A friend of mine from high school, Kristin Anderson Hoppe is an holistic nutrition consultant and chef in the bay area. I really respect the work she’s doing and think we all would be better off if we took an holistic approach to nutrition and our relationship with the food we eat and where it comes from. Her mission is to help people choose “foods that sustain the health, vitality, and nourishment of themselves, their communities, and the earth.” If you are interested in learning more, check out her site: Food Therapy. Kristin recently posted something on Facebook about a soup with these ingredients and I was inspired to give it a try.  Usually I improvise recipes on the fly and don’t write anything down and then much to my chagrin have no idea how to recreate them if they turn out well. However, this time you are in luck because I had a hunch that this soup would be really good and I wrote down all the ingredients, amounts, and steps as I went along. Here’s the delicious result.

Winter Squash Soup with Apple, Ginger, and Coconut

Winter Squash of your choice – enough to make about 4 cups. I used 5 Delicata Squashes.

4 Tbsp olive oil, divided

1 large red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 inches fresh ginger root, grated

2 large apples, chopped (no need to peel)

1 can light coconut milk

1 cup vegetable broth

1/2 cup apple cider

1 palmful curry powder

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degree.

Cut squashes in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds and brush or spray the cut side with some olive oil. Cover a cookie sheet with foil. Place the squash on the cookie sheet cut side down. Roast in oven for about 30 minutes or until tender enough to pierce with a fork. (Cook time will depend on the size of your squash. Larger squashes will take up to 45-60 minutes.)

While the squash is roasting. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a pan. Add onions and apples. Cook until onions are translucent and apples are tender. Stir in the garlic and ginger* and cook for a couple more minutes. Turn the heat down to low.

Once the squash is done roasting let it cool for a few minutes until it’s not too hot to handle. Scrape the squash flesh out of the skin and add it to the onion and apple mixture. Stir in the coconut milk, broth, and apple cider. Next, stir in the curry powder and salt and pepper to taste. If you want a chunkier soup, you are done. If you want a smoother soup – blend it up right in the pot with an immersion blender if you have one. Or, puree in a small batches in a food processer and then return to pot to reheat.

* A tip about fresh ginger: The best way to peel it is with the back of a teaspoon. The skin is too thin and the flesh is too stringy to use a vegetable peeler. Grate the peeled part of the root with a regular cheese grater or a microplane.

Just read this article in the New York Times about folks in Sweden experimenting with measuring and labeling the carbon footprint of the foods they’re eating. I feel like we are so behind the times here in the USA. Imagine if we thought about food not just in terms of it’s nutritional content as fuel for our bodies but in terms of the health of the planet??? In this country we don’t seem to get the connection – our health and the environment’s health are one and the same. What would it take for Americans to think in these terms? Would your eating habits change if you were confronted with the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of that pound of ground beef in your grocery shopping cart? Or those bananas? Or that box of cereal?

Want to calculate your impact? Check out this great tool.

If you’re interested in reducing your food miles here are some good resources.

Hello readers and RecipeHacking participants -

So I have a few ideas for the next RecipeHacking challenge but I would really welcome your input. Is there anything you’ve been cooking lately that you think would be well suiting to being hacked? Generally when choosing a recipe to hack I’m looking for a dish that has multiple components that can be translated in new ways. For example with the pizza challenge, there were three general parts with the potential to be altered: the crust, the toppings, and the sauce. Some folks altered the crust, while others decided to interpret the sauce or toppings in a different way. I’m always interested in recipes that can be played with in terms of substituting ethnic ingredients or can be adapted to suit any course in a meal – for example the fruit pizza dessert one person submitted in the last challenge. Send me your best ideas and maybe, just maybe, your suggestion will show up as the next RecipeHacking challenge. Submit your daring dish ideas below in the comment section of this post. Thanks!

It’s cold, it’s rainy, and the temperatures have dropped. When it starts to get chilly, I love making soup. It’s a great way to use up fall and winter veggies from the farm and is usually foolproof. Veggies + broth + herbs = deliciousness. My mom gave me a general idea for this recipe and I just adapted it based on what we got at the farm this weekend. Try it with whatever you have on hand.

Pasta, Bean, and Vegetable Soup

3 leeks, sliced and rinsed (regular onions would also be fine)

2 large carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped (I include the leaves for flavor and looks)

1 zucchini, diced

2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can diced tomatoes, with their liquid

many cups of vegetable stock

1 box small pasta (I used pastini stars)

1/2 large head of escarole, rinsed and roughly chopped

Herbs to taste: oregano, parsley, basil

Optional: parmesan cheese

In a large soup pot saute leeks, carrots, and celery in a little bit of olive oil until just tender. Stir in herbs. Add stock. (I lost track of how much stock I put in – depends of how thick or thin you want your soup. Use your judgment.) Stir in beans and zucchini. Simmer for a few minutes and then add the pasta. Simmer until pasta is tender. Once the pasta is cooked stir in the escarole. Once escarole is wilted you’re ready to serve it up. If desired, sprinkle each bowl with a little parmesan cheese. This makes a very large batch of soup – be prepared to freeze some and/or share it with many friends.

This morning we woke to the first snowfall of the season. Despite it only being October, it is starting to feel a bit more like winter. Apropos of that – here are some seasonal “winter” recipe ideas.

About half of these foods are available at my farm right now but the other half, well, they may be in season somewhere – though certainly not here in New England. It looked like there are a few original ideas. Just wanted to pass it along.

Check it out:

http://www.chow.com/stories/10905?tag=nl.e351

I’m trying to catch up a bit. About a month ago I made a huge batch of raspberry jam. We have gorgeous raspberries at Brookfield but at most we got about a quart with our share – perhaps enough for a small tart or something, but ours usually disappeared before having the opportunity to become an ingredient in an actual recipe. They’re so tasty – we would munch on them on the ride home, have them on our cereal in the morning or over ice cream for dessert.

In past years we’ve done a lot of canning. This year we haven’t done any – what with a baby and a new house we didn’t feel like we had lots of time.  By the end of the summer I was really feeling the urge though and found myself  bound and determined to make some jam. So, to fulfill my jam making craving we went to a local berry farm and picked two flats. Do you know how many berries that is??? 16 pints! We picked one flat and I thought, “oh that doesn’t look like much, that will barely make any jam at all.” What was I thinking?! When we got home the race was on to hurry up and make jam before all those berries started to spoil because we certainly didn’t have room in our refrigerator for all of them.

The first time I made jam I was blown away by how much sugar the recipe called for. The second time I tried to cut the sugar without changing the type of pectin I used and the result was something I would hesitate to actually call “jam” – but  it did make a tasty syrup for pancakes and waffles. Since then, I figured out it’s best not to mess with the pectin:sugar ratio and have used low-sugar pectin. This time I chose to try using a no sugar pectin. Instead of sugar I sweetened the jam with mostly apple juice.

I love the simplicity of making jam. I rinsed the berries, put them in a pot, crushed them with a potato masher, mixed in the juice I was using for a sweetener, gradually stirred in the pectin, and let it all come to a boil. I did end up adding a very small amount of sugar in the end, about 1 cup (considering I had 24+ cups of fruit, that’s not much!). The jam was pretty tart and a little sugar cut the acidity just enough.

Once the jam boiled for a couple minutes it was ready and  I poured it into sterilized jars. I have a large-mouthed canning funnel that makes this job easier and neater. Once the jars are filled, with a small rubber spatula you can take a quick swipe around the jar to get any air bubbles out. Then you want to wipe of the top edge of the jar to make sure there’s no jam there to prevent the lid from sealing on properly. Once the lids were screwed on I  processed the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, you take the jars out of the boiling water and just let them be for a about 24 hours. This is my favorite time because the cans make a pinging pop-pop sound as they seal and you know they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. The next day – make sure each can is sealed by pressing on the lid.  If it doesn’t give you know it’s sealed. If you can depress the top – you have two options. You can put the jam in the fridge – it should last 3 weeks or so. Or you can reprocess it in boiling water again. Sealed jars should preserve the jam for about a year.

If you’re interested in canning and looking for materials (jars, canning pot, accessories, etc.), check out your local hardware store. I’ve been surprised by the variety of canning supplies the hardware stores near me have had. For step by step instructions on making and canning jam, most boxes of pectin include them.

Big thanks to all of you who participated in this RecipeHacking Challenge! What yummy creations you came up with!

The winner of this month’s challenge is Kate G. for her figgy pesto pizza! Congratulations, Kate! Not only did you take a pizza recipe and hack it – but you took a pesto recipe and hacked that too! We loved that you got inventive putting figs in the pesto sauce and used them as a topping as well. With the chicken and cheese it sounded like a match made in heaven. As well as RecipeHacking bragging rights, you win a gift certificate to to the market of your choice so you can keep getting creative in the kitchen!

Honorable mentions go to Cathy K. for her zucchini and cheese crusted pizza and Harriet C. for her fruit pizza dessert. We loved that it wasn’t just about interesting or different toppings but that you were rethinking the pizza from the ground up. Kudos to Rachel W. as well, for the most interesting ethnic twist. We’d never even heard of Ajvar before reading your post.

Anyone interested in revisiting all the wonderful recipes that were contributed, here’s the original post and comments.

Stay tuned – we’ll be looking to you all for some ideas for the next RecipeHacking challenge!

We’ve gotten some great responses to the third RecipeHacking challenge. Thanks to those of you who have shared your pizza creations already!

For those of you who have been pondering your pizza but haven’t posted yet (you know who you are) – time to get cracking in the kitchen! Check out the recipes already posted by your fellow competitors. Think you can do better? Prove it!

The deadline for posting recipes is a week from today, Friday – September 18th. Judging will take place over the weekend and then we will reveal the winner.

Friday night Josh and I hosted a little dinner party with some food-loving friends we haven’t seen in a while. I say hosted but it was really more of a collective effort. Our friends brought more than half the food. Josh and I made this delicious carrot tart and grilled some zucchini, summer squash, green and red peppers, onion, eggplant, and mushrooms to go on the side. Our guests brought bread, cheese, olives, mushrooms stuffed with sundried tomato pesto, white bean dip, a refreshing watermelon salad with feta and mint, a green salad with toasted walnuts, parmesan cheese, tossed in a lemony dressing, plus a tart with a shortbread crust and marscarpone filling topped with strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. It was a beautiful feast.

This is the second time I’ve made this carrot tart and it’s quickly become a favorite. It’s a great recipe for the summer and fall. I came across it in an old issue of Eating Well magazine I had kicking around the house. I was glad to find a use for our carrots and a chance to experiment with tarragon – an herb that is plentiful at the farm and I like but never know what to do with. I hope you enjoy the recipe!

Savory Carrot and Tarragon Tart

Crust Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp fresh tarragon leaves or 1/2 tsp dried

1/2 tsp salt

4 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup plain yogurt

Filling Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup thinly sliced red onion

1 1/2 cups grated carrots

2 tbsp dry sherry or rice vinegar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup milk

2 large eggs

2 tsp finely chopped fresh tarragon or 3/4 tsp dried

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground pepper

Note: Eating Well’s recipe calls for low-fat cheese and yogurt and milk. I cannot vouch for the results if you use the same. I used the real deal and it was perhaps not at healthy but was darn delicious. I didn’t have any sherry so substituted the rice vinegar. I was also admittedly a bit heavy handed with the tarragon.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. To prepare crust: Coat a 9-10 inch tart pan with cooking spray. (Don’t worry if you don’t have a tart pan you can improvise with something else. Or you can do what I did and make this the perfect excuse to go out and get that tart pan you’ve always wanted.) Place all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, tarragon and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a food processor; pulse to combine. Add butter one piece at a time, pulsing once or twice after each addition, until incorporated. Add 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup yogurt and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Transfer the dough to the prepared pan (it will be crumbly), spread evenly and press firmly into the bottom and all the way up the sides to form a crust.
3. Bake the crust until set but not browned, about 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
4. To prepare filling: Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in carrots and 1 tablespoon sherry (or rice vinegar) and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
5. Spread mustard over the crust. Sprinkle with Cheddar, then evenly spread the carrot mixture in the tart shell.
6. Whisk 1/2 cup yogurt, milk, eggs, tarragon, the remaining 1 tablespoon sherry (or rice vinegar), 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and pour in the filling.
7. Bake the tart until the filling is firm and the edges are golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or chilled.

This recipe is a little time and work intensive. But having a food processor helps. I used mine to make the crust and grate the carrots and cheese. You can also make the crust ahead of time. I assure you the finished product is worth the work.

Once upon a time, in an earlier incarnation of this blog,  Josh and  I challenged our readers to show off their culinary prowess. Here’s how Josh initially introduced RecipeHacking:

“Welcome to RecipeHacking, an occasional foray into unconventional cooking, adventurous eating, and competitive creativity.

The idea is simple – each month we’ll post a recipe here at Kitchen Dancing and you – our faithful readers and fearless cooks – will tweak it, test it, re-imagine and redesign it. Post your new versions of the recipe in the comments section of the original post and the best new take on the recipe will earn fame and honor (as well as a nice little prize).

This is a contest for those of you who are constantly pushing the limits of your meals, scribbling notes in your cookbooks, improving on time-worn recipes. But RecipeHacking is not just for foodies and aspiring chefs – this is for all of us whose family put a crazy twist on an old favorite, those of us who have wondered about “secret ingredients,” or even just tasted a good dish and thought it could be a great dish.

Seek out your secret ingredient. Discover your taste for tampering.

RecipeHacking is for you.”

Previously readers submitted their favorite, most creative versions of macaroni and cheese and beans and rice. The next RecipeHacker challenge continues with the comfort food theme and is something that could be interpreted in a wide variety of ways. This month’s challenge will be PIZZA!

I don’t feel the need to post an exact recipe. You know what pizza is. Dough most typically covered in tomato sauce, topped with cheese and vegetable and/or meat toppings of your choice. Enough said.

To participate in RecipeHacking all you have to do is create a new pizza recipe with your own unique twist. It can be a subtle change or a recipe revolution. Creative adaptations and loose interpretations are encouraged. What could you make a crust out of other that the typical dough? Pizza is thought to have it’s roots in Italian cuisine. What delicacies from other cultures could be translated to this all-American favorite? Post your new version in the comments section below and check back often see what your fellow competitors come up with.  Please discuss and debate the merits of each other’s recipes – feel free to add those comments below as well. In a few weeks we will announce a winner and bestow upon them a small prize to congratulate them for thinking outside the (recipe) box. Good luck – hack away!

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