Come to these recipes hungry. Hungry for inspiration and hungry
for change, but most of all, hungry
for pleasure.”
As we all did during the lockdown, I yearned for human connection, so I started using the Friday deliveries as a chance to reach out directly to my community. I’d write a letter each week about what flowers and fruits were blooming in the garden and include a bundle of recipes from chefs so people could experiment with that week’s harvest. Suddenly a new community in L.A. was forged, connected by food.
An awareness of what we eat is a way of connecting with others, but also with the communities we live in, the cultures that surround us, and the many natural marvels of the earth. To honor Mother Nature, the following recipes are inventive, flavorful dishes meant to be enjoyed seasonally, using locally sourced and regeneratively grown produce whenever possible. You’ll notice we don’t include any red meat or processed foods in our ingredients. This is a conscious effort to live lighter on the earth and help nourish local ecosystems.
My advice: Come to these recipes hungry. Hungry for inspiration and hungry for change, but most of all, hungry for pleasure.
It all started with a vegetable box. Before this year, Flamingo Estate was just my home. One morning, in the first long week of the lockdown, Jeff, our horticulturist, told me about a farmer who had lost most of her business because hotels and restaurants had stopped their weekly orders. Produce was rotting on the ground.
Our bookstore in Highland Park, Los Angeles, was closed for the pandemic, so we decided to sell boxes of farm vegetables from the car park. We expected to sell a couple dozen boxes, at most. But much to everyone’s surprise, on the first Friday we sold 300. The next, 600. We didn’t know it at the time, but this was the birth of a new business—and a new way of life.
After a couple months, the health department shut us down. And quite rightly. We had no business selling vegetables from a closed bookstore! But in typical Aussie fashion, I refused to give up. The team huddled and quickly pivoted. We’d deliver the boxes directly to people’s homes. If the farms could pick and pack on Thursday, we could deliver the produce fresh on Friday.
Flamingo Estate: Fridays From the Garden
by Richard Christiansen, $75
Flamingo Estate
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Photography by Pia Riverola
Photography by Christian Högstedt
Photography by Adrian Gaut
Flamingo Estate founder
Richard Christiansen’s gift to
us this holiday season: three
cozy, cold-weather dishes from his new cookbook of recipes that bring people, communities, and farm-fresh ingredients together.
Photography by Pia Riverola
Avant
Garden
Photography by Pia Riverola
Words by
Richard Christiansen
Recipes by Chef Ella Murphy
for Flamingo Estate
Photography by John von Pamer
Instructions
For the meatballs: Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and onion. Sauté until translucent and beginning to caramelize around the edges, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Transfer to a plate to cool.
In a medium bowl place the ground chicken, dates, greens, ginger, coriander, ginseng, kosher salt, and half the cilantro. Gently fold together. Add the eggs and quinoa flakes. Fold again to combine. Make sure to mix lightly as this will create light and tender meatballs.
Grease a baking sheet with olive oil. Take about 2 tablespoons of the meatball mixture and lightly roll into a ball, then place on the baking sheet. Continue with the remaining mixture. Drizzle the meatballs with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Place in the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until cooked through.
For the polenta: Bring the chicken stock, coconut milk, and water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Reduce to medium. Gradually add the cornmeal, stirring constantly. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover. Whisk every 10 minutes until the polenta has absorbed most of the liquid, about 35 minutes. Add the butter and stir to combine. Season with salt to taste.
For the pesto: Place cilantro in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the cilantro is finely chopped. Add the walnuts, yeast, cumin, salt, and lemon and pulse until the walnuts are finely chopped. Add the olive oil and pulse a few times to combine.
Place the polenta into shallow bowls. Add meatballs to the center of the bowl and drizzle with cilantro pesto.
Chicken and Date Meatballs With Polenta
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups coconut milk
2 cups water
½ cup cornmeal
2 tbsp unsalted butter
Olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground chicken (I prefer a
50/50 light/dark blend)
10 medjool dates, pits removed
and sliced
1 cup steamed greens, liquid strained (fresh or frozen)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground ginseng
1 ½ tsp kosher salt
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
and divided
2 eggs
¼ cup quinoa flakes (or plain breadcrumbs)
Photography by John von Pamer
Instructions
Place all the ingredients for the vinaigrette in a blender and blend until emulsified.
Remove cores from the escarole, radicchio, and endive, and cut into approximately 1½-inch pieces. Place in a large bowl. Pour the vinaigrette over the greens and gently toss to coat. Season with sea salt. Allow to sit for 5 minutes to tenderize
the greens.
Radicchio and Endive Salad
1 head escarole
1 head radicchio
2 heads endive, or substitute frisée, dandelion greens, or any other bitter greens
Sea salt
Photography by John von Pamer
Instructions
Place the butterfly pea flowers in a jar and top with ½ cup boiling water. Let sit for at least 30 minutes until it’s a vibrant blue. Strain, cover, and store butterfly pea tea in the refrigerator until chilled.
Place ¼ cup tea in a champagne flute or coupe. Top with champagne.
Once you’ve taken in the magical color of this beverage, add a squeeze of lemon wedge and watch it transform before your eyes. Garnish with a lemon slice.
Holiday Party Punch
1 tbsp dried butterfly pea flowers
Lots of champagne
Lemon wedge and slice, for garnish
“
Serves 2
Meatballs
Polenta
Pesto
1 bunch cilantro, chopped (leaves and stems)
½ cup toasted walnuts
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp cumin
Kosher salt
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salad
A toast for 2 or more
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1 pinch ground cayenne
Vinaigrette
Serves 4
C'mon in
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