Eating Fall: Dealing with All of that Basil

It's time to start figuring out what you are going to do with all of the beautiful Basil growing in your garden.  Basil is a very popular choice. It's easy to grow, depending on the overnight heat, it will grow like crazy - even in a window box. It's a wonderful herb if you only have a small space or a window box, fire escape, or whatever as long as it has sun and warmth and water it will do very well.  Basil is also a versatile herb.  It's great in sauces, soups, eggs, and makes delicious flavored oils. And of course, Basil is the main ingredient in traditional Pesto.  A jar of pesto will hold well in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks if you keep a half inch or so of extra virgin olive on top of the pesto as you use it. 

For long term storage of my tons of beautiful Basil, I use three basic techniques:

     Freeze leaves

     Freeze a purée of leaves and extra virgin olive oil

     Freeze Pesto

For the first technique, wash and dry your Basil (always wash any herbs before you use it; you never know who's set up housekeeping in there!).  Pat it dry, pull the leaves from the stems and add the leaves to a good freezer bag. After you fill the bag squeeze out all of the air, label and pop it 

in the freezer. The leaves will turn black but they will maintain their flavor for sauces, soups, etc. When you take leaves out let them sit for a few minutes to defrost and give off excess moisture.

For the second technique, just add the leaves - treated as above - to your blender with extra virgin oil and just a touch of kosher salt.  Purée the mixture and pour it into ice cube trays.  Now I know you may have to go out and buy ice cube trays because of the ice making capabilities of many refrigerators but it's worth it.  Plastic trays stack together nicely for storage and if that ice maker ever goes south - you're ready!  When the "cubes" are frozen, pop them out, put them in a good freezer bag, label it and put it in the freezer.  With a couple of cubes, you have a delicious fat for pan roasting fish, steaming clams, spreading on hot bread or just tossing with hot noodles.  Wherever your imagination takes you, they are very versatile. I can tell you that they don't work as cubes in a Bloody Mary - nope not at all. Trust me.  It's an oil thing!

The last technique uses the blender method but does it with actual Pesto in place of just leaves and olive oil.  I keep the cheese out of my Pesto cubes but I do add the Basil, the extra virgin olive oil, garlic cloves to taste and a bit of salt to the blender and give it a good whirl. When it's incorporated I add some pine nuts and just stir them through. Pour into the ice. Use trays and repeat the freezing and bagging process. I like to vary the pesto a bit; I'll freeze a bag of "spicy" pesto (with some dry hot pepper flakes blended in), and a "traditional" pesto mixture.  Be sure to mark your bags!

Note:  I am not a fan of dried basil.  Some herbs, like oregano and marjoram, develop wonderful flavors when they are dried. In my opinion basil loses flavor when dried.  I always dry a little because I have so much, but I try to use it quickly and invariably I don't use it all.

With these techniques - especially the second and third ones, you can walk in the door on a weeknight and have a nice start on something delicious. And if you look in the cold cases at the supermarket you'll notice these "flavor starts" packets or whatever the various manufacturers call them. The packages say that you should just start with the cube or envelope and add your ingredients.  Well I have to say, somewhere in the mix of those things are olive oil and herbs. But - and this is a big but - there's a ton of chemicals and additives in there too.  

Yours will be pristine and delicious!

A Jar of Homemade Pesto  

Some of My Genovese Basil

Eating Fall: Second in a Series - The Incredible Fig

In the past few weeks, Figs have been front and center in the Farmers Markets. We're really lucky here in South Philadelphia to have tons of mature fig trees all over the neighborhood - and owners of those trees who sell their figs through local markets.  It's not unusual to get to the checkout and see beautiful figs in egg cartons with a sign that says, "Guido's Figs, one dollar each/$9.00 for a dozen". These figs are, as you can imagine, incredibly fresh, delicious and raised pretty much in an organic fashion.

Certainly Fig Jam is a great product to make with wonderful fresh figs. Our local canning guru, Marissa McClellan, has a great and easy recipe for fig jam in her wonderful book, "Food In Jars". We used her recipe to put up a dozen jars this year.  

But there are many other things to do with this heavenly fruit.  Below is a picture of a Fig Tart that we made recently.  It's simply one sheet of Puff Pastry, rolled out a bit, scored  around the edges, and filled with quartered figs.  My better half does the beautiful placement of figs onto the dough (second picture). I drizzled a bit of local honey over the figs and baked it at 375 degrees convection (400 degrees regular oven) for about 12 - 15 minutes.  Be sure the underside of your crust has a chance to get crisp - figs give off a lot of (heavenly) juice as they bake.  The accompaniment for this tart is three tablespoons of crushed shelled pistachios into a cup of thick Greek yogurt, sprinkle a little honey or sugar into the mixture and whip it together. Serve a dollop with each slice of the tart. 

My second favorite use of fresh figs is pizza. As you know if you follow the blog, we love to have Pizza Night at our home. One of the things that has made it so enjoyable is the fact that we buy pre-made thin pizza crust (Pillsbury, usually displayed with the rolls, in the dairy case).  Yes, from time to time we go the whole "scratch" road and we usually alway have a local bread or pizza makers dough in our freezer.  But on weeknights there is nothing like unrolling a lovely thin crust onto an oiled cookie sheet and getting creative.  And this is the perfect crust for Fig, Goat & Blue Cheese Pizza!

Oil the baking sheet with a bit of good EVOO.  Spread out the dough as close to the edges of the pan as you can - you want a thin crust after all - see photo.  Then pre-cook the pizza dough for 5 - 7 minutes at 400 degrees.  See photo. You don't want it very brown or anything, you just want a nice mild crispness.

Add your cheeses.  In this one we are doing one half chèvre, one half chèvre and blue cheese, with thinly sliced red onions and good EVOOO and chopped fresh rosemary over all. See photos. 

And then add the figs, sliced into rounds in our case because we are getting a little low on figs. The entire pizza is drizzled with a good extra virgin olive oil and popped into a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

Let the pizza rest for about five minutes and slice. This is a great pizza for snacks with cocktails, as a first course or as a main with a great green salad.  

Go get some Figs and, at the very least, just stand there and eat them!

Enjoy.

Fig Puff Pastry Tart with 

Pistachio, Yogurt topping 

Fig Tart - Pre-Bake

Fig Pizza dough prep

Post pre-cook of pizza crust

EVOO and cheeses added

Thinly sliced red onions and 

Fresh, chopped rosemary 

Added

Figs added, with another 

overall drizzle of EVOO.    

Eating Fall: Easy Coq au Vin for Two

Fall is a great time for cooking and eating.  Over the next few weeks I thought it would be interesting and fun to share some recipes that seem to fit the return of cooler weather.  This first recipe is adapted from Ian Knauer's great cookbook, The Farm.  This version is just right for two people and if you round it out with some late season corn, and a salad or some sautéed greens, it makes an elegant and easy early Fall dinner.

Easy Coq au Vin for Two

Ingredients

Two chicken legs ( whole legs and thighs)

Salt & Pepper

1 Tablespoon of Fat - Bacon Fat or Duck Fat or a combination (which I used) OR 1 Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (see note)

One leek, cleaned and chopped

One celery stalk, leaves included, chopped 

One carrot, sliced

Three garlic cloves, smashed

One cup of dry red wine - whatever you would drink

One bay leaf

One large sprig of fresh thyme

Technique

Pat the chicken legs dry

Season the legs with salt and pepper

Heat the fat in a heavy skillet (I used a medium cast iron skillet)

Bring the fat to a shimmer

Sear the chicken, skin side down, until the skin is golden brown - this should take about five minutes - do not turn the chicken over, just remove it to a plate

Add the leeks, celery, carrots, and garlic to the skillet and cook - remember to scrape all of the brown bits (called "Fond") as you cook the aromatics.

Cook until the vegetables are golden, but not quite brown, about 6 - 8 minutes.

Add the wine, bay leaf, and thyme to the skillet and bring to a boil.

Put the chicken back into the skillet, skin side up, and simmer with a cover on the skillet for about 20 - 25 minutes.

Uncover and simmer for another 5 - 7 minutes to slightly reduce the sauce.  

Remove the chicken to a warm plate. 

Add one or two tablespoons of unsalted butter and whisk until the butter is incorporated into the sauce.

Remove the bay leaf and season the sauce with salt & pepper.

You can strain the sauce if you wish.

Serve the chicken with the sauce ladled over it.  Good crusty bread also makes a nice accompaniment.

Note:  I - and this idea is right from Ian Knauer's Book - keep a jar of mixed fat in the refrigerator.  What Knauer calls a Master Fat. So when I make bacon - and this kind of fat keeping is what we are most accustomed to - I pour off the fat (keep the brown bits out) into the jar. When I cook duck breast, if I am not using the rendered fat for fries, I pour it into the jar. Recently, I roasted a piece of Peameal Bacon. Some of that rendered fat is in the jar.  Knauer suggests that every few weeks you can sit the jar in warm water to incorporate the fats. This makes for a very, very delicious cooking fat and in this recipe it really adds a flavor level! Master Fat - highly recommended.

Smothered Eggplant Sauce Recipe

We have had great success with our eggplants this growing season.  We have been harvesting lots of these medium sized delicious eggplants for weeks now.  We both love eggplant Parm, Baba Ghanoush, fried eggplant, caponata and many other eggplant based recipes.  That said, one of our favorite tomato sauces ever is this luscious blend of good tomatoes and melting chunks of eggplant.  It goes by a number of names:  Nona Sauce, Summer Sauce and Melanzana Affogata (smothered eggplant).

A number of years ago we had dinner at a friends home.  She is an amazing cook and we always learn something from her, along with having fabulous dinners.  Our pasta course that evening was Penne with Nona Sauce.  We could not figure out what the "secret" ingredient to the delicious silky sauce was. Finally she told us. We've been hooked - seriously hooked - ever since.

You can make this with fresh tomatoes or really good (San Maranzano) canned tomatoes. For this recipe I used canned tomatoes.

Ingredients

3 1/2 pounds of really good canned tomatoes 

2 pounds of firm eggplants

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Approx 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped onions

1 - 2 teaspoons salt

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of dried red pepper flakes ("quanto basta" - as much as you like)

3 large Basil branches

Technique

Trim and peel the eggplants - it's your call re: the skin.  I like to do a "striped" peeling so I get some of the skin into the recipe. It all depends on the type of eggplant you are using.

Cut the eggplant into 3/4 inch chunks

Over medium heat, Stir together the oil, the onions, and a 1/4 teaspoon salt 

Cook for about 5 minutes stirring frequently, until soft

Add the chopped garlic into the center of the pan - push the onion to the sides - until it just begins to brown

Stir in a tablespoon of water, stir everything together and cook for another minute

Add the eggplant cubes to the pan, sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and turn well so that the eggplant cubes get coated with the oil, onion, and garlic

Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently for about 10-12 minutes until the cubes are very soft but not mushy.  If the mixture begins to get dry during the 10-12 minutes, add a bit of water - the eggplant needs the moisture to cook.

Pour in the tomatoes and their juices.  Add one and a half tomato cans full of water to the pot; swirl the water in the can to get all of the tomato sauce.

Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon over the mixture

Add the red pepper flakes

Stir to blend every thing together

Submerge the Basil branches down into the sauce

Cover the pan and raise the heat to medium

When the sauce boils, lower the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, for at least 40 minutes. Stir occasionally. 

You want to see the eggplant breaking down and melting into the sauce

Uncover the pot and let the sauce reduce, while stil on simmer - for about 35 - 40 additional minutes, stirring frequently.

When the sauce is the consistency you want, pull out the basil branches and toss them

Note:  this sauce is going to be thick and rich.  Sauces like this are best with shaped pasta, such as Penne, Farfalla, bow ties, etc.

"Tastes Just Like . . ."

No it doesn't! You know it. I know it. Nobody's fooled.

I despise "artificial" - really artificial anything. But especially artificial food and ingredients. In my opinion, the American way of eating - which seems to be destroying the health of many Americans - is packed way too much with artificial ingredients.

I know some people must avoid certain things - but I am also aware that there are real substitutes for folks with certain allergies and ailments, and they aren't always artificial. 

I recently heard a friend say about someone, "Oh, she's a 'Health Freak'".  This because she used fake butter.  But not just any fake butter - fake spray butter!  Really?  Health conscious? Doubtful. 

It's funny the terms we use. For instance, whenever we run across someone who truly is a limited eater, we call them that, limited.  However, they want to be identified as picky but no, they aren't. Real food lovers are picky.  You know these limited folks. It is rarely a health issue for them, it's that they are afraid of food! I find being out to a meal with limited eaters a real challenge - but it's worse to try to cook for them! What amazes me most about limited eaters is the level of artificial ingredients they ingest on a regular basis. Do a little observation of your own with the limited eaters in your life. Picky wouldn't do that, that's for sure. 

OK - Some of the things on my permanent awful artificial list:  

Diet soda; juices with only 10% juice (huh?); Astro turf; margarine; artificial sweetners of any kind; watered down milk; pleather; food coloring; cheese/not cheese; flowers; all those unpronounceable ingredients in "shelf stable" TV dinners (sorry I don't know what else to call them, I'm a '60's kid); and almost all of the contents in Lean Cuisine - especially whatever they do to create those artificial aromas!

I think we need to send a message to those wacky food "scientists". Stop! 

How do you feel about artificial ingredients? Which ones really bother or worry you? How successful are you in avoiding them?

Recipe:  Homemade Tomato Paste

Tomato paste is a useful ingredient for making not only sauces but homemade ketchup too.  Commercial ketchup and commercial tomato paste contain High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is a great thing to knock out of your diet wherever possible.

This paste keeps in the refrigerator for up to 3 months and you can also do small containers and freeze them! 

Whole tomatoes are available now and it couldn't be easier to make. 

Ingredients 

Five pounds of tomatoes chopped - if you can get "paste" tomatoes by all means use them but regular slicing tomatoes will work perfectly

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, plus more for topping off your containers 

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

Technique

Boil the chopped tomatoes - Don't add water - the tomatoes will give off their juices on medium high heat.  You'll have liquid in no time.

Boil the tomatoes for about 8 - 10 minutes

Strain the whole pot to remove skins and seeds - work on this stage. Push the good stuff through your strainer, you want all of that pulp and juice.

Return the juice and pulp to the pot 

Add the olive oil and the salt. Stir

Bring to a boil and keep stirring. 

As the mixture thickens, continue stirring and reduce heat until it starts to reduce to a paste. Stir every minute or so. It will eventually thicken into a nice paste. 

It's done!

Transfer the paste to lidded jars.   Let it cool uncovered.

Top each jar with a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil

Cover and store in the refrigerator or freezer

Easy and all natural!

Busy, Busy, Busy - and Worth Every Minute!

If you are a gardener, foodie, urban farmer, cook - whatever - this time of year is an orgy. Everything is growing like crazy in your garden, the tables and bins at the Farmers Markets are overflowing with gorgeous fresh produce, meats, breads and handcrafted small batch jars of nut butters, pickles - there is just so much, in so many places! Where to begin?

It is that time of year when cooking, baking, freezing, drying, and canning become obsessive activities for many of us.  We dream of a larder and a freezer chock full of delicious treats and provisions to see us happily through the long, cold winter.

Here at our little urban homestead, we're happily stocked with bags and bags of local strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and cherries. They are labeled and stacked in our "fruit bin" in the big freezer. We've also tucked in some bags of chopped rhubarb after discovering that the "jam" and syrup (great for martinis, pancakes) we made worked just as well with frozen rhubarb. We have many bags of local green beans and corn (off the cob) in the freezer as well. 

Now we're getting ready to start pickling - our Cucumbers are coming in really well, as is our Okra. Okra can also be slightly blanched and frozen.  Soon the grapes will be in and it will be time for jam and grape juice production. 

Our successful crops of eggplants, peppers and zucchini guarantee we'll be feasting on ratatouille, eggplant Parmesan, stuffed zucchini and the like.  We have long strings (ristra) already of cayenne peppers hanging in the kitchen, and of course the kales and the mustard greens just keep going. We've already made a few batches of pesto and there are herbs hanging and drying all over the place.  

Yes. It's a busy time - but oh, so worth it! All Fall and Winter long we will have the basis for great meals, snacks and desserts - all from our own or others locally grown products. Our larder and freezer will go a long way to feeding friends and family for months. I just love knowing that. I must have been a Depression baby in a past life! Below are shots of some of our crops. What's more beautiful? Not much, I think.  Here's a couple of recipe/techniques that are great for the summer. 

Recipe:  Cucumber Salad

Take a couple of medium cucumbers, if you like, you can remove some of the skin - give the cukes a "striped" look. On a good fresh medium sized cucumber - ones that aren't "waxed" by giant producers you don't need to remove the skin. There's good stuff in that skin!!!

Thinly slice red onion (at least 1/2 for two cukes) and place the slices in a bowl

Sprinkle the onion slices with good red wine vinegar & sea salt.

Let the onions marinate in the vinegar for about 10 mins.

Cut your cucumbers into slices or chunks - whichever you prefer.

Add the cucumber to the red onion, add extra virgin olive oil - about three times as much oil as vinegar, but really tasting the salad works best. Some like it tangy.

Toss everything gently. Add more salt if needed. Add some freshly ground black pepper. Toss again.

Let the salad sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes before serving.

This makes a great side dish but it's also great over broiled fish and don't get me started on how good a pile of this is on a warm, buttered roll or piece of toast. Really. Trust me.

Recipe/Technique:  Pasta Frittata

At this time of year, we find ourselves making pasta with fresh veggies and fresh tomatoes. The leftovers from these dishes are perfect for pasta frittata.

All you have to do is add some beaten eggs, milk or cream, a bit of regular flour, and a pinch of baking powder to your leftover pasta and vegetables. Mix it all up really, really well.  Add some chunks of cheese and anything else you have that you want to use - sliced mushrooms, peppers, whatever. It really depends on what was in your original pasta dish and what's hanging out in your 'fridge.

Pour the whole mixture into a lightly buttered pan - or a non-stick pan (I use one of my cast iron pans because I love the finish).

Cook the frittata over medium heat until the egg mixture is set up. Run a knife around the pan to see if it's close to done. Slide your spatula under the frittata to test for doneness as well. 

You can either finish the top by putting a lid on the pan for a few minutes, flashing the pan under your broiler, or flipping the frittata out onto a plate and sliding it back into your pan so that the top is now the bottom. 

Frankly, I'm all about the broiler flash - always works,  no extra dish, etc. 

I slide the frittata right out onto a cutting board and let it sit for at least 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes for room temperature. It delicious at any temperature. See the last picture.

Heirloom Tomato, Onion, and Cheese Pie

Now is the season of the Heirloom Tomato.  Here is a wonderful way to make use of some of this short term bounty. This pie is Summer Comfort Food at its finest!

Tomato, Onion, and Cheese Pie

Ingredients

One pastry shell - you can make your favorite recipe or you can buy pie pastry.  Don't buy the shells in the aluminum pans; upgrade to the rolled dough in the red box made by Pillsbury.  These are what I use for this sort of recipe. There are two to a box and they keep really well in your refrigerator or freezer. 

2 1/4 lbs of assorted heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 medium sweet onion chopped

1 tablespoon canola oil

1/4 cup fresh basil

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf basil

1/2 cup freshly grated Gruyere (or more if you want it really cheesy)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano

 1/4 cup of mayonnaise (homemade really makes it delicious, if you can do it)

Techniques

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and "blind bake" the pie crust (line the crust with foil and pour in pie weights or dry beans and spread them around).  You don't want the crust to rise, you do want it cooked quite a bit so that it doesn't get soggy when the ingredients are added.  Blind bake the pie crust for 15 - 20 minutes.

Remove the cooked crust from the oven, remove the pie weights and foil and lower the oven to 350 degrees. 

Place the sliced tomatoes on paper towels and sprinkle with salt and let stand for at least ten minutes (you are drawing out excess liquid).

Chop the basil & parsley and blend - this needn't be a fine chop.

Sauté the chopped onions in the canola oil with salt and pepper to taste. Sauté for about 3 minutes to soften.

Pat the tomato slices dry

Pat the chopped onions dry

Stir together the cheeses and the mayonnaise 

Layer the sliced tomatoes and onions with the chopped herbs in the pie crust (see the pictures)

You are layering:  tomatoes, then onions, then herbs, a little salt & pepper and then, repeat.

After you have used all of the ingredients, spread the mayonnaise and cheese mixture over the top of the pie. (See picture)

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Let the top get bubbly and slightly brown.  

Serve hot.

Enjoy

This recipe was adapted from Southern Living Cookbook 2012 by Virginia Willis