Organic Summer Recipes from Culinary Artist Brooke Larson
Brooke Larson is a creative soul who cooks delicious meals intuitively. Though she’s mastered the usual culinary technique, her talent comes through in the way she mixes various fresh ingredients like an artist picks their color palate. Brooke recently cooked an amazing dinner at Roseland and we started the day by visiting our favorite Farmer’s Market in Santa Monica. The menu was determined by what was most tantalizing that day. We chose fresh picked ‘cotton candy’ apricots, berries, various types of string beans, herbs, pistachios, asparagus, and more. Brooke came in with her bad ass cooking kit in a vintage tool case.
After laying all our bounty on the counter Brooke began to pick her colors for the painting! She decided on:
Chilled dill-tarragon yogurt soup w heirloom tomato basil water crispy lavash chips and a pulled mint oil,
Cotton Candy apricots stuffed w burratta cheese opal basil leaf and a chopped pistachio beet stem relish
Chilled crispy Haricot Verts (tiny french green beans) tossed in a fresh shaved horseradish root creme and snipped chive
Strawberry Rhubarb Tart (inspired by my tart which made me very proud!)
Chilled dill-tarragon yogurt soup w heirloom tomato basil water crispy lavash chips and a pulled mint oil
3 1/2 cups of full fat plain yogurt *tart (extra liquid on top strained off)
a generous drizzle of olive oil (depending on how generous you are… I’m very generous w my olive oil:)
1 small shallot minced as fine as you can get it
1 small garlic clove minced/grated on the hand microplane
1/2 a medium lemon zested (no pith just yellow flesh)
Salt and pepper to taste (I season aggressively w/o over salting)
A few stems of each- farm fresh tarragon, mint, parsley, basil, dill, and snipped chives (take all herbs about 3 stems of each pull herbs off of stem and rough chop w a sharp knife so herbs don’t bruise)
Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and gently whisk check for seasoning and set aside into the fridge see the next step below
Heirloom tomato water-
4 medium to large sized tomatoes I used heirloom and sun gold tomatoes and they were soft in the 1 dollar per pound basket
Take the stem off of the tomatoes, quarter and place into a large food processor or vita prep or food mill and puree. As they puree add a generous “dash” of sea salt. Once tomatoes and salt are pureed check for seasoning add more if needed. Grab a large mesh strainer and pour tomato puree into the strainer, strain into a large vessel. This will take some time so take the dog(s) for a walk, make a cup of tea, catch up w a friend while you wait for the tomato water to strain. Once the tomato water has strained add to the yogurt (don’t add all the water at once add a little at a time you don’t want the yogurt soup to be too thin), add as much as you may need and reserve the rest if you have any left or do a tomato water shot!
The soup is complete ready for the garnish?!-
Crispy Lavash chips-
1 piece of lavash bread
olive oil
cumin and paprika
Pre heat oven to 375 degrees
Lay lavash out on cutting board cut in half if needed, slather w olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, cumin, and paprika. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7 minutes or until lavash is crisp like a cracker. Remove and let sit till cool to the touch. Rip into small pieces and serve with the soup. I placed mine on top as a garnish.
Last the mint oil- Super easy. Chopped fresh mint leaves 2 sprigs drizzled w olive oil let sit for 15 minutes this equals mint oil.your finishing oil.
Ready to serve?! 4 glasses rocks type clear glasses. pour the soup into the rocks glasses evenly, add a few lavash chips to the top, and a good drizzle of the mint oil. I also reserved a few of my soft farmers herbs from above and used those as a garnish and a few sun gold tomatoes quartered this is totally optional! You could also make these into shooters for an appetizer/starter up to you the options are endless!!! Enjoy-
Cotton Candy apricots stuffed w burratta cheese opal basil leaf and a chopped pistachio beet stem relis
Makes 12 pieces but safe to say serves 4 people
6 cotton candy apricots split in half pit removed lay out on a wood board
big and beautiful opal basil leaves aka purple basil (if you can’t find green basil is fine)
1 ball of burratta
pistachio oil
Salt and pepper
Drizzle apricots flesh side up w pistachio oil salt and pepper place one opal basil leaf in the center of the apricot and make a bed for the burratta, rip a piece of burratta off and place into the apricot sprinkle w a little more salt and pepper set aside while you make the pistachio beet stem relish…
Beet stem and pistachio relish… because what else can you do w the beet stems?
Beet stems from one beet chopped as this and as even as possible
a handful of salted and crushed pistachios
half a small shallot minced
fresh thyme leaves 3 sprigs leaves pulled off of the stem
a generous dash of red wine vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper
Place chopped beet stems, pistachios, minced shallot and thyme leaves into a bowl season with salt and pepper. Pour olive oil over this mix until covered and stir. Check for seasoning do you taste the vinegar slightly? Is it seasoned properly? Mine is… You are good to go! Pour this over the burratta stuffed apricot and serve to your friends!!
Summer Fresh Delicious!
Chilled crispy Haricot Verts (tiny french green beans) tossed in a fresh shaved horseradish root creme and snipped chives
A couple handfuls of french green beans aka Haricot Verts- Blanched in salted boiling water and shocked in a ice bath** Please see how to blanch and shock vegetables your life will change if you don’t know how.
1 cup of creme fraiche
2 T of fresh grated horseradish root skin taken off grated on a micro plane ** do not rub your eyes
S & P to taste
1/2 a lemon peel just the zest
15 chives snipped or chopped as thin as you can get em’
Place creme fraiche into a mixing bowl zest horseradish root on top of creme you don’t have to measure exact eyeball it! Remember horseradish root gets hotter as it sits. Season with S & P and zest the lemon. Snip or cut the chives and fold into the creme fraiche, let sit for 15 minutes see how hot the horseradish root flavor is if you need to add more do so now same for the seasoning.
** Note if creme is too thick add a dash of water to thin out…
Let’s put it together- Ready, it’s so easy!
On a plate lay out a few handfuls of wild arugula (thats what I had in my fridge use what ever you have on hand from the farmers market or your garden) Toss the beans in a little of the horseradish root creme drizzle with a little olive oil and toss, lay the beans on top of the wild arugula leaves drizzle with a little more sauce and a few more wild arugula leaves. I found some cilantro flowers in Shivas garden so I used those as well and a few sun gold tomatoes as my garnish.
Strawberry Rhubarb Tart
3 baskets of strawberries
2 stalks of rhubarb
2 tbs sugar
puff pastry dough
Cook the strawberries with the cut of pieces of rhubarb until it becomes a jam like consistency. Add the sugar and then spread on the thawed out pastry dough. Cook in the oven at 350 degrees until the pastry is golden. About 25 minutes.
beautiful, as always shiva 🙂
What a colorful display of summer vegetables! We see a talented and creative chef who has so much to share! Everything looks so fresh and makes Us want to eat it right off Of The page! We have had the opportunity to eat from Brooke’s fresh table and her food is amazing! She is brilliant at what she does!
wow. this is how i cook/prepare food. my italian nana taught me hOW TO COOK WHEN I WAS 3 – no cookbooks and no measuring cups. i still don’t own either. when people ask about recipes, i say that food is “intuitive” for me. i wait for the food “speak Up” … this is the first time that I have heard someone describe their relationship with food as intuitive. thanks for sharing.
wow. this looks amazing. i love how brooke took what seemed like such a simple palate of ingredients and created a five star menu. so creative. and gorgeous. what a fabulous day it must have been.