Join us for our next cooking demo
Thurs. October 12th & 19th
6:30 – 8:30, approximately
Reservations required (see below)
Roasted Grape Focaccia with Goat Cheese
Pear Salad w/Cranberries & Caramelized Walnuts
Pork Tenderloin with Yukon Gold Potatoes, Apples & Shallots
Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta
Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
$45.00
For reservations call
Temecula Olive Oil
(562) 296-5421
Sponsored by
Photo: Hector Sanchez
A perfect summer salad that you can make ahead; it actually is better the next day! An easy ‘from the pantry’ salad, adjust ingredients to what you have on hand, what you find from the farmers market or your own garden, or even some of last nights grilled chicken or shrimp. Serves 6
Couscous
In a saucepan, add the stock, butter and couscous; bring to a boil, remove from heat stir in garlic and green onion, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove garlic and fluff with a fork. Set aside to cool.
Vinaigrette
In a small bowl add vinegar, mustard and shallot, whisk together. Slowly whisk in the oil in a thin stream to emulsify. Add seasonings to taste. Can be refrigerated for 3 weeks, bring to room temperature before using.
Salad
In a large bowl, add all chopped ingredients and toss with a little of the dressing. Let stand for 5 minutes. Toss couscous and vegetables together adding a little more dressing as necessary, to taste.
Weeknight dinner ideas using Instant Pot (Pressure Cooker), Slow Cooker or a good old oven!
Instant Pot at Sur la Table
Did you just get an Instant Pot? One of the hottest new pieces of equipment in the kitchen. Here are some recipes to get you started. We’ll discuss how to adapt regular recipes to the Instant Pot and how to create your own. Even if you don’t own an Instant Pot all these recipes will have directions for regular cooking methods.
Menu
Tarragon & Sherry Deviled Eggs
Bib Lettuce Salad with Apples, Pecans, Pomegranate Seeds & Blue Cheese Sprinkles
Sesame Teriyaki Chicken with Rice & Green Onion
Glazed Baby Back Riblets with Baked Beans
Deconstructed Black Forest Cake
Class held at Temecula Olive Oil Tasting Room, Seal Beach, Thur. Sept 14 & 28
6:30 – 8:30, approximately
Reservations required
$45.00
For reservations call
Temecula Olive Oil
(562) 296-5421
Sponsored by
Don’t have an Instant Pot? The link below will take you to Amazon.
In Southern California we are lucky enough to grow a fall crop of beans. With warm days still ahead the beans will sprout and grow quickly. Bush beans are your best bet, with shorter days to harvest than pole beans you should be able to harvest in just 45-50 days. Check your seed packet for harvesting information.
There are three types of bush beans, snap beans (eat the pod & all), shelling beans (eat the beans inside the pod like peas) or dried beans. Dried beans you’ll want to leave on the plant until everything has dried up, pick the dried pods and put into a grocery bag. You can knock the bag around to remove the shell or pull the dried pod away from the beans. I like to freeze the beans for 24 hours to kill any pests that may have hitched a ride. Then store in a glass jar or other container in your pantry, away from heat and light. When you’re ready to use them, treat them like any other dried bean (that’s another story….)
Most bush beans don’t need to be trellised, and they produce most of their crop all at once. For a great harvest and good use of space, plant Square Foot Gardening style, 9 plants to a square foot.
To get the best crop inoculate your bean seeds before planting. Beans, peas and all legumes ‘fix’ nitrogen into the soil. The inoculant, Rhizobium leguminosarum, is a nitrogen fixing bacteria. These bacteria “infect” the legumes growing in the soil and cause the legumes to form the nitrogen fixing nodules that make peas and beans bombshells.
You should be able to find the inoculant at any garden center or nursery. It can also be ordered from www.groworganic.com (Peaceful Valley Farm Supply).
While you are digging the holes for the seed, soak the seeds in water for about ½ hour. Dig your hole and sprinkle a generous helping of inoculant into the hole. Water and then plant your seeds. They’ll take up to 10 days to sprout, don’t overwater while you are waiting for them to poke up from the ground, overwatering can cause the seed to rot before it sprouts. Watch out for birds as well, they love seeds! I like to cover my bed with a floating row cover until the seeds are up and have several sets of leaves.
Give the plants 2 – 3” of water a week and you can side dress with a little compost. I mulch my beds with straw to help keep water evaporation down and to keep weeds from sprouting.
Plant companion plants near beans for the best growing bed, they like to grow near beets, cucumber, nasturtiums, peas and radish.
Watch for pests such as a cucumber beetle, bean beetle or weevil. I planted my beans near basil which is usually a good pest deterrent but this year those white butterflies (which are really cabbage moths) laid eggs on the basil and the little worms devoured my newly sprouted beans. So I planted a new round because I love green beans, especially in the fall. I freeze some for soups when winter comes and hopefully have enough until next spring when I can get some more in the ground.
Here’s an easy side dish recipe for you to try.
Serves 6
* To blanch green beans: Fill a large bowl with ice and cold water leaving room for green beans. Bring a large saucepan full of water to a boil and add green beans and a good helping of salt, cook for 1-2 minutes, drain the beans and plunge them into the bowl of ice water. Let them cool, drain and dry well.
Cook bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels, reserving 2 Tbsp. drippings in skillet.
Add olive oil to the pan with the bacon drippings then add the quartered shallots and sauté until browned. Add the vinegar, stir well, then add the green beans and toss until coated with oil, cook for another minute then season with salt and pepper and toss with bacon, serve hot.
Fudgy, chewy, mild or hot…..a delicious treat!
Preheat the oven to 375° and lightly grease a 9x13 pan.
Add all the ingredients to a large bowl in the order they are listed. Stir together and beat until the mixture is smooth.
Spoon into the prepared pan and bake 25-30 minutes, or until just barely beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan, remove from oven and let cool.
Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add oil; add onions, season with salt and pepper and sauté until lightly browned.
Add chiles, and cream, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer and cook 4 minutes.
Add cheese and potatoes, stirring occasionally, until just heated through. Remove from heat.
Wrap tortillas in plastic wrap or paper towel and heat in microwave on low until warm.
Join us for our next cooking demo
Thurs. August 10th & 17th
6:30 – 8:30, approximately
Reservations required (see below)
Artichoke Bruschetta
Heirloom Tomato & Asparagus Salad
Clambake BBQ Foil Packets
With Shrimp, Clams, Sausage, Fresh Corn, Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes in Lemon Herbed Garlic Sauce
Watermelon Sorbet
$45.00
For reservations call
Temecula Olive Oil
(562) 296-5421
Sponsored by
There are many ways to save your harvest and if you have more tomatoes than you know what to do with here are some ideas.
First and foremost is water bath canning, I love this because it means that I can store tomatoes on the shelf in my pantry for the year. Fairly easy to do but when it’s hot and humid out like it has been this summer FORGET IT!
As many of you already know, I like to freeze my tomatoes also so later when it’s cool I can make sauce or unfreeze and can them to make more room in the freezer for up and coming dinners. Freezing tomatoes is the fastest way to get things done, wash, and dry then freeze on a baking sheet until frozen solid, pop into a freezer bag and you are done for the day! You can remove one or four at a time, whatever you need and as they begin to defrost, which is almost right away, the skin will slip off easily.
My second favorite is to make Oven Roasted Tomatoes, although it does require having the oven on for some length of time. I love to dry my cherry tomatoes and then float them in a good olive oil and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. Chopped in a salad, in a bruschetta or top on a pizza, they pack a flavorful punch. Fill up your baking sheet and get started right away!
Add a baby green salad tossed lightly with olive oil & vinegar for a nice summer lunch or light dinner.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or use with a non-stick tart pan.
Unfold one sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll it lightly to an 11-by-11-inch square or roll to the size of your tart pan adding ½” for the sides. I using the tart pan, fold up the pastry carefully and lay into the pan, unfold the pastry draping it over the sides of the pan. If using just the sheet pan, lay the pastry in the middle of the piece of parchment on the pan. Prick (called 'docking') the pastry with a fork leaving a 1/2" edge clear.
Spread a thin amount of mustard on the pricked part of the dough.
Sprinkle an even amount of the cheese on the mustard and top with slices of tomato. Fold a couple of inches of the dough over the filling, leaving a large part of the middle open, disregard if using the part pan. If the pastry is warm, chill for 15 minutes.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Garnish with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
Join us at Temecula Olive Oil, Seal Beach for a tasty cooking demo!
July 13 & 27
6:30 – 8:30 p.m., approximately
By reservation only, see below
Sweet Corn and Balsamic Tomato Salad
Creamy Beef Stroganoff with Morel Mushrooms & Crème Frâiche
Green Beans with Bacon & Caramelized Shallots
Stone Fruit Cobbler
For reservations call
Temecula Olive Oil
(562) 296-5421
Sponsored by
I first tasted these at The Santa Monica Farmers Market about 15 years ago when The Two Hot Tamale girls were doing a demo for their restaurant, Border Grill (now closed, sadly). It’s a perfect little snack for an early summer day, zucchini plants are going wild with flowers and are daring to be picked & stuffed. Make sure you pick all male blossoms rather than female blossoms or you won’t have any fruit. To tell the difference look at the bottom of the flower, you’ll see a round little nub or small zucchini attached, this is a female blossom….move on. The male blossoms are attached just by them stem with no nub at the bottom, you’ll be able to tell. Open the flowers gently as there may be a bee inside collecting pollen, he will fly away when you open the petals, be gentle. If you want to wash them use cool water and dry well but do this just before you’re ready to prepare the dish. Or you can buy them at your local farmers market, the blossoms are delicate and will last no more than a day so pick right before you’re going to make the quesadillas.
Mix together all ingredients together seasoning with salt and pepper, to taste.
Heat a grill pan or griddle, add 1 Tb. butter. Add a tortilla and cook it on one side until it puffs (about 30 seconds).
Flip tortilla over and sprinkle over entire surface 1/4 cup of squash blossom filling.
Top with another tortilla, and after cheese has melted and the two tortillas stick together (a couple of minutes), flip quesadilla and cook for a couple of minutes more.
Repeat for the remainder of the filling and tortillas.
For the Tomatillo Salsa
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse to combine. Blend on low speed until a coarse puree is formed.
Pour into a bowl, taste and add more salt or lime if desired. Salsa can be thinned with a bit of water if desired.
This is by far my favorite dish with hints of Meyer lemon and sea salt and I like to add some roasted baby potatoes to the pan to soak up some of the juices. I use ‘Mary’s Organic Chicken‘ always for the best meat, always tender & juicy, it costs a little more but I think it’s worth the extra few bucks. (And they didn’t pay me to say that). And I love to tuck into the pan the ‘Baby Dutch Yellow Potatoes’ from Melissa’s Produce!
You can dress this up by making the ‘pan’ sauce listed in the recipe of you can by pass it. I’ve also made brioche dressing for the side and it makes a great holiday dish without the hassle of cooking a whole turkey dinner. Add a beautiful green vegetable and you’ll find an easy weeknight dinner. It pairs well with my Spring Asparagus recipe. Prep all the ingredients the night before & you can walk in the door, pop the chicken in a preheated oven and within the hour you’ll have the best meal in town, no drive through chicken can EVER take the place of a chicken roasted at home.
Preheat oven to 400°.
Wash and dry chicken inside and out then dry well. Fit chicken into a roasting pan (you want no more than 1" of space on any side of the chicken otherwise the juices will burn).
Mix together onion, carrot, celery, lemon zest, and 1/2 of the minced herbs. Loosely stuff cavity with some of the ingredients, place the remainder on the bottom of the roasting pan and place chicken on top of the aromatic vegetables.
Mix remaining minced herbs with butter. Gently separate the chicken skin from the breast meat and carefully rub herb butter on breast under the skin.
Rub the chicken with lemon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Squeeze lemon over chicken and place rind into cavity. Insert probe thermometer into thigh and set for 165 degrees. Pour half of the wine and chicken stock in the bottom of the pan and place, uncovered in hot oven.
Baste after 1/2 hour, if you don't have enough juice in pan use some chicken stock. Do not cover bird until browned and then loosely place foil over breast. If wings start to brown to early wrap with foil.
Remove chicken to a warm plate and loosely cover with foil. Let rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Remove some of the fat in the pan by using a paper towel or ice cubes. (Dredge the paper towel through the juices to pull out some of the fat or pour off the juices into a heat proof measuring cup. Add a few ice cubes; the fat will stick to the cold cube, discard cube. You may have to do this several times).
Put the roasting pan on top of the stove over medium-high heat and bring a boil, add remaining wine and stock scraping the fond (the yummy pieces stuck to the pan) from the bottom of the pan. Reduce by half, add demi-glace if using and serve with chicken.
