May: A Fresh Start

May is the first month of the year in the cycle of harvesting local food in sustainable quantity from our local farms, our own gardens, and the wilds. The blossoming cherry, apple and peach trees are exuberant reminders of the harvests that are some months away, but bring a cheery end to the bluster of winter. The asparagus is poking its spears from an improbably barren-looking field at our local “pick-your-own” farm.

And the farmers’ markets – other than the year-round diehards – are resuming as the community comes out to chat and the farmers offer green garlic, scallions, radishes, asparagus, rhubarb, and early greens. The cuisine of this moment is uncomplicated except in the flavorful combination of simple, very fresh ingredients topped with young herbs. I am looking forward to the medleys of asparagus, leeks and fava beans, radish salads with pea shoots, tiny lettuces with tinier herbs, green garlic on everything.  

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Comments on the Dark Days: Butternut Squash Soup with Pear Compote

I know, I know. This is Week 11/12 but the official Dark Days Challenge was cut short this year.  Who cares about official. The conversation continues. The organizer of this blog event, (not so) Urban Hennery, has been urging all of us across the country to eat locally during the most challenging period of the year, from December to April. BRAVO! With very few exceptions (mostly in hoop houses), fresh local produce where we live was harvested months ago. While we’ve always favored local organic and responsibly raised ingredients, this challenge made me scrutinize what really is available nearby. Before, it was just too easy to pick up those beautiful and relatively expensive organic greens from California, or favor whatever meat, poultry or fish was on sale, no matter the origin. It’s not that I wouldn’t fall for a delicious bunch of fresh chard right now. I’m not that much of a purist, but this exercise has been revealing.

Expanding the Local Sources. First, we discovered many more local sources of excellent food. Our CSA and a local organic farm and apple orchard are at the edge of a geographic area that we rarely exceed, a circle of about 12-15 miles from here. We discovered additional farms within this area and an astonishing number to visit within a reasonable distance beyond, including creameries with amazing cheese, vineyards, orchards, farms that raise livestock and poultry and sell eggs as well as meat, vegetable producers, mushroom farms, and sources of honey and maple syrup, not to mention foraging.

Knowing your Farmers. From the local chapter of NOFA, we’ve gotten to know many farmers. We concentrate on veggies at home but visiting those who raise goats, sheep and cows for cheese is very special. I went to pick up a week’s worth of cheese and eggs and had the privilege of meeting nearly two dozen baby goats, between one and seven days’ old. How sweet is that. Where there are kids, there will be cheese later on.

Re-thinking Frozen Food. I’ve changed my attitude about frozen food. I can’t bear the aisles of frozen food at the grocery store, and I’ve looked down my nose at freezing, other than as an intermediate step. For example, we typically have vegetable, chicken and fish broth/stock in the freezer, extra soup, cooked beans and sometimes grains, roasted tomatoes, blanched greens, and herbs.   All things we’ve made and frozen. In the future, I would squeeze a little more from the garden, particularly condensed veggie broth and greens.

However, Dark Days led me to discover that local free-range meat and poultry is typically sold frozen. Hrmph, I don’t buy anything frozen other than puff pastry. Why was this a surprise? It’s too cold for the chickens too, duh.  Our closest pasture keeps its meat at minus ten degrees, whereas my German home freezer is reliably at 0 degrees (and most home freezers are typically higher). With limited freezer space, I don’t buy in bulk, but now find I need to plan ahead to defrost if we’re going to eat locally.

However, Dark Days led me to discover that local free-range meat and poultry is typically sold frozen. Hrmph, I don’t buy anything frozen other than puff pastry. Why was this a surprise? It’s too cold for the chickens too, duh.  Our closest pasture keeps its meat at minus ten degrees, whereas my German home freezer is reliably at 0 degrees (and most home freezers are typically higher). With limited freezer space, I don’t buy in bulk, but now find I need to plan ahead to defrost if we’re going to eat locally.

Home Canning and Fermenting. We always have a lot of home-canned stuff and so far, there’s little I’d do differently, other than can more whole tomatoes instead of mostly sauce or soup bases. I’d increase and diversify the pickling and fermenting, although those 10 pounds of sauerkraut remain daunting. Mostly, the pantry needs management to make sure everything is consumed (or given away!) within a year.

Cellar and Fridge. What amazes me for the second year in a row, however, is how many stored fresh vegetables I still have in the cellar and fridge in late February. At this rate, we’ll still be eating them until May and they’re in remarkably good condition. Squashes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, white and red potatoes, onions, shallots and garlic in the cellar, and rutabagas, turnips, beets, leeks, carrots, daikon and cabbage in the fridge.  We even have scallions still in their muddy clump and some radicchio. I don’t shop for much any more.

Hence the soup.  This squash soup is one of many made over the last months, with more to come. This was made from a combination of butternut and buttercup squash. I usually find butternut squash alone could use greater depth of flavor so I add carrots or sweet potato. I had already roasted a large buttercup squash, so I added a few scoops. This soup was sweet from the buttercup and also from an apple than I chopped and cooked with the onions, adding a mixture of spices (curry powder, garam masala, Chinese five-spice powder, all preferably ground yourself) to blend and cook before adding squash and water. I served it with a dollop of pear and port wine compote that I made for the Tigress Can Jam in December. I also made an apple version but I liked the contrast of pear with this soup. (The idea of this combination came from Erica Bone’s Well Preserved, which inspired the compote.)

Curried Apple and Butternut Squash Soup with Pear Compote

1 large butternut squash

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, diced

1 apple, peeled and diced

2 tsp mixed spices (curry, garam masala or Chinese five-spice powder)

One of the following: 1-2 large carrots, peeled and diced or 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed or ½ c precooked buttercup squash or some cubed raw buttercup squash)

Optional: a pinch of cayenne pepper

Peel and roughly cube the squash and set aside. Slowly sauté the onions and apple in the oil until the onion is translucent. Stir in the spice mixture and cook for a minute or two to release the spice aromas and oils. Add the squash and carrot or sweet potato, and slightly cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook until tender, about 30 minutes. Puree, return to the pot and adjust the seasonings. Serve with a compote of pears or apples, or chutney.

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Dark Days Weeks 9 and 10: A Trio of Winter Salads

With fresh-from-the-garden green salads and Mediterranean vegetables a distant memory of a warmer season, we crave something piquant, refreshing and raw to accompany our meals. I made three salads over the past two weeks, using organic produce stored in my fridge or newly acquired from a farmers’ market. Farmers’ markets have been great this winter. We discovered local maple syrup, and sampled new (to us) cheeses from nearby creameries. We’ve met so many organic farmers and we’re inspired, not to mention well fed.

The first salad combines shredded Brussels sprouts (mine were still on the stalk) with pecorino cheese and cider vinaigrette with maple syrup. The salad was so intense that a 1/3-cup serving seemed very generous. The second uses up a fraction of the way-too-many roots in my refrigerator by shredding carrots, kohlrabi and a couple of types of radishes and dousing them with rice wine vinaigrette tempered by home-canned mint syrup. This was adapted from a recent New York Times recipe.

The third is a classic from my mother: sliced mushrooms and gruyere-type cheese. I recall that she used a mustard vinaigrette and probably added some parsley. I used my own tarragon vinegar. During the summer, I cut back my tarragon plant periodically and plunk entire stalks in white wine vinegar. This produces not only amazing vinegar but also a terrific way of preserving tarragon for other uses (potato salad, cooked cucumbers, roast chicken, etc.)

Slivered Brussels Sprout Salad with Pecorino Cheese

10-12 medium Brussels sprouts

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cider vinegar

½ tsp maple syrup

Salt and pepper

Pecorino cheese

Remove any bruised or brown outer leaves from the Brussels sprouts. Cut them lengthwise into tiny shreds, removing the core. Combine the oil, vinegar and maple syrup and pour over the Brussels sprouts, mixing gently. Season with salt and pepper to taste and grated some Pecorino cheese on top. Serve slightly chilled or at room temperature.

Carrot, Radish and Kohlrabi Salad adapted from Martha Rose Schulman, NYT

1 carrot

1 kohlrabi (violet)

Radishes (I used one long red one and several round red ones for color but you could use daikon)

Salt

1/3 c rice vinegar

1 c water

1 tbsp mint syrup (homemade)

1 tsp honey

Alternate: 2 tsp sugar

Optional: chopped mint or cilantro

Scrub the vegetables, peeling the carrot if necessary.  Grate on a box grater, preserving as much as possible of the colorful skin of the kohlrabi and radish. Lightly salt the vegetables and set aside to drain for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, bring water, vinegar and honey/mint syrup or sugar to a boil. Set aside to cool.  Squeeze moisture out of vegetables and pour the cooled liquid over them in a bowl, Store in the refrigerator for at least an hour or overnight. Drain and serve. Add optional chopped mint or cilantro.

Mushrooms and Gruyere Salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette

12-15 medium cremini or white button mushrooms

2 slices of Gruyere or similar hard, nutty cheese (to make a 20-24 1/8 x 1/8 x 1 inch batons)

1 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tsp tarragon vinegar

A few leaves of tarragon that was pickled in the vinegar

Pepper

Brush the mushrooms to remove any dirt. Halve them crosswise, and then cut them lengthwise into batons about 1/8 inch thick. Slice the cheese into little batons about the same size or smaller. Mix the olive oil and vinegar, including tarragon leaves if you have them. Mix with the mushrooms and cheese and let sit for about 10 minutes. Add fresh black pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature.

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July: The Bounty Begins

The bins at the CSA farm and the tables at the farmers’ markets are burgeoning with produce as summer’s bounty begins. The fragile crops of spring are fading, lettuce is bolting and we will have to wait until next year for the spring strawberries, asparagus and peas that we enjoyed so much. Even my home garden is onto the next season’s plantings as the dried vines of climbing peas are in the compost and beans are reaching up out of the ground.

This is also the season of berries and the early tree fruits. The “rumtopf” is on its third layer with the addition of sugarplums, with apricots not far behind. It’s the time for Fourth of July family picnics and pies, adventuresome grilling and canning and pickling for the pantry. Ahem, that’s true of every month, but starting now, there’s just a lot more.

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Cherries and Berries and a Couple of Sorbets

I’m posting this now because this past weekend – Fathers’ Day – is when the cherries are usually ready for picking at our local orchard. This year, everything is about three weeks ahead of schedule, and instead of following the strawberries, cherries were ripe at the same time. The orchard grows over a dozen different kinds of cherries, under “tents” that keep the birds away, and it’s a visual and well as culinary treat to sample some of each.

The early season caught me off guard, and I didn’t make the most of the cherry harvest for preserving.  But did get to make both cherry and strawberry sorbet. There’s enough body in the fruit to keep the sorbet from becoming too icy, but I added a little kirschwasser to each to forestall the ice and perk the flavor.  This is a pretty standard formula for fruit sorbet around here, inspired by the inimitable David Lebowitz’s book The Perfect Scoop.

Strawberry Sorbet

I quart strawberries, hulled and sliced

¾ cup sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp kirsch

Macerate the strawberries in the sugar, lemon juice and kirsch for an hour or so, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Puree in a food processor and chill well. Process in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Cherry Sorbet

1quart cherries, pitted

½ cup water

1/3 cup sugar (or a little more, depending on the sweetness of the cherries)

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp kirsch

Cook the cherries with the water, sugar and lemon juice over moderate heat until the cherries are tender, about 10 minutes. Cool. Puree in a food processor. Add the kirsch and chill the mixture well. Process in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

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More Spring Greens: Spinach and Herbs

I came back from our CSA farm with a ton of lettuce, arugula and spinach as well as a quart of strawberries that I picked. Because the greens take up so much room in the refrigerator, I make it a habit of first using those that can be cooked down to a small volume. The spinach was clearly the first candidate since it was rather stemmy, clearly the thinnings from a growing crop.  With scallions from the farmers’ market and a variety of herbs from our pot garden, I made a delicious medley that I tossed into rice and finished with cheese. The key is the variety and volume of herbs. This can also be baked in the oven with the addition of more cheese, especially a melting variety.

Spinach and Herbs with Rice and Cheese

3/4 lb spinach, well washed and torn into pieces

5 scallions, white and pale green sections, sliced

Butter or olive oil

Handful of mixed herbs, chopped: parsley, lovage, dill, tarragon, young thyme and oregano

Cooked rice

Parmesan cheese (or really small pieces of mozzarella)

Wash the spinach well and drain it, leaving some water clinging to the leaves. In a pot large enough to hold the spinach, sauté the scallions in a little butter (or olive oil, though I usually use butter when I’m adding cheese). Add the spinach and cook it down. Drain it if necessary, then add the herbs, stirring to wilt them a little. Stir into cooked rice and add cheese. If you’re using a melting cheese like mozzarella, this can be baked in the oven with great success.

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May: Return of the Farmer’s Markets

May 1 marked the opening day at one of most popular local farmer’s markets, which features seasonal produce, locally grown poultry, local cheese, baked goods, beautiful eggs of various colors, all kinds of things to eat, musical entertainment and neighborly chat.  Going to the market is one of my weekend rituals from May to October, second only to the trip to the CSA farm. Being able to have freshly asparagus, rhubarb, lettuce, spinach and dandelion greens is a rediscovered treat and gets the juices flowing for simple preparations that bring out the fresh flavors.  May 1 truly signals a new beginning in our culinary adventures.

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