Nutty Sweet and Savory Fruit Salad

Do you have some extra nuts in the cupboard? A great little snack or breakfast food,
Toss a handful of these nuts with some oranges, clementines are an especially good choice, an apple and some lemon juice, and voila, delicious balance of crunch and juicy-ness! Need a recipe for those nuts?,

In a pan slowly toast 1 cup of whole pecans almonds or walnuts. Whisk together 1/4 cup brown sugar with 1/2 cup soy sauce, add a small dash of cinnamon or curry powder. Remove the nuts from the heat when they are toasted, remove any burnt nuts. Toss the nuts with your glaze sauce, spread them out on a cookie sheet and let them cool. Experiment with the nuts, the fruit makes for a great base!

On Today's Show, Our Guest is celebrity chef. . .

Mom!
Thanks for this great Escarole Soup recipe. The only thing better than Escarole Soup is leftover Escarole soup.
Saute slowly 1 onion in olive oil at the bottom of a large soup pot.
Add 4-5 cloves sliced garlic to the saute (add garlic to taste)
When the saute is wilted and golden, after 15-20 min (yes cook slowly, no scorching)
Add the Escarole which you have thoroughly washed and cut into large bite size pieces.
Pour 2 cups of Vegetable Broth over this and cover allowing the Escarole to start to wilt.
After 5-7 minutes, add one cup of brown rice and 4 cups of vegetable broth, some black pepper.
Cover the pot, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer.
Once the rice is almost entirely cooked (approximately 30 min), add 1 can of cannellini beans rinsed.
Continue cooking for another 10 min and you're ready to eat. Grated Romano/Parmigiana cheese adds the only salt you'll need. 
Thank you Farm at St.Peter's for growing such excellent Escarole this season!

On Today's show, our guest, Celebrity Chef. . .

Cat!
Thank you for this great recipe. I will definitely try this and may even make as a stuffing alternative,

Hi, I just made up this new salad based on something I ate at a cafe and it made me think of you and the vegetarian you married. I used red quinoa and some roasted vegetables. It's delicious.

Cook a cup and a half of the quinoa. Put a big handful of dried red currents in the bottom of a bowl and after draining the quinoa dump it on top of the currents to soften them up.
Toss with olive oil and salt then roast;
half a head of cauliflower, cut up, whole brussel sprouts, and thickly sliced red onion. (400° 20 minutes or so. Toss the veggies once in a while)
Chop the cauliflower and onion, slice the brussel sprouts
Add to the quinoa.
Make vinegarette: 3 tb aged sherry vinegar
                             12 tb olive oil
                             1tsp kosher salt/black pepper
                             1/2 tsp dijon mustard
Add to quinoa along with about 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese.
Good right away but even better after it sits a few hours.

This sounds SO good. I'm so hung up on Kale this season, high time we addressed Brussel Sprouts!

Drink your Kale and Like It!

CC photograph of a kale "smoothie"

The Farm has plenty of Kale left for harvest. This brassica, a notable super-food offers the best nutritional value when eaten (or sipped) raw. For this drink, almost a juice, use frozen seedless grapes. Throw into the blender a 1-2 handfuls of frozen grapes, 1-2 kale leaves cut into 1 inch pieces, a drizzle of honey, maybe some mint, a little lime, or a kiwi, Optional, 1/2 apple, Carrots and a slice of ginger work well. Blend until you don't see any more bits of kale. Add water or apple juice to keep things moving, about 1/2 cup. Essentially the frozen grapes, kale and water are the fundamentals of this drink. The Kale will be bitter and waxy (or what M calls, leafy rubber or chewing gum) without the other sweeter ingredients. Enjoy!

Greens and Cheese (the lesser known cousin of Macaroni and Cheese)

So it's the end of the season and some of us are taking advantage of the last greens on the farm. By Greens I mean different kinds of Kale, Collard Greens, Cauliflower, and Broccoli. Don't let your imagination stop there, any hearty Brassica Greens will hold up to this delish dish. Take it away Chef Bittman, (I've added his video).

Broccoli Rabe (photo courtesy of urbanfoodie33 flickr CC)

Fall for Soup

 

I did not get to take a pic of the "Bride Soup" cooked up last night. This Japanese Maple in our front yard sports a similar rich red color. Here is the recipe, I had to sub out lime and parsley for lemon and mint but still quite good. The parsley and the onion came from the farm. The recipe calls for an hour to cook down. The lentils do not need all this time but I did find the spice mellowed and this time was need for a fuller bodied soup to simmer!

Turkish Red Lentil Soup