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| Choices, choices! |
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| Hot Breakfast Items |
These Middle Eastern-inspired keftas are made with Broken Arrow Ranch antelope and pastured veal ground with fresh allspice leaves from their garden, parsley, Hausbar eggs and grated spring onions. The mixture is then seasoned with salt and pepper and formed into patties which can then be grilled or seared in a pan. I'm planning to cook mine on the stovetop in a hot cast-iron grill pan.
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| Antelope Keftas |
Their serving suggestion is with yogurt and pickled carrots (which they also had available today), and that sounds just perfect to me. To make these, they start with organic carrots from Martinez Farm and then pickle them in a brine of fresh dill, cumin seed, coriander, honey and apple cider vinegar.
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| Dill-pickled Carrots |
They also had cardoons from their garden that had been pickled with organic apple cider vinegar, honey, coriander seed and dried habanero peppers for a sweet and sour taste. Cardoons are in the artichoke family and are grown for their stalks. I can't wait to try these!
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| Pickled Cardoon |
And, I can never pass up an organic gluten-free breakfast taco from Jam at Thai Fresh. But, sadly--she didn't have the GF version today. There was a problem with the corn tortillas this morning. They do make them in the restaurant starting and 7:00 a.m., and then serve them all day. The sweet and spicy Thai flavors that she adds certainly "wake up" a simple breakfast taco. From her, I've learned that in Thai, "pad" means to stir fry, so all of the dishes with "pad" in their names are some version of a stir fry. And curry (or "kaeng") means soupy. Most curries are made with coconut milk, but not necessarily. We love to pick up an order of their special "curry of the day" and then serve it over greens from the market.
In my next post, I'll go into peppers and/or chilies a bit more, but they are believed to increase metabolism by raising your internal body temperature (the hotter, the better!).
Speaking of coconut--what an amazing fruit. I've been reading about the many beneficial properties. The coconut water is so refreshing to drink, although I did learn that it is high in potassium (it has almost twice as much as a banana), and if you are a person with high blood pressure and/or on medication for a heart condition, you should check with your doctor before adding this to your diet. The use of the oil in reversing or aiding Alzheimer's or its anti-aging properties are almost too good to be true (and probably are), but we can always hope.
I always pick up fresh mushrooms (shitake, oyster, and/or portobello) from Kitchen Pride. Apparently, mushrooms are rich in vitamin D, and most of us can definitely use a little extra. I love to use them as a gluten-free replacement for the breadcrumbs in dishes such as meatloaf. They have such a meaty, satisfying texture and just soak up the flavors of whatever they are cooked with. Remember, don't wash them or run them under water as they absorb too much. Just dampen a paper towel and brush them off.
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| Oyster and Shitake Mushrooms |
My favorite "Field" option at Lenoir Restaurant includes chickpea panisse, oyster mushrooms, wilted winter greens and a poached egg. And, this was the latest "Land" dish that we had there the other night--crispy wild boar over wilted spinach with quinoa carbonara (major protein!) and pickled carrots.
Jeff Wylie from Bar W Farm and Ranch was at the market this morning with his beautiful and delicate pea shoots (which I plan to use in my Jamie Oliver-inspired pea dish just any moment now, along with some very fragrant fresh organic mint from Johnson's Backyard Garden).
He also had gorgeous and tasty spinach (and yes, we will eat or drink all of that in less than one week). He's one of the youngest year-round farmers at the market and a favorite of ours.
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| Bar W Farm Spinach |
Yum! And I learned a few new words from this one, too -- Cardoon, anyone?
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