ten-eleven
Gregg got married. At the farm. It was an ideal farm wedding. Great weather, great food, great drinks, great band and I feel comfortable speaking for everyone in saying we had a great time. Great. But really it deserves another post all on it’s own…
Way to go buddy, I hope you’re dipping your toes in the warm waters of the Colombian coast right now.
Now for the recipes.
Here’s a leek recipe.
Broiled Leeks
-1 bunch of leeks, trimmed at dark green part, split in half lengthwise, and roots trimmed BUT stem still attached
-Handful of bread crumbs (I make my own by baking old bread with oil, salt, and pepper then grinding with fresh herbs like rosemary)
-1/4 cup of reduced cream
-Grated parm cheese
-zest of one lemon
-olive oil
Saute leeks in pretty hot oil cut side down for 3-4 minutes until golden brown and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Arrange leeks at the bottom of a baking dish and top with drizzled reduced cream, lemon zest, bread crumbs, and cheese. Put under the broiler for another 4 minutes or so until brown on top.
Since we missed a week, here’s a second recipe
Tomato Pie
-Several large tomatoes sliced and salted and set in a colander
-1 pie crust pre-baked (otherwise known as blind baked)
-1 green pepper sliced/seeds removed
-1/2 package of mascarpone cheese
-2 Tbl of heavy cream
-2 garlic cloves minced
-drizzle of olive oil
-small piece of parmigiano cheese for grating
-fresh herbs like basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme
Prebake pie crust until lightly golden. Slice the tomatoes and season with salt on all sides. Lay tomatoes on rack or in a colander to let the juices release. This will help prevent the tart from being too soggy. Soften garlic in a little butter or oil for a minute then add cream and mascarpone (or ricotta if you don’t have it). Pinch some salt and pepper in this mixture and stir it until mixed well. Take off heat. Saute peppers in another pan for a couple minutes until lightly soft. Take off heat. Spread your cheese mixture over bottom of pie crust and lay out your peppers. Chop up a bunch of herbs and toss them with your tomatoes. Now layer your tomatoes on top of your cheese and peppers until the tart is filled. Finally grate some parmigiano over the top and drizzles with a little olive oil. Bake in 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until the tomatoes are heated through. Let sit for 5 minutes or so for pie to settle. Cut into wedges and EAT!!!
Nine
Lots of tomatoes are going around right now and it seems like everybody has a friend who’s growing some. We are growing some too. We’re also growing other stuff. Some of that stuff went into your bags this week like okra, potatoes, and shallots for example. And are you wondering what the yellow powder was? It’s a madras curry powder. I thought it would be a good week for a curry recipe. But to make matters a little more exciting, you’ll have a recipe for naan too. Here’s the lowdown on your curry and naan.
1 pile of cleaned/dried/sliced okra
1 pile of peeled/quartered/sliced or diced potatoes
1 large tomato cored and diced
5 shallots chopped (our shallots are small, this is why I’m saying 5)
1 1/2 tsp of curry powder
1 cup of water – maybe more
salt and pepper to taste
Canola oil
Fry okra in 2 tbl of canola oil, until golden brown – season with salt. Set aside on paper towel. Add a touch more oil and throw your potatoes in and cook for 5-10 minutes stirring INfrequently so the potatoes will get some color. Throw in your shallots and toss around to cook the shallots for a minute. Now put okra back in the pan and add the curry powder. Toss around and cook for a minute to toast the spices. Now add your tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil then drop to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are fork tender (maybe just 6 more minutes). Season with a pinch of salt and serve over some Indian rice like basmati.
Naan
3 cups unbleached AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup buttermilk room temp
about 1 cup of warm water
melted butter for brushing
rock salt for sprinkling (use any salt – I used fleur de sel though)
Parchment paper and foil
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl thoroughly. Add buttermilk and quickly stir in – flour will still be very dry with a few wet places. Gradually add a few tbl of warm water over mixture – stirring as you go until a ball forms. It will probably be about a cup of water total. Knead for a minute or two – should be fairly wet, but have confidence in the dough. Don’t continue to add flour to it. You want it to be somewhat wet. Separate into four round portions and brush with melted butter, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for 30 min. Now place a pizza stone on your grill and turn it on the highest setting. You will want your grill as close to 600-700 degrees as possible. Meanwhile, lightly flour your countertop and stretch the naan out to roughly 4 to 6 inches patties – slapping between the palms of your hands at times. Sprinkle rock salt over and gently press in dough. Lay each flat disc in between pieces of parchment. When grill is hot, open lid and lay down one round disc of naan (salted side facing the pizza stone) and close the lid. Don’t open it for another 2-3 min. After 3 min or so, open lid and flip the naan over and close it again. Cook for another minute or so on this side and take out of grill – brush with butter, sprinkle with some more salt, and tuck inside a foil pouch to keep warm while your repeat this process with the next 3. Enjoy this tasty bread with your curry and some delicious rice.
We have a weed problem. Let’s be honest, they win some, we win some. Here is a story of us winning one. (The audio should accompany the pictures. Press play below and enjoy.)
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8 Weeks in.
I want to remind you that this is not a food blog. It’s a way for us to interact with our members and anyone else for that matter.
I don’t consider myself a foodie and I hope it stays that way. Food is fudamental. A perfect way to serve others. If someone takes the time to make me dinner, i’m going to love it. I will always be thankful. The minute we start to obsess over it, we destroy it. Refined cookery is good – it has it’s place. I just see it as a more dedicated and directed vision of service, but my philosophy will always be one of simplicity.
Pasta is simplicity. Here is a straight up now tell me version of a Pasta Carbonara. No bones about it. Enjoy the sexy food pics 🙂 It’s not obsession – just want to make it good for the customers.
2 FRESH raw egg yolks per person
1/4 cup of cubed pancetta or bacon per person
1/4 cup of finely grated Parmigiano or Pecorino per person
1/3 cup of thinly sliced shallots per person
Lots of cracked pepper
110 grams of pasta per person (a standard box is about 450 grams)
As you can see, I wrote this recipe per person so you can adapt it to the size of your meal easily.
Crack egg yolks into a bowl and mix in the cheese and lots of black pepper. Don’t worry about adding any salt becasue the pancetta and cheese will take care of that. In a dry low pan, cook your cubed pancetta and let the fat slowly melt away – stirring occasionally. After 8 minutes or so, while the pancetta is still rendering (fat melting) add the shallots and continue to soften the shallots on low heat. When Shallots are cooked, turn off heat and set aside. There should be enough ‘oil’ in the pan left from the pancetta – if it doesn’t coat the bottom of the pan then add a drizzle of good olive oil. Meanwhile your pasta should be cooking in salted water. Take out and pour over your slightly cooled down pancetta and shallots and stir in your egg mixture. This is the tricky part, you don’t want the pasta to be SO hot that it scrambles your egg yolks, but you DO want it hot to make the sauce creamy and nice. Top with more cheese and cracked pepper. Serve immediately. I changed my pasta from fettucine to penne in the pictures – penne is a better choice.
Enjoy.
For archival purposes – Here’s a recap of what went into your bags this week.
Yukon Gold Potatoes, Yaya, Purple Haze, and Danvers Half Long Carrots, French Shallots, Yellow Onions, Purple Ruffle Basil, Sweet Basil, Tomatoes – Green Heirlooms and Regular ole Better Boy, Zucchini, Peppers, Cucumbers, and Homemade Mozzarella.
Week Something In the Kitchen
Homemade Potato Chips
Brian will be the flashy, glitz and glam, recipe poster, and I’ll take care of the more “meat and potatoes” side of things.
-3-4 decent sized Yukon Gold Potatoes
-an oil that has a high smoke/flash point. I like canola, but vegetable or sunflower or anything light will work. You’ll need enough so that you chips will float.
-whatever seasoning you want. I think ground rosemary would be good, but salt and ketchup is my “go to”. 🙂
The first trick to deep frying your own potato chips is to hard boil the potatoes. So first thing, get a pot of water on the stove and bring it to a rolling boil. Clean the dirt off the potatoes and plunk them on in and let boil for 8 minutes. You want to boil them long enough to remove the starch but keep the skins. If the skins start to come off, you’ve boiled them too long. No big deal, they’ll still be good. After you’ve boiled them for 8 minutes, drain the water and let potatoes sit on cutting board to cool for a bit. They’re kind of hard to handle right out of the boiling water. If you have a mandolin, this is a great opportunity to use it. If not, this is a great opportunity to practice some knife skills.
For easier cutting, I slice the potatoes in half, then put the cut side down. This way it stabilizes the potato while you’re pushing down with the knife. You want to slice the potatoes as thin as you can. They’ll be good sliced a little thick, but I like mine really thin so they have a nice crispy crunch when they come out of the oil.
While you’re cutting, put your oil in a deep pot and turn the heat to medium to medium high. You need to keep a good eye on the oil. If it starts to smoke, remove the pot from the eye and let cool, and bring the heat down a couple notches. When you put the potatoes in, there will be some steam, and that’s OK, but smoke is not your friend. You need the deep pot because when you put them in the oil bubbles and rises. That’s OK, but don’t let it boil over.
While you are slicing, toss one chip in. If it sinks, your oil isn’t hot enough. Once it floats, you’re ready to go. Slowly add your chips. You want to add as many as possible but at the same time all the chips need to be submerged and not up and out of the oil. Probe and move around the chips and once they feel pretty crisp go ahead and take them out. If they start to turn brown, I don’t think the flavor is as good. Take them out and put them in a big metal bowl. Toss in some spices to taste, toss and enjoy. I’ve found these to be a big hit if your are entertaining, but that involves being really hot over the stove at your party. Your call though. Good luck and please be careful.
Week 5 In the Kitchen
Quick recap of what went into your boxes…
Mesclun Salad Mix
Yukon Gold & Banana Fingerling Potatoes
Yaya and Purple Haze Carrots
Marketmore & Mini White Cucumbers
French Shallots
Soleil & Jade Bush Beans
Flash Collard Greens
This week, yer’ll getting a pickle recipe. Why? you ask… because four of the 6 items in your bag taste delicious as pickles.
Let’s get one thing clear…a pickle doesn’t have to be a cucumber to be considered a pickle. Think of it more as a verb – the act of pickling… preserving in brine. With so many vegetables being picked and so little time to eat it all, pickling becomes a great way to get the most of a harvest. Last week, I made pickles out of radishes, carrots, zucchini, onions, shallots, and … well cucumbers of course. So far, they’re delicious.
Here is a siiiiiimple way to make your own. Use this as your base and please, get carried away with your pickle making… it will be more fun.
Peeled and cut vegetables (into sizes and shapes that fit into mason jars)
-1 cup of water
-2/3 cup of vinegar (I love rice wine vinegar, but white vinegar is classic and apple cider vinegar makes for an interesting flavor)
-1/2 cup sugar (this makes a sweeter pickle… add less if your prefer)
-2 1/2 tsp of kosher salt (kosher or pickling salt is key here…most other salts will turn the liquid cloudy)
-Your Imagination
Sterilize your jars in boiling water or put them in a hot oven for 10 minutes or so… Dissolve your sugar and salt into the vinegar and water on a stovetop. Meanwhile, arrange your vegetables into the jars while adding whatever spices, herbs, and flavorings you’d like. A great combination is dried chillis, garlic cloves, coriander seeds, mustard seed, and dill with sliced cucumbers. You could also put cinnamon sticks with a cider vinegar pickle to make apple-cinnamon pickles. Tarragon pickles would be delicious infusing a clean white wine vinegar with black peppercorns, mustard seed, and half of the sugar. You see where i’m going here? Anyways, pack your vegetables in the clean mason jars with whatever flavors you want. Pour the hot liquid over the vegetables until almost full and seal each jar immediately while the liquid is hot. You can choose to process your jars at this point by submerging them in a HUGE pot of simmering water or you can leave them as is. Processing the jars will give them a considerably longer shelf life, but they will also soften your vegetables by cooking them and destroying the crunchy pickle texture. I chose to not process mine – i expect them to last in their jars for a couple of months. Cucumbers are obviously great to pickle, but don’t be afraid to try other items like carrots, bush beans, garlic, shallots … Pickles can be eaten whenever you want, but I would wait at least 2 days
Enjoy your week!
B&G
Here are a couple pictures of our finished products.
Week 4 In the Kitchen
Thanks for moving your schedules around for our Saturday pickup. We were happy to put some new additions in the bags this week and we hope you were happy to get em.
There’s no need for a post AND a recipe this week, so we’ll stick to the recipe. I made this tonight and it turned out great, I’m tweaking it a little for the recipe, but all in all we loved it. We realize that you don’t have zucchini in your bags this week, but you DO have potatoes and that’s all that’s necessary… you can certainly pick up some zucchinis at one of the farmer’s markets or grocery stores if you’d like.
Potato and Zucchini Gratin
1 pint of Heavy Cream
3 or 4 good size Yukon gold potatoes unpeeled and sliced very thinly … oh about 1/8 inch
1 ½ zucchinis sliced a little thicker than your potatoes.
3 garlic cloves sliced
1 spring onion (or ¼ of a standard white or yellow onion onion sliced thinly)
1 package of a good melting cheese (I used gorgonzola, but gruyere would be traditional and very nice)
Fresh nutmeg to taste
Turn oven to 375. Soften the garlic and onions on low heat over a dash of olive oil. Continuing on low-ish heat, add the cream and grate some nutmeg over top (maybe 1/4 tsp), sprinkle a three finger pinch of salt, and crack some black pepper into the cream mixture. Let this cream mixture heat up over low heat for 10 – 15 minutes so that it’s HOT and slightly reduced. While this is heating up, slice your potatoes and zucchini into thin discs. It’s important for the potatoes to be very thin, but the zucchini can be a little bit thicker because it will cook through faster. After the cream is where you want it, whisk in about 2/3 of the cheese – saving the rest to top the gratin. Next, arrange the potatoes and zucchini in a lightly greased gratin dish or baking dish however you would like to arrange them… So long as you do it in a way that you can top each layer with the cream. Now ladle some cream over each layer of the gratin and finally top it with more cream and the rest of the cheese. Make sure everything is coated in the cream by patting down those parts that need to be patted down.
Put in the center of your 375 oven for 45 minutes to an hour. It will be brown and delicious. If you are worried about your potatoes being too thick, you can leave it on the oven a little longer… Another great way to do this would be to simmer the potatoes in milk for ten minutes before you layer them in the gratin… if you have the time.
Check out the pictures for any references.
for variations of this – add some drained chorizo and green chiles while substituing chili powder and coriander for the nutmeg and queso blanco or monterey jack for the gorgonzola. yeah… that’d be good. Not too sure how well the queso blanco would melt down in the cream, but it’s worth a try.
Until next time.
Week 3 – In the Kitchen
“Greens. What should we do with boring greens?… pork fat is always good. But what if we want something healthier? And for crying out loud, can we make them so we don’t have to pour vinegar all over?”
—-Nobody. I made it up.
Spicy Asian Greens
0 – 8 Dried Chilli peppers (I used 3 peppers cut in half and some of the seeds removed)
Julienned piece of ginger (about the size of a golf ball)
2 garlic cloves sliced
1 red spring onion sliced thinly into discs
Pinch of salt
Couple large handfuls of greens (turnip greens if you have them), washed, de-stemmed, and cut into strips.
1/3 cup of Mirin (Asian Rice wine) or you can use white wine/chicken stock/veg stock/ any stock…
Drizzle of Oil (I used grapeseed but Sesame oil would be great)
Heat oil in medium high heat pan. Toss in dried chillis, garlic, onion, and ginger and sauté for a minute or so. Next, add the greens to the pan and stir around to coat with the mixture. After 30 seconds or so while pan is still hot, pour in the Mirin and stir around the pan to scrape up any pieces stuck to the bottom. Sprinkle with a conservative amount of salt (conservative because this will shrink down considerably and you won’t need as much as you think). Now put the lid on the pan and turn the heat down to low and let cook for about 15 minutes. Check the greens halfway and stir, if they look dried out – you can add some more wine, water, or stock to moisten the pan. The greens should take about 15-20 minutes.
*QUICK NOTE ON OTHER GREENS
More delicate greens like Swiss Chard or Spinach don’t need to be cooked long AT ALL. Get a hot pan with some oil and toss the greens around quickly. I wouldn’t cook chard for more than 20 seconds in a hot pan… toss in some acid like lemon juice and you’re good to go.
These Asian greens would be great served with some pan seared fish and rice. The trick to pan searing fish is as follows:
*Hot Pan
*Dry Fish
*High smoke point oil (safflower, grapeseed, veg oil, light olive oil)
*Don’t force the fish from releasing off the pan, it will come off when it’s ready to
*Good fish spatula
So yeah… I guess that’s the HDHDG rule. I should really be writing this stuff down.
Enjoy!
Btw, I cooked these greens naked. I don’t recommend doing that after all.
Week 3
Three straight weeks with no meltdowns. Success. Right? No?… uh… fine.
For those of you not already signed up for a Bikram Yoga class, you might want to consider volunteering on the farm. It’s a thousand degrees out there and for some people (gregg), weeding is a lot like the Downward Dog position.
We had a pretty good bag go out this week in our CSA. There were the same lettuces as last week, red and white onions, swiss chard, turnip greens, and some beautiful wildflowers. We’ve spotted a few early cucumbers on our bush crops… so here’s to hoping there’s enough by next Wednesday.
I hope you all aren’t getting tired of salads.
Up next… a recipe for something!
B
Box 2 – In the Kitchen
Spring Onion and Spinach Frittata
-1 large or 2 small spring onions thinly sliced into discs – separate green part from white
-Good handful of spinach
-2/3 cup of bacon cut into small pieces (leave out or substitute sausage, turkey bacon, chorizo… bla bla bla whatever you’d like… It’ll be good)
-10 eggs or so whisked with salt & a few squirts of half & half, milk OR cream (whatever’s in the fridge)
-Cheese – any kind of cheese you want. I like a creamy chevre, but feta, ricotta, cheddar, anything could work
-Salt & Pepper
Turn broiler on in the oven and set the rack to the second highest position.
If you’re using bacon, render it on medium- low heat in a dry nonstick/ovenproof pan. Remove bacon or other meat from pan when cooked and set aside. Reserve a tablespoon of the leftover fat for cooking your onion and spinach in. Wipe the pan clean and add your reserved fat to the same pan at medium heat. Throw your spring onions (white parts) into the fat and toss around for a minute or so until onions are slightly softened. Pinch some salt and crack some pepper into the onions then add your spinach to the pan. It will wilt quickly shuffle it around. After the spinach has wilted down, but not cooked to death, add your bacon back to the pan and evenly spread everything out. Now pour your egg mixture over the spinach/bacon/onions and begin cooking on medium heat. Using a silicone spatula, softly pull the eggs away from the sides of the pan to encourage even cooking. After a couple of minutes, the eggs will begin to set. It will still be very runny on the top, but it will look a little scrambled and places and runny in others… you will see what I mean. Now add the cheese to the top. If it can be sprinkled, just sprinkle it on. If it’s a soft cheese, just spoon out little globs on the top of the mixture. Next, place under the broiler in the oven until eggs are cooked through. You will know it’s finished when the center is no longer runny. It may take 5 minutes. Watch it carefully though, because a broiler can turn something black right before your eyes in a second.
Pull the pan out of the oven and set aside to cool for 3 minutes or so… it will continue cooking a little so you will have to gauge it with your senses. Top the frittata with chopped green onions and serve with a bottle of Sriracha. Eat this for breakfast lunch or dinner. Get creative with it too… It’s a fundamental cooking technique, with endless combinations, but the trick to this recipe is a good nonstick/ovenproof skillet. The frittata should slide out of the pan with a little help from a spatula.
There should never be stress in a kitchen. If it doesn’t turn out like you hope, chin up and try again another time. These recipes aren’t always exact, but that’s perfectly ok. Experiment with new ingredients and relax. Play some reggae music if you have to. Open a window. Cook naked. Do what you gotta do.
until next week.
Greenfingers Farm Blog 