January 19, 2011 by Debra.

In our ongoing series on eating locally, this week’s guest post is by Erin Allgood, a self-professed science geek who loves food. Erin can be found sharing her passion and knowledge of nutrition at her blog, Allgood Eats, and at the Seacoast Eat Local booth during our Winter Farmers’ Markets. Recently, Erin teamed up with Jennifer Purrenhage of Get Well Grounded, to show how to prepare and cook different featured winter vegetables. To accompany Erin’s “Tips for Shopping and Cooking from the Winter Farmers’ Markets,” she’s given us a week’s worth of healthy and delicious meals based on local food:

My journey in eating locally began growing up in a food-oriented household with a mother who’s a professionally-trained chef. I was constantly surrounded by good food and developed an appreciation for it. However, once I went off to college, food was relegated to the back burner of my life.

I rediscovered my passion for food my junior year in college when I fell in love with nutritional biochemistry; I was fascinated by how nutrients were broken down and utilized within the body. A friend gave me a copy of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma around that same time, and I started to immerse myself in food culture. I entered the Master’s program in nutritional sciences at UNH and, before long, I realized that it was difficult to eat healthy unless I was cooking my own meals.

Surprisingly, I hadn’t picked up a great deal of cooking skills in my life, and needed to teach myself how to cook. I started by watching the Food Network, scouring cookbooks and using my mother as a resource. Now, cooking is one of my most favorite activities to do on my days off.

As I progressed through my Master’s thesis research, I began to understand that many of the healthy fruits and vegetables I was eating seemed to have a great deal of pesticides or other environmental pollutant residues. Buying locally-produced or organic fruits and vegetables provided me a way of finding out exactly how my food was produced and handled, and gave me control over what I was putting into my body. Also, local foods simply taste better and have a more “real” quality to them.

Primarily, my cooking has always been to create healthy, tasty meals, and to allow room for some decadent food as well. Buying local and creating relationships with farmers and producers has been invaluable to the way I cook, and I generally structure my grocery shopping around when I can get to the farmers’ market. This year, I will be part of a CSA with Meadow’s Mirth Farm, and hope to grow as many herbs as possible in our limited outdoor space. At 600 sq. feet, our apartment has little space but we were able to wedge half a pig that we bought from a local farmer into our small freezer, and we’ve been brewing beer in our guest bedroom. I haven’t ventured into canning or preserving foods yet, but hope to once we move into a bigger space.

Eating locally and being active in the local food community has enriched my life so much. I have made great friends through Seacoast Eat Local, and feel a part of this locavore movement. We are so fortunate here to have amazing farmers and phenomenal artisanal food producers. More and more restaurants are buying locally, making it easier to eat out and still maintain that local flavor. I feel lucky to live on the seacoast, to eat this great food and to share it with all of you!

From Erin’s Local Kitchen:

During the week, I tend to make very easy to prepare meals, such as pastas, pizzas and salads. On the weekends, I usually focus on cooking in bulk for the week ahead, but I also allow myself to cook with creativity. Meal planning has been helpful in ensuring that I eat all the food that I buy and don’t waste anything.

Sunday

• Butternut squash soup: squash, garlic, sea salt, pepper, ginger, organic chicken stock

• Stuffed portabello mushroom: sausage, kale, sea salt, pepper

Monday

• Watermelon radish salad: watermelon radish, apple, turnip, carrot, sea salt, honey, apple cider vinegar

• Potato, bacon and kale soup: potato, kale, bacon, carrot, onion, garlic, sea salt, pepper, organic chicken broth

Tuesday

• Green salad: organic salad greens, goat cheese (regional), dried cranberries, almonds

• Leftover watermelon radish salad

• Leftover butternut squash soup

Wednesday

• Pizza: wheat dough, oyster mushrooms, kale, onion, sea salt, butter (regional), mozzarella, parmesan, tomato sauce

• Leftover watermelon radish salad

Thursday

• Whole wheat pasta with tomato-squash sauce: whole wheat pasta, organic canned tomatoes, roasted delicata squash, sea salt, shallots, goat cheese (regional)

Friday

• Mushroom-Kale Quiche: kale, shallots, oyster mushrooms, Caerphilly cheese, eggs, butter, sea salt; for crust: butter, oats, flour, almond milk

• Green salad: organic salad greens, goat cheese (regional), dried cranberries, almonds

Saturday

• Leftover quiche

• Squash with greens: delicata squash, kale, onion, garlic, butter (regional), sea salt, pepper, olive oil

Sunday

• Me and Ollie’s breakfast sandwich: bread, cheese, eggs, tomato

• White Heron Chai tea

Snacks

• Apples with organic peanut butter

• Popcorn with chili-garlic vinegar and sea salt

• Beer: homebrewed and Redhook

• Wine: Sweet Baby Vineyards

Ingredients marked in bold show what is available locally. Photographs courtesy of Erin Allgood/Allgood Eats. Thanks, Erin, for sharing your week with us!

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January 16, 2011 by Debra.

For those who missed this month’s workshop, “Shopping & Cooking from the Winter Farmers’ Market,” we are featuring information from the instructors given out during the class. Previously, we posted Erin Allgood’s “Tips for Shopping & Cooking from the Winter Farmers’ Market.” Here we have Jennifer Purrenhage’s sample 1-week dinner plan to help you budget:

7 Nights of Dinner for a Family of Four for $70!

A common concern of people who are new to shopping farmers’ markets is that they won’t be able to feed their family on a budget by shopping local. One important step in shopping local (or anywhere, for that matter!) on a budget is to plan ahead. Here’s a sample 1-week dinner plan (with shopping lists and recipes) to get you started. Follow this plan to Feed Your Family of Four Dinner for 7 Days for only $70! If your family is smaller than that, you can freeze half of each dish and feed 2 people dinners for 2 weeks for only $70. It’s easy to drop $70 on one dinner out at your favorite restaurant (and you should do that once in a while), but you can also spend that money on healthy local food for 1–2 weeks of dinners!

 Saturday – White Bean/Sausage-Kale-Mushroom Soup with Mixed Greens Salad

 Sunday – Stuffed Winter Squash with Mixed Greens Salad

 Monday – White Bean/Sausage-Kale-Mushroom Soup (leftovers from Sat.) with Radish-Apple Salad

 Tuesday – Stuffed Winter Squash (leftovers from Sun.) with Radish-Apple Salad

 Wednesday – Rice and Beans with side of Sautéed Greens (Kale/Chard)

 Thursday – Roasted veggies with baked tofu/fish 

 Friday – Rice and Beans (leftovers from Wed.) with Mixed Greens Salad

Complete hand-out, including recipes, is available here >

You can find out more about Jennifer at her website, Get Well Grounded. Thanks go to Jennifer for allowing us to post this here!

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January 14, 2011 by Debra.

Once you get the food from the farmers’ market, what do you do with it? Here are some tips to get you started!

• Buy staples like carrots, onions or potatoes to start, and then try one new vegetable each time you shop for food.

• Talk to the farmers about how they prepare various veggies.

• Use your local foodies — Seacoast Eat Local volunteers are available at every Winter Farmers’ Market to help you shop and hand out recipes!

• Invest in a couple of good cookbooks:

- How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (a vegetarian edition is also available)

- Eating Well in Season — The Farmers’ Market Cookbook by Jessie Price

- Almost Meatless by Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond

- Greens Glorious Greens by Johnna Albi

• Utilize the internet:

- Eating Well

- Epicurious

- Food Network

Thanks go to Erin Allgood for allowing us to reprint her handout from this month’s workshop, “Shopping & Cooking from the Winter Farmers’ Market“. You can visit Erin at her blog, Allgood Eats. For more information about our Winter Farmers’ Markets as well as others in the Seacoast, please visit www.seacoasteatlocal.com. If interested, we also have a resource page for cooking classes.

Up next: Feeding Your Family of 4 for 7 Days and $70!

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December 14, 2010 by Debra.

Kale and winter greens will be the featured vegetables at our next Winter Farmers’ Market, and we asked Jennifer Purrenhage for some new ways of using them. You may have met Jennifer at the Winter Farmers’ Market, where she can be often found helping out at the Seacoast Eat Local booth. A biologist by profession, Jennifer is also trained as a Holistic Health & Nutrition Coach, and will be co-leading the upcoming workshop, “Shopping & Cooking from the WInter Farmers’ Market,” on January 7th. Her website and blog, Get Well Grounded, is where Jennifer offers wellness information and easy ways to cook with whole foods, including recipes from this week’s guest post. In the following December menus, Jennifer demonstrates her intuitive approach to cooking, how to create delicious meals from a well-stocked pantry, and the benefits of having intentional leftovers, all with infectious enthusiasm. Thanks, Jennifer, for sharing your week with us!

I first started thinking about what and how I wanted to eat around age 10; I came home one day and declared that I was a vegetarian, and my mother graciously obliged. Since then, I have used various labels to describe my eating habits including vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, and locavore. As a Holistic Health & Nutrition Coach, I help people discover the unique set of food, cooking, and lifestyle habits that support them as individuals, and these days I avoid wearing a food label of my own. That said, my intention is to eat food that: (1) is grown as close to home as possible; (2) best supports my health, which to me means plant-based with animal proteins/fats as garnishes, organic or low-spray when possible, and largely seasonal; and (3) is mostly whole and unprocessed.

I currently live in an apartment with a galley kitchen and no space to grow my own food. I do the majority of my food shopping at the year-round farmers’ markets, but I supplement from the grocery store to indulge my cravings for lemons, limes, avocados, and almond butter. I have no formal training as a chef, but for 20 years I’ve loved experimenting and cooking creatively to develop new personal recipes. This year I did a lot of canning – diced and roasted tomatoes, roasted peppers, fruit preserves, peaches, and applesauce – and I’ve enjoyed cooking with my canned local fruits and veggies this winter.

Here’s the list of my lunches and dinners for the past week. I typically cook for 1-2 people, but I love to cook once and eat (at least) twice. Whenever I make soup, I make a huge pot and freeze half of it in single serving jars – it’s great to just grab a jar for lunch or dinner when you’re low on the time or energy to cook. My goal is not to cook fancy, complicated meals, but rather to eat real, whole foods from as nearby as possible. You can access recipes for several of this week’s dishes using the links below. All are gluten free, most are dairy free (except the potato soup), and all have vegetarian options. Enjoy.

Sunday:

L – This afternoon I made roasted delicata squash with sautéed swiss chard, garlic and sweet onions (all from Heron Pond Farm). Shared this at a potluck with my neighbors and had several recipe requests. It’s beautiful and tasty.

D – For dinner, I was invited to my neighbors’ for some homemade local lobster bisque. It was wonderful. I love soup this time of year and enjoy it at least twice each week.

Monday:

L – I love leftovers. Ever notice how many dishes actually taste better the second time around? For lunch I had leftover squash and chard from yesterday’s lunch with leftover brown rice.

D – For dinner, I sautéed some kale, chard, asparagus, shallots, and onion (from Meadow’s Mirth Farm), added some canned summer tomatoes and fresh parsley, and served it over brown rice.

Tuesday:

L – Leftovers from dinner last night.

D – I’ve been eating heavier, hot meals for the past couple days and was in the mood for something raw, so I made raw kale (purple and lacinato kale from Farmer Dave’s) salad with olives, tomatoes, carrot, green tahini dressing (parsley, celery, dulse, tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil) and garbanzo beans. For the sweet taste and a little extra protein, I had roasted delicata seeds with salt, olive oil, and coconut palm sugar for dessert.

Wednesday:

L – Leftover kale salad with garbanzos; apple.

D – After a very busy day with some unexpected twists, I arrived home not feeling up to cooking, so it turned out being a throw-something-together night. I grabbed some of my favorite salad greens mix (from Applecrest Orchard), some hummus and shredded carrot, and made a couple of salad wraps with nori sheets. Totally hit the spot!

Thursday:

L – Last of the kale salad and garbanzo bean leftovers – still tasted great.

D – Kale/chard-sausage (from New Roots Farm)-white bean stew with oyster mushrooms.

Friday:

L – Quinoa with roasted red peppers (canned), black turtle beans (from Touching Earth Farm), and roasted delicata squash, onions, and garlic (from Meadow’s Mirth Farm).

D – Leftover kale/chard-sausage stew – always better the second day (and shared with a friend)! Sweet and salty roasted delicata seeds for dessert.

Saturday:

L – Leftover quinoa, beans, and veggies.

D – Potato-leek soup with sage & thyme (almost every ingredient in this soup was local or regional, except the olive oil and white wine); watermelon radish-apple salad (radishes from Riverside Farm/Garen’s Greens and apples from Applecrest Farm; shared with friends).

Links for recipes from Get Well Grounded:

• Roasted Delicata Squash with Sweet & Savory Greens

• Raw Kale Salad with Tahini & Garbanzos

• Kale/Chard-White Bean-Oyster Mushroom-Sausage Stew

• Potato-Leek Soup with Sage & Thyme

• Watermelon Radish Salad

Photographs courtesy of Jennifer Purrenhage/Get Well Grounded. From left to right: delicata squash with greens; roasted sweet-and-salty delicata seeds; kale salad. Items marked in bold indicate food sourced from Seacoast farmers’ markets, with a few ingredients from regional producers.

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December 9, 2010 by Debra.

This week’s guest post is from Jean Eno, who chronicles her passion for local food in her blog Gimme the Knife! Jean can be frequently found at Seacoast farmers’ markets and, with her many years of cooking experience, takes delight in discovering new ingredients for her local kitchen. Jean’s family includes her husband, Paul, and their 3 pets — Amy the dog (pictured below), Cecil-Cockatiel and Tilde-Turtle. Friends and family join them often to feast on her latest creations. Jean’s recipe for Mushroom, Roasted Pepper & Goat Cheese Frittata will be included in an upcoming cookbook featuring birch syrup from The Crooked Chimney, due out sometime next year. Thank-you, Jean, for sharing your week of eating locally!

Like many, I have spanned the culinary gamut over the decades. I vividly recall the savory and salty roast beef pan drippings (a taste sense we now call ‘umami’) that my sister and I, as kids, would kneel and beg for like panting dogs at my mother’s side at the dinner table—a scene one might otherwise find in ‘A Christmas Story’. Years later, I was a macrobiotic vegan for more than a decade. Today, we fully embrace our local and organic omnivore diet; the culinary experiences are incredibly rewarding.

In the kitchen, I like to serve and teach; home is where I am happiest. I enjoy making the most mundane occasion a reason to entertain and cook for our friends, all of whom, like I, belong to the clean plate club. Having designed a kitchen to accommodate large dinner parties, doing so is often just a phone call away, which is just the way I like it: easy and spontaneous, and nothing wasted!

Food waste: the very reason I got out of the restaurant business, and the very basis for my creativity. Leftover [fill in the blank] makes for killer frittatas, extraordinary pizzas and nurturing soups; aging fruits are reborn as sauces or quick breads; bones and carcasses always have a final simmer for stock; and, in a nod to our pets’ health, leftovers help fill out their diet.

I have cooked for my 16-year old cockatiel for the last eight years (he eats not a single “bird” seed). Our “rescued” three-toed box turtle is semi-hibernating right now and eats only 1x/week, but nonetheless eats only homemade food. Our dog, a food-driven 60lb tank with fur, is very happy to eat homemade food (she’ll roll over for a blueberry). With the abundance of great local meat, poultry, fish, eggs, breads, greens, vegetables, roots, yogurts and cheeses we have at our fingertips, she should be happy!

I might add that we are not strictly localvores. Foods such as wild salmon and rice are a must for us and our dog; edamame, assorted nuts and pasta are year-round musts for my bird (we do occasionally make our own pasta); and, the turtle prefers sweet potato over winter squash mashed into her collard greens, egg and blueberries (she also eats an abundance of backyard worms and grubs… Aack!).

There are great veterinarian sites online to assist you (use keywords like ‘holistic’ and ‘homemade’), but be sure to consult your own DVM as there are a couple of supplements you’ll need to have on hand. Together, you can create a healthy, convenient and affordable alternative to commercial pet food. More importantly, you’ll have really happy pets! And, no, we do not allow panting begging at the table!

This week’s dinner menu:

Sunday:

• Chorizo, Leek & Butternut Risotto (recipe)

• Squash/apple for all three pets (added to leftover turkey, broccoli stems and yogurt in dog’s case)

Monday:

• 100% grass fed & finished burgers with black trumpet mushrooms, shallots and baby swiss cheese

• Spinach salad with shaved red onion, clementines, dried cranberries, toasted almonds and homemade vinaigrette

• Roasted potatoes

• Beef, raw potato, clementine, and yogurt for pooch

Tuesday:

• Sunchoke and cauliflower soup with croutons (recipe)

• Leftovers from night before for pooch

Wednesday:

• Roasted chicken

• Roasted beets and carrots

• Leftover stuffing (stuffing freezes really well; this year’s was made with a typical mirepoix)

• Chicken pieces, beets and carrots added to yogurt and bread crusts for pooch

Thursday:

• Stuffed Delicata squash (onion, garlic, spinach, mushroom, herbs, tomatoes)

• Leftovers from night before for pooch

Friday:

• Veggie Quesadillas (peppers, corn and zucchini from freezer, garlic, onions, jack and cheddar cheeses)

• Brown rice and Lowe’s Champion beans

• Rice & beans for both pooch and birdie, along with hard-boiled eggs!

Saturday:

• Minestrone soup (stewed tomatoes, celery, carrots, beans, cabbage, chard from our garden and homemade chicken stock)

• Tuscan boule

• Gelato

• Leftover turkey from freezer, rice, cabbage and yogurt for pooch; more beans and rice for birdie

— Photographs courtesy of Jean Eno. Food marked in bold were sourced locally, and show the seasonal array available here in the Seacoast!

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December 6, 2010 by Debra.

Here’s another recipe for all of those beet enthusiasts over at our Facebook page. With only 4 to 5 ingredients, this one for Beet and Tahini Dip lets the flavor as well as color of the beets shine. It’s adapted from the cookbook “Eating Local” by Janet Fletcher and, served with pita chips or nutty homemade wheat crackers, adds a colorful note to a holiday gathering. The lemon juice helps to balance the flavor of the tahini; I’d like to try substituting local cider vinegar the next time I make this.

Beet and Tahini Dip

1 pound red beets (about 3 medium)

1 clove garlic, sliced

¼ cup tahini, stirred well to blend

3 – 4 tablespoons lemon juice, or to taste (optional)

Salt, to taste

- Preheat oven to 400°F. Wash beets, place in baking dish, and add water to depth of ¼ inch. Cover tightly and bake until knife pierces them easily, 45 to 60 minutes. After beets are cool, peel and cut into quarters.

- Put beets and garlic in food processor, and puree until smooth. Transfer to bowl and stir in tahini. Add lemon juice gradually, to taste. Season with salt to taste.

- Dip will keep, refrigerated, up to one week.

Tips for roasting beets >

And for you beet fans who are also Totally Local Latke obsessed — all the necessary ingredients can now be locally sourced at our Winter Farmers’ Markets — here’s Cumin-Scented Beet Latkes and Beet and Carrot Latkes as well.

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December 3, 2010 by Debra.

Many recipes for beets start out by roasting them, a simple technique that enhances their sweet earthiness. Some instruct to roast the beets wrapped in foil, but I find this makes it difficult to check on them during cooking. Instead, I roast them in a glass baking dish — the glass allows me to monitor their progress, while the lid makes it easy to check for doneness. I often roast more than I need in order to have them on hand for other meals, giving me the option of adding diced beets to a salad or slicing them to serve on their own. Once cooked, they may be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator where they will keep for up to a week.

Basic steps for roasting beets:

Wash beets, scrubbing off dirt. Leave the roots and whatever cut stems there are still attached; this helps prevent them from bleeding too much during roasting.

 

Place them in baking dish. Rub with a little cooking oil. If you like, sprinkle with some dried herbs. Add a splash of water to the baking dish, especially if using winter beets; this helps replace some of the moisture lost in storage. Cover dish with a lid or foil.

 

Roast in a preheated oven set between 375° to 400°F. Beets are done when easily pierced with the tip of a knife, 45 to 60 minutes, depending on size of beets.

 

Peel after cooling. To cool, leave dish covered. The skins should slip off easily, along with the stems and root end. Ready to eat as is or dressed up!

Roast beets can be enjoyed enhanced with only a sprinkling of sea salt. They also have a special affinity for certain flavors and ingredients. They’re often paired with goat cheese, but  combine well with other strong-flavored cheeses such as roquefort and gorgonzola, cheddar, parmesan, and ricotta salata. Dressings made from sour cream, creme fraiche, or yogurt are more dairy options. Other classic pairings that accent the flavor of beets include combinations using shallots, red onions or chives; walnuts or hazelnuts; oranges and lemons; tarragon, dill, or mint; mustard and flavored vinegars.

Featured Vegetable at the Winter Farmers’ Market — Beets are the featured vegetable for the Seacoast Eat Local Winter Farmers’ Market  in Exeter this Saturday, December 4. We’ll have more delicious beet recipes available — make sure to check at the information and vendors’ booths!

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November 29, 2010 by Lenore.

 This time of year brings with it one of my most loved vegetables:  winter squash.  It’s versatile, attractive, and quite delicious!  The variety I think is most versatile is the pumpkin.  I love most anything to do with pumpkins, be they in pie form, carving Jack O’Lanterns, used as decoration… they are beautiful and comforting and essentially usher in the last quarter of the year in one perfect package.

Last month, I headed out to Pickpocket Farm’s Harvest Potluck, bringing with me two Pumpkin Fondues.  Fondue is the perfect social food — everyone gathering around the pot (this pot is actually a baked pumpkin) dipping their fondue forks speared with pieces of baguette into a creamy, melty mess of comforting, warm cheese.  What could be better?  The pumpkins were met with rave reviews, and both were demolished fairly quickly.  One of the pumpkins was on center stage outside on that very cold day, and it stayed hot enough to keep the cheese melted until all of it was gone.  Perfect!

I made the fondue again for a group of friends helping us with our fall chores.  Once again, the pumpkin was hailed as “crazy good,” even by someone who hated fondue.  Enough said.

And now, some notes on the recipe before you actually make it.

The pumpkin you need for this recipe will be any edible variety, and small — we’re talking 4-5 lbs.  I prefer a nice round pumpkin rather than a tall, narrow one because it lets more people get into all that melty goodness at the same time, rather than making people politely wait their turn.  Fondue to me says “DIG IN!”

Garlic is an important part of this recipe.  I grow my own, and the past two years have produced an amazingly pungent garlic.  I am usually forced to reduce the amount called for in dishes that aren’t really cooking the garlic much, but for the fondue I went full strength.  It is much better to go overboard here than not use enough.  If you are using small-cloved supermarket garlic, I would even double the amount. 

    And now the cheese.  I typically use Boggy Meadow Farm’s Baby Swiss, which is nutty and melts beautifully.  Sometimes you can only find the smoked variety, so when that happens I use any type of Gruyere, or maybe a mix of Gruyere and Fontina.  You could also try Jarlsberg, if that’s all you have hanging out in your fridge.  The recipe also calls for mozzarella.  If you can make your own like I do, do it!  Fresh, homemade cheese makes an incredible fondue.  Even if your mozzarella comes out drier than you’d like, it’s still perfect for shredding and melting.

Finally, you should make your own bread crumbs.  The canned or bagged supermarket variety will not produce the consistency you need.  Slice up some homemade bread (the recipe calls for white, but I’ve used varieties of wheat with no problem), toast it and process it and within seconds you have exquisite bread crumbs.

FONDUE in a PUMPKIN

1 pumpkin (4-5 lbs), washed and dried

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, minced (double if using a supermarket variety)

6 oz. Baby Swiss cheese, shredded

2 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded

4 slices white (or wheat) bread, toasted and crumbled

1 pint half-and-half

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (Have you ever grated nutmeg yourself?  Heavenly!)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Cut a 2-inch slice from top of pumpkin (make sure you’re not cutting straight up and down — you want the top to rest on the pumpkin, shelf-like, as it bakes) and reserve.  Remove seeds and fibers.  Blend oil and garlic and rub into interior of pumpkin.  Place pumpkin in a large roasting pan.

Gently combine the shredded cheeses.  Alternate layers of toast crumbs and cheese inside the pumpkin.  Combine half-and-half, salt, pepper and nutmeg and pour over the layers.  Replace top, making sure stem will fit into your oven.  If not, slice it off.  Bake pumpkin 2 hours, gently stirring contents after 1 1/2 hours.

    If you can, make your own baguettes to dip into your pumpkin pot.  If not, try to make whatever homemade bread you can, but keep it simple.  You will want to savor every bite of delectable cheese!  The surprise ending to this dish is to make sure your fork scrapes the side of the cooked pumpkin.  Filling your mouth with this mixture of bread, cheese and pumpkin makes for a truly perfect meal — because you will eat so much of it, you will not have room for anything else.  Happy melting!

Posted in Cheese Chicks, author: Lenore, recipes, Uncategorized | Print | 1 Comment »

November 22, 2010 by Debra.

This is for the customer at last week-end’s Seacoast Eat Local Winter Farmers’ Market, who was surprised to learn that turnips can be eaten raw — a bonus recipe for our featured winter vegetable of the week.

Root vegetable slaws or salads add a welcome change in texture to the winter table. They require a minimum of preparation — grate then dress — and can be made ahead of time. Turnips are part of the mustard family, making this a fitting pairing with the mustard vinaigrette. This basic recipe can also be made with other root vegetables that can be eaten raw, such as rutabaga, beets and kohlrabi. And, if you happen to have it, the apple adds a nice counterpoint of autumnal sweetness.

Grated Turnip and Carrot Slaw with Mustard Vinaigrette

¾ pound turnips

¾ pound carrots

1 apple (optional)

For mustard vinaigrette:

2 tablespoons cider, sherry or red wine vinegar, or lemon juice

2 shallots, finely diced

1 garlic clove, finely minced

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream (optional)

⅓ cup olive oil or other vegetable oil

3 tablespoons capers, rinsed

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

2 tablespoons chopped scallions or chives

- Peel turnips, carrots and apple, and coarsely grate or cut into julienne strips, about 4 cups packed. Optional: sprinkle with salt and let sit for 30 minutes. Squeeze moisture out.

- Combine vinegar, shallots, garlic and ¼ teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Let stand 15 minutes, then vigorously whisk in mustard, creme fraiche, and oil until thick and smooth. Stir in herbs and season with salt and pepper to taste.

- Toss turnip mixture with enough mustard vinaigrette to moisten.

- Marinate, refrigerated, for 1 hour before serving.

Notes: Recipe adapted from “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone” by Deborah Madison. I used Gilfeather turnips, but any other of the wide variety of turnips available at the market can be used. With thicker skins, winter varieties of turnips usually need to be peeled. Salad or spring turnips have thinner skins, and can be used as is. If you find raw vegetables difficult to digest, they can be briefly blanched and shocked before dressing. For more recipes for raw winter vegetable salads >

Next up for December: beets, and kale. We plan to continue featuring a different winter vegetable at each SEL Winter Farmers’ Market — be on the look-out for our recipe cards!

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November 18, 2010 by Debra.

Turnips show up regularly in CSA shares but are too often relegated to the back of the fridge where they remain until they’re far past using. We took it upon ourselves to embrace the turnip and tested a variety of ways to prepare them. I’ve come to appreciate their sweet, peppery nature and how, in combination with other root vegetables or starches, can lighten a dish.

In this recipe for Yellow Eye Beans with Turnips, the turnips complement and enhance the characteristic resemblance of Yellow Eye beans to potatoes, the flavor of each playing off the other. Winter turnips are at their peak now, making it a great time to get better acquainted with them!

Yellow Eye Beans with Turnips

2 cups diced bacon (nitrate-free) [5 to 6 slices thick bacon]

1 – 2 jalapeno peppers, fine dice

2 teaspoons chopped garlic [2 cloves]

2 cups diced onions [2 medium-sized onions]

1 pound Yellow Eye beans, soak overnight and drain

2 bay leaves

2 quarts chicken stock

2 sprigs thyme

2 pounds turnips, ½” dice

Salt and pepper

- Render the bacon in a heavy bottomed pot.

- Add the onion, garlic, jalapeno, and sauté until the onion is transparent.

- Put the chicken stock, beans, bay leaves, and thyme into the pot and bring to a slow simmer.

- Cook the beans, uncovered or with lid ajar, until cooked half-way (45 – 60 minutes, depending on age of beans). Stir in the turnip. Add more water Ii necessary; beans should be barely covered.

- Continue simmering until the beans are tender (another 30 – 45 minutes). Season with salt and pepper.

— Adapted from Chef Peter Davis, Henrietta’s Table

Notes: Soaking beans overnight allows them to cook more evenly, but even soaking them the morning of the day you’re planning on cooking them helps. The original recipe calls for 1 gallon of chicken stock, resulting in a soupier dish — I cut the amount of stock to 2 quarts, and added water to cover as necessary during cooking; this allowed me to control the amount of resulting pot liquor. This dish can be finished with chopped parsley and, if you’re feeling festive, fried sage leaves makes for a beautiful seasonal garnish. This recipe makes a large quantity and is easily halved for smaller families.

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Come visit us at the Seacoast Eat Local Winter Farmers’ Market this Saturday, November 20, at the Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford, where we will have free copies of this recipe plus another for “Turnips in Mustard Sauce” at the Seacoast Eat Local information table. Embrace the turnip, and learn the versatile potential of this week’s featured winter vegetable!

Posted in Market Notes, author: Debra, recipes | Print | 2 Comments »