Black Girl Chef’s Whites

Sometimes making a meal can be a real pain.  You’re tired, the kids are screaming and you don’t feel like cooking.  But fast food is not an option (again) and you want your family to eat a healthy meal.  This pasta takes only about 20 minutes to make and is sure to make everyone happy, including you.

I previously posted a recipe for slow roasted tomatoes which is an ingredient in this hearty pasta. If you do not have the roasted tomatoes on hand, substitute with a can of chopped tomatoes seasoned with Italian herbs.

Sausage, Roasted Tomatoes and Pasta

Quick and Easy Pasta with Slow Roasted Tomatoes

12 oz farfalle pasta

2 TB olive oil from slow roasted tomatoes

4 (one 12 oz package) Spinach, Fontina & Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausage* or cooked sausage of your choice, sliced

1 portion of slow roasted tomatoes, chopped, with reserved olive oil

Kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

In a large pot of salted, boiling water cook pasta according to directions.  While pasta is cooking, heat the oil over medium flame in large skillet.   Cook sausage for 4-5 minutes, until lightly browned.  Stirring, add chopped tomatoes and remaining olive oil.  Carefully ladle about 1-2 cups of the pasta cooking water into the skillet.  Bring sauce to a boil, lower heat to simmer, let sauce thicken slightly.  If needed add more pasta water if sauce is too dry.  When pasta is done, add it to the skillet.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Grate Parmesan cheese over the top if desired.

Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes

*found at Trader Joe’s Markets

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Tomatoes are a wonderful and versatile fruit that we enjoy year round.  But should we enjoy them year round, as they are so much better when they are in season between June and September.  How many times have you eaten a tomato that was tasteless and bland?  That is because it was probably grown in another country, picked while still green, ripened by being exposed to a chemical and shipped thousands of miles to your market. In the off season if you can find tomatoes on the vine, choose these because they are generally more flavorful than conventional store tomatoes.

This recipe for slow roasted tomatoes works well with winter tomatoes, and is even better with fresh summer tomatoes.  You can use almost any fresh herb, such as thyme, oregano, tarragon or basil.  What you plan to do with your roasted tomatoes will help you decide which herb or herbs to use.  I made this batch with oregano because that is what I had in my refrigerator. Kind of made my choice easy and simple…

Fresh tomatoes and oregano

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

6 medium tomatoes, preferably vine ripened

1 TB fresh chopped oregano

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/3 – 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Turn oven on to low setting, or about 200 degrees.  Quarter and seed the tomatoes.  Place tomatoes on a baking sheet, sprinkle oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil on tomatoes.  Toss to coat tomatoes with seasoning and oil.

Seeded tomatoes with oregano and olive oil

There will be a good amount of oil on the baking sheet, but the oil will become flavored with the ingredients.  Use this oil along with the tomatoes to make a sauce, drizzle it onto pasta or dip crusty bread into it.

Roast the tomatoes for 1 1/2 – 2 hours, until soft and wrinkly.  Let the tomatoes cool on the pan, then store the cooked tomatoes covered with the oil if not using immediately.

Slow roasted tomatoes

Roasted tomatoes are great chopped and added to pasta or salads, pureed and made into a sauce, on a sandwich, on bruschetta, in omelets, and so many other ways.

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real food, real farmers, real community

Local Harvest is a great resource for cooks and anyone interested in sourcing locally grown foods in their communities.  According to their website  you can find farmer’s markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.

When you get to the home page of Local Harvest you can enter your zip code and get a listing of local farmer’s markets, farms, honey producers, produce stands, etc.  There are almost two million farms in the USA, and about 80% of those are small farms.  Many of these small farms are also family owned.  These farmers are not huge, government subsidized, agri-business farms, just regular people trying to grow the best product they can. These farmers sell their products through farmer’s markets, food co-ops, farm stands and CSA, which stand for Community Supported Agriculture.

With CSA you buy “shares”  or memberships from a local farmer, and you then receive a box of produce each week as it is harvested.  CSAs can also include the option for shareholders to buy shares of eggs, homemade bread, meat, cheese, fruit, flowers or other farm products along with their veggies. According to Local Harvest, the advantages of CSA include;

Advantages for farmers:

• Get to spend time marketing the food early in the year, before their 16 hour days in the field begin
• Receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm’s cash flow
• Have an opportunity to get to know the people who eat the food they grow

Advantages for consumers:

• Eat ultra-fresh food, with all the flavor and vitamin benefits
• Get exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking
• Usually get to visit the farm at least once a season
• Find that kids typically favor food from “their” farm – even veggies they’ve never been known to eat
• Develop a relationship with the farmer who grows their food and learn more about how food is grown

Local Harvest also offers a store where you can buy products from farmers all over the USA, who also offer their wares to local customers.  These include produce, meat, soap and body care, flowers, pet products, honey, seeds, herbs, preserves, wool and fibers, gift baskets and so much more.

Local Harvest is a website that should be bookmarked by everyone interested in locally sourced products.  Buying locally saves on transportation costs, which is environmentally responsible.  Most produce in the US is picked 4 to 7 days before being placed on supermarket shelves, and is shipped for an average of 1500 miles before being sold.  When you buy local your food will be fresher, and you will know exactly where it comes from.

http://www.localharvest.org/

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Spring is here, and nothing symbolizes this more than lamb.  You either love it or hate it, and I am a lover.  Sometimes I find it hard to reconcile the fact that I am eating that cute, furry animal, but then my taste buds take over, and I go into denial.  I haven’t eaten veal since I was a child and saw the small cage they kept those baby beef in at the county fair, yet I still persist in my love of lamb.

When I was an chef instructor in a culinary school, in one of the classes we had to break down an entire side of lamb into primal cuts.  One of my students was a vegan, and she almost passed out during the demonstration.  Needless to say, I excused her for the day.  I understood her pain, but I was still looking forward to eating that lamb.

As my toddler devoured her Easter dinner, I kept encouraging her to eat her lamb.  Then I remembered that her Godparents had given her a stuffed lamb for Easter, and wondered if she was putting two and two together.  Pink fuzzy lamb = tasty slices of meat in my mouth.  Hmmmm….nah, she’s only two!

I marinated some lamb loin chops in a fresh herb rub I made from herbs from my neighbor’s garden. The loin is a very tender cut, and care should be taken to not overcook them.

Fresh Herb Rub

Fresh Herb Rub

2 TB chopped garlic, about 6 large cloves

1 TB chopped fresh oregano

1 TB chopped fresh rosemary

1 TB fine lemon zest (I use a microplane zester)

1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients.  Stir well, to distribute the salt.  The rub can be made a 2 days ahead of use.  I would suggest rubbing your meat with this marinade at least 6 hours, and up to 24 hours before cooking. The longer it marinates, the better.  I marinated my loin chops for 48 hours, which ensured the flavor was absorbed completely.

I decided to broil the loin chops, but I would also suggest grilling.  I place the chops on my trusty, crusty broiler pan which I had pre-heated in the broiler for a few minutes.

lamb loin chops on broiler pan

Broil the chops for 5 minutes, then turn over.  Cook an additional 4-5 minutes, until lamb is rare.  If you don’t like rare meat, cook an additional minute or two.  Let the chops rest for a moment to reabsorb their juices.

Broiled Lamb Loin Chops

If you are not a lamb lover, the herb rub can be used with chicken, turkey or pork.  It will also be good tossed with potatoes before you roast them.

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Oxtails?  That is often how people react when I mention cooking oxtails.  What are they exactly?  An oxtail is actually the tail of a steer, which means they are beef. An oxtail has a large bone, and is very gelatinous,which makes them perfect for stewing or braising.  They are also often used for making stock.  Oxtails are eaten the world around, from China and Korea to Jamaica and the USA.

Although I call oxtails a poor man’s meat, they are no longer as inexpensive as they used to be.  I buy mine at Costco, which sells them for about $3.99 a pound.  Another place to find them is Asian  or Hispanic markets.  Oxtails are often sold in packages which weigh between 2-4 pounds.  Look for a mix of large and smaller oxtails, not just small, as these are almost all bone.

This recipe for braised oxtails is simple.  Once the prep work is done, you just walk away from the stove and let them cook for a few hours.

Braised Oxtails

4-5 lbs oxtails

Kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 TB oilve oil

1/2 large onion, thinly sliced

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp dried thyme

1 cup red wine

4 cups beef or chicken broth

1 medium bay leaf

Season the oxtails with salt and pepper.  In a large, deep pot such as a dutch oven, heat oil.  Brown the oxtails in batches, making sure not to crowd the pan.

Once all the oxtails have been browned, saute the onion about 3 minutes, until softened.  Add the garlic and thyme, saute 1 minute, then add red wine to deglaze the pan.  Stirring constantly, scrape up any browned bits stuck to the pan while wine reduces by half.  Return oxtails to pan, add stock and bay leaf.  The stock should almost cover the oxtails.  Add more or less, as needed.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cover pan.

At this point you can walk away from your stove.  Check in with your oxtails every once in awhile, making sure they are happily simmering away.  After 1 1/2 hours of cooking, turn the oxtails over.  Cover the pan again, and walk away.  Cook for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until meat is very tender.  Remove the oxtails from the pan, and if necessary reduce the liquid until slightly thickened.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I like to serve the braised oxtails with rice or mashed potatoes as a side dish, because they both soak up the braising liquid so well.  And like most braised or stewed dishes, it will taste even better the next day.

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Pine cone Chicken Leg

While casually walking through my toddlers play yard at her school, I glanced down at the ground.  Were my eyes deceiving me, or did I see a chicken leg on the ground?  A chicken leg on the ground at the preschool yard? Huh?

Upon closer inspection I realized it was a pine cone that had been strategically eaten by a squirrel, and it looked just like a chicken drumstick!

I am a lover of nature made food art, such as potato chips that look like Jesus, or peppers that have a face to them.  There are even websites devoted to nothing but nature made food art.

So in the spirit of April Fools day, I present you with my pine cone chicken leg.

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