FarmFoodLeelanau

2011-07-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

8 July and 15 July Friday Lunches

2011-07-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

Yikes, already mid-July.
Missed last week so I'll give you the menu and a recipe. I'm working on two chapters concurrently: Africa with Morocco, Ethiopia and Senegal and Latin America with Mexico and the Caribbean. So most lunches reflect that curve.
Big thanks to Martha Eldrige (SP?) and Mary Buschell for their help!!!!!!! They are indispensable.

8 July 2011

Moroccan Harira with Dates and Lemons
Harira soups are full of legumes (chickpeas, lentils and beans), herbs and spices with a little meat and vegetables for flavor. Ingredients and seasonings vary, but the addition of the tadawira, the tomatoes and paste and a flour and water or sourdough batter (for velvety texture) is universal. Eaten as a one-dish meal for dinner or breakfast, during Ramadan cooks serve harira with lemon wedges, dates and honey cakes.

Ethiopian Collards with Buttermilk Cheese and Spices
Simmer diced collards until very soft, drain and toss with clarified butter in which you've heated minced onion, chili powder, minced ginger, minced garlic and ground cardamom. Toss with buttermilk cheese (see recipe below).

Blackeyed Pea Fritters with Hot Sauce
These are Senegalese and surprisingly tasty. Soaked black-eyed peas, drained and ground with a little raw onion, ginger root, water, salt and pepper. Hauled out the Meijer Fry Daddy and Martha made almost 100 of the tasty buggers. Great dipped in the Harira.

Dal with Split Yellow Peas, Leeks, Onions and Herbs
Just an improv dish with lots of flavor.

Moroccan Harira
Harira soups are full of legumes (chickpeas, lentils and beans), herbs and spices with a little meat and vegetables for flavor. Ingredients and seasonings vary, but the addition of the tadawira, the tomatoes and paste and a flour and water or sourdough batter (for velvety texture) is universal. Eaten as a one-dish meal for dinner or breakfast, during Ramadan cooks serve harira with lemon wedges, dates and honey cakes.
Adapted from Arabesque by Claudia Roden
Yields 24 cups, 12 to 18 servings

6 ounces chickpeas, 1 cup
Optional: 2 marrowbones, blanched in boiling water
1 pound trimmed lamb or beef shoulder or neck, 2 cups diced into 1/2-inch cubes
16 ounces onions, 4 cups diced 1/2-inch
4-1/2 to 5 ounces brown lentils, 3/4 cup rinsed
16 ounces tomatoes, 3 cups peeled and diced
or 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
4 ounces celery, about large 4 stalks, 1-1/4 cups diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Two 3-inch cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon saffron
or 1 teaspoon turmeric
1 ounces all-purpose flour, 5 tablespoons
5 ounces orzo pasta or broken vermicelli, 3/4 cup
1 lemon, about 4 tablespoons juiced
1-1/2 ounces trimmed cilantro, 3/4 cup chopped
1/2 ounce trimmed Italian parsley, 1/2 cup chopped
For Serving: 3 lemons, quartered
Optional For Serving: 24 to 36 dates

1. Rinse chickpeas. Cover with cold water and 2 teaspoons kosher salt. Quick soak or soak overnight. Drain and rinse. Place blanched bones, meat, onions and chickpeas into a heavy 8-quart pot. Cover with 13 cups cold water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove scum that rises. Cover pot partially and lower heat. Simmer 1 hour.

2. Remove bones and scoop out marrow back into soup, if using. Discard bones. Stir in lentils, tomatoes, celery, tomato paste, pepper, ginger, cinnamon sticks and saffron or turmeric. Bring to a boil and lower heat; simmer soup until lentils soften, 15 minutes. Season soup with salt.

3. Pour flour into small saucepan and whisk in 2 cups cold water; beat until smooth. Place on medium heat and stir constantly until mixture thickens. Lower heat and simmer flour-water mixture 10 minutes.

4. Slowly whisk flour mixture into simmering soup. Stir soup constantly and vigorously; simmer 2 to 3 minutes. At this point harira can be refrigerated up to two days.

5. Ten minutes before serving: Stir pasta into soup and simmer until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in lemon juice, cilantro and parsley. Serve soup with lemon wedges and dates.

Vary! Improvise!
*Vegetarian Harira: Omit meat and bones. Use vegetable broth or water and decrease liquid from 13 cups to 10 cups.
*Chicken Harira: Substitute 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs for meat and 2 quarts chicken stock and 6 cups water for the 13 cups water.

Ethiopian Buttermilk Cheese (Ayib or Iab)
Made from buttermilk, this lightly tangy soft white curd cheese (similar to Indian paneer) is often flavored with herbs and spices and served as a last course in lieu of dessert. High fat buttermilk with no additives from a local dairy makes the best cheese.
©2011 Nancy Krcek Allen
Yields 3 cups, 1-1/2 pounds

3 quarts buttermilk
Optional Spiced Cheese
2 ounces niter kibbe, 1/4 cup
1/4 to 1/2 ounce garlic, 1 clove peeled and halved
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

1. Heat buttermilk in 6-quart pan over very low heat and stir occasionally until an instant read thermometer measures 120 to 145 degrees F (but no higher the cheese will take on a cooked flavor). The whey will separate and large mass of curds will form float on top, 25 to 30 minutes.

2. If making spiced cheese: In a small pan on low heat, simmer niter kibbe with garlic 1 to 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and cool butter. Remove garlic and discard.

3. Set up a strainer lined with cheesecloth over bowl or saucepan. Pour buttermilk curds through and drain 1 hour without pressing. Discard whey or use to cook greens. The cheese is ready for use.

4. For Optional Spiced Cheese: Crumble cheese and mix with niter kibbe, salt, pepper and cardamom. Set aside at room temperature until ready to use, or refrigerate up to 1 week.

Vary! Improvise!
*Stir 4 tablespoons lemon juice into buttermilk before simmering for a tarter flavor.
*Herbed Ayib: Fold in a mixture of fresh and/or dried herbs like parsley and basil. Season with salt and pepper.

15 July

Today's lunch continues the theme of Africa. Jenny spent time traveling in West Africa so it was great that I made a classic West African stew. She said she ate a lot of palm oil and chilies in Senegal. It was fun to cook the stew and it made a lot. I also have been working working working on testing Ethiopian injera bread. I've got it pretty close to what I like in Ethiopian restaurants with teff and white flour and a sourdough starter. Yum. You'll see a photo. No recipe today. But two from last week.

Senegalese Peanut Chicken
Skinned chicken dipped in flour and browned then set aside. Onions and red bell pepper browned, garlic added then ground peanuts and water, cayenne and the chicken added and simmered 1 hour. Chicken removed and kept warm. Peeled diced sweet potatoes and turnips simmered until tender. Vegetables transferred to chicken and sauce reduced so it thickens. Just before serving, spinach (or chard in this case) or cabbage wilted in the hot sauce and it's poured over the chicken and vegetables. Nice technique: shows the French influence in Senegalese cooking.

Ethiopian Lentils
This dish was similar to Indian dal, with small pink lentils, Anaheim chilies (yes, they use a similar chili there), onion, ginger root, Berbere powder and garlic. I think it needed to be thicker and longer cooked for Ethiopia though. I kept thinking India.

Rice

Mediterranean New Onion and Garlic with Broccoli, Squash and Basil
The vegetables were so fresh and tasty that Mary, my cooking buddy, simply sautéed them with olive, salt and then added basil at the last minute.

Ethiopian Injera Bread
Like a spongy pancake and made with teff, an East African dark flour made from a sort of millet.
Africa is so full of "undiscovered" foods that we in our judging minds pass up. Many foods came from West Africa via the slaves, Caribbean and Mexico.

4th Friday, 1 July 2011

2011-07-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

Didn't post last week. Too tired. Last week was Thai coconut curry and South Indian rice pilaf with curry leaves and roasted nuts, rice noodles with an Indonesian non-spicy sambal and coconut oil, and tempura garlic scapes. Alison and Conrad Heins' daughter Roo was here from Japan so she made the tempura. I had the bright inspiration to tempura the prolific snaky thing. I'll post the recipe below so you too can tempura your scapes, too. I bought a "Frydaddy" at Meijer just for tempura.

I'm still recipe testing so this week we made:

*Walnut and mint gremolada on shaved fresh fennel
*Persian beet boriani--a sort of side or "salad" made with whole milk yogurt strained through cheesecloth 2 to 3 hours and mixed with cooled, steamed diced beets, mint and lemon juice.
*Split pea dal with ponch phoran
*A huge hotel pan of chard-spinach and ricotta cannelloni covered with tomato sauce.

Recipe for gremolada, an Italian batuto in the same family as pesto follows. It's great on ripe tomatoes or tossed into a vinaigrette or on shaved or steamed vegetables.

Technique: Gremolada—Shameless Attention Grabber
Italian cooks stir gremolada, a chopped and dry or lightly moist raw mixture, into soup or stew at the last minute, sprinkle it over hot vegetables or hot pizza or stir it into olive oil. With the first bite, a gremolada wakes up the diner and gets her attention. Notice the balance of pungent herb, sparkling citrus, deep flavored garlic and fat or oily nuts. Choose a combination of herb leaves, citrus zest, garlic and even nuts. Classic gremolada goes over osso buco (braised veal) before serving. Both are great on sautéed vegetables or tomatoes—just before serving to preserve fresh flavor.

*Classic Gremolada
Yields about 1/4 cup
1/2 ounce trimmed Italian parsley, 1/4 cup minced
1/4 to 1/2 ounce garlic, 1 large clove, 1-1/2 teaspoons peeled and minced
1 large lemon, preferably organic, 2 to 3 teaspoons minced zest

*Mint and Walnut Gremolada
Yields about 1/2 cup
1/4 ounce mint leaves, 2 tablespoons chopped
1/4 ounce trimmed Italian parsley, 2 tablespoons minced
1/4 to 1/2 ounce garlic, 1 large clove, 1-1/2 teaspoons peeled and minced
1 ounce walnuts, 1/4 cup broken pieces
or 1 ounce toasted pine nuts, 1/4 cup
Zest of 1 medium lemon, preferable organic, 2 to 3 teaspoons chopped zest
Optional Additions
2 tablespoons olive oil
or 2 to 4 tablespoons cream
or 1 to 2 tablespoons walnut oil
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Finely chop each ingredient by hand and mix together, or pulse-grind ingredients in food processor until chunky-smooth.

2. Optionally, stir olive oil and lemon juice or cream or nut oil into gremolada before tossing on vegetables. Season with salt and ground pepper.

Vary! Improvise!
*Try making sage, fennel, celery leaf or wild leek gremolada.
*Toss gremolada with finely shaved fennel, sliced ripe tomatoes or stir into vinaigrette.

Signature Technique: Japanese Tempura
Low gluten flours like cake flour, rice flour, arrowroot or cornstarch will make a crisper batter than higher gluten all-purpose flour.
4 to 6 servings

*Fish Tempura
8 ounces skinned fish fillets, cut into 1/2- to 1-inch wide “fingers”
*Shrimp Tempura
8 ounces shrimp, shelled and de-veined—tail shell left on
*Vegetable Tempura
1/4 pound carrots, 1 cup matchstick slivered
1/4 pound green beans, 1 cup matchstick slivered
5 ounces sweet potato, 1 medium, about 1 cup peeled and sliced into 1/8-inch thick half moons
Dipping Sauce of choice
3 to 4 ounces daikon, peeled

*Batter One
Yields about 1 cup
3 ounces cake flour, about 3/4 cup
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 to 7 fluid ounces plain seltzer or soda water
*Batter Two
Yields about 1 cup
5 ounces cake flour, about 1 cup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda or baking powder
1 egg yolk
About 7 fluid ounces ice water
Oil for deep-frying

1. Cut fish, shrimp or vegetables uniformly and small or thin enough to cook through in a couple minutes. Make 2 or 3 shallow crosswise cuts on underside (NOT the back) of shrimp. Gently pull shrimp out flat. Arrange tempura ingredients on half sheet pan.

2. Prepare dipping sauce (page XX) and set aside. Grate daikon radish finely and set aside.

2. Assemble batter ingredients: mix dry ingredients together, but not wet.

3. Heat deep-fat fryer, or an empty wok over low heat before adding oil. Oil should be at least 3 inches deep. The oil will rush up when you add food. Use fresh oil every time for best-flavored, lightest tempura. Don’t use fishy oil for vegetables.

4. Using chopsticks, mix dry and wet batter ingredients as the oil heats, not before. Make a well and stir in 3/4 of the liquid. Liquid (water) should be ice-cold. You may actually add ice-cubes to batter as it sits to keep it cold. This helps keep batter light and crisp. Adding 50% to 100% carbonated water will make a lighter batter. Don't overmix. Check consistency and add more water if necessary. Batter should adhere lightly, but run off food. It should be the consistency of heavy cream.

5. When deep-frying avoid distractions and pay attention.

6. Heat oil a little higher than you need. When you add food the temperature will lower. Cook vegetables between 340F to 350F; shrimp 350F to 360F. If oil is too hot food browns, but doesn't cook. Too cool, oil seeps in and makes tempura soggy and greasy. Stable oil temperature is critical to successful tempura. Use a candy/deep fat thermometer to regulate. Don't overfill and crowd oil. This lowers oil temperature.

7. Dry food and dredge damp foods like shrimp or fish in flour before dipping in batter. Shake off excess. This will help batter to stick.
*Seafood Tempura: Dip prepared fish or shrimp in batter and let excess run off 2 to 3 seconds. Place in hot oil and fry until golden and fish is cooked through.

*Vegetable Tempura: Place carrots and green beans together into batter. With chopsticks, pull out a small batch, drain 1 to 2 seconds, and set into hot oil—hold onto them 30 seconds so they stay together. Flip and cook remaining side. Drain. Dip sweet potato into batter. Let it run off and fry until tender and cooked through.

8. As you cook food, remove all of one batch before adding fresh uncooked pieces to oil. Let oil come back up to temperature in between batches. Skim away burnt bits frequently. They contribute to off flavors. Salt breaks down oil so use none or very little in deep-fry recipes.

9. Drain hot tempura on rack set over pan or on paper towels—don't let pieces touch-and sprinkle with salt. Serve tempura immediately with dipping sauce and freshly grated or shredded daikon radish.

Texture Tip: save cooked bits of tempura batter for your next spicy tuna sushi. Add crunchy bits for a textural and taste temptation.

Vary! Improvise!
*Try making tempura herbs or fruit. What types would you choose and what combos would you arrange?

Second Friday Lunch 17 June 2011

2011-06-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today was Indian food. Abby, Jon's sister's daughter, who is around 16, drove up from Grand Rapids with her mother to cook with me! What a sweet day that was. Abby learned about mis en place (literally everything in its place), which is the foundation of all cooking. She also learned to clean as she went. She cleaned and chopped chard and garlic, deep-fried pakora and was unfailingly hard working, polite, delightful and cheerful. Lucky me, huh?

Abby has a close girlfriend who's family is from Delhi. She hopes to visit there with her friend. I advised her to avoid the summer. I went in December and it was around 68 F, very pleasant, but when we returned from 3 weeks in the south, Delhi temps had gone down to 36 degrees F! I bought a coat.

I had a few recipes that needed testing for my culinary textbook. So our menu was:

*Saag Paneer
I made paneer cheese. With the farm's lovely spinach and rainbow chard this dish was a natural.

*South Indian Coconut Basmati Rice
The toasted nuts, toasted unsweetened coconut shreds and a spice tempering of black mustard seeds, green chilies, urad dal, curry leaves, ginger and asafoetida strewn through the cooked rice gives this pilaf its Southern flair.

*Vegetable Pakora
Made with an all chickpea flour batter and deep-fried in my new Fry-Daddy, these were a hit.

*Cilantro Chutney
The cilantro came from the farm and is a simple purée of cilantro, water, lime juice, jaggery (or maple syrup), fresh ginger and salt. It's great on rice or pakora. Remember that cilantro is a chelator of heavy metals like mercury. This is a good way to cleanse along with those wonderful Jenny Greens.

Signature Technique: Paneer Cheese
Chewy, non-melting paneer cheese is a good meat substitute in Indian dishes. Making it is a simple process—its delicate fresh flavor makes it worth the time.
Adapted from Ipshita Pall in Culture Cheese Magazine
Yields 11 to 12 ounces cheese, 2 cups cubed

2 quarts whole milk (preferably organic)
1/4 cup white vinegar

*The higher the milk fat content, the softer the cheese
*Substitute fresh lemon juice for vinegar. Rinse wrapped curds before pressing.
*Leftover whey can be used for making Indian breads like chapatti.

1. Heat milk in heavy 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally. Line a fine strainer with a double layer of cheesecloth or clean, thin cotton towel, and set over a bowl or pan.

2. When milk comes to a boil, turn off heat. Gradually and gently stir in vinegar. Curds will form and separate from the whey—remove pan from burner and continue to gently stir until curds form and vinegar smell dissipates.

3. Gently ladle curds and whey through strainer. (At this point, while paneer is warm, you may add spices or herbs to season paneer.)

4. Form paneer into an even square—still wrapped in cheesecloth—and lay on a cutting board. Lay another cutting board on top and weight paneer 2 hours.

5. Remove paneer from cheesecloth, seal in storage container and refrigerate if not using immediately.

Paneer Cheese and Spinach (Saag Paneer or Palak Paneer Sak)
There are many ways to make this classic North Indian dish: with ginger or garlic or without, with tomato or cream or without, browning paneer or not. The simplest version just includes spinach, paneer, chilies, cumin seeds, lemon juice and cream.
Yields 6 cups, 4 to 6 servings

2 pounds trimmed, washed and drained baby spinach
or two 10-ounce boxes frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 ounce jalapeño chili, 1 large, 2 tablespoons stemmed and seeded
Wet Spice Masala
1/2 ounce ginger root, 2 to 3 teaspoons peeled and minced
1-1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder, more to taste
4 to 6 tablespoons ghee or oil
11 to 12 ounces paneer cheese, 2 cups diced into 1/2-inch cubes
2 ounces garlic, about 4 large cloves, 2 tablespoons minced
8 ounces tomatoes, 1 medium, 1-1/2 cups finely diced
1/2 to 1 teaspoon garam masala
3 tablespoons cream or whole milk yogurt
For Serving: Roti or hot cooked basmati rice

1. Place spinach leaves in 8-quart pot and over medium-high heat, steam over medium-high heat until wilted. Transfer spinach and liquid into a food processor with the chili. Coarsely purée vegetables and set them aside.

2. Prepare wet spice masala: In a small bowl, mix ginger, coriander, turmeric, cumin and chili powder with 1/4 cup water, and set aside.

3. Optional: Heat 6 tablespoons ghee or oil in 6-quart Dutch oven or wok (with a lid) over medium-high heat until hot, but not smoking. Blot paneer cheese very dry. Place cheese cubes into hot fat and cook until browned, turn and brown second side. Remove paneer to bowl with slotted spoon. Don’t worry if it sticks to pan.

4. Lower heat to medium, and stir in wet spice masala, garlic and tomatoes. Scrape up browned bits and simmer masala until tomatoes soften. Add spinach. Cover pan and cook mixture until heated through, 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, turn spinach, cover and cook until hot and very soft, another 3 to 4 minutes. Season with salt.

5. Stir in paneer, garam masala and cream or yogurt, cover and simmer 5 to 10 minutes more. The dish should be thick, but juicy. Taste and adjust seasonings (and consistency if necessary). Serve with roti or steamed basmati rice.

Vary! Improvise!
*Substitute 2 pounds trimmed Swiss chard or stemmed kale for the spinach.
*Add grated carrot or squash for color.

First Friday 2011, 10 June

2011-06-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

Cold cold cold today, and that after almost 100 degrees F this week. Crazy making.

I cooked alone today until Jane Watts and Carole Waters came to help. We all ate inside.
The bok choy reminded me of a Dr. Oz piece on antiangiogenesis. When cells (cancer cells in particular) grow, they need lots of blood. So they grow new blood vessels. Bok choy stops this process and so protects against cancer by "starving" rogue cancer cells of their ability to grow. Strawberries, artichokes and flounder are up there too. Google William Li or antiangiogenesis to find out more.

*Chinese hot and sour soup
*Thai peanut sauce (a quick one) with steamed bok choy picked about an hour before
*Chinese peanut noodles with farm scallions

I have no photos today, but will post the Thai peanut sauce recipe. The flavor depends on the Thai curry paste.
I recommend Maesri--it comes in a small "cat food" like can.

Thai Peanut Sauce
Even Thai cooks use canned red curry paste—make sure it is fresh or this simple sauce will be bland. Use with satay, as salad dressing or with grilled vegetables.
Yields about 3-3/4 cups

2 ounces tamarind paste
9 ounces roasted peanuts, 2 cups
14-ounce can coconut milk
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste, or to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons fish sauce (substitute soy sauce for vegetarians), more to taste
2 ounces palm sugar, scant 1/4 cup
or 1/4 cup maple syrup
3 to 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice, about 1 large lime, more as necessary
1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate (Tamcon brand from Indian grocers)
or 3 tablespoons tamarind purée (see What Tamarind Yields page XX)

1. Pour roasted peanuts into food processor and grind until finely chopped and begin to clump.

2. Heat coconut milk and curry paste in saucepan; simmer 3 minutes. Stir in ground peanuts, fish sauce and sweetener. Bring sauce to a boil and lower heat. Simmer until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes.

3. Stir in lime juice and tamarind. Sauce will thicken as it cools. Thin with 1/2-cup water and re-season if necessary with lime, tamarind, fish sauce or curry paste.

Vary! Improvise!
*More Heat: Add more curry paste.
*More Flavor: add 1 tablespoon minced ginger root, 2 teaspoons minced garlic and 2 tablespoons minced cilantro stems to curry paste in step 2.

8 October plus the last two Fridays....

2010-10-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry that the last two Fridays I didn't post. Long story, but had a big bad flare of arthritis on my left knuckle. Hands are still weak and sore so I won't write much today.

I do want to tell this story though. I don't have children, my small family lives downstate, and Bill and I live a somewhat isolated life--me a writer and him an artist. I sometimes I feel at a loss for family connections so the Meadowlark community means a lot to me. Jenny told me this story (it's as I remember it...) a few weeks back and it stayed with me. It's about how important are our connections to one another. Maybe more than food...

This September, Jenny and Ella drove out from the farm on Ella's first day at West Junior High (after being home-schooled since elementary school). All the dear faces of everyone who makes the farm possible--I can't name them all--passed by as Ella and Jenny drove out. They waved and wished her well. Ella looked at her mother and said, "They're all my family too aren't they?"

It's this wider, luxurious scope of "family" that I've learned here in northern Michigan (for almost 35 years!). My Eastern European born parents and relatives trusted only the family tribe. They were suspect of the "other". It breaks my heart open to think that Ella has had the opportunity to learn, on her own, to trust the people and the world around her. Maybe each generation will lean more and more towards trust. Sigh. We need it.

I like to think that little pieces of each of us, and huge pieces of her mom, dad, brother and family, have helped to build the courage that it took for Ella to break out into her new complicated life.

Many hugs to our Meadowlark for her great food and you, the larger community for supporting her.

Here are highlights of the food in photos and recipes from today and the past two weeks. See you next year!

Briami--a Greek dish of oven-braise-roasted vegetable melange with lots of olive oil and fresh herbs tossed on at the end.
Mary is holding the pan of it. Sometimes it's layered with sliced vegetables instead of tossed diced vegetables.

Turkish yogurt soup with mint yuzune (infusion into clarified butter)

Beet tzatziki (see recipe)

Turkish "sigara" filled with feta, scallions and dill, rolled in a 4-1/2 inch by 12 inch strip of phyllo without fat then fried in olive oil.

Pierogi made with same filling--we had leftover. Plus we filled some leftover dough with apples.

Turkish vegetarian kofte wrapped in lettuce leaf--big hit around the farm. (See recipe.)

Nancy's favorite coleslaw (see "recipe")

Technique: Yogurt-Cucumber-Garlic Salad/Sauce
Serve Greek tzatziki as a sauce or dip with toasted pita, with grilled or fried fish or chicken, or with boiled, sliced beets, fried eggplant or zucchini. Turkish cacik is tzatziki’s diluted cousin.
©2010 Nancy Krcek Allen
2 cups, 4 to 6 servings

16 ounces plain Greek or whole milk yogurt, 2 cups
12 to 14 ounce English cucumber, 1 cup packed peeled, seeded and grated
2 cloves garlic, peeled
Juice of 1/2 lemon (2 tablespoons), more to taste
or 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, more to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, mint leaves or Italian parsley
or 1 tablespoon each: chopped dill, mint and parsley
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Prepare yogurt: Line a strainer with dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Pour yogurt, preferably whole milk, into it and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours—it should reduce volume by half. Drink or discard watery whey. (Whey is full of beneficial bacteria.)

2. Prepare cucumber: peel, seed and grate cucumber. Squeeze grated cucumber and drain. One and 1/2 pounds cucumber yields about 2 cups squeeze-drained grated cucumber.

3. Prepare garlic: mince garlic until pasty with salt to soften its flavor.

4. Combine yogurt, cucumber and garlic. Stir in vinegar or lemon juice, herbs and olive oil. Taste tzatziki and season with salt to taste.

5. Chill 1 hour to blend flavors. Taste again and re-season.

6. Place mixture in serving bowl. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil if desired.

Vary! Improvise!
*Greek Beet Tzatziki
Boil 1/2 pound beets until tender. Cool. Peel and grate or finely dice beets (yield about 1 cup) and mix with 1 cup drained yogurt, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley, 1/4 cup chopped dill, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper.

Technique: Turkish Red Lentil and Bulgar Kofte (Mercimek Köftesi)
This vegetarian favorite is often served rolled into lettuce leaves. It’s the perfect canvas for a host of flavors—the only constants are lentils and bulgar. The kofte will firm as they cool. The flavors are best after 1 to 2 hours or overnight.
©2010 Nancy Krcek Allen
Makes 5 cups, about 30 (2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon size) kofte

7 ounces split red lentils, 1 cup
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for rolling
8 ounce onion, 2 cups finely, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, 1 tablespoon minced
1 tablespoon Red Pepper Paste (page XX)
or 1 tablespoon tomato paste
or 1 tablespoon chopped sun-dried tomato
5 ounces fine-grain bulgar, 1 cup
Optional: 2 green onions, finely minced
1/2 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
1 lemon, juiced
To serve:
30 small lettuce leaves, whole
Choice of fresh herbs: Italian parsley, mint, cilantro leaves or tarragon leaves
Onion-Sumac Salad, page XX

1. Pour lentils in large saucepan with 3 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and partially cover pan. Simmer lentils until mushy, 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep lentils from sticking to bottom of pot and burning.

2. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat and sweat onion until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer.

3. Stir red pepper paste, onion-garlic mixture and salt into lentils. (Slightly oversalt lentils as they and the bulgar will absorb salt.) Remove saucepan from heat and fold in bulgar and green onions. Set aside 30 minutes to allow bulgar to absorb moisture.

4. Stir in parsley and season mixture to taste with 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper.

5. With oiled hands, place 2 heaping tablespoons of the mixture in the middle of your palm. Squeeze lightly into an elongated oval (like an eye) while you smooth the outer surface.

6. Arrange each kofte on top of its own lettuce leaf and arrange in a sun-ray pattern on a large serving platter. Garnish each kofte with herb leaves.

7. Serve kofte with onion-sumac salad. Eat kofte rolled up with herbs.

Vary! Improvise!
*What spices might you incorporate into kofte? Toasted and ground cumin seed? Coriander? Nigella? Curry powder?
*Cook 2 to 3 tablespoons grated carrot with onions and garlic.
*Fold 1 tablespoon tahini or 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts into lentil-bulgar mixture.
*Roll kofte in ground nuts.

Nancy's Red Cabbage Coleslaw
Use any type of cabbage, but red cabbage gives the most eye appeal!

1 head red cabbage, washed, drained and blotted dry
Kosher or sea salt
Red wine vinegar, preferable Eden
Extra virgin olive oil
Options: Italian parsley, cilantro, shredded carrots, caraway seed, chopped walnuts or toasted pine nuts

Quarter cabbage and remove core. Cut into chunks that fit into your food processor tube for grating. Shred cabbage.

Toss cabbage with salt, vinegar and olive oil to taste. Rest cabbage 1 hour. Toss again and re-season. This coleslaw should be highly seasoned, lots of contrast. If it doesn't call you for more bites add more salt, oil and vinegar until it does!

10 September 2010 Chilly Morning

2010-09-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

This day dawned chilly. It was a day for gloves and hat and even a down jacket! It warmed to the promised high 60's or maybe 70 in the sun. Beautiful. Melancholy threatens to overtake me as I rush to get the last few nectarines and tomatoes into my freezer. I'm roasting tomatoes tonight at home.

I harvested some grapes from my parents' grape arbor near Detroit. It had some green, unripened and non-sprayed grapes that the birds were probably waiting on...I nabbed them to make verjuice--the Greeks and other Mediterranean-Eastern Mediterranean cultures juiced unripened grapes and used the sour juice in place of vinegar or lemon. Boil the juice with a little salt, and can or freeze it.

Here are photos of the crew peeling garlic, a never-ending job that leaves slivers under your fingernails like the old Chinese torture we used to imagine as kids. EEK. One photo is of Eli and Jon, his dad, two of the Meadowlarks, filling our boxes. Another is of the artichokes Jenny and Jon grow and added to our boxes today. Amazing, right? Makes me feel better about leaving California.

Dick Flowers brought over goat milk and cheese, which they sell through goat shares. Everyone who tries Mary Buschell's (Dick's wife) goat cheese raves.

Lunch today was Turkish pink lentil soup with mint and bulgar (we've had this before) and lots of onion and garlic.
Maureen roasted some of Meadowlark's beautiful potatoes with thyme and rosemary plus olive oil and salt.
I brought cracked wheat and made a bulgar wheat pilaf with roasted walnuts and parsley. See recipe below.
Maureen and I cleaned, chopped and cooked a bunch of collards and kale. We heated lots of olive oil and minced shallots until the shallots (drowning in oil) began to brown. I tossed in lots of snipped chives, salt and red wine vinegar then tossed it with the greens. I could not stop eating the greens!
Maureen sliced some tomatoes and Eli picked basil for them. Salt and a little olive oil and that was salad.
Jenny donated some feta and everyone ate it on bread or sprinkled it on their tomatoes.

We all agreed that this was a starch happy day. I was so exhausted today--and so hungry--everyone seemed to crave the starch--Robert says that we eat more when tired. That's so for me. Plus the corner seasons and changing weather just seem to catch you off guard...this one has me in its clutches and won't let go...

Greek Bulgar Pilaf with Walnuts
If you avoid wheat, substitute quinoa and simmer it 10 to 15 minutes.
4 to 6 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
8 to 10 ounces onion, 2 cups finely diced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup coarse-ground bulgar
1 bay leaf
5 to 6 ounces walnuts, 1 cup toasted and finely chopped
2 ounces Italian parsley, about 1 cup chopped

Heat a medium saucepan over medium and add oil and butter. When butter melts, add onion and salt and cook until soft, 7 minutes. Heat a kettle with water.

Add bulgar to onions and stir and cook 1 minute. Pour in 1-1/2 cups boiling water, bay leaf and salt. Bring pilaf to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat and rest pilaf 10 minutes.

Fold in walnuts and all but 1 tablespoon parsley with fork; fluff bulgar—don’t stir. Taste bulgar and season with freshly ground pepper and more salt as necessary. Pile pilaf into serving bowl and garnish with reserved parsley.

Improvise!
Sauté other vegetables with the onions like chopped chard, minced carrots or finely diced tomatoes, or toss in cooked chickpeas with the bulgar.

3 September 2010 Friday

2010-09-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, today's weather is windy with big grey-white loomy clouds blowing fast with peeks of sunshine. It was chillier than we're used to..smile..all that warm weather has spoiled us and thinned our blood. The farm crew crowded inside the grainary and we all ate together. I love it, cozy and easy to talk to everyone.

Mary and Maureen helped as usual. Maureen and I made Greek tahini soup with tomatoes and horta, greens that I blanched 4 to 5 minutes in lots of water, drained, chopped and braised in lots of olive oil (I simmered sliced garlic and a little finely diced onion in the olive oil first, of course). At the end, I sprinkled the horta with salt and red wine vinegar. (I ran out of lemons and used Eden red wine vinegar, my fave.)

The Cretans are wild for horta. They have more than 300 varieties of edible wild greens--more varieties than anywhere else in Europe or the Mediterranean. Carol said that Cyprus is very much the same. Though Cyprus is nearer to Turkey (and half claimed by it) the people share the foraging mania. Can you imagine the phytochemicals (antioxidants and so on) that those folks must ingest? No wonder they are so long lived.

Mary has been making the best stuffed grape leaves that I've eaten in these parts, so she offered to make them with me. Husband Bill and I picked 90 wild grape leaves--pretty tough, but a 1 to 3 minute blanching softens them. Mary brought local lamb and beef and we all rolled them--about 80. It went fast with three sets of hands. She made the traditional avgolemono sauce for the topping too. These will definitely go into the textbook. I'm working on Greece and Turkey right now. Divine food. I haven't finished the recipe yet, but if anyone wants it, just email me a nallenchef@gmail.com and I'll post it here.

Lots of tomatoes, melons and greens today.

Greek Sesame Soup (Tahinósoupa)
6 servings

1-1/2 quarts water or vegetable broth (I use the cooking water from chickpeas)
5 to 6 large cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup white long grain rice
2 cups peeled, seeded and diced tomatoes plus juices
1 to 1-1/2 lemons, zested and juiced
1/2 cup sesame paste (tahini)
1/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley

Bring water or broth, garlic, rice and tomatoes to a boil and simmer until rice is tender, 15 minutes. Stir in lemon zest and remove soup from heat.

Whisk tahini with lemon juice and 1 cup hot broth until creamy. Pour tahini mixture back into rice-tomato-broth and mix well.

Taste soup and season with salt, freshly ground pepper and more lemon juice to taste. Serve soup hot sprinkled with parsley.

20 August 2010 Rain and Sun

2010-08-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

This morning the rumbling in the West caused dogs to bolt and cats to shiver. Then, as a blessed summer day should, the pouring rain stopped and the sun came out. By the time we ate lunch at 1.15PM, it was almost hot, and very much August.

The menu today reflected the changing weather--warming, heating and cooling.

French green lentil soup
(with lots of garlic for flavor, kale and carrots, sauteed onions and tomatoes, which melted into it and a little "tempering" of minced garlic, lemon zest and oregano simmered in hot olive oil poured in at the last)

Indonesian chicken and Roma bean sambal with coconut and tomato
Brown basmati rice

Watermelon, tomato, feta and mint salad (more like a fresh chutney)
We poured in a little olive oil. The feta came from Mary Buschell's goats. YUM.

Kale falafel
These are delightful. I made beet falafel from the wonderful Silvena Rowe's book Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume (available from Amazon.uk, but I revised it this week for the kale falafel and they came out very well.

Butternut squash hummus
The squash were a couple old fall ones from my cellar--they were dry and sprouted inside but not rotty. Peeled, cubed and roasted them--good flavor. Mashed 'em with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, sumac and za'atar.

Recipe today is for falafel. I can, with conscience, give it to you because I redid it in my own way and like it better.

Kale Falafel
15 to 16 2" to 2 1/2" cakes, 4 to 6 servings
This is a great recipe to improvise with your favorite vegetables and herbs. Change the seasonings--add oregano or parsley--or change the vegetable--substitute 1/2 pound beets or carrots, peeled, steamed lightly, drained and finely grated. For more texture, stir 1/4 cup mashed chickpeas into the falafel mixture.

1/2 pound stemmed kale (weigh after stemming)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups finely diced red or sweet onion
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon ground coriander
1 level cup chickpea flour (available at Oryana or Indian markets)
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold water or milk
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
Olive oil for frying
Unbleached white flour for dipping patties
Tahini (mix with water and fresh lemon if it isn't loose
Sumac powder

Bring large pot of water to a boil. Immerse kale in it and boil 1 minute. Drain and cool. Squeeze out all the moisture you can. Chop kale finely. You should have 1 cup packed. Set it aside in large mixing bowl.

Heat oil in large skillet and cook onion until soft, 5 minutes. Add cumin and coriander and cook 1 minute more. Scrape into bowl with kale.

Whisk chickpea flour and water or milk into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer the mixture, stirring constantly, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in lemon juice and salt. Cool mixture to lukewarm.

Mix chickpea paste with kale and onions. Taste mixture and season with more salt and freshly ground pepper if desired.

Oil your hands and a sheet pan. Form small flattened patties and set on oiled pan. Refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes.

Set a plate with flour next to the stove.

Heat 1/4 inch olive oil in 12-inch sauté pan over medium heat. When oil becomes wavy, fry the patties on each side until browned, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Drain on paper towel and arrange on platter.

Drizzle falafel with tahini, or tahini mixed with fresh lemon, and sumac.

Abby, Jon's niece, and a very good cook already, helped today--she's mixing the watermelon, tomato salad that she and Ella put together.

Mary is in the blue apron frying falafel. She did a lot too. It was great to have her and Abby because I didn't have my faithful friend and colleague Maureen this week.

Missed you Maureen!

We had company from Japan: Conrad and Alison Heins' daughter Roo (Roux?) came to work. They all weeded the hoop houses, which deserves a medal.

13 August Friday the 13th 2010

2010-08-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

Although it was Friday the 13th the day was blessed with hot weather, lots of friendly folks, a birthday or two and good food.
It was Liz's birthday. Abby, Ella and Olivia collaborated on Liz's peach and blackberry birthday pie. It was everything a good pie should be. The crust was flaky and buttery and the filling was juicy without being watery. Thickened just right. The chef-instructor in me gave it an A plus. No lurking thoughts that this or that could have been tweaked. And it was just the right balance of sweet and tangy. Sugar can only get you so far.

Today our menu was Mediterranean inspired, as that is the area in which I'm working just now for my textbook.

Homemade phyllo filled with onion, tomato and nuts (no photo!)
Coca, a Spanish flatbread topped with vegetables and olives
Improvised lentil vegetable soup with mint (I just can't stop using it this summer)
Arugula salad with lemon and olive oil (the farm crew loves this)
Roma beans simmered with garlic
Assorted goat cheeses (courtesy of Mary Buschell and Dick Flowers)

Mary and Dick brought two friends from Ann Arbor, Houda and Jeff, so they joined our lunch group. Mary and Dick live in Maple City and raise goats. Mary makes fantastic and various cheeses from the milk. Robert called her lavender and honey goat's cheese "ethereal". She and Jenny talked about offering shares of cheese to the members.

Although there isn't a picture of the homemade phyllo made into a pie, it was the hands down favorite this time--besides the cheeses, of course.

Here is a recipe for it adapted from Diane Kochilas' amazing cookbook The Glorious Foods of Greece. Make it with greens, garlic and herbs.

Phyllo Dough for 15 to 18-inch round pan

4 cups unbleached white flour
1 scant tablespoon kosher salt
1 cup warm water
3/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Mix flour and salt together in large bowl. Mix liquid ingredients together and pour into flour. Mix together to a moist dough. Knead 10 minutes in bowl until dough is tender and resilient, dusting with flour as necessary. Cover dough with towel and rest 1 hour in warm place.

Onion, Tomato and Nut Filling

1/3 cup olive oil
5 large red or white onions, finely slivered or sliced
4 medium tomatoes
1 1/2 cups toasted walnuts (traditional) or pecans (very tasty), lightly chopped
1/4 cup olive oil for brushing between phyllo layers

Heat olive oil in large, wide skillet (12 to 14 inches). Cook onions over medium heat until soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Season with salt.

Meanwhile, slice tomatoes around their equators. On a box grater, grate tomatoes on cut side until the skin is all that's left in your hand. You should have about 3 1/2 to 4 cups. Pour tomato into the soft onions and simmer over medium to medium low heat until moist, but no longer wet, 10 to 15 minutes. Don't let them burn.

Taste the mixture and season with salt and pepper. Cool mixture to lukewarm. Stir in nuts.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Divide dough into 5 balls and cover. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 dough ball thinly until it's 2 inches larger in diameter than your 18 to 20 inch round pan. Oil the pan and set dough on it. Brush with olive oil. Repeat with two more balls of dough, oiling each layer.

Spread filling evenly over dough. Roll out remaining two dough balls and, as before, brush with olive oil each time.

Roll up edges of dough. Brush top with remaining olive oil. Place pie in oven and bake until golden, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Cool pie slightly before cutting.

6 August 2010 Eastern Mediterranean Day

2010-08-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

Had lots of people helping today. It was great and I was in such a tizzy (I even ran over Augustus' plastic cart, which you see him on in the photo. It is history. I'll have to go out and find another.)

Our menu:
Kurdish spicy pink lentil, rice and chickpea soup with farm onions, celery, carrots and long green peppers plus mint and basil and some chili. It was good and rib sticking.
Za'atar bread--thin and crispy. Lovely.
Sweet and sour Greek zucchini and celery--raisins, honey, red wine vinegar and cinnamon with olive oil of course.
Beet and chickpea falafel patties with sumac, za'atar, lemon and tahini sauce
The beet falafel is from a very new British cookbook from a Bulgarian born Brit named Silvena Rowe. She's 6 feet tall, bleached blond and very very cool.

Madeleine Vedel and her mother Emita Hill helped Maureen and me. It was such fun to have them. Madeleine brought a large loaf of bread. She lives in Avignon in the south of France. If you need a savvy tour guide she's great--owned and ran a cooking school in Arles for many years and now runs private tours--she knows everyone in the area associated with food and wine--and speaks fluent French of course.

Here's a photo of Augustus with Liz, who will be heading off to Ann Arbor for law school in just a few weeks. We'll miss her terribly.

Recipe today is for Greek Sweet and Sour Zucchini (you can add celery if you like)
Adapted from Flavors of Greece by Rosemary Barron

2 pounds zucchini or yellow squash, washed and trimmed
(5 to 6 stalks Meadowlark celery, washed and sliced into 2 inch lengths)
1/3 cup dark raisins
1/4 to 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
4 to 5 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons honey mixed with 4 tablespoon hot water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano, optional

Cut squash into 1-inch chunks. Toss with salt.

Mix raisins and 1/4 cup vinegar together.

Heat olive oil in 10-inch deep sauté pan over medium-high heat and add vegetables. When they sizzle, lower heat to low and partially cover. Simmer vegetables until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Sprinkle vegetables with cinnamon, raisins and vinegar, honey and water, and season with salt and pepper. Raise heat, shake pan to mix, and cook vegetables uncovered until sauce is syrupy, 3 to 6 minutes. Toss in parsley and oregano. Taste and reseason, adding more salt, pepper and vinegar until the dish sings to you like the siren call: come back come back come back.

If anyone wants the beet falafel recipe I will give it to Jenny. It can be made with Swiss chard, kale, carrots, turnips or rutabaga.

30 July 2010 Buckwheat Groat Day

2010-07-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

Today was an ode to buckwheat--and to Auggie's first harissa.

I think of it as winter-hearty food. Nick asked a while back if I'd make something with buckwheat. This week he brought in some roasted groats. I cooked the groats for 15 minutes with about 1 3/4 cup water per cup groats. I mixed them with sautéed onion, garlic and thinly sliced collards stems plus fresh dill and stuffed it all into blanched collards. The Greek egg-lemon sauce poured over lightened the dish to summer satisfaction.

So the menu today was:

Buckwheat stuffed collards with Greek egg-lemon sauce (just egg yolks whisked with fresh lemon juice and cooked slowly until thickened slightly in chicken stock)
Chickpea salad
Harissa (It's the reddish paste in the square white plastic container)
Braised zucchini with onion, garlic and mint

Harissa is a mouth-searing combo of soaked dry red chilies (like Arbol) with seeds and stems removed. They are ground with garlic, ground cumin and ground coriander until fine. Then a bit of salt and olive oil until pasty and creamy-chunky. Keeps a long time. A dab of harissa with something bland like zucchini really wakes you up. As Baby August found out:

There was some betting going on around the harissa. Jon wagered a case of beer if someone would eat a tablespoon of it without washing it down with anything for 10 minutes. Nick and Berkeley considered it, but there were no takers until Berkeley and Jen's baby August decided to show them all up. He swallowed a big glop of it. His eyes popped out in utter shock. But what a guy! He totally kept it together...not a peep escaped those harissa-seared lips. Probably scarred the poor dude for life. When he's 23 he's going to tell the story and complain that Jon did not keep his promise for the case of beer....

At last I've found a use for large zucchini!

Braised zucchini with onion, garlic and mint
6 to 8 servings

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large or 2 smaller onions, sliced or slivered
4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
2 pounds large zucchini or any type summer squash, cut into 1/2 inch thick chunks
(I usually slice the squash in half lengthwise and then into chunks)
1/4 cup mint leaves
Lemon wedges

Heat the oil in a large, deep pan. Stir in onions and garlic, salt them, and cook over medium heat until onions are tender.

Stir in the zucchini/squash and cover pan. Braise vegetables until zucchini is very tender, about 20 minutes. It should be falling apart. Remove pan from heat and season with salt and pepper.

Toss squash with mint leaves and serve with lemon to squeeze over top.

There is a recipe for bean salad from last year. This time I used chickpeas, onions and red carrots cooked in olive oil, red wine vinegar, basil, Jenny's amazingly sweet celery, lots of parsley and more oil.

Friday 23 July 2010

2010-07-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

Today was Spanish again. It arose from leftover ingredients I had from a cooking class called The Spanish Table, that I taught last night at the local college. Today's menu was a complete mystery until I was driving home from the class. I thought that we could easily prepare a paella and a romesco sauce. We do leave a certain amount of the meal to chance. Cucumbers. Potatoes. Dill. Tarragon. Eggs.

I have two paella pans. The 14-inch gets a workout, but the newer 18-inch is for a large crowd and it hadn't been inaugurated yet. Today was the day.

Menu
Vegetable Paella with the elite Calasparra rice from Valencia on Spain's southeast coast.
Romesco Sauce
Sliced Cucumber Salad with Dill
Spanish Potato, Egg and Tarragon Tortilla

Here's a recipe for the Romesco and the Paella.

Arroz de Verduras de Isabel (Vegetable Paella)
This paella is adapted from Penelope Casas’ recipe from a Valencian cook and restaurateur who attributes her success to garden-fresh vegetables--which Meadowlark has in abundance today. Porcini and chickpea cooking liquid give this paella a deep, rich flavor. If you can find Calasparra rice from Valencia, do try it. I brought my small stash accidentally. Normally I'd use risotto type Arborio rice. Same short grain strain of rice, just handled way differently than the Italians do with risotto.
The Arab-Moors brought rice to Spain and ruled it from the 5th or 6th century until the 15th century.
4 to 6 servings

2 cups vegetable or chickpea cooking broth, or chicken broth
1/8 teaspoon crumbled thread saffron
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1 cup boiling water, water reserved
1/4 cup olive oil, more as necessary
3 ounces carrots, evenly diced into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 pound green beans, preferably broad flat beans, ends trimmed
1 medium zucchini, about 6 ounces, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Sofrito
1 small onion (4 to 6 ounces), finely diced
2 medium red bell peppers, about 1/2 pound, cut into 1/2-inch dice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped whole canned tomatoes
1 teaspoon pimentón, Spanish smoked paprika
1 small sprig rosemary
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 1/4 cups Valencian short grain rice, or Arborio

Combine broth and saffron in a pot. Cover and keep warm over low heat. Bring 1 cup water to boil, remove from heat and stir in mushrooms. Soak till soft, 15 minutes, drain and strain mushroom liquid into broth and saffron.

Chop mushrooms lightly. Preheat oven to 400°F .

Heat half the oil in a 13- or 14-inch paella or oven-proof sauté pan over high heat. Add carrots, mushrooms, green beans and zucchini, and stir-fry till seared and tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove to bowl and set aside.

Heat pan with remaining oil and add onion and peppers. Cook until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes more, then stir in tomato and cook until it looks thick and jammy, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in paprika. Return carrot/mushroom/green bean mixture to pan and cook over high heat 1 minute.

Taste and season with salt (mixture should be well salted) and pour in broth. Bring to a boil.

Stir in rosemary, chickpeas and rice, and boil over medium heat until rice is no longer soupy but enough liquid remains to continue cooking rice, 5 minutes.

Transfer paella to oven or to preheated heated Weber grill, and cook, uncovered (but with Weber lid on), until rice is almost al dente, 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with water if rice looks dry midway through cooking time. It should bubble merrily.

Remove pan from oven to a warm spot, cover with foil, and let rice sit 20 minutes. (If you have too much uncooked rice on top, you can flip the rice with a spatula before resting, but don't stir it! Flipping and stirring are not proper paella procedure.)

To make socarrat bottom crust, return paella to stove over medium-high heat. Cook without stirring, 2 minutes, until a crust forms on the bottom of pan (don’t let it burn). Then rest paella covered 20 minutes.

Spanish Romesco Sauce

3/4 cup, 3 ounces, blanched whole almonds or 1/4 cup each almonds, pine nuts and hazelnuts
1 1/2 ounces country bread, toasted and torn
1 medium tomato, sliced in half
2 to 3 cloves garlic
3/4 teaspoon pimentón, smoked paprika
1 pinch cayenne pepper or half of a small dried red chili, seeded
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, more as necessary
1/3 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Spread almonds on a sheet pan and bread on another. Toast until golden, 6 to 10 minutes. Toast hazelnuts and pine nuts on separate pans, 10 minutes. Rub skin off hazelnuts as much as possible. Rub tomato with olive oil and roast cut side down in baking dish until wrinkled and tender, 15 to 20 minutes, and peel.

3. Cool ingredients.

4. Crush nuts, bread, garlic, cayenne and salt together in mortar, or purée in food processor. Add tomato, smoked paprika and vinegar. Purée to smooth paste.

5. Whisk, or drizzle olive oil in with machine running.

6. Taste sauce and season with more salt or vinegar. If mixture is too thick, thin with warm water. Rest Romesco 20 to 30 minutes at room temperature and taste again before serving.
(You may prepare sauce a day ahead; it will keep for over a week refrigerated.)

Romesco is great on raw or steamed vegetables, rice, stirred into soup or on grilled food. In the spring, Spanish folks congregate when the thick green onions (calçots) arrive. They grill the calçots and meat and dip the onions into romesco sauce. It's called a calçotada. And it's a Partee.

Someone at the farm said they love it tossed on pasta. What's not good about that?

Pesto and Arugula Day

2010-07-21T04:26:00.000-07:00

Friday 16 July 2010

We had almost 20 people for lunch today. Luckily Ella helped Maureen and me. We made a white bean soup with tarragon. I cooked the white beans with lots of garlic--for 2 cups dry, soaked white beans I used four heads of garlic. Peel, don't smash the cloves. They make a mild, flavorful vegetarian broth. Then I sautéed a base of onions, fennel bulbs and baby carrots. The cooked beans, garlic and cooking water went into them with fresh tarragon, turnips and cauliflower. The garnish made the soup come alive: Italian parsley leaves, anchovies, lemon zest (organic please), one dried red chili and olive oil buzzed in the food processor to a textured paste. That went into the hot soup. Yum. Don't be afraid of anchovies! They carry huge flavor. Rinse them if you must. Or try the fresh, glorious tasting white ones.

Then Ella made pesto from the purple basil. It was surprisingly good. I made one from Italian basil. Classic recipe. We tossed it on potatoes and on pasta. It's not uncommon to see the two tossed together with pesto in Genoa.

Someone asked me if I use basil in other ways...I don't use it nearly as much as other herbs, but it's great with peaches, in sweet tea, torn in salad, rolled into Vietnamese summer rolls, in vinaigrettes or tucked into stuffed kale or cabbage rolls. Basil does seem to be best fresh though.

Technique: Classic Basil Pesto (Batuto alla Genovese)
Pesto alla Genovese (of Genoa) is a green sauce that was born in the northwestern Italian region of Liguria, where the Mediterranean/Ligurian Sea warms the land enough to grow olives. (Further inland Piemonte cannot grow olives.) Originally pestos were pounded in a mortar with a pestle, a method that produces a greener—and some say finer—pesto than the more modern food processor. If you wish to mimic the mortar and pestle, place herbs into a heavy plastic baggie and pound them with a meat pounder before processing in food processor. Guliano Bugalli says that basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts or walnuts and pecorino or Parmigiano cheese are the true, traditional ingredients.
Makes about 1 cup. Toss on freshly cooked pasta, potatoes or vegetables.

2 ounces (2 cups packed) fresh basil leaves, no stems
1/2 ounce (1/2 cup packed) Italian parsley leaves
1 to 2 cloves garlic, 1 tablespoon chopped, 1/2 ounce
1 ounce (1/4 cup) toasted or raw pine nuts
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 to 2 ounces (1/4 to 1/2 cup) mixed shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano and/or Pecorino Romano
Optional: 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Prepare ingredients: Pull leaves from herbs stems, discard stems then rinse leaves and spin or blot dry. To soften garlic flavor, use less or blanch whole, unpeeled cloves in boiling water 30 seconds to 1 minute and peel. Toast nuts if desired and cool before using—it will bring out their best flavor.

2. Purée herbs, garlic, and nuts together in a food processor until smooth; scrape down sides several times.

4. Add oil: With processor running, pour oil into herb-nut purée a thin stream and purée until very smooth. Scrape pesto out into bowl, taste, and season with a little salt (cheese will add saltiness) and freshly ground pepper. Pesto may be frozen at this point—a thin film of oil over the top keeps it from oxidizing into black.

5. To serve: Grate cheese, if using, and toss it with pesto. Adding cheese just before serving assures that the cheese will taste its best. Thin pesto with cream or pasta cooking water before tossing on pasta.

The squash blossoms were out in full force so Ella and Liz picked more than 70 of them and we stuffed them with a mixture of ground turkey chorizo (it was a little too spicy I think), grated yellow squash which I salted for 20 minutes and then squeezed the liquid out of--and some ciabatta bread crumbs. I ground the crumbs and meat separately in the food processor and mixed them with the squash and some fresh thyme. We stuffed the blossoms and laid them into an oiled roasting pan with a little soup broth. Covered them with foil and baked them for 30 minutes at 350F. I uncovered them and let them roast another 5 to 10 minutes. Last year I did them with rice and pork. I think a milder filling is best.

There was a lot of arugula so I had Ella toss it with olive oil and salt then drizzled fresh lemon juice over it. That is hands-down the best way to eat arugula fresh from the garden.

It's paradise at the farm this year. We crave this sunny warm weather interspersed with rain. Though thunderstorms wreak havoc with our electric supply. One freezer tripped off and we didn't discover it for two days. Now everyone will have to eat some of the salvaged--no meat or protein was lost, thank the gods.

July 9 2010 Spanish Empanada Day

2010-07-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

We decided that since Spain is in the finals for soccer, we'd do something Spanish today. I don't follow soccer but Robert, the farm manager does. I made a flaky olive oil crust and filled the empanadas (two big ones--Spanish cooks like to make large ones, Latin cooks make the individual calzone type ones)--with olive oil sautéed scallions, dill, chickpeas, smoked paprika, green olives and chopped, steamed kale and glazed collards. No recipe, just by taste.

We made salsa verde, a green sauce that Italians like to serve with raw or steamed vegetables--we steamed diced fennel and Jenny's super sweet creamer potatoes. I couldn't cook the carrots, they looked so sweet and innocent. So we just cleaned and sliced them.

Here's a recipe for the crust that I have been working on for some time now. You may use more oil for an even more tender, flaky crust.

There's a great recipe for a traditional Spanish filling with bell peppers and tuna in olive oil in The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen

This is Maureen Sueltzer who is my VERY essential sous chef! Without her I would crash and burn, isn't that right Maureen?

Technique: Empanada
One 12- to 14-inch empanada; 8 servings
Dough made with 1 pound/ 3 1/2 cups unbleached or all-purpose flour needs 8 to 10 cups filling

1. Prepare dough and set it aside to rest and raise.

2. Prepare filling and cool to warm.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut dough in half, with one piece slightly larger than the other. Roll out the larger piece to a thin round.

4. Fit it into an oiled 14-inch diameter paella pan or pizza pan.

5. Spread filling over top, leaving 1 to 1 1/2 inch border free around edge.

6. Roll out second piece of dough to a slightly smaller diameter. Set on top of filling and wet the outermost edges of the bottom dough. Flip edge up all the way round, and seal dough by rolling and pressing it into a consistent, attractive shape. Make 3 slashes (vents) in top of empanada and if desired, paint with egg wash.

7. Place empanada into oven and bake until oozy and crust is golden brown.

*Make Dough Ahead: rub dough balls with olive oil and place in plastic baggies. Refrigerate overnight; return to room temperature before using.
*Saffron Dough: crush a large pinch saffron and steep in 3 tablespoons hot water then mix with oil, egg and salt.

Flaky Empanada Dough
Substitute diced butter or lard for half the oil for more flavor and flakiness.
12 to 14-inch empanada

1 teaspoon dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2/3 cup lukewarm water
4 ounces extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for bowl and pan
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons salt
1 pound/3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

Pour yeast, sugar and water in large bowl, stir and rest until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. Whisk in oil, egg and salt. Stir in flour, in 3 batches, stirring well. Turn dough out onto lightly floured counter, or keep in bowl, and knead until smooth and elastic, 4 to 5 minutes. Dough should be pliable and oily. Remove dough from bowl and oil lightly.

Divide dough into two slightly unequal parts, shape into balls and place back in bowl, rolling to coat balls with oil. Rest in warm spot 30 minutes to 1 hour—dough will not raise much.

Roll larger dough half out to 1/8” thick and 15-inch diameter. Set onto 14-inch round rimmed pizza pan or paella pan. Roll out other half of dough similarly. Fill and place top on. Follow instructions above.

Italian Green Sauce (Salsa Verde)
This sauce has a flexible list of ingredients, but is essentially a thick, fresh herb sauce. It’s traditional to chop ingredients finely by hand. Serve salsa verde with grilled lamb, chicken or pork, steamed green beans, boiled potatoes, or with Italian bollito misto (mixed boil). Parsley, capers, anchovies, vinegar and olive oil are the constants of this sauce. The rest is gilding the lily.
6 servings

2 1/2 ounces Italian parsley, 2 1/2 cups packed leaves and tender stems, chopped
1/2 cup mint or arugula leaves, 1/2 ounce
2 to 3 scallions, 1 1/2 ounces trimmed, 1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped
2 tablespoons fresh basil or oregano leaves
4 tablespoons drained capers
1 anchovy fillet, rinsed (I left this out of the Meadowlark sauce because we have vegetarians.)
3 tablespoon red wine vinegar, to taste
4 tablespoons toasted pine nuts or walnuts OR 1/2 cup diced crust-less country bread, toasted
1 large clove peeled garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons vegetable-cooking broth, more to thin sauce, as is necessary

1. Purée ingredients (up to and including garlic) in bowl of food processor until almost smooth.

2. Slowly pour in oil with machine running. Add broth or water as necessary to get a thick saucy consistency.

3. Season with freshly ground pepper. Set sauce aside 1 hour to develop flavor—it gets better as it sits. Before serving, taste sauce, and season with salt or more vinegar.

July 2 2010 Pad Thai Friday

2010-07-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

Today started out cool, but fast became warm. Halleujah. I was getting worried about the tomatoes not getting enough heat and sun and that dread black gooey fungus killing them all again. It hit 80something today. Yay.

Lots of traffic; double whammy with Cherry festival and Fourth of July. Lovely lovely weekend.

Maureen and I made Farm Pad Thai--that means with whatever vegetables available plus a pound of shrimp and a pound of squid. Finely sliced baby carrots and baseball-bat zucchini in place of cabbage, and sliced zucchini blossoms in place of mung sprouts. Lots of cilantro.

Unfortunately I was running around so much that I only got one picture today--of a pixie garden sprite (Alison Heins) and a gigantic head of bok choy. Grace Slick said don't eat anything bigger than your head, but we did today. That enormous bok choy served a tableful. I'm exhausted. Luckily Alison and Carol came to help clean up. Another Hallelujah.

So we prepped and prepped and prepped--I even made Thai green curry paste with my That stone mortar and pestle--if you want the recipe email me at nallenchef@aol.com. I sure missed Eli and his attention to detail--he would have pounded that curry paste to a mush. Mine still had texture. Eli got his scuba certification today!! Next week I hope to have a photo of him in headgear.

We fired up two woks and cooked the rice noodles and seasonings in batches. Then finished with the greens. Here's a recipe for Vietnamese stir-fried greens.

Technique: Southeast Asian Stir-Fried Greens
Stir-frying is an ideal way to lock in color, flavor and nutrients of any Asian green vegetable. This is a classic recipe, but do invent your own flavor combinations—keep them simple so they enhance, not overwhelm the green. To subdue the flavor of strong greens, to shorten stir-fry time or to prep them ahead, blanch greens whole (you lose less nutrients), in vigorously boiling salted water. Blanch firm or tough-stalked greens like kale, collards and Chinese broccoli 2 minutes and tender greens like spinach or bok choy 30 seconds to 1 minute. Cool under cold running water and drain. Alternatively, you can chop greens and steam for a similar length of time for a less watery end result. Then they are ready for a quick flavor-inducing stir-fry.
4 to 6 servings

Vietnamese Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Shallots and Shitakes

1 pound baby bok choy
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 shallots, finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, about 3 tablespoons finely minced
6 ounces shiitake mushrooms, washed, stems finely finely sliced, caps cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 to 2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons water
1 lime, wedged

1. Wash greens in cold water. Make sure to scrub at base where dirt lodges. Discard discolored leaves. Bok choy hides lots of dirt and bugs, so pull off leaves and wash it extra carefully.

2. Prep greens and remaining ingredients. Remove stems on large bok choy and slice; set aside separately. Slice large leaves in half, stack leaves and slice 1/2 to 1-inch wide strips. Slice 4 to 5-inch long bok choy in halves or quarters lengthwise. Leave smaller (2 to 3-inch) bok choy whole. Set up ingredients on tray ready to cook.

3. Heat wok or skillet over high heat and swirl in oil. (For stir-fry info see later posts.) When oil shimmers:

Stir-fry garlic and shallots until colored, 10 seconds and add shiitake. Stir-fry till soft, 1 minute and add bok choy. Stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes and stir in fish sauce and water. Bring to a boil, cover, lower heat to medium and steam/braise bok choy until crisp-tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Uncover, test for doneness and cook bok choy further if necessary until moist and tender, but still bright green.

4. Taste greens, and adjust seasoning with salt or fish sauce.

5. Turn greens out onto a platter, piled high, and serve hot or at room temperature. Serve Vietnamese bok choy with lime wedges.

The Short Story
Clean Greens, Prep and assemble Ingredients, Hot Wok, Hot Oil, Stir-Fry Seasonings/Greens, Add Liquid, Steam, Taste and Serve.

June 25 2010

2010-06-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day I got to use my new gas stove. Jon and Jenny installed it for me this spring and it got hooked up last week. I was able to make a turnip tian, which is sort of like a gratin, but no dairy. It comes from Provence, in the south of France.
I also made a puréed bean soup--with chickpeas and white beans--garnished with bacon and olive oil. Yum.

We made two vegetable braised dishes, my fave way of making vegetables. I always start with some sort of aromatic like onion, shallot, garlic or ginger. Then I cook it over medium heat till soft, adding each vegetable from hardest to most tender and finish it off with seasonings or herbs, salt and pepper--and maybe a little chicken stock, oil or butter.

* Olive oil, shallots, baby carrots, turnip greens and sugar snaps, chive, salt and pepper.
* Olive oil, garlic, broccoli, hot chili flakes and salt.

Maureen and Eli helped this week and we had lunch by noon, a record for me.
The turnips are very very sweet when made this way:

Turnip Tian
6 servings

Olive oil or butter
3 pounds turnips without greens
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
1 1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs (from toasted bread makes it tastier)
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Oil or butter a 9" by 12" two-inch deep baking pan or 3 quart oval gratin dish and set aside.

Trim and scrub turnips. Halve or quarter them. Toss them into saucepan with stock and bring to a boil. Simmer turnips until slightly tender, but not overcooked, 4 minutes.

Remove turnips with slotted spoon to gratin or baking pan. Spread in one even layer.

Toss thyme, 1/2 cup chicken stock, salt and pepper with turnips. Mix breadcrumbs with olive oil and spread in an even layer over turnips. Drizzle with more oil if you like, or even melted butter. Place pan in the oven. Bake until crumbs are evenly browned and turnips are tender, 30 to 40 minutes.

Italian Puréed Bean Soup (Vellutata di Fagioli)
Cooks all over Italy make this simple bean soup. It’s typical of Southern cucina povera cooking. Fava beans (a sort of lima bean) grow primarily in the south, but have found favor in northern kitchens. The reverse holds true for chickpeas, borlotti and cannellini or white beans. Northern cooks might top bean soup with a gremolada (a fresh chopped mixture of parsley, garlic and lemon zest). Southern cooks don’t often use strong seasonings with beans—allowing the bean flavor full rein.
6 servings

1 pound dried cannellini (white kidney) beans, chickpeas or borlotti beans
Sprig large fresh sage
Sprig large fresh rosemary
6 to 8 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Garnish
4 ounces pancetta (or bacon), diced into 1/2 inch cubes
Soffritto
1 medium onion, 8 ounces, about 1 cup finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Optional Soffritto Ingredients
1 medium carrot, finely diced
1 large stalk celery, finely diced
3 to 4 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

1. Pick through beans and discard stones. Soak beans overnight in water to cover by 2 inches and 2 teaspoons kosher salt or quick-soak.

2. Drain beans; add, sage, rosemary, and 2 quarts cold water, cover, and bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook until beans are tender, 1 hour. Cool beans and cooking liquid to warm. Scrape herb leaves into soup, but discard stems.

3. While beans cook, heat 2 tablespoons oil in 9-inch skillet over medium heat. Add pancetta, and fry until lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove pancetta with slotted spoon to a bowl; set aside.

4. Reheat pan with 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat and add soffritto. Cook vegetables until tender and slightly golden. Scrape into cooked beans.

5. Drain beans and transfer to blender or food processor, but reserve cooking liquid. Purée beans, herb leaves and some cooking water until smooth. (If purée is too thick, thin with cooking water.)

6. Scrape soup into saucepan and heat over low. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and keep warm.

7. Ladle soup into bowls, sprinkle with pancetta and parsley, and drizzle each bowl with a little of remaining olive oil.

This is a picture of August and his papa, Berkley in the strawberry patch. Berkley said that last week August came home after eating many strawberries and he smelled of them as one might if they ate too much garlic...wow. Wouldn't you like to smell like a strawberry?

First Friday 2010

2010-06-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

Since I'm working on a culinary textbook for Prentice Hall, I decided to use the Meadowlark work team as guinea pigs for recipe testing this summer. I made them two soufflés--asparagus cheese and broccoli cheese. Yikes, it's been several years since I made a savory soufflé and I do need to make a few more to get it down--one came out a little soupy. I think I had the oven temp too high and it browned before cooking through, common problem. I'm working on the France, Italy and Spain chapters. So the Meadowlarks and crew will likely get some interesting food this month.

Eli (see photo of him holding a Meadowlark asparagus) sliced radishes, sweet raw turnips and tossed them with leftover cooked asparagus and broccoli. We dressed them with some of my preserved lemons and their lemony-salty brine plus olive oil. It was very simple but powerful. I steamed the turnip and radish greens and just dressed them with oil and soy sauce. Not a rip roaring meal for the first. I need to get a head of steam up.

Going to Manhattan this Friday so that should inspire me! I'll miss cooking, but will return for the following Friday June 25 2010.

Here's a recipe for preserved lemons. I only use organic lemons, and instead of slitting each whole lemon and packing with salt, I cut them in half, juiced them and rubbed them with salt. More economical and you only use the rind anyway. Wonderfully bitter, lemony and salty.

Krcek-Allen Preserved Lemons
Makes 1 quart

7 to 8 medium lemons
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt (no other)

Cut lemons in half around their equators. Juice them, and set juice aside.

Pour 1 teaspoon salt on bottom of 1 quart glass canning jar. Rub juiced lemon halves with remaining salt and pack them into the jar.

Pour fresh lemon juice over lemons so they are immersed. Seal with plastic or canning jar lid and set jar on plate (it will overflow slightly). Leave lemons at room temperature for 4 to 5 days. Refrigerate up to 6 months.

Pull out inside skin from lemon before using. Slice lemon halves into thin jullienne or mince. Great on salad or on top of stewed or grilled meat--or in vegetable dishes. Especially good paired with toasted pecans.

Friday 21 August 2009

2009-08-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

I taught a cooking class last night and was late coming home. So this AM I got to the farm a little late. No worry. Jenny met me with the news that her sister-in-law, Jon's sister Sarah and her friend Kyle, Old Mission native living now in the San Franciso Bay Area, were coming to help me along with my trusty friend Maureen. I felt buoyed up by their obvious enjoyment and willingness to do the grunt work. Thanks Women.

I visiting the farm earlier this week to show it off to a childhood friend. I learned that Robert had severed a tendon in his index finger harvesting our cauliflower. He had to have surgery to repair it. Bummer for such an active, athletic man--Robert rock climbs and swims, neither of which he can do for awhile. I hoped maybe I could make some healing voodoo with our food.

When I asked what vegetable was abundant and what they might like to eat, Sigh popped out with "Baba Ganouji". So we made lots of it. Yum. And M'jedderah, lentils and rice cooked separately and tossed with lots of onions brown-fried in olive oil.

Sarah made a tomato salad/salsa with basil, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. We made a cucumber salad with finely sliced cucumbers, olive oil and red wine vinegar. And lastly we steamed broccoli and tossed it with lemon zest (organic) and lots of crispy garlic chips. Kyle made those. She'd never made them before but they turned out fabulously. She sliced the garlic with my evil mandoline then browned it, stirring constantly, in olive oil, to make crispy golden garlic chips. I always say that I'd take an untrained person who Pays Attention over a trained cook who doesn't. It's elementary: Pay Attention to what you're cooking and it will, most of the time, be a success.

Garlic chips are understandably Eli's favorite. Robert said that he doesn't really care for broccoli, but with garlic chips it tasted great. That, and happy thanks from the rest of the crew, keeps me coming back.

My Modern M'jedderah

2 cups brown basmati
1 cup French green lentils
1 medium onion
olive oil

Rinse, drain and pour rice into saucepan. Cover with 3 1/2 cups cold water and bring to a boil. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Lower heat and cover pot. Cook rice till tender, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from heat and set rice aside.

Meanwhile, rinse and drain lentils. Pour them into a saucepan and cover by several inches with cold water. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until lentils are tender, but not falling apart, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain and set lentils aside.

Slice stem end of onion off and slice onion in half through root end. Lay onion on flat cut side and remove root end. Finely sliver onion by slicing from stem end to root end.

Heat a generous amount of oil in a heavy sauté or cast-iron pan. When hot, pour in onion and cook over high heat until browned, 10 minutes or so. Too many onions in a pan too small will create too much moisture. So use a pan that is large enough to accommodate onions in one layer. Season with salt.

Toss rice, lentils and onions together 10 minutes before serving. Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired.

11 August 2009, Tuesday Lunch

2009-08-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

This week's lunch was based on pie dough. Yep. The old butter crust. Nothing beats it. I had many admirers after this lunch.

I wrote a piece on rustic tarts or galettes for Edible Grande Traverse and Barb and Charlie, the editor-owners wanted a photo to see what they looked like. So I made my basic pate brisée and brought it to the farm. Ella rolled out the dough into 15 or 16 small rounds and we filled them with a mixture of cooked, chopped kale, flat leaf parsley, sautéed onions, garlic and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Dee-lightful.

Perfect Pie Crust

1/2 pound cold, unsalted butter, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoons salt
Ice water

Cut butter into flour and salt. I use a food processor. Leave butter pieces pea-sized. Dump into bowl and smear butter into flour into flakes the size of cornflakes. Slowly, tossing and pressing flour-butter all the while, pour in ice water. Be careful. Too much will make dough soft. Drizzle in just enough water for dough to hold together, no more.

Bring dough together into a ball, flatten into a thick log and slip it into a plastic baggie. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

For rustic tarts:
Cut thick log into 6 to 8 equal pieces. Roll each out on flour dusted surface to about 7 or 8 inches diameter. Fill with whatever filling you desire, sweet or savory, leaving an inch or inch and half border. Wet this lightly. Bring it up and pleat it around. Then cup your hands around it and press lightly to seal the pleats.

Chill 30 minutes in refrigerator. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake tart until golden, 30 to 45 minutes.

We also had carrot salad with almond mayonnaise and lots of fresh dill and two cold zucchini soups: one was yogurt thickened, the other was walnut thickened, in the spirit of the first gazpacho--white gazpacho--which is white grapes, bread, almonds, garlic and water puréed together. The almond mayonnaise is from Marilyn Diamond and has long been a vegan favorite.

Jane the Salad Lady

2009-08-10T06:39:00.000-07:00

This is Jane Watts. She is a busy, active person--I always see a swimsuit hanging from her car mirror--young for her years. Plus she is active at Unitarian Universalists. Jane is also Jon's mother and she helps to wash, spin-dry and bag the salad mix. It's a huge job. Since the C.S.A. serves around 200 shares and sells wholesale to markets and restaurants, Jane is a busy salad lady. The salad people are the last ones to trickle in and eat. Here is Jane with her washing-machine-turned-salad-spinner. I wish I had one of them, don't you?

7 August Friday 2009

2009-08-10T05:59:00.000-07:00

This Friday was squash blossom Friday. Robert picked a lot of them--45 I think. We pick only the male plants--without zucchini. When you pick them and use right away they don't close up and are easy to stuff. I take out the stamen inside, pull off the tiny spiky green leaves on the outside, chop off the stem and shake out bugs, maybe lightly rinse, though I hate to.

I made a stuffing with cooked quinoa, olive oil sautéed onions, thyme, currant, toasted pine nuts and Italian Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Then I baked them for 45 minutes, covered, with a little broth and olive oil poured over to steam them. Breadcrumb, herb and cheese stuffings or ones with meat are common in Italy. We all loved the lightness of the quinoa.

I also made White Bean Soup (yep we have lots of white beans and Robert especially likes them) with potatoes and kale. I started with a sofrito of onions, leeks, carrots and sliced garlic cooked in lots of olive oil. I added the cooked beans, their cooking water, rosemary and salt and simmered it for 30 minutes. When I was ready to serve the soup, I brought it to boil and add chopped kale. That I cooked for 4 minutes. A dollop of lemon juice and freshly ground black pepper finished it off.

I also made a traditional Dijon mustard emulsified vinaigrette. It went over green salad--and I tossed it with raw chopped vegetables--Swiss chard and chard stems, carrots and green beans with minced garlic for the salad.

Jenny gave me 3 of her prized heirloom tomatoes, which I sliced and set out next to the vinaigrette.

Here's a recipe for the vinaigrette. I made it in a blender.

Mustard Vinaigrette

1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 ounces oil: half olive half sunflower or canola
salt and pepper

Whisk together mustard and vinegar in bowl. In a SLOW and THIN stream, SLOWLY add the oil, whisking constantly. The vinaigrette will thicken as you add oil. If it "breaks" or separates, place more mustard into a clean bowl and slowly this time, whisk broken vinaigrette into it.

This is great on vegetables or fish. Purée herbs into it or add chopped things. I added minced garlic. Yum.

7 August Friday 2009

2009-08-10T05:50:00.000-07:00

Maureen came to help me again this week. After the stuffed kitchen of last week I was a little worried she wouldn't. Maureen is a huge help--together we can actually get the meal on by 12.30. She faithfully, and without complaint, scrubs mud encrusted potatoes, sweet, but dirt dusted carrots, peels shallots, does dishes and chops a dance of vegetables. Here she is working in the kitchen. I love having her lilt of a Brit accent surrounding me as I work.

Thai Veg Curry Day 28 July

2009-08-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

The Meadowlark Farm kitchen was packed with help on Tuesday 28 July. Meg Staley of Fake Rock Farm, her step daughter Nelle from Brooklyn, Nelle's daughter Violet and her friend Sultana from Brooklyn came to aid me and Maureen.

We had a lot of vegetable chopping to do. We made Thai Coconut Vegetable Curry, Fluffy Brown Basmati Rice, Steamed Vegetable Medley with Sesame Oil, Ginger and Soy Sauce and my favorite bean dish--I vary it constantly--Cold Bean Salad. This time I made it with cooked white beans, cooked onions, carrots, sugar snap peas, lots of cilantro or parsley--olive oil and rice or red wine vinegar.

Although everyone loves Thai coconut curry--the flavors of cilantro, shallot, lemongrass and lime leaf infused into luscious coconut milk--the recipe everyone wanted was this simple bean salad. I make it over and over again. It's my stock dish for potlucks. I never make it with canned beans--the beans need to be sweet and freshly cooked. If you forget to soak beans, quick soak them for one hour in boiled water, drain and cook as usual.

Any Bean Salad

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely sliced or slivered
3 to 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar, more to taste
2 cups dry white, kidney or pinto beans, soaked or quick soaked, drained and cooked till tender
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped oregano leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large bunch flat leaf parsley, large stems removed, 1 or more cups chopped

Heat oil in large pot. Cook onion over medium heat until soft. Add vinegar and remove pan from heat. Pour in drained, cooked beans, oregano and season with salt and pepper. When beans have cooled to warm, fold in parsley. Allow dish to sit for 30 minutes. Come back and taste again: season with more oil, vinegar, salt and pepper until you can't stop at one bite.

2009-07-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is Augustus Finch Gossett. He's very kissable. His mom and dad are Jen and Berkeley who work at Meadowlark. The A-man has been getting an education on farm life. He spends most of his days suspended on his mother's body. Lucky guy. Augustus doesn't eat with us yet but I swear he smells the food and will be moved by it as he ages. What shapes us. I like to think Aug is shaped by green growing things and the community of warmth that is Jenny and Jon's farm. It's a haven for neurotics like me. Like my rat terrier Xena, I've gone to ground. I hope that dirt and green growing things can offer the big A the same comfort. He looks pretty comfortable don't you think?

Fennel Friday

2009-07-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

Cool and rainy weather hovered over us Friday. We had a really simple, but satisfying meal of De Cecco linguine tossed with steamed broccoli, carrots and garlic oil. I wanted to make garlic chips, but the garlic hadn't cured yet--the crew and volunteers just harvested it two days before--so it was really moist. Eli peeled and finely sliced mammoth garlic cloves from 6 heads of garlic on the mandoline finger-eating slicer. No blood.

For the chips I heat about 1/4 inch of olive oil in a deep pot to fry chips. This just turned to garlic mush, which was awfully tasty. I also made chile oil from dried red chiles. Heated the oil and dropped in the chiles. I tend to remove stems and seeds so there is less heat.

I tossed the just boiled pasta with lots of salt and the garlic oil, steamed broccoli and carrots. Since Eli prefers non-spicy hot food I left the oil on the side to spoon over the pasta. Any vegetable, grain or legume goes better with garlic and chile oils. And salt.

I also made my ubiquitous bean salad. I take this to potlucks and parties. I love it after it's had time to sit and marinate. Here's the recipe--you can make it with any legume but it's prettiest with white beans or chickpeas.

Nancy's Queen Bean Salad
It's GOOD for you.

2 cups dried beans like Great Northern or navy, washed and drained
1 large red onion, finely slivered
1/4 cup olive oil
3 to 4 tablespoons very good red wine vinegar (I favor the "live" Eden red wine vinegar available at health food stores)
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped (I separate the stems and finely slice them if the parsley is fresh)
2 or more tablespoons chopped fresh oregano leaves (you can use dry, but use less)

Either quick soak beans with 1 tablespoon sea salt for 1 hour in boiled water or soak overnight with 1 tablespoon sea salt. (The salt will act as a bean tenderizer for those of us with hard water.) Drain and cover with cold water. Bring beans to boil, lower heat and simmer beans covered until tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Meanwhile sliver the onion: cut off the stem and root ends, set the onion on one flat side and cut through it in half. Peel and rinse onion. Lay it on your cutting board and slice perpendicular to cut edges, in other words, slice through an uncut edge.

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat and add the onion. Cook until tender and transluscent, about 5 minutes. No color. Add the vinegar and season with salt. The onions will turn a lovely violet red. Remove the onions from the heat.

Drain the cooked beans and pour into a mixing bowl. Scrape in the onions, parsley and oregano. Mix and taste, seasoning with salt and freshly ground pepper and more oil or vinegar to get an attention getting sharp flavor.

For lunch I added just dug raw carrots and sugar snap peas, but this is great without any other adornments. You can add garlic to the just cooked onions if you like. I like to add loads of parsley--I think of Jenny's parsley as a green, not an herb. It wilts a bit when it hits the warm beans.

Oh, I almost forgot. There was a lot of fennel. Jenny's gotten so good at growing fennel. Last year I made a salad of it by finely slicing it on the finger-eater mandoline and tossing with lemon, olive oil and salt and pepper. So Eli and I decided to grill it this year. I sliced it in half, rubbed each half with olive oil and salt, then we grilled it over medium heat. I would have finished it in a 350F oven with a little white wine or broth (covered) because it was still a little tough, but I wanted to get lunch on the table. Eli was so great: he kept at me to cook it further so we steamed it. Softened it just enough for eating. The oven method tenderizes it so beautifully--you can cut it with a fork!

I think it was Dean Ornish who said the best way to lose weight is to stock up on vegetables, grains, beans and fruit.

Liz Och

2009-07-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

This is Liz. Liz is full of enthusiasm and warmth. She is a joy to be around. Liz loves food and cooking. And Meadowlark. This is her second year with us.

Liz is a really bright young woman. She was valedictorian of her Leland High School senior class in 2006. She will be a senior at Northwestern University in the fall and is double-majoring in Environmental Sciences and Legal Studies. She plans to attend law school after completing her undergraduate work, and enter a career in environmental law.

Liz says, "I had to make a decision this summer whether to stay in Chicago and find an internship or come home and work at Meadowlark again. I decided to come back home mostly because of Meadowlark. After a year of living, working, and playing in the city, I crave the feeling of my hands in the dirt. I enjoy watching things grow, and the treat of eating fresh, local food. Beyond the tangibles, I appreciate the opportunity to have stimulating conversations with people in the Meadowlark community and to form friendships with people outside of my immediate age group."

By that I think she means us oldsters. Somehow around Liz I never feel old. Maybe Robert does though because he keeps an eye on her as if Liz were his baby chick. Can you see him in the background?

July 9 Lunch

2009-07-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

Our lunch today was simple. Maureen Suelzer and I made Chinese strange-flavored black beans, brown Basmati rice boiled with diced garlic scapes and topped with crispy fried shallots, and a vegetable stir-fry.

That's Jane Watts, Jon's mom who helps with the salad greens finally sitting down for some lunch...after we'd all eaten..

The sauce on the blackbeans consisted of finely chopped scapes and scallions and lots of fresh finely diced ginger cooked for a few minutes in a little oil. Then I added tahini, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, chile oil, sesame oil, soy sauce and broth from the black beans cooking. This went into the warm beans and sat for an hour to absorb the flavors. Finely chopped cilantro went in a little before serving.

The rice was a takeoff on m'jedderah, which is rice and lentils mixed with crispy onions...I love those shallots Jenny has stored from last year. I tossed a lot of chopped raw garlic scapes into the rice cooking water and just boiled them along with the rice. Wow, they were so SWEET. I finely sliced the shallots and fried them at high heat in oil until browned and crispy. They went into the cooked rice a few minutes before serving. Let the cooked rice cook and harden a bit before tossing with cooked shallots.

Garlic harvest is next Wednesday so we'll be swimming in garlic finally. I want to do some really garlicky sauces.

Last we made the vegetable stir-fry. Maureen and I both handled woks. Since the burners don't put out high BTU's we had to do small batches of carrots, broccoli and collards in our woks. We seasoned each batch with finely chopped ginger, scapes which I chopped in the food processor to a fine chop and soy sauce--and scraped it into a large bowl. We cooked chopped scallions for a minute at the end and tossed them into the bowl then seasoned everything.

Here's my textbook on stir-fry:

Wok Work Stir-Fry Tips

1. Choose.
Colorful and flavorful combinations (three to five foods).
Choose seasonings like chile or curry pastes, soy, fermented black beans, Szechuan peppercorns, and sherry.
Aromatic vegetables like garlic, onions, and ginger.
Or a prepared sauce like hoisin, plum or one of your own devising (with or without cornstarch).

2. Organize.
Prepare all food and seasonings by slicing, dicing and pre-cooking or pre-treating foods where necessary. Make food pretty, uniform and bite-sized. Expose as much surface area as possible so food cooks quickly. Foods should be dry.
Line up everything you need next to the cooking area, including utensils—BEFORE you begin cooking.
Prepare a condensed cheat sheet of procedure and hang it where you can easily see it as you cook.

3. Stir-fry.
Heat dry wok or a heavy skillet over the highest heat your burner can muster. The wok should be as close to the heat source as possible. If you have a round-bottomed wok, flip your gas burner over to form a cup. Avoid wok rings like the plague—they keep the wok too far from the heat source, but if you have a round-bottomed wok and cannot overturn your burner, use it to avoid catastrophe.

When wok is hot, dribble cold oil in around the edges, about 2 teaspoons for each batch. Swirl it around to coat wok sides. Choose a mild-flavored oil like refined peanut, canola or grapeseed that can maintain high temperature without smoking. A spray bottle filled with your favorite cooking oil will distribute oil lightly and evenly.

Quick infusion—Cook seasonings in the hot, almost smoking oil, briefly. You may start with garlic and ginger in hot oil but keep them whole and pull them out when they begin to color. Add minced garlic later, so that it doesn't burn.

Rapid searing— Add the meat or protein to the hot seasoned oil first (in batches to keep from overcrowding) and cook until done. Toss the ingredients in hot oil and keep them in contact with the hot metal of the wok for a minute or so until they color. Remove seared food to a plate to keep warm

Don't overfill wok. Fill your wok about one-third full--if it gets too full, you'll be stewing not stir-frying. Listen for the crackling-searing noise that means you've got a dry wok or skillet.

Regulate heat as you cook so food cooks evenly and at a reasonable pace without burning. This means that you use the knobs on the stove to turn heat higher and lower. Stand facing stove not your girlfriend. Stir-fried dishes are like babies, they need your constant attention. Don’t be guilty of neglect.

Steaming and Blossoming--Add liquid and/or seasonings, then cover to allow steam to finish the cooking process and the seasonings' flavor to "blossom". Good for hard, green vegetables like broccoli.

Final blending with sauce or seasonings—Return all ingredients back to wok and add toasted sesame oil, scallions, seasonings, or a cornstarch based glaze/sauce. For a sauce: Mix 1 teaspoon cornstarch or arrowroot with every 2 1/2 to 3 ounces or 1/3 cup of cold liquid and seasonings. Pour in slurry mixture and bring to a boil. Cook until sauce clears and thickens, stirring and tossing the stir-fry constantly. Over-cooking can cause sauce to break and become watery again.

Pile your stir-fry high onto a platter and bring to table immediately.

Ah, you there, don’t just leave the wok to crust over. Please take it while it's hot to the sink, rinse it out (no soap remember) and scrub with a fiber brush or paper toweling if necessary to get out stray bits hanging on. Dry wok and place it back on burner to dry thoroughly for a few minutes. Rub with oil again to re-season. Cool wok and towel off excess oil. Stack woks with paper toweling in between to prevent rust. Rust never sleeps you know.

©2000Nancy K. Allen, C.C.P.

Helio Conceicao

2009-07-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

This is Helio
Helio is from Salvador Bahia, Brazil. He fell in love with Alita Townsend and moved to the chilly north from the sunny, southern weather. Love will do that to you! Now they have a baby. Love will do that for you too.

Helio has been in Northern Michigan for 3 years this August. He has worked at the farm most of that time. He always has a ready smile and winning ways. (He calls me Miss Nancy.) In the photo he is holding an instrument called a berimbau, he made from Brazilian wood and gourd. It has a very beautiful sound, haunting. He is showing it to all of us, Benny Bowmaster is just out of camera range. The metal string is from a car tire--you know, steel belted tires? I guess in Brazil necessity is the Mother of invention.

Today at lunch Helio was flashing his pearly whites telling stories. It was something about curing warts and old underwear but I'm not going there. There was much howling and wild laughter. Helio does that to you. He reminds me of a magical necromancer and laughing buddha like mystic, shaman and trickster all rolled into one. There is almost always something quiet, mysterious and exciting brewing around him.

Last week while I was sitting and eating I chanced to look at Helio and think of how beautiful was his face. I realized that it is quite symmetrical. Someone said that symmetrical faces are considered most handsome by those who objectively view them for tests. Helio would win in a beauty contest hands down, don't you think?

And he's always pulling something out of his hat to quietly wow the crowd. Lucky us.

musical broccoli

2009-07-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Doesn't this symphony of broccoli remind you of a musical score?

Friday before the 4th of July

2009-07-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

The morning started out chilly and drizzly, but by lunchtime it had warmed and we had sunshine. I stopped alongside the road this morning and picked 70 wild grape leaves. I left the very small top and bottom ones and picked most of them from the largest middle leaves. I blanched them for a minute in boiling water. Later Maureen Suezler(spelling?) came and stuffed them. She appeared at just the right moment! Ella was helping the salad crew. They went from 40 to 50 pounds to 120 pounds of salad mix this week!

For the grape leaf stuffing I cooked brown basmati--3 1/2 cups water to 2 cups rice and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes. Let sit for another 15, adding a bit of water if necessary. In olive oil, I sautéed sliced shallots, white of scallions until tender and added pine nuts and currants and cooked until pine nuts started to color a bit. This I mixed with rice so there is a lot of the good stuff-see photo. Lots of chopped green of scallion, dill and a little parsley and lemon zest. Salt and pepper to taste. Maureen wedged the dolmas into a baking dish and I covered them with broth or tomato water. Baked for 45 minutes in 350 to 375 degree oven, covered. We served them with hommous sauce:
5 cups cooked chickpeas
1/2 to 3/4 cup tahini
juice of 3 to 4 lemons
1 tablespoon ground cumin
salt to taste
chickpea cooking water or water

Purée everything together and taste taste taste--should be very lemony. Serve this as a sauce with grape leaves.

I also made quinoa tabouli with lots of parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, diced and cooked garlic scapes, last year's frozen diced tomatoes and a cucumber.

Made za'atar bread too. Fun.
Pita bread with za’atar
Makes 8 to 10

1 package of yeast or a scant tablespoon
1/2 cup warm water
3 cups all purpose flour (half wholewheat and half white)
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar or honey
1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons XVO

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy. Combine flour and salt in large bowl.

Make a small depression in the middle of flour and pour yeast water in depression. Slowly add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic.

PLace dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer stick and is smooth and elastic, it has been successfully kneaded. Coat large bowl with 1 tablespoon oil. and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated. Allow to sit in a warm place for about 1 to 2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

Once doubled, with oiled hands, roll out in a rope, and slice off 10-12 small pieces. Place balls on oiled surface and coat them with oil. Let sit 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 deg F. and make sure rack is at the very bottom of oven. Set a heavy baking sheet on it to preheat.

Press each ball of dough into a round or oval. Each should be around 5-6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle salt and za'atar mix on top. Transfer them to pre-heated baking sheet and place back on bottom of oven.

Bake pitas until bottom browns and they cook through, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove each pita with a spatula or tongs from baking sheet and place on remaining pitas and finish baking them. Serve immediately.

Storing Pita Bread

Pita bread can be stored for up to a week in pantry or bread box, and up to a month in freezer. Use freezer bags when storing in freezer.

2009-06-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

This is Jenny Tutlis. She is Meadowlark Farm. Here she is presiding, as much as anyone can over this lively crew, over lunch. I think of Jenny as Queen Bee--all of us are worker bees doing what is necessary to keep her and the hive going. She is very queenly in the BEST sense of the word. She is self-confident, fair and balanced and kind-hearted--how could you not be with all that green growing stuff under your care? She is the one with the small white floppy hat, her ersatz crown, and the symbolic green tank top.

I want to be reborn as her child.

I once painted a portrait of Jenny as Kali with four or six arms. Jenny needs at least eight. Yet she always has time for everyone. Jenny's private, quiet, meditative space is the greenhouse. I love being allowed in her private domain in early spring: it's warm and moist with lots of new green life. The greenhouse fills you with a sort of quiet surrender to what is real, whole and abiding.

Jenny has taught me the power and pleasure of dirt. I don't like the word soil--it makes me think of underpants or diapers. Dirt is what helps to bring forth all this beautiful food--and Jenny and Jon's constant vigilance. What would we do without them? If you dig in dirt then you know what an absolutely miraculous thing we have happening every day at Meadowlark Farm.

Thich Nat Hahn (spelling) says that it isn't whether you can walk on water, it's whether you can walk on the earth--or dirt. To me Jenny and Jon walk on dirt.

2009-06-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

Garlic scapes (see photo below of them growing in the field, shooting out from the buried garlic bulb) are my Next Big Thing. I'm loving them. They are sweet and slightly garlicky. Last year I trimmed them and tossed 'em with olive oil and salt and quickly grilled them. You have to watch them and turn constantly or they'll be toast. Burnt toast. Last week we made pesto: garlic scape and basil. I want to make garlic scape purée soup with them next. They were stacked four or five boxes high because the farm folks had trimmed them all down--to keep the nutrients and energy going to the garlic.

As you can see in the photo, this week we treated the scapes like green or Chinese-style long beans: stir-fried till charred in small batches, and then added a little water and covered them to steam for a couple minutes until tender. Ella did many batches and it took 45 minutes because the gas burner isn't super hot. She added Thai red curry paste and soy sauce and scallions. Very nice.

Lots of beautiful kohlrabi so I shredded those and seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil and vinegar to make a quick slaw. I had cilantro but I saved it for the white beans, which I seasoned with hoisin sauce and oil and vinegar. The crowd favorite was wholewheat spaghetti with peanut-tahini sauce and lots of scallions, though. Ella loves peanut noodles so here is the recipe, now named in honor of our beloved Ella.

Ella's Peanut Noodles
6 to 8 servings, 4 if you're hungry

Chengdu is in Szechwan province where some of the best and most flavorful of Chinese food reigns. The chile oil is typical of this region. For a heartier lunch dish you could add baked tofu or diced cooked chicken or shrimp to these noodles.

1 pound wholewheat spaghetti or fresh thin egg noodles
2 teaspoons each Asian toasted sesame oil and chile oil (or all one)
4 to 6 scallions, finely chopped, white and green kept separate
Dressing
2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
4 tablespoons minced gingerroot
2 tablespoons minced garlic or 1/2 cup finely chopped garlic scapes
2 tablespoons each peanut and sesame butters
5 to 6 tablespoons soy sauce
4 teaspoons sugar or maple syrup
2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar

Bring 4 to 5 quarts of water to a boil. Add noodles to boiling water and cook until tender but still resistant to the tooth. Drain well, toss with the sesame and chile oils and scallion greens in large serving bowl. Leave at room temperature or chill.

Heat oil in small saucepan and add ginger, garlic or scapes and white of scallion. Cook gently until vegetables are tender, about 3 to 5 minutes, and remove from heat. Stir in the remaining ingredients until well mixed. Taste and adjust with soy, vinegar and maple syrup or sugar. When you are ready to serve, toss dressing on noodles. Mound on a platter.

This is a really great place to add chopped greens like kale or collards--or any lightly cooked vegetable. Just chop into bite-size pieces and lower into boiling pasta cooking water until tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Drain and toss with noodles and dressing.

Jon Watts

2009-06-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

This is Jon Watts. Jon is half owner and full workhorse of Meadowlark Farm. In this photo he is performing his Tuesday and Friday work: cleaning salad greens. It looks as if he is going fly fishing complete with net. Bet some days he'd like to.

With whiffs of the best 70's and 80's music dancing around them, the salad washing crew skim away dirt, yellowed leaves and bugs. If you're a CSA member, you must have noticed that your greens are filled with rhythm. All of it good stuff.

Now we're at bugs. Since Jon and Jenny run their farm organically (though they are not certified because they don't feel a need to hassle with the paperwork) bugs are a large part of their existence. As are the weather and larger pests. Jon, it turns out, is the Bug Man. He sprays soapy water on the kale for mites. Skimming through salad mix he finds a goodly array of bugs.

Whenever Jon finds some bug he hasn't seen before, he studies it. He missed his calling in entymology we think. The bugs on Meadowlark produce are honored bugs. They get Jon's full attention: he sketches their portraits.

They become immortal.

Third Friday

2009-06-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

Today was the third Friday Lunch. Ella and Eli wanted to make pasta. I am thrilled with the greens, particularly the collards, that are rampant in Meadowlark Gardens. This place is like a fairy land to walk--this time of year I learn the location of each patch of produce. I found the fledgling artichokes today. They were so good last year...

I also found the strawberry patch. Robert gave me two quart boxes (instead of one) in case I got up to the patch and "went crazy". Robert knows me. He also knows the power of a fresh, juicy berry. I like them better than chocolate. So I drove home with two quarts of berries caressing my nose. Why do people wear perfume? It cancels out all the truly sacred smells of life like pine needles on a warm day or strawberries riding shotgun in a warm car. Back to the collards.

Jenny grows collards called "glazed" that are so beautiful. We blanched the leaves and stuffed them with a mixture of raw Amish sage pork sausage (you could use any kind of ground meat--I'm particular to lean ground turkey), caramelized shallots and cooked quinoa. We layered the rolls into a roasting pan and poured a quart of chicken broth over them. They went into a pre-heated 400F oven which I lowered to 350F for an hour to hour and a half. Very good served with salsa or thinned hommous.

We made pasta dough then a pesto.

Garlic Scape Basil Pesto
Enough for 1 1/2 to 2 pounds pasta

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups trimmed and sliced (1-inch long) garlic scapes
1 to 1 1/2 cups packed basil leaves
2 cups walnuts
6 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
Optional shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan and over medium heat, cook the scapes until they are tender, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a food processor, purée the basil leaves and walnuts, while drizzling in the olive oil. Add the garlic scapes to the basil-walnuts and purée till smooth-ish. Taste and season with salt and pepper. If the pesto is too thick, add a little water and purée.

Cook pasta and toss immediately with pesto. If the pesto is still too thick, thin with hot pasta cooking water and toss pesto with pasta. Taste and season with optional cheese and more salt and pepper as necessary.

Today wanted to rain. We need some rain. Overcast and mid-70's today. Really pleasant.

Here are some photos of Ella rolling the collard rolls and the kids rolling pasta, the garlic scapes cooking, my strawberries and garlic scapes in the field.

Introducing Robert, Meadowlark Farm Manager

2009-06-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

This is Robert. He's a little like Jazz, Jon and Jenny's Border Collie. He makes sure everybody is taken care of...he kind of runs around checking everything out, is a little obsessive, and occasionally runs after balls, just kidding. However, late last summer, when working in prickly eggplant and probably loopy from too much sun, Robert challenged Berkley, Ella and Eli to a gross-out contest. Ella and Eli are Jon and Jenny's kids, both still school age.

I think Berkley ate a whole jalapeño off the plant, and of course thought he would die. The kids wisely declined the challenge. Robert, not to be outdone, picked up a rotten tomato--which it was later rumored that Jazz had used as one of her retriever-wanna-be "balls," drooled on and muddied--popped it into his mouth and ATE IT. Of course he won, but what a peewee victory it was: Everyone shied away from him for the rest of the day. Imagine his breath...eek. Rotten tomatoes are NO LAUGHING MATTER. They STINK.

Robert would do anything for you. We all love him despite his weird eating habits.

Second Friday Lunch

2009-06-12T13:20:00.000-07:00

Last night I still didn't have a clue what I'd be cooking. I knew that there were storage potatoes, onions, shallots and carrots, and lots of new green things. When I walked by the produce prepping area the scent of cilantro hit me. When Jenny told me she'd soaked black beans I knew the cilantro would go into them somehow.

Often off the cuff farm cooking turns into juggling what combos of food to go where. Today I had the main elements: quinoa, black beans, potatoes and radishes. The adornments: mint, cilantro, a cacophony of Indian spices, maple syrup, pickled jalapeños, coconut and coconut milk and limes.

Here's what Ella, Eli and I made:

Carrot ginger purée soup with pickled jalapeños
Onions, ginger and carrots cooked in coconut fat then covered with water. Purée in blender till smooth with coconut milk and season with salt and pepper. Serve garnished with lightly chopped pickled jalapeños and cilantro if you like.

Blackbeans with toasted coconut, peas, lime and cilantro
Tip for cooking tender beans with hard water. Soak overnight or in cold water or 1 hour in boiling water with a teaspoon or three of SEA SALT. Drain and add fresh water, bring to a boil, lower heat to simmer, cover and cook 1 hour. The salt protects shell beans from absorbing the minerals and so they remain tender when cooked.
In a large sauté pan we toasted unsweetened dry coconut without fat, till golden and fragrant then tossed it with the beans, lime juice, chopped cilantro, peas and salt and pepper.

Quinoa with caramelized shallots and greens
Rinse 2 cups quinoa in fine mesh strainer and drain. Pour into heavy pot with 3 cups cold water and salt. Bring to boil, lower heat, cover and simmer quinoa 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow pot to sit undisturbed 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat olive oil or coconut oil and add finely sliced shallots. Cook until browned and add chopped greens. They will wilt quickly, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and toss/fold with quinoa.

Shaved radish salad with lime, mint and maple syrup

1 dozen French breakfast or red radishes, cleaned and trimmed
juice of 1 to 2 limes
2 tablespoons mint leaves
salt
1 to 2 tablespoons maple syrup

With a mandoline or very sharp knife, finely slice radishes. Toss radishes mixing bowl with lime juice, mint and salt. Add maple syrup to taste, enough to offset the acidity of the lime juice, but not so much that it actually tastes sweet.

Spiced potato-stuffed paratha

Ella made these pretty much start to finish. She's made them with me several times. The spiced potato filling started with cubed potatoes, boiled till tender and drained. Then in another pot, brown onions, and add brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and turmeric and cook for a minute. Stir in garam masala and a diced jalapeño. Season with salt and lime juice. Let this cool.

Paratha dough

3 cups chapati flour
2 tablespoons Nutiva coconut oil or ghee or clarified butter
1 teaspoon salt

Mix together ingredients in bowl till fat is evenly mixed. Add enough warm water to make a tender but not wet dough...ear lobe soft. Let it sit for half an hour in a baggie. Roll into a log (with extra flour if sticky) and slice log into 15 pieces. Dip one into flour on cut sides and roll out to 1/8 inch thick. Lay a couple spoonfuls spiced potatoes in center and bring up sides of dough, pleating the top and pressing it together. Roll out flat, using more flour if necessary. Cook these on a hot cast-iron griddle until they lose the raw dough look. Brush with ghee, butter or Nutiva coconut oil.

2009-06-06T09:09:00.001-07:00

More photos from the first Friday lunch.

First Friday Lunch June 5 2009

2009-06-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

The menu turned out differently--that's the beauty of cooking off the farm. I use what's available. We haven't fully stocked the kitchen yet so I had to improvise--it turned out great though.

We had:

Lentil Dal with panch phora--five whole spices: fennel, coriander (or fenugreek), nigella, cumin and brown mustard seed. I browned a lot of shallots that Jenny (Meadowlark Farm "mother") had from last year. I used Nutiva coconut oil. Great flavor in place of ghee. I browned the spices and added ginger root, cooked (with garlic and turmeric) lentils and simmered them then added chopped greens at the end to just barely cooked through. I seasoned the dal with pickled jalapeños, salt and lime juice.

Brown basmati rice pilaf--cooked with whole spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander and cardamom.

Spiced potatoes with caramelized onions and turmeric

This is the cooling part of an Indian meal. It is usually made with yogurt, but I like it with the nut sauce. I've made this with bananas, crystallized ginger and ground peanuts. It is especially good with cashews.
Greens Stem Raita (in photo with finely shaved carrots)

6 cups finely sliced bokchoy, chard or vitamin green stems
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup raw walnuts or cashews
1/4 cup chopped gingerroot
1/4 to 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons maple syrup
1/4 to 1/2 cup lightly chopped cilantro leaves and tender stems

Toss stems and salt together in large mixing bowl. Allow to sit for 20 minutes, until liquid exudes.

In blender, grind nuts, ginger, 1/4 cup lime juice and maple syrup. Grind until smoothish, but still thick. To facilitate grinding, add 1/2 cup liquid from stems and salt.

Mix stems, nut sauce and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper and more lime juice, to taste.

Raw rhubarb-maple ginger chutney

For this I finely sliced rhubarb straight out of the garden and tossed it with finely minced fresh ginger, a pinch of salt and maple syrup. I did add a pinch of cardamom and cinnamon, but they aren't strictly necessary. After a couple hours the rhubarb softened and the maple syrup infused it nicely. This is called maceration--where there is an exchange of flavors--versus marination--where the food is infused with flavor.

First Friday

2009-06-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I was at the farm transferring baby cabbage plants into larger containers in Jenny's greenhouse. It was moist and warm. I will have over 100 green luscious cabbages!

I picked up my box, full of bok choy, baby scallions, salad greens and heads of lettuces. It helped me finally decide on the menu--some people want Indian food--we have so little of it up here so Friday, June 5, 2009 lunch will be:

Lentil Dal with Brown-Fried Onions
Potato and Onion Stuffed Paratha
Rice Pilaf with Pureed Baby Scallions and Spices
Chopped Kale and Swiss Chard Cashew Raita
Rhubarb Maple Ginger Chutney

Look for the recipes this weekend.

2009-05-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

Friday June 5, 2009 is the day I start cooking for the farm crew at Meadowlark Farm, an organic, though not certified, CSA (community-support-agriculture) in Lake Leelanau MI. This is my third year.

I'm a chef and chef-educator, which means I write and teach. Currently I teach cooking classes through Northwestern Michigan College and the winery Chateau Chantal, out on Old Mission peninsula. (Check out their website--www.chateauchantal.com.) I've worked in Manhattan teaching at 2 prestigious schools and also at several San Francisco Bay area restaurants, where I went to culinary school. I had a restaurant in Northern Michigan called City Kitchen, but I had to sell due to lyme disease.

Now I happily work from the farm during the summer months. I'll be posting food and recipes and photos of the farm food each week. I'm thinking of Indian food for our opening day. But I can't commit to a menu yet. Have to see what's hopping in the garden and hoophouses.

Come back and see what's out my farm kitchen window.

Here's a recipe for pickled wild leeks.

City Kitchen pickled wild leeks
About 1 quart

2 to 3 pounds wild leeks, 1 to 1 1/4 pounds cleaned and trimmed, root on
1 1/2 tablespoons pickling or Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups rice vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

Peel and wash leeks. Leaving 1-inch green, trim away remaining leaves from white bulb. Break away root ends, but do not cut into leek bulb—the root end will keep the leek from falling apart so don’t cut it off completely.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

Blanch leeks, in batches, for 20 to 30 seconds--kills bacteria and stops enzyme action. Remove leeks from water with slotted spoon. Drain and place leeks in a non-reactive bowl and sprinkle with salt. Mix well to distribute salt evenly. Let leeks sit overnight to 24 hours. Overnight salting gives the leeks snap/crunch.

Drain leeks and discard any liquid. Stuff leeks into a quart-size glass canning jar. In a small saucepan, mix vinegar, water and sugar. Bring to a boil and pour over leeks in jar. Cool leeks, cap and refrigerate jar. Allow leeks to sit for 1 week before using.

Alternatively, boil canning jars and lids. Stuff hot jars with leeks and pour boiling pickling liquid over top, leaving 1-inch headspace. Top jars with hot lid and tighten ring. Allow jars to cool on cotton towel. If jars do not seal, process in steam canner or in boiling water canner.

©2009 Chef-Educator Nancy Krcek Allen