Dark Days: Hominy grits with leeks and butternut

Friday, December 21, 2007

I got home from work last night and was all alone - my husband was finishing his holiday shopping.  The idea of making anything I wanted was almost too much for me.  In the kitchen I weighed my options.  And then my eyes fell on that bag of locally grown grits I bought a few weeks ago.  Well…why not?

Having never cooked grits before in my entire life, I winged it - I boiled up a few cups of water and a cup of milk, threw in some salt and parsley, then a cup of grits and waited to see what happened while I stirred like a maniac.  Miraculously, it all cooked up rather nicely.  And while it was, I sauteed up some sliced leeks and cubed, roasted butternut squash in butter.  As a last minute addition to the grits, I stirred in some sharp goat cheese. 

It turned out to be a delicious combination - goat cheese grits topped with sauteed leeks and butternut squash and finished with a couple curls of parmesan and a splash of balsamic vinegar.  Best yet, aside from the salt and vinegar it was all local and in season.  The grits were from Lancaster County (purchased at Kauffmann’s at Reading Terminal Market); the leeks, butter, and milk were from the Fair Food Farmstand; the butternut is a leftover from my last CSA share, the parsley was dried from my garden, the parmesan from Hendricks Farms, and the goat cheese from Shellbark Hollow.

Dark Days: Winter Vegetable Chowder

Saturday, December 15, 2007

I practically live on soup in the colder months.  That should be obvious - this is my second Dark Days Challenge meal of the week that was soup...and in truth, both were pots of soup, so I’ve been eating both soups all week.  The pot of soup I just made is my secret weapon soup - it’s always good and uses up whatever Winter vegetables you have on hand.

In my case, that was carrots, turnips, parsnips, and celery root (all picked up from the Fair Food Farmstand).  The recipe calls for four cups of any Winter vegetable.  I’m not sure beets would work, but any other root type of vegetable probably would.

The other thing I really like about this soup is that it gives me a chance to forage in my own back yard - it calls for five crushed juniper berries.  My juniper bushes are full of berries right now!

For all the ingredients in this soup, only a few aren’t local - the salt and pepper.  That’s it!  The parsley, thyme, and bay are from my garden, the vegetables were picked up at the farmstand (except the potatoes, which are leftovers from the last CSA share), the milk and butter are local, the flour is local Daisy flour, I used local raw milk cheddar, and the bread is from Le Bus.

2 c. milk
3 parsley branches
1/4 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/2 onion, sliced
10 peppercorns, slightly crushed
5 juniper berries, slightly crushed
2 Tbsp butter
2 large leeks, chopped
4 c. chopped winter vegetables [I used turnips, celery root, and carrot
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 small bay leaves
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper
2 Tbsp flour
slices of sourdough
shaved parmesan cheese

Put milk, parsley stems, thyme, 2 bay leaves, onion, peppercorns, and juniper berries in a saucepan; bring to a boil, remove from heat and let steep while cooking vegetables.

Melt butter in a soup pot over low heat.  Add veggies, 2 bay leaves, parsley, and two pinches of salt; cover and cook for two minutes.  Add flour; stir well.  Add five cups of water; boil.  Lower heat to simmer; cook 20-25 minutes until veggies are fork tender.  Strain milk into soup pot and toss the solids.  Season with salt and pepper.

Place a slice of bread in the bottom of a bowl, sprinkle with shaved parmesan, and ladle soup over bread and cheese.

A word of warning: this is some of the most filling soup ever!

Dark Days: ham and bean soup

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The dried beans I purchased from Margerum’s last month have been hibernating in my kitchen.  In truth, I’ve been a little hesitant to use them.  It’s sort of like that whole thing with Elaine and her “spongeworthy” dilemma from Seinfeld - those dried beans are such a great (and not widely available) commodity that I start to second guess myself when I have a recipe idea.  Is that soup recipe spongeworthy?  Well, you know what I mean.  I just don’t want to waste locally grown dried beans on just any old recipe.

Finally, I got over myself.  I mean, they’re beans and they’re meant to be eaten.  And if I run out of beans and can’t find any more this Winter, I’ll just have to live with it and resolve to stock up for next year.  And then I grabbed up a slab of ham from Country Time Farm in Hamburg, PA and made ham and bean soup. 

It’s been a little warm this December to be true soup weather, but this really hit the spot!

1/2 lb of white beans (Margerum’s)
1 quarts of water
1.5 lb of smoked ham steak with a small pc. of bone, cubed and bone reserved (Country Time Farm)
1/2 cup of diced onions (alas, not local)
1 cup chopped celery (from my CSA share, frozen)
1/2 cup chopped carrots (Lancaster Farm Fresh)
2 cloves garlic, diced (Landisdale Farm)
Salt and pepper
chopped parsley (my garden, dried)

Soak the beans in cold water for about 2 hrs. Drain.

Place all ingredients in a big old soup pot, cover with water and simmer for about an hour and a half.  If you want a thicker soup, cook the beans for about an hour and then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for another hour.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

I must admit, I’m kind of excited about the prospect of a Nor’easter coming through on Sunday.  It’s my fervent wish for us all to get snowed in for a couple of days.  We’ve got wood for the fireplace, and lots of soup!

Dark Days: Teriyaki Chicken

Saturday, December 08, 2007

December is always such a busy month - things to do, people to see, Chriskwanzakah gifts to purchase and wrap.  Comfort food rules around my house this time of year, as you can tell from my other Dark Days Challenge meal this week.  My second meal is just as comforting and contains more locally grown chicken - chicken teriyaki stir fried with spaghetti squash. 

The spaghetti squash is a little something from one of my last CSA shares.  I roasted it, and packed the flesh into the freezer.  I’m so happy to have several servings of spaghetti squash available like that - it’s so delicious!  Beyond that, a little teriyaki sauce, a little cider vinegar, a pinch of sugar and salt.  A very nice, mostly locally grown meal!

Dark Days: Chicken Parmesan

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Having caught whatever plague is making its rounds in Philadelphia this week, I’ve not been much in the mood to cook.  That’s not entirely true - but my meals haven’t been all that interesting or elaborate.  It’s been grilled cheese and soup, mostly.  Of course, it’s all been local - good bread from Le Bus, local butter, and the most awesome raw milk cheddar available from the Fair Food Farmstand, as well as soup made from homemade stock and whatever local vegetables were handy.

Now that I’m starting to feel better, I felt compelled to make a real dinner.  Nothing too complicated, mind you…but still a little more involved than grilled cheese!

Of course, it was still comfort food: chicken parmesan and steamed green beans.

The chicken is from Harry Ochs in Reading Terminal Market, the bread crumbs made from my leftover Le Bus bread, the tomato sauce is from my pantry (I canned it this past Summer), and the parmesan is that wonderful parm from Hendrick’s Farms (purchased at Salumeria in Reading Terminal).  And the green beans were from this past Summer’s CSA bounty.  It made a nice, homey dinner that was perfect eaten in front of the fire.

Winter Harvest buying club

Monday, November 26, 2007

So!  CSA shares have ended, the Thanksgiving cooking extravaganza is over—and you may be feeling that your pantry/refrigerator is rather bare now, your local food supply (and supply of sugar for baking, in my case) more than decimated.

Well really, I’m sure none of you are despairing about places to purchase local food over the winter.  E.g., the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal is still open Tues.-Sun., and we have plenty of varieties of leafy greens and tubers to explore.    But here’s another excellent way to continue purchasing local food over the winter—Farm to City’s Winter Harvest buying club!  I’ll describe the buying club a bit, then you should rush out and join—the deadline for the current ordering period (for deliveries during DECEMBER) is 5 pm on Wed., 28 Nov.  (My apologies for not posting this earlier to give you more time to investigate, but the good news is that we are now set up to accept initial payments by credit card through PayPal, rather than merely snail-mailing a check.  Or no worries, you can start ordering any month—place an order at the end of Dec. for deliveries during JANUARY.)

Winter Harvest is a buying club facilitated by Farm to City, designed to conveniently bring local food to urban residents during the wintertime.  There is still plenty of food that can be locally produced or stored over the winter, such as grass-fed meats, raw milk and cheeses and other dairy goods, spices, jarred goods, skincare products, and even some vegetables.  Currently we have over 400 available products; check out the list at our website (Farm to City website @ http://www.farmtocity.org -> buying clubs -> Philadelphia Winter Harvest.)

Here’s how it works.  You send a $50 check to our bookkeeper at the usps mailing address listed under ‘Ordering Instructions’—OR, newly-available, you can use PayPal.  Note that you are not buying a ‘share’ or paying an extra membership fee.  This $50 does make you a ‘Winter Harvest member’ inasmuch as you receive a password-protected account on the Farm to City website through which you place your orders, but that $50 is entirely contributed to your first order(s).  During the ordering period, which is approximately the last week of a month (e.g., November), you place your order for the next month (e.g., December).  Because it’s a buying club, you can order whatever and however much food you would like, and you schedule the frequency of delivery.  You pick a drop site that is convenient for you, and you can choose deliveries weekly, every other week, or monthly.  So, one person may order half a gallon of raw milk once a month, and another household may receive a large order of meats and vegetables every week.

Check it out!  (And perhaps mention if you found out about the program through this blog; I’m curious whether this is an announcement about a new resource for people.)

Dark Days: A Fungus Among Us

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

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

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

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

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

Preheat the broiler.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, November 11, 2007

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

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

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

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

I vote for eggs

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Some of the other people participating in the Dark Days Challenge raise their own chickens.  My mother, whose morning chore every day growing up on the farm was feeding the chickens (a chore she detested), would laugh derisively at me for saying this, but I’m a little envious.  While I have no particular fascination for chickens, I do so love the idea of having fresh eggs.  I live in a highly zoned neighborhood, and the township would freak if I tried to have my own little flock of chickens.  It’s annoying, but then I read stories like this and think maybe it’s all for the best.

With fresh eggs available from Meadow Run Farm (this is a mix of their brown and blue eggs), I can’t get too freaked out about not having access to a couple of hens in the backyard.  I know people who say they can’t tell the difference between store bought, factory farmed eggs and fresh, pasture raised eggs, but those people are crazy.  The difference is huge.  The eggs taste completely different and the yolk usually looks pretty different, as well, having everything to do with what the chickens eat.

Last year my husband and I went on a vacation to Greece and Turkey.  While on the island of Rhodes, we had breakfast that included the most amazing eggs.  The yolk was practically dayglo orange, and just fantastic.  We briefly considered moving to Rhodes just so we could have those eggs every morning.  Meadow Run Farm eggs do stop us from giving up our glam lives and becoming Greek citizens.

All this talk of eggs, just to get to my Dark Days dinner for this evening (my second this week)!  On election day (after voting, of course), I made a delicious omelet of Meadow Run Farm eggs, local cream, a red onion from the CSA carmelized in local butter, a chopped tomato from my garden (I still have a pile of tomatoes on my back porch!), and some raw milk cheddar from Green Meadow Farms.  The only things not local: salt and pepper.

On a vaguely related note, I recently got into a discussion with someone regarding eggs from vegetarian chickens.  My friend maintained that these would be great eggs, coming from a farm that claims to pasture their chickens (this is store bought eggs, I might add).  I say the eggs couldn’t possibly come from pastured chickens because no farm could pasture their chickens yet keep them from eating grubs and other bugs…unless maybe the chickens are pastured in a very artificial way.  Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Dark Days: Deluxe Comfort Food

Monday, November 05, 2007

There are few things I like more than a grilled cheese sandwich on a cold day.  I know it’s not the healthiest thing in the world, but it’s so good! Total comfort.  And with a bowl of homemade soup, well…it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Last night I got home from a busy, work-related weekend and all I wanted was something soothing and good.  Making soup from scratch is easy (and soothing all by itself), particularly if you’ve been freezing the spare odds and ends of produce throughout the Summer season.  I started with non-local walnut oil and sauteed some sliced onions, and added in two pints of the duck stock I made and canned a few months ago.  I cubed the last acorn squash and carrots from the CSA share, and some parsnips I recently purchased.  In went some dried beans, both recently purchased and the very last of the beans I grew in the garden.  And then I just started grabbing things out of the freezer - the peppers I roasted and froze, turnip tops, kale, scallions.  Delicious!

And the grilled cheese!  Good multi-grain bread from Le Bus, raw milk cheddar from Green Meadow Farms, and local butter.  I promptly forgot all about having to work all weekend.

The only things not local: salt and pepper, walnut oil, and the bread.  Granted, it is from a local bakery - surely that has to count for something!

Dark Days: steak and hookers

Monday, October 29, 2007

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

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

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

This is how I cooked the Hakurei turnips:

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Hen-pecked

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Two Dark Days challenge meals in one week?  I guess I’m off to a good start and feeling motivated.  Of course, now that my dragonboat season is over, I find myself with a bit of extra time!  What better way to spend it than cooking?

Last night’s dinner was local Cornish hen stuffed with the dregs of the garlic from my garden, along with mashed potatoes (local potatoes, milk, and butter) and carrots glazed in balsamic vinegar and butter (local carrots, butter, and chives from my garden).  The only things not local: pepper and grey sea salt with lavender (used to season the chicken), sugar and balsamic vinegar.in the carrots.

The carrots, coincidentally, were the star of the meal.  I’ve been sort of hoarding the last batch of multi-color carrots I received from my final CSA share, and used them last night.  My husband was a little weirded out by the purple and white carrots…until he tried them.  Corporate farmed, grocery store carrots taste like carrots….until you try carrots that have been grown organically by a small farmer.  They just taste…I don’t know, carrot-ier.

Dark Days: Rabbit Pot Pie

Saturday, October 20, 2007

I put the garden to bed today.  Well, most of it.  The brussels sprouts are still out there growing.  It seemed crazy to tear up almost all the plants, though.  We’ve had an incredibly warm Autumn here in the Philly area and I had fresh buds on my tomatoes and lima beans, the herbs still looked good.  But I know what will happen if I don’t take the garden down now: it’ll go directly from 75 to 35 and I won’t want to get out in the garden.

The big highlight of the day was digging up the potatoes.  We have fairly heavy clay soil out here in my part of Delaware County, so I wasn’t sure if potatoes would grow for me without a lot of work.  Yes, I dug up the bed and amended it with all sorts of things.  All for naught, apparently: out of the 12 hills of potatoes I planted, we only got five potatoes.  Yes, really.  Five.  Weirdly, it was at least a sampling of all the varieties I planted. 

I was heartbroken over the sad, five potatoes, but it made me determined to use them well.  I started thinking about what else I pulled out of the garden today - lots of herbs and a few teeny little baby carrots.  I also had a single head of garlic left from my garden, and onions from the CSA share.  And a rabbit from a local source.  What else could I make but pot pie?  A Dark Days Challenge meal is born!

1 rabbit, cut into bite sized pieces
water
vinegar
salt and pepper
flour
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 carrots, diced
5 potatoes, diced
a bit of dill and basil, chopped
pizza crust (no, the crust wasn’t local - it was store bought)

Soak rabbit in equal parts of water and vinegar overnight.  Remove rabbit from water/vinegar mixture and dry. Season with salt and pepper to taste and roll in flour (I used Daisy Flour from Lancaster County).

In a large skillet, heat a little oil and brown the rabbit quickly on both sides.

Add enough water to cover the rabbit. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

Add the onions, garlic, carrots, and potatoes. Cover and simmer until carrots are tender.  Add in herbs.

Roll out pizza crust and press into a greased baking dish.  Bake for five minutes at 375 degrees.

Ladle the filling into the crust, and top with another layer of crust.

Cook at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.

I know the idea of eating rabbit is unappealing to many people, but farm raised rabbit is really very mild and not in any way gamey.  It was tender and delicious, and the pot pie was fabulous!  It could only have been improved with a cooler night and a fire in the fireplace.