From Lisa Barnes

Believe it or not, the inspiration for this recipe came from a box of Cheerios, although there are many options for providing the crunch on these tasty bananas. This is a cool and healthy treat for children and adults.

Makes 8 servings

4 ripe, firm, large organic bananas
1½ cups or 1 (12 ounce) container organic whole-milk yogurt, any flavor
3 cups cereal (toasted Os, wheat germ, or corn flakes)

Peel and cut bananas in half crosswise. Insert a wooden stick with rounded ends into cut ends of bananas. Place yogurt in a small bowl. Sprinkle cereal on a plate or waxed paper. Dip bananas in yogurt to cover. Then roll yogurt-covered bananas in cereal to coat. Place finished bananas on baking sheet or plate and place in the freezer for about 1 hour, or until firm.

Tip: Freeze, please! You can store these to serve anytime. Just wrap each banana in waxed or parchment paper, and place in a freezer bag. Label, date, and store in the freezer for up to 1 month.
~~
Lisa Barnes is author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy, Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby and Toddler and lives in Sausalito, California.
Image Credit: © Monika Adamczyk | Dreamstime.com
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From Rosalind Creasy

This pretty, 3-layer pâté is elegant, yet low in calories and high in nutrition. Serve as an appetizer, salad course, or side dish. Note that the seasoning here is up to you. Experiment with the flavor until you have matched your personal preference.

Serves 8 to 10.

6 organic eggs
1 cup organic milk
2/3 cup brown rice, cooked
2 1/2 cups green vegetables: choose from blanched, finely chopped green beans, broccoli, asparagus, or peas (edible pod or shelled type) alone or mixed with up to 1 cup grated raw zucchini, and/or cooked, well-drained, and finely chopped greens (such as spinach, chard, or kale)
Salt and pepper, herbs, and spices to taste (see below for suggestions)
1 1/2 cup grated carrots or sweet yellow winter squash
2 cups diced white potatoes or cauliflower
1/4 cup diced onion, shallots, or white part of leeks
1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)
Standard loaf pan

Preheat over to 350°F.

In a medium bowl, beat 2 of the eggs, add 1/3 cup of milk, 1/3 of the rice, grated carrots or squash, and seasonings. With this mixture, try 1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder or 1 teaspoon nutmeg, mace, or coriander.

In another bowl, beat 2 eggs, add 1/3 cup milk 1/3 of the rice, grated carrots or squash, and seasonings. With this mixture, try 1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder or 1 teaspoon nutmeg, mace, or coriander.

In a saucepan, cook potatoes or cauliflower with onion in 1 or 2 inches of water until just tender. Process in a food processor briefly with just enough cooking liquid to make mixture workable. Add 2 eggs, 1/3 cup milk, and seasoning, and blend very briefly. Use a small amount of dill or thyme, dash of cayenne, and/or salt and pepper. Pour into a third bowl and mix with remaining rice.

Butter a standard loaf pan and line with buttered wax paper. Carefully pour carrot mixture into pan, making an even layer. Follow with potato mixture, then green mixture. Filling should come to about 1/2 inch below top of pan. Place pan in a larger pan containing about 3 inches of hot water. Bake at 350° degrees for 1 1/4 hours. Check to see if firm; if not, bake 15 minutes longer. Let loaf pan cool on a rack 1/2 hour. Run a knife around edges of pan, put serving plate over it, and invert. Remove pan and wax paper and let cool 1/2 hour longer.

Serve slices warm on sweet and spicy red pepper soubise sauce, or at room temperature on a bed of chilled greens with a light dressing.
~

Organic Sweet And Spicy Red Pepper Soubise Sauce

Jesse Cool, Chef-Blogger here at Organic To Be, says of this recipe, “This sauce is delicious and beautiful with steamed broccoli or cauliflower served as an appetizer or side dish.”

1 cup chopped yellow onions
2 cups chopped sweet red peppers (peeled if tough)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Cayenne, salt, and pepper to taste

Sauté onions and peppers in olive oil over low heat until very soft. Remove and puree in blender or food processor. Add seasonings and serve hot or at room temperature.
~~
Rosalind Creasy is author of Rosalind Creasy’s Recipes From The Garden: 200 Exciting Recipes from the Author of the Complete Book of Edible Landscaping.
Text and photo © Rosalind Creasy
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“Hey! Cut up a what?”

From Greg Atkinson

Some people shy away from cutting up a chicken because the process seems messy and intimidating. But once you know how, it’s easy. Whole chickens cost less per pound, and since you get better-shaped pieces with less waste, it is worth the effort to cut up a chicken yourself. And an added bonus is that when you cut up your own chicken, you have parts for making your own chicken stock.

Makes 8 pieces, serving 4

One 3- to 4- pound free-range organic chicken

1. If the chicken has any giblets, set them aside for stock. Reserve the liver for another use. Put the chicken breast side up on a stable cutting board with the legs pointing toward you. (Professional chefs always put a kitchen towel under the cutting board to keep it from sliding or wobbling.) Using a sharp chef’s knife, cut into the top of the breast plate and cut through the cartilage all the way to the bottom. You will have split the top half of the bird butterfly style and left the underside intact.

2. Spread the split carcass open to gain access to the backbone. Placing the blade along one side of the backbone, press firmly and rock until the blade is all the way through. Repeat on the other side of the spine.You should have 2 half-chickens and a backbone. Set the backbone aside.

3. Find the natural division between the breast and the thigh and cut each half-chicken in half again to get 4 quarters.

4. Divide the legs into drumstick and thigh. With the chicken leg lying skin side down on the cutting board, wedge the base of knife blade into the joint and rock the blade to separate the leg. Trim the “knuckle” off the bottom of each leg and set these aside with the backbone.

5. Cut the wings off. It’s best to include a little of the breast with the upper section of the wing; this makes the wings into a more substantial piece at serving time. Cut the wing with about an inch of breast meat away from each breast. Then snip off the last joint from each wing and put those aside with the backbone for stock.

6. To prevent any bacteria from getting on other foods, wash the knife and cutting board in hot, soapy water and use a light bleach solution (1 tablespoon in 2 quarts of water) to sanitize the countertop.
~

Versatile Baked Organic Chicken

This is the way chicken is often prepared in restaurants to feed the hungry crew. Simpler to cook and serve than a whole roast chicken, chicken baked in individual pieces is a perfect weeknight meal for families—be they nuclear or extended. Very often, chicken is a vehicle for other flavors, and only rarely do we enjoy the taste of the bird itself. Since chicken is so straightforward in this preparation, it is important to choose one that has great flavor on its own. If you compare a factory farmed bird with a free-range organic bird, the difference will be profound. Serve this baked chicken with Greg’s Buttered Noodles and a green salad. Flavorful condiments such as regular soy sauce, Mexican hot sauce, and Southeast Asian sweet chili sauce can be offered on the side.

Makes 4 servings

One 3- to 4- pound free-range organic chicken, cut into 8 pieces

Nonstick canola oil spray, or 1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F and spray or rub a baking sheet with canola oil.

2. Sprinkle the chicken pieces all over with salt and pepper, and arrange them in a single layer on the oiled baking sheet. Bake until they are well browned and crispy and cooked through, about 25 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a thigh or leg should read 165°F.
~

Organic Chicken Broth or Stock

Technically speaking, “broth” is the cooking liquid that surrounded a meat as it was boiled, and “stock” is a more deliberate preparation of liquid infused with the essence of meat and aromatic vegetables. For practical purposes, however, the two are almost interchangeable. Save the bones from cooked or raw chicken. If you don’t have enough for a full batch of stock, store them in the freezer until you do. Alternately, poach a chicken in water for 1½ hours and remove the meat for use in sandwiches, salads, or enchiladas. Return the bones to the cooking liquid and proceed. Never put livers in the stockpot.

Makes 6 to 8 cups

2 pounds organic chicken bones and giblets
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 onion, sliced, peel and all
1 head garlic, cut in half horizontally
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 teaspoon whole or cracked peppercorns (not ground)
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs parsley
4 whole cloves

1. Place all of the ingredients in a stockpot. Cover with water and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce the heat to a simmer and allow the stock to cook gently for 3½ hours, adding a little water if necessary to keep the ingredients covered. Strain the broth and discard the solids. Use the broth at once or store it, well chilled, for up to 1 week.

3. To prevent it from harboring bacteria, it is important to chill the broth as quickly as you can. If you don’t have room in the refrigerator, or if you are afraid that the hot broth will warm other items in the refrigerator, make a bath of ice water in the sink and put the container of stock in the ice bath until it is cold.
~~
Greg Atkinson is author of West Coast Cooking and lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
© Copyright Greg Atkinson
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© Stefan Hermans | Dreamstime.com
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From Jesse Cool

For me, this dish is the essence of springtime. It can be served cold as a first course or salad. Or, keep the asparagus and sauce warm and use as a side dish with poached or grilled salmon.

1½ pounds organic asparagus, trimmed
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 green onion, sliced
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
1 small whole grain italian bread, diagonally cut into 12 slices (about 1 inch) and toasted
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
6 radishes, thinly sliced

Place ½ cup water in a large skillet. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the asparagus. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 4 minutes, or until tender-crisp. Rinse under cold water. Drain.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, tamari or soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, onion, and 2 tablespoons water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes, or until reduced by half.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, chives, and tarragon. Spread the bread slices with the cream cheese mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Arrange the radishes on top.

Arrange the asparagus on a large platter or 6 individual salad plates. Drizzle with the vinegar mixture. Place the cheese toasts around the asparagus.

Makes 6 servings
~~
Jesse Cool is author of Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients, owner of CoolEatz Restaurants and Catering, and lives in Menlo Park, California.
Image Credit: © Laurin Rinder Dreamstime.com
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From Jeff Cox

In the early spring in southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, and western Asia, the air is cool, the ground moist with winter rains and snowmelt, and in dappled shady copses, the native chervil appears, looking like a delicate form of parsley.

Now it’s widely grown around the world, but few in North America know it or use it in their cooking. Those who have discovered it know that it is one of the culinary joys of spring. When it’s young, its delicate green leaves are sweet and aromatic, and carry a scent and flavor of anise with a touch of parsley. Within a couple of months, the weather turns hot and it flowers and goes to seed. Then its leaves turn a greenish purple or yellow and its flavor is lost.

For millennia, Europeans have broken the long winter dependence on stored root vegetables, dried fruits, and meats by making a refreshing spring tonic salad out of the new leaves of chervil, dandelion, and watercress. Their vitality-restoring vitamins and minerals, and the taste of breath-cleansing anise and chlorophyll, were signs that summer was on its way—and so chervil became associated with Easter rituals.

Nowadays it’s a quintessential herb for French cooking. But it must be used fresh and raw. Drying it destroys its sweet anise character, as does the heat of cooking. It’s best added after the cooking is completed.

It has myriad uses: in salad dressings, as a component of sauce bearnaise, in omelets, as chervil butter (three tablespoons of finely chopped chervil worked into two sticks of room temperature butter, then spread over hot baked fish, or spread on toast or biscuits), or sprinkled liberally on springtime’s wonderful fava beans. It enhances light meats like chicken and veal. It goes with peas and carrots, as an adjunct to potatoes, and as an ingredient in salads.

Because chervil is a spring herb, it has a natural affinity for other spring vegetables, such as asparagus, baby carrots, and salads of new spring greens. Because it’s a hardy annual, it can be planted in late summer or early fall and overwinter for new growth early in the spring, or planted in early spring for harvesting until summer’s hot weather shuts it down.

Organic Sauce Bearnaise Recipe

You must make sauce bearnaise just as carefully as you do a hollandaise sauce, for overheating the egg yolks will cause them to cook, and adding too much butter will cause them to curdle. I’ve used the following recipe many times with success. Use it on grilled or baked fish and chicken.

¼ cup white wine vinegar
¼ cup dry white wine
1 Tbl. minced shallots
Pinch of salt
1/8 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
3 organic egg yolks
2 Tbl. cold organic butter
½ cup melted butter
3 Tbl. minced chervil

1. Boil the vinegar, wine, shallots, and salt and pepper over medium heat until the liquid reduces to two tablespoons. Let it cool, then strain to recover just the liquid.

2. Whisk the egg yolks until thick and creamy. Add the two tablespoons of vinegar and wine liquid. Place this mixture in the top of a double boiler, keeping the heat low as the water in the bottom of the double boiler simmers, and whisk until the mixture thickens. Add a tablespoon of the cold butter, and whisk it in until it’s melted and incorporated. Beat in the other tablespoon of cold butter until it melts and is incorporated. The cold butter prevents the egg yolks from overheating and cooking.

3. Gently melt the half-cup of butter and add it to the yolk mixture a quarter teaspoon at a time, making sure each addition is incorporated before the next addition. Keep the heat moderated. When the butter is all incorporated and the Bearnaise sauce is light and fluffy, add the chervil and whisk it in. Makes 1 ½ cups.
~~
Jeff Cox is author of The Organic Cook’s Bible and The Organic Food Shopper’s Guide and lives in Sonoma County, California.
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