Category: Ingredients

Fresh and prepared ingredients, searching for the right ingredient, and bit off label reading…

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Early Bird Ranch

Early Bird Ranch is a small local chicken ranch in Pescadero. The chickens are raised outdoors in low-density groups, and are fed a pasture-based diet.

The most important part of our operation is the mobility of these pasture shelters. As the chickens grow their waste can become a serious liability. Keeping them in one place becomes too taxing on the land and on the immune system of the animals. In order to keep our chickens healthy and fertilize our farm’s pastures at the same time, the pasture shelters are moved onto completely fresh grass twice every day at sunrise and a couple hours before sunset. This continuous movement away from waste and onto pasture keeps the chickens healthy and maximizes their ingestion of nutritious clover, wild grasses, and bugs, which in turn create a more flavorful and nutritionally-dense product.

Excerpt from: Early Bird Ranch

They’ve recently relocated to a new property and will start selling their fresh chicken starting in early August. Contact them now to pre-order!

Sorry, I think this only works for local folks here in the San Francisco area – but I’d love to hear about your local farms!

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Squash Blossoms – a wonderful seasonal treat!


Photo by Bob Gutowski

Night before last, a friend gave us a bag of beautiful squash blossoms. I know they are edible, and thought I had tried them stuffed and fried somewhere, but wasn’t sure. But I love culinary experiments and The Girl is very patient despite occasional failures.

I almost never follow a recipe, but I love cookbooks?. One of my favorite resources for a conundrum like squash blossoms is Alice Waters’ wonderful Chez Panisse Vegetables. This book is full of great recipes, plus selection, storage and preparation advice for a wide range of veggies.

For squash blossoms, there are a couple recipes, and in true Feed The Girl style, I read through them and then did my own thing. Here’s a rough recipe for what I made:

Ingredients

Fresh squash blossoms
1 egg
corn flour – fine ground
Cheese (I used a wonderful sharp white cheddar from Tasmania)
Thyme
Marjoram
Basil
Sage
Oregano
Olive oil

Steps

1. Gently rinse the squash blossoms, cleaning out any bugs or dirt, and pat them dry.

2. Stuff each with cheese and sprinkle in a little of the herbs.

3. Whip the egg in a bowl, and spread the corn flour and herbs on a plate.

4. Dip each stuffed blossom in the egg and then roll it in the corn flour and herbs

5. Heat a pan with a generous pool of olive oil, until a little flick of water from your fingers sizzles

6. Fry the stuffed, breaded blossoms in the pan, gently turning them to make them brown and crisp

 

We served the blossoms hot, sprinkled with a little fleur de sel (sea salt flakes) and cracked pepper. They were fabulous.

I’d love to hear how you do with this recipe, especially if you experiment a bit with it. You might try a different cheese, or change the herbs or flour.

 

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Roast Veggies for Later

Here’s a great tip. Roast your veggies and then stick them in the freezer for later. All you have to do is heat them up!

After the veggies have been roasted, they will keep their texture and flavor. They will also keep in the fridge like this for a few days. it makes it easy to throw together a quick dinner later when you don’t have time to do all the chopping and prep.

Here’s a simple recipe:

Good veggies for roasting:
– carrots
– summer squash
– potatoes (small ones are better, and different colors are fun)
– kohlrabi
– zuchinni

Simple veggie marinade:
chopped garlic
sweet onion, chopped in thick slivers (shallots and red onions can be good, too)
olive oil
salt and pepper

If your oven has a “convection roast” setting, use it!

preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Chop the veggies in bite-size chunks
toss them in the marinade to coat evenly
put it all in a pyrex or roasting pan big enough so the veggies are just one layer deep
Roast for 25 – 35 minutes

When it’s done, eat some, let the rest cool and then put it in a container or freezer bag for storage in the freezer

To reheat: Warm in the oven at 325 for 10 minutes, or toss in a frying pan or wok for 5 minutes on medium heat, stirring regularly.

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Convivial.org: Easy Pulled Pork Sandwich

Ran across this great short-cut to great food. This time it’s Carolina-style Pulled Pork. Mmmmm. Check it out:

Before tackling a major BBQ project, here’s a much easier way to get really tender, juicy, smoky pulled pork with an old-timey Eastern North Carolina vinegar sauce. The method: rub it, smoke it, braise it and pull it — that’s it. And, if the rubbing & smoking are done the first day, then braising and pulling it the next; not only do the tasks seem more manageable, but, the rub & smoke more fully permeate the meat.

[From Convivial.org: Easy Pulled Pork Sandwich]

I love traditional recipes and all the attention to detail, but I also like finding those easier methods and shortcuts that still produce real food.

If you get around to trying this recipe before I do, let me know how it goes!

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My CSA – Blue House Farm, Pescadero

BlueHouseLogo

Our local CSA is owned by Ned and Ryan, a couple great guys who has been involved in sustainable agriculture for years. This is our third season in their program. For $25 per week, 25-week season pre-paid, you get a box stuffed with farm fresh organic veggies. We pick up ours at their farm in Pescadero, but they also have pick-up locations in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Kings Mountain, La Honda, and Half Moon Bay. Check their website for details and subscription availability – they are filling up fast!

http://www.bluehousefarm.org/

The quality from any CSA should be excellent. It’s rare to find farm-fresh produce even in the best stores. But what I like best about belonging to a CSA is the surprises. What the heck do you do with fennel root? What are these weird spears… oh, garlic scapes, huh? A lot of experimenting in the kitchen has been driven by these fun new discoveries, and it’s resulted in some great new recipes. Some of these things, like the garlic scapes, I’ve never seen in stores, and others I’ve been walking past for years.

Like with music, when you’re cooking it’s easy to just go straight for what you know. Regular grocery stores make it easy to stick to what you know by never presenting you much different. CSAs, farm stands and ethnic grocers can really help you expand your palette.

Got a favorite CSA? Ethnic market? Farm stand? I’d love to hear about it!

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In Defense of Food

Of course, I highly recommend this book. Pollan’s simple prescription:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.

To many of us, this is an elegantly phrased version of what we already believe. The real magic is that Pollan does such a brilliant job of making it all sensible and understandable to people confused by labels and all the marketing claims – which is most of us. We’ll all be healthier if we follow his simple rules, but we’ll also be eating better, tastier meals that we enjoy more.If you haven’t read it yet, then get a copy and start. Consider getting a few copies for friends and family.

“In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” (Michael Pollan)

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Dinner tonight…

Check out the beautiful Artichoke and Fava Beans I picked up at the market on the way home!

[Seesmic Video is gone… I’m trying to restore this video. Sorry!]

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Prepared Food CAN be Real Food

My wife and I really love cooking and eating fresh local food. But in our busy lives, it’s just not always practical, but we do try to find ways to eat well even when we don’t have a lot of time.

Last night we had a wonderful and very quick and easy dinner. Ravioli is a simple tomato sauce. This little sauce experiment turned out so nice, I thought I’d share it:

  • Simmer coarsely chopped garlic & slivered shallots in olive oil
    • I use several cloves and a couple medium shallots
    • don’t brown it… turn that heat down!
  • add some sage, oregano, and marjoram
  • Add 1 can of diced tomatoes (we like Muir Glenn Organic)
  • simmer for 10 minutes,
  • add black pepper and herbs to taste and simmer 5 more minutes

If you’re quick with a knife, this is dinner on the table in under 20 minutes. which is about how long it takes to boil the water and cook the ravioli. While the ravioli and sauce is cooking, you can fry up some greens or make a nice green salad.

Our raviolis come (fresh or frozen) from Lucca Deli in San Francisco. We like trying out whatever is made locally by small companies and have had great luck.

If you like your sauce thicker, add a small can of tomato paste.

Yes, brand does make a difference in canned food… but that’s a post for another day.