hummus on a sourdough cracker

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays.

I love hummus.  Whether it is a dip for crackers or crudites, a spread on a sandwich, or an accompaniment to falafel, it tastes so good.  One day I came home from work and announced I was going to make some.  I’d never made it before, but I’d become disenchanted with the store bought brands as they had a lot of highly processed ingredients in them.

I figured it couldn’t be hard to make hummus, and I was right.  You just put the ingredients in a Cuisinart and let it do all of the work!  The best thing about making it yourself is you can make any style or flavor of hummus you like.  Add lemon juice, extra tahini, pine nuts, peppers, different spices, different kinds of beans – it is all up to you.

I served it on a sourdough cracker, but it would be a great dip for carrots or celery, or a spread on a sandwich, or a sauce for chicken.  There are so many possibilities with this one.

This is what I did for the basic hummus recipe that you can use as a jumping off point for your favorite flavors.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2  cup chickpeas (garbanzo beans), cooked, drained and cooled (or about a can of them, drained)
• ~2 tablespoons tahini
• 1 ramp/clove of garlic, chopped
• ~1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cayenne pepper to taste

Put the chickpeas in your Cuisinart and pulse.  You will need to periodically stop and scrape the sides down.  When they start to get crumbly, add your tahini and pulse again.  Now, drizzle a bit of the olive oil around to moisten it up and pulse some more.  Scrape down the bowl if necessary.  Keep repeating this until all of the olive oil has been used.  Add the ramp or garlic and continue mixing.  Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.  You may want to add more tahini or olive oil if your mixture is still dry.  It will depend on how dry your chickpeas were.  Once you have the consistency you like, it is ready!  It may be nice to sprinkle a little extra cayenne on the top of the finished hummus for color.

Wild Pesto

There is just something exotic about eating something that was harvested from the wild.    On top of that, we know that wild food by definition cannot be genetically modified, nor can it have pesticides on it.  However, when eating wild game, fish caught from the ocean, or plants harvested from the wild, one must be sure that everything is taken in a sustainable manner.  If we over harvest, over fish, or over hunt, there will be nothing left for future generations.  Of course, much like sustainable farming, if we harvest food from the wild in a sustainable way, we are ensuring that it will be around for years to come.

One of my recent Farmer’s Market finds was wild arugula.  Wild arugula seems to have a smaller leaf than the cultivated arugula I’ve had, but the overall taste seems pretty much the same.   It just has that wild mystique.

I also got some ramps, which I’ve been working my way through.  Ramps are like wild leeks or green onions.  I find their flavor to be somewhere between a leek and garlic, so I’ve been using them in place of just about anything that calls for garlics, leeks, or onions.  They are wonderful, and edible from the bulb to the leaves.

A great way to put these together is in an arugula pesto.  An arugula pesto is very similar to the regular basil pesto, just with the distinctive peppery arugula bite.  It is wonderful on pastas, salads, or as a way to dress up some baked chicken.  It is an incredibly versatile ingredient, and it should last a good week or two in the fridge, or several months in the freezer (freeze in individual serving sizes for ease of defrosting – I like using ice cube trays).  Make a couple batches and keep them handy in the freezer.  It makes for an incredibly easy meal when you don’t feel like cooking.

Though I couldn’t get the pine nuts or the olive oil locally, I did go with a local cheese from a local artisan cheese maker as opposed to the traditional Parmesan.  The cheese I selected was their most aged cheese.  It was hard, grated easily, and had a flavor not dissimilar to Parmesan, but there also seemed to be a slight cheddar-y flavor as well.

If you don’t have arugula, well, just about any green leafy herb or green could be substituted – the traditional basil, parsley, etc.  You can mix different greens together for your own unique blend.  And if you don’t have the traditional pine nuts, go for walnuts, though most any other nuts could probably be used in place.  If you don’t have ramps, use garlic instead.  I tend to go light on garlic compared to many other people I know, so feel free to make your own adjustment there, as needed.

This recipe makes about 1 cup of pesto.

• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
• 4 cups fresh arugula, loosely packed
• 1/2 cup finely grated hard cheese, like Parmesan or your local equivalent
• 1 ramp (bulb and leaves)
• coarse salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Toast the pine nuts.  I do this stove top.  Put them in a pan on med high heat, stirring frequently about 3-4 minutes or until the nuts turn golden brown and become aromatic.  It can also be done in the oven – spread them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven at 350 for about 5 minutes or so.

Chop the ramps and grate the cheese.  Put pine nuts, arugula, cheese, ramps, and olive oil,  in a blender and blend until there are no lumps.  Since it is a lot of greens, you may need to pause the blender and stir it up a bit manually to make sure the greens on the top are pureed.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

It’s that simple.  Enjoy!  This post is submitted to Real Food Wednesdays.

Radishes at the farmer's market

What do you do with a chicken breast to make it more exciting?  I thought about this last night and decided to make a cream sauce.  The end result was fantastic.  This cream sauce would probably work with fish and vegetables as well.  It is a pretty free form recipe.  Once you’ve made the roux to your liking, everything else is just included in quantities your taste buds see fit.

The roasted radishes are wonderful and extremely easy.  I always thought I didn’t like radishes.  I don’t like their spicy bite.  Then my uncle taught me to roast them.  Roasting them takes the bite away and leaves a sweetness behind.

Finally, I hate kitchen waste, always wanting to stretch my dollar and prevent usable things from ending up in the garbage.  The radishes came with green tops, so they must be eaten as well.  Radish greens, like radishes, have a bit of a bite that is diminished with longer cooking.  If you don’t have radish greens, other spicy greens like mustard could be used in this recipe.

Recipes for all 3 dishes below.

This post is submitted to Real Food Wednesday.

Chicken with Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 small chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
• Tarragon
• Sage
• Thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice

In a large frying pan, sear the chicken breasts on both sides.  Reduce heat, cover, and cook on med-low heat, checking and flipping occasionally, as needed, until done.

For the sauce, Melt the butter over medium heat.  When melted, add the flour and stir.  Then add the milk and whisk.  You’ll need to whisk a lot.  The sauce should thicken quickly.  You really can’t take your eyes off this for more than a few minutes.  Don’t let it boil.  Keep whisking.  When you have your desired consistency, add the tarragon, sage and thyme.  Then add salt and pepper to taste.  Just before serving, add a little lemon juice.

To help you time your meal, the sauce will only take 5-10 minutes.  Spoon the sauce over the chicken breast right before serving.  I put a generous portion of sauce on my chicken.

Roasted Radishes

Ingredients:

• Radishes
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Sesame seeds

Cut the radishes into quarters.  Toss with olive oil until coated.  Sprinkle salt and sesame seeds, and place into a baking dish.  To save on cleanup, I usually put the radishes in the baking dish and use that dish to toss with the olive oil. Roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until done.  Simple!

Braised Radish Greens

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch radish greens
• 1 tablespoon bacon grease
• A splash of water
• 3 tablespoons of reduced beef stock

Heat bacon grease in a good braising pot on medium heat until melted.  Add the greens and sautee.  Add a small spash of water and 3 tablespoons of reduced beef stock (glace).  Cover, reduce heat to low, and let it cook for 30 minutes (less for spicier greens, longer for milder greens).  When you have cooked it your desired length, take the lid off, raise the temperature to medium, and let the liquid cook off, while watching it and stiring often.