Recipes for Featured Locally Grown Products

Recipes for Aug 8, 2007

Basic Chicken Stock (makes 10 to 12 cups)

Since Axel and Sue Linde of Lindenhof Farm are now bringing chicken backs and wings to the market (and at a reasonable price!) it's time to make stock. Home-made stock, especially when it's from pastured, chemical-free chickens, is so much better than anything you can buy in a can or carton that you'll never go back to pre-made stock again. It's also very easy to make good stock at home: you'll need a large stock pot and a few hours for simmering and you'll end up with the most beautiful soup base you've ever imagined.
This recipe comes from a wonderful and healthy cookbook called The Essential Mediterranean by Nancy Harmon Jenkins, although it has been altered slightly from the original. It is in print and available at Jessica's Biscuit, www.ecookbooks.com.

Ingredients:

• 4 to 5 pounds chicken parts, including backs and wings, rinsed and dried
• 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 medium yellow onions, quartered
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 medium to large carrot, cut into chunks
• ½ cup flat-leaf parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
• 1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick (optional)
• 10 to 12 cups cold water
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Red Lentil Soup

This is a quick and easy (and very healthy) soup originally from Gourmet Magazine (September 2002) although it has been modified from the original. You can also pick up most of the ingredients at the farmers market and it freezes really well. Active time for chopping etc. is only 20 minutes; and start to finish it takes 40 minutes. You can experiment with this recipe by adding many different types of vegetables, herbs, and spices. And, as you can see by the note at the end, it can also be pureed to make a more elegant soup. The red lentils ensure that the color remains attractive whether pureed or served as originally prepared, and this soup would be particularly tasty made with the chicken stock with the cinnamon stick added.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped (1 cup)
• 1 small to medium zucchini, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh or canned tomato
• 1 celery rib, chopped
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup dried red lentils
• 4 cups water

Recipes for August 1, 2007: Tomato/Basil Salad and Peach Pies

Tomato/Basil Salad

This recipe comes originally from Marcella Hazan, from the cookbook I consider to be the kitchen bible: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. If you don't have a copy, get one quickly! This dish is also completely dependent on good ingredients; your tomatoes must be juicy and flavorful and as fresh as possible. The only way to make this salad taste right is to use really flavorful tomatoes from a home garden or farmers market - tomatoes that ripen off the vine simply don't taste right and ruin the salad. Good olive oil is important as well. This salad is so delicious that you will never have leftovers. Be sure to serve with good fresh Italian bread to soak up the tomato juices.

Ingredients:

• 4 or 5 garlic cloves
• Salt
• Good quality red wine vinegar
• 2 pounds absolutely fresh, perfectly ripe, flavorful tomatoes
• 1 dozen large fresh basil leaves
• Extra virgin olive oil

Peach Pies

These recipes were provided by Lisa Kirschner, of North Star Orchards. The first was given to her by a customer and it won a 'first place' in a peach pie contest. The second was provided by another customer, who raved about it.

Piled High Peach Pie

Crust Ingredients:

• 2 1/3 c. all purpose flour
• 1 T sugar
• 1 t salt
• 3/4 c. (1 1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/4 c. chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
• 1 t distilled white vinegar
• 6 T (about) ice water

• 5 pounds medium peaches, peeled, pitted, sliced
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. all purpose flour
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon
• 1/8 t ground cardamom
• 1/8 t ground nutmeg

Peach Chiffon Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 baked pie shell
• ½ c. sugar
• ¼ t. salt
• 1 T. unflavored gelatin
• ¼ c. cold water
• 1 c. heavy cream whipped
• 3 c. sliced peaches

Recipes for July 25th, 2007: Freezing Fruits and Vegetables

The bounty of this time of year is astonishing; each week we are presented with gorgeous mounds of beautiful fruits and vegetables - clearly too much to eat in the seven days before the market occurs again. This bounty is fleeting and thus bittersweet and prompts the desire to preserve it for enjoyment later, when the season is over and the perfect corn and tomatoes and blueberries are only a memory. But how can we do so in a manner that preserves as much flavor as possible? Obviously, we could do what our ancestors did and can it, but what if we don't know how to can or don't have the time, or don't want to? Most vegetables and fruits can be frozen for later use if they are properly prepped before cold storage. Here are a few tips for freezing fresh produce.

Zucchini: Grated zucchini and squash can be frozen very easily and with excellent results. Simply wash and dry your squash and grate into a colander. Press down to express extra liquid and then freeze in 2-cup portions in a quart freezer bag. When you want to use the zucchini defrost the frozen squash in a colander in the sink; the grated squash will expel a fair bit of water. Press down to squeeze out even more water and the resulting vegetable will be ready to use in breads, frittate, or soups.

One of my favorite recipes for grated zucchini is a sauté with onions and garlic. Finely chop a small onion and a clove of garlic and sauté in olive oil, on medium heat, in a large frying pan. When the onions are translucent (about 5 minutes) add the zucchini and continue to sauté until the zucchini is heated through and the flavors are blended, which will take about 10 minutes more. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Sweet Corn: Corn is very easy to freeze, and will keep for several months if properly bagged. Use your largest stock pot to bring a large amount of water to boil. While the water is coming to a boil shuck the ears of corn, leaving them whole. When the water is boiling add a few ears at a time - depending on the amount of water - so that the water comes back to a boil within one minute. Parboil the corn, once the boil has resumed, for about one minute and remove the ears to a plate, and continue adding more ears of corn until you have parboiled your entire stack (I have, in the past, processed as many as three dozen ears in this manner!). After your corn has cooled to a temperature where it can be handled without pain, use a very sharp knife to cut the kernels from the cob into a bowl. With a minute of parboiling they should be able to be cut easily but shouldn't get mushy. Then you simply place the cut kernels into freezer bags in whatever portion size works best for your family and recipes.

Corn doesn't expel as much water as zucchini does while defrosting, so I have found you can leave it in the bag. Then you can use the corn for making corn bread, fritters, succotash, corn soup, etc. You can even substitute corn for the zucchini in the recipe above, and it's especially nice if you add diced red peppers as well.

Peppers: Green and red peppers are a little more difficult to freeze, I have found. They can lose their flavor and become mushy if parboiled and frozen so I usually cook them prior to freezing.

Pepper Sauté: Another recipe where onions and garlic are used to flavor a vegetable. Obviously, if you dislike either of these aromatics you can use one or the other only; you can also add fresh or dried herbs if you want. Chop the onions and garlic and sauté in olive oil in a large saucepan or frying pan. Chop the peppers lengthwise into quarters and slice thinly across. When the onions are translucent add the peppers and toss to coat with oil; you may wish to add another tablespoon of olive oil if necessary. Turn the temperature down to low and cover the pan; you want to cook the peppers very slowly so they give up their liquid but do not acquire a 'fried' taste or aroma. Cook the peppers in this manner for anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour; the lower the temperature the better the end result. Stir occasionally. About half-way through the cooking time add balsamic vinegar and a pinch of sugar; the amount will depend on how many peppers you are cooking (for instance, last week I cooked a basket of peppers from Fruitwood Farms, which was about 15 long green frying peppers. I used one large onion (from Blueberry Hill Farms) and four cloves of garlic (from Willing Hands), a scant ¼ cup of balsamic vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar). Continue to cook on the low temperature; the vinegar and sugar will cause the peppers to caramelize slightly and they will develop a very rich aroma. Add salt and pepper to taste and either serve - or - freeze. I have found that when peppers are prepared in this manner they freeze very well, and are perfect for later use as they are or in scrambled eggs and fritatte, soups, and you can even add them to a sweet corn sauté to add flavor and texture!

Fruits: Fruit is more delicate to preserve by freezing, but equally easy. Most fruits can be frozen on a cookie sheet and then bagged for later use. For instance, you can freeze blueberries with excellent results; wash the berries and allow them to dry (you don't want water clinging to the berries because too many ice crystals will form). Spread the berries on a baking sheet that will fit in your freezer, and place the sheet in the freezer. You want to keep the berries from touching if possible. After they are solidly frozen, bag them for easier storage. This method works well with most fruits, although for pit fruits such as peaches and nectarines you should slice and peel them and then lay out on the cookie sheet.

Easy Fruit Sorbet: This can be done with almost any frozen fruit. Just take the fruit out of the freezer and allow the slices or berries to soften up just a little; you want them to stay very cold. Then use a strong blender to whip them into a hard slush; add some sugar and lemon juice and you have a VERY healthy sorbet.

Recipes for July 18th, 2007: Two recipes for quick and easy pasta sauce

Here are quick recipes for preparing dinner on Wednesday night when you've just come home from the market and are short on time.

Your menu might include a fresh salad made from market produce (and topped with some diced cheese from Hill Acres Pride) or a side dish of blanched vegetables, such as broccoli or green beans. For this, you can simply your life by blanching/boiling the vegetables in the pasta water before you add the pasta. Just cook for the appropriate amount of time and scoop out into a bowl, leaving the water in the pot for the pasta. Add a dollop of olive oil or butter to the veggies and serve with the main course.

15 Minute Tomato and Basil Pasta

Ingredients:

• Wine
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Tablespoons Olive oil
• 1 Pint cherry tomatoes or 4 large regular tomatoes
• 1 bunch basil
• Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
• Parmigiano reggiano, Grana padana, or ricotta salada cheese to grate
• 6-8 ounces pasta

20 Minute Zucchini Pasta

This recipe is similar to the last one in timing, although the squash takes a little longer to cook than the tomatoes. Follow the same directions for the pasta; that part is omitted in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 small to medium-sized zucchini
• 2 cloves or garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Grated cheese (Parmigiano reggiano, Grana padana, or ricotta salada)

Recipes for July 11, 2007: Mixed Summer Vegetables

Insalata Estiva (Sicilian Summer Salad)

Note from Nancy Harmon Jenkins, the cookbook author: This summery salad is often served at Tenuta Pignatelli, a rose-walled villa outside Castelvetrano that is the home of the Becchina family, makers of Olio Verde, one of Sicily's finest olive oils. The hearty salad is part of summer buffets in the villa garden, but it could be a first course for a dinner party, and of course it also makes an excellent main course all on its own for lunch.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound yellow-flesh potatoes, such as yellow Finns or Yukon gold
• Sea salt to taste
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, preferably Sicilian
• 1 pound green beans, cut in 2-inch lengths
• 1 large ripe tomato, seeded and diced
• 3 whole salted anchovies, filleted and coarsely chopped
• 12 to 15 black or green (or both) olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and dried
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and dried
• 1 medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano or 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced

Bring more lightly salted water to a rolling boil and add the green beans. Cook rapidly until the beans are just tender-5 to 7 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold running water to preserve their color, then toss dry and add to the potatoes, stirring gently so as not to break up the potato slices.

Add the tomatoes, anchovies, olives, and onion slices. Sprinkle with the oregano, crumbling it in the palm of your hand to release its aroma, or the basil. Turn the salad ingredients very gently, adding the lemon juice as you do so. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt, herbs, or lemon juice if you wish. Finally, distribute the egg slices over the top.

Set aside for 15 to 30 minutes to let the flavors meld, then serve. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Variation: To make a heartier salad, toss in little dice of fresh white cheese or mozzarella, or flaked oil-packed tuna or mackerel, and serve the salad with toasted crostini, bread crusts, rubbed with garlic and olive oil. Or present the salad on a bed of fresh greens, in which case arrange the dressed salad on top of the greens, then distribute the egg slices over the top.

This recipe is available in Cucina del Sole: A Celebration of Southern Italian Cooking, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Available at Jessica's Biscuit, www.ecookbooks.com.

Recipes for the week of June 27, 2007: Potatoes, Zucchini, and Carrots

Richard Olney's Garden Soup

Just in time for the start of summer, this quick, easy, and healthy soup is a great way to use a whole range of farmers market produce!

Ingredients and Directions:

• 1 bay leaf
• A few springs of fresh thyme
• Sea salt to taste
• 1 garlic clove - peeled and sliced
• 1 leek, white part only, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 potato (slice directly into soup)
• 1 small handful broken spaghetti
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 handful of cut green beans
• 1 red or green pepper, diced or sliced
• Olive oil, a drizzle
• Grated parmesan cheese

Put the bay leaf, thyme, sea salt and garlic into a pot; add water to cover and heat over high heat for a couple of minutes. Add the chopped leek, chopped onion, diced or sliced carrot, and potato (slice into soup) and boil gently for 15 minutes. Add the broken spaghetti, and the diced zucchini; cook for 5 minutes. Add a handful of cut green beans, the pepper, and cook until they are softer but still a bit crunchy (5 minutes?). Add a drizzle of good olive oil, put into a bowl and sprinkle parmesan cheese if desired.

Of course, this soup is subject to whatever variations you think might be fun; a few leaves of fresh basil at the end, etc., a handful of young lettuce leaves or spinach, some celery hearts. You could add anything you have in the pantry or garden. Fresh ingredients are important, as is a good, fruity olive oil.

(Note: An outline of this recipe was provided in Olney's autobiography Reflexions and I have fleshed it out to provide a more complete set of directions. Amounts are up to you! - Janet Chrzan)

Simple Roasted Potatoes

Now that the new potatoes are becoming available, it's time to think about how to cook them. When cooked properly they are so tender and creamy that you will never think of a potato quite the same way again.

They are deceptively easy to prepare. You can cut them in halves or quarters, dust with spices, salt and pepper and olive oil and roast on a baking sheet at a high heat (450°) for twenty minutes to a half-hour, which will make them delightfully crispy - or you can roast them whole, which makes the outside crispy and the inside creamy. To roast whole, your oven can be set at any temperature between 300° and 450° depending on how long you want them to cook. For instance, you can roast them with the pastured chicken at 300° (recipe for June 20th) for two hours, or cook them at 400° - 450° for 45 minutes to one hour; the higher temperatures may cause a bit of kitchen smoke if you add a lot of olive oil, however. In either case, you will want to use a roasting pan or baking sheet, oil or butter, salt, pepper, and the herbs of your choice. You simply wash and dry the potatoes and leave them whole. Place in the pan and drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper, and then choose your herbs. For roasted potatoes you won't want to add moist fresh herbs, such as fresh parsley and cilantro, to the roasting pan - you'll add those last, after the potatoes come out of the oven. You can add fresh herbs with a high oil content (rosemary, thyme, etc.) without a problem; the herbs that are somewhat in between (oregano, for instance, which is both moist and oily) you can decide for yourself. Alternately, you can add dried herbs; I like to use the standard 'Herbes de Provence' mix (rosemary, thyme, bay, savory, etc.) but you can truly use any combination of herbs you might desire. After you've added your herbs, roll the potatoes around in the pan so they become coated with the herbs and spices and olive oil. Place them in the oven and forget about them for a while; try to give the pan a nice shake a few times during the cooking time, but if you forget to do so your potatoes will still be fine.

The potatoes are done when a fork or knife can slip through easily, or when the outside side becomes a wrinkled, usually in about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the potatoes. All you have to do is plate them, dust with fresh chopped parsley or cilantro and serve!

Recipe for the week of June 20: Chicken

How to roast a pastured chicken

The pastured chicken is a very different animal than the battery (or caged) chicken, because it has muscles. Obviously, an animal that has had access to exercise and can scratch in the dirt will have a very different kind of meat because they will have very different leg, thigh and breast meat structure. The recent craze for high-roasted chickens (450 degrees for a shorter period of time) is fine for a battery chicken but will not work for a pastured bird; the muscles simply freeze up and you end up with a chicken-shaped hockey puck. For the pastured bird you need to cook 'low and slow'.

First, to you will want to slowly defrost the bird. Two full days in the refrigerator will do the job nicely. Then wash the bird, remove any giblets etc., from the body cavity, and (if necessary) trim the neck bones back to the main body of the bird. Dry the bird inside and out, and prepare your pan.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Use a large roasting pan and a rack, and place the bird either breast up or back up, depending on your preference. At this point you can decide how you will season the bird. I often use fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, etc.), salt and pepper, garlic, and a quartered lemon in the cavity. You could also use onions and almost any other spices you might desire. After stuffing the interior cavity, I tuck the legs under the fat flap or tie them up, and then dress the outside of the bird with olive oil or butter and salt and pepper. You can also dust with other ground spices - from a South Asian mix to humble paprika.

I then put the bird in the preheated oven and forget about it for 2 hours. I don't baste (you can, of course, if you want) but sometimes I turn the bird over. The bird is finished when the leg bones are flexible and the thigh juices run clear after puncture with a sharp knife. This usually takes two hours.

If you want a crispier skin you can turn the heat up to 400 degrees for the last 20 minutes of the cooking time.

This recipe is a no-brainer, and one of my favorite easy Sunday suppers. You can place potatoes and root vegetables in the roasting pan with the bird and then all you need to do is add a fresh salad and

Recipe for June 13, 2007: Strawberries and Spinach

Strawberries and Spinach Salad
Adapted by Lauren Feldman from a recipe from www.Cooks.com. This is one of Lauren's family's favorite recipes for spring.

Salad:

• 2-3 bunches fresh spinach (approximately 1½ - 2 pounds)
  
• 1 1/2 - 2 pints sliced strawberries
  

• 1/3 c. sugar
  
• 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
  
• 1 tbsp. poppy seeds
  
• 2 tbsp. sesame seeds
  
• 1 1/2 tsp. minced onion
  
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
  
• 1/2 c. oil
  
• 1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  

Recipe for June 6, 2007: Chard

Pasta con i Tenerumi (Pasta with the Green Leaves of Squash or Chard)

Note from Nancy Harmon Jenkins, the cookbook author:

A traditional and much-loved Sicilian recipe, this is not difficult to make, as long as you have access to tender, young leaves. What are used in Sicily are leaves of the long pale-green squash called zucca longa or cucuzza. Occasionally you can find zucca longa in farmers' markets-just ask the farmer for a big bundle of leaves (and watch her face for her reaction: "Huh-hh?"). Failing that, you may also use the leaves of zucchini or summer squash, but they should be the youngest and tenderest leaves you can find in the garden. (I don't imagine you would ever find such things in even the most well-supplied produce shop.) Pumpkin or winter squash leaves, I think, are simply too tough, but if you can't find any leaves from the squash family, try this recipe with chard or spring greens - it's surprisingly tasty.
Unusually, the pasta is cooked right in the tenerumi sauce.

Ingredients:

• 2 or 3 bunches of squash or chard leaves (18 to 20 leaves), enough to make 6 packed cups of sliced leaves
• 2 or 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• Sea salt
• 1 dried hot red chili pepper, or 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 1/2 pound spaghetti or other long, thin pasta, broken into 2-inch pieces
• 1 medium dark green zucchini, diced
• 1/2 cup coarsely grated caciocavallo or parmigiano reggiano cheese

Recipe for May 30, 2007: Spring Greens

Spring Greens Frittata

Ingredients:

• 1 large bunch Chard or Kale, very fresh
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium or ½ large sweet onion, cut into a small diced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 handful of arugula, chopped
• 1 handful of spicy salad greens, chopped
• Flakes of dried, hot, red pepper
• 6 eggs
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
• Chives, finely chopped
• 1 green onion, chopped
• Sea salt
• Black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large sauce or fry pan; add the onions and garlic and cook until slightly browned, about 5-7 minutes. Add the kale/chard and break up the clumps so that it cooks evenly; add the arugula, the spicy greens, and the red pepper flakes. Fry on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the greens and onions are somewhat dry and the arugula and greens are fully wilted, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped parsley, green onion, and chives to the greens mixture and give it a good stir.

Crack the six eggs into a bowl, add salt and pepper, and whip thoroughly; add to the greens mixture and mix with a fork. Allow to brown on the bottom and either flip into another pan to brown the top or brown under a broiler. When both sides of the frittata are brown transfer to a clean plate, sprinkle with some more sea salt and black pepper, and cut into wedges and serve. Makes enough for 2 for a main course or 4 for a first course. I have no idea how many calories it contains, nor do I care; I assure you it's disgustingly healthy and tastes wonderful. Enjoy!

Recipes for May 23, 2007

Strawberries
Note about caring for your berries from the farmers' market: Do not wash the berries until you are going to use them; if you wash and then store berries the moisture may cause spoilage. If you need to store the berries, simply put them in the fridge in a perforated plastic bag or paper bag until you can use them. They aren't going to last more than a day or two, so plan to eat them quickly!

With strawberries that are this fresh you really don't need to tart them up too much. Just wash, carefully cut the stem end out, and place whole or halved in a bowl. A sprinkling of sugar, perhaps a touch of whipped cream, and if you're really feeling frisky, a tiny drizzle of brandy or grappa and you're good to go for dessert.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 bunch asparagus (generally about a pound)
• Sea salt or kosher salt to taste