Garden Rocket Pesto x2

I remember watching Jamie Oliver years ago, always preparing salads and garnishing dishes with a magical green called rocket. It turns out, rocket is actually my favorite garden green. Otherwise known as arugula, this green packs in the most flavor per leaf in my opinion. It's not bitter like escarole or too bland like iceburg lettuce, instead it's rather peppery with a good bite. During the CSA days, I anticipated each bunch of arugula more than anything else.

Over the past weekend, I was assigned the job of cooking for a pack of 10 hungry friends (to keep them nourished before a big holiday party) and was lucky enough to have a cooking partner who also shares my love of rocket/arugula. Making pesto is extremely simple and quick if you have a food processor. I usually just eyeball my ingredients to taste and consistency as I've made pesto far too many times at this point.

As a rough guide...

• 4 cups of packed arugula leaves
  
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/4 cup (packed) freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Once your pesto has a smooth consistency, toss with your favorite cooked pasta. For added flavor and texture, we sauteed a pint of grape tomatoes and tossed them in as well. We served this with a side of focaccia and a small bonus portion of very tasty sage pumpkin pasta that was leftover from the night before.

It's quite safe to say that our plates were a smashing success as most people were looking for seconds and maybe even thirds. I think we provided enough energy to keep everyone going until 4 am so we could all sing in holiday cheer.

The next day: x2

So we had some left over arugula and made another batch the following night substituting toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts.


X2 was served with a Tuscan bread salad made with a nice crusty loaf of organic rustic Italian courtesy of Amy's in Chelsea Market. The main flavor component in this salad is the lemon garlic vinaigrette. We ran low on oil and the bread in the salad was slightly on the dry side but still tasty with tomatoes, onion and cucumber.


So much good food & good times.

Hired Gun.

The Salted Cod was recently asked to cater a party. This was both exciting news and an honor to be asked. I cordially accept this offer.

(Starting at the top from left to right: Caprese, arugula & shaved carrot salad, balsamic & oil, lemon garlic vinaigrette, sauerkraut & apples braised in apple cider, meatballs, kielbasa & lasagna)

After accepting this offer I had around a month to plan a menu with my client, purchase all items for the event and finally and most importantly prepare the menu. This was my first time catering such a large event and quite honestly I was not too sure on how much food was really needed. We agreed on a menu which we both thought would be more than adequate for the number of people attending. I am going to take you through each item along with progress made.


The party menu is as follows:
Caprese salad with balsamic & oil
Arugula & shaved carrot salad with lemon garlic vinaigrette
Grilled Kielbasa marinated in Sam Adams Oktoberfest & Fresh pressed apple cider served with a side of sauerkraut & apples braised in apple cider
Meatballs
Lasagna
Birthday cake provided by host

I left work at 4:30 with the massive shopping list; I had a few stores to go to acquire all of the needed ingredients. I arrived back home at 7:30, unpacked and sorted a trunk full of items and get to work.

First thing first, I had to make two massive batches of tomato sauce for both our meatballs and lasagnas. This is my basic sauce minus the chili flakes that we make quite often. It is like by most people so we didn’t mess around. I had a hell of a lot of San Marzano tomatoes, onions, a bit of sugar, olive oil and basil. Once the two massive pots of sauce started bubbling away we moved on to our meatballs.


I found the meatballs to be the most challenging part of the hire. We decided on two trays for the party with a total of 10 pounds of meat. I split the meat right in half, half beef, half pork. The meat was seasoned with salt, garlic, and parmesan. We also had some day old crusty bread which we soaked in milk to help keep the meatballs moist. We flash fried the meatballs just enough to keep them together before simmering in the sauce to finish.

At this point I'm ready to call it a night, its 1 am and the sauce and meatballs are complete. We have one last quick thing to do. Stick all the kielbasa in a pot to marinate with the Oktoberfest and cider.

First thing first crank that oven up and pump out 3 trays of lasagna with enough time to rest each tray before serving. We mixed our ricotta with 3 eggs per 2 quarts of ricotta, parsley, black pepper, salt and parmesan. Each tray had 5 layers of sauce, pasta, ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan, with the middle layer receiving a splash of green with some fresh basil.


Lasagna done.

I purchased the Kielbasa at Euromart in Dorchester. Euromart is a great polish deli with lots of homemade goodies and great meats.



The kielbasa was grilled with no problems at all, about an hours worth of work. I also had a small spray bottle of cider to constantly spritz the meat while grilling. The drained sauerkraut and diced apples were braised in cider to serve as a side.




I had a great helper for the salad who did most of the prep for me while I made the dressings.













Everything is now packed and ready to go 3 hours before show time.



What a whirlwind of a weekend. I clocked in 10 hours of kitchen time without counting trip the store. It turned out to be quite a feast. The meatballs were a bit on the bland side, theys to could have definitely used more salt. I found it on the harder side to control the quality with such a large batch. Next time we will be making mini balls to test along the way. The rest of our dishes came out great and were well received.

I got home and fell directly asleep with my clothes on, exhausted at 9:00pm. It was a hell of an experience.

Lunch routine?

We just wanted to take a minute to share our lunch with you. It’s rare that The Salted Cod gets stuck in a lunchtime routine but we seem to be handling this okay.





We have been making a small salad with arugula, cherry tomatoes, and shaved carrots (everything but the tomatoes came from our CSA) and topped with a quick lemon vinaigrette.


We also purchased three year barley miso from South River Miso here in Massachusetts. Just plop an over sized table spoon of miso into a coffee mug with a lid and add some furikake for extra flavor. This is a Japanese seasoning which consists of a mixture of sesame seeds, bonito flakes and seaweed. To finish, we add fresh tofu and chopped scallions. This has worked out to be a quick and easy lunch at work. When ready to eat, just go to the water cooler and add hot water. Talk about instant soup, take that ramen noodles!

We're not one to eat at our desk or be chained indoors at lunch so we usually take it to the streets.

Here is our Share! Week 12

Starting at the top from left to right: arugula, mizuna, celery, corn, potatoes, cherry tomatoes.

The Salted Cod gets excited when Steve opens his truck door and corn is pilled high, practically bursting from the seams. We can only imagine what it must be like growing up in the Corn Belt where these ears are everyone's source of income. The scent was sweet with a hint of the farm, something Midwesterners must be all too familar with during those hot summer months. It also reminded us of our favorite regional scent when we traveled to Hatch New Mexico. In Hatch, chilies are drying and roasting everywhere you turn (including rooftops). The scent was so thick in the air you could smell it on your clothes and hair the next day; a delicious combination of smokey, sweet and spicy. We are trying to think of what a true New England scent would be to represent summer. Maybe low tide or rotting cod from the fisherman’s catch...

Anyway, back to week 12:

Week 12 is all about corn chowder! We made LOTS of corn chowder…

In our wonderful Le Creuset dutch oven we cooked 6 slices of bacon (we like our chowda smokey here). Once cooked, we removed the bacon and left about 2 tbs of the grease to sauté our onions, celery, and a few celery leaves. That right, we said celery leaves. Once softened and translucent we added 6 ears worth of corn kernels, 4 cups of whole milk and 2 cups of chicken stock. We also added halved cherry tomatoes and precooked and chopped potatoes. A little salt & pepper and you are good to go.


We had enough for dinner and to freeze for the colder months.

Here is our Share!Week 11

Starting at the top from left to right: purple basil, arugula, celery, green peppers, cherry tomatoes, onions, red potatoes

Tomatoes, tomatoes, finally week 11 brings tomatoes. We received a nice pint of plump cherry tomatoes. The Salted Cod was popping these babies like candy on the way home from the drop.

Week 11 also brings us a great harvest salad. Maybe we were a bit overexcited this week; it feels like most of the produce went into this salad. (We aren’t complaining)

We made mustard vinaigrette with a good grainy French Dijon. The vinaigrette dressed our arugula greens as seen in the middle. On top we have some quick pickled onions which were a nice zesty addition to this. Notice our new sea salt on the cherry tomatoes! Green peppers, purple basil and fresh mozzarella are also coming to this party.

This is a caprese omelette! Fresh mozzarella, tomato and purple basil fill this big guy.

Another very quick caprese, only this time we are out of basil, both from the share and home grown.









Finally, we made celery soup with our red taters and onions.