In the Garden: Week 16

We are now at that fantastic time of year when harvesting from the garden is a daily occurrence. 

Despite Dave trying to mow the plants down earlier this year, I manage to get a small crop of soy beans. I never believed I would actually eat edamame right out of my garden!

Soy Beans

 I am also quite happy to have four perfect pumpkins growing bigger every day.

Pumpkin

Pumpkins

 Still patiently waiting on the brussel sprouts...

Brussel Sprouts

Amy

(Almost) Paleo Pad Thai

Despite the lack of noodles, I found this to be just as satisfying as traditional Pad Thai.

I made a simple version as a side dish to Coconut Crusted Fish but it could easily be expanded with scrambled eggs, shrimp, chicken, pork or more vegetables.

As I was making this recipe, David pointed out that miso is a soy product and therefore the recipe is not perfectly paleo. However you could easily exclude the miso, increase the tahini or almond butter or substitute with tamari.

From What Runs Lori, serves four

1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup miso
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon chili sauce
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 large zucchini, julienned

2 carrots, julienned

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

1/4 cup nuts, crushed

1/4 cup green onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup cilantro

Combine the first eight in the blender and blend until creamy. Set aside.

Finely julienne the zucchini and carrots with a mandolin. In a wok over medium heat, sauté the vegetables in the sesame oil until softened.

Add the sauce and sauté until heated through. Top with crushed nuts, cilantro and green onion.

Amy

Caprese Salad

Another recipe from Shauna's baby shower. Caprese is one of my favorite salads and is so easy to make - especially for a large crowd.

Serves four

2 cups cherry tomatoes

1 cup boccaccini cheese

1 cup basil leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt

Pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and toss to coat.

Amy

Dark Chocolate Cake

This is a rich, fudgy chocolate cake that would be fantastic on its own, however I actually made it as the first step in making "cake pops"... stayed tuned for the rest of the recipe!

From The Kitchn, makes two 9" round cakes or one 9"x13" rectangular cake

2 cups sugar
1 3/3 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup water, boiling

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour the cake pans.

Add the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the stand mixer bowl. Stir to combine. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes. Add in the boiling water and mix to combine.

Pour the batter in to the prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. 

Cool for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the pan.

Serve warm with ice cream or cool and frost.


Amy

Sweet Potato Fries with Curry Mayo

This is one of those recipes that kept popping up all over the blogging world (with the promise of perfectly crisp fries!) so I figured I had to give it a try. I was actually impressed that something as simple as cornstarch makes such a big difference in how the fries turn out.

From The Art of Doing Stuff

1 large sweet potato, peeled
1 tablespoon ccornstarch
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon curry powder

Preheat the over to 425 F. Cut the sweet potato into chunky fries, no bigger than 1/2".

Place the sweet potato and the cornstarch into a plastic bag. Seal the plastic bag making sure to partially inflate it like a balloon. Shake the bag to fully coat the sweet potato in cornstarch.

Transfer the sweet potato to a bowl. Drizzle the oil over top and gently toss to coat. Season with salt.

Place the fries on to a non-stick baking sheet. Ensure to space the fries well to allow them to cook evenly. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

To make the curry mayo, combine the mayonaise and curry powder in a small bowl. Serve drizzled over the fries.

Enjoy!

Amy

Strawberry Cake

This cake breaks all of the rules in our house - flour, sugar, red food dye... I did eliminate the imitation strawberry flavour from the original recipe but more because I couldn't be bothered to search the grocery store for it when I already have a killer fresh strawberry frosting recipe.

But I had good reason to break the rules... David's birthday!

Anyone who knows David knows he loves all things Superman so when I stumbled across a Superman cake pan on etsy, I knew I just had to make it for him. The pan has been hiding the basement for a couple of months now and thankfully he worked three shifts right before his birthday to give me enough time to make it without him seeing it.

I couldn't have been happier with the results.

Adapted from Lottie + Doof, makes 2 9" round cakes (or one Superman!)

3 cups flour, plus more for pans
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
Red food coloring, optional
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

1 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
Red food coloring, optional
1 pound icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon strawberry extract or 1/4 cup fresh strawberries, pureed

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease two 9″ round cake pans with butter and coat well with flour, set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, jam and food coloring.

With a stand mixer, beat together sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs on medium-high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Alternately add dry and wet ingredients to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with dry mix until combined.

Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle of cakes comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Let cool 10 minutes before removing from pan. Allow to cool completely before icing.

In the stand mixer bowl, beat butter and cream cheese on high speed until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the food coloring, 3 cups of icing sugar and strawberry extract or puree and beat until smooth. If fresh strawberries are used, more sugar will be required. Continue to add icing sugar until the desired consistency is reached.

Apply the icing to the cake and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

Amy

CSA: Week 6

This week's basket included kale, turnips, beans, beets, salad greens, green onions and carrots.

Amy