Baked Beans
beans, Salads and Sides, vegan, vegetarian

Every fall since childhood, I've watched my grandmother make these beans. When I was 18, and finally moved out into my own place, one of the first things I purchased for my kitchen was a bean pot. You can't find too many of them in stores anymore, but you can find them online at Amazon and a few other places. You don't need to spend more than about $20-30 to get a good one.  Amazon does have one that isn't too expensive. You want one that looks like this. You can also use a Le Creuset dutch oven with the cover, although you don't need to.

I make a big batch of these babies at least once a month from September to February. The molasses and mustard give it a nice complex flavor, and the apple gives it a bit more sweetness. Try them over a baked potato with just a bit of Gorgonzola or sharp cheddar. Or just as they are.

 

Pasta with tuna & roasted tomatoes, onions & garlic
Entrees

It may seem foolish to turn on the oven in the middle of summer. Okay, actually, yes, it was foolish. But when you spend the day watching the Cooking Channel, and you come across this recipe which just happens to involve many things you already have in your pantry, and you get inspired... you can imagine where this goes.

This version is decidedly different, primarily because part of my all-day food-porn-fest involved watching Jamie Oliver do a fantastic episode of Jamie at Home that was all about onions, and we happened to get a big bunch of smallish red spring onions from our farm share. This, combined with about a pound of grape tomatoes that looked like they would go bad immediately if I didn't use them soon, led to the following adaptation.

The important things to note about this recipe are the following:

  • When I talk about "spring onions," I don't mean scallions, which are often referred to as spring onions. What I mean is the small, fresh onions that have long, scallion-like tops on them. You can find them at most farmer's markets, and they're DELICIOUS. They should have a small to medium sized bulb that gets bigger as the season moves forward.
  • Oil-packed tuna is very important in this recipe, as it has significantly more flavor than the water-packed variety. There's an Italian brand that I like, but the Trader Joe's oil-packed Yellowfin is what I used for this, and it was great.
Cilantro/Coconut Pesto (ChimiChurri)
pesto, Sauces, vegan

For two seasons now, we've gotten more cilantro than we can possibly imagine finding useful in our farm share. Last year, in an effort to figure out what to do with it, I made this sauce. Served over salmon or steak, it is impossibly tasty.

You make it pretty much the same way you would pesto - although you want it to turn out a bit more liquid than a pesto. The key to this is the acid - you want a bit of citrus and vinegar to cut the cilantro.

Borek with Chicken, Fennel and Leeks
Entrees, Mediterranean

Recently I was treated to a cooking class at Sofra in Watertown, where we learned a variey of savory pies from various Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures. The first one I tried when I got home was Borek - it's made with layers of Yuftka pastry (a very thin crepe, available at many of the Armenian groceries in Watertown). While the basic recipe is much more simple than this, this version that I made last night was delightful, and the braising liquid makes a great soup. You do want to braise the chicken legs beforehand, and it's very worth the effort; however, if you're really short on time, you could also do this with a supermarket rotisserie chicken.

Note: this recipe is not for those watching their weight. It's a lot of eggs and butter, but oh so very good.

Nut-free Baklava!
Desserts

Living in Watertown, home of all the Armenian and Greek supermarkets EVER, it's not hard to find good baklava. What is hard, though, is finding nut-free baklava; and a friend's recent laments about this (nuts are deadly to her), inspired some research. This recipe is a mashup of a few different things: the basic recipe (semolina custard, filo and syrup) was given to me by Sophia at Sophia's Greek Pantry in Belmont, where I also got many of the ingredients; the rest of the filling was inspired by a couple of recipes that I found online and my own thoughts on what would create the texture I was looking for.

You can modify this any way you like, actually; another thought for the "nut" filling is pumpkin seeds and dried Calmyrna figs pulsed with a bit of candied ginger and orange zest for zing.