Roast Lemon Herb Chicken with Root Vegetables

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, stock up on pastured meats from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including plenty of root vegetables such as potatoes, parsnips, carrots, beets, and celeriac.

Root vegetables are delicious roasted, and if you have the oven on, you should also roast a Fog Hollow Farm chicken. I like the method of spatchcocking the bird (removing it's backbone, which you can use to make a quick stock) and cooking it "under a brick" in a searing hot cast iron skillet to get the skin crispy and golden. Then you can flip it, tucking under some lemon slices and herbs to flavor the pan juices, and cook it at a lower temperature along with a sheet pan of cubed root vegetables.

I served our chicken with mash potatoes (always a favorite in our household), braised leeks, and a quick lemony gravy made with the pan juices. It felt like a low key dry run for Thanksgiving, which reminds me to remind you to reserve your Fair Valley Farm Thanksgiving turkey. 

Roast Lemon Herb Chicken with Root Vegetables

One 3 to 4 lb whole chicken
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
drizzle of olive oil
1 lemon, sliced
6 sprigs thyme
3 sprigs rosemary
1 Tbsp flour
1 to 2 cups chicken broth

selection of root vegetables (parsnips, celeriac, beet, sweet potato), cleaned, peeled, and chopped into 1 inch cubes to make about 3 cups.

optional quick chicken stock
chicken backbone
1 chopped onion
1 chopped celery stalk
4 sprigs thyme
1 tsp salt
4 cups water

1. At least two hours and up to one day before you start to roast the chicken, spatchcock it. Using a sharp pair of scissors, cut along each side of the backbone from the neck to the tail, and remove the backbone (reserve for stock). Spread the chicken out and push down on the breast bone until you feel it break, so that the bird lies flat.Salt and pepper all over and rub the breast with olive oil. Refrigerate again if roasting in over two hours.

2. To make a quick chicken broth for the gravy, combine the chicken back bone with 4 cups water, 1 tsp salt, 4 sprigs thyme, 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped celery stock, or other vegetables you have around, and let simmer over low heat for 1 to 2 hours. Taste and add more salt if needed. Strain and reserve the stock.

3. About one hour before baking, place a large cast iron skillet in the oven and start preheating at 500 degrees.

4. Prepare all of the root vegetables, cleaning and peeling as needed, and cut into 1 inch cubes. Toss on a rimmed sheet pan with salt and a drizzled of olive oil.

5. When the cast iron skillet is very hot, remove it from the oven and carefully put the chicken in the skillet, breast side down, with the legs splayed flat. Place an oven-safe plate on top of the chicken and weigh it down with a second skillet or some bricks. Roast for 15 minutes, then take the chicken out of the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees. Remove the weights from the chicken and transfer it to a plate. Distribute the lemon slices over the bottom of the chicken-cooking skillet, then the herbs, and then return the chicken to the skillet on top of the lemon and herbs, breast side up, and return the skillet to the oven. 

6. Place the sheet pan with root vegetables in the oven when you return the chicken.  Roast the chicken for about another 20 minutes until it is cooked through and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the meaty part of the thigh reads 155 to 165 degrees. Give the root vegetables an occasional turn and keep an eye on them. They will be done when they are soft through and have some char around the edges. They will likely need another 10 minutes after you take out the chicken.

7. When the chicken is done, remove the skillet from the oven. Transfer the chicken to a carving platter and let it rest. Transfer the lemon slices and herbs to a serving platter. Heat the skillet with the pan juices over medium low heat. Using a whisk, stir 1 Tbsp flour into the pan juices. Once the mixture thickens, gradually add 1 to 2 cups of stock while whisking until the gravy is the desired thickness. Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt, some fresh lemon juice, or a splash of sherry.

8. At this point the root vegetables should be done and you can remove them from the oven. Carve the chicken and transfer to the serving platter on top of the cooked lemon slices. Serve with the roasted vegetables and gravy. 

Beet and Spinach Hash

Come one, come all to the opening of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market Sunday June 5th from 10 AM - 2 PM on the corner of Agate St. and 19th Ave. While you are there, you can treat yourself to a pastry at Sweet Life Petite, or an iced tea latte at Oolong Bar, or brunch at Studio One Cafe or Agate Alley.

Alternatively, you could take your market treasures home and cook yourself a delicious spring hash with some root vegetables, onions, and greens from Camas Swale Farm and some fresh eggs from Fair Valley Farm. Hope to see you at the market tomorrow!

Beet and Spinach Hash

serves four

a dozen baby beets and 4 large beets
4 baby onions or 1 large onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 large handfuls spinach
salt and pepper to taste
4 eggs
Sriracha for serving

1. Rinse the beet and trim off their stems and tails (for baby ones, there is no need to peel them). Cut them into 1/2 inch pieces. Peel the onions and cut them into 1/2 inch pieces.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium low heat, add the olive oil and the onions and sauté for a couple of minutes until they are glassy. Add the beets, salt and pepper, and stir to coat in the oil. Turn the temperature to low, cover the pan, and allow to cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the beets are soft and the onions have caramelized. 

3.When the beets are close to done cooking, cook 4 fried eggs to order (runny, hard, over easy etc.).

4. Once the vegetables are nicely cooked, add the spinach and a pinch more salt and toss so that the spinach just starts to wilt. Remove from heat and distribute across four plates. Top with fried eggs and serve with a hot sauce like Sriracha.

Roasted Beet and Radish Salad with Oranges

On a quick trip to Boston last weekend, I got to enjoy an unexpectedly sunny stroll with my father down to the Charles River, where the trees were still clinging stubbornly to the last of their famous fall foliage. We stopped at the farmers market, where my father lamented the passing of the sungold tomatoes that had garnished my parents'  salads all summer long. In response, I piled up our shopping bag with delicate squash, kohlrabi, beets, and baby turnips to demonstrate just how well these winter vegetables can top a salad. 

Back home in Eugene, I used the same philosophy to compose an impromptu salad with our remaining Sweetwater Farm beets and daikon radish.

Each vegetable got tossed with olive oil and roasted until sweet and soft. For good measure, I roasted some green onions and then tossed everything with some clementine sections, letting the oniony olive oil and citrus juice serve as the dressing. Piled onto fresh lettuce leaves, this mixture was just as sweet and satisfying as any summer tomato. 

Roasted Beet and Radish Salad with Oranges

serves four

4 small beets
1 medium daikon radish (or 8 baby turnips)
4 green onions
2 clementines
olive oil
salt
~8 lettuce leaves

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the tops and tails of the beets and rinse well (for larger beets, remove their skin with a vegetable peeler). Cut into eighths. On a baking sheet, toss with ~1 Tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Trim and peel the daikon radish, cut into similar sized pieces, and on a separate baking sheet, toss with ~1 Tbsp olive oil and salt. 

2. Roast the beets and radish for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until a fork can pierce through the largest pieces easily and the radish have browned a bit. 

3. While the vegetables are roasting, trim the green onions and cut them into 1/2 inch rounds. In a small baking dish or oven safe skillet, toss them with ~1 Tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt and stick them in the oven for about the last 10 minutes of roasting, removing them when they are soft and just starting to char. Wash and dry the lettuce leaves and tear into bite sized pieces. Peel the clementines, slice perpendicular to the sections, and separate the slices along the sections into triangles.

4. When the vegetables and green onions are done, toss them together in a bowl along with any oil from the pans. Toss in the clementine sections. Arrange the lettuce on a platter or individual plates and mound on the roasted vegetables. Enjoy.

Beet Pasta with Kale Pesto

Here in the Willamette Valley, we've been socked in for days with fog and drizzle. To combat the gloomy grayness, I recommend eating outrageously colorful food. From our stash of Open Oak Farm beets and kale, I made magenta pasta dough,

and blanched kale leaves for a vivid green winter pesto brightened with lemon zest. 

The noodles leeched a little of their color during cooking, going from magenta to hot pink in the lipstick color spectrum, but they were still bright enough to put a smile on everyone's face.   

Kale Pesto

1 bunch kale 

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves

zest from one lemon

fresh ground pepper

salt to taste

1. Set a large pot of salted water to boil. Rinse the kale leaves and cut the leaves from the center ribs. Prepare a large bowl of ice water. When the water is boiling, add the kale leaves and blanch for one minute until the leaves are bright green but not too wilted. Remove the leaves from the water with a large slotted spoon or tongs and submerge into the ice water to prevent them from over-cooking. You can save the hot kale water for cooking the pasta. Squeeze the kale leaves to remove as much water as possible and reserve.

2. Heat a dry skillet and toast the unpeeled garlic cloves until they start to blacken and soften. Now toast the walnuts for a couple of minutes, stirring, until they smell fragrant but being careful that they don't burn. Peel the garlic cloves and put them in the bowl of a food processor along with the toasted walnuts. Add the lemon zest and pulse until the walnuts are small pieces. Now add the blanched kale leaves, a grind of fresh pepper, and a generous pinch of salt. Process while pouring in the olive oil until you have a fairly smooth paste. Taste and add more salt, pepper, olive oil, or some juice from the zested lemon as desired. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl.

Beet Pasta

serves four

2 small or 1 medium beet
3 eggs
~3 cups all purpose flour

1. Peel and quarter the beets and roast them at 350 degrees until soft, for about half an hour. Alternatively, you could boil or steam them.

2. In a food processor, puree the cooked beet. Now add the eggs and puree until smooth. Then add 2 1/2 cups flour and process. If the dough is too sticky, keep adding flour until it forms a firm ball and no longer sticks to your finger when pressed. 

3. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and cut it into about a dozen pieces. Flatten the pieces through a hand-crank pasta maker, dusting with flour as needed, and cut into fettucini. 

4. While processing the dough, get a large pot of salted water heating (this could be the same water that you blanched the kale leaves in). When the water is at a rolling boil, put in the cut pasta and use tongs to separate the pieces. Reserve a half cup of pasta water in case you want to thin the pesto a little. The pasta will be done shortly after the water comes back to a boil. Taste it to make sure it is cooked, and drain.  Immediately toss the pasta with the pesto. Add a little pasta water if it seems too dry. Serve with plenty of freshly grated parmesan cheese. Alternatively, or in addition, toss in cubed feta or ricotta salata. Enjoy.

Barely Any Work Barley Lunches

What I'm learning about cooking with whole grains, like this lovely purple hulled barley from our Lonesome Whistle Farm CSA, is that you should cook up a pot before you have a plan for them. Set them simmering over dinner, or cook them in a slow cooker while you run errands on the weekend. Then, because you have some ready cooked grains in the refrigerator, inspiration will strike. 

The same principle applies to winter vegetables, of which we have plenty from our Open Oak Farm CSA: roast them, braise them, saute them, and they are sure to come in handy. It's a way of turning slow cooking into easy, fast food. 

With these ingredients on hand, you can whip together a satisfying lunch at the office of a barley and root vegetable salad topped with cubed cheddar cheese,

or a scrumptious quick weekend lunch of purple barley and leftover braised red cabbage, topped with a fried egg and a dollop of harissa.  The possibilities are infinite, and all infinitely better than most quick meals you would purchase on the go.

Hulled Barley

1 cup hulled barley, picked over

2 1/2 cups water

generous pinch of salt

In a dry skillet, toast the barley until fragrant. Then combine with the water and salt and simmer on low, covered, for about 1.5 hours until tender.

Barley and Root Vegetable Salad

pack
One container with a couple handfuls of greens
One container with about 1/2 cup cooked barley and 1/2 cup roasted root vegetables
a chunk of cheddar cheese
a small container of olive oil and vinegar


assemble
Pour the olive oil and vinegar over the greens, reseal the container and shake to dress. Top with the barley and root vegetables and crumble on the cheddar cheese. Enjoy.

Barley and Braised Cabbage with a Fried Egg

Microwave about 1/2 cup cooked barley topped with about 1/2 cup braised cabbage. 
Fry an egg and place on top of the warm cabbage and barley. 
Top with a dollop of harissa. Enjoy.

Other recipes for locally grown grains

Creamy Barley Risotto with Dandelion Greens

Barley Risotto with Grilled Vegetables

Barley Stuffed Cabbage

Barley and Cranberry Bean Soup with Kale

Buckwheat Blini

Buckwheat Crepes

Gluten-Free Waffles

Quinoa Salad with Roasted Beets and Kale

Swedish Rye Cookies

Swedish Rye Knäckebröt

Teff Grain and Ricotta Pancakes with Apple Topping

Wheatberry Tabbouleh with Green Beans and Feta

Wheatberries with Snap Peas

Roasted Beet Vishyssoise

On top of being drizzly and gloomy, the weather has suddenly turned frigidly cold with a chance of snow. High time to cook up a creamy pot of soup. And one with a brilliant magenta hue wouldn't hurt. Here's a take on a family favorite of leek and potato soup (Vishyssoise) that incorporates roasted beets for a rich flavor and glamorous color.

When preparing this soup, I realized that all the extra parts of the vegetables that would normally be discarded (leaves, stems, and peels) could be recruited into service for a flavorful stock. 

And to make this into a real root to sprout recipe, I combined a handful of the tenderest beet greens with ginger and parsley for a pungent pesto garnish.

The final soup was elegant and soothing. It would make a nice accompaniment to blini or turkey panini.

Roasted Beet Vishyssoise

1 bunch beets, with greens (about 5 small or 3 medium sized)
4 small or 2 medium leeks
1 large onion
2 1/2 pounds potatoes such as Yukon gold (about 4 large potatoes)
olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 inch ginger
handful of flat leaf parsley
salt
pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop off the beet stems and leaves and reserve. Wash the beets well. Peel them, reserving the skin for the stock, and cut them into approximately 1 inch cubes. In a ovenproof pan, toss the beet pieces in olive oil to coat and salt and pepper. Roast for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until they are soft and fragrant and just slightly charred around the edges.

2. Prepare the soup stock. Remove the green parts of the leeks, slice lengthwise, and wash thoroughly under running water. Chop coarsely. Peel and chop the onion. Rinse the beet greens thoroughly and discard any bruised or wilted leaves. Reserve a small handful of the tenderest and freshest leaves, with a couple of inches of stem, for the soup garnish, and chop the remaining stems and leaves for the broth. Scrub the potatoes well and peel them, reserving the peels, and covering the potatoes in cold water to prevent discoloring. Wash the ginger, peel it, and reserve the peels for the stock and the flesh for the pesto. Heat a large stockpot and add a glug of olive oil (approximately 2 tablespoons). Saute the onions and leek tops for a few minutes until they are glassy. Add the chopped beet stems and continue cooking until the vegetables are very soft, about 8 minutes, but make sure that they do not start to brown. Add 8 cups of water, the beet leaves and potato, beet and ginger peels, and parsley stems, and salt generously. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 45 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Strain and reserve.

3. Prepare the soup. Wash and chop the reserved leek whites. Heat a large soup pot and melt the butter. Add a small glug of olive oil (approximately 1 tablespoon) and the leeks with a pinch of salt and cook over medium low heat for about 8 minutes until the leeks are very soft. Add 6 cups of the strained vegetable stock. Cube the potatoes into approximately 1 1/2 inch chunks and add to the pot. Simmer on low for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are soft. Add the roasted beet cubes to the soup. Rinse the beet roasting pan with a ladle of vegetable stock and add this to the soup. Simmer on low for another 10 minutes. Then puree the soup with an immersion blender until completely smooth. Adjust seasoning and thin with a little more vegetable broth if necessary.

4. In the last few minutes before the soup is done, prepare the garnish. Put the peeled ginger in a food processor or mini chopper along with the reserved beet leaves and parsley leaves. Add a pinch of salt, a generous grinding of pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil (about 1 tablespoon). Chop into a coarse pesto.

5. Serve the soup warm with a dollop of the peppery beet leaf and ginger pesto.

Kale, Beet, and Quinoa Salad for the First Spring Market

Hooray! Mark your calendars because the start date for the 2011 Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market is set for Sunday April 17th! Celebrate having filed your taxes by coming down to the corner of Agate and 19th Street between 10 am and 2:30 pm for some early spring produce. In honor of this auspicious news, here's a warm salad with some ingredients one might expect to find at the market: kale and beets.

This recipe starts with the rich colors of black and red quinoa (ever since a pantry shortage last summer, I've been making mixtures of different colored quinoa, or "confetti quinoa"). I paired the grain with a similar pallet of vegetables: purple kale and red beets. For a hearty salad, I decided to experiment with roasting both the kale and the beets, each with its own allium, to contrast how the different vegetables react to high heat.

To prepare the beets, I peeled and chopped them, along with a couple of shallots, and tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I roasted them for about 30 minutes, until the beets were tender and the shallots had started to caramelize.

Meanwhile I cut the kale leaves from the hard stalks, tossed them with chopped garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and added them to the hot oven for about 15 minutes, until they just started to brown around the edges.

The toasted, garlicy kale became the crisp base of the salad onto which I layered the quinoa and sweet, soft beets, tossed in a vinaigrette made from the roasted shallots. I finished the salad with a sprinkle of sharp feta, for added richness. Served warm, this would make a delicious post Farmers Market lunch.

Warm Quinoa Salad with Roasted Beets and Kale

For the salad:

• 1 bunch purple kale
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 6 medium sized red beets
• 1/2 cup red quinoa
• 1/2 cup black quinoa
• 1 1/4 cup water
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 ounces crumbled feta cheese

For the dressing:

• 2 shallots
• 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika
• salt to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel the beets and cut into approximately 1 inch chunks (about 8 pieces per medium-sized beet). Peel the shallots and cut into similarly sized pieces (about 4 pieces per shallot). Put in a baking pan, drizzle with some olive oil to coat, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the beets are soft.
2. Meanwhile, cut or rip the kale leaves from their thick stems, and rip into bite sized pieces. Mince the garlic cloves. Place the kale leaves and garlic in a large casserole dish, pour on enough oil to coat, plenty of salt, and pepper to taste, and toss well. Roast the kale leaves in the oven for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they smell toasty and start to brown on the edges.
3. Meanwhile, cook the quinoa. Heat a cooking pot until you can feel the heat radiating from the bottom when you hold your hand at the top of the pan. Add the quinoa and toast for about 5 minutes, shaking the pot frequently, until you can smell the toasting grain. Add 1 1/4 cup water, bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, and simmer partially covered for about 15 minutes until all of the water is absorbed and the quinoa grains have released their little halos.
4. When the beets are ready, remove the shallot pieces to a mini or regular sized food processor or blender. Transfer the beets to a bowl and mix with the cooked quinoa. Deglaze the hot pan in which you roasted the beets and shallots with the sherry vinegar and transfer to the processor. Add the water, sugar, and smoked paprika and blend until smooth. Stir into the quinoa and beet mixture.
5. Assemble the salad. Plate a bed of toasted kale, then spoon on the quinoa and beets, and finally sprinkle over the feta cheese. Serve warm.

Bundles of Beets

I am a huge fan of beets. More so than the other members of my family, but they put up with my beet enthusiasm. I especially like the combination of sweet beets with spicy ginger. And I can't resist a very fresh bunch of beets with beautiful green tops, which are delicious in their own right. Lonesome Whistle Farm had some lovely beets for sale this week.

We were planning to grill that evening, so I decided to roast sliced beets and ginger with cauliflower in foil packets on the grill. My daughter enjoyed putting together these bundles.

I reserved the beet greens, 

which I sauteed up with plenty of garlic. These made delicious accompaniments to an Indian summer meal of grilled flank steak and corn.

Grilled Beet Bundles

1 bunch beets

1 small head cauliflower

2 inches ginger root

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

1. Peel and slice beets. Chop cauliflower into florets. Peel and mince ginger. Stir well with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and divide between 6 sheets of foil. Seal foil into packets and cook on the grill until the beets are soft and the cauliflower has started to brown.