reading and eating

Officially it’s Spring but it’s still cold outside, and I haven’t seen the self-serve spinach stand pop up at Eger Brothers (corner of 23rd/9/10 just outside of Hudson).  However, it feels like things are really heating up, at least online.

This weekend the thing to do is go to Verdigris Tea & Chocolate Bar for their latest chocolate tasting – and this is a chocolate and chocolate tea tasting!  Hmmm….  curious.  The tasting is Saturday 3/30 at 5pm at Verdigris, 135 Warren Street.  Call ahead, just in case – I would hate to steer you wrong.

If you haven’t yet bought your Easter candy, head now to Vasilow’s Confectionery, who recently had a nice feature in the Daily Freeman.  I’m always torn between the malt balls and the great variety of licorice…

Haven’t you been curious about Verdigris’ former space at South 3rd?  Michael Davis of 3FortySeven gives us the scoop on what’s been happening inside the future Fish & Game.

And while Zak Pelaccio and Lady Jayne are working out the details on Fish & Game restaurant, he wrote a great guide to eating and doing in Hudson.

The Crimson Sparrow has gotten a couple of great mentions lately, in the Times Union and in Chronogram.  And they’re involved in a friendly face-off with Berkshire chefs in the ChefX Dinners, happening April 7 at Crimson Sparrow with Berkshire chefs, and April 29 in Great Barrington featuring Hudson restuarants The Crimson Sparrow, Helsinki Hudson, Grazin Diner, Swoon Kitchenbar and Local 111 (from Philmont and YAY for a female chef!!!).

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I’ve eaten my matzo brie and matzo crack, and it’s about time for hot cross buns and way too much Easter candy…

Maple Weekend(s) 2013

Woo-hoo!  It’s maple syrup season again and it is time to stock up on my year’s supply of maple syrup…

We have not one, but TWO weekends to visit area sugar shacks and buy way too much maple syrup.  As the owner of a gallon, I can talk.  Get into your car either March 16-17 or March 23-24 and head out to learn more about maple syrup production and buy direct from the producer.  Information can be found about the NY State Maple Weekends online and on Facebook, but you’ll have to dig a bit to find producers in Columbia County.  They’re here, just not on the list.

Be sure to check out Black Berry Hill Farm out in the Bell’s Pond area (call first please!).

And the Register-Star recently highlighted the production by a Hudson Farmers’ Market favorite Farm at Millers Crossing.

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And then what?

Sometimes I boil a couple of brand-new empty bottles (I like ones that looks like flasks) and then fill them with liquid love to share.  People in warmer climes are appreciative.  However, you know me – I like to eat.

I can recommend the healthy Maple Scones for breakfast or tea.  They’re almost savory, and a co-worker suggested that a glass of bourbon might complement them well.  My thoughts exactly.  I can also strongly recommend this Maple Parsnip cake.  You need to buy almond meal, but between that and the parnips practically melting in the cake, it’s almost better than carrot cake – no cream cheese frosting required.  I served it with whipped cream slightly sweetened with a bit of maple syrup.  Of course.  Olive Oil granola is also a great favorite, as the sweetener is – you guessed it – maple syrup.

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You know what else goes with maple syrup?  BACON.  Have you tried the bacon from Swoon available at Lick the Market?  Good grief, get yourself down there (253 Warren, Friday/Saturday/Sunday) and buy some Swoon Bacon.  Then cook all of it.  And eat.  Don’t even try to save any for later… (Er, no picture available because we ate it all).

you cannot escape the garlic

…nor should you.

While it is good for chasing the vampires away, garlic is also great for flavor to most savory recipes.    I finally discovered that it also incredibly easy to grow!  Now is a very good time to plant your garlic so it can overwinter in the ground.  I try to plant at least a dozen cloves of my garlic from a previous year, pointy side up, at the end of the garden that would otherwise get a couple of marigolds.  I should really plant more.  If you have any questions about planting or harvesting garlic, consult A Way to Garden.  Margaret, through her website, has given me much confidence on what to do in my garden, and this is where I learned the quite simple task of planting my own (hard neck) garlic.  The added bonus is that you harvest garlic scapes earlier in the spring as well as the heads of garlic in the summer.

Once you’ve finished planting next year’s garlic, head over to the 1st Annual Garlic Day at the Hudson Farmers’ Market, happening this Saturday, October 13 (9am – 1pm).  This is great for those of us who were too lazy to drive over to the festival in Saugerties earlier this year…

So what do you do with your garlic?  I’m still trying to take advantage of the bounty of our farmers’ market before we’re limited to winter squashes and potatoes (and I am NOT complaining about having to eat mashed potatoes and butternut squash soup).  (An aside – Autumn is just flying by this year – wasn’t it just Labor Day???)  So what is my favorite dish this time of year?  Ratatouille!  It’s a very forgiving dish, so if you can’t find zucchini or don’t like peppers, just add more of the other vegetables.  It’s lovely served on couscous, or with good crusty bread.  My favorite recipe is here.

Or perhaps you just need a simple, comforting bowl of garlic soup.  This recipe has always captured my imagination.

Need more garlic ideas?  Our local Chef’s Consortium did a post on garlic recipes from Chef Ric Orlando.  Mercedes at Hudson Farm Box recently sent a recipe for garlicky broccoli rabe and pasta with her weekly email.  Try all the garlic recipes in Gourmet and let me know once you’ve gotten through them…  Good grief, you’d better stock up on garlic.

And if you don’t feel like cooking, take a head of garlic, cut off the top and drizzle with olive oil.  Wrap in foil and roast in the oven until soft and lovely.  Smear on crusty bread.  Drink wine.

Doesn’t that sound better than wearing a garlic necklace?

vegetables of the moment, green and red

I am gorging myself at the moment on spinach and rhubarb.  The Eger Bros. farmstand at the corner of 9 and 23 and 31 always starts off the season with self-service spinach.  It’s the honor system so bring singles and of course, honesty.

I haven’t felt the need to get particularly creative with the bags of spinach I’ve been buying each week.  Nothing makes me happier than to saute a huge pile of spinach with a load of garlic and heap on top of creamy cheesy polenta (Wild Hive polenta, ideally).  I’ve also made enchiladas with lots of cooked down spinach (if you try the enchiladas with raw spinach they will get very watery.  Trust me.).  I needed something different today and since I started my long weekend early (yea!), I had the time to cook lunch.

We had spinach and eggs and some random cheeses.  Frittata!   I dug around until I found this recipe for Spinach Frittata (for 1) by Martha Stewart.  Unlike many of her baking recipes, it does not require an assistant.  And, I love that the recipe is for one – it’s so difficult to find those and it’s easy enough to double if there are two of you.  This recipe is easy and quick and it was delicious.  A keeper.

*Remember to always clean your spinach in at least two changes of water (float the spinach in a huge bowl of water for 10-15 minutes, lift the spinach out and rest it in a colander, dump the water (and dirt), rinse the bowl and repeat).

The other vegetable I’ve been a bit obsessed with lately is rhubarb.  Why?  Because it makes some awesome desserts.

Every year I make a couple of jars of rhubarb compote.  A large spoonful or so is great on vanilla ice cream or plain greek yogurt.  A couple of weekends ago I was feeling rather British so I made a Rhubarb Fool.  Whip up some cream into stiff peaks and add rhubarb compote to taste.  It’s a fabulous excuse to eat a bowl of whipped cream (but call it a light, seasonal dessert).

Rhubarb Compote (I think this is from City Cook, several years ago…)

6 cups rhubarb cut into ½-inch slices
1 ½ cup sugar (I usually use less)
Optional: 1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest

1. In a non-reactive, large saucepan off the heat, combine the rhubarb pieces with the sugar and toss or stir to combine. While still off the heat, let the pan sit for about 15 minutes until the rhubarb begins to throw off liquid. Stir occasionally to help the rhubarb become wet.
2. When the pan has developed some sugary rhubarb juice, place the pan on a medium-low heat and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, until the fruit becomes soft and falls apart, forming a jam-like consistency. This will take about 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and transfer the compote to a bowl. Let cool.

The compote can be used either warm or cold. It can be made in advance and kept refrigerated for up to 3 days (note: I keep mine longer and it hasn’t killed me yet).

Tip: For a more complex flavor you can add a tablespoon or two of ruby port or two teaspoons of an orange-flavored liquor such as Grand Marnier or Cointreau. Use less liqueur than port because the flavors are more concentrated.

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I also tried Rhubarb Sorbet this year – but the verdict is still out.  The suggestion in the recipe is to add corn syrup to give a creamier texture, but it was a really odd texture.  Try it with less or leave out the corn syrup altogether.

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Finally, while I’m not the hugest coffee cake fan, I will eat this one any day of the week. The Rhubarb ‘Big Crumb’ Coffee Cake is just that good.  Rhubarb + crumb = yum.

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Spinach we’ll have for awhile but the Hudson Farmers’ market newsletter tells us that we won’t have rhubarb much longer.  I may follow their suggestion and freeze some for later!

I love pesto, in so many ways

According to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking under “Sauces thickened with plant particles”,

“Pesto takes its name from the same root that gives us pestle, and the basil leaves and garlic were traditionally ground with a pestle and mortar.  Because this takes some time and effort, modern cooks usually prepare pesto in a blender or food processor.  The choice of appliance and how it’s used influence both consistency and flavor.  The crushing and shearing action of the pestle, the shearing action of the blender, and the slicing action of the processor all produce different proportions of intact and broken cells.  The more thor0ughly the cells are broken, the more their contents are exposed to each other and to the air, and the more their flavor evolves.  A course pesto will have a flavor most like the flavor of fresh leaves.”

Well then.  I’ll have to find the time some day to test this out…  In the meantime, pesto isn’t just about basil anymore, and it’s hard for me to choose favorites.  Here are some pesto possibilities:

Basil pesto is traditional, of course, but we’re not in basil season yet and who knows where the basil from the grocery store comes from.  Wait until we have plentiful basil at the farmers’ market, unless you’re growing it yourself.

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Leek pesto, a la Mark Bittman.  This is the newest addition to my repertoire.  It’s leek season and in searching for a new recipe I found this in one of my several Bittman cookbooks.  I love this man’s sensibilities with ingredients.  Try leek pesto over pasta – it’s a lovely creamy sauce, with no cream!

Pasta with Rich Leek “Pesto” - from Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 or 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• About 1 1/2 pounds leeks (2 or 3 large), trimmed, well rinsed, and chopped
• salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves (don’t skip these – they bring a nice green color)
• black pepper
• 8 ounces any pasta (preferably whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Put the oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat.  When it’s hot, add the garlic and leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until very soft, 20 – 30 minutes

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it.  Transfer the leeks to a blender or food processor with the egg, parsley, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.  Process, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container if necessary.  Return the puree to the skillet, off heat.

Cook the pasta in the boiling water until it’s tender but not mushy, then drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid.  Turn the heat under the leek mixture to medium, add about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking liquid to thin the pesto, and toss in the pasta along with the cheese.  Add more liquid as desired and toss.  Taste and adjust the seasoning, then serve.

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(last year's scapes)

Garlic scape season is coming up quickly and there is no better way to use up those gorgeous scapes than with a garlic scape pesto.  Make a lot (A LOT), quite inexpensively, and freeze for use in the months to come (great in the winter!).  It’s one of our favorite toppings for grilled pizza.

Garlic Scape Pesto (originally from the Washington Post)

• 1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• ¾ cup olive oil
• ¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano
• ½ teaspoon salt
• black pepper to taste

Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

To freeze, I omit the cheese (until it comes back out of the freezer), and scoop into several small ziplock bags, squeeze out the air, and freeze flat on a baking sheet.  Once frozen, I stack up the frozen bags in a corner of the freezer – green goodness for later!

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There’s Green Olive Pesto.  Kinda like green olive tapenade. Remember when it was sold at the flower stand at the Hudson farmers’ market a couple of years ago?  I thought it was yummy, and made a version of it several times using this recipe.

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Ramp pesto?  It’s ramp season – but I can hardly bring myself to pulverize precious ramps into Ramp Pesto.  I could be very wrong about this.  At the moment I’m storing up my ramp eating for next weekend.

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Or, there’s kale pesto – rather life changing.

I am not a fan of kale.  Not sauteed, not baked into kale chips (faux chips), not surrounded by creamy mashed potatoes.  And then I met Oliva.  You’ll notice that the Lacinato Kale Pesto container above is empty.  I bought a couple at the Hudson farmers’ market last weekend (my version of livin’ large) and my OH was appalled to find that I gave one container to a favored co-worker.  Who ate two-thirds of it in one sitting, on crackers but mostly straight from the fork.  I’m sure this is good on pasta, but it hasn’t made it that far yet.

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These are my favorites – and they all seem to be green.  What are yours?

irish soda bread

There are a million recipes floating around this week, all with Guinness or corned beef.  While I definitely want to make Nigella’s Chocolate Guinness cake (here’s the original UK version) – because who wouldn’t? – I’m going simple this St. Patrick’s Day.  I’m making Irish Soda Bread.  Simple, fast, makes great toast.

Start with good wheat flour:

Look at how this whole wheat bread flour from Wild Hive Farm compares to unbleached all-purpose flour (on the right):

Whisk in baking soda and salt.  Add buttermilk:

Mix together, shape on a well-floured board, then transfer to a floured baking sheet.  You can find this recipe for whole wheat Irish Soda Bread on Eating Well.

Make the bread today and have fabulous toast tomorrow.  Enjoy!

it’s been candy-making weather…

It’s dry and clear with humidity low enough to dehydrate us into prunes.

Yea.  So that maple fudge I was going to make?  It didn’t work so well.  However, I managed to catch it before it cooled into a solid maple rock in my pan.  Just barely.  I took the rapidly solidifying candy mass and flattened it out, then cut into little maple nuggets.  Not the most appetizing, but at least I didn’t have this (hilarious?) experience.  I took it to work and told the co-workers that I was not responsible for any lost fillings.  I got an empty Tupperware back.

I’ll have to go back to the drawing board on the maple syrup thing.  In the meantime I decided to go back to my old friends, butter and sugar.

I’ve had this recipe on one of my Pinterest boards from early on, and finally I couldn’t resist any longer.  It is butter, sugar, lots of stirring, a little vanilla, chocolate chips and toasted almonds.  Let it sit for hours (no touching!) then break into pieces.  Eat all small remaining shards in the name of presenting only evenly sized pieces (or keeping a clean kitchen, or whatever excuse you like…).

You can find the full recipe on theKitchn.

food happenings, here and there

This is the time of year when we’re supposed to be in deep hibernation with our potatoes…  But this is the warmest winter…

So, let’s get out and mingle!

“Other People’s Food” is the potluck put on by Acres Co-op this Sunday, February 12th.  Who doesn’t like to eat other people’s food?  I know I do, because I get to taste food that I don’t want to make a whole pot or pan of at home, or taste foods that I have never made before, or, taste a better deviled egg or macaroni & cheese.  Wait, better than mine???  Perhaps it’s best to come to a potluck with small ego and warm heart and food for a crowd.  The movie Ratatouille is being screened (4:15pm) before dinner (5:45pm) – giving you the excuse to say ratatouille a lot.  Try it.  It’s fun.

Hmmm… maybe I should bring ratatouille to the dinner???  Sadly, very few of the ingredients are in season – it would not be a good seasonal meal.  Not just yet.

At the end of the month, Just Food is holding a conference in NYC in part to “mobilize good food projects in your community”.  The conference is February 24 & 25 (Saturday is geared more to the general public).  There are some really interesting workshops on the schedule on both days.  Good stuff!

Maple syrup season is coming up, but I’m guessing it will be really messed up by this non-winter we’re having.  There are two NY Maple Weekend(s) scheduled in March, and  New York Maple allows you to search for producers by zip code!  I’m going to think optimistically that the sap will run again this year.  Which means I need to use up last year’s jug of syrup *now*.  A batch of maple fudge is in order.  I had a perfect recipe picked out last weekend and now I can’t find it; I’ll try this one instead…

I wonder why there are no maple syrup producers listed in Columbia County? Do we have no maple trees???

Finally, mark your calendars for Saturday, May 5th.  But please don’t tell anyone – I’m not sure I want to share.  The Ramp Festival is returning to the Basilica after a pretty fab debut in 2011.  Last year, my favorite dish was goat.  I ate freakin’ goat!  I am a very bad vegetarian.

To atone, I may have to give mindful eating a spin.  But would you be able to spend your meals in silence?

woodchuck pie?

Ah, the month of love and groundhogs.  Happy Groundhog Day!

I only have this one blurry photo because the woodchuck that lives under our shack, Chuck, is wily and fast for a chubby guy.  I am not one for hunting varmints even though he snacks on my tomato & herb garden and my neighbor’s native plants garden.  My lovely neighbor wants to firebomb my shack; I just try to be strategic about what I plant in the garden.  However, if you are adventurous, here is a recipe for woodchuck pie as well as woodchuck stew.

Uh, bon appetit.  I’ll watch this instead:

happy hanukkah/solstice/christmas/kwanzaa/new years

Phew!

Usually this time of year I start baking like a fiend Thanksgiving weekend and don’t stop until the weekend before Christmas.  All peoples around me would receive beautifully packaged bags of treats.  This year, I’ve been painting (bedroom walls) every weekend and surviving a never-ending work acquisition during the weekdays, so the baking extravaganza has not been happening.  I feel off-kilter.

However, I have to eat so I have been cooking a little.  We made latkes for the first night of Hanukkah, and might squeeze in one more meal of latkes before the end (tonight).

Christmas Eve morning I decided to do a baked pumpkin steel cut oatmeal -  I’d made it once before and it had been good.  This time it was essentially Christmas gruel.  Blech.  Yummily, lunch was the hors d’oeuvres meal that I’d planned for dinner.  With a bottle of wine.  My OH had to take a nap after that.  Dinner was with dear friends on Warren Street.  He wanted to know why I hadn’t covered his demented displays in this blog.  His wife and I pointed out that I’m only interested in food.  He pointed out the inflatable turkey that he’d used earlier this season.  Touche’.  I’ll have to work on being more observant.

I have no real traditions for Christmas meals, other than hors d’oeuvres for Christmas Eve dinner.  My mother has always made a Swedish tea ring but I’ve never been drawn to make it my tradition.  I just like it when Mom makes breakfast.  So this year I took on someone else’s tradition and their Holiday Breakfast Wreath.  I did not have the dried cranberries called for in the recipe, so I chopped up dried prunes and soaked them in brandy before adding to the filling.  Quite delicious, I must say.

just before glazing

And it opens up the whole new world of yeast baked goods.  As much as I bake, I never make anything using yeast as I’ve never understood the whole rising and kneading process.  This time it worked.  I’m very excited.

Mid-day, we wanted to get out of the house to walk/hike off past meals (and prepare for the next) so we headed out to Bash Bish Falls.  What a lovely place.  I don’t know why it took so many years to get there.  Definitely must return in the summer.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening preparing dinner, which was Chef Peter Berley’s Lasagna of Fall Vegetables, Sage Bechamel, and Gruyere.  If you decide to tackle this delicious meal, give yourself a couple of hours and some staff.  And don’t leave the bechamel for last since you need some steeping time.  There’s a lot of prep work, as there often is when you prepare everything from scratch.  But the results are worth it.  My photos do not do the dish justice, but click on the link above for a tasty image.

What’s next?  I might start on my Christmas cookies (no time like the present, right?) – except that at the moment I’m not hungry.  This is not a normal sensation.  O dear.