Roasted Beets & Goat Cheese

Being just back from an incredible trip in France for the last two weeks with my husband, I’m loving anything French.  It’s funny, French food to me seems to always be one of two things… incredibly easy with few ingredients and super fresh or fussy, but worth-the-arduous-labor fancy.  These toasts are great because you can prepare the goat cheese spread and roast the beets ahead of time and then just throw the toasts together right before guests arrive!  This recipe comes from one of our good friends, who always make great food!

Recipe after the jump…

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Low and Slow in the Kitchen

With the sweltering heat that DC’s been melting under, there isn’t much incentive to turning on the oven, but I promise, this recipe will make it worth it!  And you can cook a whole large fillet at a time and have plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day.  Add a farro, wheat berry or similar salad as a side, top with tzatziki sauce got a light and protein-filled dinner without too much effort!

Slow Roasted Salmon with Tomatoes and Herbs

• 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1/2 bunch dill fronds
• 1/2 bunch thyme sprigs
• 1 3-pound piece center-cut skin-on salmon or steelhead trout fillet, pin bones removed
• Sea salt
• 8 ounces small cherry tomatoes on the vine

Preheat oven to 325°. Pour 4 Tbsp. oil in a roasting pan just large enough to fit the salmon. Make a bed of herbs in bottom of pan; top with salmon, skin side down. Drizzle salmon with remaining 2 Tbsp. oil and season with salt. Top with tomatoes, if using. Bake until salmon is just cooked through in the center (a small knife will slide easily through flesh), 25–30 minutes.  Use a large spoon or fork to serve salmon, leaving skin in pan. Serve with yogurt sauce and couscous.

The original recipe, with sauce and salad can be found on Bon Appetit here.

Tip of the Day: Cooking Pumpkin

Having grown up on a pumpkin farm, I get this question a ton…  How do I take a pumpkin I buy at the market and turn it into a pumpkin pie? Well, believe it or not, pumpkin pie doesn’t always come from that canned pumpkin in the preserved foods aisle at the grocery store.

Here are my tips for the perfect mashed pumpkin:

• Avoid field pumpkins, which are bred for perfect jack o’ lanterns: they tend to be too large and stringy and not very flavorful.
• Ask the farmer for sugar pie pumpkins or other flavorful varieties: small and sweet, with dark orange-colored flesh, these are the suckers you want.
• A medium-sized (4-pound) sugar pumpkin should yield around 1½ cups of mashed pumpkin. This puree can be used in all your recipes calling for canned pumpkin.

I prefer baking the pumpkin over boiling or steaming to get the flesh soft enough to work with.  Here’s how…

Cut the pumpkin in half and discard the stem section and stringy pulp. Save the seeds to dry and roast if you’d like. In a shallow baking dish, place the two halves face down and cover with foil. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for about 1½ hours for a medium-sized sugar pumpkin, or until tender. (Stick a fork in it – if it’s not soft, keep roasting.) Once the baked pumpkin has cooled, scoop out the flesh and puree or mash it. For silky smooth custards or soups, press the pumpkin puree through a sieve or pulse in a food processor.

Enjoy!

Tip of the Day: Roasting Carrots

Roasted carrots have a great caramel complexity to them that serves as a great accompaniant to many Fall-inspired dishes.  It only takes a few minutes to prep and looks great when served whole.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Place carrots on a lined baking sheet and drizzle lightly with olive oil.  PLace in oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until tender.

Enjoy!

How to: Roast a Whole Chicken

I have decided to take on some of the culinary “challenges” that friends are always emailing to ask about and I’m hoping that starting with roasting a whole chicken will alleviate some of the fears associated with the butcher’s department of the grocery store. One of my favorite recipes derives from Jean George’s recipe “Potatoes That Taste Better Than The Chicken”

Roasted Whole Chicken with Buttery Potatoes

6 tbsp butter (I like a salted butter as it adds a good amount of flavor to the chicken)
6 tbsp olive oil
2 lbss Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 whole (2 1/2-to-3-pound) chicken
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 head garlic, halved crosswise
Sea Salt, for serving