Week Thirteen of Dark Days Challenge

OK, I have to be honest here. That's the point of a blog, isn't it? I did sign on to create one meal per week of 100% local ingredients. But I didn't promise to create a totally new menu, did I? Frankly, I am getting just a little tired of potatoes and portobello mushrooms. But here is our menu for last night, with an additional dish from dinner tonight:

Roasted Potatoes with Carrots, Garlic and Rosemary
Brussels Sprout Salad
Bonus recipe from another dinner: Braised Brussels Sprouts and Portobello Mushroom

Roasted Potatoes with Carrots, Garlic and Rosemary
This is a simple dish
2-3 cups of potatoes (I used tiny delicious marble potatoes from the Klesick Family CSA box)
1 big fat carrot, trimmed and cut into fat matchstick shapes (this came from our garden)
1-10 cloves garlic (we're working on the last of the garlic from our fall harvest)
1 Tablespoon dried or fresh rosemary
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Note: if you are using larger potatoes, cut into small chunks.
Prepare all the vegetables and place in a large flat baking dish. Pour about 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil on them, sprinkle on the rosemary, salt and pepper. Stir well to coat everything.
Roast in oven 10 minutes, then take out and stir. Repeat until they are done.

I LOVE this brussels sprout salad.
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/brussels-sprout-salad-recipe.html

The first time I made it I sliced the brussels sprouts by hand. I made a small amount because it took a long time. When I made it yesterday, I used my food processor and zipped through 2 cups of sprouts in no time at all. They recommend a mandolin but I don't have one.


Additional recipe
I'm calling this additional because we didn't have it with our 100% local meal, but we had it for dinner tonight and it was very delicious.

Braised Brussels Sprouts and Portobello Mushrooms
2 cups Brussels Sprouts (these came from our garden)
2 large Portobello Mushrooms (these came from the Klesick Family CSA)
1 cup sliced leeks, trim and clean well (these came from our garden)
1 Tablespoon coconut oil (or your preference of oil for cooking)
1 Tablespoon Tamari soy sauce or Bragg Liquid Aminos
1/2 to 1 cup vegetable broth

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add all the vegetables and stir fry 1-2 minutes. Add the Tamari or Bragg's and the vegetable broth. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the vegetables are tender.

Week Twelve and 1/2 of Dark Days Challenge

Here are two recipes I just made up based on ingredients at hand. They both turned out so fantastic I have to record them so I remember and can repeat.

Blue Cheese, Portabello Mushroom, Kale and Shallot Stuffed Baked Potatoes

1 cup finely chopped kale, with stem cut out (from our garden)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/3 to 1/2 cup sliced shallots (from Klesick Family Farms CSA)
1 cup portabello mushroom, cut in 1/2 inch dice (from Klesick Family Farms CSA)
1-4 cloves garlic, chopped (from our garden)
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
Salt & freshly ground pepper
2 baked potatoes, sliced in half (from Klesick Family Farms CSA)

While potatoes are baking (oven or microwave), cook kale in large cast iron skillet with about 1/2 cup of water about 5-8 minutes over medium heat, uncovered, stirring frequently. By this time the water should be mostly evaporated. Move kale to edges of pan, and heat the olive oil in the middle. Add shallots, mushroom and garlic and cook about 5 more minutes, stirring frequently. Don't let the shallots and garlic brown (but it's not a disaster if you do). You can add more water if it seems dry. Add salt & pepper and stir in the blue cheese.
Place the potatoes on an oven proof flat dish close together. Pile the filling on top of the potatoes and place under a hot broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is melted.
Now, I figured this would be about two servings - two potatoes and some vegetables, right? But we could only eat 1/2 potato each. So the leftovers came out for breakfast the next morning. They were chopped and heated in a cast iron frying pan, and then 4 beaten eggs were added. Wow! Fantastic breakfast also! There is something about the flavors of shallots and kale together that is complimentary!

Not local: blue cheese, olive oil, salt and pepper

Carrots and Pears with Rosemary

The flavor combinations in this are amazing!
Serves 4 or 2 with big appetites!
Scrub and trim carrots and slice into quarters lengthwise, enough to make about 4 cups, about 5 carrots, (freshly dug in February from our garden)
1-4 Tablespoons butter (local dairy)
1-4 cloves garlic, chopped (from our garden)
1/3-1/2 cup sliced shallots (from Klesic Family Farms CSA)
1-2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped (from a neighbor's yard)
2 bosc pears, peeled, cored, and sliced into pieces about the same size as the carrots (from Klesick Family Farms CSA)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Cook the carrots with about 1/3 cup water in microwave until barely tender. Or steam them on the stove. Retain the cooking water. Meanwhile, heat a cast iron skillet over medium low heat, add butter. When the butter is melted, add the shallots, garlic and rosemary. You don't want these to brown, so keep the heat low. Cook about 7 minutes until soft, stirring frequently.
Add the carrots and turn the heat up to medium high. Cook, stirring often. Cook about 6 more minutes. Move the carrots to the edges of the pan and add the pears in the middle. Gradually stir together while heating up the pears. Add the carrot cooking water if the mixture looks dry. Season with salt and pepper.
Amazingly good!
Don't skimp on the rosemary, it pulls this all together.

Week Twelve of Dark Days Challenge

It's a sunny but cold day. Threats of snow in the mountains. We're picking brussels sprouts from the garden, and boy are they delicious! The spinach is starting to come up in the greenhouse, but it will be a while before it's big enough to eat. Today we helped a friend dig up an asparagus bed, transplant rhubarb and put three posts in concrete for kiwi vines. The fuel for this hard work was local food: Breakfast burritos. Lunch was potluck, so I brought an apple crisp that was about 90% local: local apples, pears, butter, flour (from Bluebird Farms in Eastern Washington), and local honey. Some oatmeal and the cinnamon were not local. You don't need a recipe for that - just google apple crisp and you'll get many recipes.

Breakfast Burritos
Makes two burritos

1/2-3/4 cup kale, trim the stem and chop fine (from our garden)
1 large shallot, sliced (Klesick Family Farms CSA box)
1 Tablespoon oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten (local, organic)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
grated cheese (Greenbank Farms, organic cheddar)
1 whole wheat tortillas, see note

Heat oil in a medium cast iron frying pan over medium heat. Saute the kale about 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until it is starting to wilt. Add the shallots and cook about 2-3 more minutes. Pour in the eggs and stir gently but constantly until eggs are done. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Sprinkle cheese over each tortilla, and heat in microwave or under broiler until melted. Divide the eggs between the tortilla, and roll up around the filling. The combination of the kale and shallots is a very good flavor compliment.
You could top with salsa and or sour cream if you wish. Especially if you have homemade salsa. Yum!


Note: I found "Guerrero" brand whole wheat tortilla. The package says they are "baked in your local bakery." Now, I don't really believe that, but at least they are trying. Being strictly local would probably mean putting the eggs between two slices of local toasted bread. Unless someone knows of a local tortilla factory?

Week Eleven of Dark Days Challenge

Creamy Root Vegetable Stew
And homemade soup stock

I made this for the Transition Port Gardner Potlucks With A Purpose, today at Everett United Church of Christ. We had a great movie called "Garbage: the Revolution Starts At Home." It was part of a mini film festival developed by Gary Sell. Gary does a great job of entertaining people while getting the message across that we are creating too much garbage in our country! We try to make our Potlucks With A Purpose a Zero Waste Event, so I think we're at least moving in the right direction.
The stew turned out to be popular, with hardly any left. It is an unfortunate gray-brown color, but the flavor is really good. I would attribute that to the Jerusalem Artichokes, or Sunchokes. I think they give it the earthy, nutty flavor.
Because this was served at a potluck, it's not technically a totally local meal. However, it embodies the values of sharing local food together, and talking about how we can change our behavior to better treat our planet.

Serves a crowd!
Ingredients
About 1 gallon of prepared (washed, peeled, chopped into cubes) root vegetables. I'm giving you what I used but take this as a guideline, not an absolute. Turnips and rutabagas would be good in here as well.
4 potatoes (organic, local from Klesick Family Farms)
3 parships (organic, local from Klesick Family Farms)
Jerusalem Artichokes about 2 cups chopped (also called sunchokes, organic, local from Klesick Family Farms)
3 carrots (organic, from our garden dug up yesterday)
1 onion, chopped (organic from Klesick Family Farms)
1 cup chopped leeks (from our garden, dug up yesterday; if you slice leeks lengthwise they are easier to clean the dirt out of, then slice into 1/2 circles)
2-6 garlic cloves, chopped (from our garden, dug up last fall)
Olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground corriander
2 teaspoons dried thyme (maybe next year I'll have it together enough to have my own home dried herbs for flavoring; this year I rely on Sno Isle Food Coop)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable stock to barely cover (see note below)
4 cups whole milk (local dairy)

Heat the olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat, add the onions and garlic and cook slowly about 6 minutes. Add the leeks and cook another 6-10 minutes (you don't want any of this to brown).
While these are cooking, prepare all the root vegetables you are going to use and place into a slow cooker. Add the onion/garlic/leek mixture and all the spices. Barely cover with vegetable stock and put on high 4-6 hours or until vegetables are soft. Using an immersion blender or a blender, blend about 1/3 until smooth. You want to leave chunks but have a thick broth.
Add the milk and heat until it's all hot (if you're in a hurry, you can heat the milk in the microwave. Adding hot milk to the slow cooker of hot food will make it all ready to serve immediately.

Not local: olive oil (you could substitute butter), salt, pepper & spices

Something For Nothing
Homemade Soup Stock

The one thing I remember from my UW Economics class (too many years ago to remember) is that you can not get something for nothing. It's true that your labor is not nothing, but other than your labor, homemade vegetable stock is virtually something for nothing. And you don't end up with empty cartons that have to go into the land fill!
The only trick to this is planning and organizing your cooking.
Dump all the vegetables you are going to use into the sink and scrub them thoroughly. While you are doing this, get the biggest soup pot you have and start heating water (buy a big one if you don't have one, and get the best quality you can afford. You'll never regret it).
As you are trimming and peeling the vegetables, trim out the dirt and the really bad spots, but everything else can go into your soup pot of water. For instance, the green tops you trimmed from the leeks, the onion peeling, carrot fronds, the ends you chopped off the parsnips, the core of a cabbage, potato peelings, (potato water from other dishes), the carrot that is too puny to chop up, the misshapen vegetables that are too tedious to peel, the vegetables in the refrigerator that are too old to eat but not moldy, leftover vegetables from last nights dinner etc. You can toss these into the pot as you prepare them - timing is not critical. Don't put in potato vines or rhubarb leaves, they're poisonous. You can add flavorings if you wish and if you are inspired, for instance dried herbs, whole garlic cloves (crushed) pepper corns, etc. Recipes for vegetable stock will have you tossing in whole quartered onions and carrots, but if you're like me and buying organic onions you don't want to spend that much money on just stock. If you have a garden you'll have plenty of ingredients for stock. You can add salt if you wish, but its probably better to salt your final dish, not the stock.
By now your pot is probably boiling, turn the temperature down to a simmer, put the lid on and let it simmer away 1-3 hours, adding water if needed. It's not too picky!
Strain this into a large bowl, and toss the cooked vegetables into your compost or chicken pen. You were going to do that anyway, weren't you? So why not squeeze a little more flavor out of those vegies before you toss them? Use this right way if you can, or freeze into blocks amounts that you are likely to use.
You can also do this with fish bones, but that's another recipe.

Potluck Black Bean Soup

Our all day planning meeting for Transition Port Gardner called for some hearty soup for lunch. The black beans and spices aren't local, sorry, but everything else is. I got requests for the recipe, so here it is TPGers!

Potluck Black Bean & Corn Soup

2 cups dried black beans, rinsed, picked over and soaked overnight
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped (Washington)
2-4 cloves garlic, chopped (our garden), unless you've got someone in the crowd who is allergic to garlic (you know who you are, Mimi!), in which case you can omit this
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
1 large can (28 ounces) Muir Glen tomato puree (Sedro Woolley)
2 cups corn (frozen, local)

Drain the beans from the soaking water, put into a large pot and add fresh water to cover, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook about 1 hour or until done. (Or put into a slow cooker and cook overnight; refrigerate until you are ready to finish the soup.) In a large cast iron skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic (if you are using it) and spices, and cook until the onions are soft, about 6 minutes.
Add the onion mixture, tomatoes and corn to the cooked beans, cook about 8 hours in a slow cooker, or 1 hour on the stove. Take out about 1/3 of the soup and blend in a blender until smooth and return to the pot; or use your immersion blender for a short couple bursts. This will thicken the soup.
Toppings:
Put into bowls for people to top off their soup: salsa, sour cream, grated cheddar (all local, of course!)
Note: I like to grind my cumin and coriander fresh each time from seed. I have a small mortar & pestle, and it doesn't really take that long to grind up a teaspoon of each. There is so much more flavor this way than in that very old bottle of ground cumin you have in the back of your cupboard!

Week Ten of Dark Days Challenge

So, what happened to week nine? A head cold, that's what. I didn't have any energy, and instead relied on Sno Isle Food Coop deli for our food. Yum. What delicious salads and enchiladas (black bean-sweet potato).

So tonight I had a little more energy finally. I hope you're not getting bored with my corn recipes. It's been 3 weeks since we had a corn casserole, so I'm ready to try out another version of one. Below is one I found on-line, from Women's Day. It's in the oven right now, so I'll let you know how it turns out.

The corn (3 cups frozen instead of 2 cans) and leeks are from our garden. I substituted Greenbank Farms cheddar for the Guyere called for. The spices and corn starch aren't local but I substituted local honey (1 Tablespoon) for the sugar. The butter, eggs and milk (I used whole milk, not cream) are local.

With this, we're having some Snohomish Bakery Artisan bread (and more Golden Glen Creamery butter, of course!), and steamed cauliflower (local, from the Klesick Family Farm CSA.

By the way, this recipe is definitely a keeper. It is the winner of the Which Recipe Will We Use For Our Local Dinner contest. Seriously, the flavors are an excellent combination - nutmeg, vanilla and a little honey - a perfect marriage with the corn.

Oh, and I almost forgot dessert. I don't often make it (because I eat too much!) but I had Washington apples and walnuts, and the Eastern Washington grown Emmer flour.

Corn and Leek Pudding Recipe
From Woman's Day | December 6, 2005

* Active Time: 15 minutes
* Total Time: 1 hour

Recipe Ingredients

o 2 Tbsp stick butter
o 2 leeks, white and pale-green parts only, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise (about 1 cup), rinsed well and drained
o 4 large eggs (local)
o ½ cup heavy (whipping) cream (I used local whole milk)
o 3 Tbsp cornstarch
o 2 Tbsp sugar (or 1 tablespoon honey)
o 1 tsp vanilla extract
o ½ tsp salt
o ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
o ⅛ tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
o 1 can (15.25 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
o 1 can (14.75 oz) cream-style corn (or substitute 3 cups thawed frozen corn)
o ¼ cup (1 oz) shredded Gruyère cheese (I used Greenbank Farms cheddar)

Recipe Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Coat a shallow 1½-qt baking dish with nonstick spray.

2. Melt butter in a medium skillet on medium-high heat. Add leeks; sauté 3 minutes, or until soft.

3. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, cream, cornstarch, sugar, vanilla, salt, nutmeg and red pepper until blended. Stir in leeks, whole and cream-style corn. Pour into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.

4. Bake, uncovered, 45 minutes, or until top is golden and a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Planning Tip: Can be baked up to 1 day ahead. Cool, cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before reheating in microwave or a 350°F oven.

I like to make Apple Pie Cake - it's not as much work as making a pie crust, and has more apples than a typical cake. It's really a lot of apples with a little batter surrounding them.

I used Washington apples (Gala) and didn't peel them; I used local honey and egg and butter. It's shown here with a dollop of Grace Harbor Farms yogurt.

Apple Pie Cake

* 1/2 cup margarine (I used Golden Glen Creamery butter)
* 3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup local honey)
* 1 egg -- slightly beaten
* 1 cup flour (I used Eastern Washington Emmer flour)
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/8 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 cups apples, peeled -- chopped
* 1/2 cup pecans -- chopped (I used walnuts)


Thoroughly grease a 9-inch pie pan. Melt margarine, remove from heat, and blend with sugar and egg. Mix in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla, apples, and pecans. Spread into pan.
Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream.
Serves 8 Recipe from "The Lymes' Heritage Cookbook"

Not local: the usual baking powder, olive oil, salt, pepper, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves -no wonder the spice trade was so important!

Week Eight of Dark Days Challenge

It's January and cold. I keep reminding myself that winter doesn't last forever, and that many people have much more difficult winters than we do in Western Washington. 43 degrees and gray sky. Drizzle, and damp.
This dinner turned out to be a lot more complicated than I would have chosen. It's in the oven right now, and I'll let you know if the taste was worth the time. While it's cooking, I'll tell you how I did it.
In search of local grains:
Just what is local is a very good question.
Someone told me that PCC Markets had a larger variety of local products, so I drove the 20 miles to Edmonds from Everett to see if that was the case. I didn't find that to be the case But, anyway, as long as I was at PCC I had to buy something - right?
I bought some flour that was milled at Fairhaven Mills in Bellingham. They grow a lot of grains in Eastern Washington - why can't we get a product that is labeled as grown in Washington? I suspect that grains are mixed together randomly and their origin is not something that is noted. I also tried Manna Mills in Mountlake Terrace - I was sure that they would have some local grains since they mill flour there - but they told me they get their grains from Montana.
I think our local Sno-Isle Food Coop has at least as many local products as PCC, if not more - and they are getting better all the time at labeling them prominently on the shelves. Sno-Isle Food Coop is carrying an organic Emmer Flour that was actually grown in Eastern Washington. It's pretty expensive, though.
We just signed up for a grain CSA - Bluebird Farms grows organic grains in Eastern Washington. They have whole grains, cereals, flours and mixes like pancake mix. It sems to be a solution to obtaining locally grown grains. If you've found another source, please let me know!

So here is tonight's menu:

Vegetable pie with biscuit topping
Sprouts (a simple side garnish, grown in our kitchen from organic seeds)

Doesn't sound like much, but think of it as a "one pot dinner." Here is the recipe I started from:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Root-Vegetable-and-Mushroom-Pie-with-Rosemary-Biscuit-Topping-351510

I changed a lot about this recipe. What we basically have is a filling of cooked vegetables in a thickened white sauce, with biscuits topping it as a kind of crust. If there was more broth and we were cooking this on the stove, we would have dumplings.

Here is my variation of the recipe:

2 potatoes, washed, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (from Klesick Farms Organic NW CSA Box)
2 Jerusalem Artichokes, washed, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (also from the CSA box)
2 carrots, washed, trimmed, and cut into chunks (from our garden)
2-8 garlic cloves (from our garden, I used all 8, roasted)
olive oil
salt, freshly ground pepper
3-6 cups kale, thick stem trimmed out, leaves chopped into 2 inch pieces (from the CSA box)
2 cups vegetable broth or water (I made some from the vegetable trimmings)
1 onion, chopped (local to Washington)
3 Tablespoons butter (Golden Glen Creamery, Bow)
herbs, such as fresh parsley, dried oregano, rosemary (from my garden)
1/2 cup flour (I used organic whole wheat pastry flour, milled in Bellingham, Fairhaven Mills)
1 cup milk (Jackie's Jersey Raw Milk, Bellingham)
1 teaspoon salt

Biscuit topping
2 1/4 cups flour (I used the same organic whole wheat pastry flour from Bellingham)
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried herbs such as dill, thyme, oregano etc (optional)
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small chunks (Golden Glen Creamery, Bow)
1 3/4 cups buttermilk (I used a combination of Jersery Farms whole milk yogurt and more of Jackie's Jersey Raw Milk, Bellingham)

Directions:
The recipe says to cook the vegetables in the broth or water in a large pot until they are done. Then put them aside in a different container and use the same pot to cook the onions in the butter on medium low heat for about 10 minutes. Then add the flour and stirring constantly about 1 minute. Dump in the cooked vegetables with broth and the herbs, and add the milk (the recipe calls for cream but I just used whole milk), and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes.

Here's how I changed it: I tossed the potato, Jerusalem Artichokes, carrots and garlic with olive oil and salt and pepper and roast them in a 400 degree oven until they were done, stirring every 5 minutes (approximately 15-20 minutes). Then I cooked just the kale in the broth, and followed the rest of the recipe. You combine all the cooked vegetables, the flour, herbs, milk and salt, and cook about 10 minutes until the broth thickens, and everything simmers nicely. Then pour into a buttered 9x13 inch baking pan, and top the hot filling immediately with the biscuit topping, see below.

Biscuit topping:
While the vegetables are cooking, mix the flour together very well with the baking powder, herbs and salt. Mix in the butter with finger tips, rubbing them in until it resembles course corn meal. Stir in the buttermilk, or milk and yogurt and mix lightly with your hands. Drop by spoonfuls onto the hot filling, and pop into the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes or until the biscuits are done.

I think oven roasting the potatoes, Jerusalem Artichokes, carrots and garlic improves the flavor a lot however, it is a lot of work. I'm not sure I would go to that much trouble next time. You can see that you can substitute a lot of different vegetables, depending on what you have on hand - just get them cooked, and hot in the white sauce with some herbs for flavor and top with biscuits dough. You may have a favorite biscuit recipe which would work just fine here.

Now the evaluation: was it worth the 2+ hours of work? (OK, I'm minimizing. I really spent about 3 hours, but I'm reluctant to tell you because I don't think you'll try this!) YES! It's worth it! The Jerusalem Artichokes are sweet and earthy and lend a new flavor to this would-be ordinary potato-carrot filling. The biscuits are crunchy and mix well with the filling. I'll bet the leftovers are going to be great tomorrow, and I won't have to spend any time on dinner! Of course, this dish is a little unusual for me because it's not low fat, and maybe that's why I think it turned out so good!

Not local: olive oil, salt, pepper, baking powder