Fall is here

Tons of greens, and real winter squash. The pumpkin is quite small (dwarfed by this week's cabbage), but we were among the last to pick up veggies in South Orange this week, so they were presumably picked over (the pumpkin was outside the box).

• Arugula
• Beets
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Peppers
• Radicchio
• Spinach
• Winter Squash - Butternut + Sweet Dumpling
• Tomatoes
• White Turnips
• Pumpkin

Pickled beets

With another batch of beets today, it was time to pickle them. Canned 6 half-pint jars, plus part of a pint jar for the fridge, using the USDA recipe. Made cold beet borscht with the cooking water, although I got the proportions off a bit and it was waterier than usual.

This week

From the farm: "This is a transition time at the farm, where our summer crops are winding down, and many of our fall crops aren’t ready for harvest. Please be patient as we await the arrival of our fall greens, broccoli, winter squash and pumpkins, mesclun mix and other fall crops."

• Beets
• Bok Choy
• Cilantro
• Kale
• Hot Peppers
• Lettuce
• Bell Peppers
• Scallions
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
  

Greens and more

More good stuff. The tomatoes are a bit green this week, I wonder if they are nearing the end. Lots of greens, and more beets and summer squash.

• Arugula
• Beans
• Beets
• Bok choy
• Cilantro
• Kale
• 2 heads lettuce
• Poblano peppers
  
• Bell peppers
• Parsley
• Yellow squash

Lots of tomatoes

Plenty of tomatoes this week, after starting to think they were tapering off. Time to make sauce again, and probably dry some as well.

Last week, I roasted weeks worth of bell peppers to freeze and keep in herbed oil, so we finally only have these two peppers to work with.

• Beets
• Chinese Cabbage
• Cilantro
• Garlic
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Parsley
• Hot Peppers
• Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Grape Tomatoes
• Heirloom Tomatoes
• Plum Tomatoes

Spaghetti squash with sausage filling

1 3¾ to 4pound spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise, seeded
1 pound bulk spicy turkey sausage
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1½ cups marinara sauce (mmm...yummy homemade helps)
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Wrap squash halves in plastic wrap. Cook 1 at a time in microwave on high until tender, about 8 minutes. Pierce plastic to allow steam to escape. Cool. Meanwhile, sauté sausage, bell pepper, onion and garlic in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat until sausage browns and vegetables are tender, breaking up sausage with back of spoon, about 12 minutes. Mix in marinara sauce.

Using fork, pull out squash strands from shells, leaving shells intact. Mix squash strands into sausage mixture. Season filling to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon filling into squash shells. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover; refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Arrange filled squash halves on baking sheet. Sprinkle each with 1/4 cup Parmesan. Bake uncovered until heated through, about 20 minutes (30 minutes if previously chilled). Cut each squash half in two and serve.

Yes, Susan, a good option for CSA spaghetti squash! We endorse it. Now to get some zucchini for that soup you told me about....

Even better: eggplant and tomato stacks (with zucchini!)

I liked the first ones so much, I immediately wanted to try these when I saw the recipe in...the latest Williams Sonoma catalog.

Eggplant and Tomato Stacks

olive oil
4 yellow onions, diced
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 garlic cloves, minced
10 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
1 T. chopped fresh oregano
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 eggplant, 2½-3 inches in diameter, sliced ⅛ inch thick
5 tomatoes, sliced ¼ inch thick
4 zucchini, halved crosswise, sliced ⅛ inch thick
½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Preheat oven to 425. In saute pan over medium-high heat, warm 6 T. olive oil. Add onions, salt and pepper; cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, basil, oregano and parsley; cook 2 minutes more.

Rub bottom and sides of 12 inch cast iron fry pan with oil. Place 8 eggplant slices in single layer in pan; season with salt. Top each with 1 tsp. onions and 1 tomato slice; season with salt. Top each with 1 tsp. onions and 2 zucchini slices; season with salt. Top each with 1 tsp. onions. Repeat layering 2 more times, ending with zucchini. Drizzle each stack with 1 tsp. oil.

Bake 40 minutes. Sprinkle each stack with 1 T. cheese; bake 7-10 minutes more. Let rest 5 minutes, then serve. Serves 8.

I served these with whole wheat couscous cooked with chicken stock and some more parm grated in.

The first of two summer tomato zucchini stacks

This one vertical, from The Silver Spoon cookbook. I made this about a month ago, and what is more summery than fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and mozzarella?

Tomatoes with Zucchini

olive oil
8 tomatoes
2 zucchini, trimmed
1 fresh flat-leaf parsley sprig, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
7 oz. mozzarella cheese, sliced (I used homemade)
½ tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Brush an ovenproof dish with oil. Thinly slice the tomatoes without cutting all the way through, leaving them joined at the base. Halve the zucchini lengthwise, then slice them into thin strips. Slip the strips of zucchini between the slices of tomato. Place the tomatoes in the prepared dish, sprinkle with parsley and garlic, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven, and carefully slip the slices of mozzarella tetween the slices of tomato and zucchini, sprinkle with the oregano, and return to the oven for 10 minutes, until the mozzarella begins to form strings. Transfer to a warm serving dish and serve immediately.

My note--very thin slices work best, or 30 minutes isn't enough.

Photos

All the photos we've posted to this blog are available as a Picasa album.

It's mostly pictures of vegetables.

A pie bird and a vegetable oil pie crust

For her birthday last year I got Shelley a copy of Mildred Armstrong Kalish's book Little Heathens. It is her story about growing up on an Iowa farm, and she includes a number of recipes. The one that she most brags about is her vegetable oil pie crust--how, because it doesn't have butter/shortening/lard in it, it can be re-worked extensively and not get tough. Shelley was intrigued, and while in MN we picked a huge supply of blueberries one morning. Why not make pie and try the recipe?

For one double crust pie, or two single crusts:

3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup vegetable oil
1½ tsp. salt
⅜ cup skim or whole milk

"Blend all together with a fork, and form into two equal balls using your hands. Roll out between two sheets of wax paper. Peel the top paper off the dough using a spatula. With the paper side up, carefully fit the crust into the pie pan. Now carefully remove the wax paper. If the crust tears, don't worry. Using your fingers, carefully paste over the hole. Take care not to stretch the dough. Unlike the old-fashioned lard dough, you can handle this mixture as much as you like. You will probably never make the old-fashioned dough again." (Kalish, page 132)

I did more mixing of the pie filling, and Shelley suffered through more dough mixing and rolling. It wasn't easy. We also tried Karen's pie bird for the first time. The pie bird sits on top of the bottom crust, and has filling put in around it and then the top crust fitted on top, with the top of the bird sticking out. It has an opening in the bottom that leads up through its beak, so that it allows steam to vent from the pie, and I guess also any extra liquid, hopefully keeping the pie from running over, and also supporting the crust in the middle on the bird's shoulders. Wikipedia tells us that the connection between pies and birds goes back a long way, and mentions the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence."

The pie bird was a great success, and the filling was yummy (sorry no recipe--we used one of Karen's that I didn't write down), but the crust was panned. It was difficult to work with and hard once baked--less flaky, more cardboard. We actually struggled to cut through the bottom crust of the pie. Hmm. After all that, Karen admitted to us that she had tried a vegetable oil pie crust once before, with the same result. I guess we three will go back to making the old-fashioned dough again.

Fall approaches

It's still warm,. and we had a tropical storm dump nearly 5 inches of rain on us this weekend, but the weekly box share is starting to show signs of fall. We got the first fall lettuce and winter squash today. Since we both had classes last week, we are falling a bit behind on using our vegetables, so we've still got an array of things to use up, from bell peppers to shallots.

• Basil
• Beets
• Chard
• Collards
• Eggplant
• Garlic
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Spaghetti Squash
• Grape Tomatoes
• Heirloom Tomatoes
• Tomatoes

Egg fettucine with beets, parmesan, and poppy seeds

kosher salt
10 baby or small beets (about 1½ pounds without greens), scrubbed and trimmed
¼ cup poppy seeds
6 T. unsalted butter
freshly ground black pepper
1 pound fresh (or dried) fettucine
⅔ cup grated Parmesan cheese
balsamic vinegar, for garnish (optional)
¼ cup minced chervil or chives, for garnish (optional)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Grate the beets. In a heavy saucepan over high heat, toast the poppy seeds until they smell slightly nutty, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

Reduce the heat and melt 5 T. of the butter in the saucepan. Stir in the shredded beets and saute for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes, until the beets are tender.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in the boiling water until it is al dente. Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl. Toss the hot pasta with the remaining T. of butter, the grated cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. When the beets are tender, toss them with the pasta. Sprinkle with the poppy seeds and adjust the seasoning, adding a tsp. or two of balsamic vinegar, if desired. Garnish with chervil or chives, if using, and serve immediately.

This recipe is fun, different, easy, and yummy, and comes from Melissa Clark's fun cookbook Chef, interrupted, in which she works with restaurant chefs to adapt favorite recipes for the home kitchen. This is inspired by a beet ravioli dish from Anna Klinger at Al Di La in Brooklyn.

Chili Relleno Casserole

1 sweet onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 eggs
½ cup milk
2 T. all purpose flour
½ tsp. pepper
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cumin
3 7-ounce cans whole green chilies, split open and cut into strips
5 corn tortillas, torn into strips
1 pound shredded Monterey Jack cheese
paprika

Lightly grease 9x9-inch glass baking dish. Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet on medium, and saute onions and garlic until onions are lightly browned. Remove from heat and set aside. Beat eggs with milk, flour, pepper, salt, and cumin in a medium bowl to blend. Arrange chilies from 1 can in prepared dish, covering bottom completely. Cover with strips of tortilla, then sauteed onion mixture. Sprinkle with approximately ⅓ of the cheese. Repeat layering twice. Pour egg mixture over the top. Sprinkle with paprika. Let stand 30 minutes. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake until casserole is mostly set, slightly puffed in center and golden brown on edges, about 45 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and serve.

Modified from this epicurious post, incorporating various comments and updates.

Tomatoes!

This week:

• Basil
• Beans
• Beets
• Cilantro
• Chard
• Eggplant
• Garlic
• Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Grape Tomatoes
• Heirloom Tomatoes

Shrimp and Mango Salad with Glass Noodles

4 ounces very thin bean thread noodles (also known as cellophane, glass, or mung bean noodles)
1 pound cooked, peeled, and deveined medium or large shrimp
1 large mango (1 pound), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 scallions, thinly sliced crosswise
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil (I used Asian basil)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh serrano or jalapeño chile, including seeds, or to taste
1/3 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Cover noodles with boiling-hot water in a large bowl and let stand 8 minutes. Drain noodles in a colander and rinse with cold running water. Drain well, then return to bowl.

While noodles are soaking, combine shrimp, mango, scallions, basil, and chile in another large bowl.

Stir together vinegar, sugar, and salt in a measuring cup until sugar is dissolved, then toss half of sauce with noodles and half with shrimp salad. Serve noodles topped with shrimp salad.

From this epicurious post. This was good; next time I'll replace half of the vinegar with fresh lime juice as several reviewers suggested.

Mocha Fudge Cake

Preheat oven to 375, and butter and flour a Bundt pan.

1 cup flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1¾ cups sugar
5 large eggs, separated
2 sticks butter, softened and cut into pieces
½ cup plus 1 T. cocoa
1 T. instant coffee powder
2 tsp. vanilla
¾ cup sour cream (can use plain yogurt)

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Set aside.
put sugar and egg yolks in food processor, process for 1 minute or until thick and light colored. Add butter and process an additional minute. Add cocoa, coffee, vanilla and process another minute. Add sour cream and process for 2 seconds. Add flour mixture and pulse but don't overmix.

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold ¼ of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in the rest. (Since I am lazy and at this point have a full food processor and a big mixer bowl full of egg whites, I carefully fold batter into egg whites and the cake has always been fluffy enough.) Carefully turn mixture into Bundt pan, removing air pockets with a knife if necessary. Bake 35 minutes or until it starts to pull away from the sides; you can also use a toothpick test as backup. It usually needs longer than 35 minutes. Cool in pan, then turn out onto plate and finish cooling. Frost with the following:

¼ cup water
2 T. butter
1 tsp. instant coffee powder
3 oz. sweet cooking chocolate, broken into pieces
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Heat the water, butter and coffee in small saucepan. Process the chocolate for 30 seconds in the food processor, then pour in water mixture slowly, while processing. Add sugar and process for 5 seconds. Let stand until thick, then drizzle on cake.

This recipe comes to me from my Dad, but I believe it is from Abby Mandel's Cuisinart Classroom.

Good press for Honey Brook Farms

Our CSA pickup site was in the news this week, featured in a front page article in the regional section of the New York Times. They even had a picture of the garage in South Orange where we pick up our vegetables every week. They also carried this sidebar with information about joining this and other New Jersey CSAs.

As an experiment this week, I weighed the tomatoes we got: 1.2 lb. of grape tomatoes, plus a separate box containing 3.2 lb. of regular tomatoes and two heirlooms weighing in at 2.4 lb combined. That's a total of 6.8 lb. of organic tomatoes.

• Basil
• Cilantro
• Dill
• Eggplant
• Garlic
• Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Potatoes
• Scallions
• Summer Squash
• Tomatoes
• Heirloom Tomatoes
• Grape Tomatoes

Watermelon Granita

1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons crème de cassis
about 3 pounds watermelon, seeds and rind discarded and the flesh chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

In a small saucepan stir together the water, sugar, and crème de cassis, boil the mixture, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved, and simmer it for 5 minutes. Transfer the syrup to a bowl and chill it, covered, until it is cold. In a blender puree the watermelon in batches, forcing it as it is pureed through a coarse sieve set over a large bowl, pressing hard on the solids. I don't really know how much watermelon I used, but it was probably roughly 5 cups of puree that came out of the blender. Stir the syrup and lime juice into the watermelon puree, and transfer the mixture to an 8-inch-square metal pan. Freeze the mixture, stirring and crushing the lumps with a fork every 30 minutes, for 2 to 3 hours, or until the granita is firm but not frozen solid. Scrape the granita with a fork to lighten the texture and serve it immediately. I was going to garnish with a sprig of mint but forgot....

Slightly modified from this epicurious post.

Homemade mozzarella

It would never have occurred to me to make mozzarella from scratch until Alice & I both read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle this summer. It was an interesting book, and got us thinking even more about eating seasonally and locally, including canning our own produce.

One of the striking things in the book was how casually they make cheese. They even gave a website to order cheesemaking supplies from, so we went ahead and ordered a kit for $25. It comes with citric acid, rennet tablets, salt, a thermometer, cheesecloth, and instructions. The only part of this that's actually hard to find separately is the vegetable rennet, which comes in 10 tablets, enough to turn 40 gallons of milk into mozzarella. We will order this separately in the future if we run out.

The recipes are available online here and here for mozzarella. I think we've tried it a total of six times now, with 4 successes and 2 failures. The failures we attribute to excessively pasteurized milk, and we have been keeping a list of brands that work and brands that don't (Trader Joe's and Farmland have been good, Shoprite and Borden's have not). When it works, it really takes about half an hour to turn a gallon of whole milk into about ¾ pound of cheese. The process can be summarized as curdling the milk with citric acid and rennet, then squeezing out the whey while heating it up until it is firm enough to knead. We've made ricotta twice, too, which is even easier, you just curdle milk with citric acid (which initially looks as disgusting as it sounds) and strain it through cheesecloth. The ricotta ends up drier than store-bought, but we think it may be more like the Italian style.

One trick with making mozzarella is knowing when to add the salt. The first time, I added the salt to the milk initially, and I think it came out with the whey. I think the secret is to add the salt at the very last stage, when the whey is almost entirely out, but the consistency has not yet changed to the glossy, resilient final product.

It's fun to make and watch, and good, but not noticeably better than other fresh mozzarella. As for the locavore credibility, I'm not sure it save you much having the milk transported in gallon form from the dairy, instead of being transported as much more compact cheese. If you're comparing local milk with imported mozzarella, sure, you are eating a more local product if you make it yourself, but if the sources are comparably distant, my guess is that you would have a lower impact buying it as cheese.

Truffled Corn and Wild Mushroom Fettuccine

1/2 lb pancetta or bacon, cut into 1 inch strips
2 cups corn kernels from 3-4 ears of corn
2 1/2 teaspoons of salt (not tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound mixed wild mushrooms (such as wood ear, chanterelle, and/or shiitake, stems wiped clean, and sliced)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 lb fresh fettuccine
1 tablespoon white truffle oil, or more to taste
3 ounces parmigiano-reggiano, grated (about 3/4 cup)
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook until crispy, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels and drain. Let cool and coarsely chop
2. Add the corn, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and the pepper to the skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the corn is heated through, about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are tender and give off the juices, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat, add the pancetta, and cover to keep warm.
3. Meanwhile, bring 1 gallon water and the remaining teaspoons salt to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Add the fettuccine and cook, stirring occasionally to separate the noodles, until al dente, 4-5 minutes for fresh, or about 10 minutes for dried. Drain the pasta and return to pot.
4. Add the corn mixture and truffle oil and toss to coat evenly. Add the cheese and basil and toss again. Serve hot.

From Chad and Becky, from their Emeril cookbook (don't know which one).