101 summer salads

This Mark Bittman column looks good for salad inspirations. We sometimes need them.

Tomatoes!

The first tomatoes of the year are always exciting. We are a little worried about the crop this year though, the whole northeast is having trouble, especially organic farms. It's been a wet summer, and late blight is coming early this year (NY Times article).

• Basil
• Red cabbage
• Cucumbers
• Garlic
• Lettuce
• Potatoes
• 3 tomatoes
• Scallions
• Summer Squash

Growing lemongrass

Inspired by the pineapple top we've started in a pot, I decided to try sprouting some lemongrass. I started a stalk in water in April, potting it after it sprouted some roots, and now it has several stalks and seems to be doing well. I'm not sure how soon full stalks will be harvestable, but it looks & smells great. I'm starting a second stalk. They'll live outside with the other herbs until there is a danger of freezing.

Food of substance

I've often wondered what fraction of our nutrition we really get from our weekly vegetable box. Lots of vitamins and minerals, obviously, and some fiber, and it gets us eating less meat in general, which is good. It's surely a long way off enough for us to eat from, though, and the early season vegetables don't have many calories. Most meals are augmented with rice, bread, or pasta at least. Now, for the first time this season, we get some real starch: potatoes. And they look nice.

• Beets
• Cucumbers
• Dandelion
• Garlic
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Parsley
• Potatoes
• 3 zucchinis
• 2 yellow squash

Community supported fisheries

As heard on NPR yesterday, many places in New England are getting fish shares that work like our farm share. Sounds nice! I would be happy with a dairy & eggs share.

St. Tropez chicken

There's always room for more ways to roast chicken. I also like the roast chicken legs with cilantro gremolata that was recently in the NY Times Magazine. This St. Tropez chicken is from Nigella Lawson's Feast. I made it with thighs & drumsticks, using white wine with a splash of red for the marinade, since we never really have rosé around. Another UK recipe from an official source ("put the tin on the hob"?), I found an alternate post that had a US version.

Saint-Tropez Chicken

1 large chicken, cut into 10 pieces
Juice of 1 lemon
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup honey
½ cup rosé wine (though white is fine too)
2 cloves garlic, bruised
1 tablespoon mixed herbs with lavender

Put the chicken pieces in a large plastic freezer bag or shallow dish. Squeeze the lemon juice into a glass measuring cup, and stir in the oil, honey, and wine to dissolve the honey. Pour this mixture into the bag or dish of chicken and chuck in the bruised garlic cloves and the herbs.

Seal the bag or cover the dish with plastic wrap and put in the fridge overnight or for up to two days.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Put the chicken in a roasting pan with its marinade, skin side up, and cover with aluminum foil. Cook for two hours, then remove the foil fro the pan and turn up the oven to 425°F. Cook for another 15-25 minutes or until the skin of the chicken is bronzed. Keep an eye on it, as the honey in the marinade will make it burn quickly.

Remove the chicken to a warmed plate, and pour or spoon off excess fat from the cooking liquid. Put the pan on the stove top, add 1/2 cup water and deglaze the pan juices to make your glossy, golden-brown sauce.

Crunchy Granola

Since I've been making my own yogurt, I thought it might be time to try making granola as well. I think I've tried it once before, a long time ago. This batch was good, though the oats got a bit too dark. The toasted almonds are perfect. The recipe came from Feast by Nigella Lawson. The official UK version (with masses instead of volume measurements) is here.

Andy's Fairfield Granola

4½ cups rolled oats
1 cup/4 oz. sunflower seeds
¾ cup/4 oz. sesame seeds
¾ cup/6 oz. apple sauce
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
⅓ cup brown rice syrup or rice malt syrup, or failing that, golden syrup
¼ cup clover honey or other honey
¾ cup light brown sugar
2 cups/8 oz. whole almonds
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tbsp. sunflower oil
2 cups raisins

Mix everything except the raisins together very well in a large mixing bowl. I use a couple of curved, rigid spatulas; normally, I’d be happy to use my hands, but here it just leaves you covered with everything.

Spread this mixture out on two baking tins (the sort that come with ovens, and are about the width of a rack) and bake in a 300-325°F oven, turning over about halfway through baking and re-distributing the granola evenly during the baking process. The object is to get it evenly golden without toasting too much in any one place. This should take anything from about 40 minutes. I use a gas oven, which doesn’t brown as fast as an electric one, so often leave it in for up to an hour.

Once it’s baked, allow to cool and mix together with the raisins. Store airtight.

Beets, cucumbers, fennel, etc.

Now we have a 2nd bulb of fennel, enough to do something with. I hung up the fronds to dry and use for flavoring smoke while grilling fish. Also, first beets!

• Basil
• Beets
• Cabbage
• Cucumbers
• Fennel
• Garlic
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Onion
• Summer Squash

onions

First onions this week, though small. We might make some zucchini bread & butter pickles. Only one head of broccoli. The rains are still causing problems at the farm - they have lost some spinach ad early tomatoes, and are having trouble planting some of the fall crops.

• Broccoli
• Fennel
• Garlic (green)
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Radicchio
• Summer Squash

Real men make their own quiche

Quiche has gotten a bad rap since 1982. OK, it's not like barbecuing a rack of ribs or something, but it's a pretty good summer meal, especially with all the vegetables we have to use up. I generally base my quiche on the Joy of Cooking quiche Lorraine recipe, although I use at least double the number of eggs for a single 9" pie shell, and somewhat less milk. The Joy of Cooking pâte brisée recipe is pretty foolproof for a crust, and nice and flaky.

6 eggs
about a cup of milk
two small heads broccoli
one onion, chopped and sautéed
3 strips prosciutto, chopped and lightly fried
about a cup of cubed jack & mozzarella cheese
chopped fresh herbs (oregano, thyme, etc.)

Chop the broccoli into fine florets. Separate one egg white to brush the pie dough before filling, and mix the yolk with the remaining 5 eggs. Stir in the vegetables, prosciutto, herbs and cheese, pour into the pie shell and bake at 375°F for about 40 minutes.

Tagliatelle with Prosciutto and Radicchio

From Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers.

16 0z. egg tagliatelle
6 prosciutto slices
1 radicchio head
1 garlic clove
2 Tbsp. rosemary leaves
2 oz. Parmesan
1 stick unsalted butter

Cut the prosciutto and radicchio into ribbons the same width as the tagliatelle. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Chop the rosemary and grate the Parmesan.

Melt half the butter in a thick-bottomed pan. Add the garlic and rosemary and cook for a minute. Add half the radicchio and prosciutto. Cook just to wilt. Remove from the heat.

Cook the tagliatelle in boiling salted water until al dente, then drain. Add the rest of the butter and half the Parmesan. Put into the cooked radicchio, then stir in the remaining radicchio and prosciutto. Toss thoroughly and serve with Parmesan.

--

Part of my quest to find a recipe that makes me like radicchio, and this one did far better than others so far, though I would have wilted all of the radicchio. Perhaps part of it is that we have rather wide noodles, and not a small head of radicchio, so the uncooked portion was very prominent in the final dish. Definitely use really good egg noodles. We made half of this recipe and had leftovers. And it was good! Which is a good thing, since we got more radicchio in this week's box.

Abundance

This is the first week that the box has really seemed to have a lot of anything besides salad greens. We got 4 heads of broccoli (which weigh almost 3 lbs.) along with some nice looking zucchini and cabbage. One bummer about the recent wet weather is that the tomato and pepper harvest may be delayed, and they had trouble planting some of the late summer crops. So far things look pretty good, though.

• Broccoli
• Chinese Cabbage
• Garlic Scapes
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Radicchio
• Summer Squash

Kill Soup Dumpling

For Joe's Shanghai, New York City home of the soup dumpling, this Kill Bill parody:



I especially like the employees gathered round laughing at him.

At least they cook down

Lots of greens this week. Looks like we'll be having spanakopita, a stir fry, and nightly salads. In this week's box:

• Broccoli
• Collards
• Endive (?! looks like it may be kale to me)
  
• Garlic scapes
• Lettuce (3 heads)
  
• Radicchio
• Spinach

Veggies week 2: return of the greens

Oh yes, I remember last spring.

• lettuce (3 kinds)
• spinach
• kale
• bok choy
• oregano
• winter savory

Picture coming soon, once downloaded from the camera.

Apple Coffeecake

From Julie Allen, via the "Sailor's Delight" WHOI cookbook.

½ c. walnuts
2 tsp. cinnamon
1½ c. sugar, divided
½ c. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. sour cream
2 apples, peeled and sliced

Mix nuts, cinnamon, and ¾ cup sugar in small bowl. Mix butter, remaining sugar, eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to batter. Beat in sour cream. Spread half of batter in a greased 9-inch tube pan or bundt pan. Arrange sliced apples on top of batter. Cover with nut mixture and then the rest of the batter. Bake 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

I made this a couple of weeks ago and I am just getting around to posting it; I remember thinking that it was good, but I had some ideas for improvements. I have, naturally, now forgotten them. Darn. The only thing I remembered is that I substituted pecans for walnuts, and liked that. I also melted the butter, like in a muffin recipe, instead of creaming butter and sugar; that also worked well, though I am not sure if it's what was intended. I made it in a silicon bundt pan and wasn't sure it would hold together, what with the thick apple layer, but it did nicely. I think one main thing was that the baking time was really different than what the recipe said. Wish I remembered how.

The veggies have begun!

Our first farm share came today:

• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Strawberries
• Thyme
• Oregano

No picture, as we were out of town and Jim and Monika picked them up.

Refreshing hot day lunch: Cold Soba Noodles and Vegetables

From Noodle Fusion by Dorothy Rankin:

"Yield: 4 to 6 Main-course Servings

"These cold, chewy buckwheat noodles with crisp vegetables and a sweet, salty, and sour dressing have a lovely balance of flavors and texture. It is somewhat of a misnomper to call the liquid portion of this salad a 'dressing.' Consider it, instead, a delightful chilled broth that can be drunk from the bowl when the noodles are gone. This is wonderful made ahead and served icy cold in bowls. If you do so, refrigerate the noodles, vegetables, and broth in separate, well-covered containers."

12 ounces soba noodles
1 medium-size daikon radish, grated
1 carrot, peeled and grated
½ cup snow pea shoots
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 T. rice wine vinegar
1 T. mirin
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
garnish: 1 T. toasted sesame seeds

Cold Broth Dressing
1½ cups Dashi
4 T. mirin
2 tsp. peeled, grated ginger
2 scallions, finely chopped

Cook the soba noodles as directed. Drain and rinse thoroughly to cool. Meanwhile, combine the vegetables in a bowl. Add the vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt and mix well. Combine all the broth ingredients in a separate bowl.

To serve, divide the noodles among the bowls. Arrange the vegetables over the noodles and pour the broth over all. Garnish with the toasted sesame seeds.

(ams note) Very robust to substitutions. I used this as a general idea, substituting cabbage and bean sprouts for daikon and pea shoots, had to skip the scallions, and found out--after beginning--that we were out of mirin. Oops. Substituted more vinegar and sugar liberally in place of it. Then I just forgot the sesame seeds (oops again). Yummy nonetheless.

Homemade Yogurt

Yesterday I made yogurt. I have made it a couple times before, with a yogurt maker some years ago, but this was my first time making it with no special equipment. It was easy, inspired by Harold McGee's column in the New York Times, They Do the Work, You Reap the Yogurt.

It turned out perfectly. It's satisfying and a bit magical to have made something by microbial action (like sauerkraut, but starting with a known culture) that turned out correctly. I wouldn't say it pays off as a money-saving venture, as I managed to turn $1.00 worth of milk plus about $0.07 of yogurt into a $2.19 quart of yogurt, at a time investment of about 20 minutes, but it is good and fresh and sort of fun, like making cheese.

Another intriguing mention in the article was making crème fraîche, something that is hard to come by around here. I found a recipe from the Splendid Table that uses buttermilk as a culture, as McGee does, or you can order cultures from The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company (where we got our cheesemaking kit) as well.

Chicago style pizza

I've recently become enamored of Alton Brown's recipe for pizza dough. Makes a nice thin crust pizza at 550° F on a pizza stone. On the other end of the pizza scale, I've been wanting to perfect my Chicago Pan Pizza recipe. I attempted it this weekend for the first time in a long time. Influenced by this recipe, I tried it with these proportions for the crust:

1 cup water
2¾ cups flour
¼ cup cornmeal
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup olive oil
2 tsp. yeast

After running it in the stand mixer with a dough hook for a while, the dough was still too sticky, so I threw in some more flour. Probably still not enough, I'd cut down the water in this recipe. Also, double the salt to 1 tsp. Otherwise, pretty good. Cover with sliced mozzarella, mushrooms, sausage, a can of diced tomatoes and grated parmesan, in that order. I would use a full pound of mozzarella next time, and maybe a little more tomato sauce with the diced tomatoes. It's getting there.