August 18, 2013 - Tomatoes Everywhere!

The tomato season is starting to wind down. But since I was not good at updating this blog in the end of the summer I thought I'd post some of the harvest pictures for posterity.

July 25, 2013 - Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Tonight's Farmers Market Dinner:

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Nothing beats a roasted fresh chicken - it made the whole house smell like Thanksgiving!

 I really wish Blogger would give me rotation control over my photos.  They appear fine everywhere until I upload them.  Anyway...  Here's my haul from the market.

 1. Prepared the chicken but quartering an onion and plucking some herbs from the garden.  I used sage, rosemary, thyme, and oregano. Placed some of the herbs, garlic, and onions in the cavity. I then stuffed a little butter and herbs under the breast skin.  I finished by lightly drizzle of olive oil and salt/pepper over the bird.

2. I quartered a small yellow squash. I added them along with the whole carrots, and carrot greens to the base of the roasting pan.

3. Roasted the chicken at 400 degrees.


4. While the bird was cooking I boiled the potatoes and made  rosemary smashed potatoes.  Simply boil them and mash them (with the skins on) with a little butter, chicken stock, and rosemary.

5. While the chicken rested, I made a quick gravy with the drippings. It was a little rioux, some more herbs (minus the sage) and the drippings from the roasting pan.

6. A simple platting with the carrots acting as a wall between the veg and chicken/smashed potatoes.

August 8, 2013 - Eggplant Parmesan

Tonight's Farmers Market Dinner:

Eggplant Parmesan

Making a tomato sauce:

I had a ton of tomatoes at this point, and the intent was to cook a large vat of sauce and use a small amount for the eggplant.  I did not start it early enough and by the time I had peeled and mashed a small fraction of the paste tomatoes it was getting late - and I still hadn't started the eggplant.  So I cut my losses and made just enough for the eggplant parm.  

1. Get a big pot of water to a rolling boil, this will take a while so start it first and early.
2. Cut an X at the bottom of each tomato.
3. Boil the tomatoes for just a few seconds, 10-30 at most.  And then immediately transfer them into a bowl of ice water.  This should make peeling the tomatoes much easier.


4. Add the peeled tomatoes to a saucepan and cook them down.  They should start to fall apart and lose their moisture.  I used a wooden spoon and a potato masher to break the up once cooked a little. I was going for simple chunky sauce, but if I was going for something thinner with a more consistent texture I'd throw the whole lot into a food processer at this point.

5. The sauce was real simple: dried oregano, salt and pepper. A little bit of chopped basil at the end.

Preparing the eggplant:

1. Take off the skin with a vegetable peeler, and slice into 1/2 inch thick rounds.

2. Lay the slices on a layer or two of paper towels and sprinkle salt over the top and bottom.

3. Let the slices sit for 15-20 minute to allow the bitter moisture to ooze out.

Salted

You can clearly see the moisture oozing out.  Wipe both sides down with another set of paper towels to remove both the moisture and remaining salt.

4. Prepare a dredging station with three bowls:

•  The first with just flour
• The second with a couple of eggs beaten, with a few tablespoons of water to stretch the egg if need.
• The third with seasoned breading.  I used panko, seasoned salt, pepper, parsley, oregano, and a little parmesan.

5. Coat each slice with flour, egg, and breading and set aside on a sheet of parchment.

6. Fry in hot vegetable oil until browned on both sides. This is best done in batches and

7. Set aside cooked eggplant slices on a cooling rack. This should stop them from getting soggy while the rest cook.

8. Top them off with some of the sauce and mozzarella cheese and bake until it's hot and cheese is melted.

9. I plated the eggplant parm with sliced cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions, parmesan cheese, and fresh oregano.

June 27, 2013 - Boerewors Sausage and Cold Couscous Salad

Several weeks delayed, but here is (was) Tonights Farmers Market Dinner:

Boerewors Sausage and Cold Couscous Salad

Boereswors sausage is a traditional South African sausage made from beef, pork, bacon, red vinegar, nutmeg, allspice and, cloves. I've never hear of it let alone cooked it before finding it at the Canter Hill Farm's booth at the market.  It was different from many other sausages I've had in not only flavor but texture.  It seems to be light in fat and therefore felt drier - although not in a bad way. Great flavor that was not overwhelming, I would highly recommend trying it.

The final product.

The honey was not used, but here are the sausage, parsley and cookies from the market.

1. Added the uncooked couscous to some heated olive oil, and stirred to give it a light toasting.
2. Added the chicken stock and cooked the couscous according to the directions.

3. After it was cooked I set the couscous aside and let it cool to room temperature.
4. Once cooled, I added some chopped tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden along with the parsley from the market.

5. Meanwhile, outside I grilled the sausages.
6. Sliced the sausages and plated them around the couscous salad with two kinds of mustard.

June 20, 2013 - Downingtown Farmers Market Dinner: Canter Hill Pork Chops

Tonight's Farmers Market Dinner:

Grilled Canter Hill Farm Pork Chop with Cherry-Balsamic Reduction, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes and Grilled Summer Squash.

Last week was a bust: severe thunderstorms and preparing for a trip to upstate New York made me miss the market for the first time.   This week however,  I was fortunate enough to get to the market nice and early to get the first pickings.  Today, I decided to splurge on some pork chops from Canter Hill Farm.  They were pretty pricey at $13 a pound, but the meat was superior and the results were very delicious.

This week's bag: cherries, potatoes, a zucchini, a small onion, and the chops.

1.  The chops came sealed and frozen, so as soon as I got home I tossed them into a bowl of cool water to begin defrosting.  I don't know if this method is approved by the Health Inspector, but it allowed me to quickly defrost the chops in a (reasonably) safe manner.

2. Chopped up the potatoes.  Drizzled them with some olive oil.  And tossed them in rosemary from the garden, and salt & pepper.  Roasted them at 400 for about 45 minutes.

3. While the potatoes were cooking, I began the reduction:

a.) Minced half of the onion and sauteed it in some butter, salt & pepper. over medium heat.

b.) I cranked up the heat a bit and added some sherry.  Let that sit for a few minutes

c) Added a little stock, balsamic vinegar, and pitted,quartered cherries.

d.) Let that reduce for about 30 minutes (I think) while stirring it every few minutes.

Here's what the cherry balsamic reduction looked like when it was all finished.

4. The squash were cut about 0.25 inches thick and lengthwise.  Tossed in a little oil and S&P.

5. The thawed pork chops got dusted with a little S&P and some chopped sage.

 6.  I let the squash cook for a few minutes before I dropped the chops.

7. About 6 minutes one one side then 5 on the other and it was done.  I let it rest about 10 minutes while I plated the squash and potatoes.  I garnished it was a cherry that was sliced to allow the sage/parsley bundle sit in.

June 17, 2013 - Flea Beetles vs. the Eggplant

This is a flea beetle.  I know next to nothing about them other than they love eggplant!

Every year I try and grow eggplant, and every year this is what happens.  About ten days ago they started swarming.  This year it wasn't as bad as in the past where they were thick on the leaves, but twice a day I go out and squash every one I can find.  There are typically somewhere between 10-20 of them putting holes in the leaves.  I hope my efforts are enough to give the eggplants enough breathing room to get through the invasion.

 Notice the aphid on the upper left of the tomato curl?

 And here's another one on the stem.  I'm keeping a close eye to make sure they don't get out of hand.

Not a pest, but I liked this picture of the ant on a pepper flower.

June 6, 2013 - Downingtown Farmers Market Dinner: Turkey & Scape Meatballs with Linguini and Peasant Bread

Tonight's Farmers Market Dinner:

Turkey & Scape Meatballs with Linguini and Peasant Bread with Scape Butter

Today, I decided to be good and use up the ground turkey we had in the fridge rather than buy the fresh  pork chops (next week?). I also wanted to try the marinara and linguini from Vera Pasta. I had no onions at home for the meatballs so I purchased the spring onions to filled that gap.  

But the highlight of the market this week were the scapes.  I've seen scapes, I've eaten scapes, but I've never cooked with them before.  Fantastic flavor and I can think of a bunch of uses - too bad, like the ramps,  they're only here for a few short weeks.

Turkey & Scape Meatballs:

1.Chopped up some herbs from the garden for use in the meatballs and sauce.  I used some parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and sage.

2. Combined an egg, a pound of ground turkey, the herbs, a few diced spring onions, shredded parmesan, diced scapes, and bread crumbs in a bowl using a fork.

3. Formed into 1 inch balls then baked at 400 degrees for about 30-30 minutes.

 

4. While they were baking I defrosted the marinara sauce from the market.

5. Once the meatballs were cooked, I added them to the sauce to stew for a few minutes.

 Peasant Bread with scape butter:

I used the last of the bread dough from the other night.  It's based on the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes recipe.  Flour, water, salt, and yeast - thats it.  If you've never tried it then give it a shot - you'll be amazed how simple it really is.

6. Since it was refrigerated I let it sit out and come to room temp while the meatballs cooked.  Once they were out of the oven I through in the pizza stone and cranked up the oven to 480 degrees.  

 

7. I drizzled some olive oil on top and spread parmesan cheese and dried herbs.

8. Once out of the oven I let it cool down.

9. While cooling, I combined a stick of butter (I wanted leftovers) and a fistfull of diced ramps along with the a spring onion or two, and pepper.

10. After a few minutes on low heat I poured the butter into a small bowl.  I threw the butter into the freezer to solidify.

11. Once the bread had cooled some, I sliced the bread and coated one side with the scape butter.  The slices went back into the oven to give it a little crunch.

12. Nothing too crazy with the plating: it's pasta on a plate with bread.  I topped it with more cheese and fresh basil.

June 2, 2013 - First Days of Summer

 The squash are looking good.  There are several yellow squash fruits already.

One of the eggplants lost its top due to some dog related activity during Memorial Day.  It seems to be doing OK otherwise but it is now half the height of the other.  Cucumbers are climbing and flowering.  And the two tomatoes in this section are both growing fast.

 The broccoli are now mostly gone.  The Cauliflower are starting to form some decent crowns.  I don't want to make the same mistake as I did with the broccoli and wait too long.  I may give them another week before I pull the whole section.  The tomatoes behind the broccoli/cauliflower section are getting shaded some, so the sooner I harvest them the better it will be for the tomatoes.

Peppers and tomatoes in this section are doing great.