Eat More Butter

Friday Night at River Cottage plus a recipe for carrot and cumin hummus

2011-03-21T13:54:00.005-04:00

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is someone I hope our American readers have heard of and if you haven't, get to your library or bookstore and please open up some of his books and get reading. I've learned so much from Hugh and I am consistently impressed with the passion and intelligence he brings to food, farming, cooking and educating the public about these three things. He's labeled a celebrity chef in Great Britain and I personally think that label almost does him a disservice, somehow discrediting the good work that he does in the arena of food activism, policy and awareness. I'll touch on this more in a future post to come that is all about mackerel but today's post is about the delicious, amazing food at River Cottage.

Just over a week ago I had the good fortune of sitting down to a Friday Night Dinner at River Cottage HQ on Park Farm in Axminster, Devon, England. This was truly a destination meal as my boyfriend and I made a considerable effort and went a good deal out of our way to get there. Happily for us, it was worth it. Not only was the food inventive, impeccably sourced and delicious, but the experience was unique and memorable from our arrival by tractor to canapés in a yurt to meeting strangers that we were sat next to at one of two long communal tables. The flavors and conversations and sights and smells were worth the price of admission and I of course took detailed notes about what we ate and drank to be able to share the experience with you.

Aperitif:
Kingston Black Apple Brandy

The canapés:
Chorizo and egg salad (egg mayonnaise) on toast
Carrot and cumin hummus on flatbread
Mushroom stuffed with spinach, feta and topped with chestnuts
Pan-fried squid
Potted pollack on toast

Beer:
Stinger Organic Ale brewed with hand-picked Dorset nettles

First Course:
Cottechino sausage with cubes of pig skin inside the casing, which when cooked (simmered in stock) made the sausage gelatinous and sticky. Served with al dente puy lentils, celeriac puree and salsa verde. DELICIOUS!

Second Course:
Stinging nettle soup with a smoky fish stock made from cold-smoked pollock. Served with a poached egg and jersey yogurt and a slice of sourdough bread.

Main Course:
Slow and fast cooked beef from a Ruby cow. The slow element consisted of braised flank steak, shredded then combined with beef fat and sauteed onions and formed into a cake. The fast cooked beef was a couple of slices of roast beef, served pink. Roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary were served as well as roasted carrots, creamed leeks and cauliflower.

For Dessert:
Vanilla yogurt pannecotta with poached rhubarb and fragile, crumbly shortbread.

Petitfour:
Cider brandy truffles made with Julian Temperley's Somerset Cider

Are you drooling yet? The meal was inspiring. I've already replicated the carrot and cumin hummus and flatbreads at home from memory and I'm keeping a close eye on my rhubarb plants, desperate to poach their stalks once they get a little bit bigger. Also the pairing of homemade chorizo and egg salad (egg mayonnaise) must be remembered and attempted in the future! Before the meal was over I wanted to apply for a job - any job - at River Cottage. It was the kind of place that oozed the energy and purpose that you just want to be a part of. I desperately wish I could have seen the place during the day and therefore a return trip is in order!

Carrot & Cumin Hummus inspired by River Cottage
1 can of drained and rinsed chickpeas
An equal amount of raw carrots, cleaned and peeled.
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and trimmed
1 tablespoon cumin
olive oil
salt
lemon
chopped parsley, chives and scallions to garnish

Steam the carrots and the 3 garlic cloves together then add them to your food processor or blender with a can of chickpeas, a tablespoon of cumin, LOTS of olive oil, salt and a squeeze of lemon. Blitz this all together, adjust seasoning to taste and garnish with chopped herbs and a drizzle of olive oil.

To make 6 flatbreads:
Mix 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour with salt and enough warm water to make a dry dough and knead for a minute. Separate into six balls of dough and let sit for 20 minutes. Roll these out to 1/4 of an inch thin, using just enough extra flour to keep them from sticking to the rolling pin or the counter. Then get a dry cast iron pan or griddle very hot and cook the flatbreads for 3 minutes or so on each side so they puff up and get brown spots.

Carrot and cumin hummus on flatbreads make an excellent lunch for 3 people, served with a side salad.

Hudson Valley Seed Library - Where Seeds Come From And Why It Matters To Buy Them From Ken and Doug.

2011-02-17T18:19:00.003-05:00

Dear readers of Eat More Butter - Jamie and I would like to introduce you to Doug Muller, Ken Greene, and the Hudson Valley Seed Library. Last fall, the guys graciously made time for us and allowed us to explore their farm in Accord, NY. We got to ask Ken a ton questions about their business and see it all first hand. It was quite an education! Being that winter is coming to an end and it's at last time to order seeds, do take notes!

Ken (seen at right) started the seed library while he was working for an actual library and he thought it would be a neat idea for the public to be able to "check out" seeds and then "return" seeds later in the season, harvested from the grown plants. Interest grew and more and more people were keen to be members of this seed library. Ken says, "The last year I did this at the library we had 65 people involved. The first year it went online we had 500 people involved. And then this last year we had about 700 members but then we had thousands of people just buying the seeds." Besides membership, growers can order individual seed packets from the Hudson Valley Seed Library website, some retail shops and from farmers markets like New Amsterdam Market. The guys have a great thing going, and it's obvious when you hold their seed packets in your hand, plant the seeds, eat the resulting vegetables and save the seed for next year.

There's something unique and special about this seed company that makes you want them to succeed and thrive, not only because it is local and the vegetables are great, but because it's a throwback to the days when farmers saved seeds from one season to the next and grew varieties that were best adapted to their location. Ken put it this way, "Most seed growing is done in a very different climate. All the seed companies have moved out west basically because it's cheaper, it's a better climate for growing seeds in terms of diseases, you have a longer season, it's drier but it also means that we're losing the regional adaption of those things. They're still calling them a 'New York heirloom' but it's been grown in California for the last 20 years. It may have had history here but it's no longer adapted to here." It's a disturbing trend but I love that Ken and Doug are standing against this current and going in the opposite direction, to the way things used to be done. They are such a terrific, and indeed, crucial resource for growers in the Hudson Valley and beyond.

The guys live on a communal property under a high canopy of trees. It's a mix of dilapidated and new buildings, the dilapidated ones are relics of an old resort up in the Catskills. The seed library itself is housed within the old concession stand. I find it amazing that food still comes out of that concession stand, though instead of hot dogs, hamburgers and sodas, seeds emerge for Spotted Trout Lettuce, Piracicaba Broccoli, Ruby Queen Beets and New England Pie Pumpkins.

The workspace was tiny and yet I'm not sure what I expected. I had never seen a seed library before and my imagination thought that maybe there would be greenhouses, perhaps some file cabinets with seed envelopes arranged like card catalogs. At the Hudson Valley Seed Library, half of the concession stand was devoted to a couple of computers and a desk by the window. The other half of the concession stand was the seed refrigerator - an insulated space cooled by an air conditioner. There were row after row of glass jars filled with seeds and floor to ceiling shelves of seed packets.

When we walked in, Doug was at the computer frantically putting some changes into their website in anticipation of a NY Times article. Doug's mother sat by the window, loading small glasseine envelopes with sweet pepper seeds, a smile on her face. The guys were eagerly anticipating the arrival of the 2011 art packs from the printer. Every year they have an open call for artists, and from those submissions they select the new seed package artwork. Some of the older art packs were framed on the walls, opened up they looked like pressed flowers beneath the glass, and no doubt that design was intentional. I often buy these art packs to give away as gifts, and of course I buy some for my own garden. They beg to be planted and cherished.

In a field beyond the seed library is the farm where the magic happens. A carpet of arugula led us through the gate, a result of an accident when harvested seeds fell off a tarp on the way out of the field.

The farm was spectacular to our eyes. There the seeds germinate, sink roots down into the soil, seedlings push up through the earth and reach for the sun and keep reaching and reaching. Leaves emerge, roots spread out and the plants gather enough energy from the sun and the soil below to give off flowers, which get pollinated, and result in fruit. Left long enough, the fruit become dried out seed pods, waiting to be collected for the next growing season. What an incredible place the field was - looking a little tired from a summer of production but still full of color and shapes and smells and flavors. Ken and Doug were growing some food for themselves, but mostly they were experimenting with new seed varieties and of course, growing seeds for the rest of us. We delighted in the rows of kohlrabi, kale, sting beans, tomatoes, mustard greens, fennel, okra, squash and cabbages. The rain misted down and clung to the vegetables, which looked quite happy to be in the Hudson Valley.

Nearby was an open building where the seeds were drying, hanging in big tarps from rafters, or drying on screens, with effort made to ensure that the seeds were out of reach of mice. Ken made the point that they love the seeds as much as he does. And he really does love the seeds - there's something inspiring about someone who ends up doing what he loves. And yet, it can be a struggle. "It's a mixed bag because when something is your side project it's really fun", Ken said, briefly imitating friends and family cheering them on as their fledgling business developed. "And then when you're in your third year of business and you're like 'we haven't made any money and we don't have any money and this year it needs to make money or else we can't keep doing this and then I'll have to get a job' and suddenly it becomes stressful. And so we've been really trying to make sure that we're still enjoying what we're doing."

Ken described the status of their business as "almost making it". Looking around at all he and Doug had achieved and thinking about the gardens around the country and world that grow their seed, we couldn't stomach the thought that they might fail. Open-pollinated heirloom seeds are precious. At my garden in New Jersey, we've taken the pledge to no longer grow hybrid seeds from big seed companies, and instead favor small seed companies like Hudson Valley Seed Library to encourage this trend back to the traditional, natural way of agriculture. Also, with each purchase it feels pretty good to take an active role in helping the guys go from "almost making it" to "making it."

The Hudson Valley Seed Library offers over 60 varieties of locally grown seed. Membership starts at $20 but is not required. Seed packets are $2.75 each and the art packs are $3.50 each. Discounts are available to members. Spread the word. http://www.seedlibrary.org

Edinburgh Clams a.k.a. Clams with Bacon, Onions and Cream Over Toast

2011-02-02T17:34:00.009-05:00

A few weeks ago, Jamie and I braved the wind chill and took a stroll through the Greenmarket at Union Square in New York City and I was drawn to one of the three fish stalls. I can't recall if it had a banner or a name, but what I remember specifically was being enticed by the buckets of live crabs, chowder clams, razor clams, cherrystone clams and littleneck clams on the ground, freshly plucked at low tide at the end of Long Island and put up for sale on Manhattan island, still alive and awaiting their fate. Jamie and I had just talked about how in New York City you sort of forget that the ocean is right there. Somehow the salty air and sandy shores seem distant and far away but the clams were a gentle reminder that clean waters and fresh seafood weren't far away at all. I couldn't resist the freshness and the vitamin B12 and so, I forked over $6 for a dozen littleneck clams.

Would I make chowder? Initially I thought this was a great idea but that went out the window when I remembered the flavors of a fabulous dish I had last February in Edinburgh, Scotland at one of my favorite restaurants - The Dogs. It was such a simple, humble dish - cockles with leeks, cream and bacon over toast. Served in a bowl, the bread was swimming in the sauce. It was heavenly and as the memories of this dish came surging back, I knew that I had to try my hand at recreating it with the little neck clams.

I am happy to boast that I was hugely successful! This was my first time making clams and it surely won't be my last. The flavors came together brilliantly and were a treat to consume. If tempted with equally fresh clams, I suggest you take the plunge and give this recipe a try. It's the perfect thing for a hot meal on a cold winter's day.

Edinburgh Clams

Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

3 slices of bacon, sliced into 1/2 inch segments

1 large yellow onion, finely chopped (feel free to substitute leeks!)

1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced

1/2 cup of dry white wine

1/4 cup heavy cream

a dozen littleneck clams (soaked in a few changes of cold water with a sprinkle of cornmeal, then scrubbed clean)

a small handful of chopped fresh parsley

a few slices of toasted bread (stale bread works great too!)

Method:

Using a large frying pan over medium-low heat, cook the bacon until some fat has rendered and the bacon starts browning, about 3 minutes. Add the onions and garlic cook these gently for about 5 minutes until translucent. Bring the heat up to medium and pour in the white wine, scraping up bits of onion or garlic that stuck to the bottom and let the wine cook down to almost nothing. Add the heavy cream and a few splashes of water and mix everything up. When the mixture comes to a boil, tuck the clams in and cover with a lid. Check in on your clams occasionally, giving the mixture a stir. The clams are done when they've opened up. Turn off the heat and throw in the chopped parsley. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if you think they are lacking. Put your toast in the bottom of your bowl and top with the clams and sauce.

Afternoon Snack: Bone Marrow on Toast

2010-12-30T16:42:00.003-05:00

I just had the most delicious, satisfying and let's face it, PRIMAL snack this afternoon - bone marrow on toast. I knew as I was eating it that I would be upset when I finished it, desperate to rewind and start my snack over. You see, the snack took me back to February, to a wonderful lunch at St. John in London, a beloved restaurant headed by beloved chef Fergus Henderson of Nose to Tail Eating fame.

We had an amazing meal there launched by two pints of smocked bock from Meantime Brewing and then we feasted on briny Colchester oysters, a salsify, leek and watercress salad, a pork terrine with rabbit, duck tongue and pheasant offal served with a pile of small cornichons, snails with chickpeas and chorizo in broth, and then, we had the show stopper. We had the roasted bone marrow and parsley salad - The bones were served sitting upright like cylinders and we were given these awesome long scoops to reach in and get the bone marrow out. Sea salt was piled up next to the bones, and beside that were two slices of toast and a parsley salad with shaved shallots and capers. I spread the bone marrow on the toast, sprinkled it with sea salt and piled on the parsley salad. The salt and capers brought the flavor of the marrow to levels of the sublime and the parsley salad refreshed the palate and cut through the richness just as it should. I loved having to assemble each bite and I fondly recall noticing a family with young children sitting nearby, with a young boy enjoying the same dish, not squeamish at all, simply enjoying his meal, sure to scoop out every last bit of the bone marrow.

The meal as a whole is a great memory and I haven't been able to forget the flavors I was introduced to at that table, particularly those of the roasted bone marrow and parsley salad. And so, today, after simmering marrow bones overnight to make stock, I got the bright idea to bring those flavors back together for an afternoon snack. I fished out the bones, scooped out the marrow, put it on toast, sprinkled on sea salt, and then mixed a quick salad of parsley leaves, capers, lemon juice and olive oil and put it on top. I was instantly transported to the bright, airy dining room of St. John, the flavors were right there, this time on my tongue instead of stored away in a memory. I highly suggest you try it yourself...

What's in season now? WINTER EDITION - plus a very handy gardening tip.

2010-12-20T11:32:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I took a pitchfork out to the garden and looked with pride at all the celeriac, rutabagas, turnips, beets, radishes, parsnips and carrots we had grown, their leafy tops looking somewhat worse for wear in the cold weather but otherwise they were pretty impressive. And then I stuck the pitchfork in the ground next to the turnips and the pitchfork refused to go into the soil, and even after putting all my weight on the pitchfork, nothing happened! Had I missed my window? Had the ground frozen solid and would it take all our root vegetables as hostages into the frigid, dark New Jersey winter? I felt a little surge of panic - the celeriac seemed like the biggest potential loss, we had 27 of them in the ground, all of which I started as tiny seeds back in early March - to not be able to taste them and eat them all winter would be catastrophic! I took a deep breath, angled the pitchfork so just one tine would have contact with the ground and then I put all of my weight on it - the ground mercifully gave way, and I was able to get some leverage and break off a big chunk of earth. With it came a few turnips. A couple of hours of unnecessarily difficult labor ensued and finally all of our winter root vegetables had been freed of the frozen ground. I learned a critical lesson that day - harvest your root vegetables before the ground freezes!

On that note, here's a handy guide for what's in season right now as we head into winter - it's a mix of great storage crops and fresh greens and herbs: celeriac (celery root), rutabagas (swedes), turnips, beets, radishes, parsnips, carrots, dried beans, grains, potatoes, winter squash, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, arugula, kale, escarole, lettuces, mustard greens, mâche, brussels sprouts, fennel, kohlrabi, cabbage, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, thyme and sage.

You might be surprised to read that greens and herbs are in season but protected in the garden by row covers or cold frames, they will continue to yield. The winter greens are delicate and tender and smaller in size than their summer counterparts, but they are extremely delicious and the novelty of going outside to a frozen and seemingly dead garden and returning with fresh, alive greens and herbs for a meal is considerable! Don't underestimate too the value of having a few pots indoors on the window ledge - we have rosemary, mint, cilantro and watercress all growing right here in the kitchen!

Our plan this winter is to make lots of stews, soups and braised joints of meat that are slow cooked so that the meat falls right off the bone. Add lots of these great winter vegetables and we have some stellar meals that await. So, bring on winter! We've got plenty of delicious things to eat.

Thanksgiving Wrap-up

2010-12-03T22:49:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving already feels like a distant memory but the contents of my fridge tell a different story. As Wednesday rolled around and my kitchen was still overflowing with the remnants of our holiday meal (and my tolerance for more turkey and brussels sprouts was rapidly dwindling), I set to work transforming them: leftover-cranberry-sauce muffins, white beans simmered with the ham bone, turkey stock. My favorite creation was a catchall soup that is perfect for stretching (or gobbling up) the last remnants of meat, using up whatever odds and ends are left lying around and extracting the wealth of flavor residing in the scraps of turkey and ham still haunting your fridge.

The basis for this soup is a few onions, cooked down until golden and richly flavored plus some garlic and a cup or so of lentils and rice. From there, you can play with whatever is left in your fridge, enriching it with a bit of wine, stock, vegetables, scraps of meat and/or bones and herbs. You could go out and buy the necessary ingredients – this soup is tasty enough to be worth it – but if you just treat the recipe as a guideline and put the contents of your kitchen to work, you can create a big, hearty pot of soup for practically pennies.

Thanksgiving Leftovers Lentil Soup

Olive oil/butter/pork fat – a few tablespoons of any one or a combination

2 large yellow onions, diced

1 carrot, diced, if available

1-2 stalks of celery, diced, if available

3 cloves of garlic, minced

½ tsp cumin seed (or ¼ tsp ground cumin)

White wine (or red wine or beer or water)

16 oz canned tomatoes, chopped (or 2-3 Tbsp tomato paste)

2 quarts stock (I used 1 each of chicken and veggie, as it’s what I had leftover but any type of stock would be fine. This is a great place to put your turkey carcass to use – make stock from it and use that here. And if all you have is water, that’s okay too, because the turkey and/or ham bones will add plenty of flavor to the broth)

1 cup dried lentils (green or brown, or whatever you have)

Fresh thyme – a few sprigs

1 bay leaf

Parmesan rind, if available

Turkey wings and/or drumstick(s)

Ham bone and/or ends (My family always has a smoked ham on Thanksgiving in addition to the turkey, so I used the end scraps that didn’t have enough meat on them to slice and put out with the rest of the meal. If you don’t have any smoked ham on hand, lightly sauté a half pound of cut-up bacon with the onions in the beginning – the smokiness is a nice addition to the soup’s flavors)

½ - ¾ cup of rice (I used brown but whatever you have is fine. Just keep in mind that white will take less time to cook)

1 bunch greens, if available

Salt to taste

Juice of 1 lemon or a few tablespoons of vinegar

Procedure:

In a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot, heat fat over medium heat and sauté onions (and carrots and celery, if you have them) until well colored – 10+ minutes. Season with salt.

Add garlic and sauté a few minutes more.

Stir in cumin and cook for another minute.

Deglaze with a bit of wine, water, etc. and cook down until almost dry.

Add tomatoes with their liquid, stock, lentils, thyme, bay leaf and parmesan rind. If using tomato paste, you’ll want to add it just after the cumin and cook it for a few minutes before deglazing in order to remove the raw tomato flavor.

Once the liquid and lentils are in the pot, bring it up to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer for a few minutes.

Add the turkey and ham pieces plus the rice (if using white rice, you may want to wait 20-30 minutes as it cooks more quickly than brown rice).

Simmer, partially covered, until the lentils and rice are cooked through and tender, about an hour. If using greens, add them during the last 15 minutes or so and make sure that they, too, are tender. You could also use leftover cooked greens – simply add them at the very end so they have a chance to reheat.

Remove the turkey and ham from the soup. Tear up the meat, disposing of any skin and bones, and return the meat to the soup.

Adjust seasoning with salt to taste and finish with lemon juice or vinegar. Be careful with the acid -- you don’t want to taste it, but the addition should help brighten and pop all of the other flavors in the soup.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

2010-11-07T14:14:00.007-05:00

For the last few years Jamie and I have been regular drinkers of raw milk from grass-fed cows and there are few foods as nutritious and satisfying is a nice big glass of the stuff. It's so good we drive hours and hours to go get it at farms in Pennsylvania and New York and are sure to bring mugs in the car so we can guzzle some on the way home. The term "raw" means the milk is unpasteurized and unhomogenized - two adjectives we like attached to the dairy we consume, along with organic, whole and delicious.

The only downside to this formerly commonplace and now controversial whole food is simply that it has a shorter shelf-life than its pasteurized form. This is usually no problem - we know we have 9 days or so, sometimes 14, before the milk starts to get "farmy" - a term we think hits the nail on the head for what the milk begins to taste like. It doesn't get rancid and off-putting like pasteurized milk gets when it goes bad, raw milk just starts changing into another food, like yogurt or cheese. When I know I'm not going to be able to finish all my milk, I anticipate this transformation and turn it into ricotta cheese. It's extremely easy and can be very handy when you've got a recipe that requires ricotta and you don't want to run out to the shop to get some. Besides, it tastes better anyway.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese (makes about 2 cups)

4 cups raw milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon sea salt

Juice of one whole lemon

1 teaspoon white vinegar

In a medium saucepan, gently heat milk, cream and salt until mixture is boiling. Turn heat down to simmer and add the juice of one lemon and the white vinegar. Mix for a few minutes until curds separate from the whey. Take off heat and strain mixture in a fine sieve or in cheesecloth and leave the curds to drip dry for 1 hour, then consume or refrigerate cheese. Reserve the whey for use in bread baking (substitute it for all the liquid in the recipe).

Sweet October Raspberries

2010-10-18T10:24:00.005-04:00

Raspberries in little plastic packages in grocery stores don't get my attention. Raspberries directly from a farm I could make an exemption for, but I know that shortly after they've been picked, delicious raspberries start deteriorating quite quickly. I say all this because really the best way to enjoy raspberries is to pick them one by one off the plant and eat them right then and there in the garden, as I've been lucky enough to do my entire life.

As a little kid I learned early on to look inside and all around the freshly picked raspberry to see if any ants had clung on to the fruit, and if there was one or two, I'd blow them off as if I was blowing out birthday candles and then pop the raspberry right into my mouth. The flavor! The darker the raspberry, the sweeter it would be, but once the darkest ones were eaten sometimes I couldn't help myself from eating the raspberries that were lighter in color. It was the best after-school activity... walk home from school and pause in the garden for a quick gorge - it was the ultimate after-school snack.

Raspberries grow on canes covered in mild thorns. Grown unchecked, they can take over half your garden in just a few years. That had happened to us and I have great memories of my parents dressed in long pants and long sleeved shirts wading into the raspberry patch and coming back out with great big metal bowls full of raspberries, their clothes stained with bits of sweet red juice. The resulting jam would last us through the winter, spread on toast with butter or blended with yogurt and a banana and orange juice for a smoothie. It was divine.

Our raspberry plants have a long lineage. I have no idea what variety they are but I do know that they fruit twice a year, once in the summer and again in the autumn. They've been in the garden all 28 years of my life and the original plant here came from my grandparents' house, where raspberries were growing before they moved in back in the 60's! You get the idea. These plants want to grow and they want to produce and they are easy to transplant and grow for yourself and for your family with very little fuss. It's a wonderful investment for future generations!

Jamie Paxton's Concord Grape Tart with Hazelnut Shortbread Crust PLUS our first radio interview on All Things Considered on WNYC - Today!

2010-10-15T11:48:00.009-04:00

Tune in today to catch All Things Considered on WNYC! Jamie and I will be on air discussing the history and culinary uses of Concord grapes as part of their series, Last Chance Foods. The segment will air in the last half hour of the 2 hour program around 5:40 or 5:45pm EST. You can listen to WNYC live on the radio at 93.9 FM or live on the WNYC website. In case you miss hearing it live, you can listen whenever you want to directly on the Last Chance Foods page on the WNYC Culture site. Extra special thanks must be extended to WNYC Culture Producer Joy Y. Wang for making this happen and to Amy Eddings for making our first radio interview a fun and memorable one. As a long time WNYC listener, I have to say it was quite the thrill to be interviewed!

UPDATE: You can now listen right here on Eat More Butter!

The icing on the cake for us all is that Jamie invented possibly the most delicious grape tart ever for this very occasion. I highly recommend that you scoop up some Concord grapes at your next opportunity while they are still at the markets and make this tart for the people you love. It was a big hit at WNYC after our interview! The tart itself is a celebration of Concord grapes, quite rightly, but also it's a celebration of a man named Ephraim Wales Bull, who worked so hard with little reward to bring Concord grapes into existence for us all to enjoy. Tune in to our interview to hear all about it!

And to those of you visiting us for the first time from All Things Considered - a hearty welcome to Eat More Butter!

CONCORD GRAPE TART WITH HAZELNUT CRUST AND CRÈME FRAÎCHE

by Jamie Paxton

Serves 8

FOR THE HAZELNUT SHORTBREAD CRUST

9 tbsp unsalted butter, soft

½ cup confectioners sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 large egg yolk

Zest of 1 lemon

1/3 cup roasted hazelnuts, peeled and finely ground

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar and salt; the butter should be soft enough that you can do this by hand with a wooden spoon. Add the egg yolk and incorporate fully. Stir in the lemon zest and ground hazelnuts and mix well. Add the flour all at once and mix slowly, just to combine; be sure to incorporate all of the flour but do not work the dough any more than necessary at this stage.

Chill dough for at least an hour in the refrigerator and then roll out between sheets of wax paper to 1/8" thick. Fit into a buttered 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom, trimming off any extra that hangs over the edge. Rest crust in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before baking.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lay a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil on top of the crust and weight with pie weights or baking beans. Blind bake the crust for 25-28 minutes, removing the parchment and weights after 20 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven when it is dry to the touch and has just barely started to pick up some color. Transfer the crust (still in its pan) to a cooling rack and let cool before filling.

FOR THE CONCORD GRAPE FILLING

1 ½ pounds Concord grapes (or enough for 3 cups stemmed)

2 oz. St. Germain or other elderflower liqueur

Juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp flour

Wash, drain and de-stem grapes. Separate the flesh from the skins by pinching the grapes between your thumb and forefinger. Reserve the skins and all juice. The grapes and skins should total approximately 3 cups.

Combine the grape flesh and all accumulated juice with the St. Germain and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. When cooled, push the grapes through a fine sieve, discarding the seeds.

Combine the grapes with the reserved skins, sugar and flour and pour into the cooled crust.

Bake at 375°F for 45-55 minutes until the filling is thick and bubbling. Transfer tart to a cooling rack and cool completely before removing from pan and cutting.

Serve the tart at room temperature with crème fraîche to garnish.

Cornucopia time! A garden update and a photo of today's harvest.

2010-10-01T12:32:00.011-04:00

There's a sense of relief out in the garden today amongst the vegetables. After a long, hot, dry summer the skies have opened up for the past couple of days and are at last quenching a considerable thirst that was never satisfied by a garden hose. The delicate plants like dill and fennel have almost fallen over in gratitude and disbelief. The pumpkins meanwhile are getting down to business and expanding by the minute to fulfill their promise to be large jack-o-lanterns. The heavy rains are also revealing the tops of sweet potatoes and celeriac, finally showing themselves after a summer of us gardeners wondering if anything was happening below the soil.

It's an interesting moment to observe in the garden... tomatoes are still ripening but about to hand the baton to the butternut squash. A new crop of peas is on a race against time to produce before the first frost hits later this month. Young seedlings of mâche, wild arugula, mustard greens, scallions, parsley and lettuces are settling in to what will be a long fall and winter, in which they will be expected to survive under the protection of cold frames. Other plants are looking worse for wear - the kale we planted in April, the zucchini, the sad string beans, so far removed from their glory days but stubbornly still producing and still delicious.

What a great time to eat! The cornucopia of the harvest season is upon us. Summer may be behind us but just like our garden, local farms are hitting their stride! Check out your local farmer's market and get cooking.

Today's harvest: carrots, jalapeños, delicata squash, string beans, sage, dill, parsley, cilantro, kale, turnips and radishes (hiding under the kale).

Concord Grapes - get them while you can!

2010-09-22T19:16:00.004-04:00

Concord grapes are no ordinary grapes. If any fruit can be compared to candy, it has to be this one. The frosted, smooth skin splits open to reveal a sugar-sweet and yet sour, gelatinous flesh that is unlike any fruit I've ever tasted. Sure there are pits and the skin is a little tough, but this is no deterrent. I realize this description might sound a little off-putting with the gelatinous consistency and the tough skin and pits, but believe me when I say that the flavor is THE flavor of grape that you have known your entire life - think Welch's grape juice or Dimetapp - only much better. If you've been lucky enough to enjoy Concord grapes before, you know what I'm talking about, but for other people, this is such a rare, hard-to-come-by fruit. Unlike red grapes from California that show up in Whole Foods year round, these grapes are seasonal and special, and their time is now. What a treat to be able to enjoy and overdose on them as summer ends and autumn begins. It's a great transitional fruit as we leave behind peaches and look forward to apples. Enjoy them while you can, and then we'll see them again next year!

Cookbook Roundup! My Current Go-To Sources for Reliably Delicious Recipes...

2010-08-31T13:13:00.009-04:00

My mother has always had an extensive collection of cookbooks as far back as I can remember. It started out with a high shelf back by the laundry room and then it became a whole bookcase, and then it expanded beyond the bookcase and took over the cereal shelf (good thing we stopped eating cereal so we had the room!) and now it's grown into a line of books on the counter. The seldom-used microwave's days are certainly numbered.

We obviously can't buy every cookbook that looks interesting so right now we have 4 cookbooks out from the library, and this revolving door of cookbooks amounts to a try-out period. If we like the recipes, we'll renew the book, if we continue to like it, we'll make the investment.

I thought I'd share with you several cookbooks which are absolute classics and ones that I have been spending a lot of time with lately.

Ahem, from the bottom up:

1. The foundation of all of these is the bible of vegetables, Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Our cookbook has stains and bookmarks and notes in the margins and shows signs of considerable wear and tear and love. It's a masterpiece of a cookbook and many of these recipes and techniques have become second nature to me and weekly if not daily dishes that I make. Standout everyday recipes include the Zucchini Coins with Feta (page. 423) and Kale with Olives (pg. 381). This is the first cookbook I'd recommend to anyone whether they are vegetarian or not. When I had a share of a CSA and the vegetables kept coming and coming, this book was a lifesaver. It taught me how to tackle any vegetable and cook it to its full potential. Now that I am gardening and growing my own food, it's a constant companion. It's the most important cookbook I own.

2. This year I have discovered the wealth of information that is Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Volume One) by Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. The cookbook has always been a part of my Mom's collection but it took Jamie going to culinary school at the French Culinary Institute to inspire me to crack the book open. I now make the best chicken stock EVER and have perfected the art of the quiche. Both tasks seemed a little overwhelming when I first gave it a go and now I do so with ease. Homemade chicken stock is probably the best thing there is - loaded with nutrients. I like it most when it is freshly made, in a coffee cup with a sprinkle of sea salt. What a treat it is after waiting all those hours while it simmers!

3. Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver got me so excited to start gardening and now as the season winds down I can look back and really credit this book and this chef for sparking my interest in home grown fruit and vegetables. Jamie asserts that if you are really serious about sourcing the best food you can find in terms of flavor, freshness, quality and organics, you simply have to grow your own. He was right and every day I walk into the garden and harvest the best vegetables I've ever eaten. The book is written by season so you can look ahead and plan what you are going to grow and feast on. There are also gardening tips mixed in as well as important essays about egg production, lambing, hunting and other food issues.

4. Beyond Jamie Oliver, more and more I am looking to England for food inspiration. Spending as much time there as I do, I've learned so much about traditional English food and I can't stress enough how delicious and special this cuisine is! It's gotten an exceedingly unfair reputation and there are some very determined chefs over there doing extraordinary things to overturn this. One such man is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (great name), chef of The River Cottage in Dorset. He cooks, he farms and he educates with a deep reverence to the land and animals who provide his food. It's all about quality, seasonality and flavor. The River Cottage Cookbook is dense and educational, almost a textbook for how to eat well.

5. Alice Waters of the famed Chez Panisse in Berkely, California, has had a lot of praise sent her way, and it's with good reason. I'm just getting to know her food and what I've read and tried out of The Art of Simple Food has been excellent. I've made her scallops with salsa verde and her technique for cooking pork ribs in the oven is PERFECT. Through Deborah Madison I learned that good ingredients prepared simply are more delicious than subpar ingredients prepared lavishly, and Alice Waters takes this beyond vegetables into meat and fish. It's such an assuring notion for those who find recipes complicated and stressful - this doesn't have to be the case! Just get the best ingredients you can find and cook simply. The results will be sublime.

6. And finally, back to England and to a cookbook I currently have out from the library... The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson. First of all, this cookbook is hilarious and so well written that I dare you to read it without cracking a smile. Second, the brined and roasted pork belly is literally to die for. I drool over the memory of eating it... I made it recently for a group of 7 and the table was stunned into some sort of magical culinary trance that was only broken by the occasional crunch crunch CRUNCH that came with chomping on the crackling. Fergus Henderson is the chef at St. John in London, a restaurant I've been lucky enough to feast at. He's cooking brave and important dishes, like the delicious and often imitated bone marrow and parsley salad. It started at St. John though, and so many chefs are looking to Fergus Henderson for inspiration and I can see and taste why - it's an education to read his book and try his recipes!

So, this is my list! What are your current favorites? Any that I simply must get out of the library?

Where is the Actual Food in America's Supermarkets?

2010-08-24T18:53:00.008-04:00

I walked into a big box supermarket for the first time in ages today. I've got to say that it was a shock to the system considering that I've grown all my vegetables this year and I buy my meat and dairy direct from a small family farm. Upon entering the supermarket I felt like the whole place was shouting at me, each item desperately competing for my attention, trying to distract me down a long aisle and disorient me to the point that I'd be wandering around in a daze, susceptible to all sorts of ill-advised purchases. I found the whole place impersonal, overwhelming, uncomfortable and alien. The store was massive, just completely overextended with too many choices of food-like substances filling the aisles.

Let's take the butter section for example because this is indeed Eat More Butter and butter was in fact the item I needed to purchase. It took quite a few minutes of wandering through the store to even find the butter section but once I did I stood dumbfounded. Take a look…

Where is the butter? Seriously, where is it? In this wall of butter-esque products, less than a quarter of what you see is actual butter. It's located in the bottom left, not even at eye level. The rest of what you see are butter substitutes made to look and taste like butter with different combinations of ingredients both real and chemical. This isn't a post about the why you should always choose real butter (I think our blog title makes my stance clear though if you need more information, click through to Why Butter Is Better by Sally Fallon Morell and Mary G. Enig), this is a post about the American supermarket.

If you extrapolate the statistics of the butter section (1/4 butter, 3/4 fake butter) to the rest of the supermarket, what do you have? TOO MUCH of very bad things. It's hard to see the actual food between all the processed and imitation foods clogging the aisles. Having choice is all well and good but frankly, it shouldn't take 10 minutes to walk to the other side of the store. If you distilled the supermarket down to its essentials - fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, eggs, dairy, grain - it really wouldn't be very big at all, probably about a quarter of the size if not smaller!

Instead we could drop the "super" and just call it what it is - a market, a grocery store, a place to buy real food. And that indeed would be super.

Over to you - has anyone else spent some time away from the big box American supermarket and walked back into it with new eyes? Have supermarkets lost your business? Where do you like to do your food shopping?

Dad's Summer Birthday: The Ultimate Harvest Dinner

2010-07-22T11:37:00.004-04:00

For Dad's birthday this year we went to Gramercy Tavern, a venerable culinary institution in New York City and one of my Dad's favorite restaurants. As great as the service was and as beautifully as the food was prepared, we all found it underwhelming... and not for anything they did wrong, but for what we've been doing right at home in the garden and kitchen. Dad's first thought upon waking the next day was... next year let's just have a harvest dinner at home for my birthday. Luckily for him, he only had to wait another day because that's what we had planned all along for this year!

The timing couldn't have been better as the garden offered us potatoes, radishes, beets, carrots, zucchini, chard, cabbage, onions, scallions, garlic, basil, cilantro, sage, parsley and dill so we had a field day with it and made an over-the-top garden harvest feast!

We made pork ribs with a dry rub of cumin, coriander, fennel seed and pimenton Spanish paprika and served the ribs with greek style horta made from radish and beet greens, braised cabbage wedges with dill, roasted root vegetables (beets, carrots, radishes and onions), roast potatoes with garlic, bacon and sage, zucchini coins with mixed herbs, feta and onion and sauteed Swiss chard with scallions.

Did Dad love his birthday harvest dinner?

Very much so. We all did. Looking at my plate, I thought back to the small seeds I had sown in the spring, each one planted with hope and optimism, and I couldn't help but acknowledge the amazing accomplishment filling my plate. Growing your own food is a tremendous pleasure and a remarkably fulfilling and delicious experience. I hope Gramercy Tavern doesn't mind that we won't be making a reservation next year... we'll be harvesting and cooking instead!

Garden to Plate: Inspiration for building a meal.

2010-07-12T16:46:00.012-04:00

What to have for dinner? It's a question we ask ourselves every night... usually we think about what we're craving or an interesting recipe we recently came across but now that we have a garden filled with vegetables ripe for the picking, the question is already answered for us. The garden inspires the plate.

Yesterday we had harvested the following vegetables: piracicaba broccoli, caraflex cabbage, string beans, young beets, carrots, russet potatoes and garlic. And that's exactly what we had for dinner last night: Roast chicken with just-picked roasted root vegetables, Alice Waters' cabbage cole slaw and a salad of broccoli, string beans, grape tomatoes, olives, capers and lemon dressing. Let's just say I licked the plate, okay? In fact, you're lucky I took the time to take this picture before diving in!

I'm looking forward to what the garden wants us to have for dinner tonight! Heading out to go harvest now... it's that time of the day. If you don't have a garden, use what gets delivered in your CSA as your inspiration for deciding what to eat for dinner, or if you are not a member of a CSA, let your local farmers' market inspire your dinner. It's a great way to learn how to cook new vegetables and keep things interesting in the kitchen and at the table.

Beets with Smoked Mackerel - a great pair!

2010-07-09T10:06:00.009-04:00

Yes, I've been caught red-handed - I love beets! And I'm willing to endure temporarily stained skin for the pleasures of eating them... I didn't always love beets with the fervor that I do now. I always found beets paired with goat cheese to be a bit of a yawn and beets weren't the first vegetable I would reach for at the farmers' markets. My attitude towards this sweet root vegetable changed when I ate smoked mackerel and started brainstorming about a salad to make with it.

You see, smoked mackerel, especially smoked mackerel from Steve Hatt fishmongers on Essex Road in Islington, London, is really something spectacular. It's naturally smoked (as it should be), moist, insanely flavorful and satisfying. The smokey flavor needs strong counterparts, and the first thing I thought of was sweet beets. Then I thought some bitter wild arugula would also be welcome in this salad, and certainly the acid of a lemon dressing would be good too. To round it out, some simple boiled buttery-tasting potatoes, the best I could find would do the trick... and perhaps some parsley for freshness. So there I was, steaming beets in a bamboo steamer a couple of months ago over a pot of potatoes boiling in water, getting really excited about this smokey, sweet, bitter, acidic, buttery fresh salad that I was putting together!

I was not disappointed - the salad was a tremendous success and one I've made a few times since. I hope you will try it - it's so refreshing on a hot day, and it's refreshing to the eyes as well - lots of color and vitamins and omega 3's!

Diana's Smoked Mackerel Salad with Beets, Arugula, Potatoes, Parsley & Lemon Dressing

serves 4

1 pound of organic potatoes, peeled (optional) and cubed

1/2 pound of organic beets, peeled and cut into 1/2" or 1 cm cubes

A filet of naturally smoked mackerel (preferably wild), skin-off, pulled apart into small bite-sized pieces.

2 big handfuls of washed and dried arugula (younger, tender leaves are best)

2 tablespoons of parsley, chopped

juice of 1/2 a lemon

4 tablespoons olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes in salted water as you steam the beets over the potatoes in a metal colander or bamboo steamer. The color from the beets will tint the potatoes pink, but no matter! Test for doneness by inserting a knife into the beets and the potatoes. If the knife goes in without resistance, the vegetables are done. Set them aside in your serving bowl to cool fully. Once cooled, add your chopped parsley and half of the mackerel and incorporate with the beets and potatoes. Add the arugula, the lemon juice, olive oil and a few cracks of black pepper and gently incorporate these ingredients. Taste for salt and add accordingly. Top the salad with the remaining mackerel and serve!

The salad keeps well as leftovers (if there are any) except for the arugula... it will wilt. The simple solution there is to be sure to eat all the arugula before you store the leftovers and just add fresh arugula the next time you have the salad. Let me know how it goes...

What's in season now - EARLY SUMMER EDITION plus a note about herbs...

2010-07-07T14:54:00.005-04:00

It's 101 degrees here in New Jersey today and although I'm finding it swelteringly hot, the green tomatoes in the garden are happier than ever! As we wait for them to ripen, I thought it would be a good idea to assess the crops around us and take delight in what's in season right now.

Peas are done, lettuces are struggling to survive the heat wave without bolting, but the zucchini is thriving and producing more than we can eat! Cucumbers are at last starting to produce and just in time too. There's nothing like cool cucumber on a hot day! Beets are nearly ready, and our third successive crop of radishes are almost ready to go! Carrots, early caraflex cabbages, kale, chard, escarole, broccoli, broccoli rabe, garlic, and string beans are all ripe for the taking. It's become a challenge to chose which vegetables to harvest each day! They are all attractive and alluring but we can only eat so much.

And finally the herbs, which add freshness and vitamins and fantastic flavor to each dish, are all in season - basil, mint, dill, sage, parsley, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, lavender, lemongrass and oregano! Cooking with fresh herbs is highly underrated and can truly elevate any dish you add them to. I think the reason they are underrated is because many home cooks are used to buying their herbs at the supermarket and to be honest, the flavor of herbs you grow at home is infinitely superior to store bought herbs. I don't mean to sound like a gardening snob, but this has been a major lesson so far this growing season for my family and I encourage you to see the difference yourself.

And now, to celebrate the pleasures of early summer, today I will make zucchini pickles - a wonderfully addictive way to enjoy zucchini!

Roasted Radishes - A Transformation of a Misunderstood Vegetable.

2010-05-24T04:17:00.007-04:00

Radish season has arrived! Taking only a month from seed to harvest they are a rewarding early crop and can be reseeded and enjoyed throughout the summer. Farmer's markets in London have been boasting radishes of increasing size as the weeks go by and now that the season is in full swing, it's time to eat these magnificent vegetables!

You might have heard that radishes are quite nutritious vegetables. Related to broccoli and cabbage and all other cruciferous vegetables, it is indeed a nutritional powerhouse with ample amounts of Vitamin C, Potassium and Magnesium. Now I can imagine that some people are wincing at the thought of eating radishes and I must say that I used to feel the same way! That is, until I tasted my first whole roasted radish.

The technique and recipe was featured in Saveur Magazine and was so intriguing that it had to be tried!

So first of all, get the freshest radishes you can find. They will be firm and have leaves that have not wilted. This is a good thing because you can eat the ENTIRE plant - the leaves are edible! Sure they are rough to the touch, but plunge them into some boiling salted water with perhaps some kale or chard or spinach, cook until tender, and you've got yourself some delicious Greek-style greens. Drain them and dress well with olive oil, juice of half a lemon and salt and pepper.

After you've trimmed off the greens and given the radishes a good scrub, they will look like this:

Keep the roots and the short stems on - they too are edible. Dry the radishes and put them in a pyrex or on a baking tray and toss with a few glugs of olive oil (or duck fat or butter that has been melted in the oven for a few minutes in the tray), salt and pepper. The Saveur recipe adds thyme as well and I say if you've got it, go for it, and if you don't, you won't miss it!

Roast at 350 - 425 degrees. The temperature is flexible which is helpful when you are using the oven to cook the main part of your dish. The recipe calls for a 425 degree oven, but I made fantastic roasted French Breakfast radishes last night as my duck legs were braising at 350 degrees.

Turn the radishes a couple of times and roast for 40-60 minutes. You will know they are done when they are caramelized and browned and a little shrunken. The roots and the stems will be crisp. Cut a radish in half to confirm doneness - it should be tender and translucent inside.

It's hard for me to convey with these few words how delicious these radishes are. Through roasting they are literally transformed from strong, crisp, crunchy, slightly-offensive salad staples into juicy, tender, mild, addictive, tasty, roasted vegetables. Even the roots and stems become a part of the radish I WANT to eat - they crisp up and taste almost like french fries! I could easily eat 5 radishes at one sitting, perhaps even 10! They are that good...

Serve with roasted chicken, duck legs, fish, or as a snack!

Eating ramps (wild garlic) in England!

2010-05-16T13:58:00.006-04:00

Greetings from England! I arrived earlier this month starved for spring crops - the garden at home in the USA was just starting to produce and it was torture leaving it behind for a month and missing out on all the spinach, cilantro, radishes, greens and peas that were nearly ripe for the picking. England has been cold and grey and the growing season has barely started, especially in the northernmost county, Northumberland, which is where I was last weekend for a lovely visit with my boyfriend's family.

Imagine my shock when it was discovered that their entire front yard was filled with ramps! There are even whole forests carpeted with ramps, and more shocking indeed was that no one was eating them!

Now, ramps in the USA and Canada are a hot commodity in early spring at the farmer's markets. It's the first crop of the new growing season and is hotly anticipated, but that wasn't always the case and it's really a recent phenomenon that chefs have been preparing them and people have been devouring them! In the USA and Canada, ramps are known as wild leeks - they are the size of scallion with a small bulb at the end. The stem is a pinkish-purple and it gives way to broad flat leaves. The whole thing is edible - ramps can be sauteed, roasted, pickled, put into soups, you name it! The bulb can be used in any way you would use garlic, leeks and onions and the leaves can be used like any cooked green like spinach or chard.

Interestingly enough, ramps in England are not known as wild leeks, but as wild garlic. Initially this didn't strike me as much of a big deal as the leaves are identical, but the stems of English ramps are white, and there is a very small bulb. These were differences too big to ignore. A little botanical sleuthing by my boyfriend's Mum gave the answer - American ramps are Allium tricoccum while British ramps are Allium ursinum (literally bear's garlic!), a different species entirely.

So the ramps were different... but did these differences translate to the kitchen? Are British ramps, wild garlic, edible?

Of course! Dig them up out of your backyard or where wild foraging is allowed. If you are not so lucky as to have them in your yard, some London markets are also offering them for sale. I just saw some yesterday at Broadway Market in Hackney.

Ramp Fritatta

Trim the roots off the ramps and give the ramps a good wash.

Slice the stem into 1 cm long segments. If your ramps have a nice bulb to them, thinly slice this part like a scallion. Cut the leaves into 1-inch segments. Heat up a large frying pan and throw in a nice hunk of butter. Get the stems and bulb parts of the ramp sautéing first. Once tender, add the leaves and let them cook down and wilt like spinach. Season the ramps up with a pinch of salt and a crack or two of black pepper.

In a bowl, whisk up the best eggs you can get your hands on (ideally from backyard hens or pastured eggs from a local, organic farm) with a little pour of milk, some more salt and pepper.

Pour the eggs over the cooked ramps and cook until the bottom is set and the top is still pretty runny.

Finish the fritatta by putting it under the broiler or in a hot oven. This won't take long - once the top is set, it is done. Give the pan a shake to test this. Turn the fritatta out on to a plate and present it to your guests:

Serve with a salad, some crusty homemade bread and even a slice or two of prosciutto or salami and perhaps even a few shavings of parmesan! The ramps are almost sweet with the delicate flavors of onions, garlic and leeks all in one. It's a true joy of spring and a wild crop I hope Britons will dig up and eat with the same enthusiasm and anticipation as those of us lucky enough to have them in North America!

What's In Season Now? - SPRING EDITION - plus a recipe for Dandelion Greens

2010-04-26T13:22:00.010-04:00

Eating with the seasons is both a pleasure and a challenge. There's only so many potatoes, root vegetables and storage onions you can eat through the winter before extreme culinary boredom kicks in. Luckily for us, spring has arrived with the spectacular visual fanfare of magnolias, dogwoods, cherry trees, forsythia, tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and wisteria, all in bloom! Not only have the trees, vines and bulbs awakened, but so too have the fields - green grass has pushed up and reached for the sky and cows and sheep are eagerly feasting on the pastures they roam. It's our turn too for some fresh green vegetables, and now is a great time to ask (with impatience).... what's in season now???

Ramps! Asparagus! Arugula! Lettuces, green garlic, radishes, dandelion greens, sorrel! Mushrooms, mint, chives, and soon, peas and fava beans!

Exclamation points abound because finally there is some excitement on the plate, something fresh and delicious and yet fleeting, because very soon summer vegetables will be on the table and delicate young spring vegetables will be a memory. So eat them now and in the coming weeks while you can... make a point of visiting your local farmers' market asap to see what's available and fresh from the fields. Probably best to go early in the day if you can because the spring vegetable all-stars like ramps and green garlic are usually sold out by the afternoon.

Beyond the farmers' markets and a little closer to home, have you looked for food in your own backyard lately? I'm talking about dandelion greens, the leaves that accompany those pesky yellow flowers and fantastic lollypop-like arrangements of seeds!

Go out there and pick some for your next meal (so long as your yard is pesticide-free!). Dandelions are more than just weeds, they are honest-to-goodness, wholesome greens. They are loaded with vitamins A, C, and K and even have respectable amounts of calcium and iron! Step aside, spinach! You can toss raw dandelion greens in with a salad or better yet, cook them up Greek-style! Cut up your greens into 2-inch long segments (you can eat the tender stems too!) and cook them in boiling, generously salted water. Make sure you gather a LOT of greens because they will cook down to a surprisingly small amount. Boil them for about 5-7 minutes, until tender. Drain them of excess water and then put them in a serving bowl and dress them with the juice of half a lemon, salt and black pepper to taste and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. It's so satisfying to make a great meal out of a bunch of weeds that you picked up for free in your own backyard... plus the greens couldn't be fresher and besides that, they are delicious!

A Word About Potatoes...

2010-04-07T17:26:00.009-04:00

Ah, the much-maligned potato.

When the low-carb craziness was in full swing, the humble potato was cast aside by those watching their waistlines. Mashed potatoes? Greek-style potato spears with oregano, olive oil and lemon? Boiled new potatoes simply dressed with butter and herbs? Never! I avoided putting potatoes on my plate for years.

And what a shame that was! It turns out that potatoes have anti-inflammatory properties, meaning they are great for folks with arthritis to chow on [source]. They are nutrient dense - high in potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, manganese and even protein! Besides the nutritional benefits, let's just face it, potatoes are delicious! They are a handy, versatile vegetable that can be cooked in a myriad of ways. Potatoes store well and are therefore still seasonal during the winter months, making their way into comforting stews and soups and mashes. Eating them with the skin on is critical in order to get the maximum nutritional benefits, so be sure to make a rough mash next time and keep the skin on!

So, what kind of potatoes should you eat? You wouldn't know it from supermarket shelves stocked with the same old Idaho potatoes, russets, yukon golds and the like, but there are literally thousands of varieties of potatoes out there. The best thing to do is wander down to your local farmers' market when potatoes are in season and buy a potato you've never seen before. Ask the farmer what the potato would be best used for (some potatoes love to be mashed, others love to be roasted!) and go for it! Last year we were introduced to organic Adirondack blue potatoes and they blew us away... Jamie and I always buy organic potatoes - the pesticides and fungicides used on conventional potatoes are not something we would willingly want to consume!

Seedling Progress

2010-04-05T18:37:00.006-04:00

I'm a rookie at gardening, so I think you can understand my excitement at how well my seedlings are doing! Going clockwise from the upper left we have cabbage, plum tomatoes, tomatoes, leeks, celery and yellow onions, just some of the many pots of seeds becoming plants on the windowsill. One of the amazing things about starting plants from seeds is being able to tell what plants are in the same family just by their seedling leaves! Cabbage is undeniably related to Brussels sprouts and broccoli, leeks and onions are obviously kin and celery and celeriac are essentially brothers! My favorite seedlings so far are the leeks and onions - they are so expressive!

Remember it's not too late to order your seeds and get started and get things going ahead of the last frost date! You don't even need fancy terra cotta pots - use a leftover yogurt container or an empty can about 4 inches high and puncture holes on the bottom - there is more than one way to recycle! Click here for my handy list of gardening resources for seeds, info and inspiration. Get planting!

New Favorite Restaurant: The Dogs in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

2010-03-31T20:25:00.004-04:00

I'm going to set the scene: It was lunchtime in Edinburgh, Scotland, on a surprisingly sunny day with blue skies overhead. We wandered in to The Dogs on the later side of lunch and sat down at a dark wooden table. The walls were white, there were a few weird framed pictures of dogs on the wall and there was a big, funky red coat rack. Some internet sleuthing on Chowhound and beyond had suggested that this was a restaurant worth eating at, so I'll admit to having high expectations. What was served was nothing short of extraordinary:

Sausage and ox kidney lentil stew

Mackerel, pickled beetroot and horseradish salad

Salt beef sandwich with mustard and pickled cucumber

All this for 15 pounds - a staggeringly low price for food of this caliber. The stew was hearty, rich and exploding with flavor, the Mackerel salad was colorful, crunchy and satisfying, and the salt beef sandwich was filled conservatively, but in a balanced way - just enough salt beef (like pastrami), mustard and pickles - a far cry from overloaded pastrami sandwiches at a New York City deli. The food was so good that we had made reservations to return for dinner that very same night before we had even paid our lunch bill. And what did we have for dinner?

Cockles with cream and bacon on toast

Faggots and rumbledethumps

Pork belly, mustard, cauliflower cheese

The cockles (similar to baby clams) were tender, the cream was light and the bacon was, well, bacon! The dish was so modest yet so comforting. We forked and knifed our way through it as the toast absorbed the cream and exchanged glances of "holy shit this is delicious" because it really and truly was delicious. The faggots and rumbledethumps were a leap of faith and one that was well rewarded in a nice puddle of onion gravy. Faggots are a kind of meatball made of pork belly, pork heart, liver, herbs, and spices that is wrapped in caul fat and baked - it was a revelation (and an easy way to eat offal!). Rumbledethumps are leftover mashed potato and sauteed cabbage formed into little patties and pan-fried. Really, what's not to love here? Finally, the pork belly - we had a hearty and substantial portion, more than I could ever have finished but it finished what in my mind was a day of spectacular eating, and reason alone to visit Edinburgh again.

The Dogs is open 7 days a week and is located at:

110 Hanover Street (between Princes Street and

Edinburgh EH2 1DR

0131 220 1208

Get FRESH, Get Inspired

2010-03-29T12:51:00.013-04:00

Last Spring I was lucky enough to attend a screening of a newly-released documentary called FRESH: New Thinking About What We're Eating. It was an inspiring, informative, entertaining, accessible and empowering look at our food system (I know, not often a source of inspiration or empowerment). But FRESH takes a different approach from most of the media out there and focuses not on the problems, but the solutions. It is, in their own words, a celebration of "the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system." Produced and directed by ana Sofia joanes, FRESH touches on the core problems of our industrial food system but spends most of its 72 minutes exploring movements currently happening around the country that are taking food production in a more healthy, sustainable direction. You'll probably recognize some of the faces: Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, Will Allen of Growing Power in Milwaukee, Michael Pollan, but you'll meet others, too, who are running sustainable farms, organizing farmer coops, bringing local goods into neighborhood supermarkets and fighting for the safety and integrity of our food supply. This is a great film and one I think everyone should see.

And there's no better time than now! After nearly a year of grassroots, community screenings, FRESH is coming soon to a theater near you! The theatrical release will be kicking off in New York City on April 7th and rolling out in other cities around the country shortly thereafter. In keeping with the grassroots spirit of FRESH, they've organized an exciting array of lectures, tastings, workshops and farm-to-table dinners to celebrate and support the theatrical release and help you connect with real food in the city. I'll be checking out as many of the events as possible and writing about them here, and encourage you to get out and get involved too. We'd love to hear about your experiences and your thoughts on the film.

BUY TICKETS to the NYC showings

ATTEND an NYC FRESH week event

LEARN more about FRESH

FIND a THEATRICAL or COMMUNITY SCREENING in your area

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution starts TONIGHT

2010-03-26T10:58:00.004-04:00

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution starts tonight on ABC at 8pm EST: Will you be watching? Will you tell others to watch? I only ask because this 6-part series has the potential to really shake things up in America - and we need this badly. I saw the preview last weekend and was floored - it was maddening, shocking and extraordinary.... but also exciting. Jamie's enthusiasm for the cause of fresh, healthy, real cooking is infectious and I just know things are going to change for the better in Huntington, West Virginia and beyond. Let's see what happens and support him!

SIGN JAMIE'S FOOD PETITION

ABC SCHEDULE and SHOW INFORMATION

WATCH THE FOOD REVOLUTION ON HULU

JAMIE OLIVER'S WEBSITE

JAMIE OLIVER'S TED PRIZE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

The Garden Thaws: Asparagus, Garlic and Seedlings!

2010-03-25T16:37:00.007-04:00

I'm in uncharted territory. Armed with gardening gloves, boots, a pitchfork, a shovel, some reference books and some seeds, I've become a gardener this year. Now that I think about it, "gardener" doesn't really apply... I'm more like a farm hand!

It all started last October when I moved back home and planted some garlic in my parents' garden. That act of planting cloves a couple of inches into the dirt was essentially an investment of intention that I would spend the following spring, summer and fall working hard alongside my parents to grow our vegetables. Now you should know that my parents have always had a vegetable garden for as long as I can remember, but this year is different: my Mom and Dad decided to expand the garden by 50% so it is now 1600 square feet of growing space. Committed to eating local, fresh, organic and delicious vegetables, the three of us have a lot of work ahead of us! It's almost daunting, but the rewards already are so great - fresh air and hard work have resulted in satisfying sleeps!

I was delighted to get into the garden last week and be greeted by the garlic I had planted in October, already sending up green shoots and totally going for it!

Alongside the garlic, the asparagus have dramatically kicked in:

I've planted peas and spinach in the ground and also some lettuce under a cold frame that my resourceful brother built using an old storm window. Sage, cilantro, dill and garlic chive seeds are also in the ground. From what I am reading in books and online, we're right on time. These crops can endure the cold days and nights that still await us in early spring.

Inside, protected from wind and cold and heavy rain, are the seeds becoming seedlings. Brussels sprouts, cabbage, 3 kinds of broccoli, red onions, yellow onions, leeks, celeriac, celery, plum tomatoes and regular tomatoes are all on their way! It's hard to believe that later in the summer I'll be eating all of these delicious things - plus many more vegetables yet to be planted!

I know some crops may fail or get eaten by greedy groundhogs or hungry birds, but some crops will succeed and flourish and yield amazingly delicious, as-local-as-you-can-get, nutritious vegetables. It's an adventure in my backyard and soon, my kitchen! It's not too late to get your garden started - in fact, it's just the right time! If you are interested in throwing some seeds in your soil and seeing what happens, why not go for it this year?

SEEDS:

Hudson Valley Seed Library

Johnny's Selected Seeds

Territorial Seed

BOOKS:

The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch

Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

The New Victory Garden by Bob Thompson

HELPFUL AND INSPIRING WEBSITES:

Margaret Roach

Real Farming

Craster Kippers a.k.a. smoked herring - my kind of Omega 3 supplement!

2010-03-18T19:04:00.005-04:00

I've just returned from 5 weeks in the UK (England and Scotland, specifically), and what great things I ate!

I could go on and on about the Lancashire hot pot, the braised leg of venison, the Stornaway black pudding, the haggis (!!), the fish pie, the sausages from The Ginger Pig, lunch at St. John in London, the feasts at The Dogs in Edinburgh... there's so much to talk about! I have to start somewhere and why not with the exceptional Craster Kippers from L. Robson & Sons Ltd in Craster, England?

A kipper is a smoked herring, and at L. Robson & Sons, they've been smoking herrings for over 100 years! The smoking process is done naturally using oak wood, and the smell out on the street as we made our way in was divine. We walked out with 5 kippers for 5 pounds (~$7.50) for 5 people... when coupled with tasty homemade bread and butter and a cup of Yorkshire tea, this is a frugal meal at its finest!

The dry, smoked kippers were put into a pan and some boiling water was poured over them. They were then put into an oven for about 5 to 10 minutes. They came out puffed up and rehydrated and ready to eat. The flavor was wonderful... smoky and rich and seasoned perfectly. The bigger bones were easy to navigate around but the smaller bones were happily eaten along with the flesh and skin of the fish, making this a nutritious and satisfying meal with plenty of omega-3 fatty acids, protein and calcium.

For those lucky enough to live on the UK Mainland, L. Robson & Sons will ship their Craster kippers to you. For the rest of us, the hunt is on for smoked kippers equally as delicious and nutritious....

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize acceptance speech

2010-02-12T07:51:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Jamie Oliver (British chef, activist) delivered an inspiring and passionate speech at TED 2010. It is a speech about food, children, cooking, obesity, health, restaurants, healthcare and responsibility. On the heels of Michelle Obama's announcement that her task as first lady will be to eliminate childhood obesity, this speech by Jamie Oliver is timely, sobering and important viewing for us all. The speech is short, powerful, and well worth sharing to all you know.

Please view the speech by checking out the video above or by clicking here: http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html

You can also join Jamie's Food Revolution and make your voice heard by signing the petition here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution

"I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.” -- Jamie Oliver 2/11/10

Don't feed your kids out of a box.

2009-12-06T11:30:00.019-05:00

Yesterday I was watching an episode of Glee on Hulu and I watched the following commercial for "Gerber Graduates Healthy Meals" with absolute HORROR:

So all you need to feed a child is a box of processed garbage and a microwave! How easy! I went to Gerber's website to investigate further, specifically checking out the "LIL’ ENTRÉES Dishes" for toddlers. Let's look at the ingredients, shall we?

From Gerber's website:

Beef Ravioli:

WATER, GREEN BEANS, BEEF TOMATO RAVIOLI (ENRICHED DURUM FLOUR [DURUM WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID], WATER, SEASONED BEEF [BEEF, WATER, SEASONING {DEXTROSE, SALT, ONION}], WHOLE EGG, BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, PART SKIM RICOTTA CHEESE [WHEY, CREAM, VINEGAR, CARRAGEENAN], SALT, SOYBEAN OIL, DRIED EGG WHITES, BEEF STOCK FLAVOR [SALT, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, POWDERED COOKED BEEF, BEEF FAT, GUAR GUM, CARAMEL COLOR, BEEF STOCK, XANTHAN GUM, LACTIC ACID, BEEF FLAVOR, BEEF EXTRACT, NATURAL FLAVOR], TOMATO POWDER, DEHYDRATED ONION, SUGAR, NATURAL TOMATO FLAVOR [MALTODEXTRIN, NATURAL FLAVOR, MODIFIED CORN STARCH], EXTRACTIVES OF ANNATTO [COLOR], GARLIC POWDER), TOMATO PUREE, TOMATO PASTE, COOKED SEASONED BEEF (BEEF, WATER, SALT), MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, SUGAR, ONIONS, OLIVE OIL, GARLIC, SALT, CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), WHEY, NATURAL FLAVOR.

Mashed Potatoes & Gravy with Roasted Chicken:

WATER, CARROTS, POTATOES, ROASTED WHITE CHICKEN MEAT (WHITE CHICKEN MEAT, WATER, SALT, MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, TAPIOCA STARCH), NONFAT MILK, BUTTER, CREAM, MALTODEXTRIN, MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, SALT, CHICKEN FLAVOR (CHICKEN BROTH, SALT, YEAST EXTRACT), SOYBEAN OIL, WHEAT FLOUR, CHICKEN FAT, SHORTENING POWDER (OLIVE OIL, MALTODEXTRIN, SODIUM CASEINATE, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES), MILK, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, ONION POWDER, GARLIC POWDER, NATURAL FLAVOR, GUAR GUM, XANTHAN GUM, SPICES, CARAMEL COLOR, EGG YOLK SOLIDS.

Ok, and now for my rant. There's a real problem here that people will knowingly feed children heavily processed food out of a box, heated in a microwave. It's not real food. WHY would you feed this garbage to a child? Nothing says health like powdered cooked beef, caramel color, modified corn starch and shortening powder! How will these ingredients nourish and enrich a child? And how blind are people that Gerber actually would want to give your kids healthy meals? They want to make money. They want their "food" to be salty enough and tasty enough that the kid will be addicted and demand more of it.

I find this outrageous and damaging. And I'd like to know what you think. Does the "I don't have enough time" excuse warrant this sort of short-cut that short-changes the nutrition of growing children? Or is it setting children up for a palate that favors salty, processed food that will only intensify with age and lead to nutritionally bankrupt eating habits that will endure throughout life? What did you eat as a little kid? I ate some of whatever my Mom made for dinner for everyone... and it was all homemade, real food.

Marion Nestle, in her work, "What to Eat", says that children "should be eating the same healthy foods that everyone else in the family is eating - just less of them and with a few minor modifications: leave out the salt, sugars, and peppery spices; mash the foods or cut them into small pieces; and make sure the foods are well moistened so children will not choke on them. Children do not need added salt or sugars. They do not need soft drinks, juice drinks, desserts, candy, sweetened cereals, or fast food. And yes, they will eat 'adult' foods, the healthier kinds that grown-ups eat, if given the opportunity to eat such foods early and often. If you offer healthy foods, your children will have the chance to eat them. If you offer junk foods to your children, they will eat junk foods."

Here are just a few great resources for feeding everyone in your family real food:

Carolyn Cope feeds her family with real food. Her blog is Umami Girl.

Anne Marie feeds her toddler real food. Her blog is Cheeseslave.

Start a kid off right with Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck.

Marion Nestle writes the blog Food Politics. For more information about her book, "What to Eat", click here.

Let's talk about it.

Amazing Chicken Meatballs... with Bacon!

2009-12-04T15:14:00.008-05:00

So I just had lunch but there is no way I'm going to get to the end of writing this post without eating another one of those meatballs. Between you and me, that meatball just to the right of the spatula is asking for it!

Jamie first alerted me to the deliciousness of these heavenly meatballs back in October when we both returned from our drive out to the farm with a pound of ground pastured chicken, and to be honest I don't know how I waited this long before making them. They are just tremendous - juicy, flavorful, satisfying and addictive. The original recipe is nearly perfect, but I added three extra cloves of garlic and extra salt*. I didn't bother making the peperonata, instead I just made a green salad with olives and capers and lemon dressing, and it was spectacular.

Top ingredients go a long way here, please take care to buy the best ground chicken and bacon you can find. Mmmm, can't wait for leftovers...

*Jamie's tip: A good way to check the seasoning on the meatballs (or any sausage or stuffing that you make): fry up a mini patty in a hot pan so you can see what it will taste like when cooked. Adjust the seasoning accordingly and keep testing until you get it right.

Adventures in Brussels Sprouts

2009-11-30T16:40:00.003-05:00

For Thanksgiving this year, my mom gave us kids (my two brothers and their wives) the task of making all the non-greek side dishes. We all love to cook, and we churned out braised red cabbage, spicy and spiced butternut squash spears, kale with sweet vermont onions and olives, and two kinds of brussels sprouts. Everything was organic, local and seasonal... and delicious! Ah, real food.

My task was the brussels sprouts, and given that there was 1 vegan, 1 vegetarian and 5 omnivores around the table, I decided early on that there had to be a vegan-friendly option as well as a vegan-hostile option, ideally with some uncured nitrate-free bacon. Just had to be done!

So I turned out a vegan-friendly slaw of brussels sprouts with mustard dressing and addictive maple-glazed pecans and I also cooked up some roasted brussels sprouts with bacon, lemon, garlic and thyme.

The winner? I'm a little sad to say it was the vegan-friendly slaw. I was sure the bacon would take the vegan-hostile sprouts over the top but I actually wasn't all that crazy about the combination of lemon and the sprouts. Besides, the pecans really couldn't be topped!

Time to Plant the Garlic

2009-10-13T15:32:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone!

It's October... the leaves are turning and falling, and that means many things - like winter squash, kale, and brussels sprouts!

It also means it's time to plant some garlic.

If you've been wanting to get your hands dirty, but missed the growing season, or want a project to do out in your yard, you can plant a garlic crop for next summer in less than 5 minutes!

Just take a head of garlic and break off the garlic cloves. Plant each clove point-side up about 2 inches below the surface. No need to peel the cloves. That's it!

Next summer each clove will turn into a head of garlic! Isn't that just amazing? Nature rules.

Courgette/Zucchini Blossoms & Brie

2009-08-03T16:17:00.004-04:00

Quick appetizer while the rest of dinner (featuring wild boar and apple sausages and whole roasted carrots from the farmer's market) was cooking:

Male zucchini blossoms (a.k.a. courgette blossoms) stuffed with a bit of brie, dunked into a simple batter of flour, water, salt and pepper and fried in butter.

I know I've featured stuffed zucchini blossoms on Eat More Butter before, but I had never made these with brie before and let me tell you 6 blossoms were not enough!! They were a great start to what was a fabulous meal....

Today's English Breakfast

2009-07-30T10:26:00.006-04:00

Fried free range egg with farm fresh organic Cambridgeshire mixed greens and tomatoes, homemade croutons, streaky bacon and Northumbrian sage.

Was sort of meant to be a British Frissee aux lardons but cooking without my pans from home caused some hesitation, and therefore the eggs were fried instead of poached. Was delicious all the same! Shortly after taking this shot, the egg was moved on top of the salad, then punctured, and the yolk ran all over the greens. Was gorgeous!

Eat More Iberico Ham

2009-07-19T11:26:00.005-04:00

Greetings from London! I'm here for a month, intent on tasting, trying and enjoying all the food London (and beyond) has to offer. I got here last Thursday and knew that on Friday, rain or shine, I would make it to Borough Market - an unbelievable fantasy-land of all things delicious and tasty. It was a shame I had eaten just before, because there was so much to taste and try, and a chorizo sandwich that was taunting me the whole time. I settled on trying samples of cheese and sausage and mushroom pate and even bought a single oyster that I topped with lemon juice and took down right there. I had to get a little treat, so I wandered into Brindisa, purveyor of Spanish delicacies, and walked up to two guys and 4 pigs legs.

"Oh, I think I've heard of this ham! Can you tell me about it?"

And tell me about it they did. I even sampled slices of ham from each leg... each one I tried was higher in price than the one before it. The ham is fatty almost like smoked salmon, and it's not as salty as prosciutto... and it's wonderful. The pigs feed on acorns and are treated like royalty, plenty of time outside and a luxurious shelter for bad weather.

Gorgeous, isn't it? Today it made for a great snack put on top of Pan con Tomate: toasted bread rubbed with garlic and tomatoes smashed into it. Ah, London! Can't wait to taste some more...

Hot Dogs & Fireworks

2009-07-05T15:12:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was a wonderful holiday for those of us in Hoboken. We had a spectacular view of the fireworks over the Hudson River, a rarity as they are usually over the East River... and we also had one of those perfect, clear, summer nights which was a rarity of its own as we've had very rainy weather this last month.

Although laying down in the grass and watching fireworks in my city with my family and friends was unquestionably awesome, I must say the meal we enjoyed beforehand is certainly deserving of praise.

The Menu:

Grass-Fed Beef Hot Dogs from Hendricks Farm
Homemade Hot Dog Buns (recipe from Gourmet)
Homemade Zucchini Pickles (recipe from Zuni Cafe, via The Wednesday Chef)
Potato Salad with Brewmaster Mustard and Bacon (made by Eat More Butter's own Jamie Paxton)
Chopped Romaine Salad with a Balsamic/Fresh Oregano/Garlic Scape Dressing
---
Peach & Blueberry Buckle (adapted from Gourmet)
Brownies (Mark Bittman's recipe, made by Jamie)
Apple Cider Donuts (from the Greenmarket)

Does it get more American that this? Probably... if everything was processed and loaded with chemicals, and bought pre-made at a big grocery store.

We as a people have gotten so disconnected from where our food comes from, and this last year has been such an awakening for me thanks to the good work that people like Michael Pollan, Nina Planck, Trent Hendricks and Rich Sisti are doing. It's not enough to eat organic or eat locally... it's about eating responsibly and intelligently. It goes without saying that it's a pleasure to cook for friends and family, especially those who appreciate good food. But when we can sit around a table and know exactly where all our food is sourced from... it's an extra special meal and something we can all celebrate.

All Eyes On Chopped Salad!

2009-06-10T00:37:00.003-04:00

Those owls on my apron know what's up and they are especially excited: The CSA has started up for the season! I came home to my apartment today to find a glorious bag in my fridge (kindly delivered by Jamie) of organic vegetables grown for me at Catalpa Ridge Farm in Wantage, NJ by Farmer Rich Sisti. Could life be any better? It can. Inside the bag I found my all time favorite, green garlic, and texas sweet onions with their green tops, dill, rhubarb, lettuce and spinach.

The dill reminded me of a great chopped salad I had a couple of years ago at Philoxenia, a Greek restaurant in Astoria Queens, and so I recalled the taste of that great salad, and came up with the following:

Chopped Salad with Dill, Onions, Feta and Lemon Dressing

1 small Texas Sweet Onion (or 1 small yellow onion if you are not part of the CSA!)

a small handful of dill

lettuce

a good slice of feta

1/2 a lemon

olive oil

sea salt

pepper

Mandolin the onion into your salad bowl, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and squeeze the lemon on top of the onion. Let sit while you wash, dry and chop your dill and lettuce. Combine all the ingredients in the bowl and toss until incorporated. Eat up!

Would probably be great without the feta and with some pan fried halloumi cheese instead! Be sure to deglaze the pan with extra lemon juice if you go that route... mmmm... The dill keeps the dish light and refreshing and really stands up to the lemon and the cheese. It's a great start to the season!

My rediscovery of egg salad sandwiches!

2009-05-31T17:13:00.005-04:00

Yesterday for lunch: egg salad on olive bread.

Today for lunch: egg salad on olive bread with fresh hand-harvested baby arugula salad.

I have a feeling egg salad sandwiches will be a staple for me this summer, until I get sick of them. But what's to get sick of?? Ohh egg salad, I'm so sorry I've neglected your goodness for so long...

Easiest Egg Salad

2 fresh farm eggs from pastured hens

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

a pinch of salt

cracked black pepper

First make hard-boiled eggs by putting them in cold water in saucepan and bringing it to a boil. Remove from heat and cover for 10 minutes. Drain off the hot water, and add cold water to the pot. Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, peel them and mash them in a bowl with a fork. Add mayonnaise, salt and pepper and mix until incorporated. Spoon onto olive bread and devour.

Radishes and butter love each other.

2009-05-22T14:37:00.003-04:00

Got my hands on some wonderfully young and mild radishes at the greenmarket on Wednesday. Radishes aren't my favorite vegetable and yet there's two things I love to do with them: 1, put them in a chopped salad (as I will do tonight) and 2, make this sandwich.

Radish with Raw Butter and Salt on Baguette

Butter both sides of the baguette with raw butter.

Use a mandolin* to thinly slice a big radish.

Arrange the radish on the bread, salting in between layers. Use more salt if you're using unsalted butter, and less salt if using salted butter.

That's it, four ingredients! It's so simple, and you may not think it would taste great, but believe me, it's a wonderfully refreshing, tasty sandwich! Great on a hot afternoon, like today.

*Mandolins need not be big complicated things with lots of parts, I use this one and it makes prepping vegetables so easy! It also makes these radishes so delicate and wonderful to eat... they've got a little crunch but are soft as well! The salt especially makes them melt a little...

Asparagus and what to do with them!

2009-05-21T16:34:00.004-04:00

I made my way through the Union Square greenmarket yesterday with $4 and a desperate craving for spring veggies and luckily for me, the greenmarket was bursting with spinach, radishes, ramps and other enticing edibles... and mmmmmm asparagus!

Avoiding the $8 bunches of asparagus, I found a vendor selling asparagus by the spear, and ever the frugal shopper, I hand-selected my 6 perfect chosen asparagus and handed over my money.

Now, what to do with asparagus you might ask? Well the answer is simple. Roast them!

Preheat the oven to somewhere between 450 and 500 degrees. Wash your asparagus and snap the tough ends off. Arrange on a baking pan and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and toss them around a bit to coat. Roast for 10 - 15 minutes... the bottom will get browned and a little charred.

These are good as a side for anything, one of those go-to vegetable recipes where you want something that's guaranteed to be delicious with a prep time of 1 minute.

If you want, you can serve them the way I did today, with 2 poached eggs, shaved parmesan, a drizzle of creme fraiche and lemon juice, a slice of buttered multi-grain toast and some cracked pepper on top. Everything else was prepared while the asparagus were roasting. Couldn't be easier!

Yum.

All Clad vs. Cast Iron

2009-02-21T21:27:00.005-05:00

All Clad has long had a reputation for being the best pots you can buy, and they certainly have the price tags to back it up... but increasingly I've been favoring the two cast iron pans my parents picked up for me at a yard sale last summer for $10. They are thick, heavy, and came rusty and dusty... but a little steel wool and some scrubbing and seasoning, they cleaned right up and are simply incredible to cook on. Just today, Jamie and I cooked up a grass-fed ribeye in butter in the 10-inch cast iron and my one regret was that I didn't have a second large cast-iron to cook the potatoes in. The All-Clad had to do.... and it did of course.

Ribeye with Pan-Fried Potatoes and the Greatest Side of Peas of All Time:

Ingredients:

A gorgeous grass-fed ribeye at room temp, rinsed, patted dry and seasoned with salt and pepper.

A few Yukon potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

2 slices of bacon

One yellow onion, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds and then quartered

1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced

Frozen peas

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Hot Water

You need three pans. 2 big skillets, one small one, aaaaand let's get started.

In one big skillet, cook your two slices of bacon til they are how you like it and then remove them and put them to the side. Add some butter to the bacon fat in the pan and get the skillet nice and hot. Place the potato rounds in the skillet, making sure each slice of potato gets some access to the bottom of the pan. Season them up with salt and pepper and leave the potatoes to cook up for ten minutes.

At this point, in the small skillet, get some butter going on medium high heat and add the onions and a bit of salt. You want them translucent and beginning to caramelize. Add the garlic and some hot water out of a kettle (cold water could cause a cast iron to crack) and then the peas.... cover somewhat with a lid and leave the peas to cook for 7 minutes.

Get the other big skillet nice and hot over high heat, add butter and then place the steak in. Watch the clock.... 4-5 minutes per side and that's it!

By now the potatoes will be ready to be turned, so get a spatula in there and give them a turn. Give them another 7 minutes and then turn the heat down to medium/low while you wait for the steak.

When the peas are done, take off the cover, and let them continue cooking so the water is cooked off. Crumble the bacon in with the peas and give them a good stir. They are amazing.

Take the steak out of the pan and let rest for five minutes while you taste the potatoes and peas for salt levels and then plate them and watch the clock til it's time to attack the steak.

Jamie is the best dinner guest.

2009-01-02T17:28:00.007-05:00

So for New Year's Eve I planned an ambitious menu to cook for my family and friends (including Jamie)... I had flour on my face, pots and pans everywhere, and was completely in over my head as I made pizzas, squash, kale and brisket - don't ask, it totally went together! It could have been a disaster, but all went to plan and dinner was over by 11:30, with just enough time to pour some champagne and set up dessert in front of the television to watch the ball drop in Times Square.

Gotta love that Jamie Paxton though.... she showed up at our house with the most glorious, most incredible, most delicious gift one could ever possibly show up to a dinner party with - breakfast for the next day.

And not just any breakfast, Zoe Nathan's Cranberry Orange Cornmeal Cake seen first on The Wednesday Chef. I cannot possibly stress how friggen phenomenal this cake is.... not too sweet, with just the right amount of tang, and the consistency of the finest corn muffin. It was a huge hit.

I didn't think it could possibly be any more delicious, but this morning, the day after New Year's Day, my Dad got the bright idea to toast thin slices of the cake in a frying pan in butter - holy crap!

Happy New Year!

Urban Goddesses (a meal in photographs)

2008-12-12T23:59:00.014-05:00

It was a title bestowed upon us by our lovely friend Alison, and one I happily accept. The occasion was the first annual Urban Thanksgiving: a gathering of friends, sometime around the actual holiday, to celebrate with those who technically are not family but at some point, well, they are. Because it's nice to spend a holiday with the other people that matter, even if we have to make the holiday up. This first annual event was also an occasion to celebrate Diana's new table, a gorgeous farmhouse number that, I hope, will seat many a party of 8 and 10 in the future. It looked good with all those people gathered round it.

The menu began with a beautifully-festive (but only semi-delicious) cranberry sangria and a selection of spiced nuts. Oh, and a plate of bacon that had been removed from the turkey so the skin could brown and crisp up. It happened to pair perfectly with the sugary-spiced pecans. All of that kept the guests busy while they mingled and Diana and I dealt with the still-not-quite-cooked turkey and other odds and ends in the kitchen.

Technically speaking, urban goddesses should probably be able to drink red wine without spilling it down their front, but...we all have our moments. So while I took the salt cellar to my sweater, Diana kept a close eye on the turkey, our other mini-disaster of the day.

Disaster, though, is really such an overstatement. It's just that the turkey took longer - a whole lot longer - than we anticipated, and we had hungry guests waiting. But for a first-time-ever effort, it was pretty good. And the carving job, compliments of Diana (with illustrated guidance from the handy Cooks Illustrated cookbook), was downright professional.

We'd brined and basted and stuffed and slathered it in butter and bacon and even made broth from the giblets. I was impressed with us. And thankfully, our guests were patient. But really, the sides stole the show (isn't that so often the case?).

The turkey was served with: sausage stuffing, caramelized-shallot mashed potatoes (mmm), butternut squash à la Jamie Oliver (with cream and parmesan but also coriander and chili, so it was a little spicy to counter the sweet), a gingered cranberry chutney, a deliciously-different and refreshing kale that was more like a salad than your typical greens dish and a wild mushroom tart with gruyere and ricotta atop puff pastry.

Oh my, it was good.

From there (well, after a few hours of lounging), we proceeded to dessert. Dessert was an apple-cranberry crisp and an outrageously decadent bourbon pecan pie. I bailed on the maple-laced whipped cream that was my planned accompaniment because, well, I was feeling lazy and we were all dangerously close to bursting already. We did, however, serve some of the best coffee I've ever had, imported direct from Guatemala via my oversized backpack.

The real pièce de résistance for me, though, was the small token we sent everyone home with - a goody bag of sorts. Taking our cue from Gramercy Tavern, all of our guests left with their very own breakfast pastry: a holiday-appropriate pumpkin muffin. It wasn't that the muffin was the best thing we served - though they were some very enjoyable muffins, if I may say so. It's more the concept that I'm enamored with. And, to be truthful, the presentation. I happened to have those pretty little cellophane bags in my apartment, along with some lovely satin ribbon, which we discovered, in a serendipitous twist, perfectly picked up the color of the pepitas scattered across the top of the muffins. Probably no one else noticed this detail, but Diana and I did, and it's the kind of thing that still makes me happy, days later. Gathered together on a pretty wooden platter, the breakfast goodies looked just beautiful. And they made for some awesomely sparkly bokeh in the background of Diana's photographs.

The idea, in truth, was Diana's but I'm stealing it forever more.

Pumpkin Muffins

November 2008 Gourmet

1/3 cup golden raisins (left out of our version, because Diana doth protest)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground allspice

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin (apparently I didn't read carefully when making the recipe...I've only just now realized that this didn't call for the entire can of pureed pumpkin. I used the whole can...to no apparent adverse effect)

1/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

2 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 tbsp raw green pumpkin seeds (pepitas), divided

Preheat the oven to 400 F with a rack in the middle. Line a muffin pan with 12 muffin cups and butter the top.

Soak the raisins in hot water for 5 minutes, then drain.

Meanwhile, combine flour, baking soda, baking power, spices and salt in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl whisk together butter, brown sugar, pumpkin, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined.

Stir in raisins and 2 tbsp pepitas.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining seeds. Bake until a wooden toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly on a rack.

Friday night dinner for one.

2008-12-12T17:30:00.004-05:00

I was hungry and I had the following ingredients in my refrigerator:

From my parents garden in New Jersey I had the last of the organic arugula and carrots.

From 8o'clock Ranch in New York I had organic free-range grass-fed humanely-raised lamb sausages and bacon.

From Catalpa Ridge Farm in New Jersey I had organic garlic.

From Hawthorne Valley Farm in New York I had raw organic biodynamic whole milk.

From the grocery stores in town I had organic butter, thyme, parsley, parmesan cheese, a shallot, vinegars and olive oil.

And so, I made lamb sausages with bacon garlic mashed potatoes finished with butter, milk, parmesan and pan drippings from the lamb sausage alongside my very best glazed carrots with a last-gasp of the growing season arugula salad dressed with shallot vinaigrette.

Not bad...

The Joy of Leftovers

2008-10-22T22:12:00.005-04:00

When I was growing up, I despised the idea of leftovers. Why on earth would I ever want to eat the same thing two days in a row? How boring. And, really, it was tough enough getting through it the first time around -- you're going to make me suffer the exact same misery again? This isn't a commentary on my mom's cooking; she is a good cook and I was lucky enough to grow up in a household where dinnertime meant a homemade meal and the whole family gathered around the kitchen table every night. But though I don't remember being a particularly picky eater, I definitely didn't relish in food the way I do as an adult. There were meals I loved, I know, but I also remember the torture of getting through dinner some nights, just so I could have my dessert or get up from the table. Regardless of my foggy remembrances regarding my relationship with dinner, I clearly recall watching my father willingly eat whatever leftovers happened to be in the fridge and simply not understanding. I'd have rather skip a meal altogether than eat leftovers on more than one occasion.

Oh, how times have changed. In part, it's probably because I'm the one spending the time doing the prep these days. And I churn out food that I seriously enjoy on a regular basis, so getting to enjoy it a second time is a sweet bonus. Additional bonus, it's a like a free meal (in terms of both cost and effort) the second time around. Plus, the idea of wasting food stresses me out, so using up something that's been sitting in the fridge is a small victory in the fight against waste. And some nights, like tonight, I arrive home utterly exhausted, without the energy or inspiration to think up a meal, let alone actually prep it and cook it and clean it up. And so tonight, full from a late, heavy lunch, sleep-deprived, and depleted, I seriously considered a dinner of....wine. Except somewhere around the bottom of my first glass, I looked up from my blog-reading long enough to realize that I was no longer full -- in fact, I was starving. And so I turned to my fridge for the world's quickest, simplest pasta: fusilli, leftover veggies and olive oil. I had some leftover cauliflower and cooked mustard greens from previous meals. Conveniently I also had a pre-chopped red onion because, while cooking with a friend the other day, I was too busy chatting to pay attention and accidentally chopped the entire onion when all I needed was half. So I boiled some water for pasta, I sauteed some onions with a pinch of red pepper flakes and then I threw it all together to heat and blend. And in about 20 minutes I had a quick, healthy, cheap, delicious, utterly simple and completely local dinner that required absolutely no prep and virtually no clean up.

Dinner from Leftover Veggies

Servings: really depends on how much leftover veg you have

1. Boil water, cook pasta.

2. Heat olive oil/butter in a large saute pan. Add pre-cooked veggies, a sprinkle of sea salt and any desired seasoning and heat through.

3. Add pasta and stir together.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste, plate, finish with an extra drizzle of olive oil and top with parmesan, if desired. If you're feeling particularly ambitious, make a quick salad.

On a night that I couldn't even gather a head coherent enough for writing, it inspired me to post. And it certainly makes the case to cook a little extra on nights that you're already in the kitchen.

Okay, fine. I give in.

2008-10-20T23:33:00.001-04:00

Fall has arrived.

The other night for dinner I had roasted chicken, cauliflower with brown butter and fried sage and a butternut and apple mash with melted sharp cheddar. It was warm and homey and comforting, and I loved it. And so, it seems, I may finally be embracing this change of seasons. Which isn't so bad, really. It's the season of soups and stews and apple pies and red wine. And, actually, some of my favorite vegetables.

A word about cauliflower, if I may.

You should be eating more of it. Maybe you already eat a lot of it, but cauliflower is, I think, a severely under-loved vegetable. Really. It is DELICIOUS. It is particularly delicious roasted with brown butter. Every now and then -- not nearly often enough, I've decided -- I make this recipe. And I take the cauliflower out of the oven, and let it sit on the stovetop while I finish preparing the rest of the meal, and by the time that meal has landed on the table, I've already eaten about 2/3 of the cauliflower, straight off the cookie sheet. It's simply addicting. And, super bonus, it's oh-so-good for you, too, with all those vitamins and nutrients and phytochemicals.

Cauliflower with Brown Butter and Sage (or not).

Adapted from Sara Foster's Fresh Every Day

A few notes before we begin. One: this was the first time I actually made this recipe as it's written. Never before have I had fresh sage on hand when making this, so I've always used shallots instead. Not at all an equal substitute, I realize, but I figure shallots are so tasty that they're never a bad idea. I just throw them in with the butter while it's browning and, as I've said, I'm always quite obsessively pleased with the outcome. In fact, after having the sage version, I think I prefer the shallots. More deliciously flavorful. Two: if you have a nice, fresh head of cauliflower do not, under any circumstances, throw away the leaves. They are edible and they're very very good. Even the pretty thick, stalky parts become tender and tasty when roasted. And finally: please, don't skimp on the butter. If you're going to skimp on the butter, just skip the recipe. Or, better yet, go back to our origins, and do your best to embrace the butter. It's good for you, really. Your cholesterol will be just fine, I promise. And your mouth will thank you.

1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-size pieces

4 (+) tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves (or chopped shallots!)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

serves 4 (or perhaps less).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the cauliflower on a rimmed baking sheet.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook for 2-3 minutes, until it just browns and gives off a slightly nutty smell (be careful not to burn it!). Add the olive oil and sage, let the sage fry up for a few seconds, then pour the butter over the cauliflower. Season with salt and pepper to taste and toss to coat.

Roast the cauliflower for 30-35 minutes, stirring occasionally so it cooks evenly. It will be light brown around the edges when it's done.

Season with additional salt and pepper if necessary, and serve warm.

I Love NY

2008-10-17T22:18:00.010-04:00

Early last week, Diana and I hopped in the car and headed back to my home state on a quest.

My grandparents own a cabin up in the Catskill mountains. Every November, my grandfather spends hours on end in his acres of forest, hunting deer. Every January, I load 10 friends into the back of the car and spend a few days playing board games, cooking, skiing and having a generally wonderful time. Throughout the winter, various family members head up and spend the weekends on the slopes of nearby Windham and Hunter mountains. Last week, Diana and I went in search of food.

This cabin is in the middle nowhere. No, let me correct that, it's at the top of mountain road, in the middle of a lot of trees. Like, a TON of trees. Do you remember trees? I thought we had so many of them here in Hoboken. Well, maybe we've got Manhattan beat, but oh my, I had forgotten what it was like to be in the country. I like it. A lot.

What a glorious few days we had. Just the air -- you could taste how fresh it was -- and the sight of all those trees put me in the loveliest state of mind. We had brought some farm share goods with us and made a delightful dinner of winter squash soup with gruyere croutons and filet mignon and mushrooms cooked in butter. We hung out with my grandparents around the farmhouse table and tried my grandfather's daily health tonic, honey and vinegar in boiling water. We spent a few hours lounging in the afternoon sun on the front porch. We had a breakfast of irish bangers and eggs and my grandma's irish soda bread. We spent an afternoon apple-picking (I love apple-picking! I got to climb trees! And ohh, the apple cider donuts!). And then...then. Then we went for the real goods.

A little over a year ago, I read a book that changed the way I eat. In that book I read all about raw milk and the good it can do for you. Ever since, I've been desperate to try it, but it's not easy to get in these parts. In New Jersey, it's illegal across the board. In New York you can only buy it direct from the dairy farm that produces it. Well, there aren't any dairy farms reachable via MTA transit, so it's remained a bit out of reach. Until recently. I knew there were farms near the cabin, and knew that there were plenty of dairy farms in upstate New York, and so I hoped that we'd be able to find one nearby that sold their milk, raw and unpasteurized, to lucky consumers like us. We did our research and Diana found Hawthorne Valley Farm, which we knew from the Union Square Green Market. There's far too much to say about raw milk to include it all here, so keep an eye out for upcoming posts. But suffice it to say, it was well worth journey, and it's one I will make again.

And though I've made New Jersey my home for now, and like it quite a lot, New York has got a few things going for it. I do love that state.

Summer's last hurrah

2008-10-13T21:26:00.013-04:00

I've been fighting the approach of fall.

Rather than a sweet, Indian Summer treat, the past week has felt like a cruel tease from Mother Nature, reminding me that this beautiful weather is leaving, not coming, and that it's going to disappear without a moment's notice, any day now. And after that, all we have to look forward to is a long, long stretch of cold, blustery months. Months of jackets and scarves and back muscles permanently tensed against the cold. Months of short days and meager sunlight. Months without any fresh produce. What am I going to cook for all of those months?

I'm not excited about it.

Usually I love fall: the crispness in the air, the relief from the oppressive heat, the prospect of apple cider and fires and cuddling up with a good book. This year, none of that excitement is here. Instead, I'm feeling decidedly fatalistic about the approach of cold weather. Perhaps it's because we had such a beautiful August, and I never had the chance to get sick of the heat and humidity. Perhaps it's because this summer was often a tough one for me, and I don't feel like I enjoyed it thoroughly. Perhaps it's because, as Diana has pointed out, our food source is just weeks away from disappearing. Whatever it is, I've been living in a state of stressful denial. I'm simply not ready to say goodbye to the summer. I want more sunshine; I want more long, warm nights; I want more berries and peaches and corn.

In a desperate attempt to hold on a little longer, I went on a summer-inspired baking spree recently. Seasons be damned, I'd find the last of the berries and peaches and bake them into delicious desserts, pretending it was the middle of July. Well, it's not so easy to find good berries and peaches any more. And if they are available, it's because they've been trucked in from faraway states. But I stubbornly ignored that fact and baked two of my favorite summer treats, one old, one new. Deep down I knew that it was just a ruse, that outside it was just as much October as ever, but the desserts were delicious and they just, just might be enough to hold me over until summer's fruits are once again available.

First I made the Blue Hill Cheesecake, this time topped with minted raspberries. It was every bit as delicious as it looks; maybe - probably - even more so.

After devouring that, I treated myself to my last Peach Crisp of the season. The fruit was admittedly less perfect than I've had, but this is such a good dessert that I really don't think it could have been bad. And the upside is, though peaches are gone, apples will happily take their place for the

next few months. And come spring, send some rhubarb and strawberries my way. And then, before we know it (maybe? I hope!), it will be summer again.

Fruit Crisp

from The Foster's Market Cookbook

Topping

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup sliced almonds

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon (or less) ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Filling

6 cups chopped fruit (except small berries, which should be left whole)

1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (depending on sweetness of fruit and whether you like your crisp a little tart)

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Combine all topping ingredients except butter in a large bowl and stir to mix. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease an 11x7 inch baking dish (I usually make this in my square pyrex...using a dish that is approximately the same size is just fine. But keep in mind that with an 8x8 inch pyrex, some of the fruit usually bubbles up over the edge, so it's a good idea to place a cookie sheet below the baking dish).

Combine fruit, sugar, flour and cornstarch in a bowl and stir to mix. Pour into the prepared baking dish.

Add the butter to the topping mixture and cut it in with a pastry blender or two knives until it resembles coarse meal.

I've tried the pastry cutter and two knives and a pastry fork and always find that this takes longer than I'd like and is a big pain in the butt. My new strategy is to use my hands to mix it all up -- the heat from your hands helps to soften the butter and blend it with everything. The problem with this is that everything sort of sticks together as the butter softens, and if you cook it this way, the topping doesn't come out right -- you don't get the crumbly texture. So I use my hands to combine everything, and then use two knives in a scissor like motion to cut it all up again until you get that coarse meal-like texture.

Once you've got your topping right, sprinkle it over the fruit mixture and bake 40-45 minutes until the top is crisp and golden and the fruit is bubbling up around the edges. Cool slightly before serving. Eaten warm with some vanilla ice cream, this is one of my favorite desserts. It's also delicious eaten cold for breakfast the next morning.

Some of my favorite fruit combinations, depending on the season are: apples or apples and cranberries, peaches, peaches and raspberries, mixed berries (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry), peach/rhubarb/strawberry. Perhaps pear? Haven't tried that yet. I think this is particularly good when you have a tart fruit in the mix. I also like to add some spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg) to the fruit mixture on occasion. And with apples, the juice and zest of 1 lemon are a good addition.

Eat Your Greens.

2008-10-09T23:16:00.003-04:00

This week's farm share yielded the somewhat...err...intimidating-looking daikon radish. It is large and formidable and it sprouts one crazy head of greens. I was told that those greens are edible, despite the spiky, thorny bits, and so, in the farm-share spirit of let-nothing-go-to-waste, I took on that crazy daikon.

I treated the leaves as if they were any other green, stripping them from their stems and sauteing them in olive oil with garlic, a pinch of red pepper flakes and a bit of water. Fortunately, they were mixed equal parts with last week's leftover collards. Unfortunately, I read the "Harvest Identifier" tip about them being pungent and a little going a long way after I had thrown the whole bunch into the pan. I'm glad to have gotten my nutrients, but I would thoroughly agree with the Harvest Identifier statement.

Bottom line? Yes, they're edible; I just wouldn't necessarily recommend them if you're looking for delicious.

"Ode to my People"

2008-10-08T21:27:00.007-04:00

I've had a couple of eggplants sitting in my fridge for a while. Diana had been utterly disappointed with her eggplant preparations earlier in the summer, so she pawned the more recent deliveries off on me. Unsure if I could eat two eggplants all by myself in a timely manner, I wanted to make something for the both of us. And so I was challenged: find a dish that she would enjoy, even though she was busy disliking its main ingredient.

Roasted eggplant in some sort of pasta dish kept floating through my head, so I headed over to Epicurious and searched away. When I came across a dish titled "Greek-Style Lamb and Eggplant Lasagne" I knew chances were good that I had hit the jackpot. You see, Diana is Greek, and she grew up on the food of her people. Even during her seven years of vegetarianism, she would make occasional exceptions for her mama's lamb. So if the recipe was good, it was likely to be a hit.

Historically, I'm not a huge fan of lamb or lasagne, but this recipe sounded seriously delicious. And the reviews were promising. And those eggplants weren't going to hold out much longer. So last Friday, I invited a few friends over for dinner and took my first solo foray into Greek food. Saying it was a hit would be an understatement. Deeming it an ode to her people, Diana claimed it was the single best thing I had ever cooked. I must admit, I think it was her genetics speaking, but as I sit here eating the leftovers, I'm tempted to agree that it belongs in the top five, anyway. I'll go ahead and say that you're gonna want to try it. And it's sort of the perfect meal for this time of year -- warm and comforting as the weather starts to turn, but totally seasonal while you can still find some eggplant at the farmers market. Just the kind of thing you might be looking for. Incidentally, I have come to wonder exactly what was I thinking, not liking lasagne. I mean, seriously??

You can find the recipe here. Ignore most of the commentary: it's not all that time-consuming; some quality no-boil noodles work just fine; and though it looks like a lot in the pan, you do want to use all of the bechamel sauce -- it disappears as the lasagne cooks. The only adjustment I made was to increase the spices by nearly (but not quite) double. Other than that, follow the geniuses at Gourmet (it's much more convenient if you prep some of the steps -- the eggplant, even the meat sauce -- ahead of time), serve it up with a big Greek salad and let the praise roll in.

I've fallen behind...

2008-10-01T22:30:00.008-04:00

September was a month full of weddings and days out of town and a whole, whole lot of work. It was thus proportionately un-full of time spent in the kitchen...and, really, most anything else that wasn't wedding- or work-related. And so I fell behind: behind in my socializing, behind in my sleep, behind in that stash of vegetables residing in my refrigerator and, most especially, behind -- far, far behind -- in my posts on this blog.

It got bad.

Really bad.

But there's always a light at the end of the tunnel: a new month is upon us, and the craziness seems to be subsiding. Well, at least a little. I've gotten back into the kitchen, anyway, and I'm inspired again, so things are feeling different, even if they're still a little crazy.

And, actually, they are different. In the past 48 hours, I have cooked the following:

A never-ending bowl of red cabbage with (golden delicious) apples

Veggie fried rice

Homemade caramel sauce (thanks to Carolyn for the inspiration on that one)

Roasted eggplant

Cheesecake (with minted raspberries. oh yeah, it was good)

Roasted acorn squash (in conjunction with Pappas...well, really, she made this, but I would have done it if she hadn't been there...)

Roasted chicken -- so simple -- without the garlic and herbs, even -- but ohh, so delicious

A batch of muffins

Fusilli with greens and sausage

Glazed Beets, cooked just like these carrots

And, umm, a peach crisp

And I wasn't even home all day today.

This is probably more food than I prepared in my kitchen during the entire month of September. I think maybe I was trying to compensate for something. And, also, sometimes I get a little crazy...

But it wasn't my fault! I had inspiration again! Finally: for the first time in about a month, I spent some time reading my favorite food blogs, perusing my cookbooks and flipping through an issue of Gourmet. That's a whole lot of Bittman to catch up on!

There's lots more to come soon, I hope, but all this cooking has tired me out, so for now I'll just offer up a recipe from tonight's dinner:

Fusilli with Greens and Sausage, adapted from Alice Waters

If you're part of the Catalpa Ridge family, you're certainly familiar with New Zealand Spinach. And if you're anything like me and Diana, you maybe have had some trouble finding uses for said spinach that you actually enjoy. New Zealand Spinach isn't actually spinach, or any relative of spinach, for that matter. But it is a hearty, pest- and disease-resistant green that survives some tough growing conditions and, likely for some of these reasons, it has proven a solid stand-by for Farmer Rich. Unfortunately, the leaves are a little thicker, tougher and -- for lack of a better word -- furrier than most greens we're accustomed to eating. Eating them raw, or even sauteed on their own, hasn't been something we've really jumped at repeating more than once. Pasta, though, seems to be the answer. Saute that spinach up with plenty of olive oil, garlic and herbs, toss it with some pasta, and all offending texture seemingly ceases to exist. And so, I present you with my adaptation of Alice Waters' Fusilli with Greens and Sausage. It's unlikely to blow your mind, but it is easy, it's fast, it's cheap, it's quite tasty and it's an excellent way to use up any quantity of lingering New Zealand Spinach.

For four*:

Olive Oil

Salt, Pepper (freshly-ground. obviously!)

1/2 lb Italian sausage, removed from its casings (or more, cause there's no such thing as too much salchi)

1 Large bunch of N.Z. spinach or other greens (try kale, broccoli rabe, etc.), coarsely chopped

1 Large onion, thinly sliced

2 Garlic cloves, minced

Dried chili flakes, or minced fresh chili, if you have it

Fusilli or orecchiette

Grated parmesan or pecorino for garnishing

*Considering doubling quantities for four people. I halved this and it made one healthy serving because I prefer to make dishes like this with less pasta, focusing on all the goods and making them the bulk of the meal. If you make it as is, you'll just have a more pasta-centric dish, with a lesser sauce to pasta ratio.

In a large, heavy-bottomed pan heat a few tablespoons of olive oil (and maybe a dash of butter, too?) over medium heat. Add the sausage and saute until cooked through, approximately 6-8 minutes.

Remove the sausage from the pan and throw in the onions, half of the garlic and the chili. Season with salt and pepper and saute over medium-high heat until the onions begin to caramelize.

Remove these to the same place where you stashed the sausage (a small bowl will do nicely) and add the greens to the pan, along with the rest of the garlic, a sprinkle of salt, a bit of water and another pinch of chili, if you're feeling bold. Cook until the greens are tender, then add back the sausage and onions and cook for a few more minutes, tossing it all together. Adjust salt as necessary and always feel free to add a bit more olive oil if the pan is looking dry.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil, salt it, and cook your pasta. After draining it, return the pasta to the pot and toss with some salt and extra-virgin olive oil.

Plate the pasta, top it with the sauce and finish it with another drizzle of olive oil and some freshly-grated cheese. Not too shabby.

If you're so inclined, a glass of red wine is a lovely accompaniment as these colder months descend on us.

And, of course, remind yourself when you need reminding that you CAN prepare dinner in 25 minutes or less, so forget the pizza and get your butt in the kitchen. I could have used a little of that this past month.

Ohh, but it feels good to be back.

Oh Baby...

2008-09-28T17:46:00.005-04:00

Cooking lately has been uninspired and lackluster, more going-through-the-motions than going through pages of inspiring cookbooks. I've made a lot of sauteed zucchini and shallots, mixed with leftover rice in the pan, and then pushed to the sides to scramble up a couple of eggs and then mix the whole thing together. It's tasty, don't get me wrong, but not that exciting in the grand culinary scheme of things.

So, here's something exciting:

There's always something I come home to, a dish that is always delicious, always reliable and always welcome on a plate before me, not to mention a good bit of fun to make:

DUTCH BABIES!

They are something like a German oven pancake or a Yorkshire pudding or something else that is Czech, but growing up, all I knew these as were Dutch babies and that I wanted to slather maple syrup all over them and start eating as soon as possible.

My mom would make these as a major treat for us for breakfast... sometimes on the weekend, or if we were really lucky, before we left for school. She got the recipe from James Beard's cookbook, "The New James Beard," a book she bought 3 months after I was born. I know this because I just found the invoice for it used as a bookmark for Bechamel Sauce on page 531.

Dutch Baby for 1 Person (plus a little leftover to pick at later in the afternoon):

3 tablespoons salted butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup flour

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Whisk together eggs, milk and flour in a bowl til combined and slightly frothy.

Melt butter in a small skillet in the oven. Remove skillet and pour in batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes until it looks as it does in the picture, puffed and browned.

It will collapse a good bit when you take it out of the oven. Take a spatula, loosen it off the bottom of the skillet and slide it onto a plate. Put on some REAL maple syrup, get a fork and knife and go to town.

Multiply the recipe accordingly and switch to a big skillet if you are cooking for more people. It's the best breakfast I know.

Zucchini Avgolemono Soup

2008-09-11T15:10:00.002-04:00

I love it when I come across a recipe and realize that I have exactly the ingredients necessary to get cooking right away. It's like destiny. This was just such a recipe, Mark Bittman's Zucchini Egg-Lemon Soup... known in Greek circles as Avgolemono soup. My mom used to make this for us in place of Chicken Noodle Soup, and as a kid, of course I would have preferred eating the latter. Happily, my taste buds have evolved and I can appreciate the silky, tangy, tasty, soothing soup that my people have been cooking since forever. Fittingly, my mom emailed me this recipe yesterday. Mark Bittman's version uses zucchini and I added leeks to the mix because I quite simply LOVE the two vegetables together. I threw the leeks in with the onions at the beginning. After ladling the soup into the bowl, I finished it with a little chopped parsley, freshly grated parmesan cheese, a crack of black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Good times, good soup.

Sunday Lunch for One

2008-09-07T13:59:00.005-04:00

I was pretty psyched when I scored a pristine red cabbage and apple from this week's farm share, because I knew that Deborah Madison's warm red cabbage salad with feta, pecans, olives, apple, garlic, onion, parsley and marjoram was on the way.

I had all the ingredients and made it for lunch today to share the plate with some roasted salt & peppered chicken thighs and a slice of some tasty ciabatta that I made yesterday (click the image to get a close view).

It was good, and I knew I was supposed to sit and savor and enjoy all the flavor nuances that make the salad one of my all time favorites... but today a restlessness came over me, and i just got up and left the table in the middle of the meal to go and do something else. Perhaps it was the visual of that huge bowl of leftovers that hit me, because I just couldn't wait for the meal to be over. Sometimes eating alone sucks.

Adventures in Breadmaking

2008-09-05T10:55:00.009-04:00

I took some flour, yeast, water, honey, and salt and followed the basic bread recipe of my culinary love, Jamie Oliver. I made three mistakes along the way, but was determined that the recipe would be good enough to withstand my errors and still come out perfect. At least, this is what I willed it to do.

I left the dough in a pan for its first rise, sat on the couch and caught up on some e-mails. After the timer went off, imagine my shock when I walked into the kitchen to find this:

Clearly the yeast was working. I sucker-punched the dough right in the center and it collapsed and deflated around my fist. I fussed with it for a minute, cut it in half and shaped it on two separate pans for its second rise.

Once it doubled in size again, I put the two massively humungous blobs of dough gently in the oven, and let it bake for 27 minutes. The smell was intoxicating. I found myself mentally melting butter to add to the scent of the warm country bread baking in the oven.

The torture that followed was something no breadbaker should suffer: I couldn't get the bread off the pan. I forgot to flour the bottom of it, or put down some semolina or something - anything! - to prevent it from sticking. To test doneness, I was supposed to knock the bottom of the bread, and if it sounded hollow, it was done, but what's a girl to do if she can't get the bread free from the pan it was baked on? I waited, put it aside to cool, hoping for some condensation to form, hoping that I could pry the dough off the pan with a system of forks, spatulas and gravity. I had come too far for this whole thing to be a failure!

With determination and desperation, I freed one loaf, and then the other. They were big, ugly, huge loaves of bread. And you know what? They were delicious. That night I stuffed an end of one of them with meat from a barbecued pork rib and zucchini pickles. Phenomenal.

The next night I brought it to a dinner party of 8 people and saw one loaf of it just disappear with the Greek/Italian dinner with homemade red wine that it was paired with. The following morning, with the second loaf, I made the best french toast I've ever made.

It reminded me of my grandmother's bread, a taste I haven't enjoyed for over a decade. I really liked the reminder.

Diana's French Toast (adapted from a recipe by - guess who? - Jamie Oliver)

Bread

Butter

Eggs

Whole Milk

Salt

Vanilla Extract

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Put a stick of butter on the counter to get it to easily-spreadable temperature.

Slice some bread.

CRITICAL STEP: Butter both sides of the bread.

Whisk some eggs and milk together in a bowl. The ratio is entirely fudge-able. You want a nice pale yellow custard, so just trust your instinct and go for it. Add a capful of vanilla extract, a healthy couple of pinches of ground cinnamon, a pinch of ground nutmeg and a pinch of salt.

Lay the bread out on a jelly roll pan, or in a big pyrex and pour the custard over the bread, turning over occasionally. The most critical thing is that the bread is not dry in the center. You want the custard to be absorbed to the point that the bread is almost falling apart. If you need more custard, just make some more. Always err on the side of too much custard.

Heat up your griddle (or frying pan or whatever you have) over medium high heat, add some butter. Once melted and the bubbles have subsided, lay your french toast in with the help of a spatula. They should sizzle right away. Check after a couple of minutes and when seriously golden brown and gorgeous, flip them over.

Serve with real maple syrup, fresh fruit, preserves, blueberry sauce, whatever you want!

Coming home

2008-08-29T22:25:00.007-04:00

Tonight I returned to the kitchen after a long, long week away.

I've been on a juice cleanse for the past five days, and was cutting most cooked foods out of my diet for several days beforehand, so I've had no business being in the kitchen except to open the fridge door and remove yet another bottle of fresh fruit or vegetable juice and walk right back out again. But I break the fast tomorrow, so tonight I went to Diana's apartment to retrieve what was left of my half of our farm share. What better way to reintroduce my freshly-detoxed body to food than with local, organic goodies!

When I walked into my kitchen, dropped my bags, flipped on the lights and went to put on some music, I felt like I was home again. I had been so focused on my cleanse and what was happening there all week that I hadn't realized that I wasn't just missing food, I was missing making my food. Truly one of the joys of joining this farm share is that it's inspired me to (and necessitated that I) spend a whole lot more time in the kitchen, preparing my own food -- instead of heading out to eat yet again.

My diet will continue to be limited for the next few days, so tonight's task was a pretty simple one -- use up the cilantro and tomatillos and hot pepper and create some sort of delicious sauce to accompany the many many (raw and steamed) vegetables I'll be living on in the days to come. Pulling from various recipes, I created my own version of a tomatillo salsa verde:

4 tomatillos, husked and rinsed

1 bunch cilantro

1/2 cup mint leaves

1-2 garlic cloves

1 hot chile, seeded and deveined

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

juice of one lime

1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground coriander

salt

Place the tomatillos in a saucepan with water barely covering them. Add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until just soft (about 5 minutes). Drain, reserving cooking water, and run under cold water. Put aside.

At this point, you have a few options. To prepare this sauce, you can use a food processor, a mortar and pestle/mocahete or a cutting board and chef's knife. The food processor will yield a creamy sauce while the cutting board and chef's knife will produce a more traditional salsa verde with the chopped ingredients suspended in oil. I opted for the mortar and pestle because I love bashing things up in there, and like to think that it makes them taste better, too. The resultant texture is rather like a traditional salsa verde, but a bit more blended.

So, assuming you proceed as I did, chop up your garlic and throw it into the mortar and pestle with a few pinches of salt and mash it into a nice paste.

Next, add the cilantro and mint (roughly chopped or not) and bash that until it breaks down and blends with the garlic paste. I had to do this in batches because my mortar and pestle wasn't big enough to do it all at once.

Add the chile, finely chopped, and blend that in.

The tomatillos are a little trickier. Cut them open over a small bowl and scrape out the insides. Then chop up the firmer flesh and mash that into the mixture, the same as you did with the chile.

Once everything is well blended, scrape it into the bowl with the remainder of the tomatillos. Stir in the lime juice, olive oil and spices. Taste and adjust the spices accordingly. If desired, thin the sauce with some of the reserved cooking water. Serve immediately or store, covered, in the fridge.

As mentioned, I'll be using this to add some different flavors to the veggies I'll be eating over the next few days, but use it as you would any salsa verde. It would be delicious with grilled meat, roasted chicken, tortilla chips, over cooked eggs, in a sandwich or to top off home-made tacos or burritos.

All ingredients can also, of course, be adjusted per your taste. And here are a few more variations to think about:

If you don't have tomatillos on hand, don't worry -- it will work just as well without. In fact, Diana makes a deliciously-addicting sauce with the same base ingredients: garlic, cilantro, jalapeno, salt and olive oil. Bash it all up in the mortar and pestle and serve over skirt steak -- it's absolutely divine.
I debated adding a small yellow onion, chopped. In the end I didn't, but I think it would be a worthwhile addition.
Warm the sauce up with a bit of oil in a skillet for many of the uses recommended above.

Eat More (Roasted Chicken in) Butter

2008-08-26T12:51:00.001-04:00

I don't know about you, but if you are anything like me and Jamie, you believe in the following mathematical statement:

dark meat chicken > light meat chicken

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to prepare chicken breasts in such a way that I would taste, savor and possibly enjoy them, but frankly, why bother when chicken thighs and drumsticks are infinitely tastier and more satisfying - not to mention more economical?

As a thrifty shopper/starving artist, I love paying less for the meat that tastes better than its expensive tasteless counterpart. Can't beat it! Problem is, there are so many recipes out there for chicken breasts, and cookbooks often neglect the other parts of the chicken. Not Jamie Oliver or Mark Bittman, though! Both have excellent recipes for chicken legs, but today I'm going to give you my adaptation of Mark Bittman's recipe. It's dead easy and tastier than any chicken I've ever had in a restaurant. The chicken falls off the bone, the skin is perfectly crisp and the flavor is worth swooning over and telling all your friends about.

Diana's Roasted Chicken Legs (via Mark Bittman)

Yield: dinner for one really hungry person, or dinner for two people with normal hunger levels. Multiply recipe accordingly for more dinner guests...

2 Chicken Legs (SKIN ON)

1 clove garlic, sliced

handful of roughly chopped parsley leaves (cilantro would be a worthy substitute)

kosher salt

pepper

hunk of butter

Preheat the oven to 450.

Put the garlic in the bottom of a mortar and pestle, sprinkle with a nice pinch of salt and bash into a pulp. Throw in the parsley leaves and bash up some more until broken down and incorporated.

Take your chicken legs and - this is the gross nasty part - spread the garlic/parsley/salt mixture UNDER the skin. I'm sorry to ask you to do this, but we need the skin to protect the garlic and parsley from burning at such a high temp in the oven. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?

Then sprinkle the chicken on both sides with salt and crack some black pepper on it.

Put the butter on the roasting pan (do not use a broiler pan) and put it in the oven for a hot minute. Once melted, take out the pan and place the chicken skin side UP on it. Throw it in the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, take your tongs and turn the chicken over. Set the timer for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, turn it over again to cook skin side up for 5 minutes.

Take it out of the oven, check for doneness by inserting a sharp knife towards the bone. If the juices are clear, you have done well. If not, cook the chicken a little longer.

It's a great recipe if you belong to a farm share, have a garden or hit up the local farmer's market, as you can pair the chicken with all sorts of vegetable side dishes. I paired the chicken with broccoli collard greens and a greek salad. Be sure to get some good, organic, local, free-range chicken for this dish - it's so worth it.

It was so good I licked the plate.

Summertime Delicious

2008-08-22T16:53:00.003-04:00

Speaking of Stone Barns, the August issue of Gourmet had a feature on Dan Barber, chef and owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. The piece featured recipes he designed to take advantage of the farm-fresh produce we have access to this time of year. Although they all looked delicious, the cover photo of creamy cheesecake topped with minted blackberries spoke to me from the moment I found it in my mailbox. I finally got around to making it this week, and I suggest you do the same, soon. It was so yummy (and really so easy) that I have a feeling I'll be baking a weekly cheesecake for as long as I can get my hands on fresh, tasty berries.

I followed the recipe exactly, except that I used an 8" square pyrex instead of 9" square pan. The cheesecake didn't seem to suffer at all. Gourmet posts the macerated blackberries in a separate recipe, so be sure to follow that link as well -- they really take the dessert to a whole other level. The presentation of this dish is great, too, so it's a good one to impress with!

Make-Me-Feel-Better Pickles

2008-08-21T19:12:00.007-04:00

So a week or so ago, Jamie brought this recipe from The Wednesday Chef to my attention, telling me I simply had to read it, no matter what.

And I read it. And it blew me away.

I knew immediately after reading the recipe that I had to make the pickles. And I just did.

I used a zucchini that was yellow on one side and dark green on the other side... a beautiful squash. It just called out from this week's farm delivery to be pickled.

I've got to wait a day before I try them, so I'll let you know how it comes out.....

UPDATE: The pickles are delicious and wonderfully addictive, just the way I like them!

Mast Brothers Chocolate from Brooklyn

2008-08-17T14:30:00.002-04:00

After completing the insider's tour at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, the extraordinary Rockefeller farm in Pocantico Hills, NY, I was starving. Seeing the farm first hand was an awesome experience, which I will blog about later, but I've got sweeter things to discuss right now...

Waiting in line to order some sandwiches and salads from the Blue Hill Cafe, my eye caught the stunning branding of a line of chocolate out of Brooklyn - Mast Brothers Chocolate. The chocolate on its own caught my attention but when I looked closer at the display at a picture of the Mast Brothers themselves, Rick and Michael, it dawned on me that several years ago I worked with Michael on a movie! We've obviously both moved on to other things, me to photography and Michael to chocolate! How cool is that?

I didn't hesitate to pick up a bar of chocolate (I would have done so anyway) and the chocolate I selected was of the Fleur de Sel variety. Wonderful flakes of salt mixed in with 81% cacao deliciousness.... It reminded me of one of my all time favorite bars of chocolate, Mo's Bacon Bar by Vosges, bits of applewood smoked bacon mixed in with deep milk chocolate - don't knock it til you try it. Something about the salty and the sweet.... Vosges has it down and certainly those two Mast Brothers from Brooklyn do as well. It's chocolate with some serious style plus the goods to back it up. Keep your eye out for it and support a local chocolatier!

Not all carrot tops are created equal...

2008-08-13T22:24:00.002-04:00

I'd been craving carrots since we got them in our farm share a few weeks ago, so last week I swung by the farmer's market to pick up a bunch. I was equally excited for my newest discovery in edible delights: those leafy carrot tops. I sauteed them up with a whole medley of farm share veg and tossed them into a big bowl of salad greens and prepared to feast. The salad was generally delish...except...those carrot tops. They were, quite simply, intolerably bitter and, well, pretty much foul tasting. The carrots themselves weren't that great, either, so perhaps it was just a bummer of a harvest; I suppose I'll have to experiment more to make a fair judgement. In the meantime, I'd suggest tasting a bit of the raw greens before you decide to throw them into a dish. If they're a bit bitter, but tasty, go for it -- the bitterness mellows with cooking. If they're just plain nasty...throw 'em on the compost heap.

This Diana is in complete agreement with Prince Charles.

2008-08-13T16:14:00.009-04:00

Hey peeps,

Please take a mo' and read this quick article from cnn.com.

It goes further in the Telegraph...

I'm glad someone has some sense! I seriously cannot fathom how people think GM crops are a good idea. Reading the comments, in the Telegraph in particular, it's shocking to see how deeply people disagree on this issue. It's easy to discount an "out of touch monarch" in his royal bubble but he's not the only person speaking against Genetically Modified crops - he's just more high profile so he can be heard!

Quite frankly, I'm scared of what we're doing to this planet. GM crops are not the way to go, companies like Monsanto, companies that on one end produce most organic fruits and veg you can buy in Whole Foods and on the other end are the frontlines of GM crop production are becoming the only food option. Conscientious consumers, trying to be healthy, save the environment and eat organically are unwittingly funding and encouraging GM crop production. It's messed up. Small time farmers are going under one after another, heirloom crops are being wiped out, and the more we play god and mess with nature the more we risk everything.

Ugh.

Will walk for fruit and vegetables.

2008-08-12T12:59:00.002-04:00

Just a few numbers for this Tuesday afternoon:

I walk 1.35 miles round trip to pick up my Catalpa Ridge vegetables every Tuesday from Umami Girl's garage.

Jamie walks 1.78 miles.

Neither of us have a gym membership, or cars for that matter. All that walking (and carrying those heavy vegetables back to our apartments) is definitely beneficial exercise, not to mention good for the environment.

Fresh from my parents' garden: zucchini blossoms!

2008-08-11T19:44:00.003-04:00

Oh man, zucchini blossoms!

So freaking good and tasty!

Without a recipe and armed with only some memories of the few times I've enjoyed this delicacy, I hit the kitchen:

Battered & Fried Zucchini Blossoms Stuffed with Parmesan and Basil

Make a quick, no fuss batter in a small bowl using:

flour

warm water

a pinch of salt.

It should be nice and thick.

Then you'll need:

2 male zucchini blossoms, gently wiped clean with a wet towel.

1 egg, beaten lightly

chunks of parmiggiano reggiano

basil

pinch salt

a good grind of freshly ground black pepper

butter

tasty green olive oil

Mix the ripped up basil leaves with the egg, salt and pepper.

Heat up a cast iron skillet til nice and hot (Consult April if you are clueless with a cast iron skillet as she is my new guru).

Add a few glugs of good olive oil and then throw in a tab of butter. If the butter sizzles away, the oil is at the right temp for the magic that ensues:

Hold a flower in your non-dominant hand, stem side down. Spoon the egg mixture into the flowers, then twist the petals with your dominant hand, and quickly dunk the whole thing into the batter. Immediately drop into the skillet. Do the same with the other flower. Cook until golden on both sides, remove to a paper towel to drain and immediately sprinkle with some salt.

INSANELY DELICIOUS!

Kale: I confess my ignorance

2008-08-10T19:47:00.004-04:00

I have a confession: I'm not a greens girl. Or at least I never have been. I've enthusiastically eaten many a salad in my day, but present me with those dark, leafy greens that need cooking and I'm clueless. They're not something I grew up eating and it's not territory I've ventured into on my own in recent years. But Farmer Rich certainly doesn't care about this, so my weekly routine with the greens goes something like this: I take home my half of the week's greens and they sit in my veggie bin, wilting, until the end of the week when I pawn them off on Diana for our weekly cook-what's-left-of-the-farm-share dinner. Except this week Diana was out of town, which meant I had no escape. Fortunately, I did have a recipe she had emailed me a few weeks ago to encourage me to attack our last batch of kale on my own (it didn't happen...). Knowing that if I didn't cook the greens right away, it would never happen, I faced that intimidating bunch of health on Tuesday night, as soon as I got home from Carolyn's. Polishing off the leftovers as a snack this afternoon, I was quite pleased, for the second time this week, to learn just how yummy those dark, nutrient-packed leaves can be. I think a conversion is in the making...

Pappas' Kale recipe

adapted from ??? (Bittman, I think)

**A note on an unorthodox substitution: this recipe calls for olives but I'm not an olive fan, so I didn't have any in my fridge. So, instead, I used bacon. Not an equal substitution, perhaps, but according to some recipes I perused it's also a good pairing with greens and I figured they've got the high-salt-content thing in common, so, what the hell. Either way you make it, this is a delish -- and super easy! -- way to prepare kale (and other comparable greens, I suppose).

kale

olive oil

1 big garlic scape, chopped (or 1 clove, now that scape season is over)

salt

pepper

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup kalamata olives, chopped (or some crumbled bacon...)

1/2 cup chopped ripe tomato

bit of minced red onion for garnish

Cut the kale leaves off of the stems, roughly chop the stems and set aside. Cut or tear the leaves separately into big pieces.

Put a good glug of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saute pan and heat over medium-high heat.

Add the garlic and the chopped kale stems and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is just beginning to soften, about 5 minutes.

At this point, add the kale leaves to the pan and pour the wine over them, along with the tomatoes and olives. When the liquid is bubbling, cover and turn the heat down to medium-low.

Cook undisturbed for 10 minutes, then check to make sure the kale is tender. Garnish with the onion and some black pepper and drizzle a little olive oil on top once you've plated it.

I finished mine off with a squeeze of lemon juice, as well.

Super-tasty, and not even a little intimidating :)

Hotter than I like it

2008-08-08T14:44:00.005-04:00

A word of warning to my fellow Catalpa Ridgers: beware those innocent-looking peppers from this week's take one/swap one box.

I'm pretty good at handling my heat, and the jalapeños I buy around town never seem to be all that hot, so I scoffed when the weekly Harvest Identifier warned me to "wear rubber gloves or even small plastic bags over your hands" when handling hot peppers. Puh-lease. Well. I think Farmer Rich is growing a different breed of jalapeño because that pretty little pepper got the last laugh on this one. Not long after I had diced up my pepper I started to feel the burn on my right hand. Shortly thereafter my cheek started up, and then my upper lip. Pretty soon half my face and my entire right hand were on FIRE.

I rinsed in cool water. I washed repeatedly with hot, soapy water. I doused myself in lime juice. I tried to wait it out. Niente. Finally, I turned to the internet. A rinse with apple cider vinegar reduced the burn a bit, but sour cream was the real savior. Except that bathing myself in sour cream made for a slightly nauseating end to my meal...

Ironically, the corn salad that I made with the offending pepper ended up on the mild side. It was, however, still delicious.

Corn Hash

from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food

An appropriately simple list of ingredients: sweet corn, onion, hot pepper, salt, lime, cilantro

Start with 4 ears of sweet corn (preferably fresh from your local farmer's market!). Shuck the corn and remove the kernels from the cob. A large chef's knife is the best tool for this and it's wise to cut into some sort of container or half of your kernels will end up flying all over your kitchen. Even if you cut into a container, quite a few of your kernels are likely to end up flying all over the kitchen. Unless, of course, you are more skilled than me -- in which case, please share your secret!

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add 1 small onion, diced (Ms. Waters calls for a red onion -- I didn't have one so I used whatever variety I had picked up at the farmer's market that day) and 1 small hot chile, diced. I also threw in half of a sweet pepper, also diced. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes to soften and add salt to taste. Cook for another minute, then turn the heat up to medium-high and add the corn. Cook for a few minutes, stirring regularly, until the corn is cooked. Add a splash of water if you need it to moisten the mixture and cook the corn (I was a bit heavy-handed and my splash was more like a good pour, so I just let it cook for a few extra minutes until the extra liquid had cooked off. No biggie.) Finish it off with a good dose of lime juice and some chopped cilantro. Taste and season with extra salt and lime juice, if needed.

This was delicious warm, right out of the pan and also great as a cold side with last night's dinner. I haven't decided how I'll finish off the rest of it, but I'm thinking it would be great in a salad, incorporated into some kind of Latin-inspired egg dish, served with grilled hanger steak or tossed with some chopped avocado.

Just, seriously, be careful with those chiles!

Fresh from my parents' garden: dirt!

2008-08-02T10:07:00.010-04:00

My dad is a master composter.

He's been composting since before I was born, and one of my earliest memories is of playing around with worms pulled out of the compost heap. My dad likes to remind me that I used to rip the worms in half. I shudder now at the thought and apologize to any offended worms.

In the back corner of my parents' backyard, just behind the garden, tucked out of sight behind the garage, is the compost heap. It's actually a system of heaps, operating on a three-year time frame. The first heap is branches, leaves, kitchen peelings, the next heap is mostly decomposed branches, leaves, kitchen peelings from the previous year, and the last heap is the richest, most nutritious soil you can imagine. If you were a plant, you'd want to live in this soil.

My dad likes to say, "Nothing leaves this yard" and it's so inspiring!

Things you can compost:

Vegetable Peelings

Rotten Fruit and Veg

Coffee Grounds

Pits from fruit

Citrus Rinds

Egg Shells

Leaves

Branches

Grass Clippings

etc etc! Simply cover these items with some dirt and let the worms, bugs and icky gross things do their job!

If you have a garden, you'll have the best soil in town! It's also very educational for little kids and big kids, and it helps out this environment of ours. Every little bit helps!

Here in my apartment in Hoboken, I do not have a compost heap, but I keep my fruit and vegetable scraps in a plastic bag in my freezer to hand off to my dad when he comes for dinner.

Since I get my fruits and veg from Catalpa Ridge, an organic community supported farm, he's getting the best stuff!

When the farm gives you mint, make mint iced tea.

2008-07-29T18:25:00.013-04:00

I picked up today's bounty from Umami Girl's garage and the whole hot, sweaty walk back to my apartment I had one thought on my mind: ICED MINT TEA.

Juice of 2 lemons

A glug of Real Maple Syrup

3 Tablespoons Rooibos Tea

Bruised Farm Fresh Mint (I used the mint sprigs to tie the tea bags)

Hot Boiling Water

Yield: 3 huge American-sized glasses of iced tea.

The ingredients were all combined somehow, someway in my dutch oven and left to steep until I couldn't wait any more.

Once my patience ran out, I stuck a spoon in and had a taste... not sweet enough. I was bummed, but have no fear, I prevailed with a, dare-I-say-it, INGENIOUS idea. I rescued some manky looking strawberries in the back of my fridge, cut them up, and using a wooden spoon, bashed them with a little sugar in the bottom of my highball glasses (2 strawberries per glass). I poured the still warm tea in, added a bunch of ice and a sprig of mint and holy tasty, it's delicious!!! Iced Mint Lemon Strawberry Rooibos Tea!

Feel free to substitute strawberries for peaches, I bet that is just the absolute shiz.

WARNING: May result in difficulty breathing.

2008-07-26T12:42:00.003-04:00

Goodness.

I made pancakes this morning in order to polish off my leftover blueberry sauce and now I need to lay down.

I didn't even make it half way through!

Fresh from my parents' garden: baby leeks!

2008-07-24T15:35:00.001-04:00

As if I didn't have enough vegetables from this week's CSA delivery....

When I was home earlier this week, my mom sent me back to my apartment with a bag of veg from her garden.

Baby kale leaves, young radish greens, lemongrass stalks, parsley, cucumber, and..... drumroll please, baby leeks!

(there were zucchini blossoms too, but not *quite* ready to be stuffed with cheese, batter dipped and fried)

I have lusted after baby leeks for a while now, ever since I first laid my eyes on this recipe for Pan-Seared Scallops with Asparagus and Baby Leeks by the one, the only, Jamie Oliver in his book Happy Days with the Naked Chef. The recipe is, as the brits say, "brilliant," and I've made it several times with asparagus only, so last night was a real treat to make the complete version for my weekly dinner with my dad.

Baby leeks are sweet, tender, mild, and grill up and caramelize wonderfully on a hot grill pan with a good bit of oil. After sampling, my dad and I started discussing how delicious leeks in general are, and how we never used to eat them until recently. I recalled recoiling in my youth to the sound of them... it went something like "Ewwwwwww LEEEEEKS..."

What was I thinking!?

A Sweet Start

2008-07-23T23:58:00.004-04:00

As if we needed another reason to be obsessed with Deborah Madison.

As I prepared to bake a pie tonight, I had to reference her for recommendations on butter and shortening and lard and what, exactly, my options were (more on that later). And what I found in her introduction to the Tarts and Galettes section filled me with joy: "There's nothing like a piece of warm pie for dessert or the same pie reheated for breakfast." (!!!!)

I am definitely the baker of the "Eat More Butter" duo and there have been many a crisp and bread pudding and brownie batch I've churned out that have spent far more time on our breakfast plates than our dessert ones. I was perfectly satisfied with this tendency of mine beforehand, but I really must say that it made me a little giddy to learn that this culinary idol of ours falls prey to the same temptations.

As much as I've always been opposed to sugared, candied breakfast cereals and the like, I firmly believe that home-made baked goods are a worthy start to the day. And now I know that at least one respectable person supports me in that stand :)

As for the pie itself, it's still in the oven, so I'll get back to you tomorrow...

A different kind of local...

2008-07-23T13:05:00.005-04:00

On Monday Night, Jamie and I walked west and checked out the 98th annual St. Ann's Italian Festival in Hoboken, and I'll get straight to the point.......

YUM. Pictured at right is a spicy italian sausage on a roll with onions, peppers, broccoli rabe and a charred hot pepper. There was equal veg to meat on this delicate roll and I was equally in heaven and loving my italian neighbors.

Special highlights of the night included the entire city singing along to Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer" and an entire brigade of old Italian ladies making zeppoles.

The festival runs through the end of this week and this bit of tasty costs $7.

Ribs + Broccoli Collards = Heaven on a plate.

2008-07-22T17:04:00.000-04:00

Okay let me just say that I kicked some serious ass in the kitchen on Wednesday night. Granted, I did not actually serve dinner until after 10pm, it was still a phenomenal success.

The Menu:

- Greg's sticky glazed fork & knife pork spare ribs

- broccoli collard greens with shallots and garlic

- baked sweet potatoes

- rice *note to self: in the future, this should be replaced by cornbread.

Oh yeah!

I'd never made ribs before, but thankfully my culinarily talented older brother is well versed in the ways of racks of ribs. He started with a Jamie Oliver recipe, and then made it his own. I love my brother's cooking and I also swear by the collective bible that is Jamie Oliver's cookbooks, so I knew all would turn out well.

Greg's Sticky Glazed Fork & Knife Ribs

Ribs: A pound of ribs per person should do it... I got over 4 pounds for three people and there are plenty of leftovers (lucky me!). You can use baby back ribs or pork spare ribs. I didn't have a choice, and went for the spare ribs - all turned out beautifully!

For the rub:

Smoked Paprika

The best chili powder you can get your hands on

Cumin

Cayenne pepper

Cinnamon

brown sugar

salt

pepper

mustard powder

coriander

chipotle chili powder

For the glaze:

1 jar of apricot preserves

White wine

A hot pepper (dry or fresh, it doesn't matter)

Drippings from the ribs

Preheat your oven to somewhere between 210 - 250 degrees. Mix the dry rub together in whatever combination your instincts dictate. Don't have a few of the ingredients? Who cares, just throw some spices in a bowl and mix 'em up. Put the ribs on the largest pan you've got... I used the bottom of my broiler pan. The ribs hung off the ends, but no matter! Rub the rub all over the slab of ribs, on both sides. Put 'em in the oven to cook for about 3 hours, checking for doneness with a half hour to go. The ribs should want to fall off the bone.

Take the ribs outta the oven and let them sit while you preheat the broiler nice and high.

Put a jar of apricot preserves in a saucepan with a good pour of white wine. Add a nice whole chili, ripped in half. I used a dry chili here and it gave some excellent heat. Greg suggest pouring in some drippings, but my ribs didn't have much. I guess if you've got em, use them. Cook over medium/high heat, stirring constantly and let the glaze reduce until it is almost like glue then IMMEDIATELY take off the heat and pour over the ribs, making sure everything is coated nicely.

Place the glazed ribs under the broiler and let everything caramelize. When some spots start to burn, your work is done and it is time to wow your guests. I served the ribs on a big cutting board and let everyone hack off some meat as they wanted it. Delicious.

I served the ribs with:

Sauteed Broccoli Collard Greens with Shallots and Garlic

I had no idea what broccoli collards were or what to do with them when I got this week's farm share. Digging around on the internet provided nothing remotely useful, so I went to Deborah Madison for guidance. Surprisingly, I didn't find anything specifically on broccoli collards, yet I stayed in the cookbook and ended up treating the broccoli collards like collard greens. They aren't actually collard greens, they are just the leaves from the broccoli plant. Who KNEW they were worth eating? This will be a great recipe for my parents, as a rabbit just had a field day with all their broccoli. At least they can eat the leftover greens (see photo from their garden, below left).

And they are so good. SOOOOO good.

Deborah Madsion, whom you must be able to tell that we idolize, offers this recipe for collard greens, modified to use what I had handy from the farm share:

Leaves from one broccoli plant (a.k.a. Broccoli Collard Greens)

brown butter

1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced

1 shallot, diced

red pepper flakes

salt

Throw the leaves from one broccoli plant into a pot of boiling, salted water and cook for 10 minutes, reserving the cooking water.

Heat a nice hunk of butter over medium heat in a big skillet and let it get brown... it should smell a little nutty.

Throw in the shallot and garlic and let sit in the butter and get all fabulous. Don't stir too much. When the shallot is soft, put the broccoli leaves on top, with a good ladle or two of the water it cooked in, plus 1/4 teaspoon salt and the pepper flakes. Lower the heat a bit, cover and let everything do their magic. The greens will be ready to go in 30 minutes. All the water should be cooked off at this point... taste for salt, and serve!

The saltiness of the greens was magic with the sweetness of the ribs. Highly highly recommended.

Variation on a Theme: The Breakfast Quesadilla

2008-07-21T16:34:00.006-04:00

Last night's quesadilla was so good that I decided to use up the rest of my carrot tops in exactly the same way today. The only meal I was going to be eating at home was the first of day, so I decided to throw a little egg into the mix and officially call it breakfast. You could do this one of two ways: after the veggies are sauteed and tender, add lightly beaten eggs to the pan and scramble the whole mess all together (one of my favorite ways to prepare eggs, whether you're stuffing them into a tortilla or not) or, as I did today, saute the veg as before, pile it onto your quesadilla, top with a little more cheese and then fry up an egg and pile that on top, too. Add more cheese to hold the whole thing together and return to the pan to melt the cheese and brown the tortilla, as before.

Here is the tortilla just before I added the fried egg. I threw some chopped tomatoes in today and, you may also notice, I used an entire tortilla as my base. As I finished my last few bites last night I was left seriously wanting more, so today I decided to use two tortillas and make a much bigger quesadilla. This not only turned out to be entirely too much food for me, it was also a disaster when it came time to flip the quesadilla in the pan, so I'd recommend going with the original approach. It's easy enough to simply make an extra if you're feeding someone with a large appetite...

Carrot Tops: Take 2

2008-07-20T23:56:00.003-04:00

As promised earlier in the week, tonight I decided to try cooking up the carrot tops from this week's delivery. Per the suggestion on our CSA's "Harvest Tips" I sauteed them with some other veg and fresh herbs and made them into a quesadilla. Which was totally delicious. That may have had more to do with the copious amounts of butter and cheese than the actual carrot tops, but sauteing definitely killed the bitterness of the greens and is probably the way I'd go in the future.

Carrot Top Quesadilla

Butter/Olive Oil

Chopped Carrot Tops

Chopped Vegetables (I had onions and zucchini)

Fresh Herbs

Salt and Freshly-Ground Pepper

Grated Cheese (I used Cheddar and Jack)

Flour Tortilla

A Bit More Butter

Heat mixture of butter and olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When butter is melted and pan is nice and hot, add carrot tops and chopped veg. Season with salt and pepper, stir in herbs and saute until tender.

Meanwhile, grate cheese onto your tortilla (I used whole wheat, because I opt for whole wheat flour over white most of the time -- less processed). When the veg is ready, spoon it onto one half of the tortilla. Grate more cheese on top and fold the empty half of the tortilla over. Melt more butter in your pan and return the (now assembled) quesadilla to the pan. Cook until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is browned, flipping once (after the cheese has melted a bit and is holding the ingredients together -- otherwise you'll likely loose all of the ingredients as you try to flip!). Yum!

Jersey Blueberries 4 Prez

2008-07-17T11:28:00.000-04:00

Born, raised and now living as an adult in the Garden State - known elsewhere in the country as the armpit of America - was certainly a challenge for me growing up and especially at college. A friend of mine from Oregon (best known as the filming location for The Goonies) once tried to convince me that his state was infinitely better than mine to which I responded with three pages of notes proving to him that New Jersey was without question the greatest state in the union.

Being from New York, Jamie would, without question, disagree with me, but let's face facts, people - she lives in New Jersey too.

Why all this talk about New Jersey? Because I just gorged on two handfuls of Jersey blueberries - on sale 2 pints for $5 at Garden of Eden. Some of them are the size of cherries! Ah, New Jersey. Point is, they're ripe, they're local (hopefully not as local as exit 13 on the New Jersey Turnpike) and boiled down with some maple syrup, some sugar, and some spices they make a fabulous topping for vanilla ice cream (not to be confused with frozen yogurt).

Blueberry Sauce

Recipe adapted by Jamie from the great, amazing Deborah Madison, author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

3 cups blueberries, stems removed.

2 teaspoons REAL maple syrup

1/3 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 pinch ground nutmeg

juice of one lime to taste

Rinse the berries, drain them, and put them directly into a saucepan.

Add the maple syrup, sugar and the spices.

Bring to a boil, stirring here and there until the berries fall apart and the sauce looks good enough to scald your tongue on because you can't wait to try it.

At this point, add the lime juice.

Depending on the sweetness of the berries, the sauce may need a little more sugar, so sweeten to taste.

Couldn't be easier! Serve warm over vanilla ice cream, like I did last night. Any leftover sauce would be insane over french toast, dutch babies (a.k.a. german oven pancakes) or pound cake. We're thinking a good cold, spoonful of the sauce would also be great stirred into some greek yogurt.

Home-Grown

2008-07-16T23:28:00.009-04:00

Not by me, of course, but by Farmer Rich, my new favorite person. Farmer Rich is master of our CSA, and thus responsible for the delivery of fresh, super-delicious veg that we get each week. Tonight's dinner was a straight-up farm share affair: almost everything that you see on that plate was home-grown (organically!) by Farmer Rich and his helpers in Wantage, NJ. Call me a CSA nerd, but a fully farm-share meal excites me. And so do all the colors on that plate!

Disclaimer: I am neither a food stylist nor a photographer. Both talents fall squarely in Diana's camp. Plus it was late, I was hungry, and my food was getting cold! But you get the gist. Stay tuned for far better visuals when Diana is on the job!

I got home from work around 9:30 tonight, without the energy (or patience) to spend an hour or two cooking. So I opened up my crisper and pulled together a perfect light, late-night dinner: glazed carrots, a make-shift salad and "five-minute" beets, which were a leftover from last week's delivery. Accompanied by some crusty sour-dough bread (yep, you guessed it, slathered in butter).

Just for the record, every single vegetable and herb I ate tonight came from the CSA. Here's what I pulled together (in about 25 minutes -- cause it's that easy, not cause I'm that talented):

Glazed Carrots

Adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters, goddess of local, seasonal, sustainable cooking

Carrots

Water

Salt

Butter

Brown sugar

Fresh herbs (suggestions: cilantro, parsley or basil)

Freshly-ground black pepper

If your carrots are fresh from the ground or relatively young (mine were both), don't bother peeling them. Most of the nutrients lie close to the surface so it's preferable to leave the skins on and just scrub 'em clean.

Cut the carrots into coins or sticks. Put them in a wide-bottomed heavy pot and cover halfway with water (you don't want the carrots stacked more than an inch high). Add a good pinch or two of salt and a couple of teaspoons of butter per serving. Bring the water to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cover. Cook until tender. Remove the lid and boil until the liquid reduces into a buttery sauce that coats the carrots. At this point I added a little sprinkling of brown sugar, in homage to a carrot recipe my mom makes that is simply delicious. It's a great pairing, but I didn't want to overshadow the flavor of the super-fresh carrots and herbs so I just used a little. After stirring in the brown sugar I added my chopped herbs -- basil (it was so fragrant and delicious that I literally wanted to bathe myself in it when we got our delivery this week) and salad burnet (don't worry, I hadn't heard of it either until it showed up in last week's delivery. Incidentally, epicurious.com and foodnetwork.com haven't heard of it either. It tastes more or less like a cucumber. But it's an herb. Yeah.). Remove the carrots from the heat, season with pepper and more salt if necessary, and enjoy.

Salad

Super simple and totally adjustable based on what you got in the fridge. I used:

Heart of red iceburg lettuce

More basil and salad bernet

Chopped carrot tops. Did you know that your carrot TOPS are edible? I didn't know until tonight when I wondered, and went digging online. They taste pretty much like carrots, but are a bit bitter, apparently because of the high potassium content. I ate them raw in the salad tonight but later this week plan on experimenting with cooking them.

Dressing of apple cider vinegar, minced shallots, salt and olive oil. It's the simplest dressing ever, but always refreshing and tasty. You don't even need the shallots if you don't have them. Let the first 3 ingredients sit together while you prepare the rest of the meal. Just before serving whisk in the olive oil. Three parts olive oil to one part vinegar is generally a good ratio to work from.

5-minute Beets

From Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (the bible of all things vegetable)

Fresh, raw beets, coarsely grated

Butter

Salt and freshly-ground pepper

Water

Lemon juice to taste

Chopped fresh herbs (suggestions: parsley, tarragon or dill)

Melt the butter (a tablespoon or more per pound of beets) in a skillet, add the beets and toss with salt and pepper to taste. Add a quarter cup of water (roughly) per pound of beets, cover the pan and cook over medium heat until beets are tender. Remove the lid and raise the temperature to boil off any remaining liquid. Taste for salt, season with a squeeze of lemon juice (don't leave this out, it really adds another dimension to the flavor) and toss with the herb (I used parsley). Can be served warm or room temperature.

All of these recipes are quite basic and totally adaptable, which makes them great staples for your kitchen repertoire. Another thing I really like about both the carrots and the beets is that, although they're both cooked in water, it's a small amount and the water is boiled off, not drained, and thus most of the veggies' nutrients make it onto your plate. Plus they both have butter, and you know how we feel about butter :)

Topped off with a dessert of Ben & Jerry's (Fair Trade) Vanilla Ice Cream and zucchini bread (baked by Diana), it made for quite a satisfying meal.

The Butter Manifesto

2008-07-15T22:07:00.001-04:00

It all starts here. With butter.

We firmly believe that butter is good for you (gasp!).

You can bake with it, sauté with it, spread it on some crusty artisanal bread, and best of all, you don't have to skimp on it. At least, that's what our mommas taught us. And they both have good cholesterol.

Just to make sure we're all on the same page, we're talking about REAL butter, you know, from a cow. Not margarine, not butter spread, not I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. If your thoughts are immediately going towards your waistline or nutrition labels or calorie counting, we ask you to stop right there and subscribe to this blog. Join us as we talk about great food, great ingredients - REAL ingredients - and our philosophy about health, well-being and the pursuit of nutritional happiness.