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A Great MicroGreen Recipe for Easter

By | Herb & Flower Crystals™, MicroGreens, Recipes | No Comments
Seared Scallops over MicroGreens with Orange Tarragon Vinaigrette with Butter Poached Lobster
Looking for something unique and delicious for Easter? Look no further, try this recipe with some of our premium MicroGreens.
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Vinagrette
  1. 1 cup fresh orange juice
  2. 1 big sprig fresh tarragon
  3. 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  4. 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  5. 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
  6. 1/2 cup grapeseed oil
  7. Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Gastrique
  1. 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  2. 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  3. Salt
  4. 1/2 fresh mango
Lobster
  1. 2 tablespoons white vinegar
  2. 2 lobster tails
  3. 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
  4. 1 clove garlic, minced
  5. 1 shallot, minced
  6. Salt
Crostini
  1. 1 clove garlic
  2. 8 slices baguette, sliced diagonally about 1/4-inch thick
  3. 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  4. 1 tablespoon herbes de Provence
  5. Salt
Assembly
  1. 4 large scallops
  2. Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  3. Grapeseed oil
  4. 1 1/2 cups microgreens of your choosing
  5. 8 MicroGreens Micro Chives
For the vinaigrette
  1. In a small pot, add the orange juice and tarragon sprig. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and reduce the juice by half. When reduced, remove the tarragon sprig and chill the juice in the refrigerator. When cooled, add the white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Whisk together. Slowly drizzle the grapeseed oil while whisking until you get an equal balance of oil to juice. Taste, then adjust the seasoning if necessary. Put aside
For the gastrique
  1. In a small pot, add the sugar, apple cider vinegar, and some salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the mango, and simmer for 15 minutes. Use an immersion blender, blender or even a hand mixer to blend well. Then strain through a fine mesh sieve. (If you don't have a fine sieve, you can use a regular strainer lined with cheese cloth or a clean dish towel.) You want to remove any little bits of mango that the blender missed. Put in the refrigerator to cool. For the lobster: Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the white vinegar. Drop in the lobster tails and simmer them until they just begin to turn bright orange/red. Let cool and remove the lobster meat from the shell. Chop the meat into pieces, just smaller than bite size. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the garlic and shallots. Saute until translucent. Add the remaining butter and melt. Add a good pinch of salt. Add the lobster and stir to coat with the butter. Simmer for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and keep warm.
For the crostini
  1. Preheat the oven broiler. Cut a clove of garlic in half, and rub both sides of the bread with the cut sides of the garlic. Brush one side of the bread with olive oil, and sprinkle very lightly with herbes de Provence and salt. (If you don't have HDP, you can use a mixture of dried thyme, basil, rosemary, marjoram, sage, savory and fennel seeds, or any one of those herbs you happen to have.)
  2. Lay the bread on a cookie sheet and reserve.
To assemble
  1. Start with the scallops. Pat your scallops dry with paper towels. They MUST be dry in order to get a nice sear and crust on the outside. (If you don't, you'll have a scallop just steeping in its own liquid, getting mushy, with no color, sear or flavor.) With a paring knife, score the top of the scallops with a crisscross. You want to just score the outer layer, 1/16-inch deep. Sprinkle the scallops with salt and pepper. In a scorching hot pan with grapeseed oil, put your scallops in scored-side down. Grapeseed oil has a very high smoke point, which allows you to cook at higher temperatures for longer before it starts to smoke and burn. The scallops will tell you when it's ok to lift them and take a peek at your sear. When you're able to pick the scallops up with no resistance at all, you can then take a peek to see if you're ready to flip it. You want a nice rich golden brown color on your scallop. Once you've achieved the proper color, flip your scallops and remove the pan from the heat.
  2. Put your crostini in the oven to toast. Add the vinaigrette to your greens a little at a time. You want to just cover the greens with the vinaigrette, we don't want to drown it. Think light.
  3. Now on each serving plate, place a silver-dollar-size portion of the dressed MicroGreens in the center of the plate. MicroGreens to try: Micro Arugula, Micro Broccoli, Micro Cucumber or create your own creation with MicroGreens. Take a teaspoon of the mango gastrique, and put it on the plate in front of the greens. Then with the back side of the spoon, run it through the middle of the sauce. Take 3 or 4 pieces of the lobster, blot them on a paper towel, then place them in the center of your gastrique schmear. Place your scallop on top of your MicroGreens. Place 2 crostinis off to the side of the scallop. Then cross 2 micro chives over each plate and you're done.
Fresh Origins MicroGreens https://freshorigins.com

Enhance your Cuisine with Specialty Produce

By | MicroGreens | No Comments

The art of Plate Presentation is essential to the success of a dish as its taste and flavor.  The appearance of how food is plated is truly an art and can strongly influence our desire to want to taste it. It can be the deciding factor for your guest  to try your cuisine or not. So how do you create this experience for your guest? The answer is quite simple, by creating a fusion of colors, textures and interesting visual elements on a plate.

Specialty produce such as  MicroGreens, Greens, and related Specialty Items offer a delicate, gorgeous appearance and vibrant colors, which will add visual appeal and flavor to any plate. With  hundreds of varieties on our farm, we offer some of the most unique specialty produce available, many of which cannot be found at other farms. These varieties will definitely add the appeal and set you apart from other chefs:

Amaranth Carnival Mix™ is perfect for all seasons and a festive addition. Consisting of four different highly colored Amaranth leaves, that are vibrant in colors; pink, orange, red and yellow. Add to any plate to make an extravagant and exceptional statement.

 Amaranth Carnival Mix™

Hearts on Fire™ add spunk to any salads, a great highlight for cocktails or make a stunning presentation as a bed for meats. The leaf itself possesses a unique pattern with vibrant green and red coloring. This Green is sure to be a crowd-pleaser, and has topped many specialty produce distributors list.

Hearts on Fire

Ice Bud™ is one of our favorite specialty items at Fresh Origins. The flower buds, glisten with brilliant sparkling beads of water, not only are they ascetically pleasing but also add an unexpected crunch and burst of salt water on the palate. Enhance seafood dishes such as oysters, ceviche or any fish. Top a chilled cucumber soup, or replace the olive in a cocktail.

Ice Bud Shola Revised

These are three of many varieties that can help enhance the presentation, flavor profile and uniqueness of your dish.  To learn more, visit our “Products” section on our website or contact your specialty produce distributor for more information.