junior kitchen

I checked Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italy cookbook out of the library and discovered this fantastic recipe.

The kids liked cutting the vegetables into big chunks (which is exactly what this recipe needs), and we all liked eating it. We’ll be making more soon - even if you don’t like eggplant, you’ll like this. They did!

Ingredients

• olive oil

• 2 nice large purple eggplants cut into large chunks

• 1 heaping teaspoon dried oregano or 3 teaspoons if you’re using fresh

• 1 teaspoon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced

• a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and stems finely chopped

• 2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed, soaked, and drained (we actually skipped these and added extra olives, but next time we might stick ‘em in)

• a handful of green olives, pits removed

• 2-3 Tablespoons best-quality herb vinegar (we used balsamic with rosemary and oregano steeped in it)

• 5 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped

• optional: 2 tablespoons slivered almonds, lightly toasted

In a large pot pour in “a couple glugs” (Oliver’s exact words - works out to around a third of a cup, maybe?) of olive oil, and place on the heat. Add the eggplant chunks - larger than you think you’ll want - and oregano. Season with a little salt, and toss around so the eggplant is evenly coated by the oil. (Depending on the size of your pan you may have to cook the eggplant in stages.)

Cook on high heat for  around 4 or 5 minutes, shaking the pot every now and then. When the eggplants are browned and golden on each side, add the onions, garlic, and parsley stems and continue cooking for another couple of minutes. Add more oil if needed. Throw in the drained capers and the olives and drizzle with the herb vinegar. When all the vinegar has evaporated, add the tomatoes and simmer for around 15 minutes or until tender.

Taste before serving and season if you need to with salt, pepper, and a little more vinegar. Drizzle with some good olive oil and serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley leaves and, if you like, the almonds.

The book doesn’t say to, but we served it over pasta. It would go even better with crusty Italian bread.

This dish turned out to be fun to make and one the kids like now for the a weekend treat.The recipe is from The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook: Recipes for the Best Pan in Your Kitchen. Yes, it really is the best pan in the kitchen.
.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk

Topping

• 3 tablespoons butter
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup powered sugar

To begin the Dutch baby, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Over low heat, melt the 2 Tbs butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet.

Mix the eggs, flour and milk in a blender on medium speed for 5-10 seconds - enough to blend thoroughly and no more.

Pour the batter into the skillet with the melted butter.

Place the skillet in the oven and bake until the top puffs up and is lightly golden, about 20 minutes.

While that’s baking, clarify the butter for the topping by melting it in the microwave or over low heat. White foam rises to the top. Skim it off. Let the remaining butter stand until solids start settling, about 5 minutes. You can then pour through a strainer into a glass measuring cup. Or, you can do what we do and just serve it as is.

When the Dutch baby comes out of the oven, drizzle the melted butter over the top. Sprinkle with lemon juice and dust with the powered sugar. Cut into six wedges and serve immediately.

This is one of the kids’ favorite meals. It’s modified (no chilies) from the essential World Vegetarian Cookbook. It’s possible to toss other seasonings in as it simmers, but really, the simple flavors of the vegetables work together in this dish without any extra help.

Ingredients

• 1 cup black-eyed peas (dry or fresh - we got ours from the farm)
• 1/4 cup peanut or canola oil
• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 cup butternut squash or pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1/3 inch cubes
• 2 cups long-grain rice (we used basmati)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

If you’re using fresh peas have a little person help you shell the peas. Small fingers are better at removing the goodies inside….

If you’re using dried peas, pick over them, wash and drain. Soak the beans overnight, covered by at least 5 inches of water. Drain.

In a large pot, bring the peas and 4 cups water to a boil. Cover, turn the heat down to low, and simmer gently for 25 minutes, or until the peas are almost tender. Drain but save the cooking liquid. Set the peas and cooking liquid aside.

Put the oil in a good-sized, heavy pot and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the onion. Stir and fry until the onion pieces begin to turn brown at the edges, 3 to 4 minutes. Now put in the garlic. Stir and fry for a minute, then put in the squash. Stir and fry for another minute. Put in the rice and stir and saute it for a minute. Now add the beans, 3 cups of the bean liquid (if there’s not enough, add more water), and the salt. Stir to mix and bring to a boil. Cover, turn the heat down to very low, and cook gently for 25 minutes. Let the pot rest, covered, for another 15 minutes. Stir gently to mix before serving.

Serve over rice with condiments.

Fresh basil! A recent gift from the farm had us pull out the food processor and try something we’ve never done before — pesto. I pulled out this book, Grilling: Exciting International Flavors from the World’s Premier Culinary College, for a recipe we could modify based on what we had in the kitchen.

Ingredients

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 cup packed basil leaves
• 1 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 4 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (we substituted sliced almonds because that’s what we had - walnuts are another of many alternatives)
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• pinch of ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Combine the garlic, basil, lemon zest, lemon juice, nuts, parmesan, salt, and pepper.

Pulse in the processor until finely chopped. (Some little hands love pushing the buttons, over and over… it’s better than TV!)

Add the olive oil in a thin stream with the food processor running and puree until thoroughly mixed into a thick paste.

The pesto is ready to serve now - on pasta, on bread, in wraps or as an ingredient in other interesting things. Or it may be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, if it isn’t devoured first.

Our family likes foraging for food. Sometimes, we don’t even hike anywhere to do it. Just out the back door, we have a healthy stand of macho ferns, which scientists call Nephrolepis biserrata and New Guineans call dinner. (When eating plants you don’t find at the market or the farm, it’s a good idea to at least Google the scientific name to make sure it’s not going to leave you with stomach aches or worse.)

For being as popular a landscape plant as they are, it’s surprising more people don’t look at ferns as snack food. The fiddleheads (those spiralling young shoots that look like the scroll on a violin neck) were a staple for early Florida settlers, and they occasionally show up on the tables of adventurous Yankees as well. Fresh fiddleheads are crispy, nutty-flavored things that combine the woodsy umami of sesame seeds with the greenness of blanched asparagus. And, you know, there’s a good chance they’re out in your yard, growing for free.

Daughter loves picking them even more than she loves eating them. In cooler climes, I imagine children of a certain age are taking up baskets and heading out to pick berries. We grab tupperware and walk around the back yard, collecting spirals.

This salad turned out rather well, considering quite a few ingredients were things we grow ourselves that just happen to bring out the best flavors in each other - everything is sharp, snappy and crisp.

Ingredients

• 1 head romaine lettuce
• 1 cup arugula (give or take)
• 1 egg, hard boiled, chopped
• 1/3 cup fern fiddleheads (give or take)
• 1 Tablespoon basil, minced
• 1/2 purple onion
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Olive oil
• Black pepper
• Pinch salt

Chop onion rather finely and soak in lime juice. While it’s soaking, chop up the lettuce, arugula, egg and toss in a bowl. Scatter fern fiddleheads and minced basil over the top. Add oil, pepper & salt to the onion-lime mixture and blend well before pouring over salad. If you feel like a little added excitement, add a pinch of cayenne or the Everglades Seasoning previously mentioned here - but the arugula should be just sharp enough for most salad fans.

I’d been staring at the pantry, wondering what we could throw together with three cans of beans and whatever else we could scrounge, when I opened my email and found a version of this quick, delicious recipe in the Laptop Lunches newsletter (where it was part of a great interview with Mom-a-licious Chef Domenica Catelli, so check it out!). We did a few substitutions based on what we had at hand, and wound up with a nutritious meal that had the kids begging for extra helpings.

Ingredients

• Kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans (1 can each).
• Two stalks celery, chopped.
• A good-sized handful of parsley. (It might be worth experimenting by subbing cilantro, but that would make this taste completely different.)
• 1/4 of a small purple onion, chopped.
• 1/4 of a small white onion, chopped (yes, we really were digging up whatever we could find).
• Juice of 1 large lime.
• A few jiggers of bottled lemon juice.
• Two Tablespoons of olive oil.
• Three or so pinches of Everglades Seasoning (this is a seasoning salt along the lines of Lawry’s or Tony Chachere’s, but better. And with free samples! You can use salt and pepper here, instead.)

Drain and rinse the beans and plop them in a bowl. Chop the celery, parsley and onions and toss them in, too.

Slice the lime into quarters. Enjoy the aroma of fresh lime. Let it fill the kitchen.   Squeeze the lime-quarters over the onions on top of the beans. Let it sit there for a few minutes (soaking onions in something acidic like vinegar, lemon or lime juice does wonders for their flavor).

Add the oil and seasoning salt, and lemon juice to taste. Toss it all together, and again, let it sit for five minutes. Or 15 minutes… if you can keep small fingers from stealing a bean, then another bean, then another!

Serve at room temperature to your eager family. It tastes like the end of summer.

(Next week - the end of summer! Our CSA farm is back, and so are our fresh veggies!)

Here’s a fun slideshow from NBC11.com showing what a single dollar can get you that isn’t laden with preservatives and trans-fats goop.

File it under “inspiration for a healthy table.”

You can worry about boiling water and sharp knives all you like, but Columbia University says it’s good for them.

From that article:

The researchers found that children who had cooked their own foods were more likely to eat those foods in the cafeteria, and even ask for seconds, than children who had not had the cooking class.

…[S]aid Isobel Contento, professor of nutrition education at Teachers College and a co-author of the study. “Kids don’t usually like radishes, but we found that if kids cut up radishes and put them in the salad, they love the radishes.”

They found that kids who cooked ate healthier foods with gusto. What more do you want?

This is the recipe that is used on the days our littlest one asserts his free will and declines to eat anything healthy. But we know his weakness. He can’t resist cheese…any kind of cheese… and the creamy melted goodness of feta sucks him in every time. He never even notices he’s eating spinach with this dish.

Ingredients

• A box of pasta noodles. (13.5 ounces. We like penne but any shape would be okay.)
• Spinach leaves, fresh or frozen. (1-2 cups but really this depends on just how green you want to go.)
• 1 onion, chopped.
• Feta cheese, 8-ounce package, crumbled.
• Olive oil, 4 Tablespoons (or enough to coat the pasta)
• Lemon juice, (1/2 lemon or equivalent, tweak to taste)
• Red wine vinegar, (1 Tablespoon, then tweak to taste)
• Salt and pepper

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. At the same time that’s cooking, pour a few tablespoons of olive oil into a skillet and saute the onions at medium high heat. Add the spinach to the onions when they become transparent.

After the pasta has been drained, place it in a bowl and get an eager young assistant to add the feta.

Small hands can stir the feta around the noodles until the cheese gets warm and starts to melt.

That’s the moment to add the spinach and onions.

After everything is mixed, add the olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar. I start out with a few tablespoons of oil and a couple teaspoons of vinegar and then taste it, add a little more, taste again, add a little more - just remember you can always add, but you can never take away. Keep playing with the oil and vinegar and salt and pepper until it’s got the flavor that makes you and your kitchen assistants happy.