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.

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.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Photo:Lindsay

Sunday we picked up a canning kit so that we can start persevering some of the wonderful produce that is currently in season to use later this summer or during the wintertime.

Our first foray into canning was a simple strawberry and rhubarb jam.  This summer spread was inspired by a post I saw over on food blog In Jennies Kitchen, where they are giving away two canning kits.  (What are you waiting for hit the link leave a comment, and you could be canning in no time)

Canned Rhubarb Photo:Chad

After successfully canning three pints worth (it’s no 21 jars, but it’s a start) we moved on to preserving some of the leftover rhubarb for a mid-summer recipe.  About two pounds fit into one quart jar, after stewing in about 1/2 cup of sugar and simmering for 30 seconds.

The work involved is rather easy, and I’m going to take a stab at asparagus next.  Stay tuned.

Asian Beef Salad Photo:Lindsay

On Thursday night, having just had the beef roast the night before, we wanted to try to use some of it up, so we made an Asian salad with roast beef, cherry tomatoes from Canopy Farm, Australe lettuce from Snug Haven, salad mix from Black Earth Valley, and spicy Asian radishes and sugar snap peas from Roots Down Farm. We made an Asian-style sesame dressing which accompanied it, but since the dressing wasn’t very good, we’re not going to share it with the masses.  We’ll have to come up with a better sesame dressing for next time.

Beef and Dill Potato Pasty Photo:Lindsay

Then, on Saturday, we decided to use up the rest of the beef by making and freezing some individually sized Cornish pasties.  We wanted to use the dill we had gotten at last week’s farmer’s market since it was going a bit limp in our refrigerator, so we started scouring the internet to find a recipe that would include the beef, potatoes, and our quickly diminishing dill.  There really wasn’t a recipe that satisfied him, so we kind-of mashed a bunch of them together to make these Dill Potato and Leftover Beef Roast Pasties.

If you’re not familiar with pasties, they’re traditionally a little dry, so you’ll want to eat them with some sort of sauce.  Lindsay prefers ketchup, but Chad likes his with Sriracha sauce. Also, if you’re in the mood for a history lesson, the origins of the Cornish pasty are also quite interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty.

Our pasties came out crispy, but firm enough you could eat with just your hands, like you’re supposed to.  The dill was subtle, but present, and the beef stayed tender, even through it’s second cooking.  We’ve already reheated a few of these and will look forward to pulling them out of the freezer for a quick meal.

Dried Morels Photo:Lindsay

Part of what we’re hoping to learn and share with LSEats.com is not only how to eat locally and seasonally, but also how to make those local seasonal ingredients last when the season’s done.

One very simple and efficient way is to dry ingredients using a dehydrator.  I borrowed one from my mom that’s been lovingly collecting dust in their basement.  After a quick clean up, it was good to go.

A few quick searches online confirmed my suspicions, that a cleaning and laterally cutting the mushroom was all the necessary prep work.  I did find some great recommendation on Mykoweb, a mycology(mushroom) site;

Morels, and any other mushrooms you preserve by dehydration, must be dried fast enough to prevent spoilage, but not so hot as to cook the fungus. The best way to dry morels is to use a commercial or homemade food dehydrator with the temperature set at 110 F (43 C). The morels can be placed into the dehydrator whole, but with many commercial dehydrators the drying screens are too close together and the morels need to be cut. I dry the small morels whole and cut the larger ones longitudinally

They went on to recommend keeping the temperature under 120 as that’s the point that flavor begins to deteriorate.

About 8 hours later our 24 ounces of fresh morels had become 1.5 ounces of dried, and in my opinion beautiful, future flavor makers.

Future use will be a snap.  Mykoweb says;

Dried morels need to be reconstituted first by soaking them in warm to hot liquid (water or stock) until they are soft. And remember, most of the morel flavor is in the soaking liquid.

So don’t forget to use that liquid in your recipe if possible (run it through a coffee filter first).  Happy Drying!

Chicken Stock Photo:SuaveHouse113

After carving up the chicken, I knew the only responsible thing to do with the carcass and leftover giblets would be to make some freezer stock.

Talk about simple! Plus it makes your house smell like delicious Chicken soup. From simplyrecipes.com:

1 Put the leftover bones and skin from a chicken carcass into a large stock pot and cover with cold water. Add veggies like celery, onion, carrots, parsley.

2 Add salt and pepper, about 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of pepper.

3 Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat to bring the stock to barely a simmer.

4 Simmer uncovered at least 4 hours, occasionally skimming off the foam that comes to the surface.

5 Remove the bones and strain the stock.

Before we went to bed I placed the bowl of strained stock into the fridge, covered with cellophane, and by morning had a nice layer of fat to skim off.  I divided it into 2 cup servings in Tupperware and froze it for future use.