Archive for July 25, 2009

25 Jul 2009
fruit • locavore log • Recipes

The Breads of Summer

I do love crusty toothsome baguettes, perfect for a spot of rillettes, mopping the dressing after a steak salad, or in the morning with a slather of good butter and fruity jam – or a good country loaf for sandwiches. But baking those breads heat up the kitchen – desirable in winter but not in summer.

But when there is will, there is a mean.

We don’t have a bread oven, but we do have a pizza stone and a gas grill. So my husband the baker developed a recipe – based on his no-knead winter bread recipe – that takes 10 to 15 minutes to bake outside on the grill depending what on the bread (flat or buns). Make 2 batches, and total is 20 to 25 minutes of baking – outdoors, not in the kitchen! Add to that 10 minutes of active time to prepare the dough, 10 minutes to shape it, and so about 30 minutes of active time produce a dozen flat breads or 8 to 10 buns which are prefect for sandwiches, burgers, the aforementioned rillettes and of course jam & butter.

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Before you say anything: yes, he prefers to weight his ingredients when baking, but for this bread, weighing is not really necessary because there is plenty room for a little more or less of this or that. And frankly, sometime we are not cooking in our kitchen and we have no scale. So a recipe based on volume can be eminently practical. For those of you not familiar with the US cup system, 1 cup = 240 ml, or roughly 2.5 dl

Buy flour by the 50 lb sack and store the bag in a large metal can (a new trash can for example), therefore making this homemade bread really economical. And enssuring that you almost always have flour on hand. Because beware… it is really good.

and – yoohoo! – he is still tinkering with the dough to see how versatile it is. He has made wonderful flat breads and tonight he is going to make hot-dog rolls. We, after all, need bread worthy of Harmany’s hot dogs. Yoohoo!!!

Keith’s Summer Sandwich Buns Read more

sylvie | 4 comments | Tags: , ,
23 Jul 2009
Cookery • Harvest • locavore log

On Beeing A Cicada (or: Food Preservation)

La Cigale, ayant chanté
Tout l’été,
Se trouva fort dépourvue
Quand la bise fut venue. *

Jean de LA FONTAINE (La Cigale et La Fourmi)

While I don’t think you have to toil the entire summer to put some food by, this is certainly the time to practice food preservation.

Why? Self-sufficiency, thriftiness, budgetary contraints, desire to eat well, and convenience are all factors in my desire to do so. And yes, I do mean “convenience”. What’s more convenient than going to one’s pantry to pick up a jar of tomato juice, a pint jar of vanilla peaches, and a bag of dry zucchini chips and cherry tomatoes, open the freezer for some roasted peppers, and pesto cubes, and proceed to make a good soup full of summer flavors and a peach cobbler? It’s late and the closest country store is an 18 miles return trip (it’s closed at this hour anyway) and the closest grocery store is 60 miles away… so yes, it is convenient to have a pantry. Even if grocery stores are not that far, it still make sense to put food up now, when so many veggies are abundant, at peak flavors and with peak nutrients.

- Dry: herbs, tomatoes, zucchini, peaches, plums, blueberries etc

- Can: tomatoes, peaches, plums, nectarines, tomatilloes, etc

- Freeze: cherry tomatoes, strawberries, wineberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, corn, green beans, swiss chard, pesto etc

- Jam: all the fruit you can think of

- Pickle: peppers, cucumbers, okra, beans, purslane (either can or make refrigerator pickle, or even lacto-ferment – the original pickling at which I am trying my hand this summer)

- Make liqueurs & syrups: herbs & fruit

yes, it does take some time, but it’s much easier to tackle if you just do a little every day. Then it won’t feel like this unsurmountable mountain. For example, after dinner, chop, bag & freeze 2 bagful of peppers, or cherry tomatoes, or slice enough zucchini for one dehydrator batch.That may take only 20 minutes – quite manageable. Then, maybe twice a month, set aside a morning to do some canning. And watch your pantry fill… just like the garden, start small, get used to the different techniques. And of course, only preserve things you will eat!!! (no need to make 10 quarts of Salsa if your family might only eat a pint or two the entire winter…)

* The Cicada, having spent the whole summer singing
Found itself rather without food
Once the winter winds started to blow

sylvie | 8 comments | Tags:
19 Jul 2009
Cookery • locavore log • vegetable

Summer Lunch

Summer has been cooler here than in prior years. So while tomatoes are really just starting to ripen and yield – finally!!!! – for real (a good 2 weeks past my usual tomato target date though), cabbage, kale (kale!!! in July! edible!) and lettuce greens are doing just well. On the other hand, the sweet potatoes are looking anemic, and the okra… well, we won’t talk about the okra. Frankly, there isn’t much to talk about!

Let’s talk instead about the colorful lunch (or dinner) plate that one can make from the garden at the moment . Everything can be cooked, days in advance, and assembled just a few minutes before serving. Perfect for when one feels lazy or is hurried. For example, today’s lunch:

1-local-summer-summer-plate-july-001

First, spread a variery of lettuce leaves on the plate; Read more

sylvie | 6 comments | Tags: , , ,
18 Jul 2009
Cookery • Harvest • herb • Kitchen Garden • locavore log

it’s summer, you eat … WHAT???!!!

Purslane: I call it a nutritious easy to grow crunchy little green (now officially renamed par moi a “super gourmet green” !). Add it to green salads, or – my favorite – to potato salad. Other people like it too: El - of course! (go to this post for a picture … if you need one) – and Chelsea whose post of Warm Potato & Purslane Salad inspired me to try purslane with potato salad. Nonetheless, he calls it a weed. He eats it, though – gingerly. Me? I am going to pickle it, having found a recipe in one of my French cookbooks.

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Radish seed pods: I call them tasty little bits, great for salads and stir-fries. He just shrug them off and eats around them. But then he has no particular fondness for radishes, any of it (except the quick pickled ones). Make sure to pick only young and immature pods: they toughen as the seeds mature. There is actually a radish bred for its pods, with the evocative name of Rat’s Tail Radish or sometimes – less poetically – podding radish. I use my standard French breakfast style radish and let them go to seeds. Flowers are pretty, attract pollinators and beneficial insects … and are edible too.

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We both agree though that green coriander seed is a short live treasure. Short lived in the garden, as you need to pick the young green immature seeds before they start to mature, and once picked must eat them within a few hours, before they start to dry. The taste is something between cilantro and coriander – which is no surprise since it is both – but without the toughness of the mature coriander shell. The younger the seed (smaller and more vibrant green, with no tinge of yellow), the brighter the taste. I use them in rillettes (just cooked for a few minutes), add to sautéed pork chops or chicken, salsa etc – again adding them just for the last couple of minutes of cooking. I like them so much that I am collecting some and freezing them for future use. The ones I don’t harvest green will become coriander: some will end up in the pantry, others will reseed themselves for a fall crop.

sylvie | 13 comments | Tags: , ,
14 Jul 2009
locavore log • Recipes

Allons Enfants de la Patrie…

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Amuse-Bouche: Pissaladière

Rillettes D’Oie Sauvage au Coriandre Vert

Salade de Melon à la Menthe et au Combava

Paté Créole Reunionnais
Petite Salade Verte

Vichyssoise à l’Oseille

Poulet Fermier au Vrai Barbeque (Chêne Rouge & Bois de Pomme)
Haricots Verts

Brochettes de Boeuf aux Herbes de Provence
Courgettes & Onions Rouges Grillés

Plateau de Fromages

Desserts Variés
· Crème à la Lavande et au Miel
· Glace au Babeurre & à la Verveine Citronelle avec Coulis de Bleuets
· Tarte aux Apricots Frais

Café
Petites Galette Bretonnes

In other words: Read more

sylvie | 6 comments | Tags: ,