FLAVOR FARM

Fun with Uzbeki Flat bread: A story with pictures.

2010-10-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

Pestle my Pesto!

2010-07-28T19:50:00.000-07:00


The word pesto means "pounded" or "crushed" in Italian, called that because the ingredients were pounded or crushed with a mortar and pestle.

When I first met my husband he called me his "Saucier" which in a French kitchen roughly means "one who makes sauce." I was deeply flattered by his complimentary pet name, one which represented a secret passion of mine. Needless to say we got married. But alas, there was one sauce I had not mastered and was ashamed to admit it.

PESTO!

Who can't make pesto? Pesto is easy? I guess it is unless you screw it up! "Once bitten twice shy," was the motto I lived by for years until the flood of basil from the garden this summer beckoned me to try again. Here is the recipe I used but as in true Farmgirl fashion, made my own!

Fresh Basil Pesto

note- I used substitutions for some ingredients that I did not have on hand. I welcome you to experiment and do the same!

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese (I used Garrotxa, a Spanish goat cheese)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts (I used almonds since I didn't have either.)
3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Special equipment needed: A food processor, blender, or more authentically a mortar and pestle

1. Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.
2. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Makes 1 cup.

Pesto Penne with Peas and Chicken

Add a 1/2 cup of cream to 1/2 lb of penne, peas, grilled chicken, a few tablespoons of your homemade pesto and voilà!

Now I think we've mastered it together!

CHEERS!

From Garden to Table in under an hour!

2010-06-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

Now that's freshy-fresh! Pictured above are our eggs, rapini, haricot verts, red and gold new potatoes, baby beets, and some hot peppers. We boiled the potatoes, blanched the beans, sauteed the greens, topped it with a 6 minute egg and homemade honey mustard dressing to make a warm summer salad. We call that dinner 'round these parts!

The B-Free Diet

2010-06-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

In my insomniatic state last night I dreamed up a new diet tactic. I figured out that most of the foods that make you fat start with the letter B. So hypothetically, if I avoided all the foods that start with B maybe I would lose weight. You laugh now, but wait until you read over my list. You won't be laughing anymore.

The B's that make you fat

Butter
Bread
Bacon
Brie
Burgers
Beer
Baby Back Ribs with BBq sauce (that's 4 B's, count 'em)
Boston Baked Beans made with Bacon, Beer, and/or BBq ( ya think their bad?)
Ben & Jerry's
Big Mac's
Butterscotch anything
Biscotti
Brownies
Blueberry Pie
Big Boy's (It used to be called Bob's Big Boy and they're famous for their Burgers. )
Banana Splits
Baked Alaska
BLT's
Bagels
Baguette
Brioche
Biscuits
Blue cheese
Barq's Root Beer
Blintz
Bologna
Burritos
Brats
Buffalo wings
Birthday Cake

It can get even worse when you combine two B's such as Bread & Butter or Beer & Brats. Does that sound healthy to you? Feel free to add to my list and try out the B-free diet...

Your Bum will thank me.

Better than a Brownie Biscotti

2010-06-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I was slow to jump on the biscotti train thinking it was a fad. Who would want an over baked cookie? Well, I was dead wrong. These are amazing and definitely better than brownies.

Biscotti means "twice baked" in Italian and the double baking is the secret to making these cookies crunchy. Sometimes I under bake them just a tad so they are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Ahh Heaven! Either way they are delicious.

Better than a Brownie Biscotti

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour (I use a mix of wheat and white flours to justify them as healthy eating.)
1/2 cup good cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts/almonds slightly smashed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a baking sheet. Grab a large bowl and with a mixer cream the butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue beating until it is no longer gritty. (I have yet to accomplish the "beating until not gritty" step so don't worry about it to much.) Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine all dry ingredients in another bowl. Slowly add the flour mixture to the egg mixture until incorporated. Stir in the nuts.

At this point you will look in the bowl and see what looks more like a sticky batter than cookie dough and think "How the heck am I going to form logs out of that!?" Here is my secret.

In the bowl divide the batter in half. Take some butter and grease your hands up really well. Scoop one half of the batter up and coax it into a log about 12 inch long and 1 1/2 - 2 inches thick. Lay it on the cookie sheet. Repeat with the 2nd half of the batter but make sure there are at least 3 inches between the logs on the cookie sheet because they will spread. Bake 25-30 minutes. After the first bake let them cool for at least 10 - 20 minutes. If you don't let them cool sufficiently the logs will crumble when you slice them. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs, still on the pan, on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices. Carefully turn the slices on their sides and return them to the oven to bake another 10 minutes. Let them cool completely. Enjoy dipped in coffee, tea, or dessert wine.

October is for Peppers

2010-06-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

... I should have posted this a while ago but if you're reading this now, go put your peppers in the ground so you can make this come October! :)

When most people think about food in October they think about apples, pumpkins, or maybe even cranberries. Some people think about beer and Oktoberfest, but around these parts we consider this pepper season. In Michigan we wait all season for lovely sweet red bell peppers but they seem to elude us until the beginning of Fall. It seems that the chilling weather sends the plants into a mad dash to ripen their fruit before the frost can claim them thus giving us a bountiful harvest. We also have a penchant for hot peppers, and this year has been plentiful for them as well. My kitchen has been adorned with ristras, the cupboard is full of jalapeno jelly, and we've been choked out of the house several times by drying and grinding chiles.

This year we grew some amazing sweet peppers which I regretfully should have taken photos of before I chopped them up and cooked them. Our most impressive peppers came from a packet of seeds labeled 'Sweet Heirloom Pepper Blend' so we will never know exactly what they are, but I saved the seeds. They were huge, thick walled, delicious, and even the plants were attractive. The neighbors even commented on how big they were!

In honor of our bountiful sweet pepper harvest I present you with a wonderful roasted red pepper recipe.

Roasted Peppers with Herbs
adaptation from Williams-Sonoma Simple Classics

2 lbs or sweet red bell peppers

3 tbs olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 small sweet onion or shallot (1/2 cup chopped)
2 tbs chopped fresh oregano, thyme, or your favorite herbs
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
coarsely chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Roast peppers under the broiler, peel, seed, and cut them into 1/2 inch strips.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, warm 1 tbs olive oil. Add onion and garlic and saute until translucent. Remove from heat and stir in the herbs. Transfer to a baking dish and spread the onion mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Arrange peppers evenly in the dish on top.
In a small bowl combine the balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, 2 tbs of olive oil, and whisk together. Spoon evenly over the peppers. Cover and bake for 10 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for another 5-10 minutes or until peppers are tender. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.

Summer's End

2009-10-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

Summer's end has come. With days in the high 60's I know it won't be long until I pull the wool coats out from the back of the closet. The leaves are yellowing and some already falling and collecting in the cracks of the sidewalk. The morning sun peaks through the window later and later each morning. Fall is here and I can smell the pumpkins.

It's been a good summer for the garden. We had enormous success with our tomatoes this year. With thirteen varieties and 23 plants, we had plenty to share with neighbors and friends. We were also able to freeze, dry, and sell many of them. Our favorites by far were Black Krim, Italian Market Wonder, Emerald Evergreen, and Mr. Stripey.

We also had great success with our beans this year. We grew three different kinds of limas, some Chinese noodle beans, and a whole mess of fresh eating romano and green beans. I love beans. They are so beautiful and come in so many different colors. If you have never had fresh limas you are missing out! Some varieties to try are the Pennsylvania Dutch Red Lima, Christmas Lima, and King of the Garden Lima. For a spectacular yellow romano type bean I would highly recommend the Gold of Bacau. It out produced every bean in the garden with some of the pods growing to amazing lengths of over a foot long. The beans were always tender and never stringy.
Another wonderful producer this year was the French Fingerling Potato. It was productive and did great in our cool climate. These cute little potatoes were creamy and delicious and were great in any recipe. Note to Self: Grow more next year!

But the most exciting thing coming out of the garden this year was not something I grew from seed although I did nurture and care for it, fed and watered it, and waited patiently for it just like you would that first ripe tomato.

It was an egg.

This spring we picked up three beautiful little baby chicks. It was something I had been waiting years to do and finally I managed to convince my husband to let me get chickens. It has been an amazing experience and we've never looked back. They are funny and beautiful and raising them has been very rewarding. All of them lay brown eggs but there a subtle differences that make them all unique. I cannot imagine life or breakfast without them! hehe.

So as this summer comes to an end I look forward to planning next years garden, trying new varieties, and plotting new projects. I would really like to add a hive of bees for honey, maybe some berry bushes, maybe I should try to grow peanuts? Due to the early arrival of Fall, it looks like I'll have plenty of time to plan for next year.

English Muffins

2009-09-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I ambitiously set out to create the perfect loaf of ciabatta, foccacia, and batch of English muffins. The double flour/double hydration addition ciabatta came out hard as a rock and tasted terrible, the poolish for the foccacia is still sitting on my counter top, but the English muffins were so perfect it was worth the time wasted on the other two.

It was my first time making English muffins and I had been meaning to try this recipe for some time. Overall, it was pretty simple. The only trouble I had was moving the proofed muffins to the skillet. They stuck to the baking sheet even after the addition of corn meal so a few of them were not perfectly round. But who cares? They were still great!

English Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
4 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 small egg whites
fine cornmeal

In a large bowl pour in lukewarm ( 110F ) water. Add instant yeast, baking soda and 2 cups of bread flour. Mix till smooth. Allow to sit for 5 minutes uncovered. In the meantime, add egg white into a separate bowl and beat with an electric mixer. You want them to become stiff and moist. Once the egg white have formed stiff peaks; add to dough batter. Using a rubber spatula fold in egg whites till incorporated into the batter. Start to add in the rest of the flour, a 1/4 cup at a time. After the first 1/4 cup mix in salt. When the mixture becomes to hard to mix in the bowl. Pour out onto a flat surface. Knead for about 5 to 6 minutes till it becomes smooth and silky. Add a little oil to a clean bowl and place the dough into the bowl. Turn dough over till all sides are very lightly coated. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest till double in bulk, about 1 hour. Afterwards, pour out onto a flat surface. Press to release some of the air from the dough. Using a rolling pin roll out to a 1/2 inch thick. Allow dough to rest for 3 minutes to relax. Using a 3 inch cookie cutter, cut out circles. Place the cut out pieces onto some cornmeal. When you have left over dough just gather together and cut out a few more circles. Sprinkle the tops with more cornmeal. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 45 minutes. About 5 minutes before you are ready to cook the english muffins turn on your griddle or fry pan to 350F or medium heat. Spray with a little oil spray and once the griddle is hot. Place the muffins on and fry. If you are using a fry pan you may only be able to fry 3-4 at a time. Fry on one side for about 4 minutes. Then turn over and fry for another 4 minutes. Do this once more to a total of 16 minutes.

One Big Table

2009-07-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

I am very happy and excited to be a featured amateur chef in a book that is coming out next year. My quinoa pilaf recipe will be published along with my brief bio. The book is One Big Table, by Molly O’Neill (Simon & Schuster 2010).

"One Big Table" is highly anticipated and is a portrait of America at table. With ten years of researching, it covers America in every geography, ethnicity, culture, religion, and history through the recipes of what they call “the glorious amateur”.

More on Molly O'Neill: O'Neill spent 10 years at the New York Times, has four James Beard Awards, numerous cookbooks including the famous New York Cookbook and American Food Writing, a James Beard nominee this year. She was also the host of PBS Great Food and is a professionally trained chef. More on the Editor, Ramin Ganeshram: Ganeshram is an award winning journalist of IndoCaribbean-Iranian descent. She wrote for the New York Times for 8 years, New York Newsday for 8 years, and many other magazines and papers as a freelancer.

Quinoa Pilaf
by Erin Drasher

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

1 medium onion chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

3 golden beets, roasted and chopped

1/3 cup loosely packed raisins

2 cups baby spinach

1 oz crumbled goat cheese

2 tbs sunflower seeds

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

chopped parsley to garnish

Add quinoa to a medium saucepan and lightly toast over medium heat. To the sauce pan add the water and the raisins. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Cook 15 minutes.

While quinoa is cooking, sauté onions over medium heat until translucent. Add garlic and spinach. Sauté spinach until just wilted. Add the beets and cooked quinoa to the spinach onion mixture and toss. Transfer to a serving bowl, salt and pepper to taste and toss with the goat cheese. Top with sunflower seeds and chopped parsley and serve.

To roast the beets:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Trim off tops of beets. Brush with olive oil and wrap in aluminum foil. Roast beets 45 minutes to an hour. Remove and cool until you can handle them. To slip the skins off, rub them under running water.

Coming back to gardening, cooking, and writing

2009-07-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

So it's been a really long time since I've posted here. I can sit back make all the excuses I want but let's be honest. I wasn't quite sure I really wanted to share my blog with anyone. It started out as a personal journal that maybe a few people would be interested in, but really it was for me. I wanted a way to document my experiments growing new and unusual vegetable varieties, good ways to prepare and cook them, and hopefully inspire people to try it in there own kitchens.

My love of gardening and healthy cooking is unchanged. I have learned more this past year about organic foods, the slow food movement, and gourmet cooking all through reading and experimentation. I feel like now more than ever I am ready to share with my passions with anyone willing to read about them.

Dreaming of summer

2008-02-01T07:06:00.001-08:00

If only it were summer.... We are in the middle of a classic Michigan snow storm. The weather man is predicting up to 10'' today! So I am cheering myself up with garden pictures. Look at those beautiful fresh veggies...

Beware of Dog

2008-01-22T12:25:00.001-08:00

Henry, the regal pooch, the English Pointer, how dignified you look in this picture. If only everyone knew how you just ran 100 mph toward me in the fresh new fallen snow, launched yourself like a cannonball into the air and hit me with an impact so great that it threw me into an accidental snow angel position. If you weren't so happy to see me I might be a little upset. Although, next time try not to dance on top of me after you get me down. Please!

On another note...
I'll be cooking soon. We are still feasting on focaccia thanks to Farmgirl Susan but I am getting the sniffles and I know I'll be craving some spicy Indian or Mexican cuisine to clear my head. I watched Manjula make Vegetable Korma on YouTube and I have been dying to try it since. Thanks go out to Miss Chocolate & Zucchini for introducing me to her.

I have also been craving some Muhammara. After I found the recipe in Heidi's new cookbook, Super Natural Cooking, I was hooked. I did substitute honey for the pomegranate molasses, which is hard to find, but it turned out just fine. A friend recently gave me a bottle of the thick raspberry colored syrup so I think the appropriate thing to do would be to try out the authentic version of the recipe. It can really only get better!

Hopefully I will able to get some pictures before every last morsel is devoured. ;)

2008-01-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

"A dingo ate my baby... almost!"

Wednesday Baking

2008-01-16T11:18:00.001-08:00

Ahhh, success! Sort of. I don't know if you would call this loaf of bread beautiful but it does have a lot of character. The only problem I have with this recipe is that it's dangerous. You see, one of the last steps is to take the very wet sticky dough that has been proofing for a total of 18 hours and drop it into a cast iron dutch oven that has been preheated to 500 degrees without destroying the round shape. This scares the hell out of me! The last thing I want to do is get 2nd degree burns on my hands. Owww! So every time I come to this part of the recipe I get so nervous that the dough folds over itself and I mangle the perfect round shape I have worked so hard to create while juggling it over this radiating cauldron. This time was no exception hence the seam in the picture. Luckily this dough is pretty forgiving and slightly evens itself out while baking. The end result is always comical yet tasty.

I can't wait for dinner tonight.

Tuesday Making

2008-01-15T08:55:00.001-08:00

Today is bread making day. Not bread baking day because I will not actually be baking until 18-24 hours from now. These loaves were a product of my last baking day. Don't they look pretty? Well they were, but they didn't taste as good as they looked. Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad, they just weren't great. So today I am on a quest to create a loaf of bread that is as tasty as it is beautiful. I am going to try the no-knead cast iron dutch oven baked recipe that's supposed to give you all the flavor of an artisan bread with the beautiful holes that make a lovely crumb and with the crisp crust of a baguette. My last attempt with this recipe created a bread with a very good flavor, but for some reason I decided to take it out of the oven prematurely. It was unevenly browned and decidedly ugly and I should have stuck it back in the oven but before I could it was torn apart, half eaten, and given a grunt of approval by the Hungry Bear with whom I choose to share my home! It never had a chance so here we go again.

Love you Hungry Bear.

To get the recipe check out Real Baking with Rose or click here http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/11/holy_bread.html

2008-01-14T18:54:00.000-08:00

Cheers!

2008-01-14T18:14:00.000-08:00

I love food. Who doesn't? But I love really good food. The kind you crave, drool over, dream about, sometimes spend lots of money on and sometimes not. It's kind of an unrecognizable obsession, but it's been consuming me for a long time and now it's time for me to come clean. Just take a look at that picture above. It's the day after Christmas and that's a steaming delicious luscious mound of leftover mashed potatoes and sauteed garlicky spinach for breakfast. Breakfast! Because you couldn't get enough the night before. And it was good. And if you are like me you know what I mean. Dig in!