill and the wheels started turning. Is there such thing as tomato bread pudding?

An Internet search turned up a few interesting recipes that I thought I could rely on: one from Giada, which sounded very good but seemed a little complicated on this particular evening; one from Geoffrey Zakarian, whom I adore and think is a genius, but that one sounded more like a bread salad, and I had made that last year; and one by Rachel Ray.  

Now, I don't mean to offend anyone here, but, to put it mildly (or, perhaps, to understate it), I am not a fan of Rachel Ray nor have I ever been. I don't like her forced perkiness, I can't stand those too-cutesy names for foods she makes up (e.g. "stoup" and "sammies"), and I firmly believe that really good food takes longer than 30 minutes to make. But I ignored my instincts out of sheer weariness and the desire for a relatively easy, quick recipe that used what I had on hand (namely, butter, old bread, and garden tomatoes).

I followed her recipe to the letter, other than doubling it to make a portion fit for a crowd. I took a long look at it before I put it in the oven. It's old bread, tomato puree, a little salt, a little sugar, a little pepper, some butter and cheese. Where was the real flavor going to come from, I wondered? It needed herbs, at the very least, so I sprinkled it with Italian seasoning and called it a night. As it cooked, it smelled very good. When it came out of the oven, it looked pretty good. I stole a small corner piece to taste. It tasted like soggy-ass pizza. So nasty that I refuse to include the recipe here because I really don't wish this on you. What a waste of some gorgeous tomatoes! Wah!

I re-checked the recipe and realized it wasn't me. I hadn't made any errors, had even added flavor to it, and now there was nothing else to be done. I cooled it, chilled it, brought it to school and served it at room temperature. Most unusually, but certainly not unexpectedly (especially after that icky taste test), not a single person asked for the recipe. Really, dear readers. Don't try one this at home.

Thanks for nothing, "Ray-Ray." Next time, I'll have Chris stop for milk.

Acqua di Cedro-Soaked Cherries

We were sure cherry season had come and gone but then spotted these nearly-black beauts at the market. Amy snatched up a pound of them, recalling a recipe she had seen on Food52 on the bus on the way to New York for the cruise. The recipe had been forgotten over the gadget-free week at sea, but the market display brought it right back. She looked it up then and there, in the middle of the store.

Now, a few years ago during a long weekend in the Federal Hill section of Providence, we spent an hour or so at a tasting at Gasbarro's Wines where we were introduced to B. Nardini's spectacular Acqua di Cedro Liqueur. We loved it so much that we bought two bottles, and have bought several since. We think of it as lemon-flavored grappa, which is how it was described to us. The Nardini website calls it "the noble cousin of limoncello," and describes it quite succinctly as "sweet with a citrus taste." 

Well, what we did was take these two unique products, one of nature, one of man, and marry them via the Food52 recipe. We made five small jars of Acqua di Cedro-Soaked Cherries and set them aside as this year's Christmas Eve favors. Our hope is that they have a bit of a cherry-lemonade flavor; a taste of summer in the harshness of winter. Five households, five jars. So if you need a nice Christmas gift, get on it ASAP. These need a few months to soak (and there are only 122 days until Christmas!). 

Acqua di Cedro-Soaked Cherries

(minimally adapted from this recipe found on Food52)

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh cherries

enough Acqua de Cedro liqueur (or grappa) to cover

glass jars with air-tight lids

Wash and dry cherries thoroughly. Snip off all but 1/4 inch of each stem (it will "act like a little umbilical cord that drinks up the grappa"). Arrange cherries in jar and pour enough grappa over them to cover. Seal in jars and store in a cool dark place for 4-6 months.