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From The Kitchen: October Menu
Our new October menu is out and it features a new "Chef of the Month": Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant. Leaf strives to use the finest organic, seasonal ingredients to provide a vegetarian global cuisine and health conscious dining option for herbivores and omnivores alike. Leaf also provides a full bar highlighted by an enviro-friendly wine list. The new "Chef of the Month" recipe is a delicious Jamaican Jerk Tempeh With Coconut Plantain Sauce. The menu also features a wonderful selection of meals that are prefect for when the days get shorter and the nights get cooler. The Herb Chicken with Potatoes and the Cumin Beef With Sweet Potatoes are yummy crock pot dishes, the Veggie Ragout and the Sausage Ragout are chock full of vegetables, and the Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary Plum Coulis and the Roast Chicken With Butternut Squash are ready to go in the oven. Seafood lovers will enjoy our Black Bean Scallops in Ginger Chilli Oil, and if you’re looking for something to throw on the grill, there’s the Asian Flank Steak With Wasabi. Place an order today to get your meals by October 9th. Extra Tasty Tip: Searing Meat
Our goal is to bring you healthy and tasty food while ensuring that cooking it as simple as possible. We want you to be able to have dinner ready in less than 20 minutes, with just a few dishes to pop in the dishwasher afterwards. As a result, we sometimes skip some steps in our cooking instructions in order to create less work for you. These steps are not necessary for a delicious and healthy dinner, but they will give the food additional flavor or a different texture. This month, we want to introduce you to searing your meats/proteins before baking, braising, or roasting. Searing meat caramelizes the sugars and browns the proteins, creating a different color and more intense flavor, as well as a crust on just the outside of the meat. Contrary to popular belief, searing is actually not believed to hold in any moisture. Nonetheless, here’s a simple breakdown of what you do! Add a little safflower or other high heat oil to your favorite pan and bring it to high heat. When the pan is just beginning to smoke, add the meat. (If the pan is not hot enough, the meat will stick when you try to turn it.) Brown all surfaces of the meat until deep golden brown. Remember that the meat inside is still raw, so continue on with the rest of the cooking instructions. Next newsletter – how to make a pan sauce from the fond left in the pan.
Recipe Idea: Butternut Squash Soup
An easy and delicious soup for almost all occasions.
Makes about 6 servings:
1 large butternut squash (about 4 lbs.), peeled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
Nutmeg
1 onion, chopped
5 cups veggie broth
Cut squash into 1-inch chunks.
Slowly melt the butter in a large pot. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add squash and veggie broth, bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender.
Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon, place in a blender and puree. Return blended squash to pot. OR puree the squash in the pot if you have a hand blender or immersion blender.
Stir and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. "Guten Appetit!"
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