What's Cooking: Caveman Meatballs, Summer Paneer Korma & Dal, Corn, Clam & Pesto Pasta & More!
Here’s our weekly roundup of what’s coming our of our little kitchen at Local Cooling Farms!
With my schedule commuting to Laughing Buddha in Metairie five days a week right now (hoping to change that soon with some new hires on our team!), my M.O. is to make a lot of food on Sundays and Mondays that make good leftovers and then maybe fit in one other weeknight of cooking later in the week.
Because we have access to so much amazing, locally grown food (including our meats and eggs we raise ourselves), it’s very motivating to not really eat at restaurants or get takeout, even when that would be easier. Cooking is a medatative thing for me and homegrown and homemade food just makes my body feel better for long hectic weeks!
Caveman Meatballs with Roasted Eggplant & Cherry Tomato Sauce
About two years ago, I asked our beef butcher if they could make a primal blend of ground beef with heart and liver mixed into the grind and part of it was just because I knew I wanted that for myself to be able to incorporate more organ meats into my diet. But many customers really love it, too!
These meatballs were the perfect use of Caveman ground beef in my opinion. I seasoned them with some leftover basil pesto and garlic powder, plus sea salt, two eggs and bread crumbs. I often start them in a cast iron pan on the stovetop and then transfer to the oven to finish cooking. That way, they get some browning on all sides without having to stir them around and risk them falling apart.
For the sauce, while the oven was on, I roasted some eggplant and cherry tomatoes. Meanwhile I sautéed some onions and then added tomato paste and some water to deglaze the pan, then added the roasted veggies and eventually the meatballs. I made some canestri pasta for mine and topped with chevre and tons of basil. Grant ate his over rice though and loved it just as much!
Homemade Paneer Korma with Summer Veggies & Sea Island Pea Dal
Since we had extra milk leftover last week, I took another gallon home and made paneer with it. Paneer is an Indian cheese that doesn’t require rennet, just an acid in the form of lemon juice or vinegar. The key for it to actually firm up though is to let it reduce on a low boil for longer than you need to for other simple cheeses like a basic spreadable farmer’s cheese.
Once you reduce it, you simply take it off the heat and add lemon juice or vinegar until the curds separate from the whey, then strain. I use the same cheese cloth I strain it with the press it into a glass container to cool.
For the korma, I started with a sautéed onions, then minced garlic and ginger and cumin, coriander, garam masala and turmeric. The veggies were butternut squash, purple cabbage, sweet peppers (red, banana and bells) and yellow snap beans. I didn’t have any broth defrosted for it, so used the whey from making the paneer, along with coconut milk for the liquid.
I also tried out Marsh Hen Mill’s sea island peas in a simple dal. I soaked them overnight, then cooked in the Instant Pot with broth, bay leaves and turmeric. I finished it with a tempering oil made with coriander and cumin seeds, minced padron peppers, ginger and garlic.
And we had a nice cucumber yogurt sauce to top everything with, as well. It was so delicious and made great meal prep for the week.
Canestri Pasta with Pistachio Basil Pesto, Clams, Sausage & Sweet Corn
After using 8 ounces of the canestri pasta for the meatballs, I still had the other half of the container and this was my midweek meal to get me through the second half of the week.
I made another batch of pesto to use up some wilty basil. With plenty of garlic, pistachios, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and olive oil, I didn’t notice it was wilty anymore once it became pesto!
I try to incorporate bivalves like clams, mussels and oysters when I can for their iron and zinc levels, so this was a simple pasta with canned smoked whole clams, some diced link sausage, sautéed green onions, the pesto and shucked sweet corn. Topped with parmesan and lots of black pepper.
Baguette French Toast (+ Fried Egg Sliders)
Easy like Sunday morning! We had a little mix up and didn’t put some of the Bellegarde bread out for sale on Saturday. So lucky me, I went home with two baguettes, plus a ciabatta and country loaf. The latter two I slice and freeze for toast and sandwiches, but the baguettes were destined for French Toast!
I like when French Toast can soak in the egg mixture overnight, so I sliced them up and whisked together four eggs, milk, vanilla and almond extracts, cinnamon, nutmeg and sea salt on Saturday night.
Then they were all ready to go for Sunday morning. We also had two litter slider patties to use up so I did those on the side topped with cheddar cheese, fried eggs and homemade hot sauce, but Grant made his into a French Toast sandwich and that seemed pretty tasty, too!
Sweet Potato Brownies
I am not the biggest fan of sweet potatoes. I don’t love overly sweet side dishes and sometimes they can be hard to make properly savory. So I roasted some sweet potatoes whole to go with some grilled chicken wings, but when Grant made the wings, we just ended up eating the wings with the leftover korma and dal.
So, the sweet potatoes seemed destined for dessert instead. I’ve made delicious sweet potato biscuits and quick breads with them, but I had heard of using them in brownies and decided we needed a chocolate fix. There’s several recipes out there and I looked at a few and sort of combined them. Basically, you can cut out a lot of the sugar because roasted sweet potatoes are so sweet!
They’re definitely dense and fudgier than regular brownies, but they came out really delicious and a great way to use sweet potatoes if you aren’t a sweet potato lover. (But I realize most of you don’t find yourselves in the position of using up vegetables you don’t like since you don’t run a market like I do! ;-).