Local Seasonal Eats

Pickles - Photo:Chad

I have never made so many different things in the kitchen at one time, with no intentions of eating them immediately, as I did Saturday after the farmer’s market.  I had two and a half hours from when I got home till I had to be at work.  Needless to say, the race was on.

I started by making pesto using the remaining basil from our patio garden and the bunch I bought from the Wednesday farmer’s market.  The recipe I found was from Cook’s Illustrated (July, 1996) and featured both toasted pine nuts and roasted garlic.  I used the soft fresh garlic from Sutter Ridge farm, and the smell that floated through the house as the garlic caramelized in its skin was amazing.  I also used some of the Romano from Farmer John’s, which added a little more bite than the recommended parmesan usually does. The entire process took about 30 minutes and resulted in a half dozen small containers that were immediately placed into the freezer for future use.

Next I prepped my new jar for my stab at Alton Brown’s pickles, sterilizing it and letting it cool.  Meanwhile, I cleaned the cukes and prepared the seasoning.  When the jar was cooled, I started layering in the cucumbers and, to my dismay, found that the three pounds filled it to the brim!  I should have gone with the two gallon jar, but it was too late and anticipation had gotten too high.  I followed the rest of the recipe, adding the brining solution and covered the surface with a ziplock (filled with more solution) to keep the cucumbers submerged.  Lacking a cool place to store the pickles, I resorted to a small cooler, with a couple ice packs in it to keep the temperature down.  Now the waiting game begins… 3 days before I move on to the next step!

The last thing I wanted to start before heading to work was a batch of dried apricots.  I love the sweet chewy ones that you can get at the store and thought I’d take a stab at my own.  I cut the apricots that I had gotten from Door County Fruit Market in half, removing the tiny pit, dipped them in a lemon water solution to help prevent browning and left for work.

Needless to say I had a few dishes to do when I got home.  I’ll let you know how everything turned out in a future post.

Sweet Peppers - Photo:Chad

I went to the Dane County Farmer’s Market this week, excited to get home and start the pickles I had been planning on doing since Wednesday.  I knew it would be just me this week, and that our garden was starting to produce some good-looking produce, so I kept it rather light.  I was excited to see the peppers and, knowing mine wouldn’t be ready for a few more weeks, decided to give them a try.  It was also cool to see the Door County cherries and apricots in the stands.  I thought I would continue the weeks intentions of “making the most of” summers bounty, by drying them for easy snacking.

Saturday afternoon was to be a whirlwind of prepping and preserving, so I took a quick jaunt down State St. for Maxwell St. days, and called it a day.

Here’s what I ended up with.

• Prairie Farm Produce – Broccoli and Lettuce
• Palm Mushrooms Cellar – Baby Bella Mushrooms
• Peterson Produce – Multi-Color Sweet Peppers
• Sutter Ridge Farm – Garlic
• Canopy Farm – Grape Tomatoes
• Door County Fruit Market – Apricots
• Grassy Way Organics – Beef Hotdogs

In the next post I’ll tell you about the pickling process and how that went.

Pickling Cukes - Photo:Chad

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been watching a lot of Good Eats.  A recent episode on traditional dill pickles really piqued my interest, as I fondly remember my grandma’s pickles, which were always the high heat, jarred with vinegar kind.  Well in his method, Brown uses fermentation and an open air ceramic vessel to make some garlicky, kosher dills.  Looking at the cucumbers starting to take shape in our garden gives me hope, but in that far off way (at least a few months).

That’s why when I saw pickles by the bucket next to oversized bunches of dill at the Nesity Garden stand at the Wednesday Dane Co. Farmer’s Market, I started getting excited.  I picked up the ingredients and a few other goodies to make it through the week including some grillable meats from Pecatonica Valley and rushed home.  In the end my list was short this week:

• Basil – Deerfield Family Farm
• Cukes and Dill – Nesity Garden
• Sweet Corn – Heck’s Market
• Shallots. Onions. Carrots. – Va Family Garden
• Beef, Chicken, and Pork – Pecatonica Valley Farm

When I got home, I immediately checked out Amazon.com and after searching extensively for a ceramic crock, settled on a nice glass one.  It’ll be here Friday, and pickling should start Sat., after the Farmer’s Market.  I’ll keep you posted.

Buffalo Wings - Photo:Lindsay

The busy summer days have, unfortunately, resulted in some very simple dishes this past week.  With all the great seasonal ingredients, you really want to make something unique and different but between boating, baseball games, and making any excuse possible to enjoy the few non-rainy days, simplicity has been high on my list.

We started the week out with some baked hot Buffalo wings ala Good Eats with Alton Brown.  I’ve been catching up with some old episodes of, what is in my opinion, the best food geek show out there.  After watching his tribute to the Buffalo Wing, I thought about the wings I had picked up from Jordandal Farms, at the Westside Community Market, a few weeks back.  Although, like most Good Eats recipes, there were a few more steps then I would have expected, the baked wings came out crispy and flavorful.  With a side salad of fresh greens topped with a light vinaigrette to balance out the high calorie wings, this made for one heck of a meal.

Beef and Broccoli - Photo:Lindsay

After a Wednesday market teaming with broccoli, I decided to make the most of the sirloin tip chunks that had been in the freezer for a few weeks.  A quick search on Epicurious’ iPhone app (will launch iTunes) revealed a recipe for Quick Beef and Broccoli.  Sounded like a great meal for after our evening workout.  So, with just the most elemental of prep (cleaning the broccoli and trimming it right into a storage container when I got home from the market) we had a meal in as long as it took to boil some rice.  While I thought it was OK, Lindsay was less than impressed, and wished it had some more flavor.  I guess with convenience you sometimes get the occasional bland dish.

BBQ Onion Burger - Photo:Lindsay

Deciding I wouldn’t let another beef dish go down this grey path, I decided to go all out with a BBQ burger on Friday.  With advance apologies to the folks at Fountain Prairie farms, who recommend only using a little salt and pepper on their burgers, I went a bit more extreme.

To start off, I mixed the meat with chopped bacon and roasted garlic chips. Some reserved bacon grease and a Tbsp of butter was used to slow caramelize a coarsely sliced onion.  After 30 minutes of cooking on low, when the onions were a translucent light brown, I mixed in what might easily be the quickest and simplest homemade BBQ sauce (recipe @ allrecipes.com).  The burger was topped with a slice of everyday cheddar from Bleu Mont Dairy, a heaping helping of the onion mixture and a few pickles.  To “healthy” this meal up we served with it Green Beans from Xay Lo Garden and seasoned shredded turnips. Needless to say flavor was not an issue here, but an outside table setting made it a lot easier to clean up the inevitable mess.  It was a happy and very satisfying mess.

Raspberries - Photo:Chad

On Farmer’s Market mornings, the last thing I want is to wake up to a heavy rainstorm and, in such situations, putting it off until a nicer day or maybe just heading over to the grocery store would seem like a more sensible thing to do.  My experience over the last few months, from buying most of my groceries from market vendors, has changed my outlook considerably.

I know that many of the farmers and merchants drive long distances to bring their produce and other goodies to all of us Madison foodies and, if they can be there rain or shine, so can I.

Even though the weather report called for rain all day, I was able to leave my umbrella in the car, and get my shopping at the Wednesday Hilldale Farmer’s Market without even a touch of rain.

The vendors I talked to were upbeat, and said that they were able to sit out most of the storm, and had to move very little of their product out of the rain (which could be considered a pre-wash).  Some enterprising vendors made the best of the slightly lower than average turnout by having sales. The owner of Earthly Edibles was offering a couple bucks off her shitake mushrooms, so I picked up a ¼ lb. of mushrooms and will dry whatever I don’t use this week.  I wasn’t even planning on getting any mushrooms, but who can turn down a sale?

As for what was actually there this week, I saw broccoli and cauliflower, squashes and zucchinis of all sizes, onions, beets, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, some salad greens, lots of beans, and new (for me at least) raspberries.

Beans - Photo:Chad

Strawberry season is so short, painfully so, that having raspberries follow up right away softens the blow somewhat.  I’m not sure if the berries I picked up will be made into a recipe or just eaten raw.

Here’s what I ended up with:

• Raspberries from Farmer Bob’s Produce
• Bacon from Bruman’s Natural Meats
• Broccoli from Nehmer’s Produce
• Potatoes and Zucchini from Saomas Garden
• Shitakes from Earthly Edibles
• Green Beans from Xay Lo Garden
• Radishes from Xong Garden

I also picked up a bottle of dressing from Sasha’s.  These locally crafted “sweet” dressings are great for those days you don’t want to whip up a vinaigrette.  Not only are they available at the Hilldale market, but also at Hy-Vee or through their website.  Lindsay and I highly recommend the Sweet & Savory.