Local Ingredients: Mint Glazed Carrots

Do you ever see a recipe on a blog that you know you absolutely have to try? When I saw a recipe for Mint Glazed Carrots on Foodies @ Home, I knew that I had to make it immediately.  Luckily, I had a lovely bunch of carrots sitting in the fridge from Siena Farms to work with and I decided to adapt this recipe to make this lovely side dish on Thursday night.

I washed the carrots and peeled them.  I started to slice the carrots and I had to pause to take a picture.  Isn't this purple carrot simply gorgeous?

I sliced all of the carrots and gave it a quick toss in a bowl with salt and fresh cracked peppercorns.

Since my skillet was already in use, I warmed up a wok on the stove-top.  I added a few pats of unsalted butter along with my carrots.  I then added the rest of my ingredients.  First, I added two minced cloves of red Russian garlic (also from Siena Farms).

I then added four generous tablespoons of agave nectar.  The original recipe called for honey but I decided to make a healthy substitute.  Plus, I love using the agave that I picked up when I was in Cozumel whenever I can.

I then added a half cup of a nice dry reisling Bret picked up on his way home from the gym.

I added a few more pats of butter (I'd say about two tablespoons of butter in the dish overall) and let the carrots cook in the butter and wine sauce.

While the carrots were cooking, I washed, dried and finely chopped up a handful of mint.  When the wine cooked down and the carrots cooked through, the sauce had thickened up nicely to provide a nice glaze.  Instead of mixing it in with the carrots, I topped the carrots with the fresh mint and it was ready to serve.

I loved how the carrots almost looked like beets from the bright purple carrots.  The carrots were sweet and I thought that the agave nectar would make the carrots overly sweet but the wine and mint really balanced the sweetness out. 

We ate the carrots for dinner as a side to our baked panko-crusted chicken nuggets and Olivia's Organics herb salad (topped with green onion and goat cheese). 

Thanks to Foodies @ Home for sharing this recipe.  Don't you love finding new recipes on food blogs and trying them out in your kitchen? 

What are some food blogs you look to for inspiration in your kitchen?

One last reminder to enter my CSN Stores giveaway, which ends on Sunday night at 11:59 PM!

Baked Green Tomato Herb Salad

On Monday night, I was excited to work on a new cooking project.  Olivia's Organics is sponsoring a Summer Harvest Recipe contest.  To enter, you need to submit a salad recipe that incorporates fresh seasonal ingredients.  The winner gets $500 and the recipe will be featured on their website!  I wanted to enter and I decided to make a Baked Green Tomato Herb Salad.

To start, I washed and sliced two beautiful green tomatoes from Siena Farms, which is where I get a lot of my favorite local ingredients.

I sliced the tomatoes into quarter to half-inch thick slices.

I wanted to make a healthier version of fried green tomatoes by baking them instead of frying them.  I try to make this easy substitution in a lot of my dishes, like my sweet potato chips or beet chips.  So I turned on my oven to 400 degrees.  While the oven was pre-heating, I put a sheet of aluminum foil (for easy clean-up) on a large baking tray and put that in the oven as well.  I remembered Chef Matt Barros telling us this past weekend how it is so important to make sure that your pan is hot to get a nice crispy texture.  I figured it wouldn't hurt with this dish either.

While the oven was pre-heating, I dipped each tomato slice into a 1/3 cup of fat-free milk, which is typically the only milk I will ever have in my kitchen.  To add a little heat, I added a few drops of Tabasco sauce to the milk and gave it a stir.

I then dredged the slice in a dry mixture consisting of 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup of yellow cornmeal, and a few generous pinches of salt, black pepper, and cayenne.  I also added a pinch of sugar since the green tomatoes were tart and I wanted to add just a small touch of sweetness.

When the oven was ready, I took the sheet out, sprayed it with cooking spray, and placed the tomatoes on the tray.  I gave the tops of the tomatoes a quick spritz of the cooking spray as well (to help them brown) and placed the tray in the oven for about fifteen minutes.  After fifteen minutes, I took the tomatoes out, turned them over and gave it another twenty minutes.

While the tomatoes were baking, I prepared the rest of the ingredients for my salad.  I decided to use Olivia's Organic's herb salad because I wanted a nice slightly bitter flavor to contrast against the tart and sweet flavors of the green tomatoes.

I also crumbled up a few slices of this delightful local Capri goat cheese from Westfield Farm that I found at Whole Foods.  It was so creamy and tangy - I definitely took a few nibbles as I sliced it up.

I tossed a handful of the salad with some goat cheese, black pepper and salt.

I also added a nice simple homemade balsamic dressing that consisted of a few tablespoons each of white champagne balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

I also added a few pinches of salt, pepper, oregano, and crushed red pepper flakes and gave the dressing a quick stir.

I gave the salad a quick toss with the dressing and then topped it with my golden-brown crusty baked green tomatoes.  I didn't intend for a vegetarian meal that night but the green tomatoes were so huge that it seemed unnecessary to add meat to this dish.

I loved the flavor combination of the slightly bitter herb salad, tangy goat cheese, and slightly tart and sweet green tomatoes.  I liked the crispy texture of the fried green tomatoes and it went well with the fresh salad and creamy goat cheese. 

I was really happy with the results, especially since most of the ingredients were local!  Nothing screams summer to me like tomatoes and using green tomatoes was a nice twist.  I think this dish really represents some of summer's great seasonal ingredients!


What salad ingredients screams summertime for you?  
Also, don't forget to enter my CSN Stores reader giveaway!

Local Ingredients: Spicy Sausage with Peppers and Onions

When I was growing up, my mom would make the best grilled sausage sandwiches with sauteed peppers and onions.  There was nothing particularly fancy about this sandwich and in fact it was usually fairly messy, but it was full of lots of great flavors and really stands out among my childhood food memories. 

Last night, I decided to recreate this meal and Bret was very excited since he loves sausage and peppers as much as I do!  I was especially excited to make this dish because I had a lot of really great local ingredients to work with and I think that everything tastes better with fresh local ingredients. 

To start, I had some great hot Italian sausages from Stillman's Farm. 

I pierced both sides of each sausage with a fork and put them in a skillet.  I added enough water and a splash of vegetable oil into the skillet so that it covered the bottom half of each sausage.  I put the skillet on medium-high heat, put a cover on the skillet and then got to work on my vegetables. 

First, I washed a small handful of broccoli rabe (from Siena Farms) and put it in the salad spinner to dry.  Once the greens were dry, I gave them a rough chop and put the broccoli rabe aside.

I then got to work on my peppers.  I had a beautiful red pepper along with three Hungarian hot wax peppers that were also from Siena Farms.  I chopped those up, along with half a large white onion. 

I put another skillet on the stove on medium heat with some vegetable oil.  When the pan was warmed up, I added the onions first because they would take the longest to cook down.

I then added the red pepper and also seasoned the vegetables well with salt and crushed black pepper.

The wax peppers were the next vegetables to be thrown in.  I very casually de-seeded them because Bret and I both like a lot of heat in our dishes.

I took a break from my vegetables and quickly checked on my sausages.  The water had cooked down, which meant that the sausages would be cooked through.  I turned the sausages over to make sure that they were nicely crisp and brown on the outside.  I returned back to my sauteed vegetables and added the broccoli rabe, which only needed a quick toss.

I loaded my veggies onto a crusty ciabatta roll and added the sausage. 

Bret chose to top his sandwich with brown deli mustard but I chose a roasted garlic mustard.

I don't want to tell my mom, but I think my sausage and peppers might just be better than hers.  I really liked the contrast of the spicy sausage and wax peppers with the sweetness of the white onions and red peppers.  Plus, the crusty ciabatta bread was the perfect vehicle for the sausage, peppers and onions.

What have you made recently that was inspired from a food memory?

Local Ingredients: Roasted Eggplant Pasta

Last week felt like an unbelievably long week.  By the time Friday rolled around, I was excited to head out of work and unwind with a kick-butt gym session and some time in the kitchen.  I was especially looking forward to cooking on Friday night because I had a lot of great fresh and local ingredients to work with, including some eggplants and a cucumber from my mom's garden!

While I love eggplant in any form, Bret isn't the biggest fan of its texture.  I decided to make a simple roasted eggplant pasta dish to utilize the eggplants in a way that that I thought Bret would enjoy.  I first started out by slicing my eggplant with the skin on and then eventually cubing it.

I tossed the cubed eggplant in a bowl with some extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

I spread the eggplant on a baking sheet and then got to work on my red Russian garlic from Siena Farms.  I have never worked with  this type of garlic before but I planned to do a simple roasted garlic preparation.  I cut off the top of the garlic bulb and found the most beautiful hints of red in the garlic cloves.

I drizzled the garlic bulb with olive oil and wrapped it in aluminum foil.  I put the garlic on the baking tray with the roasted eggplant and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for about twenty minutes. 

While the eggplant and garlic were in the oven, I put my pasta water on the stove and got to work on my pasta sauce.  Normally I would make my own sauce but I had a jar of Bertolli Marinara with Burgundy Wine open in the fridge from my beet green and bacon pizza.  Since I hate to let food go to waste, I decided to use this sauce as my base but doctor it up with some flavor. 

I added some fresh cracked peppercorns, salt, oregano, crushed red pepper flakes and onion powder.

After giving it a little taste, I also added a bit of olive oil and let the sauce simmer to infuse all of those great flavors.  I then got to work on my basil fresh from Atlas Farm.  I actually got way more basil than I expected so I suspect that there will be quite a bit of basil in my cooking this week!  I washed a bunch of leaves and finely chopped the basil.

When the garlic and eggplant were ready, I added both to my sauce, along with half of the chopped basil.  Both the eggplant and the garlic were so aromatic and added nice flavor and texture to the sauce.

While I drained the whole wheat angel hair pasta and tossed it in the sauce, Bret made a quick salad using the bag of mixed greens from Siena Farms, a cucumber from my mom's garden, and some delightful yellow cherry tomatoes.

I plated the pasta but decided something was missing.

So I topped it with a slice of Fiore Di Nonno mozzarella and some of the chopped basil.

I was really happy with this pasta sauce because it was full of flavor from the delicious Bertolli marinara base, the heat of the crushed red pepper flakes, the sweet roasted garlic and the hearty roasted eggplant.  Topping it off with the creamy mozzarella and chopped basil definitely added a fresh element to the dish.  Plus, the simple side salad was a cool refreshing contrast to this warm and hearty pasta dish.  Best of all, I absolutely love cooking with local ingredients from both local farms and from my mom's own garden!

What did you cook up this weekend?