Romano beans

Summer time is when there are lots of tomatoes, beans, corn, basil and peppers at the farmer's market.  We keep seeing these longer, flatter, green beans, called Romano beans, so I've been wanting to try cooking with them sometime.

We've never actually ordered a Blue Apron box, but I do like the fact that they post recipes and how-to videos online for free.  I was searching for fregola recipes, because our jar of fregola has been sitting on the shelf kind of sad and unused lately, so it was perfect that this recipe involves both fregola AND Romano beans!

Summer Saute with Fregola Sarda and Mozzarella:
https://www.blueapron.com/recipes/matt-s-summer-saute-with-fregola-sarda-buffalo-mozzarella

Pretty fast to prepare, and it tastes like summer!

The Sweden box

So a couple of weeks ago I got an email saying that 'Try the World' was running a deal where you only pay $5 for shipping to get the Sweden box.  Try the World is a gourmet food subscription box where they send you condiments and snacks from different countries, and typically each box is normally $40.  I had gotten the France box a year or two ago also for $5, and it was pretty awesome because you get 6-8 things from that country in the box.  Of course I couldn't resist getting the Sweden box, I just had to remember to cancel the membership within a month :)

The real impetus in getting the Sweden box was I was pretty sure it was going to contain lingonberry something, and I really wanted to try my hand at making swedish meatballs.  Lo and behold, I wasn't disappointed!

The last time I went perusing cookbooks at the library, I stumbled upon a Scandinavian cookbook, and put a post-it note on the Swedish meatball recipe.  The only other time I've had Swedish meatballs was at IKEA, so I wanted to see if I could make my own!

Real Swedish Meatballs, from The ScandiKitchen:

1/3 c Porridge, Old Fashioned Oats or breadcrumbs (I used oats)
2/3 c meat stock
14 oz ground beef
9 oz ground pork
1 large egg
2.5 tbs all purpose flour
a pinch of salt
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 t ground white pepper
a dash of soy sauce
1 small onion, grated
butter and oil for frying

Soak the oats for 5 mins in the meat stock.
Mix the meat with a pinch of salt in a food processor.  Mix eggs, flour, spices, soy sauce in a separate bowl, then with the oats/meat stock, onion, and meat.  Rest the mixture for 20-25 mins.
Shape the meatballs roughly 1" in diameter with damp hands.
Heat a frying pan/skillet with a small amount of oil/butter, fry the meatballs and roll them around so they don't stick.  It takes about 5 mins/batch to cook, so cook them in multiple batches.
When all the meatballs are done, make a gravy!  Add a tablespoon of flour to the leftover fat and whisk, add stock until you get a good creamy gravy, and season with salt.

Serve the meatballs with mashed potatoes and the gravy.  Oh, and I added some gailan in there for green veggies!

P.S. - I don't think I'll ever attempt anything this ambitious on a weeknight again for the first time.  It was later than I wanted to be eating :/

Kale salad (no massaging needed)

The kale salad we typically make requires massaging the vinaigrette into the kale leaves to soften them and make them tender and delicious.  Definitely a bit of work to massage the kale and it results in messy hands, but the final product is tasty afterwards with either persimmons and almonds, or dried cherries, croutons, and nuts. 

I was perusing a cookbook borrowed from the library, called 'Crossroads' by Tal Ronnen when I stumbled upon a kale salad that doesn't require massaging.  So of course we had to try it!

The key to eliminate the massaging was to cut the kale into really thin ribbons (chiffonade), and just mix in the vinaigrette and let sit for 10 mins before serving.  Totally worked!

Adapted from Crossroads:
Kale salad with currants, pine nuts, and lemon (no thyme) vinaigrette

1 bunch tuscan/lacinato kale
1/4 c. raisins
1/4 c. pine nuts
1/4 c. lemon vinaigrette <-- I accidentally poured in 1/2 cup... but it still tasted really good!

Lemon vinaigrette: (makes 1 cup)
1/2 small shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 c. white balsamic vinegar
zest of 1 lemon + juice
1 tbs agave nectar (I used maple syrup)
1/2 c. olive oil
salt + pepper to taste

Remove the ribs from the kale.  Then stack a couple of leaves and thinly slice into ribbons.  It is easier to do this if you roll them up into a log.

Wash/dry the kale in a salad spinner.  Combine the kale, raisins, pine nuts, and vinaigrette and mix together.  Let sit for 10 mins, and serve!