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Blood Orange & Cinnamon Baked Pears

Blood Orange & Cinnamon Baked Pears

Kayla Woodbury
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Parmesan Garlic & Truffle Mashed Potatoes

Parmesan Garlic & Truffle Mashed Potatoes

3 1/2 pounds russet potatoes

2 tablespoons black truffle sea salt

1 tablespoon sea salt

16 fluid ounces (2 cups) half-and-half

6 cloves garlic, crushed

6 ounces grated Parmesan

3 TBS Parmesan Garlic Olive Oil 

  1. Peel and dice potatoes, making sure all are relatively the same size. Place in a large saucepan, add sea salt , and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce heat to maintain a rolling boil. Cook until potatoes fall apart when poked with a fork.
  2. Heat the half-and-half and the garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.
  3. Remove the potatoes from the heat and drain off the water. Mash and add the garlic-cream mixture and Parmesan; stir to combine Then add the olive oil & truffle salt. Let stand for 5 minutes so that mixture thickens and then serve.
Kayla Woodbury
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Cranberry Brie Flatbread

Cranberry Brie Flatbread

Kayla Woodbury
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Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 large butternut squash (about 3 pounds), halved vertically and seeded
  • 1 tablespoon Butternut Squash Seed Oil , plus more for drizzling
  • ½ cup chopped shallot 
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
  • 1 teaspoon maple syrup
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • Up to 4 cups (32 ounces) vegetable broth
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil, to taste
  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the butternut squash on the pan and drizzle each half with just enough butternut squash seed oil. Rub the oil over the inside of the squash and sprinkle it with salt and pepper.
  2. Turn the squash face down and roast until it is tender and completely cooked through, about 45 to 50 minutes. Set the squash aside until it’s cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Then use a large spoon to scoop the butternut squash flesh into a bowl and discard the tough skin.
  3. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet (or large soup pot, if you’ll be serving soup from that pot), warm 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the chopped shallot and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring often, until the shallot has softened and is starting to turn golden on the edges, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute, stirring frequently.
  4. For this step you can use a traditional blender or a immersion blender. Transfer the cooked shallot and garlic to your blender. Add the reserved butternut, maple syrup, nutmeg and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper. Pour in 3 cups vegetable broth, being careful not to fill the container past the maximum fill line. Blend until smooth.
  5. Serve immediately (I like to top each bowl with a little more black pepper). Let leftover soup cool completely before transferring it to a proper storage container and refrigerating it for up to 4 days (leftovers taste even better the next day!). Or, freeze this soup for up to 3 months.
Kayla Woodbury
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Minestrone Soup with Italian Herb Olive Oil

Minestrone Soup with Italian Herb Olive Oil

 

Ingredients

1 large onion, diced

2 bell peppers, diced

3 cloves garlic minced

2 Tbsp. Italian Herb olive oil

1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms

2-3 stalks celery, rough sliced

2 tsp. Fennel seed

2 tsp. Basil, oregano and tarragon

2 carrots, chopped up

1 lb. Roma tomatoes

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can white kidney beans

1 c. Green peas, frozen

1 c. Dry white wine

2 cups chicken or veggie stock

1 package elbow macaroni

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions

 

Slowly sauté onions, peppers and garlic in Italian olive oil. When tender and transparent, add celery and carrots and slowly continue cooking about 3 more minutes. Add salt, pepper and herbs and cook 1 minute more.  Add beans, peas, stock and wine and lower heat to low and slowly simmer for 30 minutes. Before serving, cook up pasta, but keep separate from soup. Add pasta to soup bowls and serve with warm fresh bread or a salad.

Michiko Burns
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Herbs De Provence & Maple Chicken Thighs & Acorn Squash

Herbs De Provence & Maple Chicken Thighs & Acorn Squash

Kayla Woodbury
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Mustard Crusted Chicken

Mustard Crusted Chicken

Have some artisan mustard and want to know how to use it? Here is a great recipe on how to use fancy mustard and not have to deal with the egg bath you normally have to give chicken when breading it. 

Ingredients: 

  • 1/4 cup bread crumbs 
  • 2 tbsp fresh parsley
  • 1 ½ tbsp Parmesan cheese grated
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme 
  • 2 chicken boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
  • 2 tbsp Honey Dill Mustard 
  • 1 clove of garlic minced
  • 1 tsp Tuscan Herb & Garlic Dipping Blend 
  • Avocado Oil 

Directions: 

Heat your oven to 450 degrees. Coat a baking sheet with some Avocado Oil.

Mix the herbs and bread crumbs together on a plate and set aside. Mix the mustard and garlic together and brush onto the chicken breasts. Dip the chicken breasts into the bread & herb mixture and evenly coat both sides. Transfer the seasoned chicken breasts onto the baking sheet and  place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 170 degrees. Let the meat rest for 7-10 minutes before slicing and serving. Enjoy!

Kayla Woodbury
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Herb Preserving 101

Herb Preserving 101

 

Aloha beautiful people! It seems that summer went out and autumn is on her way in. Today is the day I have been longing for. Rainy and cool and all the herbs that I’ve dried out and laying in a spare room taking up space, can now be crumbled off the stems and bagged for future meals.

But as I sat and bagged the herbs, I wondered how many other methods there were for saving culinary herbs, beside my old standby, stripping and drying on paper. Another way to preserve the essence of the plant is to freeze them in ice cube trays with a good olive oil, like our Picual or Koroniki varietals. But in my search, I found 3 additional methods of preserving your herbs for later use. 

First, select your herbs carefully. Believe it or not, the best time to harvest your herbs is early morning when it is cool and dewy. Essential oils are at their peak and this translates to increased flavor! Also look for tips that are just about to flower and inspect for any damages to the leaves. You can either pinch off or use a pair of snips to collect your bounty. I tend to pinch my plants back unless it is a woody herb or plant.

Once you’ve collected your herbs, reinspect each item and gently rinse in cool water. Place on paper towel to dry off and pat dry with another paper towel. If you choose to hang and dry your herbs, group each type of herb with no more than 6 stems. Tie the small groups together and hang in cool dry room out of traffic, such as a cellar, spare room etc. These will dry in approximately 1-3 weeks, depending on the characteristics of the herb. Once dry, you can store in airtight jars or baggies. The info I found stated that this is good for up to 1 year,

There are 2 ways to keep your herbs in oil, but always use a good olive oil for either method. The first method is to clean and roughly cut your herbs up and place into an ice cube tray. Next carefully pour olive oil over each slot and freeze. Once frozen you can then transfer to a zip lock bag that is labeled and dated. Again, a 1-year limit.

The other method of oil/herb storage is to steep your herbs in olive oil. Select and clip your herbs and place into a labeled wide mouth jar. Fill jar with olive oil and store in cool dark spot. This method may be easy and simple, but it also has the shortest shelf life, 6 months of preservation date.

Another method is simple freezing. After washing and patting dry, I either de stem the herbs or keep small clippings from woody plants and place into a freezer bag. This is so simple and easy and is very easy to store flat!

So hopefully this gets you started on saving the freshness and flavor from your garden you worked so hard for long into winter!

Michiko Burns
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Persian Lime & Chili Chicken Tacos

Persian Lime & Chili Chicken Tacos

Kayla Woodbury
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Makana Flank Steak with Chanterelle Mushroom Sauce

Aloha all,

SW Colorado has had a great mushroom season this year. I was able to find plenty of chanterelles, puff balls, boletus and hawk wings, and thanks to Eric K., I learned more about Russula xerampelina, or  shrimp mushrooms, pictured below. 

So I had collected and cleaned approximately 12 lbs. of chanterelles and had begun to dry them for storage and later use this winter. But I set aside a bag because I was thinking of monkeying around with a recipe I found in “Cooking Light”. This recipe I have tried several times without real great success or wow from the family. We found it missing that ‘something special’. In truth, the recipe uses shitakes and I normally like their flavor, but I found their flavor as lacking and slightly bland.

Plus the steak also need more seasoning than just salt and pepper. So to liven up the flavor, I began mixing herbs and spices which lead the new “Makana Mauka” steak rub. This new blend uses a minimal amount of herbs and spices because wild shrooms are flavorful on their own. Also I did not want a rub that would compete with the shrooms or mask their flavor.

So below is my version of the recipe that I found in Cooking Light, which has given me great inspirations from the various recipes that it contains. The recipes calls for flank steak, but really any tender cut of beef would do nicely and I have done this recipe using both the flank and the skirt steaks with great success. Additionally, I will be adding the Makana Mauka rub to the products very shortly so keep an eye out. Also, if you do not have wild shrooms you can substitute cremini or oyster for this. As with everything, please let me know what you think of the recipes or tips on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lelanis-Tea-Spice-Exchange-LLC.

Mahalo and happy cooking!

Makana steak with Chanterelle Mushroom Sauce

Steak

2 lb. flank or skirt steak

3 tbsp. Lelani’s Makana Mauka rub

2 tbsp. ginger garlic olive oil

Mushroom Sauce

½ onion, chopped

1 clove garlic

2 c. fresh wild mushrooms (oysters or cremini), thinly sliced (about ½ lb.)

1 c. beef bouillon

½ c. dry white wine

1 tbsp. Pear infused balsamic vinegar

½ shallot, finely minced

Preheat broiler. Pour 1 tbsp. oil on one side of steak and sprinkle Makana Mauka rub on to meat. Work spice rub mixture into meat. Repeat on other side of steak. Set aside.

In large nonstick pan pour small amount of ginger garlic olive oil and heat to coat pan evenly. Put onions and garlic into pan and sauté 2 minutes. Add mushrooms, sauté 4 minutes or until mushrooms are tender and pliable. Add broth, wind and vinegar. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat. Cook uncovered until sauce is reduced to 1-½ cup sauce.

Broil steak 5 minutes on each side. Remove steak, loosely cover with foil and allow meat to rest 5-10 minutes. After rest period, slice steak diagonally across the grain into ¼ inch slices.

Serve steak with mushroom sauce on a bead of rice.

Yields about 5 servings.

 

 

Michiko Burns
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Meyer Lemon Sole with Blueberry Balsamic Glaze

Meyer Lemon Sole with Blueberry Balsamic Glaze

Ingredients;

1 pound Dover sole

1 tablespoon sunset fish fry seasoning

3 tablespoon Meyer lemon olive oil

1-2 teaspoons Blueberry balsamic 

Directions:

Sprinkle sunset fish fry seasoning over the fillet. Drizzle on 2 teaspoons of Meyer lemon olive oil set aside.

Heat a skillet with 2 tablespoons of Meyer lemon olive oil and heat over medium heat till hot. Add fillet to pan and lower heat to low. Drizzle blueberry balsamic over fillet and cook for about six minutes.

Kayla Woodbury
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