The Foodist Returns! First Frost Recipes Pt. 1

Well, it’s mid November and here we go!  Winter!  Even though the temperatures aren’t that low yet, those winds are sure bringing out the space heaters, the layers, the firewood, and the hats in our homestead.

At my Facebook page, The Philly Foodist, I have been posting pictures over the past couple of weeks of the seasonal dishes I'm trying out.  And, of course, we are slipping quickly into comfort food time.  As you know from my FB page, we have pretty much wrapped up our canning activities for the season, except for sauerkraut making, fermenting some peppers and the ongoing production of chicken and vegetable stocks and jars of red onion jam for the holidays. The growing areas have all been winterized and the cold frame is planted and will provide us with salad greens, hardy greens and spinach for awhile anyhow. So the kitchen calls. Time to let cooking ease us into Winter.

The following recipes are the first two of a number I'll be sharing. They are straightforward, use seasonal and local ingredients, and a technique as much as a recipe.  Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting a number of cold weather dishes - again, using local and seasonal ingredients - that will warm you up and feed you well.

Recipes

Carrots and Ricotta - perfect together!

Carrot Ricotta Tart (adapted from Saveur Oct/Nov 2016).  A very delicious and versatile tart. And, dare we say, pretty healthy!

Ingredients:

One pastry dough - whatever is your favorite savory dough

Two cups of fresh ricotta 

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing

Kosher salt

10 medium carrots - if you can get mixed colors, use them

Juice of 4 lemons

1/8 teaspoon of lemon zest

1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon ground caraway seeds

Cilantro leaves, for garnish

Sea salt for finishing

Technique:

1.Whip together the ricotta, two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a generous pinch of salt and the lemon zest; the mixture should be very smooth.  Add a tablespoon of olive oil if it is not smooth enough.

2. Shave the carrots.  I found the easiest way was on the large holes of a box grater.

3.  Toss the shaved carrots in a vinaigrette made from six tablespoons of the olive oil, the lemon juice, the caraway seeds, the coriander and a pinch of salt.  Squeeze the carrots as you remove them from the vinaigrette; let the dressing fall back into the bowl and set the carrots in another bowl.

4.  On a floured surface, roll out the pastry dough into a thin 11 x 16 rectangle and trim the ends if needed.  Line a baking sheet with parchment and move the dough to the sheet.  Chill the dough for 10 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

5. Spread the ricotta mixture all over the dough - leaving about 1/2 inch all around for a border.  Brush olive oil all around the border of the tart dough.

6.  Pile the carrots on top of the ricotta - spreading them evenly all over the top of the tart. 

7.  Bake the tart, rotating halfway through, for 30 - 35 minutes.  Look for a little bit of browning on the tops of the carrots. 

8.  Remove the tart from the oven and sprinkle the remaining vinaigrette over it; garnish with cilantro leaves and finish with sea salt.

Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.  Great in small squares as an appetizer or cocktail party finger food.  As a dinner, add some chicken sausages and a winter greens salad.  Enjoy.

Sweet and Sour Roasted Peppers with Capers (adapted from Preserving Italy by Domenica Marchetti)

A Rainbow of Roasted Peppers

Peppers & Capers in Jars

Jars of these make a wonderful gift or a hostess gift.  They keep in the refrigerator for months and can be added to crostini, sandwiches, pasta, and are wonderful with cheeses.

Ingredients

3 pounds of Bell Peppers in assorted colors

2 tablespoons of large capers

1 cup of white wine vinegar

1 cup of water

1/4 cup of sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt

2 cloves of garlic, sliced very thin

Extra virgin olive oil

2 Sterilized 1 pint jars with their lids

Technique

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2.  Put the peppers on an oven rack - with a foil underneath to catch drippings - and roast the peppers for at least 25 - 35 minutes.  You are looking for a blackening and wrinkling of the skin; smaller peppers with become very soft. 

3.  When the peppers are done, lift them out with tongs into a bowl.  Immediately cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the peppers steam for at least 20 minutes.

4.  When the peppers are sufficiently steamed, peel the skins from the peppers, remove the seeds and the tops and slice the peppers in about 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices.  Be sure to drain the peppers from the oil that accumulates in the bowl.  (NOTE:  we save this oil - it imparts a strong flavor of pepper.  We love it.)

5.  Set the slices of peppers aside, add the capers and stir them through.

6.  Mix the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and garlic in a small sauce pan.  Bring the mixture to a boil until the salt and sugar are fully dissolved. 

7.  Pour the brine mixture over the peppers and capers and set aside for one hour.

8.  After an hour drain the peppers and reserve  4-5 tablespoons of the brine.  Pack the peppers and capers into the two pint jars.  Spoon 2 tablespoons of the brine into each jar over the peppers; add olive oil to cover completely.

9.  Cover the jars tightly and let them sit in a cool place for 24 hours.  Check the jars to be sure that the olive oil is totally covering the peppers. If not, add more oil.  Let the jars cure for a day or two and then refrigerator them.  To use them, take out what you want to use and let that come to room temperature.  Keep the olive oil level up so that it covers the remaining peppers.  They will keep in the refrigerator for at least three months.  Enjoy. 

NEXT:  Buttermilk/Pear Pie and Olive Oil Cake with Fruit.

I'm Back! It's Preserving Time!

Hello Everyone.  First of all thanks to everyone who “checked in” and asked about my Blog absence for a number of weeks.  

Yes - I did take a few weeks off.  I even cut back a bit on my hours in my other life as a behavioral health consultant.  It was glorious, and I am so grateful to have been able to do it. Let’s face it when you are a grower/gardener, you never really get a lot of time “off” during the growing season!  Along with a bit of relaxation and reflection, I did have the chance to consider a bit more deeply what I was observing, had some interesting debates, and heard from folks their thoughts about food, the attempt to access real food, and trying to change life styles in general.

Here’s some of what I think I have learned:

*Many people really don’t want to “know” - people do not want to hear how bad fast and easy “food” is for them - now and in the long run.  These are the folks who, when the discussion turns to certain topics, a sort of glazing over occurs.  I wonder, though, if this is the first step in a change process for them? 

*Happily, there are lots of people out there seeking to down size, slow down, find creative outlets and eat real food.  As we try hard to follow Urban Homesteading practices, I love to see that. There are a lot of younger folks doing really amazing entrepreneurial things - with food, with life style products, and with consuming less and enjoying life more.

*Personal downsizing is a challenge!  I have disappointed myself by not finishing our huge downsizing job.  We have boxes and boxes of things from our catering years and I have not yet finished preparing them for donation.  I have done pretty well with clothing; I just keep tossing or donating things as I go. This seems to be working. We continue to hold onto the practice of, “nothing comes in until something goes out”.  I’d give us maybe a B- so far with that.  

*There is a decided information overload and we have to figure out how to get true, clear facts to people about food, food production, threats to real food, etc.

For example, terms like, “Farm raised fish”; “free range”; “organic”; “farm to table” - all are often, misused, misunderstood and deliberately abused.

*Many of us see a real step forward and that is, the growing movement to keep food - as much as possible - Local and Seasonal, Humanely Raised and Clean. I do believe that this growing initiative will lead to serious backlash from the international factories and conglomerates, as well as causing glaring lies in advertising, so keep your eyes open for that.

So, following my lovely, temporary slow down, it’s Food Preservation time!

Tomato Canning Production 

Canning, pickling, freezing, drying - whatever and however - it is time to capture some of the glorious deliciousness of the growing season before the cold sets in and the wonderful flavors of spring, summer and fall are just a memory. 

As with growing, we have learned something every year as we have, “Put food by”.  For example, I learned that the 6 huge canning jars of beautiful "Giardiniera" - the pickled vegetable mix that is Italian in origin - was way too much. It’s delicious.  But you chop it up and use it sparingly on sandwiches and salads.  I still have some left!  I also learned that, as gifts go, our Zucchini Relish and our Strawberry and Blueberry Jams get the biggest response. And while we love pickles, we only have a few friends who are pickle fanatics, and we can only go through so many jars - so maybe a few less pickle jars will be on our larder shelves and in our refrigerator.  Except for favorites that we will use as gifts at the holidays, we are working much harder on stocking our larder for ourselves - and for dinner parties and the holidays - this year. 

Blanching and freezing the beans, hearty greens and okra that we grew will keep us in wonderful side dishes all winter long. We grew a lot of various kinds of peppers and they are being pickled or kept in olive oil and vinegar in the refrigerator for sandwiches, omelets, etc. We are canning some chunks of eggplant for the first time this year.  We already use eggplant when we can in our "Melted Eggplant Tomato Sauce", so this will be another way to have this delicious vegetable during the winter. Our Herbs had a great year, so after drying, freezing and making lots of pesto, we have started sharing big fresh bunches of herbs with our neighbors, which always makes me happy. And of course, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!  Passata - tomato puree - and whole plum tomatoes are canned and on the shelves. If you haven’t tried it, I suggest canning some fresh corn.  We have always frozen fresh corn and it is delicious, but the flavor of the canned corn is fantastic and makes the most delicious chowders and dishes.

Lastly, we have learned that we adore home made, canned stocks.  So this year, along with lots of turkey and chicken stock, we are canning pork stock, beef stock, and corn stock.  If we can we will also can some lobster stock - we did a bit of that last year and wow did that go quickly!  Along with a Black Bean soup base that we make and can, I am well prepared for my favorite cold weather food, Soup!

Learning how to do Lacto-Fermentation has been an eye opener and fun. We have a big jar of whole pickling cucumbers sitting in my Grandmother’s “kitchen jar” now - fermenting like the barrel pickles of old.  These will be delicious, keep for quite a long time in the refrigerator, and are very good for you. 

Lacto-Fermenting/Barrel Pickles

I’d love to hear from some of you who do food preserving at this time of year.  What are you putting by?  What are your favorites?  Do you use some of your preserved food as gifts?

Next time:  Recipes galore and My new adventures working with CSAs!

Getting Creative with CSA Products

Joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program is a wonderful idea for many people  If you can’t always get to your favorite Farmers Markets on a regular basis, a CSA can provide you with great fresh and local foods as they come into season.  You don’t miss anything! However, the challenge for many folks is knowing what to do with the contents of their box once they pick it up.   Some CSAs have a standard offering for each box; some let you choose the contents - or at least some of it.  Philly Foodworks CSA is one that does offer the consumer the option to choose their box content. After talking with the folks at Philly Foodworks last week about how some customers worry about knowing what to do with their CSA share,  I received a share box last week.  I asked to be surprised. I wanted to do that because it is what so many CSA members experience and - for me at least - I think that is part of the fun.  Here are three straightforward and delicious recipes - three dinners - from the contents of my Philly Foodworks CSA box of last week.  The point that I want to stress with CSA members is:  don’t be afraid to experiment. Remember that a regular CSA box can become a very good cooking teacher!

The Contents of my CSA Box from Philly Foodworks

A Bunch of Red Radishes

A Full head of Cabbage

A Bag of Baby Salanova

One Pint of Strawberries

A Bunch of Garlic Scapes

A Bunch of Cilantro

12 oz of Snow Peas

1.5 lbs of slicing tomatoes

Taking care of the box contents 

First things first.  When you have your box at home, you want to unpack your items and prepare to store them in the best ways you can.  You don’t want any of your bounty to go to waste. So, for me it was:  tomatoes on the table (please don't refrigerate your tomatoes!), not bunched together; scapes in the produce drawer; the head of cabbage into a produce bag and into the refrigerator; strawberries as well (we usually leave berries in their blue cardboard boxes); the cilantro goes in a glass of water with a plastic bag placed over the glass - with plenty of room for air circulation - and goes into the refrigerator; the salad greens go into a salad bag and into a produce drawer, as do the snow peas; and, finally, the radishes are cut from their greens (helps them to hold well), put into a produce bag and into a drawer in the refrigerator.  
OK - now that everything is safely stored, I can start looking at my written list and begin day dreaming about potential uses of all of these great, local, seasonal foods.

Three weekend dinners were created from the box.  All of the recipes below are designed for 2 - 4 servings.  Also, at the end of the recipes are some suggestions for using up any leftover products from the box.

Fish Tacos

Radish and Cabbage Slaw

A Fish Taco

Ingredients

Radish & Cabbage Slaw:

1/4 head of cabbage, thinly sliced - it should be about 3 1/2 cups

About 12 radishes (the whole bunch), julienned 

1 large shallot, chopped (about 6 tablespoons)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro - use about 3/4’s of the bunch

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Fish:

15 oz. Black Bass, cut into medium sized chunks

1/2 cup of whole milk

1/2 cup of regular flour

11/2 teaspoons of pimenton 

salt and pepper

Cooking oil of choice ( I prefer grapeseed oil)

Sauce:

1/4 cup of good mayonnaise

1/4 cup of sour cream

2 tablespoons chipotle peppers in adobo (in a can in most supermarkets)

salt and pepper

Soft Corn Tortillas (if you can, go to Tortilleria San Roman at 9th and Carpenter in the Italian Market for fresh tortillas!)

Lime wedges

Technique

Mix all of the ingredients for the Slaw together and toss to incorporate fully and set aside

Mix all of the ingredients for the Sauce together and set aside

Soak the fish chunks in the milk for about 15 minutes

Mix the flour, salt and pepper and pimenton together on a flat plate

Heat the cooking oil (about a half inch deep) in a large flat pan on medium high heat (you want a little flour to sizzle vigorously before adding fish)

Gently lift each chunk of fish from the milk, let it drain and roll it into the seasoned flour and transfer the fish to the oil

Fry the fish until golden brown, drain on paper bags.  Note:  Don’t crowd your pan, fry in batches.

When all of the fish is fried and draining, warm two tortillas for each serving.  I simply lay the tortilla over a medium flame on the stove top - don’t leave it! - turn it over a few times until it’s warm and has a little browning on it. 

Place the two tortillas on a plate almost one on top of the other

Lay some of the slaw all along the taco, top with some of the fish chunks, drizzle with the sauce, squeeze a lime wedge over all and enjoy!
Repeat until you are fish taco-ed out!



Strawberry, Pea Pod Salad with Seared Duck Breast  in a Reduction Sauce

Salad of Lettuce, Pea Pods & Strawberries

The Finished Duck Breast

Duck in Strawberry Reduction Sauce

Ingredients

5 ounces Salanova lettuce

11/2 cups of Pea Pods

2 cups strawberries, halved

1/4 cup ricotta salata - Note:  a salty, dry ricotta 

11/2 teaspoons of good Balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Black pepper

1 medium Duck Breast, skin on.  Note:  Griggstown has very good duck and it is available locally.

Duck fat - rendered from the duck breast

1/4 cup red wine

1 small white onion, chopped

Technique

Salad:

Toss a cup of halved strawberries with the balsamic vinegar and set aside

Slice the pea pods in half on the diagonal

Wash and spin the lettuce

Toss the lettuce and the pea pods with the 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Add the marinated strawberries to the lettuce and pea pods

Toss the mixture with lots of good black pepper

Sprinkle the ricotta salata over the salad and set aside

Duck:

Heat a heavy pan - preferably cast iron - over low/medium heat

While the pan is heating, score the fat on the duck breast on the diagonal both ways (so your cuts form an x pattern)

Place the duck breast, skin side down, in the pan 
Note: you are rendering the duck fat from the breast, so you have to let the process take awhile - usually about 15 minutes.  

When you have a considerable amount of fat in the pan (you’ll know when it’s been rendered), pour the fat off into a heat proof bowl

Put a tablespoon of the fat back into the pan and increase the heat to medium

Place the duck breast into the pan with the fat side up; cook for 5 minutes; flip the breast over so that the skin side is down and raise the heat to medium high.  In about 5 minutes, the duck breast should be medium rare.  Remove the duck breast from the pan and rest it on a cutting board for at least 15 minutes.

Add a tablespoon of duck fat back into the pan on medium heat

Add the chopped onion, stir until  the onion is softened

Add the rest of the halved strawberries and stir them to incorporate

Add the red wine, increase the heat to medium high, stirring constantly until sauce thickens

When it thickens, turn the heat off and leave the sauce in the pan

Slice the duck breast

On a large dinner platter, place the salad and slices of the duck breast Spoon the pan sauce over the duck. Note:  store the rest of the rendered duck fat in the refrigerator (Cook your potatoes in it!).

Some nice crusty bread goes very well with this meal. Enjoy.

Pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto

Finishing the Pasta

Delicious!

Ingredients

Two cups of chopped garlic scapes (2 inch pieces are fine)

3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Note: this is a very basic pesto which can be frozen

1/4 cup of scape mix

1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Note:  this is the pesto for this dish

3/4 cup of the scape pesto (that's what the measurements above will make)

1 lb of fresh, shaped pasta (like gemelli - we got ours from Vera Pasta - local folks!)

Two large tomatoes, chopped

Three - five large basil leaves

Salt

Grated pecorino for service

Red pepper flakes

Technique

Put the chopped tomatoes into a colander in the sink or over a bowl - you will have juices running.

Salt the chopped tomatoes heavily, and toss them a good deal.  Let it sit and drain

In the food processor, mix together the 2 cups of chopped scape and the olive oil

Put the mixture into a bowl

Put 1/4 cup of the scape mix back into the food processor and add the pecorino and the extra virgin olive oil and blend

You will have 3/4 cup of scape pesto - hold that aside

Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water until slightly less than al dente

Reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water

Drain the pasta; return it to the pot

Add the 3/4 cup of the scape pesto to the pasta in the pot

Toss the pasta and the pesto

Add the chopped tomatoes

Add the 1/4 cup of the pasta water and stir

Add the basil leaves, torn

Serve with additional grated cheese and red pepper flakes.  Enjoy

Additional Ideas for the Contents 

For the rest of the head of cabbage:  Chop the cabbage, stir it in brown butter in a skillet until softened.  Add a tablespoon of Dijon Mustard and stir.

Cabbage leaves- use them to line a steamer when steaming dumplings, Steam some leaves and make a "summer roll" - rice vermicelli, veg and shrimp!

Snow Peas:  Rinsed and served with great sea salt, they are delicious with cheese and cocktails.  They can be added to rice and garlic and left over meat for a great stir fry.

Radishes:  the old standby of sliced radishes with good butter and sea salt - and maybe some great bread - is a tradition not to miss.  Radishes are also great pickled (throw them in your favorite pickles' leftover juice! No need to create your own brine.)   

Cherish Real Food!