Coffee Rubbed Lamb Ribs and Butternut Soup

I've said it before, but I'm gonna say it again.  It's not me, it's the lamb.  I promise.  If you think you don't like lamb, it's because you've never had this lamb.  Meaning, katahdin lamb grassfed out in the Sequatchie Cove.  It's just so different than the "other stuff"-whatever you've had before that you think you don't like.  It's mild, it's tender, it was raised correctly under the sunshine with love, it wasn't shipped from all the way around the world (not that there's anything wrong with New Zealand as a place, it's just an awfully long way to ship something that is also raised almost in your back yard).  And best of all, it is literally almost impossible to mess up.  I don't know what it is, but I have yet to ruin any lamb dish.  You could burn it, but I bet it would still be good underneath.  It stays tender and succulent no matter what- even if you forget and overcook it.  Try it.  It will change your life.  O, and PS, they aren't itty bitty and cute when you eat them- they look like sheep.  Which makes us all feel better somehow.

Ribs with the Rub

I pretty much took this directly from Barbecue! Bible by Steven Raichlen, plus or minus a few things (cardamom).  It was meant for a brisket in the book, but works on lamb just fine.  I bet it would work on about anything.

• 1/2 cup finely ground good coffee- may I suggest anything from Velo?
• 1/2 cup (but I'd use a tad bit less next time) kosher or sea salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Hungarian paprika
• 2 T ground ginger
• 1/3 cup chopped garlic

This should be about 2 cups- enough for 6-8 pounds of meat.  Rub this (the recipe makes it "wet" by including oil, but you don't need this on a fatty meat) all over the ribs, fold them up in a baking dish and set them in the refrigerator from a few hours to as long as overnight.  

Preheat the oven to very low- around 275 or 300 degrees F.  Cover the ribs tightly with aluminum foil.   I had so many ribs that they were all stacked on top of each other in the dish.  This turned out to be fine.  Place them in a single layer if you desire, unrolled.  If not, just unroll them and stack them on top pf each other.   Cook til the ribs are done and tender and pulling away from the bones at the ends- about 2-3 hours, depending on the size and how hot the oven is.    Take the ribs out of the pan (they should be sitting in a nice fatty paprika colored liquid), put them on a platter and clean your baking dish.  Place the ribs back in the clean dish and pour a touch of white wine and tomato juice on top.  You can let these cool and put them in the fridge now until you are ready to eat, and reheat them later OR heat the oven to 350 degrees and cook them, uncovered, til slightly more crispy- about 25 or 30 minutes.  Slice into portions of about 3 ribs and serve warm.    If you have chilled them, let ribs come to room temp before reheating.

Butternut Soup

For about four-six people. 

• 1 medium butternut squash- halved
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t garam masala
• 1 T oil, butter, lard
• 1 potato, washed and cubed
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 t minced chile, or 1/2 t dried cayenne
• 2 T finely chopped fresh ginger root
• 2 lime leaves, or 1 stalk lemongrass
• 4 cups chicken or veggie broth, or just water
• Salt to taste

Bake the butternut, cut side down, on a pan with a small amount of water at 350, til the thickest part is soft when poked (about 45 minutes, maybe less).  Let cool just a smidge, if you'd like.  Then scoop out the flesh and put it in a bowl- compost the skin.  Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, masala, and a touch of salt into the squash and let sit while you prepare the rest.

Heat the oil in a heavy soup pot til warm, then throw in the garlic, ginger, and hot pepper,  followed by the potato.  Add a touch of salt and saute til fragrant.  Add the broth and cook til the potatoes are done- about 15 minutes.  Let cool slightly, then blend briefly til smooth.

This is the way I do it, so I don't have to juggle between the blender and pots and bowls:  I blend the liquid with whatever else goes in the soup, then I blend the squash separately til smooth, then I dump it all together and stir to combine.  

When everything is smooth and combined, add the lemongrass or lime leaves, taste for salt and add as needed (but remember the leaves will help add depth as it cooks, so don't over salt it at this point).  Simmer for about 30 minutes more.  Or, better yet, simmer about 15 minutes, let cool, refrigerate, and reheat and eat it the next day (soup's always better the next day).  

Serve warm.

It's not THAT hard

A few posts back I explained that eating locally was hard work; that you really had to try.  That goes for Chattanooga, Tennessee.  But here in the San Fransisco Bay area, I have to admit, it's not that hard.  The hardest thing is gauging just how big your eyes are in relation to your stomach.  There are farmers markets around every corner.  There is everything for sale from salt to olive oil to tangerines and kiwis.   For me, celery is a real treat- I don't remember the last time I bought a celery stalk.  But fresh horseradish root?  Avocados and Meyer lemons?  Sacks of assorted heirloom dried beans and baskets of dirty organic heirloom potatoes- enough varieties to eat a different one every day of the month.....how could this possibly be hard?  Going to a huge market can be a little intimidating for a country girl, and learning which farmers are the best to support takes a little practice.  There isn't as much signage here as there is at home, and the farmers might not be expected to be as outgoing as the friendly Main Street farmers are.  I just choose the booths with the most down-to-earth price signs and look for words like sustainable, small, and organic.  Out here, where they grow almost all the organic produce the rest of the entire country eats, the word "organic" doesn't mean a whole lot.  I try to look for the small-time people who have a little dirt on their sleeves and real passion in their produce baskets. And let me tell you, it is a whole lot of fun.

Asparagus, Leek, and Heirloom Potato Soup

with fresh horseradish sour cream

I usually try not to be so fancy.  I also usually never use asparagus in a soup.  Asparagus is prized Spring Candy.  I only steam it and drizzle the smallest amount of lemon juice and salt on top and eat it hot, spear by spear.  It is really only good for a short amount of time- best eaten very fresh (as Barbara Kingsolver explains in her chapter "Waiting for Asparagus" in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle).  After I brought my two bunches home, I realized that I might have jumped the gun out of pure enthusiasm.   The asparagus was clearly not picked that morning; it was a little floppy.  So I decided putting it in a soup would not be a crime.  

for four people, with leftovers:

THE SOUP:

• 2 bunches asparagus, sliced
• 2 large leeks or 3 smaller ones, sliced (all of the white and halfway up the green.  Watch out for dirt once you start getting to the greens)
• 4-5 medium sized potatoes, washed and unpeeled, chopped into roughly 1 inch cubes (I used a waxy red kind but I think a more floury one would be better.  Ask your cute and friendly local heirloom potato farmer what she advises.  Unfortunately for me I didn't know what I was making when I bought the potatoes or she could have aided in creating the perfect soup)
• 2-4 T grassfed cow butter
• salt to taste
• Water, veggie stock, or chicken stock (I used water and it was just fine and delicious) to cover- about 5 cups

THE CREAM:

• 3/4 cup grassfed cow sour cream (milk share people- this is easy too- just like buttermilk (see buttermilk biscuits one post down) but you use cream instead of milk.  You can use buttermilk as a culture or sour cream- about 4 T to 2 cups) 
• 2 T fresh horseradish root, finely grated
• 1 small squeeze of lemon
• very light sprinkle of salt

For the soup, melt the butter and saute the leeks in it until they get a little soft and start falling apart.  Add the potatoes and a touch of salt, cover with liquid and simmer til the potatoes are just soft.  Add the asparagus, a touch more salt, and enough liquid to cover again.  Simmer for a few minutes, until the asparagus has changed colors and is soft.  Do not overcook!  Any green soup that has been overcooked will look positively disgusting, I promise.  Blend the soup in batches until smooth.  Be careful not to over-blend, especially if you are using waxy potatoes.  Hot potatoes have a bad habit of getting gummy when over-mixed (I read all about the "chemistry" of potatoes once and learned a lot.  I don't remember any of it word for word now but I retained a lot.  There are quite a few food science books out there worth reading at least once.)  Return to pot and heat til warm. Taste for salt and possibly something sour (like lemon juice), or something spicy if you like, but remember that adding the horseradish sour cream will help with both of those. Serve hot with the sour cream you should have made while waiting for the potatoes to cook.

For the sour cream mix everything together in a bowl and keep cool while finishing the soup.

Serve with a green salad  and maybe some fresh locally made bread, although you might not need it.

Recipe- Sorrel and Spinach Bisque

I kind of took this from Seasons of My Heart by Susanna Trilling.  It is a roasted poblano bisque in the book,  but I liked it because it uses ricotta, or requeson, in the recipe.  I had a whole lot of ricotta because Nathan made me some.  Well, he didn't actually make ME some, he just had to make some to make a starter culture for a cheese he was making.  Ricotta, or requeson literally means "re-cheesed" because that's what it is.  It is made out of whey, which if you know anything about making cheese, or Little Miss Muffet, you would know that whey is what comes out of the milk when you make cheese.  Usually the curds are all you worry about and the rest of the whey goes to the pigs.  But sometimes, when you really feel like it, the whey can be heated super hot and, if you add an acid (like lemon juice or vinegar), even more cheese will come out of the whey.  It has very tiny soft curds and we call it ricotta.  Nathan gave me the pile of ricotta and used the totally de-cheesed whey to make his starter....

Of course, all the vegetables are available at the Main Street Farmer's Market.  I can't say how long the sorrel and spinach will be around.  Alexzanna Farms has had sorrel the past few weeks and most everybody has had some kind of spinach, onions, or garlic scapes.  Unfortunately the milk and ricotta will have to be outsourced  because they are not yet available at the market (and probably won't be anytime soon, you just have to be really lucky/good at squeegeeing the cheese-house floor to get some of the real good stuff).

• 1 large pile torn fresh spinach leaves (maybe five cups)
• 1 smaller pile torn fresh sorrel leaves (maybe three cups)
• 1/2 to 1 cup chopped spring onions
• 3-4 garlic scapes, chopped small
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 quart stock (I used lamb because that was the first thing I saw in the freezer.  Chicken or veggie would work just as well)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup ricotta
• Pinch of ground cayenne
• Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onions and garlic scapes in butter in a soup pot over medium heat til the onions are soft.  Add the stock and bring to a simmer.  Throw in the leaves and cook til wilted. Stir in salt, pepper, and cayenne. Cool slightly, then blend in blender til smooth.  (I don't have a blender, just a food processor, so nothing ever gets quite smooth enough).  Mix about 1/2 cup of the mixture in with the ricotta in a bowl.  Add the ricotta mixture to the soup and blend again.  Pour mixture back into the pot and whisk in the milk.  Heat back up or cool it off to serve chilled.  Taste for salt and spice- a little jazzing up might be necessary.  If serving chilled, let cool at least three or four hours.  If serving hot, serve right away.

Recipe- Pumpkin and Pink Bean Soup and Sweet Potato Fries

"Pumpkin" here isn't what we call pumpkin but it is a very bright orange hard squash that works just as well.  I use it in almost everything (obviously).  Pink beans are these small beans that look like little pintos but are pinkish- almost red but not really.  They are SOOOO good and if we have them at home I can't believe I've never eaten them.  I don't even know what we'd call them- they have an amazing texture- very full, rich and satisfying.  Of course any bean would work just as well.....
 

Pumpkin and Pink Bean Soup

• 1 cup dry pink beans, soaked overnight and boiled with one chopped onion, four cloves crushed garlic, and a pinch of whole cumin seeds until soft- throw in a little salt at the very end(takes 30 minutes to an hour and a half- depending on the beans and how long they were soaked)
• 1 good sized wedge of pumpkin (maybe enough for 4 cups)- chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
• Chicken, vegetable, or maybe even beef broth (about 6-8 cups)
• 1 sprig rosemary- de-stemmed and chopped
• Salt and Pepper

Cover the chopped pumpkin in broth, bring to boil with a generous pinch of salt and reduce to simmer til falling-apart-soft (you can also bake the whole piece (skin on) in a 350 degree oven  on a pan with a little water til it is mushy- scrape off skin and proceed).  Add the rosemary and blend till really smooth (if you don't have a blending device just smash it up before you add more liquid).  Add the beans- try to scoop up the onion and garlic as well.   You can add a bit of bean broth too but the soup will be murky and not orange- not that there's anything wrong with that.  Add hot broth or even water if you've run out of broth (I usually do- I thaw out a yogurt container of broth from the freezer and that is never enough it seems) until it is the consistency you like it. Leave the beans whole and serve with sweet potato fries and a cucumber avocado salad (or anything you dern well want to.  Cornbread and kale would be perfect as well- we just don't have those down here)


Sweet Potato Fries
 These should be called sweet potato bakeds because they sure ain't fried.  I never mess with fries (real or sweet potato) because baked is even better sometimes....

• Sweet Potatoes (around one medium sized one per person- or more)
• Coconut Oil (or olive oil or lard if that's what you have) 
• Cumin, rosemary, paprika, thyme... anything you want (or none at all)
• Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to anywhere between 350-400 degrees (the lower if you have more time, the higher if you have less and like them crispier)


Peel the sweet potatoes and slice them into strips or chunks.  Throw them on a baking pan- make sure not to crowd or stack them because they will just get really mushy.  Drizzle oil over them, sprinkle salt and any other desired seasoning.  Mix it all together and spread the potatoes out on the pan.  If they aren't all greased up add a little more oil.  But you don't need too much because it will just sit there and pop all over the oven.  You do want them all the be covered though or they will just stick, burn, and/or dry up.  Bake til brown- stir them with a spatula often to keep them evenly cooking- about thirty minutes, depending on the oven temperature.