Mint and Pea Crostini with Pickled Radishes and Burrata

Spring has finally laid its gentle hand on the winter-weary backs of Bostonians. That's my fancy way of saying -- it's SPRING! I classify that temperatures above 32F. The icebergs have melted (mostly), the sun is out (sometimes), and I don't have to wear multiple layers to brave the wintry winds (usually).

Celebration wouldn't be celebration without spring-type foods. Food with the colors, and the pretty, and the pop of spring. With herbs, green, and tart, and SPRING.

Can you tell I'm happy about spring? Sunshine for all!

Anyways, make this one night. It's simple, beautiful, and delicious. It may seem tricky to pickle something, but honestly, it's really not. The most complicated part of the process is slicing the radishes -- which is super easy if you have a food processor. The pickling process takes 10 minutes, and you can store the radishes in your fridge for about 1-2 weeks.

Mint and Pea Crostini with Pickled Radishes and Burrata
Slightly modified from Salt and Wind

Bread
Thinly slice a baguette and toast it at 375 with a little olive oil drizzled on top.

Pickled Radishes
This I learned from Cookie and Kate

Thinly slice 1 bunch radishes
3/4 cup vinegar (white wine or apple cider)
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons salt
Red Pepper Flakes (optional)
Mustard Seeds (optional)
Fennel (optional)

Slice the radishes thinly using a knife, mandolin, or food processor. Stuff them into a jar (I used a mason jar). Top with red pepper flakes and mustard seeds, or whatever other accoutrements (garlic cloves, fennel, etc.) Bring the vinegar, water, maple syrup, and salt to a boil. Turn it off, let it cool for about 30 seconds and then gingerly pour it over the radishes, close the container loosely, and let it sit for 10 minutes, and it should be good to go! Keep it stored in the fridge, closed, for 1-2 weeks.

Smashed Mint Peas
2 cups frozen peas
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons mint
1 tablespoon cilantro
1 lemon, juiced and zested
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Siracha to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste

Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to boil, and cook the peas until tender, which should take 3-4 minutes. Make sure not to overcook them. Drain the water out of the saucepan, and add to the still warm peas the butter, garlic, and lemon juice. Smash the peas together. When you're almost done smashing them, add in the mint, cilantro, siracha, salt, and pepper, and then finish smashing. Adjust seasoning to your preferences.

Assembly

Burrata or Mozarella, sliced


Lay the slices of bread out on a tray. Top generously with the smashed pea mixture, then on one half side of the bread lay out some of the burrata, and on the other half side of the bread lay out the radishes. Drizzle with olive oil and pepper and serve.


 

GF Cucumber Canape

My goal: increase the number of posts I churn out. I love to write, good or bad, I love to write...which any of my friends from college who knew me first year (looking at you Sam and Liz) will laugh at. But whatever, writing is cathartic and expressive and lasting. With a blog though, there's a certain pressure to post something interesting or funny, or anything people want to read. And sometimes it's fun to write for the audience, but mostly it's stressful, so it's way more fun to just write for me.

I digress from my main point which is cucumber canapes. I've been searching the web and my mind-brain, high and low, for gluten free thanksgiving recipes that my mom (and of course the rest of my family) can enjoy and I came across this little gem. It's easy to modify for what you like, and takes like no time to make.

A wonderful amuse bouche or a simple side dish. Hate goat cheese? Try ricotta flavored with sage. Or whipped feta. Can't stand olives? Go with marinated mushrooms. Or roasted red peppers. Or even marinated lemon slices. Want to change the flavor? Pickled ginger with a little toasted sesame seed oil drizzled on top.

Cucumber Canapes

1 cucumber sliced as thinly as you like
Goat Cheese
Topping like olive
Salt and pepper for garnish

My only tip is to make sure the goat cheese is at room temperature so you can scoop it into a plastic bag, cut off the tip and pipette out the cheese onto cucumber slices.

Modified Chile Rellenos

It's still winter. Spring break is around the corner, and it's still winter. My fingers, nose, and toes are well aware of that, but my brain and taste buds...not so much. I want tomatoes, I want avocados, I want iced coffee, iced tea, ICE. I want arugula salads with orange ginger vinaigrette, watermelon slices, frozen grapes, delicate asparagus, and cold noodle salad. I want spring, I want summer. I want sun, and flowers. Flats and shorts. Dresses and grass stains. I want it.

So to instead of doing a come-hither dance for the sun, I'm going to settle for spicy chile rellenos to light up my life, and belly. Chile rellenos are a Mexican dish that takes roasted chiles, stuffed with cheese, breaded in a delicious egg-based batter, pan fried, topped with a red sauce. It's amazing, wonderful, and immediately makes me think back to Arizona. Unfortunately, when I had a hankering for this dish, I didn't have the time or patience to make the batter, pan fry, etc.

So I modified it, and it was surprising easy, awesomely delicious, and as an added (unplanned) side benefit, healthier. This is definitely getting added into my weekly meal rotation.

Modified Chile Rellenos 
Serves 2-3

6 Poblano peppers (you can use any pepper, spicer or milder, poblanos aren't that spicy, but give a nice chile flavor)

Enchilada sauce (I used the Trader Joes brand, it's pretty good)
Mild Cheddar Cheese
Spinach

Extra stuffing/topping options: black olives, tomatoes, green onions, red onions, jalepenos, corn.

Wash the chiles, and put them on a cutting board. Lay the chile so it lays flat without rolling, and use a paring knife to make 2 cuts forming a T, one cut parallel to the stem, and one perpendicular, down the middle of from the stem to the tip. Expose the inside of the chile and scrape out the seeds. Be careful not to cut through the chile entirely, or not to cut off the stem).

Coat the chiles in a layer of olive oil, and broil them for about 5 minutes, turn them over, and broil for another five minutes. You want the skin to be blackened/charred, and the chile itself to be soft. When it's done, put in a heat proof bowl, and cover it for about 10 minutes. The steam from the chiles will make the skin easy to pull off.

Meanwhile put your stuff mixture together into a separate bowl. I mixed spinach and cheese together.

When the chiles are cool enough to handle, pull them out, and gentle peel off the skin, making sure not to pull apart the chiles. Then you want to lay the chiles onto a flat cutting board and place some of your cheese mixture in the middle, roll the chile around it, and put it into a baking dish. Do this with the remaining chiles. Cover with enchilada sauce and little more cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, and you're done! 

Lemon-Olive Oil Kale Salad

It's the holiday season, and if you're looking for a tasty side-dish that is gluten-free, healthy, and vegetarian...consider Kale salad.


My husband knows that I have a deep love of kale. I buy two bunches a week and cook it up fast with lemon and olive oil, and will it that before I even dig into dinner itself. It's my newest favorite...so I take umbrage with any insult to the b-vitamin packed vegetable. So if you have anyone in your family that think they don't like kale, or even don't know what it is, prove them wrong with this salad! 

I took the recipe from my friend's blog, Laurie's Little Kitchen, and tried it primarily because I'm at home, and I always like to try new gluten-free dishes when I'm around my mom to what works and what doesn't! Hope y'all enjoy this and have a wonderful holiday season! 

Lemon-Olive Oil Kale Salad
modified from laurieslittlekitchen


2 bunches of green or red kale, washed and with the leaves cut of the stem
2 carrots, grated
0.5 cup slivered almonds
1.5 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. olive oil
0.5 tsp. salt
dash of hot sauce to taste
pepper to taste
optional -- zest of 1 lemon 


In your salad bowl, rip up the kale leaves by hand into small to medium size pieces. Add in the olive oil, salt, lemon juice into the bowl. Then use your hands and mix the oil, salt, and lemon juice into the leaves. You want to "massage" the leaves, scrunching them up a little bit, and you'll feel them start to soften. Laurie's blog has a good explanation of how to do it with some pictures.


When it's soft enough for you, add in the grated carrots, slivered almonds, hot sauce, pepper, and zest and mix into the salad with a spoon. 


Enjoy it on the side of a sandwich, pasta, or by itself!   

Garlicky Greens: Kale Edition

Kale is amazing. Seriously, I love it. Flash-cooked, sauteed, steamed. It's got an amazing crunchiness that makes it like candy to me. 

Kale is a part of the cabbage family, and is full of calcium, beta carotene, and other vitamins. Quite healthy, and very versatile. It makes an excellent side-dish. 


Anyways, this is my favorite quick way to make it.

Garlic Lemon Kale


2 heads of garlic, minced
Juice of one lemon (or about 2 tbsp. lemon juice) 
1 head red or green kale
2 tbsp. olive oil
dash of salt and pepper


Heat olive oil and garlic over medium-high heat in a large saucepan. Toss in the garlic. While that's going, chop and wash the kale. Make sure you cut off the stems, they're less tasty than the greens. 

When the garlic has been going for about a minute. Add in the lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Then toss in the kale. It seems like a huge amount, but the kale wilts down fast. Just keep tossing every 30 seconds or so until it's wilted down. Serve hot.