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Tartufo Nero-Italy Trip part 1

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

My husband and I have just returned from two glorious weeks in Italy. The concept of eating local, seasonal food is just a part of the life of an Italian. There is an amazing pride in the land that you can taste in every bite.

We began our trip driving through the countryside of Umbria. It is the region that is bordered by Tuscany to the West and Le March and Abruzzo to the East. The gorgeous green hills are dotted with picturesque villages and towns filled with farmer’s markets, regional museums and of course surrounded by farmland. We stayed with good friends in the lovely hillside town of Trevi. They took us on two days of incredible eating, drinking and fresco viewing. One day for lunch, they led us to an unassuming family run restaurant in the village of Spoleto. We learned that it was black truffle season, known as the tartufo nero. We ordered the homemade tagliatelle with truffles, risotto and the porcini and farro soup. The photo above was my husband’s dish, after a very generous shaving of fresh truffle, unheard of in our local restaurants in NYC (or costing upwards of $100 a pop). I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so wide-eyed in my life! You can only imagine how amazing it tasted.

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A Garlicy Arrival

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

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This morning I was woken up by the most wonderful box of fresh garlic. The mailman’s buzzer at 8am had me a little out of sorts, but when I realized what he had delivered, I forgave the early wake-up call. Korrin & Caleb of the Roots CSA had sent me a gorgeous spread of three of their garlic varieties — Music (spicy, large cloves), Killarney Red (developed in Northern Idaho, good raw), and Chesnok Red (excellent for cooking, stores well).

Though I’m heading out of town for the weekend, I’ll definitely be putting these to the test upon my return. In the mean time, here is a recipe for my favorite way to enjoy fresh garlic, courtesy of Alice Waters:

Whole Roasted Garlic (from Chez Panisse Vegetables)

Use garlic that is in season that has not begun to sprout. Select good-looking, firm heads (allow one per person). Peel just the outer skin from the upper half of each head; arrange the heads, root end down, in an oven-proof dish just large enough to hold them snugly in a single layer. Add enough stock or water to reach about 1/4″ up the sides of the dish, drizzle the heads with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Cover tightly with foil, and roast in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Check them to make sure that there is still liquid in the bottom of the dish. They should be fairly soft at this point; if not, re-cover and roast a little more. Add a little more olive oil and let them continue to roast, uncovered for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately with grilled bread and a little goat cheese. Diners pull apart the cloves and squeeze out the puree within.

Posted in Farms and Farming, Recipes, Summer | No Comments »

Johnson Farmer’s Market

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

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My husband is doing an art residency in Johnson, Vermont at the Vermont Studio Center for the last two weeks of July. He called me the other night thrilled that there is a farmer’s market every Tuesday in Johnson. And the report was 100 % positive. He said it was amazing. A number of local, organic farms with kale, tomatoes, green beans, garlic and prepared foods using local ingredients, like tamales, burritos and wood-oven pizza.

One farmer from neighboring town, Jeffersonville, was making organic icies out of fruits he harvested from his farm. He would steam the berries, add a little organic sugar for sweetness and away he went. He had the black currant and said it was out of this world.

But his favorite thing was the kale. He cooked up our normal old way and had uncooked green beans on the side. He said it reminded him of home. Love that.

While he is in the making art in the hills of Vermont, I remain in sticky New York City making a refreshing salad from the beets I got from my CSA.

Roasted Beets with Pomegranate Cumin Vinaigrette

2 bunches of beets

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Trim the beet greens and reserve for another use. Place the beets unpeeled in a shallow pan with about ½ cup of water and cover with foil. Roast for about 45 minutes of longer if the beets are large. A pairing knife should be able to slip through without resistance.

Drain beets and peel under cool water. Cut into chunks, dice or slice thinly and toss with the vinaigrette.

Vinaigrette

1 garlic clove
1/3 cup pomegrante juice
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Combine all the ingredients up to the oil in a small bowl. Gently whisk in the oils and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Posted in At The Market, Buying Local, Farms and Farming, Recipes, Rural Life, Summer, Travel | No Comments »

The Clarksdale Farmer’s Market

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

pickles

This past week my husband, his family and I traveled to the Mississippi Delta. We went for a celebration of the patrons of The Box Project, to which my husband’s family has been involved for the past 24 years.

We ate our way through the south, feasting on our share of fried catfish, shrimp and grits, dry rub ribs, coleslaw and plenty of sweet tea. Even though not always seasonal or healthy, it was delicious.

But when I visit a new place, the first thing I like to do is find the local farmer’s market. It is always where I am happiest. You can learn so much about a place by speaking to the farmers and seeing what is grown locally. When we hit two farmers’ markets, we were offered a glimpse of what is thriving in the south this time of year.

The little farmer’s market in Clarksdale, Mississippi had some of the most gorgeous and delicious tomatoes I have ever had. In fact, the farmer we spoke with said that he keeps a little shaker of salt in his truck to snack on his tomatoes. We bought a couple and moved onto the Health Crops stand run by students from the local high school. They are a part of a program where the local teenagers learn to garden. A bottle of Kool Aid pickles was the inspiration of one of the students and once you tasted it you knew exactly what the brining liquid contained!

Here is Dennis’ recipe for his inspired Kool Aid Pickles:

-White vinegar
-Cherry Kool Aid
-Cucumbers

Allow the cucumbers to sit in the brining liquid for about two weeks for the best flavor. Click here to see a video of Dennis’ own explanation.

Posted in At The Market, Buying Local, Farms and Farming, Food Preservation, Pickling, Summer, Travel | 1 Comment »

Picking Our Dinner in East Hampton

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Our good friend, Rob, hosted a reunion of sorts for eight of us at his house in East Hampton last weekend. It was filled with early morning surf sessions, tennis matches, midday naps, late afternoon world cup viewings and late night dinners.

On Saturday morning, Gemma offered me the amazing opportunity to pick vegetables with her at a farm called Quail Hill. I must’ve been the happiest human on the planet that day as the dirt filled my fingernails. I found myself surrounded by snap peas, fava beans, string beans, snow peas, english peas, garlic scapes, summer squash, zucchini flowers, radishes and many types of lettuce. Raspberries were on the cusp of ripeness, too.

On the way home we stopped and a fish market to round out the meal. It was such a treat to cook for a crowd and with the exception of lemons, olive oil and sea salt, we used only local, seasonal ingredients from the day. Rob even had an herb garden from which I nipped basil, mint, lavender, sage and dill to finish off the salad and the grilled fish. I’m including the recipe for the pesto we made with the basket of garlic scapes that we plucked from the farm.

Grilled Garlic Scape Pesto

A handful of garlic scapes (about 10)
1 cup of olive oil (some for coating the scapes before grilling)
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons sea salt

Toss the scapes in olive oil to coat and place on a hot grill. Grill until browned but not charred and remove from heat. (Alternatively, you can broil the scapes)

Chop and place in a food processor with toasted pine nuts and pulse. Drizzle in the olive oil and add water if necessary to desired texture. Season with sea salt.

Posted in Buying Local, Farms and Farming, Recipes, Summer | No Comments »

Girl Scout’s Guide to Roasting Vegetables

Saturday, June 26th, 2010

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My new favorite way to prepare vegetables is perfect for summer, and so fun that I keep thinking that if I were a kid, I think I’d have eaten my vegetables if I got to put them together this way.

It’s simple:

1. Cut up a few of your favorite vegetables into similar sized pieces. I picked a few of my seasonal favorites (garlic, spring onion, fingerling potatoes, summer squash, and mushrooms).

2. Get some tinfoil and a small bowl. Press the tinfoil into the bowl so you create a little area to throw in a few of each of your vegetables. Toss in enough veg to make a serving, but not so much that you won’t have enough foil to close the pack.

3. Season with salt, pepper, thyme, or any other herbs and spices you might want to try. Pour a couple glugs of olive oil over the whole mess and close it up nice and tight. Be gentle so you don’t poke any holes in your foil!

4. Toss it on the grill. The oil and natural moisture from the vegetables is enough liquid to keep everything from scorching.

I love this because you get such a wonderful surprise each time – as each vegetable combination creates a different infusion of flavors. I’ve had good luck with asparagus and tomatoes, but I’m sure there are many other options that would be absolutely delicious!

Posted in Recipes, Spring, Summer | No Comments »

Getting Resourceful with Rhubarb

Monday, June 21st, 2010

rhubarbmuffins

rhubarbsauce

Growing up, there was always a big leafy bush of rhubarb growing somewhere in our back yard. Always the first sweet(ish) thing to pop up in the spring, I loved rhubarb simply for it’s position as the introduction to juicy spring foods. We almost always had more than we knew what to do with — and it seems that not much has changed. Like zucchini late in the summer, rhubarb must find it’s way into lots of dishes in order to live up to it’s potential as a prodigious plant. This season my mom reported several rhubarb-centric dishes, including the traditional rhubarb crisp, rhubarb muffins, and rhubarb syrup which she mixed with seltzer water for a refreshing after-gardening-all-day drink. Since Carlin posted a syrup recipe earlier, I’m passing along the crisp recipe that my mom said was the best she had ever tried. Thanks to the Farm Chicks, for such a tasty treat!

rhubarbcrisp

Farm Chicks’ “Grandma’s Rubarb Crunch”

4 cups chopped rhubarb (or rhubarb + strawberries, apple, etc.)
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter

Chop rhubarb and set aside. Mix together the flour, oats, cinnamon, brown sugar and melted butter. Press one-half of crumb mixture into a buttered 7″x11″ or 8.5″x11″ baking dish.

Sugar Sauce:
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup cold water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk sugar, cornstarch and water together in a glass bowl. Microwave until thick, clear, and bubbly, approximately 3-5 minutes. Remove from microwave and whisk in vanilla. Add chopped rhubarb atop pressed-in crumb mixture in the baking dish. Pour sugar sauce evenly over rhubarb. Top with remaining crumb mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until edges are bubbling and crumb topping is browned, about 30-40 minutes.

Posted in Recipes, Summer | No Comments »

A Cape Cod Frittata

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

fritita

I am happily spending the weekend in Cape Cod. Lucky for me, the farmer’s market just began for the season here and I rode my old beach cruiser to check things out as soon as they opened on Saturday morning. Despite the fact that there were only five vendors there, I was thrilled to see the early summer offerings of the local Cape farms. There were many varieties of lettuces, dark leafy greens, fresh currants, radishes, strawberries, snap peas, snow peas and fresh English peas.

I filled my bike basket with produce and biked home thinking about what I might make. Since my family delights in a sort of grazing brunch, I thought I would make a vegetable frittata and bake it off in a square pan, cutting it into bite sized pieces so that people could nibble as they pleased. I suppose I underestimated the grazing idea because within 30 minutes of setting out the lovely little ‘bites’, they all but disappeared!

Scallion, corn, chard and tomato frittata bites

2 ears of corn
1 bunch scallions, white and green parts sliced separately
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons olive oil
I bunch swiss chard, de-stemmed, de-ribbed and chopped
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
10 large eggs
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Oil a 8×8 inch glass dish with olive oil.

Cut the corn kernels off their cobs. In a saute pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and sauté the corn until carmelized. Remove from heat and set aside.

Wipe out the skillet and cook white part of scallions and garlic in 2 tablespoons oil in a over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 2 minutes. Add chard and sauté for another 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, sea salt and pepper to taste, and cook an additional minute. Add the corn and allow to cool.

Whisk together eggs, salt and pepper to taste. Stir the vegetable mixture and reserved scallion greens into the eggs. Transfer to prepared baking dish and bake about 40 minutes in the center of the preheated oven.

Remove from oven when set and allow to cool about 15 minutes. Invert onto a cutting board and cut into 20 individual squares.

Yield: 20 bite sized servings

Posted in Buying Local, Recipes, Summer | No Comments »

Ithaca, New York: Farmers Market Heaven

Friday, September 11th, 2009

greenbeans

We just visited our close friends Jason and Kadie and their daughter Lucia who live in Ithaca, New York. For of those of you who aren’t familiar with this region of the country, it’s well known for not only the awesome gorges, canyons and swimming holes but also for the abundance of local and seasonal food. The Ithaca Farmer’s Market is a beautiful example of what every town should have across the country. It’s an open-air market, filled with all sorts of produce as well as delicious prepared foods from local vendors. We arrived midday and it was packed! The community really supports the community farms. For example, this organization offers “Harvest Dinners” at local farms. Jason and Kadie belong to a CSA that provides them with a ton of delicious fruits and vegetables, some of which they pick themselves. So, as I was finishing my Veggie Somosa I came across some of the most beautiful, multi-colored beans. I had to grab a bunch, and here’s what we did with them:

Farmer’s Market Inspired String Bean Salad

2 lbs multi colored string beans, yellow wax, purple or romano
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Freshly chopped tarragon
Sea salt + freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Trim the tips off the beans and drop into boiling water for about a minute or two but still keeping them snappy. Drain the beans from the water and allow them to cool by scattering them in a single layer on a clean dishtowel.

In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, olive oil, fresh tarragon, salt and pepper.

Toss the vinaigrette with the warm beans and eat immediately!

Posted in At The Market, Recipes, Summer, Travel | No Comments »

Martha’s Vineyard: The Farm Institute

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

farminstitute

I think that one of the most important things we can do is teach each other about the merits of local, seasonal food and the importance of organic farming. One of the gems on Martha’s Vineyard that does this is called The Farm Institute. They are a working farm that also doubles as a school, teaching both adult and children. I love this, and think it is so important.