Arugula Apple Salad

Arugula is great and all but, especially as the growing temps cool, the taste of fresh picked arugula can get pretty intense and peppery. The apples and dressing combat this.

Chop 2-3 cups arugula
Chop one juicy sweet apple such as Jona Gold or Ginger Gold into bite size pieces.
Add sunflower seeds, raisins or craisins if you have them.
Dressing, whisk 1 part olive oil, 1 part Greek yogurt (any plain yogurt if you have it); 1 part balsamic, very small pinch of salt and a bit of black pepper, and wait for it secret ingredient. . .
a heaping teaspoon of ground flax seed. This "added fat" help the dressing stick to the salad.
Toss everything and toss more, dig in, delicious!

Special Leftover Lunch

The Farm is brimming with tomatoes. After harvest this morning, I brought home a few bruisers for immediate consumption. This quickly evolved into frying thick juicy slices in butter. Out came the leftover chickpeas which had been previously served with lemon, parsley, garlic and red pepper flakes. 

Let this group sear in the cast iron skillet while the quinoa cooks*. Everything was then heaped ("staged") in a bowl. For a final flourish, some crumbled goat cheese brought this to a melt in your mouth finale!

*I've taken plenty of advice from how-to videos lately and thought, "Let's find one about cooking quinoa." Well, there are too many varieties! It's not worth it. Cooking the quinoa today included, boiling for 5 minutes, drain, then steaming it over boiling water for 10 minutes. Fluffy quinoa results. Several videos mentioned removing the bitter flavor by toasting or rinsing. I've never tried either of these techniques. 

Lentil Lasagna

I'm still in refrigerator resource mode post-Sandy. In other words, we've not restocked with the usual ingredient staples and most meals are grab and go,  noodles, shakes, pretzels . . . not too healthy. This is not all bad, some inventive recipes emerged. Tonight on center stage was Lentil Lasagna.

Stewed  french or brown lentils (make day before if you prefer).
French lentils are recommended as they have a distinct smooth flavor but also hold their shape and don't lead to pastiness. 
Oven ready lasagna pasta (yes oven ready or fresh if you like) I think if you are going to precariously boil lasgna noodles without breaking them; you might as well take out the pasta maker for a fresh batch!
1-2 cups Ricotta cheese
1 egg
Oregano
Black pepper and salt to taste
Kale or spinach (fresh not frozen)
Sm. onion and/or garlic

1. Cook French/brown lentils in a diluted broth, add a bay leaf or two. The lentils should be a bit on the soupy side, add more broth if needed.
2. Wilt some chopped winter greens, ie Kale / Spinach or Swiss Chard (I didn't test this one) over a sauteed onion.
3. Ricotta Mixture: 1 egg to 1 1/2 cup of ricotta add pepper and oregano, mix until blended.
4. Layer oven ready lasagna noodle, lentil, cheese dollops, greens 2-3 times. Add about 1/4-1/2 cup broth to sides of casserole dish.
5. Top with Mozzerella.
6. Cook in covered casserole through at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. The last few minutes, remove foil to brown and crisp the top under the broiler.

This is definitely a draft basic recipe, future versions might incorporate carrots or roasted red peppers into the lentils or greens

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

Pasta Alla Norma

This barrage of recipe posts comes after a summer of busyness riding, farming, working, traveling. Thanks for your patience!

Pasta all Norma headlines as a signature Catanian dish in Sicily. Any type of Eggplant works. As always the key is not to scorch any of the garlic or eggplant as this will add a bitter flavor that will spread, tainting the whole dish.

Coat 1 eggplant cut into larger bite chunks in olive oil. No need to salt or peel the eggplant but remove any super-seedy flesh. Saute the eggplant in a pan and allow the flesh to turn golden brown.
Add 1-2 cloves diced garlic, a large pinch of dried oregano and continue to cook allowing the garlic to soften.

Add a 14 oz can of tomatoes and red pepper flakes, stir then add 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Let the sauce simmer for 15-20 minutes. Longer is fine, again no scorching.

Serve over pasta of choice, penne or rigatoni are recommended. Lastly, sprinkle with a hearty portion of ricotta salada or ricotta infornata(1).

(1) Ricotta infornata is produced by placing a large lump of soft ricotta in the oven until it develops a brown, lightly charred crust, sometimes even until it becomes sandy brown all the way through. Ricotta infornata is popular primarily in Sardinia and Sicily, and is sometimes called ricotta al forno.  Source: Wikipedia, "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricotta#Variants"

Curly (Savoy) Cabbage and Fried Rice

Last week the head of Savoy Cabbage in Harvest went into a saute tossed with fried rice and tofu,

In a wok, heat a small amount of peanut oil then tossed in matchstick sliced ginger. Add the chopped cabbage and toss until the mixture has a good warm aroma and has turned bright green (depending on the maturity of the leaves, this could take up to 8 minutes. Remove the cabbage from heat, set aside in a bowl. Add more peanut oil to the wok and fry the tofu.

Tofu fry, Dip tofu in a whisked egg mixture. Mix 2 eggs with a tablespoon of water, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and sugar. Dip each slide of tofu into the eggs and right into the hot oil, turn once until egg coating is golden. Set tofu squares aside on paper towels to drain.

Final stir-fry, add leftover rice to the hot wok, no need for more oil, and a bit of rice wine. Toss until rice warms and separates, Add the cabbage and a drizzle on soy sauce. Lastly toss in the fried tofu, salt and pepper, and serve.

This recipe serves as a base, feel free to add any other vegetables, (such as snap peas or carrots). In order to let all the flavors stand out, heat ingredients in the wok individually and then toss briefly at the end.

Tender Kale Delish

Russian Kale is the tender variety we grew in the Garden and used for this recipe. Any kale variety works but some have a stronger taste than others and may take more time to cook.

 

Cut Kale leaves into 2-3" pieces. 

Prepare a water ice bathe before throwing kale pieces into salted boiling water. After blanching kale for 3-5 minutes, strain the kale as you would pasta then throw the hot kale into the ice bath to stop the shoots from cooking. 

In a seperate pan, sautee shallots in a bit of nuetral oil (such as peanut) just enough to keep shallots from sticking. Throw in a few handfuls of raisins and a dash of red pepper flakes. Drain the cool kale. You may also want to squeeze gently to remove excess water. 

Toss kale, with sautee, salt (optional), olive oil and serve.