Cinnamon Honey Sweet Potato Pie

 

A classic recipe emerged from a trip to the local Farmer's market. Walnut Hill Farm had a plethora of earthy, massive sweet potatoes spilling out of buckets on the table so I picked up a few to work with. I also made a stop by one of my favorite vendors, Alfredo’s Honey, and picked up a tub of whipped cinnamon honey (I think I am working on my 7th tub from him).  The two market picks just seem to be a marriage made in heaven, right? Having not made a sweet potato pie before, I did a little research online and found a recipe that seemed to be in-line with what I had in the pantry and what I had picked up from the market.  I modified it slightly by using a homemade gluten-free crust which will be featured on glutenfreerichmond.com, my new website created with a fellow Richmonder and lover of all things tasty and gluten-free. I also changed up the cinnamon portions since I was working with a cinnamon flavored honey. Here’s my take:

Cinnamon Honey Sweet Potato Pie
Filling Ingredients:

2 large, roasted sweet potatoes removed from skin (about 3 cups)
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup Alfredo’s local cinnamon honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup melted butter

Preparation:
Start by dry roasting the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet in an oven set to 375° for about 50-60 minutes or until soft to the touch. Once cooled, scrape flesh from skin and place into a food processor, pulse until broken down. Add remaining ingredients, except butter and pulse until smooth. With the food processor on, drizzle in melted butter until combined.

Fill a par-baked, gluten-free pie crust (will fill a 10″ pie) and bake at 350° for 35 minutes. A knife inserted into the center should come out clean or the center of the pie should spring back when touched.

Pork Roast with Lemon Sage Sauce and Candied Carrots

Today's recipe is a throw back to my childhood, when parents and grandparents alike fought to get kids to eat their vegetables.  This recipe, along with the 'carrots help you see at night' story, definitely got us into veggies.   So, I picked up a small bunch of baby carrots from Fertile Crescent Farm and paired the side dish with roast pork finished with citrus/herb sauce.  Here's the fix:

Candied Carrots:

1 bunch of baby carrots

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

salt & pepper

canola oil

Simple, simple, simple. Preheat the oven to 350°.  Chop stems off carrots, rinse and peel. In a sauté pan over medium-lo heat, add a drizzle of canola oil and the butter to melt.  Add carrots and toss to coat.  Cook for approximately 2-3 minutes and then add brown sugar, pinch of salt and a crack of black pepper.  Toss to coat and then transfer to a non-stick roasting pan and place in oven for about 10 minutes or until a nice caramelization forms.  Flip once to get all sides evenly browned.  Serve warm.

Pork Roast:

1 1-1.5 lb pork roast

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Zest from 1/2 lemon

Juice from 1/2 lemon (or whole if it does not render enough liquid)

1 tsp capers (with liquid)

4-6 leaves fresh sage chopped

bay leaf

salt & pepper

Start by brining the roast which will make the meat moist and flavorful.  In a large ziploc, add olive oil, lemon zest, juice and sliced lemon, capers, chopped sage and bay leaf.  Towel dry the pork roast and season with salt and pepper.  Transfer the roast to ziploc, add about 1/2 tbsp more salt, seal tightly and toss the mixture, massaging the liquid into the roast. Make sure all liquid is equally distributed around the roast and place bag into the refrigerator for 20 minutes (the acid from the lemon will start to 'cook' the meat so it should be removed from the brine within 30 minutes at the most).  Remove from the refrigerator, pull the roast out, pat dry and discard the liquid.  Let the meat come to room temperature. 

Warm a cast-iron skillet over medium heat with about 1 tbsp olive oil.  Sear the roast on all sides, about 2 minutes per side. Next, transfer the skillet with roast into an oven at 350° and roast for 15-20 minutes.  The roast should rest under an aluminum foil tent for at least 5 minutes before slicing.  Meat should come out juicy and slightly pink in the middle.  For safety, internal temperature should be reach 160°.

I finished the pork with a super simple lemon sage sauce...combine 2 tbsp 2% plain Greek yogurt, 1 tsp olive oil mayonnaise, zest from 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp lemon juice and 3 leaves fresh chopped sage.  Season with a little salt and spoon over sliced roast! 

Maker's Mark Apple Tart

Comfort, comfort, comfort.  Is there anyone that doesn't like to hunker down, throw a few logs on the fire and smell apples and cinnamon in the air?  If so, I'll challenge them to try this combination and defy the odds of a smile making its way to the corners of their mouth.

I've mentioned a few times before that the apple pie has gotten the best of me.  Not one to take defeat lightly, I went back to the drawing board and this time came up with a winning combination of flavor and texture.  I visited Victory Farms again and picked up a container of Smokehouse apples in the hopes of making this go-round an apple treat to be proud of. They've brought in a variety of Henley's Orchard Apples and as was told to me, Smokehouse make great baking apples because they are middle of the road - not too sweet, not too tart.  Here's the recipe I created:

1 store bought pie crust
4-5 smokehouse apples
2 tbsp Maker's Mark bourbon
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/3 tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp nutmeg
1/3 tsp allspice

Preheat the oven to 450° and transfer the pie crust to buttered tart pan.  Lightly press the crust into the pan, try not to stretch the dough since it will just shrink back to it's original shape when baked.  Press the overlap against the pan edge and pull off, reserve for decoration. Fork the bottom of the crust to prevent it from bubbling up and bake for 5-7 minutes.
For the filling, start by mixing the bourbon, brown sugar, 2 tbsp flour (reserve 1 for another step), cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice.  It should give you a moist but lumpy mixture.  Next, slice the apples.  I left the skins on for this since it's a rustic kind-of tart and well, I am sometimes lazy when it comes to these types of things. The easiest way to get the right slice, is to cut each apple in 1/2, use a melon baller and extract the core and stems.  Next, use a mandolin to get thin, uniform slices.  Pile the slices into the bourbon mixture and mix them up, making sure each slice is coated.  Once the apples have been coated, sprinkle the last tbsp of flour over the slices and use a spoon to mix everything up again.  At this point, there should be a good amount of liquid in the bottom of the bowl which can be discarded or drizzled it over the finished product.

Once the pie crust has finished it's first bake, layer the apple slices from the middle out until they are just over the top of the crust .  Using leftover pie crust, I made a little flourish for the top...do whatcha like. Bake the tart for 20-25 minutes, let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy!

My husband and I had a discussion that went something like this: Me, 'The timer buzzing means pull the item out of the oven.' Husband, 'It buzzed at me, I turned it off.'  No matter...it was still delicious.

Spaghetti Squash with Pesto

We found this weekend that the coming of fall is palpable.  What it means for our kitchen is scooping up the last of our favorite summer treats and transitioning into a new fall lineup.  I started to think ahead to how I can preserve the flavors of summer and enjoy them for a few months longer.  So in this week’s ‘Saturday’s Basket’, greens abound!  Our trip to the South of James Farmer’s Market always starts with a large coffee from Blanchard’s to help get the creative juices flowing and help us sort through what tastes we want for the week.  After we started to wake up, we picked up arugula & green beans from Victory Farms and a squash and basil bunch from Pleitez Produce.  The arugula and basil blended together make a healthy portion of pesto and pesto makes for a great freezer food. Once blended, portion the sauce into ice trays and freeze.  Pop out individual cubes whenever you are craving that summer sweetness.  Pesto paired with spaghetti squash was on plate for a great homemade Sunday dinner.  It’s an easy side dish and makes a great pasta substitute for those curbing the carbs.  Here’s the fix:


1 spaghetti squash

Olive oil

Salt & pepper


Preheat the oven to 425°.  Slice the squash in half and scoop out the strings and seeds (as you would for a pumpkin).  Place the squash on a baking dish, slice side up and drizzle olive oil over, sprinkle with salt and pepper.   That’s it!  Roast the squash until the fibers start to break down and you can easily shred the ‘meat’ with a fork.  It should fall right out of the shell when scraped.  I’ve found the easiest way to scrape the veggie out is by leaving it in the dish and holding one side with my kitchen tongs.  Shred right in the shell and then transfer to a serving bowl.


Basil and Arugula Pesto:


2 handfuls of fresh basil leaves

1 handful of fresh baby arugula

¼ cup walnuts

¼ cup parmesan cheese

Olive oil

Pinch of salt

A few cracks of fresh ground black pepper

 
In a food processor, add the greens, nuts and cheese.  While the processor is on, stream in olive oil until the pesto reaches a creamy, loose consistency.  Pesto is a preference food meaning, some like it chunky, some like it loose.  Some like it with a lot of cheese, some with a little.  It is a versatile sauce and dip and taste testing is always necessary.  On the last whirl around the processor, add a little salt (go light, salt is already a big contributor in the cheese so seasoning began with that addition) and a few cracks of pepper to taste.  The arugula will also help to give it a little bite so be sure to taste test as you go so as not to overdo the pepper.


Bring the two together by topping the roasted, hot spaghetti squash with a dollop of pesto.  Turn to coat and serve warm.  It’s a nice nod to summer flavors with a hint of what’s coming for fall.

Basket from market: basil, jalapeno cheddar bread, speghetti squash, arugula and green beans.