Watercress!

We went out this morning to a favorite quiet stream and gathered a bucket of our first watercress of the season. It's the earliest we've been out! A January thaw meant we could actually get over the roadside snowbanks to the stream. And a snowstorm predicted for tomorrow means this was the perfect opportunity to grab some greens.

All cleaned and pretty!

The stream is challenging in any month that has an "r" in it (the best time to gather watercress before it gets too buggy). It can be steep, mucky and mighty slippery. One has to keep their wits and wellies about them (once the mucky bottom of the stream sucked the boot right off me!). Today, other than an initial slip, it was easy gathering. Wading in, we quickly and carefully cut the top off the plant just under the surface of the water leaving plenty of leaves and roots on each plant.

With ice cream bucket filled - and mighty cold hands! - we headed home to rinse off sand and check for critters (they love watercress too!). Then into salads and sandwiches!

Standing Up for Brown Rice Risotto

Pixabay Image

I had to try a recent recipe from Food 52 that touted roasted cauliflower and a brown rice risotto. What's not to like?

Probably the part of the recipe that says you can incorporate 7.5 cups of liquid into brown rice in 25 minutes to produce a risotto.

I am here to stand up and testify that it takes 45 minutes of standing and stirring to get to the desired risotto result.

Lesson learned: risotto takes the same amount of time as simmering the rice would.  I'd still make it again!

Playing with Star Bread

The finished lamb, mint, rosemary bread

We ran across a fun, dressy bread over at Food 52 before the holidays this year. This Cheese and Herb Star Bread is pretty straightforward in terms of what's in it. A little fancy dancy twisting and its quite a beauty.

Lloyd, the baker of the family, was intrigued. So he made it. We loved the fancy style but the flavor reminded us on some kind of pizza bread - underwhelming. And the recipe itself seemed to be over the top with butter (anytime you take something out of the oven and butter drenches the pan in a pool, you know something is off). But man was it pretty.

The second time, we made a few key changes and liked the results more.

Egg wash finish

We left the dough as it was. For the filling.we skipped creating a herb butter (using 1/2 c. of butter). Instead, we melted a tablespoon or two of butter and simply brushed a layer on the dough and sprinkled the herbs and cheese on each layer. Worked swell. It was a croissant-y bun - fluffy and flavorful - although still reminding us of pizza.

Our newest idea was to incorporate meat and see if we could create a little sandwich bun feeling. We browned 6 oz of ground lamb and chopped it finely. We thought about herbs we love with lamb and used mint, rosemary and garlic powder. We again just brushed each layer with butter.  It was a bit more challenging to twist but the results were delicious.

A salad on the side and half the loaf made a tasty winter meal!