Don't Underestimate the Falafel

I am loving the food trucks in town this summer. It’s adding a whole new component to my love for all things food related in this wonderful foodie city.

Smack Shack has been a favorite for a while now (and I will blog about it as soon as I get some pics; taking pics is the last thing on my mind when I’m eating one of their lobster rolls).

And the Indian Spiced Mini Doughnuts at Chef Shack are a long-time favorite. Come to think of it, I think Chef Shack was my first foray into food trucks in Mpls.

Today, we braved the heat to try Foxy Falafel. I guess it’s not a food truck, per-se, but it’s portable food that’s shows up at various locations around town. Same thing.

Did you know that I was a falafel virgin until today? I had never had falafel. There aren’t many things hubby has had that I haven’t. But this was one of them. And it turns out I’ve been missing out.

I knew the basic premise: deep fried little balls of ground chickpeas. Sounds fairly simple, no?

But what I didn’t know was all of the things they could be topped with!

What also surprised me most was how fresh it all tasted. The falafel themselves were deep-fried obvi, but everything else around them was cool, bright, and fresh. And tasty.

I had the Beet Falafel, so there were beets ground up with my chickpeas that turned the inside a beautiful purple. It started with a pita pocket; in the bottom of it was a smear of hummus and a nest of pickled cabbage. Then came the falafel. And all of that was topped with fresh tomatoes and cukes, and a creamy goat cheese sauce. Oh, and there was faint preserved lemon somewhere in the lovely thing. And THEN you are encouraged to top the whole thing with all sorts of homemade pickles: radishes, garlic scapes, cauliflower. I rather loved that.

Zach had the straight-up Foxy Falafel they serve. He was lucky enough to start with a clean enough slate that he could pick from the three sauces they had. There was a cucumber yogurt one that was calling my name. However, I was encouraged to not add to my already sophisticated flavors, and I listened.

Open just on the weekends. You can get the falafels at Kingsfield Farmers Market Sundays, and at the Fulton Farmers Market a few Saturdays this summer (including this upcoming Saturday!).

I give Foxy Falafel a thumbs up for being one of the only things one could stand to eat outside today when it was almost 100 degrees.

I also give them kudos for their pedal-powered smoothie bike! To peddle away to make someone a fresh smoothie, particularly when it’s 100 degrees out, is true love. Will be trying one of those next time.

Snap Happy

Seasonal recipes always put me in a bit of a frenzy. There is always an extreme sense of urgency that I feel with seasonal recipes. It’s like I think that peaches will be in season for exactly 1 day, that zucchini will be in season for maybe 2 days tops, and that maybe we'll get a week of good tomatoes. It’s not rational. Of course, you do have to be intentional about hitting the seasons before they escape you, but I get a little unnecessarily nutty over it. Just this week I got myself all wound up worrying that I might have missed zucchini season and wouldn’t be able to make Zach his beloved zucchini bread. It’s kind of crazy, and I very much realize it as I type it.

But at least, as demonstrated by this recipe, I didn’t miss snap pea and radish season this year. Whew. We’re a little behind in our season here in Minnesota. We’re still working our way through said snap peas and radishes. And I'm desperately awaiting corn. I have big plans for corn this year.

But for now, I happily made this Sugar Snap Salad with fresh from the farmers market snap peas, radishes, and mint.

It was a delicious salad. Lots of bright and fresh flavors: tart lemon juice, crisp spicy radishes, earthy snap peas, salty ricotta salata, and mint.

And it had sumac, which thrilled me. I thought I certainly would never use it again when I was forced to buy a HUGE bag of it for the teaspoon or so I needed of it last month. But alas, I have used the sumac again. And have even passed on some to a friend who was also going to make this recipe.

So, my reco to you is to snap to it and make this salad before snap pea and radish season escapes you!! Hurry!

Sugar Snap Salad, Adapted slightly from Bon Appetit

1.5 lbs sugar snap peas, ends trimmed off

Kosher salt

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp white wine vinegar

½ tsp sumac

1 bunch radishes, trimmed and sliced thinly

4 oz ricotta salata, crumbled

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp chopped mint

In medium pot of boiling salted water, cook snap peas until crisp-tender. Drain into colander and run very cold water over them to stop the cooking. Set aside.

Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, and sumac.

Place the snap peas, radishes, mint, and ricotta salata in a bowl. Toss with the vinaigrette. Season with fresh ground black pepper.

Pretty in Pink

When it gets really hot, I seriously crave cold drinks. It just started to be summer here in Minnesota a few weeks ago, but we’ve already had quite a few 90-plus days. And in that time, I’ve collected a good number of cold drink recipes. I nabbed a rose water milkshake recipe on Pinterest; I filed away a burnt banana chocolate malt recipe from Joy the Baker. I’ve ear marked the equipment I need to make homemade sodas in the most recent Williams-Sonoma catalog. And I happily sipped (or chugged) my watermelon mint water from the Mill City  Farmer’s Market yesterday (one of three reasons why I love that market).

So this weekend, I decided a cold drink was in order. I wanted to do something seasonal. And I wanted a little bit of a project. Not a lot of a project.

Strawberry Ice Cream Sodas.

As with a lot of what I’ve been making lately, they are incredibly easy, but so sweet and refreshing.

You start with fresh strawberries (preferably fresh from the a farmer’s market). You combine them with sugar and lemon juice, put them in the fridge, and let them do their thing overnight.

Then the next day, you squeeze the buh-Jesus out of them through a sieve and collect the bright pink luscious syrup they make. It’s so pretty and delicious, it even made a smiley face in the bowl. Can you see it?

When you’re ready to enjoy, you put some of the syrup on the bottom of a soda fountain glass, pour some club soda in, stir. And then you bring out the big guns. And scoop in some strawberry ice cream. And top with a little bit more club soda.

Then you make sure the lovely recipient of your drink is given a straw and a spoon. And you enjoy while sitting on the porch. (We actually didn’t enjoy while sitting on the porch. We enjoyed while putting our bedroom back together after having hardwoods installed THREE months ago. But the porch would have been a nice touch.)

Strawberry Ice Cream Sodas, adapted slightly from Barefoot Contessa Parties! by Ina Garten

Strawberry Syrup

1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

½ cup sugar

Juice from 1 lemon

Also need:

Club soda

Strawberry ice cream (I like Haagen Dazs best, and not only b/c I work for General Mills)

To make syrup, stir together the sliced strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Strain the syrup through a fine mesh sieve, pushing down on the strawberries to release all of their juices.

To assemble, place 3 tbsp of the syrup in the bottom of a soda fountain glass. Fill the glass 2/3 full of club soda, and stir. Add 3 scoops of ice cream, and top with a little bit more club soda.

The Perfect Summer Friday Sandwich

I’ve been holding this one under my hat for a while. I was waiting and waiting for the perfect way to introduce this sandwich to you. But enough is enough; I’m just going to come out with it.

This is the Roast Beef Sandwich from Clancey’s Meats & Fish, and it’s one of the best sandwiches in town for sure. It’s the perfect get-off-work-early-on-a-Friday sandwich.

I always get a good feeling when I go into Clancey’s, probably because when I go in there I either have a special dinner in the works and I need to pick up the meat for it or because I’m going to eat this sandwich.

It’s quite simple, this Roast Beef Sandwich, but quite perfectly executed with only the best ingredients. The baguette is crusty on the outside, appropriately soft in the inside, and flavorful. The roast beef is rare and so fresh. Marinated peppers, fresh lettuce, a very healthy dose of fresh horseradish (that always clears out my sinuses). And I always request oil and vinegar instead of a smear of mayonnaise.

The first time I had this sandwich, I almost lost my mind with delight. Why doesn’t everyone in town talk about this sandwich?!

I think because most people don’t know it exists. That is the only possible explanation.

Try it, people, try it.

The only bad thing about this sandwich is that I love it so much that I won’t try any of their other sandwiches. And last Friday when I picked this up, they had a pulled pork sandwich special that I’m sure was amazing.

Clancey’s is primarily a butcher shop; sandwiches are secondary to what they do. It’s the perfect place to get great meat. They have just about any cut you can dream of and they also make homemade brats and burger patties (some with interesting flavor additions like blue cheese and green onions) in house. They’re always helpful, always knowledgeable.

And heck, they make killer sandwiches.

Red, White, and Blueberry Clafouti

Clafouti made with fresh fruit was always the quintessential summer dessert in our house growing up, after we got past all of the Yates family chocolate cakes for the April, May, and June birthdays.

I love strawberry shortcake as much as the next person, but I haven’t had a whole lot of strawberry shortcakes in my lifetime. Clafouti has always been the substitute—if you can call it a substitute. They both have summer fruit in common. But instead of the biscuits and whipped cream you get with shortcake, you get luxurious custard with clafouti. I’m not saying one is better than the other—they’re just different.

Clafouti is a super versatile, super super super easy dessert. You can use all sorts of fruits. My mom started out making this with cherries. I like it best with blueberries. But I’ve also used pears and apples when blueberries aren’t in season and have had success.

You basically put all of the ingredients except the fruit in the blender, and then pour the custard mixture over the fruit and bake. It comes out all puffy and just barely golden. The blueberries get all juicy. It’s perfect and rustic all at the same time.

There really isn’t a whole lot to it as far as ingredients go. I ignore the half cup of sugar, and tell myself that it packs lots of dairy with its milk and eggs. I also give myself a pat on the back for the miniscule amount of butter it calls for. I don’t normally gravitate towards desserts with this little butter.

But for its nutritional sensibility, it’s one of those desserts you can’t stop eating once you start. Zach and I polished off more of the pan than I’m willing to disclose last night. And today, the leftovers in the fridge have been taunting me.

I have also been known to eat it for breakfast. Hey, eggs, milk, and fruit? You could do worse...

I have certainly done worse.

Blueberry Clafouti, adapted from French Cooking, Round the World Books

1 pint blueberries

1 ¼ c milk

4 eggs

½ c sugar

1 tsp salt

1 c flour

1 ½ tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350.

Place blueberries in round ceramic quiche pan.

Mix together all other ingredients in blender.

Pour custard mixture over fruit and bake for about 30 minutes, until custard is set.

Shameless Stealing Continued. With Potato Salad.

I’m going to continue to steal shamelessly from my mom this weekend.

Over the years, particularly as I’ve started cooking for myself and Zach, I have come to appreciate her ability to cook. Particularly her ability to cook without using recipes.

She can make delicious food rather effortlessly and rather creatively on her own. She isn’t bogged down by following exact ingredients, exact amounts, and exact processes, and I admire this.

This is not a skill I possess. Yet. But I’m determined to be able to do so confidently one day. For now, I will continue to mostly rely on recipes. I like the black and whiteness of recipes. Generally, if you follow a recipe, you’ll end up with good results. I like this. There are few things I find more frustrating than spending a lot of time making something and not having it turn out. I never learned the whole “it’s the journey” thing.

The downside to my mom generally not using recipes and making it up as she goes is that it’s a little difficult for her to pass on recipes to me. She tries to approximate amounts and times and processes, but I swear when I make her dishes myself (particularly her soups), they are never as good.

This weekend I had a hankering for her potato salad sans mayonnaise. It’s light, summery, salty, fresh, velvety, and delicious. Her secret ingredient is the leaves from the inner stalks of celery. Chopped along with some parsley, they add a really refreshing bite. The green olives add the perfect amount of saltiness. The olive oil generously coats everything and makes it glisten.  And the lemon zips it all up a bit. And when you dress the potatoes while they’re still hot, they have the ability to soak up the vinaigrette in a way that potato salad made with mayonnaise just can’t compete with.

And it’s even better after it sits for a while at room temp.

Mom’s Potato Salad

1-1.5 lbs new potatoes, cooked until tender, and cut into quarters

¼ c thinly sliced celery (inner stalks)

¼ c sliced pitted green olives

¼ c chopped mixture of inner celery stalk leaves and parsley

1 clove garlic minced

Grated zest of 1 lemon

¼ c extra-virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Stir together all ingredients, except the potatoes. Then add potatoes and toss.

Done!

Can be refrigerated, but I like to serve it at room temp.

Serves 4

Not Your Mama's Mayonnaise

It’s my mama’s mayonnaise.

And it’s

Out

Of

This

World.

It’s seriously the best mayonnaise that I think exists. Possibly one of the best foods that exists.

And that is saying a lot coming from me because I have a weird relationship with mayonnaise. I spent most of my life refusing to eat it. These days, I’ll eat it, but am incredibly picky about where it comes from and the quality of it. You wouldn’t catch me dead eating a sandwich from Jimmy John’s with mayonnaise on it. Or the potato salad you buy at the grocery store drenched in it. No way. Not gonna happen.

But as the binding agent for a lobster roll or smeared onto a BLT at Lucia’s, I will for sure eat it. And homemade by myself or my mom, I’ll eat it by the spoonful.

And it’s really the easiest thing in the world to make.

My favorite way to enjoy it is this: slice a good baguette, liberally smear the baguette slices with mayonnaise, and top with a slice of heirloom tomato and a grind of freshly cracked black pepper.

Don’t toast the bread. Don’t add a basil leaf. Leave it what it should be—simple.

Please go make this.

And then try not to wish my mama was your mama. J

Mom’s Homemade Olive Oil Mayonnaise

1 pasteurized egg

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 c good quality olive oil

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp freshly ground pepper

In blender, blend egg, lemon juice, and red wine vinegar for 10 seconds.

With blender running, slowly pour in olive oil through feed tube (make sure to hold a dish towel over feed tube as you do this to avoid a mess). Mayonnaise will thicken.

Add salt and pepper and blend to incorporate.

Refrigerate.