Grape Juice
- At September 29, 2010
- By megan
- In juice, Vita-Mix
2
There is nothing better, nothing with a truer taste, in my opinion, than a concord grape. The flavor is so completely “grape” that they are my preferred grape- except for those seeds. Those pesky seeds prevent me from ever buying my favorite grape. Bummer.
As a teenager, I had the patience to sit and spit every single seed into a cup. Some of my fondest memories from high school involve sitting with friends, sharing a huge bowl of concord grapes, and spitting seeds into a cup (I know… doesn’t sound very exciting. I guess I would do anything for that grape flavor).
I had some locally grown concord grapes and was starting to get bummed-out on how long it took to eat the things. The seeds just get in the way. Let’s be honest.
But… Vita-Mix to the rescue!
It was so effortless- I threw grapes into the Vita-Mix (about half-full), added about half as much water (eyeing it) as grapes, turned it up to speed 10, then high.
All you have to do next is pour it through a fine metal sieve and use a spoon to help move the mashy mixture around. In the end, I was left with a little bit of chopped seeds and skin, and a lot of perfectly grapey grape juice.
I drank so much grape juice that day…
Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers
- At September 28, 2010
- By megan
- In black beans, Burgers, Ollin Farms, sweet potato
- 0
I am very excited to be eating fresh sweet potatoes from Ollin Farms. Sweet potatoes are quite versatile and I like to make sweet potato patties, sweet potato biscuits, and even sweet potato smoothies.
This time I made a hearty baked vegetarian burger.
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 can black beans- rinsed, drained, somewhat smashed with your hands
- 1 cup finely grated yam/sweet potato
- 1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1/2 tsp Spanish sweet paprika
- 1 egg, beaten
- pinch of sea salt
- ground black pepper
Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Form patties with your hands and bake them (I lined a baking tray with parchment paper). Start with the oven preheated to 400. After 10 minutes, lower the temp to 375 and let them cook another 5 minutes or so. Flip them and lower the oven to 350. They should be done in another 5-10 minutes, depending on your oven. They’ll be a nice golden brown and won’t fall apart.
I served this on a tortilla with some caramelized onion avocado spread, some caramelized onion, and Tillamook white cheddar cheese.
Enjoy!
Caramelized Onion Avocado Spread
- At September 28, 2010
- By megan
- In Avocado, caramelized onion, Spreads
- 0
I absolutely love caramelized onions. This spread is super fast to make- that is- once you spend the 40 minutes or so caramelizing an onion. If you’ve never caramelized an onion, refer to my caramelized cipollini onion recipe for the basics. For this particular spread, I used peanut oil rather than butter or olive oil.
First, caramelize one yellow onion. Put half of the golden goodness into a food processor with 1/2 avocado, juice from 1/2 lime, 1.5 TB German mustard, 2 TB honey, and a pinch of sea salt. Puree until smooth.
I spread this on my Sweet Potato Black Bean Burger. Yum. Enjoy!
Taste of Place
- At September 27, 2010
- By megan
- In I would buy it again, local foods
- 0
Let’s hear it for the Boulder food scene! We are so lucky to live in a town where people get a good idea and roll with it. The Root Cellars is just one of those great new ideas, and I was able to squeeze a 20 minute shopping trip into my busy Sunday (I do work for a living, you know…).
Here’s a photo of what I took home.
I finally tried some Kale Chips. It seems like they are all the rage lately and everyone is making them except me. When I have Kale in the fridge it usually ends up in one of my versions of a healthy lunch smoothie, not baked and dehydrated into chips. So, I was eager to get some from Sandy Robinson. I must admit, I didn’t enjoy the first bite. But, after a few kale chips, I kept on snacking. Finished them all in just a short while.
There were a lot of different specialty food vendors at Taste of Place, and a healthy gathering of foodie-shoppers who wanted to try something new, homemade, and small-batch produced. What could be better than that?
The most impressive food for me… the one that actually drew me into Taste of Place in the first place, was the homemade tempeh by Crispina Arkin. I sincerely hope that Boulder Tempeh becomes widely available in local stores because I am a tempeh lover!
I also went home with some local raw honey from Ann Mattson of New Moon Farms, and Peach Habañero Sauce from Handcrafted With Altitude. The Peach Habañero Sauce is fantastic, and I absolutely love the raw honey. I expect both of these jars to be empty shortly.
I can’t wait for the next Taste of Place by The Root Sellers. I will allow at least an hour next time to peruse all of the vendors’ tables and taste-test my way through Boulder’s “underground” food scene.
Pickled Radishes with Thai Chilies for Taste & Create
For this month’s Taste & Create, I was paired with My Green Mouth. It was perfect timing, because just as I was looking at the recipe archive to find one I wanted to re-create, I got some radishes from my CSA. I am not a fan of radishes, but My Green Mouth had a recipe for pickled radishes that struck my interest.
Here is the recipe from My Green Mouth.
I washed and sliced a bunch of freshly picked radishes. These went in a Ball jar with a few (or more… how spicy do you like it?) dried thai chili peppers.
I a Pyrex measuring cup, I dissolved 1/2 cup evaporated cane juice and 1 TB pickling salt into 1 cup red wine vinegar. Then I poured the vinegar mixture over the radishes and put a lid on it. My Green Mouth suggests that these radishes are ready to eat after 24-hours in the fridge. I, unfortunately, will be going out of town, so I’ll let you all know how they turned out in a few days when I return.
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