Grilled Goat Kebabs, Truffle Burgers, Buffalo Drumsticks, Andouille Pasta Salad, Red Pea Hummus & More!

We’re getting the grill going as we get into full blown summer with goat kebabs, chicken sausage, drumsticks and squash, plus we did some slightly offbeat spins on pasta salad and hummus for Memorial Day, discovered that truffle and homemade dill pickles go amazingly together and enjoyed the first fresh blueberries of the year in pancakes and blueberry rhubarb crisp!

Grilled Goat Kebabs, Chicken Sausage & Squash with Rice & Chow Chow

Goat meat with lemon zest, sumac, yogurt, garlic and other bright, punchy herbs is the best way to eat goat in my opinion. Add some char from grilling and a delicious sauce to dip it in and it’s next level!

Having not grown up eating goat, it has taken me a few years to find the ways I like it best. As much as I love Indian curries and Mexican dishes like birria, I have found that really warming spices, combined with a braising method where the meat falls apart and isn’t my personal jam for goat. Maybe something about the earthiness of the meat combined with allspice or cinnamon or really smoky chili peppers doesn’t do it for me.

But a zesty, garlicky, herby contrast DOES!

So this marinade was a neighbor’s homemade yogurt from their milk cow, lemon juice and zest, sumac, fresh garlic, rosemary, thyme, oregano and some Za’atar spice blend.

Then I threaded it on skewers and Grant grilled it on our charcoal PK Grill.

Our farm staffer Cade, who also processes chickens at A&A Acres, brought some the first A&A chicken sausage for us to sample, so we threw that on the grill, too. This one was the Buffalo Chicken that has mozzarella cheese mixed in and it was amazing grilled and somehow went well with everything else.

We also grilled some zephyr squash and had everything with rice, almond cashew sauce and sweet corn chow chow.

Truffle Dill Pickle Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries & Snap Beans

Who knew truffle would go so well with dill pickles?!

There’s a brand of truffle mayo I love because there’s no “natural flavor” as you see in most grocery store truffle products, but just oil infused with real truffles. And when my dad visited last month he brought a Wisconsin cheese haul like usual, including some Hook’s truffle cheddar.

So I made some of our hamburger patties seasoned with Smokey Shiitake & Black Garlic Seasoning and Worcestershire sauce and topped it with truffle cheddar.

I also recently made my first batch of lacto-fermented dill pickle slices of the season which came out so good!

Besides fresh dill from my garden and tons of garlic cloves, I added fennel seeds, black mustard seeds, coriander seeds and celery seeds and the brine is about 3 tablespoons salt to the half gallon.

I also drizzled some garlic fermented honey as the sugar. For high moisture, soft veggies like cucumbers, I have found you want a sugar source to kickstart fermentation and have it ferment faster. Many of my root veggies and krauts I ferment for 7-11 days, but cucumbers should be done in 3-4 to prevent any mold from forming on the top.

These got cloudy and sour really fast thanks to the fermented honey and the flavor was off the charts. The bay leaves I added did seem to help with firmness, too.

And surprisingly, they were so so good with the truffle flavors on the burger? Who would have thought, but it’s combination I will make again.

We also had some sweet potato fries cut on our waffle fry mandolin and some green beans picked from our cover crop in our pastures! A pretty simple, but absolutely delicious Friday night meal.

Grilled Drumsticks with Buffalo Sauce & Beet Blue Cheese Salad

Drumsticks are absolutely a sleeper hit if you ask me. Especially on the grill. They’re less work than wings (because I like to cut up wings into flats and drumettes and save the tips for broth), but can be treated pretty the same way with similar rubs and sauces.

And like wings, they are amazing grilled!

I wanted the spices to stick so I ended up using some of the oil from cooking the Andouille for the pasta salad, since I was prepping it all around the same time. And then I also added extra sea salt and lots of onion and garlic powders, along with coriander, chili lime seasoning and Green Goddess seasoning.

Grant grilled them at a higher heat to get some char and then stacked them on the cooler side of the grill to finish cooking through. The flavor was amazing! But I also added some buffalo sauce to mine.

And to go with it, I did another big batch of steamed and marinated beets for salads and made a blue cheese dressing with some Wisconsin blue cheese my dad brought down, more of the neighbor’s homemade yogurt, mayo, Green Goddess seasoning, a little dijon mustard and Meyer lemon vinegar.

For the salad, I did lettuce and radicchio, microgeens and crispy chick peas. Absolutely delicious combination all together.

Andouille, Olive Salad & Summer Squash Pasta Salad

I was going for sort of muffuletta vibes with this pasta salad and even though we don’t make any deli meats with our pork, the salty andouille really did the trick.

I sliced it into thin half moons and browned it in a cast iron skillet first, then added it to hot Canestri pasta. Then I added olive salad and once it cooled further, some Southern Heat marinated feta (so between that oil, it didn’t really need a dressing). I did add some Meyer lemon vinegar for some sour contrast, along with the brininess from the olive salad.

At the last minute I realized I had a few squash to use up, so I roasted those in the toaster oven with white onions and added those, too. It came out really delicious (for the Memorial Day Well Cafe - Spyre Center staff visit!).

Sea Island Red Pea & Black Garlic Hummus

I am a huge fan of Marsh Hen Mill’s Sea Island Red Peas. They’re like black eyed peas and red beans combined and I like the small shape but the fact that they get very creamy when cooked, too.

Also for the Spyre Center staff visit, I made this hummus to go with Bellegarde bread and veggies and we also had it for dinner with leftover drumsticks and beets and egg salad another night.

I did my usual soak with vinegar for at least 24 hours and cooked with a piece of kombu, a type of seaweed that helps break down the raffinose in beans that cause gas. I also added some baking soda before cooking, which helps make the skin of beans softer, which is great when you’re going to puree them.

Usually I cook the beans with bone broth, but just did water this time to have a cleaner flavor for the hummus.

Once they were cooked (in the Instant Pot on high pressure for an hour), I dropped in some black garlic cloves to hydrate and marinate overnight.

The next morning, I strained out the extra liquid and had it on hand to add to the blender if needed.

The rest of the ingredients were regular hummus ingredients — tahini, olive oil and lemon juice, plus extra salt to taste. Because of the black garlic, I did not add fresh garlic and in retrospect, I do think it could have benefitted from both — fresh garlic has that zing that goes well with rich, earthy beans.

I topped it with more olive oil, sumac and sesame seeds. Overall it was really delicious and fun change from all the Nur’s Kitchen chickpea hummus we eat!

Overnight Oat & Chia Pancakes with Blueberries & Cardamom

The first fresh blueberries of the season called for some pancakes.

And after discovering overnight oat pancakes, where you soak the oats in buttermilk or yogurt overnight and then add the rest of the ingredients in the morning, I rarely stray from making pancakes any other way and when I have, I am disappointed!

They’re hearty and have some chew and a little more protein and fiber than regular pancakes with just flour.

I also started adding chia seeds to these pancakes a while back as oats and chia seeds are such a great combination, taste and texture wise and nutritionally.

I love lemon zest with blueberries, but I was inexplicably out of lemons, so I went another route with vanilla and cardamom as the main flavors.

These were so delicious with my family’s maple syrup and I also add pecan butter to almost all my pancakes — a little extra protein and makes them feel like a decadent dessert almost!

Blueberry Rhubarb Crisp

Along with maple syrup and Wisconsin cheese, my dad brought asparagus and rhubarb from their garden for us — real treats of Midwest spring when we’re already into a summer feel in Louisiana!

Rhubarb of course goes so well with strawberries and I have plenty in the freezer, but I love it with blueberries, too, and I had a bunch of fresh ones on hand.

Again because of no lemons, I couldn’t do lemon zest, but I did do a bunch of lime zest which was amazing with the blueberries and rhubarb — gave it almost a slight tropical flavor.

Besides oats and All Purpose flour from Barton Springs, I find that their rye flour goes so well in most of the fruit desserts I love, so that went into the topping along with melted butter, cinnamon and vanilla. The fruit layer was thin enough and I added enough cornstarch and flour that it got very jammy — and so delicious!