Homemade Garlic & Herb Boursin
In our experience, snacking is the natural accompaniment to binge TV watching. With new seasons of Game of Thrones and House of Cards out this month, we are in prime snacking mode. This weekend, we made a homemade version of the addictive (but expensive) Boursin cheese we sometimes buy at the grocery. Boursin was created by Francois Boursin in Normandy, and is a soft fresh Garnay cheese with flavorful additions. Our version uses a combination of goat cheese and cream cheese to achieve a creamy, tangy texture, and is liberally studded with fresh herbs, garlic and lemon zest. We devoured our Homemade Garlic & Herb Boursin on sourdough bread with crunchy watermelon radishes from our CSA, and when we ran out of bread, made up a batch of crackers so we could keep snacking.
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 4 ounces goat cheese, softened
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tablespoons fresh chives, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried or fresh tarragon
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
- Bread, sliced thin and toasted (optional)
- 2 radishes, thinly slices (optional topping)
Steps:
- Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mixer or food processor and mix until ingredients are evenly distributed. Cover and refrigerate until use.
- Serve on toasts with thin slices of radishes or cucumbers with a sprinkle of herbs.
Uses: in pasta sauce, with steak, on bagels, with bread or crackers, in a sandwich, with scrambled eggs or in an omelet.
Herb Potato Salad
I am mad for potatoes and have found myself, on more than one occasion, defensively sputtering to Paul that 'of course I absolutely NEED to bring back that bag of potatoes in my suitcase!' In contrast to my gung-ho consumption of potatoes, I would consider Paul to be more of a casual appreciator of the humble spud, but we both love this Herb Potato Salad. It is a light and vivacious, mayonnaise-free potato salad, with a snappy garlic-mustard vinaigrette lavished with herbs. Think of this recipe as an an outline that will easily adjust to different amounts and types of herbs and alternative vinegars and oils.
Summer Corn Sauté with Herbs
It’s labor day, and we are devouring corn and tomatoes in these beautiful late summer days like they're going out of style. Truthfully, I have a bit of an obsession with sweet corn, and have been known to personally eat 6 cobs in a meal. It’s officially September now, and as the season changes, so too does our cooking. Instead of boiling or grilling our corn, we are firing up my Grandmother's trusty skillet for our delicious and simple Summer Corn Sauté with Herbs, a dish that will have you coming back for seconds. The sweetness of fresh corn is highlighted by the rich and nutty background of butter, onions, cumin, and garlic, garnished with heaps of herbs and tomatoes. I have learned my lesson making this dish over the years, just go ahead and double it the first time, it’s the best way to avoid complaints!
Lime Edamame Dip
We woke up this April fools morning to a fine dusting of frost covering our spring crocuses. The joke, it appears, was on spring. It is a fickle time of year for food, we crave the soft colors and zippy flavors of spring, but still desire the hearty textures of winter. We bridge the seasons with our Lime Edamame Dip, a bold, herby dip with a buttery hazelnut taste and hearty texture. Edamame beans are green soybeans removed from their pods and eaten prior to ripening. Edamame is typically found in Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Indonesian cooking. This dip is a fantastic crowd pleaser, and well worth sourcing edamame.
Buckwheat Tabbouleh with Goat Cheese
Buckwheat Tabbouleh with Goat Cheese is a light and zippy salad, flush with fiber and herbs. It is quick and easy to make, healthy, filling, and is a great alternative to traditional Bulgar wheat tabbouleh if you're gluten-free. This salad allows the nutty flavor of buckwheat to come through. If you've never tried buckwheat groats before, this is a great place to start. A word about buckwheat grouts for those unfamiliar with this lovely little grain. Buckwheat is in fact not related to its' namesake, wheat, and comes from the triangular seed of an herb. Toasted buckwheat groats are called Kasha; Buckwheat grouts are the raw version. These little kernels taste nutty and have a firm texture when cooked, they stand up well to lemon vinaigrette and meld deliciously together for a final product that is refreshing and filling. This recipe is adapted from America's Test Kitchen's How Can it be Gluten Free Cookbook. We (but mostly me) at the Hungry Hounds are always searching for an opportunity to add goat cheese to dishes, and this was a perfect opportunity. The goat cheese stepped up the flavor contrast, added richness, and blended with the other ingredients to make for an earthy, herbaceous mouthful!
