Heirloom Beauties from the Patch

Recipes to follow...

A Delicious Read

The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball

Marriage is scary. Throw in a relocation, new jobs in different fields, starting up a business venture, planning a wedding and all of a sudden it’s a lot scarier. Patience dwindles and arguments elevate; both happen with startling speed. This is precisely what happens in Kimball's life/book.

The Dirty Life is a book about a freelance travel writer living in Manhattan that meets a philosophical agriculturist tethered to a dream of creating a new type of farm. It is a classic city meets country paradigm but Kimball writes with a depth, honesty and humor that keep the narrative fresh and alive.

There are some glaring similarities in this book that parallel what Alycia and I have gone through in the past 6 months. I have an obvious bias towards this book but it is an excellent read for anyone who is fascinated by relationships, having faith in dreams and the challenges of the ‘new.’ It is also about food and farming which is why its on this blog. The book is a fun and quick summer read.

Here is a link to the NPR review

Published in the INDY Weekly: Reliable Cheese Company

Reliable Cheese Company opens in Durham, NC. Here is the Article.

Grilled North Carolina Pork Chops w/ Tomatillo-Pineapple Salsa

Ok. The video, my first is not genius. It is a test run. The recipe however, is summer love in a dish. I have professed my infatuation for all things tomatillo, but the grilled pineapple adds another dimension. Its also another recipe with cilantro. Its June folks. Cilantro is the herb of the summer. Enjoy.

Grilled Pork Chops w/ Grilled Pineapple & Tomatillo Salsa
4 Pork Chops
-1/4 cup honey
-3 Tbls. Soy Sauce

Salsa:
1 Pineapple
1 lbs. Tomatillos
1 small onion
4 cloves of garlic, from one bulb
2 bell peppers
1 bunch cilantro
Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Marinade the Pork Chops in Soy Sauce and Honey for 30 minutes.
2. Cut the pineapple and get rid of the hard outer skin. Lay flat and slice horizontally. Slice in ½ inch thick large rounds. Lightly coat in Canola or vegetable oil.
3. Core & dice the tomatillos. Dice the onion, garlic, bell pepper, cilantro.
4. Preheat the grill.
5. Heat a sauté pan with 1 tbls of vegetable oil. Add tomatillo, onion and garlic. Cook for 5-10 minutes. Add bell peppers. Add 2 pinches of salt and pepper. Add 1/8 cup of water. Cook for another 10 minutes.
6. Once the salsa has finished cooking add the cilantro and mix well. Season and adjust. If you find the tomatillos are too acidic, add a dab of butter to mellow it out.
7. Spray the grill with PAM Grilling spray or brush with canola oil. Grill the pineapples and pork chops. The pineapple takes about 8 minutes (some black blistering on the pineapple is desirable for flavor). The pork chops take about 2 minutes on each side if they are less than inch thick or less.
8. Remove the core of the pineapple and dice the pineapple in a similar size to the other salsa ingredients. Add to salsa and mix well.
9. Place the salsa on top and devour.

Blue Fish Tacos with and Orange-Cilantro Salsa

“We are wasting our time here”

This was Tony’s declaration after we had moved from the deep sea to troll for fish in shallower waters. We began catching blue fish and Spanish mackerel. Compared to the Bluefin Tuna I had just caught, he was right, but he decreed blue fish as uneatable. Mackerel is an excellent fish, but blue fish are often maligned as oily and not worth eating. I had heard this for years. I grew up on City Island where catching blue fish was done for sport. We always threw them back, except if you went out on a boat like ‘Rip Tide’ or the ‘Klondike’, they fileted it for you and we often went to the local restaurants that littered City Island Avenue to try and sell them. We would never recover what we spent fishing for the blues but any bit of money to a teenager is a good thing that never lasted anyway.

I only had blue fish once before. Chris Paschette, from Arties, cooked it. It was baked with lemon and bread crumbs. I remember thinking it wasn’t so bad. I never returned to it though. It is never on menus and so it was forgotten.

Even our first mate on our boat, who goes to all the big game fishing tournaments and who has made fishing his life agreed with Tony. Stubbornness can be a good quality in a chef. That being said, if you catch blue fish, it should be eaten that day. We caught harbor blues in the ocean which are smaller than the ones I used to catch in the bay so their meat was a bit sweeter. I will still argue that fresh blues out of the bays will be great that night for dinner. If not my pal Tony the fireman and lawyer will lambast this entry. He was converted though:

“Oh well this is amazing, you put a great sauce on it. Everyone wants to know what to do with Blue Fish. I am using this when I get back!”

A rewarding element to cooking is changing a previously negative opinion of a food and turning it into a meal worth remembering. Here you go:

Ingredients:

Fish:
4 fileted blue fish, freshly caught
Oil
Garlic Salt & Pepper

Salsa:
3 oranges, peeled
1 onion, diced fine
1 bunch of cilantro, diced coarsely
1 jalapeno (optional), diced
(everything diced smaller than in the picture)
¼ cup Orange juice
Salt & Pepper

Corn Tortilla’s



1. In a sauté pan, heat the vegetable oil on medium-high heat. Add garlic. Once the garlic starts to turn translucent, add the fileted blue fish.
2. Add the oranges, onion and cilantro, O.J., in a bowl. If you are adding the jalapeno, cut it in half and remove the seeds and white pith. Then dice and throw it in. Season with salt or adobo and pepper.
3. The bluefish should take 6-7 minutes; it will vary with the size of the filet. Break the fish up w/ a wooden spoon into taco sized pieces.
4. Heat up the corn tortillas. Set up bowls with spoons for each ingredient, assemble and eat.

Summer Bean & Cilantro Salad

One of the extraordinary characteristics of North Carolina is that you have a long spring season and a long fall; basically, two of the best seasons for the longest period of time. The summer can be brutal here. Hot foods are no longer comforting. Enter Cilantro; THE summer time herb of choice. It’s refreshing and zesty and I crave it in the heat. It also grows quickly and in abundance when you plant it from seed.

Cilantro also makes eating healthier foods, sometimes not the tastiest, into a great experience. The first summer bean salad I made was for the Shakori Bluegrass festival. We needed food for the weekend and Lish loves cilantro and salsa was not an option, since we had eaten it 3 nights that week. This is really easy to make and it works well for summer BBQ pot luck or any party you will be attending in the heat. Canned beans are really the easiest and this dish should take no longer than 15 minutes to make all said and done. Feel free to mix up the beans—cannellini, black eyed peas. The ones in this recipe were whatever was in the pantry.

Ingredients:

1 15oz. can of Navy beans
1 15oz. can of black beans
½ bunch cilantro
½ large sweet onion or 1 whole red onion
½ lemon or lime
½ Tbsp. of cumin
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Pinches of salt & pepper

1. Pour the canned beans into a colander and rinse thoroughly. Drain.
2. Dice the cilantro and onion.
3. Cut the lime or lemon and juice into a mixing bowl. Add cumin, olive oil and 2 pinches of salt and pepper.
4. Add all the ingredients into the mixing bowl and stir. You may want to add some more cumin, salt, and pepper depending on your preferences. I always add more cumin than necessary.

Ginger Sesame Lettuce Wraps

Protein and more protein; thats my crash diet prescription before the wedding. I have increased the gym regimen, lightened my portions and have been eating more chicken then my mother, who thinks it grows on trees based on her diatribes about beef and pork. I mostly blame wine and tostitos artisan recipe chips for the current slump. So it goes.

Chicken is a staple at the Inserra home. Rotisseries, chicken cutlets, chicken sausages, marinated then grilled, roasted, in salads...a staple. It is often regarded as boring and in its ubiquity can be. Its also a canvas for a myriad of flavors. It will soak up whatever you marinate it within moments and it can be amazing when roasted properly. Garlic also plays a major role in every dish cooked by Big Poppa so if you want to minimize the cloves from four to two that will work.

Lettuce wraps are fun, healthy and you can add nearly any vegetable to the filling; cabbage, carrots, string beans, peas.

This dish takes about 35 minutes, mostly chopping.

1 Rotisserie Chicken, stripped of the meat or 1 Package of Chx Cutlets with
4 breasts
I head of iceberg Lettuce
1/4 Cup Sesame Oil
2 Tbsp. Rice Vinegar
4 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
1 Thumb sized piece of ginger
4 cloves Garlic, diced
1/2 Medium sized Onion, diced
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1/2 Bunch Cilantro, coarsely chopped

1. Break down the rotisserie or cook the chx cutlets. Set aside. Once cool, dice into small cubes.
2. Wash the lettuce, cut it in half and separate each leaf for wraps.
3. In a large sauté pan add the sesame oil add the diced onion and garlic. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
4. Place the ginger in a blender with ¼ cup water. Puree. Strain the liquid with a sieve into the sauté pan. If there is any extra, use it for homemade ginger ale.
5. Add bell peppers, soy sauce vinegar and chicken. Cook for another 5 minutes. Taste. At this point you may want to add more soy sauce and or vinegar to boost the flavor. Once everything is flavored properly, add the diced cilantro, toss and place in a serving bowl.