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Daily Archives: January 13, 2013

Make Mine Mofongo

Posted on January 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

Yes, I finally got around to making the plantains. Another item crossed off my Sixty@Sixty challenge. Lots of local goodies in the dinner. But, not those plantains.

The plantains were not green. Like the recipes call for. They were getting ripe. That just meant they were quicker to cook in the salted water. I have to admit I really liked this dish. It does need more garlic though. I think I underdid the garlic.

I also chose a recipe that called for putting the patties in a saute pan, and not for deep frying patties or balls. This one.

Sort of. I just did the second half of it. Not the chicken.

Aren’t they great looking? There is local food in them too. The garlic. The bacon.

Served with a side salad, mostly local, and a local wine. I combined local dining with non-native ingredients. Making those foodie and locavore worlds collide.

Tomatoes, arugula, wine and cauliflower all from local sources. I have been incorporating local items into many of our meals. Even when I go out there to try something new. I liked this version of mofongo. Less fat than deep fried. My husband said they needed more garlic. I agree.

By the way, the broth used in this recipe was made with those beef bones from England Acres. Awesome broth. Made yesterday.

Beef bones, salt and water. Cooked down until rich. Refrigerated. When taken out, discard that fat layer and leave the clear broth. I used just a small amount of it. The rest will go into a gravy for gnocchi later this week.

I really have changed what I cook and how. It’s a great hobby in retirement. Learning to cook outside your native comfort zone.

hocofood@@@

Winter Eat Local Challenge Breakfast

Posted on January 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

The easy meal for my Eat Local all Winter challenge. The challenge is to eat at least one meal a week from locally sourced items. Most of this last week, I have had local items in almost every meal, but Sunday breakfast is the easiest to make.

Particularly, eggs, bacon and toast.

I never get tired of these lovely eggs. Rich orange yolks. My eggs come from three local farms, depending on where I go to pick up other items. These are Breezy Willow eggs. I also now have England Acres eggs in the fridge, and some weeks when I get to TLV, I will buy eggs from them. All are from free range hens.

The England Acre hens, in their portable fenced in area, that is moved around to allow them to find good things to eat. It doesn’t seem to deter a few hens, including this one who “flew the coop” and was wandering around towards the parking lot. Out at England Acres, Judy has small bags of feed that she keeps for children to buy and go out to feed the chickens. An easy way to teach the little ones about the chickens. They are funny. They all run in the direction of any children who come to the farm, even abandoning the area where their feed is located.

I learned a technique for doing eggs. I use just a touch of unsalted butter in the pan, and a splash of extra light olive oil after the butter starts browning. Put in the eggs. Let them cook until white is set, then gently spoon the hot oil over the yolks to set them. Nice sunny side up eggs, perfectly finished. The bacon in the pan added just a bit of fat. I only used a few small pieces of already cooked bacon. The bacon came from TLV, and I cooked up a package to use in a number of meals. It will be used in the mofongo I am making tonight, to use those plantains I bought.

After I defrost the bacon, I cut it in quarters and fry the entire package. I save the grease in a jar in the fridge to use if I am going to make venison, as venison is so lean. This time I didn’t save it, because I have some from a few weeks back when I made chili. Amazing how much fat there is in bacon, isn’t it? This bacon is destined mostly for the mofongo, and for some homemade bacon dressing I will be making for spinach salad topping, and for potato salad to use up the last of my CSA potatoes. One bout of cooking. Four different uses for it. Multitasking again.

As for the toast today, it was Spring Mill Bread. This has become my husband’s second favorite toast bread. After Atwater’s. Too bad Atwaters isn’t in the Olney winter market. Canela is. We have so many great bread makers in the area now. Easy to get a locally produced loaf of fresh bread. Let’s see. Atwater’s, The Breadery, Bonaparte, Great Harvest, Spring Mill, Canela, Stone House. At the markets and some local stores, look for freshly baked whole grain bread,

Seven Grain Crunch. The reason I love this bread is the lack of preservatives, dairy and oils. Yes, I am sometimes bad and put Trickling Springs butter on it, but I love it with just a touch of local jam, or some of my crushed berries from the freezer. Toast to mop up all that lovely yolk left on the plate from the eggs.