What is a Dark Days Challenge?

The Dark Days Challenge was started by Laura McCrea at the Urban Hennery.
Unfortunately I couldn't get into her challenge, so I started my own blog.
The challenge is to try to eat one meal per week consisting of 100% locally produced food. I'm choosing to define "locally produced" as Washington State.
In my recipes I tell you the origin of the ingredients I use.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Week Seven of Dark Days Challenge

1/16/11
Tonight I’m doing more than just making dinner. I’m practicing for a local dinner on 2/19 and also trying to use up some of the produce in the fridge in preparation for our next CSA box. I’m sure a lot of you have gotten the hang of this CSA thing, but it’s new to me, so I really want to utilize all the produce that comes in the Klesick Family Farms Northwest Box, http://www.klesickfamilyfarm.com/main/.
We get our second box in two days and I think it’s more interesting than Christmas!

To use up our vegetables on hand, I made up a recipe for carrot, leek, mushroom soup. The carrots are from our garden, but the rest of the vegetables were from the Klesick box. I’m also practicing for a fund raising auction dinner, featuring local food. I think I’m going to bring a crustless corn quiche and an Irish Soda Bread, and I want to be sure I know how to make the recipes. I made the Irish Soda bread on 12/31/10 to go with a Moroccan vegetable soup. I’m going to re-name it Northwest Soda Bread because I changed most of the ingredients, and I got the recipe from this website, which is trying to preserve genuine Irish Soda Bread. Out of deference to their authentic bread, I’m going to change the name of what I made. http://www.sodabread.us/Recipes/sodabreadrecipes.htm

If this seems like a lot of food, it is! We should be able to eat leftovers in various combinations for several days for lunch and dinner. This spread took me about 3 ½ hours. But last night we got to hear Michael Pollen speak at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. He was inspiring – and cooking from scratch using fresh local ingredients has to be the healthiest way to eat. I know it sure tastes good!

Menu (recipes follow)
Salad: Spinach (Monroe) with Holmquist Hazelnuts, leeks and Cameo Apples (Eastern Washington)
With an olive oil vinaigrette
Northwest Soda Bread
With Golden Glen Butter (Bow), and local honey
Carrot-leek-mushroom soup
Crustless Corn Quiche
Dessert: frozen strawberries (from our garden last summer)


Northwest Soda Bread
2 cups Emmer flour, or Farro flour, (Eastern Washington)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
7/8th cup whole yogurt (Jensen Family Farms, Bow)

Mix the dry ingredients very well together. Add the yogurt and toss lightly. When it is mostly mixed, pick it up in your hands and knead it lightly into a smooth ball. Place it into a deep pan that has been greased and floured; use a knife to cut an “x” on the top. (I use my cast iron dutch oven, and it’s lid). Cover it with another pan, which helps it steam and bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. Then remove the lid and bake another 10-15 minutes until the back sounds hollow when you tap on it.
Note: this is actually ½ recipe.

Carrot-Leek-Mushroom Soup
2 cups carrots, washed, trimmed and cut into chunks (our garden)
1 potato, peeled (unless it is thin skinned), cut into chunks (Klesick Farms)
1 tablespoon olive oil, or butter
1 large or 2 small leeks, washed, trim off the dark green and slice into thin circles (Klesick Farm)
2-4 cloves garlic, minced (our garden)
1-2 cups mushrooms, chopped (Klesick Farms)
1 tablespoon chopped ginger root
½ teaspoon brown mustard seed
1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander seed
Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste
1-2 cups vegetable broth

First cook the carrots and potato in a sauce pan with just enough water to cover. Cook over medium heat until very soft. While these are cooking, prepare the rest of the vegetables, and heat the olive oil in a pan. Cook the leeks and mushrooms with the garlic and spices over low heat about 20 minutes. You don’t want them to brown, just be soft.

Puree the carrots and potato with the water they cooked in. I use my immersion blender, but you can also use a blender or food processor. Add the cooked leeks and mushroom mixture and 1-2 cups broth to the thinness you prefer.

Crustless Corn Quiche
4 tablespoons melted butter (from an organic local dairy)
1 cup milk (organic local dairy)
3 eggs (organic local farm)
Several grinds of freshly ground black pepper and ½ teaspoon salt
2 cups corn (organic from our garden, frozen, thawed)
1 ½ cups grated cheese (Greenbank Farms organic)
2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Crack the eggs into a blender and blend thoroughly. Add the milk then the melted butter and blend. Add salt and pepper.
Butter a baking dish. Squeeze most of the excess water out of the corn (save for soup stock), and place ½ of the corn in the baking dish. Sprinkle the 1 ½ cups of cheese over the corn and pour ½ of the milk and egg mixture on to the corn. Layer the remaining corn and pour the rest of the milk and egg mixture into the dish. Top with Parmesan cheese.
Bake 45 minutes until set.


Not local: baking soda, salt, pepper, olive oil, mustard seed, ginger root, Parmesan cheese

1 comment:

  1. Jennie is a fabulous cook. I am s lucky to be married to her.

    ReplyDelete