Dark Days Soup with Sprouts

In February my fancy turns to sprouts.  The seed catalogs are busy teasing us with their endless varieties of tomatoes and basil and I'm itching to grow something---anything!  So I sprout, usually mung beans and alfalfa though I keep meaning to branch out with radish or broccoli seeds.  I do not recommend the mixed bag of sprout seeds, they always turn out yucky.  Last year I made a lot of egg foo young omelets with my mung bean sprouts but yesterday Penny's stomach was bothering her and so I decided to make a small pot of soup instead.

This is my Dark Days meal for the week and includes home grown mung bean sprouts, 9 Bean Rows pac choi and onion, garlic from The Saturday Farmers Market at the Village and beef bone broth made from Gallagher's Centennial Farm.  The process was nothing fancy: melt frozen broth, add sliced onion and garlic along with salt to taste and ginger, bring to a simmer, add chopped pac choi and return to a simmer, remove from heat, pour into bowls and top with mung bean sprouts and if desired a squeeze of lime, a splash of fish sauce and maybe some chili oil.

P.S.  Check out this nice article on Gallagher's Centennial Farm.

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals.

Dark Days Frittata

For this week's Dark Days of Winter Challenge I give you a cell phone photo of a potluck dish-- not my best entry but at least it's something.  To the potluck today, I brought a frittata made with 9 Bean Rows turnip greens and red onions, eggs from The Saturday Farmers Market at the Village and my home-smoked ham I made with the half hog from Bare Knuckle Farm.  I can't vouch for the salad and apple I had with it but given the company it was quite possible they were local and/or organic.

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

Dark Days Smoked Paprika Turnips and Kale

To complete this week's Dark Days challenge I made lunch today using turnips, kale and onions from my 9 Bean Rows winter CSA share.  I saw this recipe for Smoky Roasted Turnips on The Food Lover's Primal Palate but didn't feel like waiting for the oven to heat up. I then started thinking about bubble and squeak and so added kale.  A fried egg from our ducks seemed like a good bump of protein.  I had bacon fat on hand but thought the flavor of olive oil would be good with the pimenton and so I used oil from Higher Grounds.  It was delicious and when Penny noticed me eating she ran over and stole a bunch even though there was enough hot pimenton to give a little burn.  She's my little firecracker!

Smoked Paprika Turnips and Kale (with an egg)
Add peeled and cubed turnips to salted boiling water and cook just until tender.  Drain immediately and allow the extra steam to evaporate off.  Soften some sliced onion in olive oil in a cast iron pan.  Add the turnips and sprinkle hot pimenton (smoked paprika) and cracked black pepper to taste.  Cook over medium/high until the turnips and onions are caramelized.  Add in chopped kale and toss to wilt.  Push the vegetables over to one side and add a little more olive oil to the empty side.  Crack in an egg and cook to your taste, I love crispy edges!  Serve with the egg on top for runny yolk awesomeness.

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

Penny's rainbow nose

Paint covered hands!

I may regret reading this book to her a few days ago.

Dark Days Pork Belly with Chestnuts

If you are a fan of food media you couldn't have missed the adoration that has been heaped upon pork belly in the last few years.  So when I made bacon this fall, with the half hog I purchased from Bare Knuckle Farms, I saved the trim pieces from my whole pork belly to cook on their own.  I had planned on trying David Chang's Pork Belly but it and most of the other recipes for pork belly rely on sugar and often soy sauce for flavor and I am avoiding both for January.  A little more searching brought me to this recipe for Braised Pork Belly.  I loved the sound of the fennel and allspice rub and the fact that it didn't call for any sugar.  I replaced the white wine with Black Star Farms verjus since I'm also avoiding all alcohol and adjusted the spices for the braising liquid somewhat.  After the braising was done I knew some sweetness was needed so I dug out some locally grown boiled chestnuts.  I sliced up the braised meat and broiled it just a little with the chestnuts.  They were wonderful together- sweet, rich, and spicy!   For something green to go with this meal I stir fried pac choi  from my winter 9 Bean Rows' CSA share with local garlic, organic fresh ginger, Eden Foods toasted sesame oil and a few black sesame seeds.  A great meal but I still feel like pork belly is best served as bacon.  Nothing beats bacon!

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

Dark Days Sausage and Greens Soup

We were given an extra challenge for this week and it was to make a soup or one-pot meal.  This was timed well to coincide with the snow and drop in temperature.  I made a batch of my Sausage and Greens Soup.  This batch is made with leeks from The Saturday Farmers Market at the Village, kale and turnip greens from 9 Bean Rows homemade Hubbell Farm chicken broth and my homemade apple/anise pork sausage, made with pork raised on Bare Knuckle Farm.

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

Dark Days Roast Duck and Root Slaw

It's hard to put into words what raising your own animals for meat is like.  There is a sense of pride but also a weighty feeling of duty.  The excitement of fuzzy little ducklings and the annoying stink and mess as they take over your garage...the fun of seeing your kids chasing a big flock of ducks in your front yard and realizing this many animals eat a lot more food than the four birds you had before...the repeated discussions with your son and husband about how, "Yes, some of the birds are going to be for meat."  And then finally  butchering day comes.  Could I really do it?  Is it going to to be hard?  Is it going to be scary?

With four ducks and a rooster under my belt I personally have those questions answered and found it to be a rewarding experience.  I plan on getting more meat ducks again this year.  Maybe a little later this year so I can butcher in the fall instead of late summer and definitely a designated meat breed (Pekin or Muscovy) instead of the multi-purpose Buff ducks we got last year.  With our ducks I have made duck stock, duck confit, pan-seared duck breasts and just this weekend I roasted the one bird from the freezer that I left whole.  All of it was more delicious than anything store bought and I hope I did them justice.  Thank you to those ducks and all the animals that we use for food.  Also a huge THANK YOU to Joan and her son from Olds Farm.  They let me practice at their duck butchering and the experience was invaluable.

I used Roast Duck with Citrus Pan Sauce as a base recipe for my roast duck.  I stuffed the cavity with a Rennie Orchards apple and spiced the steaming water with just 1 tablespoon toasted coriander seeds along with 1 inch piece of sliced fresh ginger and 1/2 teaspoon cassia buds.  For the sauce I used the reserved steaming liquid and 1/2 cup verjus to deglaze the roasting pan then strained it to remove the spices.  To the strained reduction I added a diced apple, 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger and a pinch of dry mustard.  I cooked this until the apple was tender and served it on the side.  It was subtly spicy and tart to go with the rich duck. *A note of caution, be very careful when you prick the skin the second time, after steaming.  I was a little too enthusiastic and should have gone shallower with my pricks.

On the side, I made a root slaw similar in to this Super Red Slaw.  In it were julienned beet, carrot and turnip with a half of a red onion, thinly sliced.  To dress it I used Black Star Farms verjus, Eden Foods ume plum vinegar, salt, pepper, fresh grated organic ginger, and dried spearmint from my garden.  It was good but I prefer the version with cabbage.  The vegetables came from 9 Bean Rows and vendors of The Saturday Farmers Market at the Village.

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

The pot of gold at the end, duck fat!

Dark Days Lunches (with a little cheating)

It wasn't easy to pick a meal this week to dedicate to the Dark Days Challenge.  For some reason I kept changing my plans at the last minute and adding in an ingredient that made the meal not quite qualify.  So in place of one fully local plate I give you my past two lunches, each with one glaringly not locally sourced ingredient but lots of local flavor.

First we have yesterday's Sunshine Chicken with roasted roots.  I used a whole chicken from Hubbell Farm, which I broke down, the wings are pictured.  I shared this recipe back when I first started blogging and my family and I still love it.  Of course it calls for lemons and my lemon tree croaked right after I got one batch of fruit from it but they are in season and organic.  The root vegetables I roasted this time were turnips, beets, parsnips and onion-- a very good combination.  They came from 9 Bean Rows and vendors of The Saturday Farmers Market at the Village.  I cooked the roots in Hubbell Farm's turkey shmaltz.

And today's lunch was lamb arm chops from Starlight Hill Farms served with a variation on this cherry tomato salad.  I used kale, turnip greens and red onion from my 9 Bean Rows winter CSA share but couldn't resist the totally out of season cherry tomatoes John brought home.  I dressed the salad with verjus from Black Star Farms, lots of dried spearmint from my garden (re-hydrated in the verjus), salt, pepper and Higher Grounds olive oil.  You can see the distinctive oil label glowing in today's fantastic sunshine in the background of the photograph.

*Both of these meals fit the requirements of my January Whole 30

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

Dark Days Roasted Pumpkin Hash with Chorizo and more

More snow today.  From the signs in the coop, I think the weather was bad enough that even the ducks slept inside and it has to be pretty bad out for them to bother going in.  Weirdly one of our barred rocks is molting.  Talk about bad timing, we're in the middle of a cold snap!  She looks awful with all the new feathers sprouting out of her neck, blech.

Unintentionally, I managed to have all of my three meals today SOLE and completely Whole 30 compliant as well.  For breakfast I had a kale and baby lettuce salad.  For the dressing I made a creamy salad dressing with egg yolks from my chickens, organic flax seed and olive oils, a little organic lemon, mustard and Black Star Farms verjus.  I need to get some anchovies for my creamy dressings, they would have put it all over the top!  The kale and lettuce came from my 9 Bean Rows winter share that started last week.  I'm SO looking forward to their vegetables!

For lunch, I had a hash made with roasted cubed pumpkin (leftover from this soup), onions, sage (dried from my garden) and  some of my homemade chorizo sausage.  I took a picture of the hash before I chopped up the sausage and added it to the pumpkin but I attest that it was delicious though less attractive served that way.  Finally, dinner was beef and root vegetable soup.  I used some thin cut short ribs from Gallagher's Centennial Farm with a slew of root vegetables from 9 Bean Rows and vendors of The Village's Saturday Market.  The soup was very similar to the goat borscht I made before but with beef and without cabbage.  I flavored it with dried rosemary and winter savory from my garden, a  picture of the ingredients i used this time follows.

Dark Days Pumpkin Hash with Chorizo
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.  Cube pumpkin or winter squash into ~3/4" cubes and toss with a diced half an onion, olive oil, crumbled dried sage, salt and pepper.  Roast for ~20 minutes stirring occasionally, until golden brown.  While the pumpkin is roasting pan fry some chorizo sausage.  *Now that I'm thinking about it, I could have just added the sausage into the oven and saved myself a pan to wash.  When the pumpkin and sausage are fully cooked, slice the sausage and toss the two together.  Enjoy!

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entres.  

The ingredients for my Dark Days Beef and Root Soup, the process was similar to this goat borscht

Dark Days Pumpkin Soup

This week's Dark Days meal is a holiday detox one. Even though I didn't eat huge amounts, the refined sugar and rich food I did eat have me reaching for comforting vegetable dishes. Lots of parsley, arugula and kale salads and for lunch today this soup.

Usually I spice my pumpkin/winter squash soups with curry or warm spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc.  But in a search for "winter" books for Alex I found a gem of a cookbook at our library.  It's called The Winter Harvest Cookbook.  Way ahead of the current locavore movement this 20 year old book was reprinted last year and it is full of ideas on how to cook winter produce.  What I like the most about it is that even though meat, dairy and grains are present in the recipes the focus really is on bringing out the best of the seasonal vegetables.

So this time I made my pumpkin soup a little different by following a recipe in the book that called for juniper berries.  I cooked leeks and onions in turkey shmaltz, added cubed pumpkin and a little ground juniper berries.  These softened together for 10 minutes and then I added chicken stock and cooked it for 30 more minutes.  To finish I pureed the soup and tasted for seasoning.  All the vegetables were local and the chicken stock and turkey shmaltz were from local birds as well.  And the apple is from Rennie Orchards.  A perfect little lunch for a Dark Day.

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entries.  

The Winter Harvest Cookbook by Lane Morgan

The pumpkin I used was a Jarrahdale pumpkin

The kids on Christmas morning
Alex is showing Penny the gems he got and Penny is holding the doll I made her.  Alex's new rockhound paraphernalia surround them.

Dark Days Lamb and Kraut Salad

My lamb from Starlight Hill Farms arrived this weekend so for this week's Dark Days meal I made some pan-fried blade chops with kraut and kale salad.  The kraut and kale salad was inspired by Mother's Kitchen's recipe this week. I also used her kraut recipe to make my homemade sauerkraut, made this fall with cabbage bought at the farmer's market.  For the salad, I used Red Russian Kale and the sweetest little white turnips both from Blackbird Gardens, bought at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons' Saturday market.  I skipped the onion and carrot, used organic flax seed oil and added some anise seeds because I have become very fond of them with sauerkraut.  Thanks Cynthia for your Kraut and Kale Salad and Homemade Sauerkraut Instructions.

Visit Not Dabbling In Normal on Sundays for the round up of Dark Days meals. You can also visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of our Midwest group entries.  

I noticed today that the star is even more crooked than it was when I first put it up and that we have a Christmas spider in residence.

Dark Days Borscht with Goat

We went downstate for a quick visit this weekend.  While there my mother served us a delicious borscht that reminded me that I've been making roasted beets too often, some soup was overdue.  For mine, I added some goat meat we bought from friends.  Though the kids have mostly been uninterested in it, John and I were surprised how much we liked the goat.  I have a lamb order from Starlight Hill Farms that will be filling my freezer by the end of the coming week so I decided to finish off the rest of the goat before it arrives.  I'm sure this would be good done with lamb, beef or vegetarian.

Borscht with Goat
In a soup pot, brown goat stew meat (~10 ounces) in some bacon fat. (Did I mention I obsessively save animal fat?) Remove the goat meat with a slotted spoon and set it aside.  Soften an onion, two medium beets, and a small celery root in the bacon fat, seasoning them well with salt and pepper.  The onion I diced but the beet and celeriac I cut into small batons.  Of course wash and/or peel the vegetables first.  Add the goat meat back into the pot along with 4-6 cups of water or stock, a pinch of allspice, a tablespoon of vinegar and a tablespoon of dried dill weed.  Stir and adjust seasonings as needed.  Bring the soup to a simmer and cok for 20 minutes, or until the meat is tender.  Add a couple of cups of shredded cabbage and cook just until the cabbage is done to your liking. I like the cabbage still a little crunchy. Taste before serving and add more salt, pepper or vinegar if needed.

Dark Days Challenge Info:
The goat meat came from friends who raised the animal themselves.  The bacon fat is from either my homemade bacon or Gallagher Centennial Farm's bacon.  The onion, beets, celeriac and cabbage are from various vendors from the Saturday market at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons.  The vinegar I used is Eden Foods Ume Plum Vinegar.  Eden Foods is a Michigan company although I do not know where they source the ingredients for this product.

This Sunday will be the first Midwest roundup at Not Dabbling In Normal.  You can visit our coordinator at Unearthing this Life to see some of the entries so far.  

Penny has discovered a box of her brother's old animal figurines

And Alex got a haircut!

Dark Days Roasted Chicken and Root Vegetables

My entry for this week's Dark Days of Winter Challenge is a basic meal for us: roast chicken with roasted vegetables, in this case roasted root vegetables.  The chicken is from Hubbell Farm.  The vegetables were all bought at this past Saturday's farmer's market at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons.  This batch included turnips, beets, onions, rutabaga and celeriac.  They came from Birch Point Farm, Providence Farm, and Blackbird Gardens.  I seasoned the chicken with dried sage from my garden and rubbed it with molasses (not local but organic) and some more of my saved turkey schmaltz from Thanksgiving.  The vegetables were also roasted with sage, salt and turkey schmaltz.

Posts will be recapped starting this Sunday at Not Dabbling In Normal though it won't include my group (the Midwest) until the 18th. Until then you can visit our Midwest coordinator at Unearthing this Life or check out the blogs of the participants.  Here is a list of the other Midwest Dark Days bloggers:

Small Wonder Farm

20 Something Allergies

Happy Home

The Local Cook

Detroit Cooks

The Frugal Homestead

Mother’s Kitchen

Our Happy Acres

Dee Dee managing via comments and email

Dark Days Fast Leftover Turkey Pumpkin Chili

A super quick version of pumpkin chili to use up leftover pumpkin puree from pie making and turkey from Thanksgiving.  This is made with local ingredients, except the spices.  It was a perfect way to make use of the turkey that we feel obliged to have every Thanksgiving but no one in our family really loves.

Fast Leftover Turkey Pumpkin Chili
Makes about 3 servings

3 cups cubed roasted turkey meat
1 1/2 medium onions, diced
~1 green pepper, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 tablespoon turkey schmaltz (or oil)
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 pint jar crushed tomatoes
2-3 tablespoons ancho chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
smoked salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

-Cube your turkey meat into ~3/4 inch cubes.  All dark meat would be my preference but I used both white and dark meat in this and was surprised that the white meat was saved by the chili spices.
-Soften the onion, green pepper and celery in the turkey schmaltz along with salt and pepper.  If you're not like me and don't almost religiously save fat from roasting meat then by all means use a neutral oil.
-Add the spices and cook about a minute until fragrant.  Add the pumpkin and tomatoes. Season to taste with smoked salt and black pepper.  The smoked salt really does add depth and improve this quick dish.
-Add the turkey meat and bring to a simmer.  Do not let it boil!
-Simmer for 10 minutes, check seasonings and serve.

I'm adding this to the Dark Days of Winter Challenge.  Recipes will be recapped on Sundays at Not Dabbling In Normal.  Also visit our Midwest coordinator at Unearthing this Life.

Dark Days Challenge info: We got our turkey from Hubbell Farm.  The onion and green pepper are from my garden (I actually used two tiny peppers left from a bunch that I saved right before the hard frost and were left neglected in the crisper). The pumpkin and the tomatoes were both from the farmers market but I don't remember who grew them, the tomatoes I canned in August.  The celery stalk and the spices are not local but all but the cumin was organic.

Other pumpkin chilis I've bookmarked lately:
Primal Pumpkin Madness
Pumpkin chili with venison

The kids were reading Christmas books together.  I love this time of year!