donna's daily dish

i'm in a pickle

6/24/2023

Apple Chutney & Prosciutto Melt with Gruyere Cheese and Pears

With the new CSA season well underway, my pickle is trying to find, delicious and easy to prepare recipes for the produce that’s coming in. Last week’s CSA box brought more pickles and a zucchini. I could have made Easiest Fridge Pickles from the website Smitten Kitchen, but where’s the fun in that? So, I turned to my favorite source, NYT Cooking, and found a recipe by Melissa Clark for Bread-and-Butter Pickles. For the recipe you’ll need Kirby cucumbers, coarse kosher salt, fresh dill, light brown sugar, cider vinegar, coriander seeds, black pepper corns and allspice berries.

Although an easy recipe to prepare, I did have a problem locating both coriander seeds and allspice berries. I was able to find the coriander seeds at a second food store, but no luck with allspice berries. I substituted ground allspice in the same amount as if I had the berries. (*Note: for difficult to find spices I suggest Penzeys.)

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the calendar say it's summer

6/21/2023

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The calendar says that June 21st is the start of summer, but here at the Jersey shore, it’s been very breezy today, overcast and the temperature is in the mid 60’s. I decided that with the yellow squash that came in last week’s Dreyer Farms’ CSA, I would make a Summer Squash Soup with Parsley Mint Pistou that I found on the Smitten Kitchen website. For the soup you’ll need unsalted butter, an onion, salt, 2 pounds yellow summer squash, 2 carrots, 1 yellow fleshed potato (1/2 lb.) and four cups of chicken stock or reduced sodium chicken broth.

The soup is quite simple to prepare. You’re sautéing the onion in the butter until softened, adding the vegetables and stock and cooking until they’re soft. When done, you can either use a blender or immersion blender to purée the soup.

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quick and easy

6/18/2023

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My local ShopRite had some beautiful Chairman’s Reserve tomahawk pork chops on sale last week. I couldn’t resist picking them up as I knew I could find a recipe. Fortunately, my favorite go to NYT Cooking source, Melissa Clark, had a sheet-pan, yes another sheet-pan recipe, for Sheet-Pan Cumin Pork Chops with Brussels Sprouts. For the recipe you’ll need dark brown sugar, kosher salt, whole cumin seeds, ground cumin, freshly ground black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, fresh garlic, large bone-in pork chops, Brussels sprouts, fresh sage leaves, extra-virgin olive and lemon wedges for serving.

Brown sugar, salt, cumin seeds, ground cumin, black pepper, red pepper flakes and grated garlic are combined to make a moist rub. The rub needs to be placed on the pork chops 20 minutes before cooking or up to 24 hours. I opted for the longer marination to allow the meat to be infused with the peppery and smoky notes of the cumin. You can roast this meal either on two small or one large sheet pan. I used two pans as the tomahawk chops were large.

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csa week 4

6/17/2023

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Our week 4 box of seasonal produce from Dreyer’s contained bok choy, green squash, lettuce, red beets, Dinosaur (Tuscan) kale, peas and pickling cucumbers.

My husband and I have a salad just about every night of the week, so we enjoy receiving green leaf lettuce in our share. The peas were shelled and steamed cooked. I dressed them with butter, salt and pepper for a tasty side dish. I am looking for a bread and butter pickle recipe for my pickling cucumbers.

A sheet pan meal from Sarah Copeland which appeared on May 27th in The New York Times column “What to Make Next Week was the perfect choice for the kale. Her recipe, Sheet-Pan Roast Chicken with Tangy Greens, was a slightly spicy.

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something savory

6/11/2023

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If you’ve ever been to the Jersey Shore, make sure try Hoagitos located in the Belmar Shopping Plaza or Towne Center Plaza in Oakhurst. My favorite sandwich is the Forbidden Chicken made with crispy thigh meat that’s double fried, topped with a sweet and spicy glaze, carrot-daikon slaw and roasted garlic mayo. My husband has tried their turkey sandwich made with house roasted turkey, pepperjack cheese, tomato, arugula, onion and cilantro lime mayo. We’ve also had their risotto balls, tomato basil salad and smash burger to name a few. All of their food is delicious, prepared to order and made on site.

While babysitting a few months ago, I was channel surfing and I happened to catch an episode of the Travel Channel’s show “Food Paradise” featuring a segment on Hoagitos. One of the owners, Terence, was demonstrating how to prepare their famous Forbidden Chicken Sandwich. Despite not giving measurements, I was inspired to do own my version at home. Instead of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, I opted for boneless, skinless breasts. I did an internet search and found a recipe for honey sriracha sauce and carrot daikon slaw.

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time for something sweet

6/10/2023

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In one of our first CSA boxes this season there was a container of New Jersey strawberries. I let my daughter keep them, however, if I had Melissa Clark’s recipe for Strawberry Almond Cakes at the time, I would have kept my share. A few weeks ago, in her “A Good Appetite” column, Ms. Clark presented her recipe for a take on financiers that had roasted strawberries. I recently made financiers and I adored them as they reminded me of almond croissants. The recipe, Strawberry Almond Cakes, is made with fresh strawberries, granulated sugar, unsalted butter, confectioner’s sugar, almond flour, all-purpose flour, fine sea salt or table salt, egg whites and vanilla extract.

The difference between Ms. Clark’s recipe and the financier’s recipe that I made from America’s Test Kitchen, is the use of confectioner’s sugar versus granulated sugar and a small addition of flour in the Strawberry Almond Cakes. Don’t let these subtle differences discourage you, Ms. Clark’s recipe produced a delicate crumb and roasting the berries helped to not only concentrate the flavor, but reduced their moisture.

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CSA week 3

6/3/2023

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My participation in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program sometimes means I carryover produce from one week to the next. I don’t always have time to use everything up in one week and occasionally items such red leaf lettuce and some greens can manage to stay fresh longer than a week.

Last week I used the golden beets I received and roasted them to concentrate their flavor. From there I found a recipe on The New York Times Cooking website for Golden Beet Salad with Cider Vinegar Dressing. In addition to the beets you’ll need extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sea salt, mâche or other tender greens, walnut oil, freshly ground black pepper, toasted walnuts, ricotta salata or fresh goat cheese.

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