For week #8 of the 2011-2012 Dark Days Eat Local Challenge, I made a beef short rib ragù. I loosely based my recipe on this recipe, with some local substitutions and a couple of additions. Also, this recipe serves the ribs, while I pull the meat from the bones and return it to the ragù. I served it over homemade fettuccine noodles.

This was my first time using beef from Apple Ridge Farm, a small farm in Ridgefield, CT. They were highly recommended by Jacqueline, the manager at Holbrook Farm, where they carry Apple Ridge beef. The beef was well-deserving of Jacqueline’s praise.

Food sources:

• beef short ribs from Apple Ridge Farm
• lard for searing made by Butcher’s Best Market from Cabbage Hill Farm pork
• carrots and celeriac from Riverbank Farm
• onions Holbrook Farm
• bay leaves from a NY farm
• garlic grown here
• red wine, Twisted Red from Sunset Meadows Vineyards
• turkey bone broth, homemade here from a Quattro Farm bird
• roasted plum tomatoes from March Farm
• hard red spring wheat flour from Wild Hive Farm
• eggs from Greyledge Farm

Note: These challenge posts will be recapped with the other Mid-Atlantic region participants every two weeks, over at Not Dabbling In Normal by Emily of Tanglewood Farm.

My dish was loosely based on this latke recipe.

Truthfully, it wasn’t wonderful. Two eggs were way too much for half a spaghetti squash so I had to add more flour—quite a bit more. Still, that wasn’t what made it unremarkable. I’m convinced latkes need to be potatoes. There’s something about that potato flavor that’s completely missing with spaghetti squash. It wasn’t bad—just not really good.

Even with spaghetti squash, I still prefer sour cream to apple sauce (or cranberry sauce). However. the experiment wasn’t a total loss. I discovered that sour cream and cranberry sauce go remarkably well together.

Sources;

• spaghetti squash: Sport Hill Farm
• onions from Holbrook Farm
• eggs: Greyledge Farm
• flour from Wild Hive
• sour cream: Hudson Valley Fresh
• Applesauce made from assorted apples from Maple Bank Farm,Waldingfield Farm, and Rogers Orchards (leftover from Thanksgiving)
• Whole-Berry Cranberry Sauce (leftover from Thanksgiving) made from cranberries brought by a friend from a farm stand in Cape Cod, MA, maple syrup from McLaughlin Vineyards, apple cider from Lyman Orchards. Cinnamon stick: not local
• oil: not local

Note: These challenge posts will be recapped with the other Mid-Atlantic region participants every two weeks, beginning December 11, over at Not Dabbling In Normal by Emily of Tanglewood Farm.

The challenge starts today and is on until Saturday, March 31st, 2012.

My local food zone is about 100 miles. For a few ingredients, I may reach beyond the local and tap the regional food shed (the rest of New England and upstate NY). My general rule all the time is if it grows in my food shed, I’ll get it in my food shed. If it doesn’t grow here, I’ll get it from the nearest, most responsible source. My specific exceptions are oils, coffee, chocolate, spices, baking ingredients like baking powder, baking soda, and yeast, and tropical and citrus fruits.

I am really looking forward to this year. After all these years of eating locally all the time, finding the food is not the most challenging aspect. There are far more winter farmers markets and open farm stands than there used to be. (I like to think it’s thanks to us!) My biggest challenge is time. My favorite winter meals require hours of slow and low cooking. When that can’t happen, I default to frittatas. In the end, local is local!

After all these years, it is still fun and interesting. I like learning from other folks and their ideas help me avoid repetitive food syndrome. I’m excited about the new people. As people give this a try, they realize that putting together one local meal a week is supremely achievable.

Good luck to all the participants!

If you’re still thinking about it, you have until December 4 to join!

Now is the time to ferret out the zucchini recipes since it’s just the beginning of what’s looking like a long and prosperous zucchini season. Here’s a recipe for zucchini fritters to the collection.

This recipe is based liberally on another one from a kindred spirit.

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions
• 1 cup corn meal
• 8 basil leaves, cut into chiffonade
• 2 cups shredded zucchini

Beat the eggs, then mix all of the remaining ingredients together with the eggs. Drop in quarter-cupfuls onto a medium hot greased griddle or skillet and cook until browned.

Top with sour cream or a yogurt dip. I “Greeked” some yogurt and dolloped it as-is. Nice. Different.

Sources:

• eggs from the Organic Diva in Bethlehem, CT
• zucchini and scallions from Sport Hill Farm
• corn meal from Wild Hive Farm and Micro Mill
• basil from Riverbank Farm
• lard (for frying) from Butcher’s Best in Newtown, CT using Rowland Farm pork
• yogurt from Arethusa Farm Dairy

I’m also sharing this for the Weekend Blog Carnival at Hartke Is Online.

However, I did make fried squash blossoms and that’s something you don’t see every day.

Before

.

After

I made a batter using:

• one egg (Woodbury Laid)
• 2 Tbsp of milk (Stone Wall Dairy)
• enough of corn meal (Wild Hive Farm and Micro Mill) to make it dippable
• a pinch of salt

I dipped the flowers (Maple Bank Farm) into the batter and fried them in a pan with olive oil and butter (Ronnybrook Farm Dairy).

If you’ve never had this fun treat, you owe to yourself to try it at least once.

I first started hearing about bone broth this past winter and went for it with a passion.  As soon as my bone collection (in the freezer) reaches critical mass, I’m making bone broth.

To raise awareness and encourage people to consume this helthful yet forgotten food, CheeseSlave is hosting a Bone Broth Challenge for the month of July. Earn points, get healthy, win prizes! (How lucky am I that I just made a big pot of it this week!)

So, I hereby kick off Bone Broth Month with this dish: Stracciatella, an Italian egg drop soup.

There are a number of recipes out there; I used Giada‘s, mostly (without the basil).

Sources:

• chicken bone broth, made from chicken bones from Stone Gardens Farm and Center Brook Farm, in New Milford, CT chickens and onions from Stone Gardens Farm
• spinach from Maple Bank Farm
• egg from Sport Hill Farm, likely from one of these ladies:

Great idea, CheeseSlave!

Still, I am an eater and a darn good one at that. So far, I’ve tried a pie crust and made little tarts and a quiche and was really happy with how those came out.

While researching Red Fife, I came upon these biscuits. They look delicious and even better, the recipe is incredibly simple.So, I made them:

They were really good! Next time, I’ll use a little more salt, a little more butter and less milk. I used half Red Fife and half Soft White Winter Wheat from Wild Hive.

Okay, so all of that’s fine and well, but the real test for wheat is macaroni (or if you prefer, pasta). So, I made some of that too. This time, I used 100% Red Fife. The dough handled well (for not being durum semolina).

I tossed the fettuccine noodles with broccoli sautéed in olive oil with garlic scapes. The taste and texture were spot on—hearty but without that cardboard whole wheat taste. It tasted like macaroni!

Sources

• Red Fife wheat from Curtis Eck near Kent, CT
• eggs, broccoli, and garlic scapes from Sport Hill Farm
• olive oil from Italy (from my grove—I know, I still owe you that post)

Definitely something to do again.

Okay Lisa, the local Red Fife wheat passed all of my tests. Where can I get more?

Broccoli lettuce soup!

The pie crust had a great flavor—my new flour mix is a winning combo. The soup was interesting and tasted mostly like coconut.

Sources

pie shell

• Red Fife flour from Curtis Eck (HT Lisa) and Soft White Winter Wheat flour from Wild Hive
• butter from Ronnybrook
  

quiche

• 1-1/2 Tbsp butter from Ronnybrook
• 2 small chopped spring onions from Stone Gardens Farm
• 1-1/2 chopped garlic scapes from Sport Hill Farm
• 2 cups chopped broccoli from Sport Hill Farm
• 1-1/2 cups Pleasant Son cheese from Sankow’s Beaver Brook
• 5 eggs from the Organic Diva in Bethlehem, CT
• 1-1/ cups (raw) milk from Stone Wall Dairy, Cornwall Bridge, CT

soup

• coconut oil from far, far away
• spring onion from Stone Gardens Farm
• broccoli and Red Butterhead lettuce from Sport Hill Farm
• dollop of yogurt from Arethusa Farm Dairy
• croutons made from Bantam Bread Local Loaf

CSA Week 3 Wrap Up

Or, where did all of that food go?

The broccoli rabe (or rapini, if you prefer) was the first to go! Here it is, going down for the wilt with the garlic scapes, sauteed in olive oil.

Patti gave me a great idea for lettuce: chicken salad wraps. Here’s my chicken salad (chicken from Stone Gardens Farm) wrapped in Patti’s Red Butterhead lettuce.

And of course, there was the escarole and bean soup (along with the soup on a crostini).

I happened upon a recipe for crock-pot rotisserie chicken at one of Kimberly Hartke’s blog carnivals. Obviously I spend too much time with Engineers because I thought there was a new kind of crock-pot on the market, like with an actual rotating rod. It turned out to be a recipe for cooking chicken in an ordinary crock-pot that tastes just like rotisserie chicken. Still, I like rotisserie chicken, I have a crock-pot, and I had a chicken.

It turns out that there are a quarter of a million (literally) other crock-pot rotisserie chicken recipes. (Google it.) Most of the recipes are quite similar, with variations on the spice mix (or shall we say flavor profile of the dry rub).

A popular technique is to raise the chicken off of the bottom of the pot. Most recommend making several balls out of aluminum foil on which to rest the chicken, but a few suggested using potatoes. I went with the potato idea since you can eat them. I mostly followed the recipe from Real Food, Allergy Free, but borrowed here and there from some of the others.

I made a rub of

• 3 tsp salt
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp pepper (multicolored)
• 4 minced scallions
• 1 Tbsp minced spring garlic

I rubbed some olive oil all over the chicken, then worked the “dry” rub into the skin.

I used some leeks cut lengthwise along with the potatoes for the elevation medium.

The chicken went breast down onto the potatoes and I put on the lid. (No water or other fluids—everyone was fairly adamant about that.) I let it go for 4 hours on high and another 2 on low.

It was excellent! I mean really good! The meat was literally falling off the bone (like nearly everyone said it would). Even the breast meat (not my favorite part) was moist and tender. Seriously. I could see making this every week.

Told you the meat was falling off the bone! I didn't think of that as I was removing it from the crock-pot.

Sources:

• chicken: Center Brook Farm, (Jesse Miller) New Milford, CT (New Milford farmers market)
• leeks: Mountain View Farm (New Milford farmers market)
• spring garlic and green onions: Holbrook Farm
• Cayenne pepper: Cherry Grove, Newtown, CT, dried here
• thyme: mine
• potatoes, salt, pepper, paprika, and olive oil from away (although the olive oil is from my own grove, but more about that in another post!)

With a refrigerator full of heirloom lettuce, you almost have to have a salad too.

I tried to do a local Thousand Island dressing. (Operative word is tried.) I substituted yogurt for the mayo and strained it to make it almost Greek style. While there’s ketchup in the fridge, it’s there for other people. Instead, I used some of the roasted plum tomatoes from the freezer. I put the defrosted tomatoes through the food mill, then strained the liquid. I mixed it into the yogurt and added two chopped hard-cooked eggs and two chopped dill pickle spears and some of the pickle juice. I added some red wine vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper. It needs something more, but I don’t know what. I suspect that the problem is simply that yogurt is not mayo. Still, it wasn’t horrible—just missing something.

Really thick dressing...perhaps I drained off too much liquid...

Sources:

• Red Romaine and Grand Rapids heirloom lettuce: Sport Hill Farm
• yogurt: Arethusa Farm Dairy
• tomatoes: Holbrook Farm
• eggs: Woodbury Laid Eggs
• dill pickles: Riverbank Farm, canned by them too
• honey: Steve Prutnik, Bridgewater, CT
• salt, pepper, red vinegar from away

I love local food challenges that happen during the growing season!

This is a rather simple meal, but I needed to make chicken to get the ingredients to make more of my own chicken broth. I thought I had a stock of stock, but I emptied the freezer and found none! Broth in the box is organic and not bad, but it’s not local and it’s not as good as mine.

The grain mix consists of short grain brown rice, black Japonica rice, wild rice, and black quinoa. The packets come attractively and tastily pre-mixed from Boxed Goodes, a local company. This one is called Onyx Whole Grain Blend.

Food sources:

• chicken from Stuarts Family Farm
• white wine, Chardonnay from McLaughlin Vineyards
• garlic, sage, and thyme from me
• carrots and parsnips from Riverbank Farm
• cayenne pepper from Cherry Grove, Newtown, CT (frozen whole, vintage 2010).
• green onions from Newgate Farms
• chicken broth from away (last time, I promise!)
• grain mix from away (as discussed above)
• olive oil from away

The challenge officially ends on April 15 and I think I may have one more challenge meal post in me.

Other Challengers

These folks have been keeping up with the challenge all along, God bless ‘em! Here’s their most recent challenge posts:

• Making NY My home made Spaetzle
• The Reluctant Blogger made Tartines
• Food Soil Thread made Handmade Savory & Flavorful Vegetable Potstickers

Enjoy!