Prosciutto, Grilled Fennel, & Grapefruit Salad

Thank you Martha Stewert for this amazing salad!!!! My husband is now hooked on grapefruit… and it used to be a struggle to get him to eat it. The salad we made was pretty similar to Martha’s but we made our own dressing and we brushed the fennel with olive oil when we grilled it.

Prosciutto Fennel Grapefruit Salad

So many flavors going on…. the bitterness of the rocket, the clean citrus flavor from the grapefruit, the saltiness from the prosciutto and olives and the richness from the cheese…

Ingredients

2 servings.

1 bulb of fennel, green stalks removed, sliced into 1/3-1/2 inch slices
4 slices of prosciutto
1 ruby red grapefruit, slice off the rind and then pull apart and remove the tough skins that separate the segments, then cut into bite size pieces
6 garlic stuffed green olives, sliced
2 large handfuls of rocket greens (or arugula)
fresh shaved parmesan
1 T. olive oil for brushing the fennel

3 T. grapefruit juice
3 T. olive oil
2 T. sherry vinegar
1 T thinly sliced shallot
1 t. honey
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat up the grill to medium heat. Brush the fennel with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and grill for about 12 minutes, flipping every three minutes or so. Make sure you don’t burn the fennel… burnt fennel is pretty nasty!!! You may need to brush the fennel with  more olive oil to keep it from sticking to the grill.

2. Grill the prosciutto for a few minutes so it gets a nice smoky flavor.

3. Prepare your salad dressing by combining grapefruit juice, olive oil, sherry vinegar, honey, shallot, salt and pepper and whisking it well.

4. Prepare your salad by arranging the rocket greens, green olives, grapefruit, prosciutto, fennel and parmesan on salad plates. Drizzle with the grapefruit vinaigrette and enjoy.

 

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Since Steve and I returned from Asia we’ve been trying to reduce our waste, which has meant using cloth napkins for all meals, making food from scratch, natural cleaning products and skin care, naturally fermented food and drinks, vermiculture composting, and trying to reduce the amount of pre-packaged stuff we buy…. it’s been a big lifestyle change for us, and we have to make a CONSTANT effort.

Anyway, here is a link to an AMAZING homemade vegetable broth from Simply Recipes. It’s such a great way to use up vegetable scraps too.

When I get home from Portland I am going to make a huge batch of it and put it in the freezer! I’m loving soup season!

Spicy Fennel and Kabocha Soup with Spiced Candied Pumpkin Seeds

Spicy Fennel and Kabocha Soup

Spicy Fennel and Kabocha Soup with Spiced Candied Pumpkin Seeds

With the first rain of the season upon us, and my cold in full swing, Steve and I decided to stay in and make a gigantic pot of soup.  And we had nearly everything for this spicy fennel and kabocha soup from Suzanne Goin in our kitchen, and what we didn’t have we were able to improvise. I’m posting her original recipe with notes in “( )” of the changes we made.

Recipe makes 6 generous servings.

Soup

2 pounds Kabocha squash (we used one whole kabocha)

2 medium bulbs of fennel

4 Tablespoons of EVOO

2 teaspoons fennel seeds

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter (we only had 2 T. so we used 2 T. EVOO as well)

2 cups sliced onion (we chopped  ½ medium red onion and one full medium white onion)

1 Tablespoon Thyme leaves (gathered from our garden and supplemented by our spice cabinet)

2 chiles de arbol (we substituted 1 minced cowhorn pepper from our garden)

1 bay leaf

3/4 cup sherry

10 cups chicken stock (we used 2 32 oz. boxes of organic chicken broth instead)

1/4 cup crème fraîche (since the crème fraîche isn’t getting mixed into the soup we substituted sour cream)

candied pumpkin seeds

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

Pumpkin Seeds

1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds (we used ground cumin seeds and just toasted them for a couple minutes in the toaster oven)

2 teaspoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon honey

Pinches of cinnamon, paprika, and cayenne

Fresh ground sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit

2. Candy your pumpkin seeds. First toast the ground cumin seed in the toaster oven for a couple minutes. Melt the butter in a small pan, add the cumin, add the pumpkin seeds, sugar, spices and sea salt, stirring constantly until they are golden brown. Let cool for a minute and stir in the honey. Arrange on a piece of parchment until ready to use.

3. Prep your squash by halving, seeding and peeling it (place squash cut side down and use a sharp knife). Cut your squash into 1 inch thick slices.

4. Prep your fennel by rinsing it well, removing tough stalks and base, halving lengthwise and cutting into ½ inch thick slices.

5. Arrange fennel and squash on large baking sheet, drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with fresh ground sea salt and pepper. Roast uncovered in oven for 35 minutes until tender and slightly golden.

6. Toast fennel seeds in a small pan over medium heat for a couple minutes, until slightly browned and they aroma becomes more pungent. The original calls for grinding your seeds in a mortar and pestle, we just threw them in a coffee grinder that we only use for spices and nuts….worked like a charm!

7. Heat your large soup pot on high heat for two minutes and add the butter. Once it begins to foam add your chopped onion, minced pepper (or chiles if you used them), fennel seeds, thyme, bay leaf and fresh ground pepper (we used our Simply Calphalon Nonstick 5-Quart Pot and worked beautifully).The original recipe called for chicken stock (which is unsalted), but since we used chicken broth (salted) we omitted the 1 teaspoon salt you would normally add at this point. Reduce heat to medium-high, and stir continually until onions are tender and translucent…about 10 minutes.

8. Add your fennel and squash to the mix. Turn the heat up high and add the sherry. Continue to stir and allow the sherry to reduce for a couple minutes. At this point you can add your chicken broth or stock, turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer for another 20 minutes or so.

9. According to Suzanne’s recipe you should separate the solids from the liquids, retaining both, and blend the soup in three batches, so a third of the solids with a 1/2 cup of the liquids. Make sure to remove the bay leaf. We did this her way, but next time we will just pour (or ladle) it into the food processor in batches, no need to separate. We ended up with the perfect amount of liquids to solids, so no leftover liquids like when you do it her way.

10. Combine the batches of soup and make any flavor adjustments. Pour into bowls and garnish with crème fraiche or sour cream and the candied pumpkin seeds.

I think this soup would also be awesome garnished with some crispy pancetta.

You could also easily make this a vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free soup by substituting EVOO for the butter, vegetable broth for the chicken stock and omitting the crème fraîche/sour cream. You could even make it vegan by substituting brown sugar for the honey on the pumpkin seeds.

We ate ours with toasted, sliced baguette spread with goat cheese.

Tomato Fennel Tart

Tomato Fennel Tart

Tomato Fennel Tart

Tomatoes are taking over our lives!!! Our garden is spilling over, they’re arriving in our Organics to You shipments, and the farmers are selling the most amazing heirlooms right now. We’re eating tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner and we’re getting creative with these juicy little suckers. This tomato fennel tart, inspired by a recipe from Sunset Magazine (Nov 2005) put a smallish dent in our ever growing tomato supply and allowed us to put the fennel from Organics to You to use too. As an added benefit this tart is perfect topped with a sunny-side up egg for breakfast.

Recipe

1 disk Cheese Pastry Dough (or if you’re lazy, one pre-made pie crust sprinkled with ½ cup shredded gruyere cheese)

1 head of fennel rinsed and sliced crosswise in to ¼ inch slices (discard the base and the green stalks)

7 shallots, peeled and sliced in to ¼ inch slices

½ cup chopped Italian parsley (or curly if you prefer the taste), plus one tablespoon for garnish

1 cup shredded parmesan

20 cherry tomatoes, rinsed and halved

Instructions

1. If you made your Cheese Pastry Dough roll it out so it’s atleast 12 inches diameter and transfer to your tart pan. If you’re using a pre-made pie crust simply unroll and transfer to your tart pan. Trim off any overhanging dough, poke holes in bottom of crust, cover with plastic wrap and put crust in the freezer for 30 minutes while you cook the fennel and shallots.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Heat medium sized frying pan on medium-low heat and add olive oil, fennel, and shallots. Stir frequently till fennel and shallots are a caramel colored brown, approximately 30 minutes.

4. Sprinkle veggie mix with 1/2 cup parsley, add salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat.

5. Pull your crust out of the freezer and bake in oven for 20 minutes. If you are using a pre-made crust sprinkle the crust with the gruyere before baking for 20 minutes.

6. Once crust is golden brown remove from the oven, layer the parmesan cheese on the bottom of the crust, then the fennel/shallot mix, and finally add the sliced cherry tomatoes.

7. Bake in the oven till cheese is golden brown, approx. 10 to 15 minutes.

8. Garnish by sprinkling with remaining Italian parsley.

Steve and I had leftovers, so for breakfast we added a sunny-side up egg to the top of the reheated tart and it was delicious!!!

Tomato Fennel Tart with Sunny-Side Up Egg

Breakfast: Tomato Fennel Tart with sunny-side up egg

This tart is excellent served with a simple arugula salad tossed in a homemade lemon vinaigrette.