Black Pepper Walleye and Beluga Lentils

Finally, a dish that isn't beige ! I wanted to serve some of this walleye we had in the freezer, a gift from my parents. And let's face it, walleye is a staple food in Minnesota. But, I was stumped as to what to serve with it, and even though I have quite a collection of recipes in the Beige Food Hall of Fame, it isn't quite time for a new addition. Then, I remembered the beluga lentils I picked up at the Farmers Market. We really love fish and lentils, but I had never cooked these before. 

I was intrigued by the color, and the small size. I had tasted them before at a seafood throwdown we attended several months ago. I decided to braise them, and add some carrots for color. They were delicious, and the fish was perfect. 

Black Pepper Walleye and Beluga Lentils 

For the lentils:
1 pound beluga lentils, rinsed
4 cups water
2 carrots. diced finely
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic. minced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sriracha
Cover lentils in water, and simmer 45 minutes until tender but not mushy. Drain all but 1/2 cup of liquid from pan and set aside. Return lentils to the pan. In a separate saute pan, heat olive oil and butter together. Saute carrots first, then add onions and garlic, until all are tender. Stir into the lentils, and add sriracha to taste. Simmer while you prepare the fish.

For the fish
4 walleye filets
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
White balsamic vinegar with honey and serrano
Generously season fish with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil and butter together in a non-stick saute pan (I re-used the pan from the carrot/onion garlic saute to save on cleanup). Cook fish 4-5 minutes per side until golden. Serve on top of lentils, sprinkle with the white balsamic vinegar. **You can use lemon juice here as well, we just really like this white balsamic vinegar with fish !

Farmers Market Harvest Soup

Here was the challenge: My "Green Team" at work was going to the Farmers Market in the morning to pick out fresh veggies, and I was going to craft soups for the entire office based on what they selected. Piece of cake, I think (or pot of soup, more accurately)! I brag about what great soup I make...I can do this ! Then, as the date gets closer, reality starts to set in. We have no stove at work. I have 4 hours to make soup for 60 people using microwaves, crockpots and a roaster from 1950. 

I start to stress, I lie awake at night thinking about all odd manner of vegetables they could come back with (note to self: try not to anger anyone at work prior to the day of the event). I recruit some "sous chefs" to help chop vegetables in the morning. I buy herbs and stocks that can multi-purpose for just about any combination of ingredients. And then the day comes...and they don't buy anything all that unusual ! Whew...now, how to get all of this cooked with no stove ? We chopped the vegetables fairly small, then microwaved them a bit before throwing them in the antique roaster, and cooking at 500 degrees for 3 hours. Miraculously, everything was blazing hot by the time the hungry workers came to feast, and everything came off without a hitch. This was the largest soup I made, and it could easily be served with no meat, but most of my coworkers are meat eaters, so I had pre-cooked some beef the night before for a more hearty soup. 

I think everyone should try this. I want to do it again, now that I have the strategy down ! This is the recipe, scaled down for home use, and you could just throw all of this in the crockpot and let it go for the day, and have an awesome harvest soup waiting for you for dinner ! 

Farmers Market Harvest Soup

2 pounds hamburger

1 large bottle tomato-vegetable juice

8 cups water

2 cups shredded cabbage

2 cups diced potatoes

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced tomatoes

1 cup corn kernels, cut from the cob

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Tabasco sauce (to taste)

Brown hamburger in a large pot, season generously with salt and pepper. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until all vegetables are tender. Adjust spices according to your tastes. 

Butternut Squash and Lentil Soup

I had this one massive butternut squash from my garden this year, it was really too big for the two of us. It weighed over 7 pounds ! I had a brew date scheduled with my Bitches Brew Crew, and since it was October, I thought putting a nice pot of soup on probably wasn't a bad idea, as we brew outside at my house. 

I have made lentil sweet potato soup before, so I didn't think it would be a big stretch to make something similar with butternut squash. This squash was so big, I was worried about how to cut it up, so I actually precooked it a bit in the microwave, to make it easier to cut into chunks. The soup was velvety, creamy and spicy, perfect for a fall day. 

Butternut Squash and Lentil Soup 

1 1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed 

1 large yellow onion, diced 

3 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups water, divided 

1 tablespoon coriander 

1 tablespoon cumin 

1 tablespoon salt 

1 tablespoon pepper 

1 large or 2 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced into 1 inch cubes 

In a large sauce pan, combine lentils,4 cups water, garlic and onions. Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Simmer until lentils are tender, 30-40 minutes. Place lentils, spices and squash in a crockpot, cover with 2 cups water. Set crock put to low and cook 6-8 hours, until squash is tender (add more water if necessary). Use immersion blender to blend until smooth. 

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Apple Dip

We had a really fun event at work this week, it was an apple festival, and I had purchased a bushel of apples from the folks at Rabideaux Farms in Bayfield. You can find them at the Minneapolis Farmers Market on Nicollet Mall on Thursdays, which worked perfectly for our office downtown. They were amazing apples, and we had some left over, so I brought a few home. 

As a part of the event, we also had an apple dessert contest, and one of the entries was an apple dip. It had brown sugar and toffee bits. I am not keen on the little toffee bits, but I do love apple dips, so I started thinking about how I could change it to make it something that would be more to my tastes. Well, cinnamon, of course ! 

We have this amazing Saigon cinnamon we received from some friends in Chicago, and it really elevates this very simple dip. This is a perfect Autumn treat. 

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Apple Dip 

1 eight ounce package cream cheese, softened 

1/2 cup brown sugar 

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Mix all together with an electric mixer, serve at room temperature with sliced apples. 

Green Enchilada Sauce

I have used my homemade green enchilada sauce in recipes several times on the blog, so I figured it was about time I posted the recipe for it ! This actually started accidentally, when I picked up a can of tomatillos at the grocery store instead of some canned green enchilada sauce. Since I already had the rest of the dish prepared, I made my own, and liked it so much better than the store variety, it has been a staple ever since. 

It is very simple to make, and we grow our own tomatillos in the garden now. This year, they completely took over, so I had a nice big batch, more than enough to get through the next year. 

Green Enchilada Sauce 

First, roast the tomatillos: 

10 pounds tomatillos, husked and washed 

3 tablespoons olive oil 

Salt 

2 heads garlic, separated into cloves 

Preheat oven to 375. Place tomatillos  and garlic in pans (I usually use the disposable hotel pans for this, as it can get messy to clean), and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt, and place in the oven. Roast for 30-45 minutes until the tomatillos are bursting their skins. Let cool slightly, and remove garlic and set aside. Using an immersion blender (or regular blender in small batches), puree tomatillos.

For the sauce: 

Pureed tomatillos 

Roasted garlic 

8-10 jalapenos (depending on how spicy you like this) 

2 large yellow onions, chopped 

1 bunch cilantro 

1/2 cup lime juice 

3 tablespoons cumin 

3 tablespoons sugar 

1/4 cup canning salt 

Using some of the tomatillo puree for liquid, place half of the garlic, jalapenos, onions, lime juice and cilantro in a blender, and blend until smooth. Add back to you your tomatillo mixture, and repeat with the remaining garlic, jalapenos, onions and cilantro. Place entire mixture in a large pot on the stove, add spices and simmer gently 30-40 minutes until heated through. In the meantime, prepare your water bath canner. Process pints for 15 minutes. You can also use this as salsa, but we like it best as enchiladas. 

Baked Chops with Local Apples

I love this time of year, with all the apples we can get ! And, who doesn't love to pair them with some beautiful, organic pork, butchered at home ?

This was a really easy dinner to put together, but so wonderful and comforting as we ease into the cold weather. We had some mashed potatoes and stuffing frozen from last year's Thanksgiving, so I was looking for a way to use the last of those, before we start our next freezer run.

We took a trip to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market, and purchased some local Regent apples. I must admit my initial target was Honey Crisp, but I wanted to buy a multi-purpose apple that was tasty to eat and also good for cooking and this fit the bill.

This only took 15 minutes prep time for the main dish, side dish out of the freezer, and it was perfect for a mid-week dinner !

Baked Chops with Local Apples
2 six-eight ounce bone in pork chops
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 large Regent apple, diced
Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8 by 8 pan with non-stick. Rinse chops and rub in salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme and let rest for 30 minutes. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and let sit for another 10 minutes. In the meantime, arrange onions and apples in the bottom of the baking pan. Dot with butter and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar. Lay chops across the top, and bake, covered with foil, for 45 miuntes. Remove foil and baked an additional 15-20 minutes until fat is crispy. Remove from oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Serve with your favorite side dish, topped with the apples and onions.

Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas

Gosh, it seems like it has been forever since I have posted here ! This is a very busy time of year at my "real" job, so we tend to rely on our stash of frozen meals, soups and canned goods. We did that so much, in fact, that we are down to the point where we have almost no salsa, soups or sauces left. Good thing canning season is here ! 

This was a really quick dinner to make, because I used some of our stocked items to throw it together. We had some frozen smoked chicken still in the freezer, smoked jalapenos from the same smoker run over Labor Day weekend, and canned enchilada sauce. All I needed to do was assemble these, and bake ! The smokiness was a nice change of pace for our usual enchiladas.

Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas 

2 cups shredded smoked chicken 

1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened 

2 chipotle peppers, chopped (if using dried, you will want to rehydrate them)

1 tablespoon hot sauce (optional) 

5 small flour tortillas 

12 ounces green enchilada sauce 

1 1/2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese 

Sour cream, black olives and tomato for garnish 

Preheat oven to 375. In a small bowl, combine chicken, cream cheese, peppers and hot sauce. Spray an 8 by 8 pan with non-stick spray. Spread 1/5 of the filling in each of the tortillas, and roll. Place side by side in the pan. Pour enchilada sauce over the top, and cover with cheese. Cover pan with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil, and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until cheese is golden and bubbly. Let rest 10-15 minutes before serving. Garnish with sour cream, olives and tomatoes.