Roasted Fennel With Citrus Zest & Balsamic Glaze

I've loved fennel ever since I was a little girl. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that it was fennel - I just knew that I LOVED the taste of the Tom's of Maine toothpaste my parents bought. I remember trying to flatten the metal tube down to nothingness to squeeze out the last delicious dribs and drabs of licorice-y goodness.

But I did not get to know fennel in its natural state until we moved to California 5 years ago. Then there was simply no avoiding it because the plant grows wild all over the east bay. There was a huge stand of it growing in the strip of dry dirt that flanked the sidewalk right across from our house in North Berkeley. And I'd be bombarded by the tall green stalks and yellow flowers any time I went for a walk at the Albany Bulb. Here's a pic from one of my rambles there that shows the fennel plants.

I always enjoyed watching the bees go to town on the bright yellow pollen that covers the flowers. You can actually cook with the pollen - it's considered a bit of a delicacy (maybe because it's hand-gathered) and is good in spice rubs for meat and fish and on roasted veggies, etc. I've never tried it though I did help a friend gather it once from that patch across the street from my house and she reported good results from her culinary adventures.

I think fennel bulbs look rather like the human heart, don't you? The white parts are suggestive of the chambers while the green stalks remind me of the aorta and vena cava. But I digress...

I have not seen a ton of fennel since we left the Bay Area last summer. But just last week our new CSA, Hearty Roots Community Farm in Redhook, had the good sense to include a couple of bulbs of the stuff in our weekly allotment of fresh goodies.

I looked online for inspiration (a quick aside, if you're ever having trouble finding good recipes, I highly recommend that you check out www.FoodBlogSearch.com as it lets you bypass a lot of the junk that comes up in a google search) and found several recipes for roasted fennel. I liked this one from Simply Recipes because it was, well, simple, and also looked tasty, so I went with it.

The preparation is super easy - wash and cut the fennel, zest a bit of lemon, toss with olive oil, splash with balsamic vinegar or glaze, season with salt and pepper and roast. The only downside was having to turn the oven on in this heat. It was well over 90 degrees today so firing up the oven to 400 degrees did seem slightly insane...

But the results were divine. Roasting gives the bulbs a mellow, almost nutty sweetness and the licorice flavor is enhanced by the hint of lemon from the zest and the rich sweetness of the balsamic glaze. The only thing I might change is to sub in pomegranate molasses for the balsamic - I'll try that next time around.

Roasted Fennel

Serves 4

Ingredients

* 3 large fennel bulbs (thick base of stalk), stalks cut off, bulbs halved lengthwise, then cut lengthwise in 1-inch thick pieces
* Olive oil
* Balsamic vinegar or glaze or pomegranate molasses
*1/4 tsp lemon zest
* Sea salt
* Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Rub just enough olive oil over the fennel to coat. Sprinkle on some balsamic vinegar (or balsamic glaze or pomegranate molasses), also to coat. Then toss on the lemon zest, sea salt and pepper.

3. Lay out the pieces of fennel in a glass baking dish or on a heavy cookie sheet and roast for 30-40 minutes, or until the fennel is cooked through and beginning to caramelize.

I am submitting this recipe to Weekend Herb Blogging #293 hosted by Chriesi at Almond Corner.

You might also like:

• Potato Leek Soup With Fennel & Herbs
• Roasted Fingerling Potatoes With Garden Herbs & Garlic 
• Fennel and Tomato Gratin from The Wednesday Chef
• Roasted Potatoes and Fennel from Cookthink
• Caramelized Fennel and Onions from Simply Recipes
• Shaved Fennel Salad from 101 Cookbooks

Chocolate Raspberry Tart

Unlike my much-belated strawberry shortcake post earlier this week, I was determined to get this delectable tart recipe posted while it's still raspberry season.

Last weekend, we spent a glorious morning (finally, some sunshine!) picking red and yellow raspberries at Greig Farm in Red Hook.

The raspberry bushes are up on a small hill and there was a lovely breeze that kept the clear, sparkling day from feeling too hot. And there's a nice pastoral view of the farm from up there, too. I'm a sucker for farmland so I drank in this view with real pleasure.

The raspberry bushes, themselves, did not look so hot. And no wonder, as there were a surprising number of Japanese beetles making themselves right at home on them, eating lacy patterns into the leaves. However, noxious their presence, I took it as a reassuring sign that Greig obviously does not spray much - good news for us since we ate a lot of berries while we picked. In fact, I've since heard that Greig has not sprayed at all this season -- good for them! (and good for the beetles, too, unfortunately...)

Despite the ravages of the Japanese beetles, we managed to pick plenty of berries before Will insisted on leaving. And they were mighty tasty, too.

When we got home, we rinsed them all and froze half our haul to use this winter in waffles, smoothies and sauces. I set the other half aside while I began concocting this glorious dessert.

I was excited to finally be putting the French tart tin I'd purchased shortly after my friend Peter's inspirational class on pastry many months ago to some use -- a fitting maiden voyage.

I'd been inspired by the addition of a raspberry purée in The Busty Baker's lovely-looking recipe so while I blind-baked the shortbread tart crust I'd just prepared, I cooked up a quick raspberry jam on the stovetop with a bunch of berries, some sugar, lemon juice and a little jot of triple sec.

When the tart shell was finished baking, I poured the jam right into the shell along with the warm chocolate mixture. It looked pretty psychedelic. Kind of like a new planet in the making or something (oh, to live on a planet made of chocolate and raspberries...)

Then into the oven for a little while. When it came out, I thought it looked pretty boss. I let it cool for a while before removing the rim.

Then I cut a piece, added some fresh berries and devoured it (well, in reality, I took a whole bunch of pictures and then I devoured it.)

It does not take a genius to guess that anything involving fresh raspberries, bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream and copious amounts of buttery crust is gonna be good. But even so, I was still surprised by just how delicious it was -- short, flaky crust, topped with a mixture of smooth, rich chocolate and tangy, sweet raspberry jam. It was even worth the clean up...

Chocolate Raspberry Tart

Makes one 9-inch tart

Ingredients

Shortbread Dough:

* 2 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

* 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

* 1/3 cup granulated sugar

* 1/4 teaspoon salt

* 8 Tbps (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

* 2 large egg yolks

Filling:

* 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (if you can find bittersweet chips, it will save you the trouble of chopping!)

* 1 cup heavy cream

* 1 large egg, lightly beaten

* 1/2 cup raspberry puree or jam*

Toppings (optional):

* Fresh raspberries

* Whipped cream

Directions

1. Make Tart Dough: In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse to blend. Add the butter, pulsing until the mixture resembles coarse meal and the pieces of butter are roughly the size of peas. Add the egg mixture and pulse until dough comes together. If the dough is dry, add ice water a tablespoon at a time. (Alternately, you can mix by hand, cutting the butter in with a pastry blender, and mixing the egg mixture in with a fork until it comes together.)

2. Transfer dough to a clean, lightly floured work surface, pat into a ball, and flatten into a disk. If the dough is too sticky to work with, it can be refrigerated for anywhere between 30 minutes and two days - just keep it well wrapped up. Once it's workable, use a lightly floured rolling pin and roll the dough, making a quarter turn after each roll, until the dough is about 1/8 inch thick and 2 to 3 inches wider than your tart pan. Roll the round loosely around the rolling pin and unroll over the tart pan. Press dough into the sides of the pan and trim off the extra scraps. (Just roll your rolling pin over the top of the pan for easy trimming.) Alternately, transfer the dough directly from the bowl into the tart pan, pressing the dough into the pan and up the sides with your hands. Work quickly to keep the dough from getting too warm.

3. With the rack in the lower third of the oven, preheat the oven to 375F. Place the tart tin on a cookie sheet and use the tines of a fork to poke holes evenly throughout the dough to prevent it from bubbling up while it bakes (or you can use pie weights if you've got 'em - I don't have any), and bake for 18-22 minutes until the shell is a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and brush the inside with the a wash made from the yolk of one egg and a pinch of salt - this will help seal the crust from getting soggy when you fill it. Return to the oven and bake until the glaze is set, 2-3 minutes longer.

4. Make Raspberry Puree: Place one pint of rinsed fresh raspberries, along with 1 tablespoon sugar and one teaspoon lemon juice in a small saucepan - you can also add a splash of liquor if you like. Cook over medium heat, stirring often and crushing the berries with a wooden spoon. Once they've broken down some, add a teaspoon or two of cornstarch and cook, stirring often, until the mixture thickens.You could also substitute raspberry jam if this sounds like too much effort.

5. Make Chocolate Filling: In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer over medium to low heat. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth and creamy, then whisk in the egg and stir again until smooth.

6. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pre-baked tart shell and add the raspberry puree or jam evenly. Bake until the center seems set but it still a little quivery when the pan is nudged - 15-18 minutes. Let cool on a rack. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. It's best the same day it's baked though still tastes good after being refrigerated.

You might also like:

• Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Dark Chocolate "B-Cup" Cakes
• Wild Blackberry Sorbet With Lavender & Garden Mint

Strawberry Shortcake, Cream On Top...

This post is a number of weeks overdue. But, as they say, better late than never, right?

Last month, we spent an idyllic morning picking strawberries at Story Farms in Catskill with my sister-in-law, my two completely adorable nieces, and our good friend and her little daughter, who we already have our eye on for Will's future wife - after all, it's never too early to start meddling in your kid's life...

It's been a pretty wet summer here so far - not the very best weather for strawberries, but despite the sogginess, the berries were excellent - fresh, juicy yet firm, sweet and flavorful. They also looked like jewels.

It was Will's first pick-your-own outing and let's just say he enjoyed it. He ran up and down the rows, taking breaks every few seconds to squat in the straw and stuff his mouth with berries. He looked downright grisly by the end - like the world's cutest toddler vampire (take that, Nessie Cullen!)

We brought the only buckets we own - these adorable painted buckets that my mom and I got for Will - one features scenes from Curious George and the other has drawings from Dr. Seuss books.

It turns out that Will could care less about these charming buckets (anything that does not have wheels and a motor just does not make the cut for him these days), but I think they're pretty darn cute. Anyways, we filled them both and happily paid about $10 for our berry booty before hurrying home to make nap time.

Once Will had gone to sleep, we quickly washed and dried most of our berries and froze them to help see us through the looooong winter.

But I kept some aside to make strawberry shortcake as it's a favorite dessert of my husband's. I used Elise at Simply Recipes' recipe for the biscuits though I was in a rush and made them a bit too small (gotta remember to bring a ruler down to the kitchen...)

The rest was easy - slice the berries, toss them with some lemon juice and a little sugar and let them macerate a bit. Then serve with whipped cream, ice cream or a non-dairy alternative like Purely Decadent or Coconut Bliss - they're made with coconut milk and very tasty - definitely beat the pants off Rice Dream or any soy-based ice cream alternatives.

Strawberry Shortcake

Makes 8

Ingredients

* 2 pints fresh strawberries
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 2 Tbsps lemon juice
* 3 cups all purpose flour
* 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
* 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 12 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
* 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 8 oz whipping cream (or you can serve with ice cream if you prefer)

Directions

1. Rinse and hull the berries, then slice into a large bowl. Add 1/4 cup sugar and and 2 Tbsps lemon juice and mix into the strawberries. Set aside at room temperature to macerate (aka soften).

2. Make the biscuits. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Toss with a fork to combine. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or a fork until the largest pieces of butter are the size of peas. (Or pulse several times in a food processor.) Combine the cream and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the flour and and pour the cream mixture into the well. Mix with a fork until the dough is evenly moistened and just combined; it should look shaggy and still feel a little dry. Gently knead by hand five or six times to create a loose ball.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat it into an 8-inch square, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment or silpat, cover with plastic and chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Heat the oven to 425ºF. Remove the dough from refrigerator. Cut the dough into 8 even squares and spread them about 2 inches apart from each other on the baking sheet. Bake until the biscuits are medium golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile,  take a potato masher and smash the strawberries just a little to get more juice out of them. If you're using whipped cream, whip the cream, adding a drop or two of vanilla and a teaspoon of sugar.

5. Cut each biscuit in half, top with strawberries and serve with a generous dollop of either whipped cream or ice cream.

You might also like:

• Fresh Peach Cobbler With Biscuit Topping
• Rustic Plum Tart
• Wild Blackberry Sorbet With Lavender & Garden Mint

Mujadara - Syriously Tasty Lentil & Rice Stew

This traditional Syrian lentil and rice stew is the famed "mess of pottage" Esau foolishly traded his birthright away for in Genesis. In Esau's defense, it is really tasty.

This simple lentil, rice and caramelized onion pilaf has many names. You may know it as mujdhara, mujdhra, mujaddara, imjadara, mujadra, or mdardarah. Or, if you are a Daily Show fan, you might be tempted to call it "Mess'o'potagia"...

Lentils are so good in so many ways--filling, tasty, versatile, healthy and cheap--that it's a wonder we do not eat them every day. Though, to be fair, if we did eat them every day, I'd probably get really sick of them! I tend to need a lot of variety in my food. Not so my dear husband who is happy eating cereal every morning and could cheerfully subsist on peanut butter and jelly for lunch most days. While I admire and am often envious of his zen approach to eating, I tend to take the lead in planning our meals...

I spent some time traveling through India in college, and after eating Indian food (a cuisine I normally love!) for breakfast, lunch and dinner for six weeks straight, I could not even look at the stuff without feeling nauseated for a good year after I got home. Breakfast was definitely the toughest meal for me while I was there - first thing in the morning is just a little too early in the day for me to stomach Indian food.

But I digress. Mujadara is good stuff - yummy, filling, and good for you. Middle eastern peasant (or student?) fare all the way. You've got your brown rice, you've got your green lentils, and you've got a mess of delicious caramelized onions. Top it all off with some cumin and cinnamon and you're in business.

Serve this with tzatziki (cucumber yogurt salad), hummus, flatbread and a chopped salad for a healthy, truly delicious meal.

-- print recipe --Mujadara
adapted from the recipe in Andrea Chesman's excellent book, Recipes from the Root Cellar
Serves 6

Ingredients

* 3 large onions, thinly sliced

*  3 Tbsps olive oil

* 1 cup brown rice (basmati would also work nicely though it's not quite as good for you)

* Water

* 1 cup green or brown lentils

* 1/2 tsp ground cumin

* 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

* Sea salt to taste

* Freshly ground black pepper to taste

* Flat leaf parsley (for garnish)

Directions

1. Put 2 1/8 cups of water on to boil. Rinse the rice and drain the water from it. Once the water comes to a boil, add the rice, stir and reduce the heat to low. Simmer the rice, covered, for 40-45 minutes or until the water has been absorbed and the grains are tender.

2. While the rice is cooking, rinse the lentils, removing any bits of chaff, small pebbles or discolored beans. Place the lentils in a pot and cover with cold water by 2-3 inches. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to medium and cook, partially covered, for about 25 minutes, until the lentils are tender but still hold their shape. Remove from heat, rinse with hot water, and drain.

3. While the lentils and rice are cooking, put the olive oil in a frying pan and sautée the onions over medium- low heat until caramelized - roughly 10 minutes.

4. Combine the rice, lentils, and onions in a large bowl. Add the ground cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Adjust the seasonings to your liking, if needed, and serve.

You might also like:

• Spiced Lentil Salad with Currants & Capers
• Grilled Eggplant Stacks With Tomato, Feta & Basil
  
• Hummous With Caramelized Onions & Garlic Topped With Golden Beets, Pine Nuts & Greek Yogurt

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Also, I'm submitting this recipe for this month's My Legume Love Affair. Check it out!

Barbecued Beef Short Ribs

For those of you who have been patiently following along with the installments in my Fourth of July Feast, it is time for la pièce de la résistance, the ribs!

My husband and I got hooked on organic, grass-fed beef when we lived in Berkeley and were relieved to find that it was easy to find the good stuff on this coast, too. The Hudson Valley is particularly blessed when it comes to locally-raised meats with a variety of farms raising beef, pork, chicken and lamb in the area.

We've also got one of the country's best butcher shops at hand - Fleisher's Grass-Fed & Organic Meats, located in the heart of Kingston's historic Stockade district and conveniently placed right on the same block as the awesome Saturday farmers' market. If you happen to live in Brooklyn, you're in luck! Fleisher's is opening another store on 5th Ave in Park Slope this fall.

I LOVE Fleisher's. It's such a pleasure to shop at a butcher where everyone not only knows and loves meat, but also takes the humane and sustainable aspects seriously, too. The owners and staff are accessible and friendly, either in person or online - always happy to offer advice and recipes. After consulting with the guys at Fleisher's, we came away with nearly four pounds of grass-fed beef flanken short ribs.

After doing a little online ribs research, I created a quick spice mix of cumin, sea salt, black pepper, brown sugar, and hot paprika. You could use a different mix of spices or marinate them, instead.

Then I rubbed the spice mix all over the ribs, wrapped them back up and left them in the fridge for a day.

While I was waiting for the ribs to soak up flavor and tenderize, I made a big jar of spicy-sweet barbecue sauce to slather them in come grilling time.

Per instructions from Lindsay at Fleisher's, we got the grill to a medium heat, greased it and tossed the ribs on, coating them with my homemade sauce and grilling for just a few minutes on each side.

Very easy. And finger-lickin' good, too (though I would strongly suggest making a lot of napkins available when you serve these.)

This post concludes my Fourth of July Feast - see below for the rest of the recipes. And Happy Independence Day!

• Homemade BBQ Sauce
• Smoky-Spicy-Sweet Barbecue Baked Beans
• Creamy Coleslaw
• Skillet Cornbread

Creamy Coleslaw

It would be terribly unpatriotic not to have coleslaw at a Fourth of July barbecue. And since I am a true American and I have also been looking for an excuse to use this completely adorable little ceramic cabbage bowl my mom gave me for months now, I made some.

Thanks to my awesome hand-held mandoline by Kyocera (don't they make cell phones or something? I still have not adjusted to the way these multinational corporations produce all sorts of totally incongruous products...), it was a breeze. Never before has cabbage been so thinly sliced with such ease (at least not in my house). It actually made a somewhat tedious task feel fun. At roughly $20 a pop, this little gem of a kitchen tool is well worth the price.

This coleslaw was the simplest, quickest part of my July 4th feast. It took all of 10 minutes to assemble using a mix of paper thin slices of red and green cabbages, onion, and carrots that I dressed in a tasty mixture of apple cider vinegar, mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

I think coleslaw's unique mix of crunchy, creamy, sweet and savory is pretty rad. Plus this bowl is beyond adorable...

I served this with grilled ribs slathered in homemade BBQ sauce, cornbread, sweet and spicy baked beans, and a fresh green salad. I feel certain that William Howard Taft would have been in heaven.

Creamy Coleslaw

Serves 6

Ingredients

* 1/2 head small red cabbage, rinsed with outer leaves and stem removed

* 1/2 head small green cabbage, rinsed with outer leaves and stem removed (or you can just do one whole small head of either red or green cabbage if you prefer)

* 1 large carrot, peeled

* 1 small onion, peeled or 4 scallions, rinsed with tops and roots cut off

* 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

* 1/4 cup mayonnaise

* 1 tsp Dijon mustard

* 1 tsp caraway seeds

* 1 Tbsp sugar or honey

* 1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt

* Several grinds of freshly ground black pepper

Directions 

1. Using a mandoline or a sharp knife, thinly slice the cabbage, carrot and onion or scallions and place in a medium-sized bowl.

2. Mix the remaining ingredients (vinegar, mayo, mustard, caraway, sugar, salt and pepper) together and stir well to make a smooth dressing - you'll want to mix it until you're sure that the sugar and salt are fully dissolved. Toss the veggies with dressing, making sure everything is well-coated, and serve.

You might also like:

• Homemade BBQ Sauce
• Smoky-Spicy-Sweet Barbecue Baked Beans
• Red Cabbage With Lime, Cilantro & Honey Slaw
• Skillet Cornbread
• Barbecued Beef Short Ribs