Dark Days: The Leftover Life

Sunday, January 04, 2009

This week’s Dark Days challenge update includes lots and lots of leftovers.  The black-eyed pea and mushroom ragout with polenta made excellent lunches! 

From the leftover lamb from the roasted leg of lamb I made lamb pot pie.  I think it does qualify for the Dark Days challenge, even though I cheated and used store-bought pie dough.  The lamb was, of course, local - but so was the carrot (Lancaster Farm Fresh), onion (Landisdale Farm), parsnips (Lancaster Farm Fresh), beef stock, lamb demiglace, garlic (my garden), flour, and stout beer used for filling and gravy.  And that also made tremendously good leftovers all week!  Seriously, I could eat pot pie every day of the week during the Winter.  There’s something incredibly comforting and warming about it.  I also froze the lamb leg bone for making stock.

With all those leftovers, I really didn’t have to cook much this week.

Today, though, I did head into the kitchen.  I’ve been craving frittata lately.  I have a zillion pounds of sweet potatoes hibernating on the back porch - toward the end of the CSA season with Landisdale Farm, we ended up with many, many sweet potatoes.  I like sweet potatoes just fine, but I don’t really know very many ways to use them.  But this morning it occured to me that maybe I could use them in place of regular potatoes for frittata...plus, I had a few duck eggs left that I really needed to use double quick.

In our cast iron skillet, I melted some butter that I made from local cream (over medium high heat) and sauted chopped onion (Landisdale Farm) and garlic (my garden), along with some sausage (Country Time Farm) removed from its casing.  I threw in some salt and pepper, and a teaspoon of dried, rubbed sage (my garden).  And then I added in spinach (Rineer Family Farms) and fresh cranberries (Paradise Hill Farm), and sauted that for another few minutes until the spinach was just wilted.  I scooped all of that out and layered sliced white sweet potato (I used a mandoline to get the potatoes sliced thinly) into the skillet in concentric circles.  After the first layer, I spooned in some of the sausage/spinach mix, and then just kept layering potatoes and then sausage/spinach mix.

When I got everything layered into the skillet, I let it all cook on the stove for 15 minutes.  While that was cooking, I whisked together the last six duck eggs with a cup of milk (Natural by Nature) and then dumped it into the skillet.  The skillet went into the oven (preheated to 350 degrees) for 40 minutes.  After it was out, I shredded some raw milk cheddar (Green Meadow Farm) over top.

It was better than I imagined.  The cranberries were perfect against the sausage, and the sweet potatoes were great!  And it looks like I’ll have enough to eat for leftovers this coming week!  I guess I know what will be in my report for next week!

I Love Pot Roast

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

I don’t cook much from recipes, so consider the photo and this little bit of commentary to be a reminder that pot roast exists and, if you’re an omnivore, that you should make it once in a while. The meat is a slab of london broil from Meadow Run Farms that I got through their buying club—grass fed, pasture raised, they take great care of their animals, and you can taste the difference. The vegetables (carrots, brown mushrooms, onions, and potatoes) came from Highland Orchards (DE)—some left from the fall CSA and the rest from Fitler Square Farmers Market. Thyme from my garden, parsley also Highland Orchards. I tossed in some wine (Chile) and capers (provenance unknown) with mashed up tomatoes from summer. Good stuff for a winter supper. 

Dark Days: peas as far as the eye can see

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Blame it on my head cold or blame it on the holiday and being at home more than usual, but I managed three meals this week that qualify for the Dark Days challenge.

Two meals centered around the pound of dried black eyed peas from Margerum’s that have been hiding out in my cabinet.  One was the Black-Eyed Pea and Potato Curry I posted about a few days ago, and the other is Mushroom and Black-Eyed Pea Ragu served over polenta (lunch today).  As with the curry, the ragout was almost entirely local - the exceptions were the wine, tomato paste, and olive oil. 

I feel very lucky to be living so close to Kennett Square, the center of the universe when it comes to mushrooms.  Pretty much all year round, we never have to worry about being without mushrooms.  Sure, I sometimes wish citrus and avocadoes grew in Southeast Pennsylvania, but the mushrooms make up for it!

Today I’m just starting to feel a little better, but I don’t think I was ready to stand over a pot of polenta for half an hour.  It was totally exhausting!  I used the great toasted cornmeal sold at the Fair Food Farmstand for the polenta.  Good stuff!  I even have a little left over to serve with the ginormous amount of leftovers from the ragout.  Seriously, I could have fed an army from that recipe.

Dark Days meal #3 was dinner last night - slow-roasted leg of lamb with rosemary, garlic, and fingerling potatoes with a side of broccoli.  Again, all very locally sourced.  And economical, I might add.  I managed to get the leg of lamb at a half price sale, and it’s big enough that I have leftovers to make a lamb pot pie (which will be dinner tonight).

My sort-of New Year’s resolution for 2009 is to declutter the house...so I’ve been looking through my twelve tons of food mags and transferring the recipes I want to keep to We Gotta Eat (and then getting rid of the magazines - woohoo!).  The good news is that I’m finding all sorts of recipes that will work great for the produce that’s available around here right now.  Is there bad news?  Well, maybe - in that I may end up gaining 20 pounds due to the very awesome dessert recipes I’m also finding!

Local Food Gift Idea: Apple-Maple Jam

Sunday, December 21, 2008

I like making jam, and my friends and family enjoy eating homemade jam, so it’s one of my standard gifts these days.  However, much as I love eating strawberry marmalade in the cold of January, I hesitate to call such sugar-intensive recipes local, and they require a lot more planning ahead for use as holiday gifts.  Local apples, though, are still widely available, and don’t require as much sugar for gelling.

The two jars above are two different batches of apple-maple jam; the smaller jar, on the left, is this year’s batch, and the larger jar is last year’s.  Here’s the recipe I used:

3 qts chopped, peeled apples (~6 lb)
6 c sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves
1 c maple syrup

Prepare as jam and can in a boiling water bath.  (Put apples and sugar in a large pot.  Cook on low to medium heat, stirring, until there’s enough liquid to keep the apple bits from scorching.  Bring to a boil and then simmer until the apples are soft.  Add spices.  Cook a little more, then bring to a boil again and divide into sterile jars.) Makes about 8 half-pint jars’ worth.

That recipe is really for an apple-y, mapley jelly with chunks of apple suspended in it.  I prefer fruit preserves that are easier to spread on toast or PB&J sandwiches, so I purée mine with an immersion blender.  And I don’t peel the apples.  Otherwise, last year’s batch is pretty close to the recipe.  This year, I wanted to make my apple-maple stuff entirely local, so I used about 2c honey and 1.5c maple syrup instead of the 6c sugar and 1c maple syrup called for.  It came out quite nicely, if closer to applesauce than jam on the preserved-fruit continuum.  , If you’re looking for something to take to a latke party this week, some of what didn’t get canned was very tasty on latkes a few days ago.

Dark Days: The heartbreak of frozen asparagus

This week’s entry for the Dark Days Challenge includes the meal pictured above, as well as several meals that were not documented.  I had a lunch yesterday of local duck eggs and bacon (just like last week), as well as dinners of canned soup from local ingredients.  I realized early in the week that I’ve been stockpiling soup as if nuclear Winter is just around the corner - and not eating any of it.

I can’t be the only one who does stuff like that - you know, hoard food.  But I’m making a concerted effort to actually eat the food that I can and freeze!

The meal I actually photographed is what I had for dinner last night - proof that I’m trying to use the food that I put by!  The lamb loin chops are from Meadow Run Farm.  I brushed them with non-local mustard and Worcestershire sauce, and then broiled for about five minutes per side.  I served the lamb with a side of sauted mushrooms from Mother Earth Mushrooms and asparagus from Landisdale Farm.  The asparagus was from my freezer - and I remembered why asparagus is really only good when it’s fresh.  The taste was OK, but the texture was awful. 

Dark Days: Soupy and Dippy

Sunday, December 14, 2008

My first Dark Days challenge meal of the week was early in the week - an on-the-fly soup using stuff that I had in my kitchen and pantry.  Onions, butternut squash, Kabocha squash, tomatoes, thyme, bacon, butter, and chicken stock. 

It kind of shocks me sometimes that Winter squash like butternut and Kobacha is so hardy.  Those squash were leftover from the last few CSA share boxes!  And I still have a few more Kobacha squash out on the patio.  The tomatoes were from the CSA share, too, but they were canned (the chicken stock, too).  The onion and bacon were picked up this past weekend at the Fair Food Farmstand.  The thyme was from my garden, and I made the butter from some locally produced heavy cream.  All thrown together, it made a really great Winter soup.  Even roasted, Kobacha squash really retains good texture.

My second meal of the week was lunch yesterday - bacon and eggs!  I’m not normally a huge bacon eater, you know, just plain old bacon.  But I do love the thick, double-smoked bacon available through Fair Food every once in a while.  And the eggs were duck eggs!  I picked them up at the Fair Food (do you see a running theme here?) - they are from Hares Valley Growers. 

I’ve never had duck eggs before, so I wanted to try them in a way that would be simple: poached.  Interestingly, the yolk tasted pretty much the same but the white tasted different.  I can’t say how exactly, it was just different.  Even though I didn’t think the yolk tasted much different, there is a difference: the yolks are larger than in a regular hen egg (although the eggs themselves are the same size) and the yolk seems thicker.  For poached eggs, this is a great quality (I’m a toast dipper)!

Jelly Belly

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Even though I’m trying to get away from taking cookies to parties and giving people cookies as gifts during the holiday season, some cookies still allow you to showcase local products and stuff that you’ve made with local produce.  One of my favorites is the thumbprint jelly cookie - mostly because it really gives me a chance to use up preserves that I made during the Summer.  And right now I have strawberry jam and raspberry preserves, plus some blueberry port compote a friend made (which is delicious).

1.5 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
3 egg yolks
3 c. flour
1.5 tsp vanilla
jam, preserves, or some filling

Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add yolks, and then flour and villa.  You can work in more flour if the dough is too soft, but I like to refrigerate it for an hour to make the dough a little stiffer.

Roll into balls, make an indentation (my flatwear ends are perfect for this, as you can see), and fill the indentation with jam or some other filling.  Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 9 minutes.

Thumbprint Jelly cookies nicely packaged with a jar of the preserves used to make the cookies would make a great gift!

Seeds of Change

Monday, December 08, 2008

After roasting butternut squash and kabocha squash today for soup, I was left with a few handfuls of seeds.  Any Winter squash with larger seeds can be treated just like pumpkin seeds - they’re great just roasted with a bit of salt and olive oil. 

Now I like roasted squash seeds, but there are lots of things you can do with them.  One of my favorites is to make pesto, using the roasted seeds in place of nuts.  Basil is out of season right now (unless you’re growing it inside under grow lights), but I still have a few herbs out in the garden - and that means a good portion of the pesto can be local (like this sage and pumpkin seed pesto)!  If you preserved garlic scapes this past Summer, you might want to use them to make garlic scape-pumpkin seed pesto.  I know that arugula is seasonal right now, and I found one recipe that uses arugula, pumpkin seeds, and garlic.  Pack up some pesto in a nice jar and it makes a great hostess gift!

Roasted pumpkin seeds can also be used to make brittle - pumpkin seed brittle can make a really unusual gift.  Even Nigella Lawson has a recipe for her own version of this yummy treat!  I also found a delicious-sounding recipe for Chocolate Toffee Pumpkin Seed Bark.

Here are some other recipes involving roasted seeds that can be used in hostess gifts and potlucks:

Pumpkin Flan with Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
Candied Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin Seed Cream Scones
Pumpkin Seed Butter

I can just about guarantee you’ll be the only person to bring something to the party with pumpkin seeds that you roasted yourself!

Dark Days: Sausagefest

Sunday, December 07, 2008

My official Dark Days meal of the week was Saturday night dinner.  No doubt all my fellow volunteers at the Fair Food Farmstand were sick of hearing me talking to myself during my shift about what I might make, and asking them what I should cook!

Griggstown Quail Farm makes wonderful chicken sausages.  I picked up a pack and pan-fried them, served with some very lightly cooked spinach from Lancaster Farm Fresh and roasted cauliflower puree (cauliflower from The Common Market).  The meal was definitely 90% local - the only thing not local was the olive oil I used to roast the cauliflower (California olive oil that I picked up locally when I was in San Francisco recently) and salt.

I used to make cauliflower puree quite a bit when I was concerned about avoiding carbohydrates.  I mostly just boiled the cauliflower, but the roasted cauliflower makes a much better puree.  The boiled cauliflower puree is sort of wet.  The roasted cauliflower makes a drier puree that is fluffier.  Combined with sour cream and milk (both from Natural by Nature), well, that’s just good stuff!

Handmade Gifts: Not Another Fruitcake

The word “cake” brings to mind something sweet, spongy, and rather delicate. The word “fruit” brings to mind something sweet, juicy, brightly flavored, and nutritious.  So, why is it that when you put the two words together - “fruitcake” - the result is nothing like sweet, spongy, delicate, juicy, brightly flavored, or nutritious? When we’re deciding on food gifts for the season, we studiously avoid fruitcakes, as the last thing anyone needs to give - or receive, for that matter - is another rum-soaked brick of raisins and candied “fruit.” Yet, this year, we’ve decided on an appropriate substitute: the Bolognese bustrengo. 

Someone, someday, will devote an entire cookbook to the Italian tradition of dessert cakes made for the afternoon (accompanied by a glass of wine, preferably) rather than the end of a meal.  The bustrengo should hold a place of honor in that cookbook.  A mixture of apples, dried fruits, and cornmeal, it is the perfect cake for the Fall and Winter.  It is moist, but avoids heaviness of a fruitcake because of breadcrumbs.  In addition, olive oil is the primary fat, so you can feel smug about eating a second piece. 

This version is adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italy.  I’ve made some alterations to “localize” it:  substituting maple sugar for cane sugar; replacing 1 cup of the milk with 1 cup of buttermilk to maintain the acidity lost from not adding lemon and orange zest; using white spelt flour rather than white flour; using a mixture of various dried fruits rather than sultanas and dried figs.  Obviously, not everything is local, but the cinnamon is a crucial flavor component, and, more importantly, how can I feel smug about eating that second piece without olive oil?

Bustrengo
Adapted from Jamie’s Italy
1 cup cornmeal
1 3/4 cups white spelt flour
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
1/3 cup maple sugar
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup olive oil
7 oz.  dried fruit, chopped
18 oz. apples peeled, cored, and diced
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 and butter a eleven-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.
2.  Mix together the polenta, flour, breadcrumbs, and sugar in a large bowl.  Mix together the milk, eggs, honey, and olive oil in a separate bowl.
3.  Add the wet mixture to the dry, stirring well.  Add the dried fruit, apples, cinnamon, and salt and stir again.
4.  Pour the mixture into the tart pan and bake for 50 minutes. 

Note:  I attempted this in a bundt pan, and it did not cook evenly.  However, anything relatively shallow should be fine.  Try it with some small loaf pans or maybe even muffin tins.  Whatever you use, be sure to butter and flour the interior first. 

The gift of quince

Monday, December 01, 2008

The quince is not a very common and recognizable fruit to most Americans.  It’s not really a fruit that you can eat raw (it’s kind of hard and sour), but cooked it’s amazing!  I used quince this year in my cranberry sauce and it was fantastic (even though he won’t admit, even my husband really liked it).

Because the quince is not commonly found in the grocery store, it has a faintly exotic air - making it really perfect for use in holiday food gifts.  And luckily quince is in season right now (the Fair Food Farmstand is carrying them, and I’m sure they’re available elsewhere in the area)!

Below are some great ideas for turning quinces into portable gifts to give at parties!

Quince Paste.  This might be a good gift for someone who bakes.  Many recipes call for quince paste, but you can’t just find the paste anywhere!  Alternatively, quince paste is great served with cheese and crackers - it would be a fantastic gift for the host of a wine and cheese party!

Quince Pound Cake.  Pound cake is the gift that keeps on giving - and the pretty pink/red color the quinces turn when cooked make this a highly festive gift.

Quince Cheese.  Fruit cheese is a firm jam that is meant to be molded and cut into chunks to eat with meat.  Shockingly, this gift has real longevity - it will last for up to two years!!

Spiced Quince and Brown Butter Cake.  These little mini cakes look tremendously good! No doubt they would be a very welcome gift wherever you go!

Quince Jam.  Any jam or jelly makes a great gift around the holidays, but quince jam makes a statement!  I love the idea of giving away quince jam with some good croissant.

Quince Sambal.  If you’re calling on someone who isn’t down with the sweets, consider handing over some quince sambal.  This is a spicy condiment that’s super easy to make!

If you are feeling particularly motivated and want to offer a homebrew, I did find a recipe for Parsnip and Quince White Wine.  I don’t know how I feel about the parsnips, but I am definitely intrigued!  Of course, you’re supposed to age for one year...so this may be a gift better suited for next year!

It’s Handmade Gifts Challenge Month!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

The holiday season is always full of parties and other events for which we are expected to bring a gift, or we want to bring a little something to the host or hostess just to be polite.  In nearly all cases, I lug along a bottle of wine.  While that sort of thing is almost universally appreciated, most of the time I have a little bit of guilt - I feel like I should have put more thought into my gift, more effort.  When I have a holiday party, I love receiving little gifts of handmade food and things like that - from cookies to canned goods to special vinegars.

In many ways, I feel like - no matter what holiday you do or don’t celebrate in December - this is the time to show your friends and family how much you appreciate them.  Handmade gifts say alot, and it’s my goal this year to make more of an effort deliver handmade gifts wherever I go this season.  And that’s why I’m declaring December Handmade Gifts Challenge Month at Farm to Philly!  I and the other contributors will be posting our favorite ideas for handmade food and beverage gifts made from locally grown foods throughout the month of December.

On a related note, Farm to Philly would love to have a few more writers!  We don’t have many rules around here - there’s a one post per month minimum, and the focus of your post has to be related to seasonal eating and locally grown products in the Philadelphia area (that includes the ‘burbs and South Jersey).  It’s a volunteer gig.  Becoming a contributor is easy - just email me and we’ll get you set up with a log-in and password and all the pertinent information.  The more, the merrier!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving is here again!  This day is always a little stressful, particularly if you’re cooking.  I chopped and prepped and cooked for eight hours yesterday and another two hours this morning.  There’s still quite a bit left to be done! 

Thanksgiving for those of us in the Northeast part of the country is a no-brainer in terms of eating seasonally.  The first Thanksgiving, fictional or not, was all seasonal and local - and so the foods we associate with Thanksgiving are seasonal for us during this time.  Of course, the majority of people are eating potatoes, cranberry sauce, and turkey from no where near here.  I recently spoke to a reporter about my Thanksgiving menu.  He asked me if there was anything I had sacrificed in order to keep it local.  The answer is no - I’m making exactly what I want, and I didn’t even try to plan a menu featuring locally grown foods.  The Dark Days Challenge allows for 10% non-local ingredients, and I very much doubt the total of non-local ingredients totals even 5%.

The menu:

Bourbon Red Turkey with Juniper Ginger Butter (non-local: ginger)
Apple Cider Gravy
Pumpkin Chestnut Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Shallots
Sherry Vinegar and Molasses Glazed Carrots
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnuts and Browned Butter (non-local: hazelnuts)
Cauliflower and Prosciutto Gratin (non-local: prosciutto)
Cranberry Quince Sauce with Pinot Noir (non-local: Pinot Noir)
Cranberry Orange Pavlovas (non-local: orange, sugar, vanilla)
Apple Cake (non-local: sugar and cinnamon)

Well, duty calls: stuffing needs to be made, meringues need to come out of the oven, and shallots need to be caramelized.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Farm to Philly!

Broccoli and Cabbage for Thanksgiving

Monday, November 24, 2008

Although we keep the turkey, stuffing, and roasted veggies pretty consistent from Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving, we like to vary the green vegetable dishes.  This year may see a version of a broccoli-garlic salad from the New York Times.  Pictured above is the test version I made yesterday, with local broccoli, red cabbage, daikon, carrot, and garlic.  (I used about 2/3 of a large head of broccoli and half a medium-sized head of cabbage.) I think it came out pretty well, with a little extra vinegar and salt to make up for the additional volume from the cabbage.

Turkey Day Challenge: Cranberry Quince Pinot Noir Sauce

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Thanksgiving at my house is sort of like a miniature West Side Story, except instead of the Jets and the Sharks it’s the Canned Cranberry Jelly Lovers and the Real Cranberry Sauce Lovers.  Now granted, it’s not like we’re all dancing around my dining room and getting into choreographed knife fights over dessert...but if accidentally-on-purpose forgot to buy a can of cranberry jelly, well, it might well devolve into something like that.  My husband won’t eat it unless you can read the date imprint in the jelly from the can...and I won’t eat it unless it’s homemade.

In some ways, this is a good thing.  I don’t have to worry about catering to someone else’s tastes....because I’m the only one eating the cranberry sauce.  I can make whatever the hell I want.  Last year it was honey and spice cranberry sauce and the year before it was the bourbon cranberry sauce.  Both good, but variety is the spice of life!

So this year it’s cranberry quince Pinot Noir sauce.  It’s both sweet and tart, and very very delicious!

2 cups apple juice
1 cup Pinot Noir
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
6 cloves
1 teaspoon peppercorns
2 quinces, peeled, cored, and cut into small cubes
12 oz fresh cranberries

Bring the apple juice, wine, and spices to a boil in a large saucepan.  Add sugar, stirring until dissolved.  Add quince and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add cranberries and simmer for an additional seven minutes.  Toss the cloves out, and remove fruit from liquid.

Boil the liquid until it’s thick and syrupy.  You may need to add more wine at this point to get the volume of syrup you need.

Combine syrup and fruit; serve.  Or, in my case, can it.  It makes 2.5 pints of sauce.

The quinces, cranberries, and cider vinegar are all local.

I can’t wait to unveil my latest cranberry sauce variety on Thursday.  If I can convince anyone to at least try it, I may get some converts to homemade cranberry sauce this year!  Or I may find myself alone in the kitchen singing “When you’re a Jet you’re a Jet to the end....” Either way, this is great sauce!