Author: admin

April made squash ravioli with a parmesan cream sauce. Delish.

Cooked fennel & chard under foil in the oven at 400 with olive oil in a buttered pie dish (20m). Added one sliced preserved lemon (rind only), shaved parmesan (1/4 cup), heavy cream (1/2 cup), and cracked pepper, and cooked until barely browned on top (10m). Served over orzo pasta.

Put our neighbor Per’s bag of lemons to good use with an excellent recipe for Moroccan preserved lemons found online.

Ingredients

8-10 lemons, scrubbed very clean
1/2 cup kosher salt, more if needed
Extra fresh squeezed lemon juice, if needed

Sterilized quart canning jar

Method

1 Place 2 Tbsp of salt in the bottom of a sterilized jar.

2 One by one, prepare the lemons in the following way. Cut off any protruding stems from the lemons, and cut 1/4 inch off the tip of each lemon. Cut the lemons as if you were going to cut them in half lengthwize, starting from the tip, but do not cut all the way. Keep the lemon attached at the base. Make another cut in a similar manner, so now the lemon is quartered, but again, attached at the base.

3 Pry the lemons open and generously sprinkle salt all over the insides and outsides of the lemons.

4 Pack the lemons in the jar, squishing them down so that juice is extracted and the lemon juice rises to the top of the jar. Fill up the jar with lemons, make sure the top is covered with lemon juice. Add more fresh squeezed lemon juice if necessary. Top with a couple tablespoons of salt.

5 Seal the jar and let sit at room temperature for a couple days. Turn the jar upside down ocassionally. Put in refrigerator and let sit, again turning upside down ocassionally, for at least 3 weeks, until lemon rinds soften.

6 To use, remove a lemon from the jar and rinse thoroughly in water to remove salt. Discard seeds before using. Discard the pulp before using, if desired.

7 Store in refrigerator for up to 6 months.

Made a paste from garlic, cumin, paprika, powdered ginger, and salt – rubbed into cubed Alston Farms beef roast, left for a few hours. Threw into a pot to brown, added 1.5 cups of gingered squash soup (pureed butternut squash, leftovers).  Left to simmer for 1/2 hour, then added a handful of raisins and ~5 chopped canned whole tomatoes. Left to simmer another hour or so (got beers at 500 club). Added 5 small yellow squash, quartered, simmered for another 10 min, then 1/4 cup of kalamata olives, julienned strips of 1 freshly roasted red pepper, and julienned rind from 2 preserved lemons. Served in Sasha’s tajine over Israeli couscous (1:1.05x couscous to water).

Makes about 25 cookies.  Preheat oven to 325 F.

2 sticks (½ pound) unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
¾ cup granulated white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached AP flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

Cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy (most important step). Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Sift dry ingredients together and stir in, mixing thoroughly. Add chocolate chips to batter and form cookies in ice-cream-scoop size balls. (Batter can be frozen in log-shape & cut for baking – just give a little more time in oven, or place in oven during pre-heating).

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until firm on edges but slightly soft in center. Cool on rack. Cookies’ natural caramel hardens and crisps on bottom as they cool – so leave for at least 5 minutes.