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Ramping up for Spring

28 May

Ramps seemed to be all the rage on miscellaneous food blogs.  I heard that they are one of the first new spring veggies that come to the farmer’s markets so when I heard they were in stock in Union Square, I decided to try them.  A recipe that sounded delicious was a potato au gratin type dish that I actually could convert to a Weight Watchers recipe. (With my calculation and alterations, this made 4 portions and each portion was 5 points).

So we cut the ends off but used most of the rest (including the green leaves).

I also had beautiful multicolored potatoes from Fresh Direct.  It was all about the layering.

First a sliced potato layer.

Then a layer of the chopped ramps.

Til it fills the dish

I just loved the colors of all of this together

Then we topped it with milk (I went skim), grated cheese (I went fat free from Weight Watchers), and then sprinkled with parmesan cheese and some breadcrumbs.

And bake.  V’oila!

It needed a slotted spoon since the milk was a little watery, but the taste was SO. GOOD.

The ramps add a kind of scallion/garlicky flavor.

We also had it with miso tilapia (which was good, but not good enough to post the recipe)

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RECIPE
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Ingredients:

  • 4 med. potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 3 c. coarsely chopped ramps, including green tops
  • 1 c. milk (we went skim)
  • 1 (4 oz.) pkg. grated Cheddar cheese (we went for nonfat)
  • 1/2 c. fresh bread crumbs
  • Paprika (Optional… we went sans)

Directions:

  1. Preheat to 425 degrees.
  2. Place a layer of sliced potatoes in a greased 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  3. Place a layer of ramps on top of potatoes. Continue alternating layers, ending with potatoes on top layer.
  4. Pour milk over top. Sprinkle with cheese, bread crumbs and paprika.
  5. Bake covered at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
  6. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

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Gettin’ Saucy

26 May

One of Mike’s coworkers started up Saucy Solutions and was nice enough to give us a bottle of her Sweet thing BBQ (as well as her bolognese, which will come up in another post). 

We defrosted some pork chops and simply baked the chops in the sauce with onions.  It couldn’t have been easier and the sauce came to only about 1 point. 

Mike also made some homemade coleslaw by adding oil, vinegar, and sugar to a pre-made broccoli slaw mixture.

It was a perfect pairing.

The sauce was great.  The perfect balance of sweetness and tang and it tasted so fresh.  I was impressed.  Perfect on pork chops. It got the thumbs up from Mike too!

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Scallops Lime and Vine

24 May

I have been a fan of Food52.com for a few months now.  Basically they are crowd-sourcing recipes from their users and will make a published cookbook out of it after a year of subsmissions (52 weeks… ya know).  They have 2 specific categories each week that they request submissions for.  I haven’t really had a great recipe to submit, but when “Your Best Scallops Recipe” came up, I realized that not only was this one of my favorite foods, but I also had some in my fridge at that moment.  I spent the next few hours contemplating exactly what was submission worthy and I decided to go out on a limb.

I had a drink at a local restaurant a few days earlier that combined grapes and lime.  The combination was PERFECT and I thought it would be a great citris to cut through the butteriness of the scallop.  It was like a twist on sweet and sour.  So I set to making up something that was simple yet different.

First, I cooked down some grapes with sugar.

Then I mashed it all up and squeezed out the delicious juices and added lime and ginger.

I then let this cook down until it was reduced to a thick sauce.

As it was reducing, I browned up some scallops.


I also tried my hand at some food styling and photography… I’m not pleased with the results, but this blog includes my less than stellar accomplishments as well, so here ya go:


We made some delicious rainbow swiss chard to go with the main dish.

So did I win?  Not even close! I wasn’t even selected as a runner up.  Poo!  My submission is here: http://www.food52.com/recipes/4067_scallops_lime_and_vine

I think it deserved an honorable mention at least, but I guess I’m biased.  I recommend this recipe highly, however, and definitely at least make the sauce! You can put it over chicken, pork, duck or it would even be great over ice cream!

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RECIPE
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Ingredients:

  • 2 cups Grapes- Seedless, Red or Black
  • 2 tablespoons Sugar
  • 1 Lime, Juiced
  • 1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
  • 1 pound Dry Sea Scallops
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 1 tablespoon Butter
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Put grapes and sugar in a sauce pan and heat over a medium flame
  2. Allow to cook until grapes are softened and juice begins to seep out (About 10 minutes)
  3. Use a potato masher to smush grapes in pot
  4. Add the lime juice and ginger, stir to combine
  5. Allow to continue cooking for about 10 more minutes until juices have reduced
  6. While the sauce reduces, in the last 5 minutes, sear scallops by heating olive oil and butter in a pan until the butter stops bubbling. Place scallops in hot pan and sear for about 2 minutes on each side until golden brown (be sure to space scallops out so they sear and don’t steam). Remove from heat
  7. Salt and pepper grape and lime sauce to taste
  8. Drizzle sauce over scallops and serve immediately

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