Category Archives: recipes

locavore, recipes

Default Greens

A number of people have told me that they’d buy more greens from the farmers markets, but just don’t know how to prepare them. While there are lots of exceptional recipes out there, I generally default to my default method of cooking greens: sauté garlic in olive oil, add broth or water, add cleaned, cut greens and some salt and pepper, wilt to taste (annotated directions below). Since this method works so well with the greens I have known and loved for years, I use it on all the new greens I encounter to get a sense of where they fit in the time/space continuum. After that, I’m free to take new greens off into new directions.

How I make default (every day) greens

  1. Clean and cut the greens. Depending on the size of the leaf, some greens can be left whole (like arugula) while others need to be cut (like kale). I like to cut mine into bite-sized pieces, as if they were going into a salad. (But no, they’re not.) Depending on the type of green, you may need to rinse them more than once—some greens bring more of their soil medium along with them. I use a salad spinner. I fill the bowl with water, dump in the cut greens, and splash them around awhile. Then I lift the leaf pieces out into the basket. The final rinse is in the basket with a full spin.
  2. Sauté some garlic in olive oil in a pan. Sometimes I use an ordinary frying pan, other times the big sauce pan, depending on the bulk of the raw greens. Greens like escarole take a lot of space raw but will wilt down to fit into a small bowl!

    3. garlic_in_oo

    You could also use garlic scapes instead of garlic for a subtler flavor.

    saute_scapes

    Or use scallions or onions or shallots—whatever makes the flavor you like. I typically use garlic. For an average bunch of greens, I use two or three cloves. (Cloves are the segments of the bulb.)

    You can chop the garlic, mince it, or leave it whole, depending on how intense of a garlic flavor you want. You want to lightly brown or caramelize the garlic to bring out its sweetness.

  3. Add liquid to the pan. I often use chicken broth, but have also used water or other broths. You can even use some white wine. Or a mix of the three! For an average bunch of greens, figure on 1/4 to 1/2 cups of liquid.
  4. Add the greens to the pan with some salt and pepper.

    5. add_greens

  5. Cover and wilt.

    6. cover-n-wilt

  6. Occasionally, toss with the tongs.
  7. Taste test and re-season if necessary.
  8. Serve.

Here are some samples

Escarole:

escarole_sauteed

Spinach and scapes:

spinach-n-scapes

Arugula and Endive Frissee:

You can cook kale this way as well as swiss chard, mustard greens, vitamin greens, beet greens, and even broccoli rabe (rapini). Some folks like to sprinkle a few red pepper flakes on top—go for it.

See—it’s easy being green! (wow, I can hear you groaning from here.)

Connecticut, farms, locavore, putting by, recipes

Thanksgiving 2008

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I had a fabulously local Thanksgiving! The meal was the culmination of a years’ worth of locavoring with several dishes from the freezer, jars, and vacuum-sealed packages, where they’d been since they were picked and preserved in season. I enjoyed collecting and preparing the various menu items as much as I did eating them!  I feel like I really celebrated the bounty of the land where I live. I thank the farmers and their employees, the market managers, others who sell local foods, the people who post recipes and instructions on the Internet, my fellow local food bloggers, and my family for this feast.

My menu was as follows:

Appetizers

appetizers

  • Chilled Roasted Beets
    From Missy’s Farmstand in Goshen, NY
  • Spiced Icebox Pickled Carrots
    Carrots from Don Taylor Farm in Danbury, CT, jalapenos & other hot peppers from Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown, CT, local garlic
  • Roasted Red Peppers
    From Missy’s Farmstand with local garlic
  • Sliced Baby Fennel Bulbs
    From Stone Gardens Farm
  • Garlic Pickles
    From Stoneledge Farm in Southbury, CT
  • Kalamata Olives
    From out there
  • Assorted Cheeses
    Pleasant Cow, Pleasant Sun, Aged Feta, and Fresh from Sankow’s Beaver Brook Farm
  • Sage Cheddar
    From the Vermont Country Store (a gift, from someone who was there)
  • Sweet Soppressata and Mozzarella Cheese (we are Italian and it is not a holiday without these)
    From out there
  • Crackers & Breads & Butter
    Crackers from out there; bread from Rockland Bakery; my own home-made butter

Soup

Chicken Soup with bow tie pasta (based on this chicken soup recipe)
Chickens from Beaver Brook Farm and Ox Hollow Farm; onions, celery, and carrots from Stone Gardens Farm, garlic and parsley, local from our co-mingled collection; our own sage. Pasta from out there.

Main Course

Beverages

local_beverages

And yes, we had these for those who prefer them:

unlocal_beverages

Dessert

  • Apple Crisp
    Made by Blue Jay Orchards, with their own apples and other worldly ingredients
  • Pumpkin Pie (based on this pumpkin pie recipe, without the canned milk)
    Pumpkins from Don Taylor Farms and Killam and Bassette Farmstead; eggs from Ox Hollow Farm; white winter wheat flour from Wild Hive; butter from the Vermont Butter & Cheese Co.; heavy cream from Trinity Dairy; salt, pumpkin pie spice, and brown sugar from out there
  • Fresh Whipped Cream
    Heavy cream from Trinity Dairy; vanilla and sugar from out there
  • Vanilla Ice Cream
    from Rich Farm
  • Fresh Fruits
    Golden Delicious apples, Empire Apples, and Bosc pears from Killam and Bassette Farmstead; Cortland apples from Blue Jay Orchards
  • Torrone
    A nougat delight from Italy
  • Mixed  Nuts, Chestnuts, roasted Pumpkin seeds Dates, & Figs
    All from out in the world, except the pumpkin seeds
  • Coffee and Hot Chocolate
    From out in the world

As you can see, there were some Marco Polo exceptions on the table. For the most part (excepting some seasonings, oils, nuts, some beverages, and such), these were items that were not required for the meal, but special holiday treats for various members of my family and so I served them.

The turkey from Quattro Game Farm was outstanding! It was well worth the $4/lb price tag. I don’t believe I’ve ever gotten as many compliments on a turkey before. Thanks to John Holbrook for making these available. The pumpkin pie turned out to be a hit as well.

End Notes

google_thanksgiving08
While Googling for this post, I came across this Westchester Magazine article and this NY Times article, which may provide useful resources for other local foodies in my region.

Also, my apologies for the lack of discipline in shooting photos. In the flurry of activity, I forgot about the camera—completely by dessert time!

Laura: Consider this my local meal of the week (with the leftovers most likely lasting until the end of the Dark Days Challenge!).

UPDATE: If you have a moment, check out Catherine Grace’s exceptionally local Thanksgiving.

locavore, recipes

Local Dinner, 11/1/2008

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local_dinner_2008-11-01

Saturday’s local dinner (not part of any challenge) was:

  • Homemade corn chips with salsa verde (recipes below)
  • Pan sauteéd chicken breasts (from Ox Hollow) with cumin (not local)
  • Steamed broccoli (from Waldingfield)

salsa_verde_n_chips

Salsa Verde Recipe
  • 1 lb tomatillos (from Rose’s)
  • 1 cilantro ice cube (from our freezer, most likely from Missy’s of Goshen, NY)
  • 2 cloves of garlic (from our pantry, local but co-mingled)
  • 2 T diced red onions (from Missy’s of Goshen, NY)
  • 1/2 jalapeno pepper (from Stone Gardens), seeds removed — use more if you like it hot or medium
  • juice of 1/2 lime (not local)
  • pinch of salt (from Maine)

Husk and wash the tomatillos. Cover them with water in a saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes. Place half the tomatillos in a food processor with everything else and whiz until smooth and creamy. Add the remaining tomatillos and pulse a bit to retain some chunks. Return mixture to the saucepan with a pinch of salt and simmer for 10 more minutes. Serve warm or chilled. This particular recipe is fairly mild. Use more jalapenos to raise the heat.

Homemade Corn Chips Recipe
  • 1 cup cornmeal (I used the coarse-milled  polenta corn from Wild Hive)
  • 1-3/4 cups boiling water (from my well!)
  • 1/2 t salt (from Maine)
  • 1 t butter (from VT, foraged while visiting friends there)
  • canola oil (not local)

Preheat oven to 450°. In a Pyrex bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add boiling water and butter and stir until butter is melted. Microwave from 1 to 4 minutes (until the corn grains are not crunchy). Place  heaping teaspoons on a well-oiled cookie sheet. Flatten as best as you can. I first finger-pressed them, then used a mini-roller to flatten them further. Good luck, they are delicate and this is time-consuming! Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Dessert was Apple Crumb pie that I picked up from Silverman’s Farm on Halloween and vanilla ice cream from Rich Farm, possibly from this very cow:

rich_cow

Notice what the cow is eating!

rich_farm

Note: Rich’s ice cream stand will be closing the day before Thanksgiving.

locavore, putting by, recipes

Saucy

Macoun season is coming to a close so it’s time to gather up as many of these delectable apples and save them for the cold dark days to come.

We core and section the apples and simmer them in about one inch of cider. When the sections are fork tender, we crank them through the food mill.

We package them in vacuum sealed freezer bags.

Macoun apples were developed in NY and are a cross between McIntosh and Jersey Black apples. They have an incredibly short run (about three weeks, although some years you get lucky). They don’t store well, so you need to do something with them (dehydrate, sauce) if you want to have them longer than three weeks. Of course, nothing else is quite like biting into these fresh, crisp, juicy, tart orbs.