I had a great trip to California and while I was there ate amazing local California food. Now that I am back I am rededicated to eating our great Nova Scotia local food. I received my first CSA boxes last week and it was waiting for me when I got home. I have had a few great meal out of it and will be getting another box today to add to it.
In my first box there were some baby red potatoes and baby beets. I boiled these both so they would be ready to use for preparing a quick meal. For those who are not familiar with cooking beets here are a couple quick tips. First of all you want to boil them while, do not trim them (well trim the greens of course) and boil them until fork tender. Adding a little vinegar to the water will help the beets hold their color. When done let them cool, trim them and then peal them with the edge of a paring knife. You may want to wear gloves to keep your hands from turning purple :). These beets can then be used in a number of dishes.
I also like to boil up the potatoes until just fork tender, maybe a little hard in the middle. I will then use these to make roasted potatoes, potato salad or breakfast hash. By doing this prep work it makes it very easy and fast to add vegetables to your meals.
I used the beets and potatoes for supper that night. I thawed a couple of Berkshire pork chops and had those with an apple chutney, roasted potatoes and a beet salad.
The pork chops were just seasoned with salt and pepper and fried off. Berkshire pork is so flavorful it does not need much. However to make it great you need to get a good sear on it. This caramelizes the outside creating flavor and locks in the juices. To do this heat the pan on high heat, use grape seed oil because of the high smoke point. When you lay the chops in do not keep lifting them, let them sit undisturbed until golden brown, look under every couple minutes to check, then flip once. The pork then should be allowed to rest for 5 to 10 minutes to allow the proteins to relax and draw the moisture back inside.
I served this with the following sides (Serves 2 you can scale it up):
Cinnamon Apple Chutney
Ingredients
2 Apples – Diced
2 Tbsp – Dried Currents
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp Apple Brandy
2 Tbsp Apple Cider
pinch of salt
While the pork is resting take the hot pan with the drippings in it and add in chopped apples, dried currents, cinnamon and brown sugar. Saute these off until browned then add in apple brandy and apple cider. Allow this to cook down until tender and use this to top the pork chops.
Roasted Baby Potatoes
Ingredients
6 baby red potatoes
2 tsp Olive Oil
pinch of sea salt
2 turns of pepper
1 tsp minced sage leaf (fresh is best)
To roast the potatoes I just heat the oven to 425, in a bowl toss the potatoes with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper and a little bit of snipped sage leaf. Roast the potatoes for about 15 minutes or until they start to brown.
Baby Beet Salad
Ingredients
10 baby beets boiled, pealed and diced
3 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp nut oil (walnut, sesame seed or Argan)
1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp mustard (whole grain is best)
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp sesame seeds (toasted)
Dice the beets and place into a mixing bowl. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, nut oil, vinegar honey and mustard. This makes a nice dressing. A note here, you can use any oils and vinegars you like, the ration is 3 to 1 oil to vinegar. The mustard helps to bring the oil and vinegar together (emulsification) and after that just flavor away. It is very simple, just use good products and fresh herbs.
I then added the dressing to the beets until it was dressed to my liking, I had some left over that will be destine for a spinach salad. I then toasted the seseme seeds over medium heat in a small no stick pan until they just started to brown. Keep them moving while doing this, they do burn fast. Add these to the salad and serve.
The great thing with local food is with a little creativity you can make great tasting healthy meal in a very short time. With the potatoes and beets boiled ahead of time this whole thing took 30 minutes.
Thanks to my local suppliers:
Pork Chops : Active Life Farm
Beets, Potatoes, Sage, Apples, Apple Cider: Taproot and Noggins CSA
Tim's Kitchen Table 