BrinyLife

My Favorite Gingerbread with Pear Cardamom Cream

Lucy — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 05:52:26 +0000

Years ago I came across this gingerbread recipe online at The Splendid Table. Intensely dark and not too sweet, this gingerbread is the best I’ve ever had. While it’s delicious on its own, I threw together this creamy pear compote because I had two ripe Bosc pears that needed to be eaten. This recipe is a variation of Lynne’s Dark and Moist Double Gingerbread originally published in 2003. It’s still my absolute favorite. I made this tonight and will be taking the rest to a staff meeting at work tomorrow.

Dark and Moist Double Gingerbread

Double Gingerbread with Pear Cardamom Cream

2 cups (minus 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons crystallized ginger chips (Ginger People)
1 teaspoon ground apple pie spice (like Penzeys)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup organic blackstrap molasses
3/4 cup very hot water (boiled in tea kettle)
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
zest of one small orange
1 large egg

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices including the candied ginger.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the rest of the ingredients except the egg. Once mixed, beat in the egg and quickly add the flour mixture.

Stir only until thoroughly blended. Pour into pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until a tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool on a rack in the pan for a moist cake. For a drier consistency, cool 10 minutes, then turn out of pan.

Pear Cardamom Cream

2 ripe Bosc pears, peeled, cored and diced
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 cup heavy cream

Heat a small sauce pan on medium high and then add the diced pears. Reduce the heat to low and stir, cooking until pears start to break down. Add the remainder of the ingredients and simmer for five minutes. Serve hot, spooned over warm gingerbread.

CSA Week 20: End of the Season

Lucy — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:51:57 +0000

I picked up my last 2012 Sol to Seed Farm CSA box today from Grand Central Baking Company (a designated CSA pick-up site near my home). For the past twenty weeks, most of the produce eaten in this house was grown on one small, ecologically responsible farm situated forty-five minutes from my house. Sol to Seed Farm resides in one of the most beautiful agricultural regions in Washington state: the Snoqualmie Valley. If you find yourself in Seattle next summer, I recommend a visit to least one Sno-Valley Tilth farm stand or Carnation Farmers Market. This week’s box includes:

Potatoes – 2-1/2 lbs

Onions – 4 yellow / 4 red

Garlic

Beets – Cylindra

Winter Squash – Sugar Dumpling and Table Gold

Cassius and Roxy pose with the final CSA share from Sol to Seed Farm 2012

You may already know the definition of Community Support Agriculture or CSA, but for the rest, let’s just say it is a grassroots partnership between a farmer or group of farmers and eaters. This partnership helps reconnect eaters to the source of their food. Before each growing season, a farm assigns monetary value of producing say, 20 weeks worth of food, and then divides this amount into “shares” charged at a flat upfront fee and marketed to individuals and businesses. These customers then receive weekly “shares” of seasonal produce (and sometimes eggs, meat, cheese, flowers) grown on that farm or cooperative of local farms throughout the season. Provided there are no dramatic hiccups in production (i.e. floods, frost, earthquake, etc), everybody wins.

There are many types of CSA operations in Northwest Washington and across the country. A compliment to farmers markets, regional food hubs and grocery stores, CSAs continue to meet the growing demand for food that is locally and responsibly produced and in season, by people who really care about the land, animals and water resources. CSA’s help establish rapport between producer and eaters.

I’m looking forward to a day when the food that is grown responsibly by all sizes of farms is marketed and consumed locally. Professionally and personally, I am working to reduce barriers for local producers so that the food they grow can be everyday regular food. Local food needn’t be special. It should be the norm.

Before the season began, I paid $500 to Sol to Seed Farm for the CSA season. By mid-June, I began collecting my prepaid produce boxes, which worked out to be $25 per box. The free loaf of freshly baked bread each week was a free bonus. I really hope Sol to Seed and Grand Central Baking Company continue their relationship next year.

CSA Week 19: Braised Pork Chops with Acorn Squash and Apples

Lucy — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:07:28 +0000

Cassius and Roxy are paid “in treats” for their modeling work.

There is one more week remaining in this year’s Sol to Seed Farm CSA subscription. As usual, I am really happy about this week’s box because many items store well. Farmer Matt says, “The yellow onions in this weeks box are a storage variety that will last for months. The winter squash, potatoes, and any root vegetables will also store and should make it past Thanksgiving… if stored properly.” Since I cook at home every day, I don’t believe this food will be around to see Thanksgiving, but it’s nice to know that it’s possible. This weeks box includes:

2-1/2 lbs of Potatoes
Red Cippolini + Copra Onions
Honey Boat Delicata Squash
Big fat orange and purple Carrots
Rutabaga- love it
Braising Mix- makes me healthy just looking at it
Heirloom Apples
Garlic- can never have too much garlic in my opinion
…and a free loaf of Multigrain Whole Wheat bread from Grand Central Baking Co.

Cooking savory meat dishes with apples is pretty common nowadays. I was first inspired to cook with apples from the book Apple Harvest (Ten Speed Press) by Frank Browning and Sharon Silva in 2000. It’s been updated since the 1999 version, but I highly recommend it if you love to cook with apples or want to find creative ways to eat them. Since there are apples in this week’s box, I’ll have to thumb through the pages and try something new.Last night I made dinner for my lovely friend Jennifer who co-led the Slow Food Seattle chapter after I stepped down. I had pork chops in my freezer from Skagit River Ranch and needed to use a purple onion and an acorn squash from a previous CSA share.

In my first year of grad school, I created this recipe for a class assignment in recipe development and testing. My notes say that I did not make a special trip to the market for ingredients so I hope this recipe can be easily and affordably assembled where you live. This recipe tastes like fall. I suggest serving hearty dish with a cold mixed green salad and sliced baguette to sop up the caramelized pan drippings. Unfortunately, I was so distracted by the Presidential debate last night that I forgot to take a photo. I’m very sorry because the final dish was indeed very pretty.

Eiko and daughter Nicole of Skagit River Ranch

Braised Pork Chops with Acorn Squash and Apples

Serves 2-4

Pork mis-en-place

2 large pork chops*, sprinkled with sea salt on both sides
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-2 grinds of fresh pepper from a mill
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix together the flour, sage, salt and pepper in a shallow pan. Dredge the seasoned pork chops and shake loose any excess flour and set aside. In a cast iron skillet, heat the olive oil until hot but not smoking. Add the chops to the hot pan, sear to golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes each side, and then set aside on a clean plate. Prepare your vegetables.

Vegetable and fruit mis-en-place

1 medium purple onion, peeled and cubed
1 acorn squash, peeled, seeds removed by scooping with a spoon and cubed
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and cubed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon sea salt
2-3 grinds of fresh pepper from a mill
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup fresh apple cider (I use Skagit Fresh as it contains no added sugar)

Combine vegetables, apple, seasonings and oil in a large baggie and zip to lock the bag before shaking to coat the vegetables with the seasonings and oil. In the same skillet, pour in the cubed vegetables and then quickly toss to coat with uncooked pork pan drippings.

Bring it all together

Nestle the partially cooked pork chops back into the pan, on top of the vegetables. Pour a half cup of apple cider evenly to coat both chops and vegetables. The skillet will be full but everything will cook down in the oven. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Then remove the aluminum foil and continue to roast uncovered for another 10-15 minutes until the liquid has cooked down and everything looks deliciously roasted and brown. The pork will be fork tender.

*While I go out of my way (and I encourage you, too) to purchase only ethically raised pork from a local farm like Skagit River Ranch, this recipe can be made with chicken or leave out the meat entirely.

I took this photo several years ago. These are some happy piglets from Sea Breeze Farm on Vashon Island. http://seabreezefarm.wordpress.com/ If you eat meat but don’t support farms that raise livestock in a humane and ethical way, then you are contributing to a system that exploits millions of animals for corporate profit. Eat less meat and vote with your fork.

CSA Week 18: Fall Makes Me Happy

Lucy — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 23:09:25 +0000

Taking a walk this morning with J and the dogs, I realized that summer is gone. Our neighborhood is lined with beautiful trees adorned with color and some have ripe pears and apples hanging from their branches. There are many reasons why it’s my favorite season: pumpkins and hot apple cider, wearing sweaters and boots, the foliage, the holidays…coffee tastes better to me in the fall. Fall reminds me that I should visit the museum more often. It reminds me of being in college. It makes me want to travel to see friends and family. Fall makes me happy and hopeful.

Halloween is just a few weeks away and my neighbors are decorating their houses and yards with giant cobwebs, spiders, severed heads, crypts, and spooky landscape lighting. Roxy even tried on her scary witch’s wig. I’m not sure if it will stay on for trick-or-treating….

Roxy tried on a witch’s wig today…scary!

There may be only two more weeks left in my CSA blog series. Until the 2013 CSA season begins next summer, I will continue to post seasonal recipes, and (of course), Brinylife wouldn’t exist without pickles. I hope you enjoy seeing what remains of this year’s CSA bounty in the coming weeks.

We now have so many onions in storage, I might not have to buy more until next year. These onions have exceptional flavor, too.

Here’s what’s in this week’s CSA box:

Potatoes – 2-1/2 lbs

Beets – (Cylindra, Detroit Dark Red, Chioggia, Golden)

Cabbage – Savoy

Onions

Sugar Pie Pumpkin

Garlic

Kohlrabi

Parsley

Sweet Peppers (last week for sweet peppers)

…and a free loaf of Goldendale Wheat Bread from Grand Central Baking Co.)

CSA Week 17: Sneaking Rutabaga Into Shepherd’s Pie

Lucy — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:40:44 +0000

Cassius and Roxy really like this week’s CSA box from Sol to Seed Farm

Opening this week’s CSA box I was reminded that summer is almost over.

This weeks box includes:

Onions – Yellow + Red Cippolini
Winter Squash (Gold Nugget)
Carrots
Cucumbers
Red Chiordi Kale
Arugula
Rutabaga
Broccoli
Hot Peppers (Cayenne, Serrano, Santa Fe Grande)

Soon the taste of vine-ripe cucumbers will be assigned to memory until next year. Like Sol to Seed farms around here are experiencing cooler temperatures (it was 33F this morning) and preparing their farms floods. Today Farmer Matt says he’s “putting the farm to bed via the process of placing all the items living outside since May, into storage once again. This means rolling up drip tap, picking up concrete blocks, row cover, hoses, the list goes on.”

One of the new items in this week’s box is rutabaga, also known as the Swedish turnip. It’s got a yellow flesh and is often perceived as bitter or “strong tasting”. People seem to love or hate it.

The bitterness can be tempered with gobs of butter, cream and salt or mashed with sweet apples, or roasted with starchy potatoes and carrots. Rutabaga is high in Vitamin C, and is harvested during the fall and winter just as us humans start catching colds.

A combined potato and rutabaga mash makes an excellent topping for Shepherd’s Pie. I posted this recipe for Shepherd’s Pie My Way back in 2010. Simply incorporate rutabaga by replacing one pound of potatoes with one pound of peeled and cubed rutabaga. Boil and mash together with the butter, cream, etc. The mashed topping will be be more golden in color, and even more nutritious and delicious than straight potato mash. Plus any bitter rutabaga flavor will actually be lost to the filling of lamb and warm spices. This Shepherd’s Pie recipe can be made vegetarian by using cooked lentils instead of lamb).

CSA Week 16: Toasted Tomato Sandwich

Lucy — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 18:11:39 +0000

My two dogs admire our 16th CSA share from Sol to Seed Farm

Orange, purple, white, brown and green are the colors of my sixteenth CSA farm share. Unless Farmer Matt surprises subscribers with an extension, I can expect another four weeks of vegetables grown at Sol to Seed Farm.

My box included:

Potatoes

Onions (Ailsa Craig & Red Cippolini)

Winter Squash (Table Gold Acorn)

Arugula

Cauliflower

Romano Beans

Kohlrabi

Beets

Parsley

All summer long, I have been working on a goal to lose all of the weight that I gained since leaving New York in 2004 – thanks to a plan supervised by my N.D. While I was still able to enjoy most of the produce from my CSA boxes, I avoided all grains, starches and sugars during the three month plan and lost 28 pounds. It meant that a simple sandwich was off limits. I’m now slowly incorporating the foods I have been avoiding in moderation. Today’s treat is a toasted tomato sandwich.

I grew up eating toasted tomato sandwiches for breakfast. My grandma (and my mom) made them like this: thinly sliced garden fresh red tomato sprinkled with iodized salt and ground pepper, sandwiched between two toasted and “buttered” (she used marjarine) slices of Roman Meal wheat bread. In my memory, everything was good about it.

This is the end of tomato season here in Washington. My last weekly share included several heirloom tomatoes including a large green tomato with red flesh. I waited until today to cut into it and was finally able to enjoy my first toasted tomato sandwich of the season. It was delicious. Here’s how I made it:

2 slices of brioche (toasted)
Kerrygold butter
2 large slices of fresh tomato
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Gorgeous heirloom tomato from last week’s CSA share- put to good use on a simple toasted tomato sandwich.

CSA Week 15: Quick Pickled Peppers

Lucy — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 21:25:09 +0000

This is week 15 of the CSA season. This week’s box is a great example of what’s grown around here at the end of the summer. While the days are shorter, it’s still sunny and cool outside. It’s my favorite time of year in Seattle. This weeks box includes:

Tomatoes

Sweet Peppers

Hot Peppers (Santa Fe Grande, Black Hungarian, Serrano)

Purple Carrots

Cauliflower

Green Beans

Tomatillos

Cucumbers

Onions (Ailsa Craig + Red Cippolini)

Garlic

Cabbage

Recently I’ve gotten quite a few sweet peppers in my box, so I decided to make a quick batch of pickled roasted peppers. This recipe is inspired by the Romanian Pickled Peppers recipe in my book, Pickled: Preserving a World of Tastes and Traditions, contributed by Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse in New York City. This is a refrigerator pickle, so there is no need to process for shelf stability. Pickled peppers are delicious in a lot of things. I personally prefer them added to cold or grilled sandwiches with a lot of gooey cheese.

Quick Pickled Peppers

Quick Pickled Peppers

6-7 sweet peppers (various sizes and colors)

olive oil

1 cup water

1 cup distilled white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced

Preheat your oven (or grill) to 400F. In a large bowl drizzle olive oil over whole peppers and stir to coat with clean hands. Roast or grill the peppers so that the skin has blistered and blackened then turn peppers with tongs to ensure even roasting. Remove tender peppers from the heat and allow to cool.

With your hands massage the peel from each pepper and remove stems, core and seeds and discard. You may also wish to remove the white ribs with a paring knife as they can be bitter. Stack the flesh of each pepper in a bowl and set aside.

In a saucepan over medium high heat, combine the water, vinegar and salt and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Hand pack the peppers in a clean, quart sized mason jar, tilting the jar to one side. Toss a few slices of garlic between each layer before ladling the hot brine over the peppers and let sit to cool slightly. Screw on the lid and store in the refrigerator overnight. They peppers will keep refrigerated for a week or two if they last that long.

While I had the grill on last night, I also grilled the tomatillos for homemade salsa. Last year, I made pickled tomatillos and then made a citrus-free tomatillo salsa which was a treat while I was on the Elimination Diet. This year, I plan to make a fresh salsa using the chiles, tomatoes, onions, garlic and tomatillos from my CSA share among other things like lime juice and cilantro. Did I mention how much I love hot salsa?

CSA Week 14: Brassicas

Lucy — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 01:08:10 +0000

J picked up our fourteenth Sol to Seed Farm CSA share for us on Wednesday because I was tied up at work. It’s been very busy lately in my role as Puget Sound Food Network Project Manager with Northwest Agriculture Business Center, I am providing operations and marketing assistance to help open a new regional food hub at 21 Acres Center for Local Food and Sustainable Living. In fact, last week the facility hired a fantastic delivery driver, and next week will be the first aggregated delivery of local produce through the food hub. Very exciting work, but sometimes my work delays my personal blogging schedule.

Showing off the loading dock at 21 Acres Food Hub

Last weekend, J and I traveled to Carnation, WA for an afternoon gathering at Sol to Seed Farm. It was a gorgeous day, though slightly chilly and cloudy. The farm was so peaceful yet still full of life. Sol to Seed grows much of the food that we eat on that small parcel of farmland in the Snoqualmie Valley. I am very thankful to know such resourceful people dedicating their days growing delicious and life sustaining food for me and many others.

I’m out standing in a field at Sol to Seed Farm

Mon petit chou at Sol to Seed Farm

This week I was surprised to see such lovely brassicas including broccoli and green and white cauliflower. I love roasted cauliflower. Simply break up into smaller florets and throw in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast at 375F for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

Everything looks good in this week’s box. It’s one of my favorites so far this season.

This Weeks box:

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Potatoes

Onions

Garlic

Sweet Pepper

Beets

Romano Beans

Musk Melon

My favorite things include farm fresh food and my dogs Roxy and Cassius

CSA Week 13: Ailsa Craig Onions

Lucy — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:01:22 +0000

It’s CSA week 13, and we’re well into the second half of Sol to Seed Farm’s CSA season. The mammoth-sized, Ailsa Craig sweet onions are back and I’m daydreaming about fried onion rings. What I haven’t mentioned before is that I have been on a modified eating plan and have lost a full twenty-five pounds since mid-June. Considering I have not tasted sugar or eaten any grains or starches since I started, I have managed to create multiple batches of homemade jam (fig, blueberry, raspberry and blackberry) that turned out very well, or so I’m told. I even made a batch of fried onion rings a few weeks ago for J and didn’t have one bite (gaw). Now I’m just looking at the growing stock of onions in my pantry and feel the need to use them or lose them.

Farmer Matt says that Ailsa Craig’s do not store as well as smaller storage onions but they will store for a couple of months. That’s all the time I need. Apparently the Ailsa Craig onion cells are strong and can maintain its cellular integrity when frozen, so I may have to dice and freeze some for fall and winter cooking. There are many solutions on the table to prevent wasting these plus-sized beauties. Though J tells me that the onion rings were really tasty…hmmmm.

Roxy and Cassius can’t eat onions but I can.

This week’s box includes:

2 Onions – Ailsa Craig

Cabbage

Carrots

Green/Yellow Beans (French varieties)

Sweet Peppers

Cherry Tomatoes

Summer Squash

Cucumbers

Rainbow Chard

CSA Week 12: Romano Beans

Lucy — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 21:26:19 +0000

Cassius and Roxy enjoy the weekly photoshoot with colorful and delicious produce from Sol to Seed Farm

This week’s CSA box includes:

Onions – Ailsa Craig/Red Cippolini

Tomatillos

Romano Beans

Padron Peppers

Sweet Peppers

Cucumbers

Collard Greens

Potatoes – Yukon Gem

Italian Flat Leaf Parsley

It’s week 12 of this year’s CSA from Sol to Seed Farm. Farmer Matt reminded subscribers that it’s been 37 days since the last official rainfall. Considering it always rains in Seattle, that’s impressive!

This is the first time I’ve gotten Romano beans in my box and I’m very happy to see them. Romano beans are eaten whole like traditional green beans. Romano, or any other broad bean, are best cooked simply by first blanching them (boiled briefly in heavily salted water and drained) and then tossing with olive oil, salt and pepper. Mound them on a plate as a bed for panfried fish or chicken. Served with a tasty hollandaise or aioli. Voila! Dinner is served.

I will be making salsa with the tomatillos for sure. I’ve been making homemade salsa for years but this Salsa Verde recipe by Rick Bayless serves as a dependable guide for first-timers.

And yes, I did make onion rings with the first “Alisa onion as large as a softball.” This sweet onion is perfect for frying or slicing thick as a side to grilled meats. I have two onions left over from previous boxes and they are storing well. I gave this week’s onion to a friend who is also a gifted home cook. I’m looking forward to hearing what he does with it.