Chowdah

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

This corn chowder, made by M, is yet another good recipe from Vegan With A Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.  It’s intended, I think, to use corn at its summer best, but by November, we’re on to the 14 quarts tucked in our freezer.  Frozen corn in soup always tastes the same to me as fresh (which statement is probably culinary sacrilege).  Thanks to my mother-in-law C for slicing and packing some portion of the corn while I was in the clink (the hospital) this summer. 

I’ve noted when an ingredient was local, and what form we preserved it in (everything is from pick-your-owns, our neighborhood Amish farmstand, or friends).  As usual, the olive oil and spices are not local, and neither is the lime juice.  Sometimes M and I make our own soy milk, but this one was store-bought.  In the photo, the apple juice is from a local farm, and the bread is from Baker Street in Chestnut Hill.

Corn Chowder

1 TB olive oil
1 medium-size onion, cut into ¼ inch pieces (local, frozen)
1 large red bell pepper, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups) (local, frozen)
1 cup carrots, peeled and cut into half-inch pieces (local, fresh)
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and thinly sliced (just one if you like less heat) (local, frozen)
1 teaspoon dried rosemary (local, dried)
1 teaspoon dried thyme (local, dried)
a few dashes of fresh black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups broth or water (base was pureed local celeriac I made & froze into ice cube trays)
3 cups fresh corn kernels (from about five ears of corn) (local, frozen)
2 medium sized russet potatoes, peeled and sliced in two half-inch chunks (local, fresh)
1 bay leaf
Pinch cayenne
juice of one lime
¼ cup plain soy milk
1 tablespoon maple syrup (local)

In stockpot sauté the onions, bell peppers, carrots, and jalapenos in the olive oil over medium heat until the onions are translucent, about 7 minutes.  Add rosemary, thyme, black pepper, and salt; sauté 1 minute more.  Add the broth, corn, potatoes, bay leaf, and cayenne.  Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.  Uncover and simmer 10 minutes more or to let the liquid reduce a bit.

Remove the bay leaf and purée half the chowder either using a hand-held blender or by transferring half the chowder to a blender (or food processor), puréeing until smooth, and adding back to soup.  Add the lime juice to taste, and the soymilk and maple syrup, and simmer 5 more minutes.  Let sit for at least 10 minutes and serve.  Tastes even better the next day.

Dark Days: A Fungus Among Us

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Mushroom are plentiful right now.  There are just mounds of gorgeous mushrooms everywhere you look!  Living so close to Kennett Square (practically the Mushroom Capital of the World), we are especially lucky.  Some of the oyster mushrooms I’ve been seeing lately are unbelievable.

With so many mushrooms about, I’ve been feeling compelled to make something mushroomy.  So the other day I picked up two pounds of mixed mushrooms - cremini, shiitake, and white button - from the Fair Food Farmstand (I believe that’s Oley Mushrooms Farm).  Last night I was sitting around thinking about how to use them when it occurred to me that there are still a few servings of the gnocchi I made back in August in the freezer.

A scheme was hatched.  Gnocchi with mixed mushrooms it was!  And aside from the vermouth, olive oil, salt, and pepper, it was all made from local ingredients!

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
2 lbs mixed mushrooms, stemmed and thickly sliced (should be about 10 cups)
1 shallot, minced
1/2 of a white onion, minced
1/4 c. dry vermouth
1/4 c. chicken stock
1/2 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. chopped thyme
salt and pepper
About 2 lbs of gnocchi
3 Tbsp Hendricks Farms parmesan cheese, grated
3 Tbsp Otterbein Acres romano cheese, grated

Preheat the broiler.

Using a large, ovenproof skillet, heat oil and butter over high heat.  Add mushrooms, shallot, and onion.  Cook about 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The mushrooms should be cooked down pretty well.

Add vermouth; cook until nearly all evaporated.  Add stock, cream, thyme, salt and pepper; bring to a boil.

While all this is going on, cook the gnocchi.  If you’re using homemade gnocchi, I recommend scooping them out of the boiling water just before they’re completely floating - most homemade gnocchi has a tendency to fall apart if it’s cooked for too long…so you want them just shy of cooked through.

Add drained gnocchi to the skillet, along with cheese.  Give it a good but careful stir and cook just long enough for the cheese to melt.

Put the skillet under the broiler for two or three minutes and serve immediately.

This is a super simple meal, and very homey and comforting.  The sauce is lovely and thick, perfect for sopping up with bread.

On a vaguely related note, I’m really interested in finding a mycologist or mycology club in the area.  I know most mushroom hunters don’t like to share the location of their hunting grounds (lest they give away the location of a stellar patch of morels or something), but I’m very interested in learning how not to die of fungus poisoning while hunting mushrooms.  Anj has also mentioned to me that she would be interested - does anyone know of a naturalist or some other resource that might be contacted for that purpose?

There is a Pennsylvania mushroom field guide available, but I have a deep fear of getting deathly ill if I pick the wrong mushroom.  Yet I am drawn to the idea of foraging and think finding edible mushrooms would be fun and rewarding.  Anyone have some ideas on where to get started?

Go Green for Thanksgiving

Monday, November 12, 2007

A chilly Sunday evening calls for some nice warm comfort food. So last night we tried the Ray’s seitan that I picked up at the Fair Food Farmstand. I made a seitan strogonoff from Nava Atlas’ Vegetarian Express. It was really tasty and, as promised, was on the table in thirty minutes. I was able to make it pretty quickly while the real star of the table was in the oven: Chard & Kale Gratin. The recipe is based on one in Deborah Madison’s cookbook called Local Flavors, which is a beautiful and thoughtful ode to the diversity of food sold at farmers markets. (This would make a lovely holiday gift for any aspiring locavore!)

Madison’s recipe uses Bright Lights Swiss Chard and crumbled feta. I used a mixture of Bright Lights and kale because I had both in the garden. I also substituted Hendricks Telford Tomme cheese because I was picking up a few things at the suburban mega-grocery store Hennings when I saw a woman from Hendricks offering samples. I’m a sucker for free cheese! Turns out that Hendricks is now going to be carried at Hennings.  Good stuff.  Anyhoo…the Tomme was great in the gratin. I may make this dish for Thanksgiving because it always elicits rave reviews and it’s nice to have some greens on the table with all the starchy side dishes.

Here’s the recipe:

Deborah Madison’s Chard Gratin
From:  Local Flavors

2 lb. chard (coarsely chopped), including half of the stems (chopped) [I often mix chard and kale]
4 T. butter
1 onion, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 c. fresh bread crumbs
1 garlic clove, minced
3 T. chopped parsley [lots of different herbs are good in this]
1 T. flour
1 c. milk or cream or a mixture of cream and stock
1 c. crumbled fresh goat cheese [or another cheese or your liking]

Melt 2 T. butter in skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and chard stems and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to brown.  Add greens, sprinkle with 1 t. salt, and cook until wilted and tender (less than 10 minutes).

Preheat oven to 400 and lightly oil a 2 qt gratin dish. Melt 1 T. butter in small skillet and add bread crumbs, garlic and herbs. Cook, stirring, for one minute; scrape into bowl and return skillet to heat.

Melt 1 T. butter, stir in flour, then whisk in milk.  Simmer for 5 minutes, season w/ salt, and add to the greens. Add the cheese and season.

Pour into dish and cover with bread crumbs.  Bake until heated through and golden, about 25 minutes. Let settle for a few moments before serving.

Cider! + A Roasted Tomato Sauce

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Yesterday, I picked up 2 half-gallons of Gold Rush Cider from North Star Orchard at the Rittenhouse Farmers Market.

If you are a cider connoisseur/se, you have a few days to contact them (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) to order cider for pick up before the end of the season the end of next week. I have one in the freezer and one in the fridge. 

I bought also some very nice cauliflower—they sell by the pound, not the head, so those of us who are cooking for one can buy a small head. I like that.

And, I bought the last of the tomatoes from another vendor at the market. I have been making delicious sauce to freeze from a recipe in Vegetable Harvest by Patricia Wells. Here’s what you do:

1. Heat oven to 425.
2. Wash and core tomatoes.
3. Halve them. Sprinkle with salt.
4. Place them cut side up in a baking roasting pan for 45-60 mins. (I put parchment paper in the bottom to keep the juices from welding the tomatoes to the pan.)
5. Cool a little, then puree to desired consistency. You’ll find that it’s a wonderful, slightly sweet very tomoto-ey sauce. Add milk, and I think it will make a terrific tomato soup.
Note: you don’t need to peel or seed them, nor do you need to use oil in the pan.

One for Me, One for You

We were invited to a friends’ house for dinner last night. My husband made the arrangements and forgot to ask what we should bring.  I feel naked showing up at someone’s home, especially for a meal, without something homemade to offer.  When he called back, we learned that the meal, dessert and wine were already taken care of.  I still couldn’t bring myself to show up without some food.  What to take?  I decided on a quick bread. They’re..uh, quick, they’re easy, they’re yummy and so versatile, doing duty as breakfast, as a snack, as a dessert or thrown in the freezer for the next time you need a hostess gift.  I’ve made pumpkin bread plenty of times so I decided to make up a recipe using the beautiful local sweet potato sitting on my counter.  The best part is that it makes two tasty loaves - one to keep at home and one to give away. What could be better? This would be a lovely hostess gift to take to Thanksgiving dinner if your host declines your request to make something.

Maple Sweet Potato Quick Bread

Mix together dry ingredients:

2 c. white whole wheat flour
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 c. brown sugar

In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients:

2 c. sweet potato puree (pumpkin or squash would work just as well)
1/2 c. maple syrup
2 T. flax seed meal mixed with 6 T. water*
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. canola oil
2 eggs

Topping:

1/3 c. oats mixed with 1 T. brown sugar

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in 2 c. chopped walnuts.  Pour into 2 greased loaf pans.  Sprinkle top of each loaf with the topping. 

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

*This is the basic way to make a flax seed egg replacer:  mix 1 T. ground flax seeds with 3 T. water and let sit for a couple of minutes.  In this recipe, I used the equivalent of two eggs made from this mixture plus two of the real things. You could use four eggs instead or use all flax seed egg replacer using the above formula to equal four eggs.  You could also make this vegan by substituting soy milk or water for the cow’s milk.

The sweet potato, maple syrup, whole wheat flour, eggs and milk were local.

 

Dark Days and Turkey Day: the loaf and the sweet, sweet potatoes

Last night’s Dark Days challenge meal (my third for this week!  The other two: a tomato omelet and a grilled cheese sandwich and ‘kitchen sink’ soup) coincides with FTP’s own Turkey Day challenge (Farm to Philly writers and their favorite Thanksgiving meal recipes) - how serendipitous!  The Dark Days meal is meat loaf, cabbage gremolata, and cranberry glazed sweet potatoes.  It was delicious - a meal full of bright flavors!  And I’m happy to say that there are enough leftovers for a couple of lunches throughout the week, which is always fantastic!  The meatloaf, a blend of local ground beef and turkey, was about as close to totally local as you can get - local garlic, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, parsley, my homemade, local catsup, bread crumbs from local bread, and local eggs and milk.  The only things not local: olive oil, salt, pepper, and soy sauce.  I was especially excited with the meatloaf, because this is the first opportunity I’ve had to use the catsup I made.  It’s yummy and ended up having a really great consistency.

The cabbage gremolata finally used up the cabbage from my CSA share that’s been hibernating on my counter for weeks!  Aside from the lemon juice and lemon rind from two lemons in it, it’s entirely local - cabbage, butter, shallots, garlic.  It was a really excellent way to use cabbage, and a new favorite side dish for my very picky husband. And last but not least, the cranberry glazed sweet potatoes - and the Turkey Day portion of the meal!  I will confess to you that I do all the cooking for Thanksgiving for a very specific reason: I refuse to be in the vicinity of mashed sweet potatoes with melted marshmallow topping.  I think that particular dish is one of the most vile things on the planet.  Strangely, I think a lot of typical Thanksgiving fare is pretty grotesque - I also can’t abide the infamous green bean casserole with the canned cream soup and crispy onions on top…and I think I’ve expressed my hatred of canned cranberry gel before.  I know people love this stuff, but I just don’t get it.  Hey, different strokes and all that, right? So anyway, as a replacement for the dreaded sweet potato/marshmallow concoction I always offer up cranberry glazed sweet potatoes.  The cranberries offer a wonderful sweetness and the sweet potatoes are delicious!

2 large sweet potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds (I use a mandoline to ensure uniformity) 1 c. water 4 Tbsp. melted butter 2 Tbsp. bourbon salt and pepper 3/4 c. cranberries 1/3 c. brown sugar a pinch of both cinnamon and cayenne Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a large baking dish and arrange the potato slices in concentric circles, overlapping the slices slightly.  Pour 1/2 c. water over the potatoes and bake for 40 minutes (cover the dish with foil). Increase the temp to 425 degrees at the end of the baking period. Mix the melted butter and bourbon; pour over the potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Continue baking 25 minutes.  Baste midway through. Combine cranberries, 1/2 c. water, and brown sugar.  Bring to a boil over med-high heat until cranberries start to pop, about 10 minutes.  Drain the cranberries, reserving the liquid.  Stir cayenne and cinnamon into the liquid and drizzle it over the sweet potatoes.  Bake an additional 20 minutes.  During the last five minutes of baking, spread cranberries over top of the potatoes.

The brown sugar, bourbon, salt and pepper, cayenne and cinnamon are not local.  However, I think this would be just as good using local maple sugar in place of the brown sugar, and Sailor Jerry’s rum in place of the bourbon.

Turkey Day Challenge: Forget the Mashed Potatoes!

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Okay, maybe you shouldn’t really forget the mashed potatoes this Thanksgiving since they are awfully good.  But a nice supplement to the “mashed vegetables alongside the turkey” category would be mashed turnips with roasted garlic.  Mild turnips, such as the white Hakurei, are best for those who aren’t huge turnip fans.  If you enjoy their spicy, somewhat bitter taste, opt for a variety such as Scarlet Queen.  Turnip season is in full swing and many varieties are available around the city’s various farmers markets.  These lovelies came from Weavers Way Farm. 

TURNIPS AND ROASTED GARLIC MASH

2 bunches of mild turnips (Hakurei variety works well)
1 large head of garlic
2 T. butter
generous pinches of salt and pepper
fresh chives to garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Place whole head of garlic, unpeeled, on a baking sheet lined with foil.  Roast garlic in oven for 30 minutes or until very squishy.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.

While garlic is roasting, bring a large pot of salted water up to a boil.  Wash turnips well, trimming off tops and roots.  Cut into 1 inch pieces and boil until tender, about 20 minutes depending on the variety.  Drain off water and allow to sit for five minutes.  Turnips will release more water as they cool.  Drain additional water off and use either a potato masher or an electric mixer to begin mashing up the turnips. 

Cut a half inch off the top of the roasted head of garlic, exposing the cloves inside.  With your hand, squeeze out all the garlic pulp into the turnips.  Add butter and salt and pepper before continuing to mash turnips to the desired consistency.  If turnips appear to be releasing more water after being mashed, drain it off and add more salt if necessary.

Serve immediately with a few snips of fresh garlic chives.  If desired, serve cooked turnip tops along side turnip mash.  To cook turnip tops, simple wash and roughly chop.  Heat olive oil or butter in a skillet and add turnips when hot.  Season with salt and pepper.  Turnip greens are fairly bitter.

Local note about Potato and Pea Curry

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

I forgot to mention what local stuff we use in the Aloo Matar curry (“Nobody Nose You Like I Nose You” entry), and why it’s such a good winter dish. 

Here’s the three ingredients we use from nearby—the onions from our neighborhood once-a-week Amish farmstand, the peas from ones we picked and shelled at a conventional pick-your-own farm in NJ, and the potatoes from our CSA farmshare.  We usually have spuds at the of the CSA season, because it’s something that will keep as we’re madly eating up what won’t.  Onions also keep for a bit, of course, and we’ve frozen and dried onions for curries throughout the winter.  Finally, while the dish does have the word “pea” in the title, we’ve used broccoli, lima beans, kale, and any other number of substitutes when local peas aren’t available.

What’s left is the oil, rice, and tom paste, which are organic but not local; and the spices, which are neither.  I’ll keep looking for replacements (either home-made or otherwise)!

Sweet Squash

Saturday, November 03, 2007

I’m on a quest to master winter squash before spring.  It’s a vegetable staple for local foods eating through the long stretch until those first greens are popping up.  Even though our garden is still producing quite a bit of stuff, we’ve been eating the loads of butternut and acorn squash that we picked for about a month now.  I’m always on the lookout for new ways to use it, and my latest attempt was a butternut squash soufflé (recipe).

The squash and sage were from our garden, and the eggs were local.  The only tweak I made to the recipe was to reduce the white sugar from ¼ cup down to one tablespoon. And, really, even that tablespoon was pretty unnecessary given how sweet the squash is on its own.  As an aside, have you noticed how all of the recipes in Southern Living are a bit Paula Dean-esque with the butter, sugar and shortening?  My mother-in-law sends me some good recipes from that magazine but I’ve got to wonder if people really eat that much sugar at dinner. (And yes, I’m aware of the irony of using a recipe from a Southern magazine on a Northeastern local foods blog.)  Anyway, the soufflé was creamy and fluffy, and the sage and nutmeg were nice complements to the squash.  It would be lovely in individual ramekins. Gotta get some of those!

My Mani-“pesto”

Friday, November 02, 2007

If you know Italian food, then you know that there is no such thing.  There is food from Emilia-Romagna and food from Puglia.  Further, there is food from regions within Puglia and food from regions within Emilia-Romagna – and even micro-regions within those regions.  Italian food is, if anything, intensely local, achieving its effect by enhancing the flavor of local, seasonal ingredients. So what happens when you cook Italian food outside of Italy? 

At first, I sought to cook only foods from a particular region, Emilia-Romagna, but that proved expensive, wasteful, and – in retrospect – arbitrary (why Emilia-Romagana over Puglia, Lombardy or Piedmont?).  Now, I think I’ve found a better way.

Now, I am looking to transpose recipes (as opposed to replicate) using ingredients from this region.  Obviously, this has its limits: I still prefer to cook with olive oil for health and taste reasons.  Still, why can I not use local parmesan-style cheese or pancetta? 

This pesto recipe is, I think, a good representation of the balance between imported products and local ones.  The basil, parsley, and garlic are from Red Earth Farm, the walnuts from the Headhouse Square Farmer’s Market. The cheese is from Hendricks’ Dairy, and sea salt from Maine (purchased at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal).  I tend to make this with whole-wheat pasta from Severino, but it works beautifully over fish as well. 

One final note: my wife and I do not enjoy oily pesto, so I’ve modified the original technique slightly in an effort to use only as much olive oil as necessary.

(Almost) Local Pesto

2 cups basil, washed
¼ cup parsley, washed
3 tablespoons walnuts, toasted
½ cup (or more to taste), Parmesan
1 clove garlic
1 pinch sea salt
olive oil

1 lb. whole-wheat pasta

Set a pot of water boiling, aggressively salt the water, and dump in the pasta.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine basil, parsley, walnuts, Parmesan, garlic, and salt.  “Pulse” several times until the ingredients start to blend.  Then, turn on the processor and drizzle in only enough olive oil to blend everything to a paste-like consistency.

Drain the pasta, but reserve approximately one cup of the pasta water (it should be nice and cloudy from the starch).  Combine the pasta, butter, and pesto in a bowl, gradually adding enough pasta water to blend everything.  (Suddenly, the pesto should magically seem to coat everything.)

 

From the depths of the freezer

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Soup weather has officially arrived here in Philly.  To mark the occasion, I trolled through my freezer full of locally grown produce and settled on the many bags of corn hibernating there.  Corn chowder!  Woohoo!

3 cups of corn kernels (CSA share)
1 large red onion (CSA share)
2 tablespoons butter (Fair Food)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups chicken stock (homemade from a local chicken)
6 new potatoes, cubed (CSA share)
2 cups milk (local)
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, minced
salt and pepper
1 cup heavy cream

Heat the butter and oil in a large soup pot and sauté the onion until translucent. Add the chicken stock and then the potatoes. Bring this to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Now add milk, thyme and pepper. Let this simmer for about 8 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

Add the corn and the heavy cream. Let this simmer for 5 or 6 minutes until the corn kernels are cooked. Depending on how you like your soup, you may want to use an immersion blender to puree a bit of the soup.

Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

It was exactly what I wanted on a cold Fall night. Yum!

 

Dark Days: steak and hookers

Monday, October 29, 2007

The other day I did my first volunteer shift at the Fair Food Farmstand.  Sadly, I spend so much time perusing the produce there I didn’t need much of an orientation as to what goes where.  At one point, though, I was mystified when I opened a box and pulled out what I thought were radishes - giant radishes and baby radishes.  Sarah, the manager, set me straight - they were Hakurei turnips.  In my head, I heard “hooker eye” turnips, which sent me into giggles.

The Hakurei turnip is a Japanese salad turnip.  They are quite sweet, and much softer than a regular turnip.  And they’re gorgeous.  I kept eyeing them up the entire time I was working at the Farmstand, and after my shift ended I bought two bunches of them, along with a porterhouse steak from Natural Acres, to make for dinner on Sunday night.

It turned into a great meal for the Dark Days Challenge - the only things not local: walnut oil, salt and pepper.  In addition to the steak (cooked rare, just the way I like it!) and turnips, I also sauteed some local mushrooms in local butter.

This is how I cooked the Hakurei turnips:

2 bunches of Hakurei turnips with greens
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 small red onion, diced
Salt and pepper
2 tsp. of walnut oil

Heat walnut oil over low-medium heat in a large skillet.

Trim greens from turnips and set aside.  Trim turnips and slice in half.  Add to the skillet with a sprinkling of salt and cook for 10 minutes or until turnips are just starting to brown.  Stir the turnips now and then to turn them.  Add garlic and onion; saute for five minutes.

Tear greens into bite sized pieces and add to the skillet.  Add a bit of salt and pepper. Cook until greens are wilted, another couple of minutes.

The turnips were excellent - even my husband loved them!  And that makes me think perhaps I should consider growing them next year.  Johnny’s Selected Seeds sells Hakurei seeds.  They appear to be relatively easy to grow - and it takes only 38 days to reach maturity.  It’s definitely something to consider for next Spring!

 

 

October Tomato Sauce

Sunday, October 28, 2007

The recent weather has kept our garden overflowing with summer crops as well as the colder weather stuff. So this morning I got out in the garden at sunrise (literally…the Sprout woke up at 4:30 and I couldn’t go back to sleep) and picked as many tomatoes as I could, as well as loads of parsley and some green beans.  I feel like I’m tempting fate by leaving this stuff in the ground so close to November, so I feel better having harvested a lot of these hot weather foods.  With at least 30 pounds of tomatoes to work with, I set out to make a big batch of sauce to divide up for the freezer. 

My method is based on Barbara Kingsolver’s recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which I highly recommend as a great read on local eating, by the way).

First, I blanch all of the tomatoes in boiling water for about three minutes to loosen the skin. As one batch is in the pot, another is draining over the sink and I’m working on coring and peeling the drained tomatoes. Then, I just throw the skinless, cored tomatoes into the food processor and puree them for a few minutes.  This whole process can take quite some time if you have a lot of tomatoes and you’re working by yourself (or with a toddler “helping”).  It’s also pretty messy, especially if, like me, you’re not the neatest cook in the world. Once all of the tomatoes are pureed, I saute some onions and garlic in olive oil, and add the tomatoes along with whatever fresh and dried herbs I feel like using.  Today I harvested bunches of parsley to freeze in cubes for the winter, so I added a lot of that as well as basil leaves whose days were numbered. Of course, lots of salt and pepper go into the pot too.

Depending on the types of tomatoes, it may take a few hours before the water cooks off a bit and the sauce is a good consistency. The smell is divine and the taste of fresh tomato sauce in January is definitely worth it.

Preserving the harvest is such an important part of eating local. I’ve seen deals on tomatoes from local sources recently, so it’s a great time to stock up even if you don’t have a garden before these gems are gone for another year.

An apple a day

Friday, October 26, 2007

Last weekend my husband and I made the mistake of trying to visit Linvilla Orchards. We sort of forgot that it was the Pumpkinland Harvest Festival.  It was wall-to-wall people.  All we wanted were a couple of apples!  And we did walk away with a bag of Stayman-winesap apples after much negotiating of traffic and people.

I finally got to use those apples in a very yummy apple cake.  My family is not big on passing down the family secrets or having special family recipes, but apple cake is an exception.  My mother routinely made stellar apple cake every Fall, and finally gave me the recipe when I moved into my first apartment many years ago.  Everyone loves the apple cake.  I have no idea where she got the recipe from, and it’s not like she protects it with her life or anything.  So today I’m sharing it with you:

2 c. sugar
1 c. butter
2 eggs
1 c. milk
3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
8 medium apples, cut into small chunks [not quite diced]

topping:
4 Tbsp flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 c. brown sugar
4 tsp melted butter
1 c. chopped walnuts

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Cream the sugar and butter; add the eggs.  Mix in the milk.  Sift together the flour, soda, salt, and baking powder; add to mixing bowl and beat to combine.  Stir in apples by hand - if it looks like you have more apples than batter, the ratio is right.
-Combine topping ingredients; stir to combine and spread over top fo the cake.
-Bake for one hour and ten minutes.

A good portion of the ingredients are locally sourced.  The apples, of course, were from Linvilla.  The eggs were from Hendricks Farm.  The butter and milk were local.  I used Daisy Flour.  And the walnuts were local.

The walnuts!  Let me just say a few words about these things.  Last week I bought a half pound of black walnuts from the Fair Food Farmstand.  I had no idea what I was in for.  I ended up out on my backporch with a hammer to open them.  Pieces of walnut blasted across the porch.  It took forever to collect all the pieces and then pry the meat out of the shells.  Black walnut shells have to be harder than diamonds, people!  Surely there must be an easier way to open them?  Granted, it was worth all the effort - my apple cake is extra good with the black walnuts in the topping!

 

 

Cranberries in the crannies

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Cranberries are in season right now, and plentiful at local farmer’s markets.  If you look hard enough, you can even find the white variety (shown here).

If you’re like me, the first thing you think of when you hear the word ‘cranberry’ is cranberry sauce.  I cook a full Thanksgiving dinner every year, and cranberry sauce is always on the menu.  Rather than settling for that crappy canned stuff, I always opt to make my own.  It’s easy and way, way better.  Last year I made a fantastic bourbon cranberry sauce.  This year I’m making cranberry sauce with blueberries.

That said, there are about a billion other things to do with cranberries.  In that spirit, below is a list of five things to do with cranberries that doesn’t involve cranberry sauce:

1. Cranberry Milk Chocolate Truffles (recipe).  There is nothing I like better than the combination of cranberries and chocolate. Yum!
2. Cranberry Pancakes (recipe).  The addition of tart cranberries in your pancakes is sure to wake you right up!
3. Cranberry liquer (recipe).  Old grandpappy would be proud if I made my own bootleg liquor!  Well, maybe it’s not quite like that, but you’ll be able to offer guests something unique.
4. Cranberry Orange Bread (recipe).  I just love quick breads, and this one is lovely and flavorful!
5. Cranberry Granita recipe).  Think of this as high class water ice, yo.