#MadewithLocalRoots: Food & Finance High School Gala | Food Scrap Strata with Kale Stem Pesto

As part of the Food & Finance High School gala and innovation lab, I teamed up with my CSA Local Roots to educate guests about food scraps you can eat. Thanks to Orwashers for the bread and a generous bushel of leftover produce, I was able to create a no-waste food scrap strata.

• Vegetable peels, mushroom stems and cheese rinds can be used to make an easy broth in a slow cooker overnight.
• We took day-old bread and dried it even further so it would soak up our eggs and rich mushroom broth.
• The rest of the vegetable odds and ends were chopped up for our strata.
• Kale stems went into an umami-packed pesto with leftover cheese and miso.
• The eggshells are currently soaking in water (a trick I learned from Claire Matern!) and used to water plants. Eggshells still have protective nutrients to give!

Here are the scaled down recipes if you'd like to try it at home.

FOOD SCRAP STRATA

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Things you'll need:
3 cups cubed bread 2 cups broth or milk* 2 cups veggie scraps, chopped 1/4 cup butter, softened	6 eggs, slightly beaten 2 tablespoons any seasoning 1 teaspoon salt Fresh ground pepper

Preheat your own to the lowest setting. Spread the bread out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Dry the bread in the oven with the door cracked or held open with a wooden spoon for 2 to 4 hours, until the bread is completely dry.

Combine the beaten eggs with the broth in a large bowl. Fold in the chopped vegetables. Soak the cubed bread in the broth mixture for at least 15 minutes. If you prefer a moist strata, store it covered in the refrigerator overnight.

Generously butter an oven-safe pan or pot with a lid. Pour the strata mixture in the pan and pack it down with a spoon or spatula. Salt the top of the strata and dot the top with cubes of butter.

Bake at 400 degree for 40 minutes covered with a lid or tented with foil.  Remove the cover and bake for another 10 more minutes to brown the top. Let the strata rest for 10 minutes before serving. Finish with kale stem pesto and course ground pepper.

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KALE STEM PESTO 

Makes 1 pint

             

Things you'll need:
1 cup kale stems or leafy greens ¼ lb leftover cheese (save rinds for broth) 1 teaspoon miso	1 garlic clove 1 cup olive oil ½ teaspoon salt

In a food processor, combine the kale stems, cheese, miso, and garlic. Pulse a few times to break them up into small pieces. With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides and continue to blend. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, blend one more time and taste if you like it. Transfer the pesto to a clean container and top with a light layer of more olive oil if you don’t intend to use it right away.

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And we were so excited to meet and feed gala host Tom Colicchio! We're so glad to be on the same page about sustainability and using food to its fullest potential.

How do you use up your food waste? I want to hear about it! Tweet me: @Randwiches.

All Pretty Lettuces Deserve this Yummy Yuzu Dressing

As seen on FeedFeed! 

I still think about Bodhi Tree Farm and am so sad they aren't coming to Grow NYC markets anymore. However, many other farms provide super cute baby lettuces and you can use this dressing to enjoy any of them.

Things you'll need:
1 lb baby lettuces 1 ripe heirloom tomato, sliced thin 1/2 cucumber, sliced into thin rounds 1/4 lb of snow peas, ends trimmed	2 tbl yuzu juice 1 tbl tahini 1 tbl miso water

Serves 4

If you can't find yuzu, try Filipino calamansi. And if you can't find either of those, mix 2 parts lemon juice with 1 part tangerine. It's not the same but I like that combination.

Whisk the miso, tahini and citrus to combine. Add water gradually to thin it out into a creamy dressing.

Divide the vegetables onto four salad plates. Drizzle the dressing before serving. Do not pre-toss if you are not serving right away. Dressing will keep for a week, covered.

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Like the recipe? Let me know how else you enjoy this dressing!

Twitter or tag @Randwiches on Instagram.

#MadewithLocalRoots: ‘Nduja Compound Butter

‘Nduja is a spreadable Calabrian style salumi. It’s got roasted peppers and meats from the pig’s head, off cuts and parts of the skin. It’s sort of like a soft chorizo. Even though it is cured already, you can stretch it even further by making it into a compound butter. Enjoy it on toast with radishes or fry up an egg with it!

Things you'll need:
1 cup of butter, softened 1/4 lb of 'Nduja	Parchment paper Optional: twine plastic wrap

Break the ‘nduja up in a bowl with a spatula. Add the softened butter and “slice” through it to incorporate. You can keep it chunky or whip it further to make it smooth.

Transfer to a piece of parchment paper in as much of a log form as you can. Roll it up halfway, start twisting one end of the paper to pack it like a sausage, tighten and twist the other side before completely rolling the rest of the paper over the log.

Refrigerate for one hour until it is solid. Slice into rounds for serving or wrap the whole parchment log tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months.

Ever tried 'Nduja? Let me know what you think of it!

A Vegetarian Table: Caramelized Onion and Stilton Galette

My trick for caramelized onions is to cut them up and throw them into a slow cooker overnight with a stick of butter. You get a bunch of broth out of it, too! Once drained, I was able to make the filling for this galette with dots of blue cheese.

Using a store-bought pie crust, I rolled it out onto a large, floured cutting board. Then I spread the cooled onion across the whole thing.  Fold 2" sections of the edges toward the center. I brushed the crust with a beaten egg before popping it into a 450 degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes..

I’m still not very good with pastry, so the folds cracked and it was pretty hard to transfer between baking sheet and plate but it tasted great with a dollop of pickled mustard seeds. If only I had some creme fraiche!

Do you have pastry secrets that will help me avoid disaster next time? Let me know by tweeting to @Randwiches.

This dish is from my "A Vegetarian Table" menu.

A Competitor's Guide to The Takedowns

Saying that I'm competitive is an understatement. I friggin' thrive on eating people alive in culinary combat. There's something so alluring and addicting about the potential of winning a contest. Trust me, I've had my share of losses. I have much to celebrate in the recipes that I created and the friends that I've made. What happens after winning?

The Takedowns are a Brooklyn-based cooking competition series that celebrates home cooks and amateur chefs.  Each edition focuses on a specific ingredient like bacon, lobster and lamb or format like chili, fondue, meatball, ice cream, cookies and, even homebrew beer. Alumni have had different paths after graduating from this circuit. Theo Peck opened a restaurant, Linda Sarris travels the world as a private chef, Nicole Taylor wrote The Up South Cookbook, Cathy Erway has a James Beard-nominated podcast, and I wrote Showdown—a book about my experiences in these contests. Many people who participate have other jobs and enter for the hell of it!

Lucky for me, I have the opportunity to judge The Takedowns sometimes. It's so wonderful to see brand new cooks jump in, head-first, into battle. Here are a few things that I've learned over the past ten years of competing and judging.

The Rules

• Matt Timms insists that there are no rules. That means you can make anything as long as it uses the featured ingredient or format.
• You do not need experience to enter. In fact, we highly encourage home cooks and amateur chefs to join. There is no fee to participate.
• You can spend as much or as little money as you want on your entry. It just hurts when you spend money on porcinis, only to lose in the end. Sometimes an ingredient may be provided for you.
• Make enough food. For chili, the recommended amount is 2 gallons. Other categories recommend 200 to 250 bites. Remember, they're bites, not full portions. Attendees and judges are eating up to 30 entries.
• There are two types of prizes: people's choice and judge's. Ticket holders for the event will vote on their favorites and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place are awarded. 3 to 4 judges will also be tasting and will award 1st, 2nd, 3rd and honorable mentions.
• You can invite your friends, but it's not cool to tell them to vote for you. Give everyone a fair shot and encourage your friends to try everything.

Serving

• Matt asks everyone to arrive 30 to 45 minutes before the doors open. 1 hour doesn't hurt either!
• Ensure that you can travel with your dish. You don't want to be like me, lugging a vat of chili without a lid into a NYC cab. Try using a cooler and always double wrap anything liquidy.
• For hot dishes, you will get a large sterno foil tray with water in it. You nest the second provided tray in it to create a steam bath. Bring foil if you need your dish to be covered throughout the afternoon.
• You will be provided with enough sample cups to serve your dish. Bring any ladles, spoons or tools you need to get the food into the cups.
• Sharpie! Always have a sharpie. You will need to label your plastic cups when you arrive so that guests will know to vote for you.
• Hundreds of people will be walking by to taste your food, prepare a quick sentence that describes your dish. Signage is not required but helps people with allergies identify if they can eat your food or not.

Afterward

• You will be asked to get up on the stage and announce which dish and number entry you had.
• When the winners are announced, don't be nervous. You are great for making it this far!
• Showboating and heckling are a pet peeves of mine, it's unsportsmanlike. Be a team player and celebrate other people's dishes. You're allowed to enjoy your win but don't jump on any tables like Bobby Flay did against Iron Chef Morimoto.
• Reduce food waste by bringing plasticware or zipper bags to keep any leftovers.
• Write your recipe! Scale it down to dinner-time size and save it. You can share it on a blog or social media, too. Whether you won or not, you made something that was yours! Who knows? You might write a book about it.

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Head to TheTakedowns.com to find out when you can compete!

Did this guide help you? Let me know!

Get Jiggy for St. Patrick's Day Brunch

Stay in and cook up a storm today or prep a hangover brunch for your post-St. Patrick's Day binge. This menu I put together is all comfort to warm your heart and leave fat glistening on your lips. Pick and choose a few items to make for yourself or have a potluck and assign dishes to your friends.

• Kale salad with lomo chips
• Beet relish
• Duck fat colcannon
• Tomato confit
• Shortcut corned beef
• DIY Shamrock Shakes
• Green gradient cookies

St. Patrick's Day Brunch: Green Gradient Cookies

I love me a dang rainbow cookie. But who says you have to use all of the colors? My favorite color happens to be a light, muted shade of green, so it was perfect that my friend Sam wanted to come over and bake! We used this Bon Appetit recipe for ombre rainbow cookies as a jump off point.

Firstly, Sam made the batter with almond paste. Then she divided into two. One bowl got more green food coloring than the other and then they were transfer to lined baking sheets.

Our cakes were baked and turned out onto a cutting board. Sam slathered the light green layer with apricot jam and then carefully placed the dark green layer on top. We let it cool before slicing up into small cubes.

Aren't they cute? Let them sit out at room temperature for a couple hours if you don't like them so cakey and more like a cookie. Fun fact: you can toast them until they are crunchy to make biscotti!

I'm terrible at baking! If you want to trade meats for baked good, I'm happy to shoot photos of your delicious treats in my kitchen.

St. Patrick’s Day Brunch: Kale Salad with Lomo Chips

My salad dressings aren’t very complicated. Half a lemon, a count of one-two pour of olive oil, a pinch of salt and maybe 5 turns of the pepper mill (course, of course). Hefty, handful of green, in this case, baby kale. I find delight in the added flourishes which yield variation in my salads: a nice cheese hidden at the bottom, candied nuts or a roasted vegetable. I bring you, the lomo chip!

Lomo embuchado is cured pork loin, sliced super thin. Akin to its cousin prosciutto in that is part of a pig and cured, but small circular discs. I took advantage of the low oven setting from the tomato confit I had going already and placed a single layer of lomo slices on a rack nested in a sheet pan. It doesn’t have much fat to drop off like bacon, but it lets the hot air circulate in the oven, crisping both sides. You’ll know they’re done when they are still a deep red and crunch like a chip with no gummy chew. 

St. Patrick’s Day Brunch: Beet Relish

Beet relish was an unintended add-on to my St. Patrick's Day corned beef. When I had my DIY Cleanse and juiced, I made sure to use the discards from every fruit and vegetable.

In the case of beet remains, I added a boiling mix of cider vinegar, sugar, salt, dill,and horseradish in a clean swing-top jar. It sat in the fridge for about a week and what the heck, here we are. The interesting difference between this and other beet concoctions is that mine started raw. A bite was much more earthy and my insides were dyed a very striking pink hue (beware when you pee). 

St. Patrick's Day Brunch: Duck Fat Colcannon

I pretty much followed the technique of this Food52 recipe but instead of pan frying the green cabbage, I roasted slabs of it in duck fat. I also added a shit ton more cream and butter because...why are you still reading this blog?!

I readied heat-safe bowls with scoops of pillowy potato, shimmied a tablespoon in the middle to make a divot and lay a healthy pat of butter in there. They rested peacefully covered with foil at the back of my stovetop, where the oven sends its most precious residual heat. When it was time to eat, I plopped crunchy fronds of cabbage atop the bowls.