This is a dish I eat for breakfast from left-overs, or as dinner if I am alone and want something simple and satisfying as a “comfort food”. The main parts are the winter squash, onions, and greens, but feel free to add mushrooms, tomatoes, beets, or apple. Eggs poached or fried either way, as long as the yolks is soft and can run into the ingredients as a sauce. I douse them with plenty of something spicy and vinegary.
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Here is a dish that is perfect for Holiday tables or at home dinners, and is, in fact, a riff on the classic green bean casserole with fried onions. No cream of mushroom soup or sauce. The leeks and pancetta or bacon can be cooked a couple days prior and they will hold in the refrigerator. Be sure to keep the fat from the pancetta or bacon as the flavor is integral to the dish.
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Yesterday’s rainstorm was a very pleasant surprise. The National Weather service was only calling for a quarter inch or less in our area, and we ended up getting over 1.25 inches. It was mainly the steady, gentle early season type of rain that is perfect for getting cover crops established without doing any damage.
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This is a dish of subtle flavors. The cucumbers lend a touch of bitter to contrast with the sweet rich cream which takes on a touch of caramelization with reduction. Their texture is firm and tender at the same time, while the beans are softer but still have a little bite to them. Bits of almond add a definite crunch to counter the soft onion. This pairs up well with simply cooked fowl or steak. You could cut the beans into 1-inch lengths and then toss this dish with pasta, perhaps adding herbed bread crumbs and cheese to the dish to finish it up. If the idea of cooked cucumbers is too weird for you, simply omit them, knowing the dish will be richer without them.
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An autumnal salad that is pretty to look at and tastes of the coming season. The ingredients act as foils and links all at the same time, and form a sort of flavor merry-go-round with each other. If you wish, you can add diced apples for more sweetness and crunch to the salad. See the “option” in the recipe.
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The first batch of reusable crates has arrived! We will try out our new crates this week for the Thursday route. Please bring reusable bags (like the High Ground Organics Bagito bag you got if you made a donation to the crate fund) to the pick-up site. Take your fruits and vegetables out of the crate and leave the open crates in a nested stack. Thanks to all of you who helped make this happen. We look forward to fewer trips to the landfill!
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Modern American cuisine smacks into traditional Mediterranean. This salad was inspired by a Salade Niçoise, but is much, much simpler. You want to use good quality tuna for this-at least use albacore if you can’t find any European tuna packed in olive oil. Also, If you have beans you have cooked yourself the dish will be better for them, but the recipe simply calls for pantry staple canned white beans. Rinse them really well.
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Light supper, vegetable centric breakfast, call it what you will. This is a flavorful dish that is good for you, and it is easy if you are using peppers that were grilled the day before. For the eggs, it is best if the yolks are runny, as they make a “sauce” for the vegetables when you poke the yolk and it runs out over everything.
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Yes, yes, it sounds weird. Everyone tells me so. And then they try it. And really, really like it. Sautéed cucumber is milder than zucchini with deeper flavor. If watched carefully, it maintains a crunchiness that is wonderful. The trick is to cook it just until it heats through and is turning translucent. This dish is a wonderful combination that goes well with fish or chicken, or as a foil to something richer like brisket braised in porcini stock.
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It’s been a hectic week here on the farm. The well drilling went along super smoothly—Jim and Jose from Chappell pump said it was one of the easiest wells they have ever installed. After the test well was finished they brought in an outside contractor who did an “e-log” which measures the resistance of the substrate the well passes through. From that they determine at what depth the water-bearing formations are at.
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The smaller size of the ingredients of this salad give it a lightness and ensures you can get all the flavors in one bite, giving a sum that is more than the parts alone. Make this with or without the lettuce as you choose. It adds a welcome crunch, and slightly bitter and sweet flavor of the lettuce acts as a bridge between the zucchini and tomatoes.
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No meat in this, but the presentation, the thin slices, and the fact that it is raw make the connection in my mind. This is one of those times you want a fixed blade slicer. It can be done with a knife, but it will be a challenge. Cousa and zucchini are ideal for this dish, and Pattypan will work as well, but I think crooknecks are best left for other preparations. This dish lends itself to variations, from really simple to simple but elegant. The dressing can be scattered as separate ingredients or made into a vinaigrette, the garnish can be skipped or be complex-it’s all up to what you want at the time.
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All these vegetables come from the earthy funky side of the taste palette, so the orange juice adds a little sweet to act as a foil, and the soy sauce helps pull all the elements together. The fushimi and manganji peppers are Japanese heirloom chilies, and like shishito are not spicy. They taste like amplified versions of shishito, with the long and thin fushimi having a slight sweetness to it, while the fatter and all around bigger manganji has thicker walls give meatiness along with a full flavor that has subtle sweetness along with umami that I can only characterize as “green-ness”.
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This dish is a cross of a braise, a soup, and something with a sauce. The liquid is cooked down until it starts to thicken, but it never gets very thick. The pumpkin is roasted in the oven, so it is not a braise, nor is it a soup. Whatever it is, it is good. Serve as a starter, or serve it over rice or noodles. You could add tofu to the soup along with other vegetables to make it more substantial, but I like the way this version lets the pumpkin sing out.
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Work on our new well here at our home site has officially begun. Last Friday the drilling company moved all of their equipment over in a caravan. It looked like the fun-zone of a small town carnival had come to set itself up on our farm. After a day of site prep and set up, they will begin to drill in earnest today.
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A paean to late lasting summer bounty. Although the salad is like a lot of the Moroccan inspired ones posted before, this could be combined with lettuce if you wanted. It could also be piled onto toasted flat breads or grilled slabs of some crusty sturdy bread like a ciabatta or the like.
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Grilling a lemon just adds a certain je ne sais quoi to lemons where juice is going to be used. There is a certain smoky char that is faint but there, and the juice seems sweeter. This dressing was made for a salad with grilled zucchini and tomatoes and mint, so the bit of sweetness acts as a foil to the acid in the tomatoes and the slight bitterness of the squash.
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Eggs in Hell, or Purgatory sometimes, are eggs poached in tomato sauce that can be mild of flaming hot. I think the name comes from the look-little islands of sunny yellow and white in a sea of lava-like tomato. The smell will be anything but brimstone-like as long as the eggs are fresh. This makes a great breakfast (some say the name is derived because it is thought to be a hangover curative) or light dinner. Use a spoon to scoop the eggs and sauce onto thick slices of grilled rustic bread. The “Spanish Style” comes from the use of pimenton and padrons.
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It was too good to be true. The Bagrada Bugs are here at last. The home farm is still free of them, but they moved into the Lewis Road ranch en masse last week. Fortunately some of our young tender greens are already covered with row cover, which works to some extent if you get it on before the bugs arrive.
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This dish uses vanilla paste for a twist on an old favorite along with the nectarine, but it is worth having a jar of the paste around as it makes a great “secret ingredient” to have around. Try it as part of a rub for pork tenderloin with a coffee sauce, or use it with shellfish such as shrimp, scallops, and lobster.
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Pistou is the French equivalent of pesto, but has no nuts or cheese. The cheese is added either to the soup or scattered over the soup at the end. This soup is only inspired and is not a true pistou, just in case any Provençal are reading this.
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Like so many things French, you can find more than one “vrais” (real, true) recipe for soupe au pistou, and the basil paste that gives it its name. Some have tomatoes, some not. A few have cheese. Most do not. None have nuts. That I have seen so far. Since I first learned pistou without tomatoes, that iteration will be v.1.
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