olive oil

Recipe for Classic Vinaigrette

by Anne Maxfield on September 25, 2011

Accidental Locavore French LettuceUsually the Accidental Locavore makes a vinaigrette using lemon juice and olive oil, but every now and then you need to revert to a classic  French vinaigrette.

  • 1 small shallot or garlic clove, finely minced
  • 1/2 cup good olive oil
  • 1/4  cup good red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (smooth or coarse or a mix)
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence (optional)

Put everything in a jar and shake it up, otherwise, add everything to a small bowl or measuring cup and beat it with a fork until well combined. It will start to thicken as it becomes emulsified. Pour over salad greens, toss to mix well, serve and enjoy!

 

{ 1 comment }

The Accidental Locavore Recipe: Arugula and Basil Pesto

by Anne Maxfield on July 8, 2011

Accidental Locavore Pasta With Arugula PestoThis is an old favorite of the Accidental Locavore, a lemony pesto with arugula taking the place of some of the basil. Adapted from the Silver Palate Cookbook.

  • 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
  • 6 cloves garlic (if they’re big, use 1-2 less)
  • 5 cups arugula
  • 1 cup fresh basil
  • ¾ cup olive oil (you may not need quite this much, stop when it gets to a consistency you like)
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • ¾ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Put pine nuts and garlic in a food processor and process until a paste. Add the arugula and basil and process to a thick paste. With the machine running, add the olive oil in a thin stream (the pesto should be thick and spreadable, like a thick mayo). Add the lemon juice, salt & pepper to taste and process until combined. If you’re not going to freeze it, add the Parmesan and process until blended. Serve over pasta, fish or lamb and enjoy.

{ 1 comment }

Accidental Locavore Recipe: Arugula Salad With Lemon Vinaigrette

by Anne Maxfield on June 28, 2011

Accidental Locavore Arugula Salad FixingsThe Accidental Locavore thinks arugula is a great local salad green either on its own, or with other greens. I like it tossed with a light lemon vinaigrette and some freshly shaved Parmesan. This also works on a grilled pizza bianco with some prosciutto. Because it’s so simple, this is a good excuse to use all the fancy olive oil, sea salt etc, that you’ve been hoarding. Easy and delicious. Here’s the locavore’s  vinaigrette recipe:

  • 1 bunch of arugula, washed and torn into bite sized pieces
  • ¼ cup olive oil (use the good stuff here where it will make a difference)
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • About ¼ cup shaved Parmesan (use a vegetable peeler on a block of Parmesan, you can use grated if that’s all you have)

Put the arugula in a bowl big enough to hold it with room to toss. Sprinkle the olive oil over the greens, add the lemon juice, salt and pepper and Parmesan. Toss gently until all the leaves are well coated. Serve and enjoy.

{ 2 comments }

Cook-Along: Recipe for Tagine of Chicken With Preserved Lemon and Olives

by Anne Maxfield on January 7, 2011

Accidental Locavore Chicken TagineFor 2011 the Accidental Locavore has decided to start a cook-along, going through the shelves of cookbooks and actually cooking from the recipes. Join in and help to decide which books stay and which are deaccessioned. This week; a tagine of chicken from Claudia Rodin’s Arabesque, with recipes from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon.  What you see here is adapted from the book with changes made while cooking. The recipe says it serves 4 but you could easily stretch it to 6 with a grain and a vegetable side dish. It’s an easy dish, the only thing that takes time is cooking the chicken, and reducing the sauce.

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 onions grated or very finely chopped (I finely chopped one very large onion)
  • 2-3 garlic cloves crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon saffron
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 chicken cut into 6-8 pieces
  • salt and pepper
  • juice of 1/2 lemon (I ended up using a whole lemon)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
  • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley (flat leaf)
  • peel of 2 preserved lemons (you can make your own, or buy them in Middle Eastern groceries like Kalustyan’s, I used 3 of theirs with some juice from the jar) cut into strips
  • 12-16 green olives (I used a really nice pitted olive mix from Fairway)
  • Optional: 1 box frozen artichoke hearts

In a wide casserole or heavy bottomed pan that can hold all the chicken in one layer, heat the olive oil and add the onions. Saute over medium low heat until they are soft, then add the garlic, saffron, ginger and stir to mix. Add the chicken pieces, season liberally with salt and pepper, and add 1 1/4 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and cover. Cook for 40 minutes, turning the chicken pieces a couple of times.

Stir into the pan the lemon juice, the chopped coriander, parsley, the preserved lemon peel, and the olives. If you’re using artichoke hearts, add them now.  Simmer 10 minutes uncovered until the sauce is thick. If the sauce isn’t thick enough (and mine wasn’t), remove the chicken from the pan, turn up the heat, and reduce the sauce until it’s at the desired consistency. Return the chicken to the pan, and let it heat through. Serve over couscous to absorb the sauce, and enjoy.

My rating: 3 stars (out of 5). The dish as prepared by the book was a little bland. It took longer to cook and reduce the sauce, but it was pretty easy to prepare. If you didn’t have preserved lemons, you could probably use some thin strips of lemon peel from a small lemon. After we ate it, I went back and added the peel of another preserved lemon (total 3), and about a tablespoon of the liquid from the jar, that seemed to help. A few more olives might have helped, if the cook hadn’t been nibbling…

Frank’s rating: 3 1/2 stars: “Good but not great”.

What did you think? Keep the book or deaccession?

{ 3 comments }

← Previous Entries